Old/New Testament
A Call to Praise God
A song of thanks.
100 Shout to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Serve the Lord with joy.
Come before him with singing.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
He made us, and we belong to him.
We are his people, the sheep he tends.
4 Come into his city with songs of thanksgiving.
Come into his courtyards with songs of praise.
Thank him, and praise his name.
5 The Lord is good. His love continues forever.
His loyalty continues from now on.
A Promise to Rule Well
A song of David.
101 I will sing of love and fairness.
Lord, I will sing praises to you.
2 I will be careful to live an innocent life.
When will you come to me?
I will live an innocent life in my house.
3 I will not look at anything wicked.
I hate those who turn against you.
They will not be found near me.
4 Let those who want to do wrong stay away from me.
I will have nothing to do with evil.
5 If anyone secretly says things against his neighbor,
I will stop him.
I will not allow people
to be proud and look down on others.
6 I will look for trustworthy people
so I can live with them in the land.
Only those who live innocent lives
will be my servants.
7 No one who is dishonest will live in my house.
No liars will stay around me.
8 Every morning I will destroy
the wicked in the land.
I will rid the Lord’s city
of people who do evil.
A Cry for Help
A prayer of a person who is suffering when he is discouraged and tells the Lord his complaints.
102 Lord, listen to my prayer.
Let my cry for help come to you.
2 Do not hide from me
in my time of trouble.
Pay attention to me.
When I cry for help, answer me quickly.
3 My life is passing away like smoke.
My bones are burned up with fire.
4 My heart is like grass
that has been cut and dried.
I forget to eat.
5 Because of my grief,
my skin hangs on my bones.
6 I am like a desert owl.
I am like an owl living among the ruins.
7 I lie awake.
I am like a lonely bird on a housetop.
8 All day long enemies insult me.
Those who make fun of me use my name as a curse.
9 I eat ashes as my food.
My tears fall into my drinks.
10 Because of your great anger,
you have picked me up and thrown me away.
11 My days are like a passing shadow.
I am like dried grass.
12 But, Lord, you rule forever.
Your fame continues from now on.
13 You will come and have mercy on Jerusalem.
The time has now come to be kind to her.
14 Your servants love even her stones.
They even care about her dust.
15 Nations will fear the name of the Lord.
All the kings on earth will honor him.
16 The Lord will rebuild Jerusalem.
There his glory will be seen.
17 He will answer the prayers of the needy.
He will not reject their prayers.
18 Write these things for the future.
Then people who are not yet born will praise the Lord.
19 The Lord looked down from his holy place above.
From heaven he looked down at the earth.
20 He heard the moans of the prisoners.
And he freed those sentenced to die.
21 The name of the Lord will be heard in Jerusalem.
His praise will be heard in Jerusalem.
22 People will come together.
Kingdoms will serve the Lord.
23 God has made me tired of living.
He has cut short my life.
24 So I said, “My God, do not take me in the middle of my life.
Your years go on and on.
25 In the beginning you made the earth.
And your hands made the skies.
26 They will be destroyed, but you will remain.
They will all wear out like clothes.
And, like clothes, you will change them.
And they will be thrown away.
27 But you never change.
And your life will never end.
28 Our children will live in your presence.
And their children will remain with you.”
Paul Gives Thanks to God
1 From Paul. I was called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus because that is what God wanted. Also from Sosthenes, our brother in Christ.
2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those people who have been made holy in Christ Jesus. You were called to be God’s holy people with all people everywhere who trust in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:
3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4 I always thank my God for you because of the grace that God has given you in Christ Jesus. 5 In Jesus you have been blessed in every way, in all your speaking and in all your knowledge. 6 The truth about Christ has been proved in you. 7 So you have every gift from God while you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to come again. 8 Jesus will keep you strong until the end. He will keep you strong, so that there will be no wrong in you on the day our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. 9 God is faithful. He is the One who has called you to share life with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Problems in the Church
10 I beg you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I beg that all of you agree with each other, so that you will not be divided into groups. I beg that you be completely joined together by having the same kind of thinking and the same purpose. 11 My brothers, some people from Chloe’s family have told me that there are arguments among you. 12 This is what I mean: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another says, “I follow Apollos”; another says, “I follow Peter”; and another says, “I follow Christ.” 13 Christ cannot be divided into different groups! Did Paul die on the cross for you? No! Were you baptized in the name of Paul? No! 14 I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius. 15 I am thankful, because now no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I also baptized the family of Stephanas. But I do not remember that I myself baptized any others.) 17 Christ did not give me the work of baptizing people. He gave me the work of preaching the Good News, and he sent me to preach the Good News without using words of worldly wisdom. If I used worldly wisdom to tell the Good News, the cross[a] of Christ would lose its power.
Christ Is God’s Power and Wisdom
18 The teaching about the cross seems foolish to those who are lost. But to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 It is written in the Scriptures:
“I will cause the wise men to lose their wisdom.
I will make the wise men unable to understand.” Isaiah 29:14
20 Where is the wise person? Where is the educated person? Where is the philosopher[b] of our times? God has made the wisdom of the world foolish. 21 The world did not know God through its own wisdom. So God chose to use the message that sounds foolish to save those who believe it. 22 The Jews ask for miracles as proofs. The Greeks want wisdom. 23 But we preach Christ on the cross. This is a big problem to the Jews. And it seems foolish to the non-Jews. 24 But Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God to those people God has called—Jews and Greeks. 25 Even the foolishness of God is wiser than men. Even the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 Brothers, look at what you were when God called you. Not many of you were wise in the way the world judges wisdom. Not many of you had great influence. Not many of you came from important families. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. He chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 And he chose what the world thinks is not important. He chose what the world hates and thinks is nothing. He chose these to destroy what the world thinks is important. 29 God did this so that no man can brag before him. 30 It is God who has made you part of Christ Jesus. Christ has become wisdom for us from God. Christ is the reason we are right with God and have freedom from sin; Christ is the reason we are holy. 31 So, as the Scripture says, “If a person brags, he should brag only about the Lord.”[c]
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.