Book of Common Prayer
No way back
6 So let’s leave the basic level of teaching about the Messiah, and go on towards maturity! (Let’s not repeat the business of laying a foundation of repentance from dead works and faith towards God, 2 teaching about baptisms, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.) 3 We shall do this, if God allows us to.
4 For once people have been enlightened—when they’ve tasted the heavenly gift and have had a share in the holy spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the coming age— 6 it’s impossible to restore them again to repentance if they fall away, since they are crucifying God’s son all over again, on their own account, and holding him up to contempt. 7 You see, when rain falls frequently on the earth, and the land drinks it up and produces a crop useful to the people for whom it’s being cultivated, it shares in God’s blessing. 8 But if it produces thorns and thistles, it’s useless, and not far off from being cursed, and finally burned up.
Keep up the good work
9 Even though we speak in this way, my dear people, we are confident that there are better things to be said about you, things that point to salvation. 10 God is not unjust, after all—which he would be if he forgot your work, and the love you showed for his name, and all the service you have rendered and are still rendering to his holy people. 11 I want to encourage each one of you to show the same energetic enthusiasm for the task of bringing your hope to its full, assured goal. 12 You mustn’t become lazy. There are people who are inheriting the promises through faith and patience, and you should be copying them!
51 As the time came nearer for Jesus to be taken up, he settled it in his mind to go to Jerusalem. 52 He sent messengers ahead of him. They came into a Samaritan village to get them ready, 53 and they refused to receive him, because his mind was set on going to Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Master, do you want us to call down fire from heaven and burn them up?” 55 He turned and rebuked them, 56 and they went on to another village.
57 As they were going along the road a man addressed Jesus.
“Wherever you’re going,” he said, “I’ll follow you!”
58 “Foxes have lairs,” Jesus replied, “and the birds in the sky have nests; but the son of man doesn’t have anywhere to lay his head.”
59 To another person he said, “Follow me.”
“Master,” he replied, “let me first go and bury my father.”
60 “Let the dead bury their dead,” said Jesus. “You must go and announce God’s kingdom.”
61 “I will follow you, Master,” said another, “but first let me say goodbye to the people at home.”
62 “Nobody,” replied Jesus, “who begins to plow and then looks over his shoulder is fit for God’s kingdom.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.