Book of Common Prayer
A Prayer in Time of Sickness
A psalm of David to remember.
38 Lord, don’t correct me when you are angry.
Don’t punish me when you are furious.
2 Your arrows have wounded me,
and your hand has come down on me.
3 My body is sick from your punishment.
Even my bones are not healthy because of my sin.
4 My guilt has overwhelmed me;
like a load it weighs me down.
5 My sores stink and become infected
because I was foolish.
6 I am bent over and bowed down;
I am sad all day long.
7 I am burning with fever,
and my whole body is sore.
8 I am weak and faint.
I moan from the pain I feel.
9 Lord, you know everything I want;
my cries are not hidden from you.
10 My heart pounds, and my strength is gone.
I am losing my sight.
11 Because of my wounds, my friends and neighbors avoid me,
and my relatives stay far away.
12 Some people set traps to kill me.
Those who want to hurt me plan trouble;
all day long they think up lies.
13 I am like the deaf; I cannot hear.
Like the mute, I cannot speak.
14 I am like those who do not hear,
who have no answer to give.
15 I trust you, Lord.
You will answer, my Lord and God.
16 I said, “Don’t let them laugh at me
or brag when I am defeated.”
17 I am about to die,
and I cannot forget my pain.
18 I confess my guilt;
I am troubled by my sin.
19 My enemies are strong and healthy,
and many hate me for no reason.
20 They repay me with evil for the good I did.
They lie about me because I try to do good.
21 Lord, don’t leave me;
my God, don’t go away.
22 Quickly come and help me,
my Lord and Savior.
25 I am about to die.
Give me life, as you have promised.
26 I told you about my life, and you answered me.
Teach me your demands.
27 Help me understand your orders.
Then I will think about your miracles.
28 I am sad and tired.
Make me strong again as you have promised.
29 Don’t let me be dishonest;
have mercy on me by helping me obey your teachings.
30 I have chosen the way of truth;
I have obeyed your laws.
31 I hold on to your rules.
Lord, do not let me be disgraced.
32 I will quickly obey your commands,
because you have made me happy.
33 Lord, teach me your demands,
and I will keep them until the end.
34 Help me understand, so I can keep your teachings,
obeying them with all my heart.
35 Lead me in the path of your commands,
because that makes me happy.
36 Make me want to keep your rules
instead of wishing for riches.
37 Keep me from looking at worthless things.
Let me live by your word.
38 Keep your promise to me, your servant,
so you will be respected.
39 Take away the shame I fear,
because your laws are good.
40 How I want to follow your orders.
Give me life because of your goodness.
41 Lord, show me your love,
and save me as you have promised.
42 I have an answer for people who insult me,
because I trust what you say.
43 Never keep me from speaking your truth,
because I depend on your fair laws.
44 I will obey your teachings
forever and ever.
45 So I will live in freedom,
because I want to follow your orders.
46 I will discuss your rules with kings
and will not be ashamed.
47 I enjoy obeying your commands,
which I love.
48 I praise your commands, which I love,
and I think about your demands.
The Vision of Ripe Fruit
8 This is what the Lord God showed me: a basket of summer fruit. 2 He said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”
I said, “A basket of summer fruit.”
Then the Lord said to me, “An end[a] has come for my people Israel, because I will not overlook their sins anymore.
3 “On that day the palace songs will become funeral songs,” says the Lord God. “There will be dead bodies thrown everywhere! Silence!”
4 Listen to me, you who walk on helpless people,
you who are trying to destroy the poor people of this country, saying,
5 “When will the New Moon festival be over
so we can sell grain?
When will the Sabbath be over
so we can bring out wheat to sell?
We can charge them more
and give them less,
and we can change the scales to cheat the people.
6 We will buy poor people for silver,
and needy people for the price of a pair of sandals.
We will even sell the wheat that was swept up from the floor.”
7 The Lord has sworn by his name, the Pride of Jacob, “I will never forget everything that these people did.
8 The whole land will shake because of it,
and everyone who lives in the land will cry for those who died.
The whole land will rise like the Nile;
it will be shaken, and then it will fall
like the Nile River in Egypt.”
9 The Lord God says:
“At that time I will cause the sun to go down at noon
and make the earth dark on a bright day.
10 I will change your festivals into days of crying for the dead,
and all your songs will become songs of sadness.
I will make all of you wear rough cloth to show your sadness;
I will make you shave your heads as well.
I will make it like a time of crying for the death of an only son,
and its end like the end of an awful day.”
11 The Lord God says: “The days are coming
when I will cause a time of hunger in the land.
The people will not be hungry for bread or thirsty for water,
but they will be hungry for words from the Lord.
12 They will wander from the Mediterranean Sea to the Dead Sea,
from the north to the east.
They will search for the word of the Lord,
but they won’t find it.
13 At that time the beautiful young women and the young men
will become weak from thirst.
14 They make promises by the idol in Samaria
and say, ‘As surely as the god of Dan lives . . . ’
and, ‘As surely as the god of Beersheba[b] lives, we promise . . . ’
So they will fall
and never get up again.”
17 When I saw him, I fell down at his feet like a dead man. He put his right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the One who lives; I was dead, but look, I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys to death and to the place of the dead. 19 So write the things you see, what is now and what will happen later. 20 Here is the secret of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands: The seven lampstands are the seven churches, and the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.
To the Church in Ephesus
2 “Write this to the angel of the church in Ephesus:
“The One who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands says this: 2 I know what you do, how you work hard and never give up. I know you do not put up with the false teachings of evil people. You have tested those who say they are apostles but really are not, and you found they are liars. 3 You have patience and have suffered troubles for my name and have not given up.
4 “But I have this against you: You have left the love you had in the beginning. 5 So remember where you were before you fell. Change your hearts and do what you did at first. If you do not change, I will come to you and will take away your lampstand from its place. 6 But there is something you do that is right: You hate what the Nicolaitans[a] do, as much as I.
7 “Every person who has ears should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To those who win the victory I will give the right to eat the fruit from the tree of life, which is in the garden of God.
Jesus Accuses Some Leaders
23 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his followers, 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees have the authority to tell you what the law of Moses says. 3 So you should obey and follow whatever they tell you, but their lives are not good examples for you to follow. They tell you to do things, but they themselves don’t do them. 4 They make strict rules and try to force people to obey them, but they are unwilling to help those who struggle under the weight of their rules.
5 “They do good things so that other people will see them. They enlarge the little boxes[a] holding Scriptures that they wear, and they make their special prayer clothes very long. 6 Those Pharisees and teachers of the law love to have the most important seats at feasts and in the synagogues. 7 They love people to greet them with respect in the marketplaces, and they love to have people call them ‘Teacher.’
8 “But you must not be called ‘Teacher,’ because you have only one Teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters together. 9 And don’t call any person on earth ‘Father,’ because you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 And you should not be called ‘Master,’ because you have only one Master, the Christ. 11 Whoever is your servant is the greatest among you. 12 Whoever makes himself great will be made humble. Whoever makes himself humble will be made great.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.