Book of Common Prayer
(A)Longing for God[a]
63 O God, you are my God,
and I long for you.
My whole being desires you;
like a dry, worn-out, and waterless land,
my soul is thirsty for you.
2 Let me see you in the sanctuary;
let me see how mighty and glorious you are.
3 Your constant love is better than life itself,
and so I will praise you.
4 I will give you thanks as long as I live;
I will raise my hands to you in prayer.
5 My soul will feast and be satisfied,
and I will sing glad songs of praise to you.
6 As I lie in bed, I remember you;
all night long I think of you,
7 because you have always been my help.
In the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
8 I cling to you,
and your hand keeps me safe.
9 Those who are trying to kill me
will go down into the world of the dead.
10 They will be killed in battle,
and their bodies eaten by wolves.
11 Because God gives him victory,
the king will rejoice.
Those who make promises in God's name will praise him,
but the mouths of liars will be shut.
God the Ruler of the World[a]
98 Sing a new song to the Lord;
he has done wonderful things!
By his own power and holy strength
he has won the victory.
2 The Lord announced his victory;
he made his saving power known to the nations.
3 He kept his promise to the people of Israel
with loyalty and constant love for them.
All people everywhere have seen the victory of our God.
4 Sing for joy to the Lord, all the earth;
praise him with songs and shouts of joy!
5 Sing praises to the Lord!
Play music on the harps!
6 Blow trumpets and horns,
and shout for joy to the Lord, our king.
7 Roar, sea, and every creature in you;
sing, earth, and all who live on you!
8 Clap your hands, you rivers;
you hills, sing together with joy before the Lord,
9 because he comes to rule the earth.
He will rule the peoples of the world
with justice and fairness.
The Love of God[a]
103 Praise the Lord, my soul!
All my being, praise his holy name!
2 Praise the Lord, my soul,
and do not forget how kind he is.
3 He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases.
4 He keeps me from the grave
and blesses me with love and mercy.
5 He fills my life[b] with good things,
so that I stay young and strong like an eagle.
6 The Lord judges in favor of the oppressed
and gives them their rights.
7 He revealed his plans to Moses
and let the people of Israel see his mighty deeds.
8 (A)The Lord is merciful and loving,
slow to become angry and full of constant love.
9 He does not keep on rebuking;
he is not angry forever.
10 He does not punish us as we deserve
or repay us according to our sins and wrongs.
11 As high as the sky is above the earth,
so great is his love for those who honor him.
12 As far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our sins from us.
13 As a father is kind to his children,
so the Lord is kind to those who honor him.
14 He knows what we are made of;
he remembers that we are dust.
15 As for us, our life is like grass.
We grow and flourish like a wild flower;
16 then the wind blows on it, and it is gone—
no one sees it again.
17 But for those who honor the Lord, his love lasts forever,
and his goodness endures for all generations
18 of those who are true to his covenant
and who faithfully obey his commands.
19 The Lord placed his throne in heaven;
he is king over all.
20 Praise the Lord, you strong and mighty angels,
who obey his commands,
who listen to what he says.
21 Praise the Lord, all you heavenly powers,
you servants of his, who do his will!
22 Praise the Lord, all his creatures
in all the places he rules.
Praise the Lord, my soul!
Garments for the Priests(A)
28 “Summon your brother Aaron and his sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. Separate them from the people of Israel, so that they may serve me as priests. 2 Make priestly garments for your brother Aaron, to provide him with dignity and beauty. 3 Call all the skilled workers to whom I have given ability, and tell them to make Aaron's clothes, so that he may be dedicated as a priest in my service. 4 Tell them to make a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, an embroidered shirt, a turban, and a sash. They are to make these priestly garments for your brother Aaron and his sons, so that they can serve me as priests.
30 (A)Put the Urim and Thummim[a] in the breastpiece, so that Aaron will carry them when he comes into my holy presence. At such times he must always wear this breastpiece, so that he can determine my will for the people of Israel.
The Other Priestly Garments(B)
31 “The robe that goes under the ephod is to be made entirely of blue wool. 32 It is to have a hole for the head, and this hole is to be reinforced with a woven binding to keep it from tearing. 33-34 (C)All around its lower hem put pomegranates of blue, purple, and red wool, alternating with gold bells. 35 Aaron is to wear this robe when he serves as priest. When he comes into my presence in the Holy Place or when he leaves it, the sound of the bells will be heard, and he will not be killed.
36 “Make an ornament of pure gold and engrave on it ‘Dedicated to the Lord.’ 37 Tie it to the front of the turban with a blue cord. 38 Aaron is to wear it on his forehead, so that I, the Lord, will accept all the offerings that the Israelites dedicate to me, even if the people commit some error in offering them.
The Enemy of Christ
18 My children, the end is near! You were told that the Enemy of Christ would come; and now many enemies of Christ have already appeared, and so we know that the end is near. 19 These people really did not belong to our fellowship, and that is why they left us; if they had belonged to our fellowship, they would have stayed with us. But they left so that it might be clear that none of them really belonged to us.
20 But you have had the Holy Spirit poured out on you by Christ, and so all of you know the truth. 21 I write you, then, not because you do not know the truth; instead, it is because you do know it, and you also know that no lie ever comes from the truth.
22 Who, then, is the liar? It is those who say that Jesus is not the Messiah. Such people are the Enemy of Christ—they reject both the Father and the Son. 23 For those who reject the Son reject also the Father; those who accept the Son have the Father also.
24 Be sure, then, to keep in your hearts the message you heard from the beginning. If you keep that message, then you will always live in union with the Son and the Father. 25 And this is what Christ himself promised to give us—eternal life.
26 I am writing this to you about those who are trying to deceive you. 27 But as for you, Christ has poured out his Spirit on you. As long as his Spirit remains in you, you do not need anyone to teach you. For his Spirit teaches you about everything, and what he teaches is true, not false. Obey the Spirit's teaching, then, and remain in union with Christ.
28 Yes, my children, remain in union with him, so that when he appears we may be full of courage and need not hide in shame from him on the Day he comes. 29 You know that Christ is righteous; you should know, then, that everyone who does what is right is God's child.
Jesus Feeds Five Thousand(A)
30 The apostles returned and met with Jesus, and told him all they had done and taught. 31 There were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his disciples didn't even have time to eat. So he said to them, “Let us go off by ourselves to some place where we will be alone and you can rest a while.” 32 So they started out in a boat by themselves to a lonely place.
33 Many people, however, saw them leave and knew at once who they were; so they went from all the towns and ran ahead by land and arrived at the place ahead of Jesus and his disciples. 34 (B)When Jesus got out of the boat, he saw this large crowd, and his heart was filled with pity for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things. 35 When it was getting late, his disciples came to him and said, “It is already very late, and this is a lonely place. 36 Send the people away, and let them go to the nearby farms and villages in order to buy themselves something to eat.”
37 “You yourselves give them something to eat,” Jesus answered.
They asked, “Do you want us to go and spend two hundred silver coins[a] on bread in order to feed them?”
38 So Jesus asked them, “How much bread do you have? Go and see.”
When they found out, they told him, “Five loaves and also two fish.”
39 Jesus then told his disciples to make all the people divide into groups and sit down on the green grass. 40 So the people sat down in rows, in groups of a hundred and groups of fifty. 41 Then Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, and gave thanks to God. He broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 Everyone ate and had enough. 43 Then the disciples took up twelve baskets full of what was left of the bread and the fish. 44 The number of men who were fed was five thousand.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.