Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Praise for God’s Love
103 Praise the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me, praise His holy name. 2 Praise the Lord, O my soul. And forget none of His acts of kindness. 3 He forgives all my sins. He heals all my diseases. 4 He saves my life from the grave. He crowns me with loving-kindness and pity. 5 He fills my years with good things and I am made young again like the eagle.
6 The Lord does what is right and fair for all who suffer under a bad power. 7 He made His ways known to Moses and His acts to the people of Israel. 8 The Lord is full of loving-pity and kindness. He is slow to anger and has much loving-kindness.
Punishment for Those Who Worked on the Day of Rest
32 While the people of Israel were in the desert, they found a man gathering wood on the Day of Rest. 33 Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the people. 34 They put him in chains, because they did not know what should be done to him for gathering wood on the Day of Rest. 35 Then the Lord said to Moses: “The man must be put to death. All the people must kill him with stones away from the tents.” 36 So all the people took him away from the tents and killed him with stones, just as the Lord had told Moses.
37 The Lord said to Moses, 38 “Speak to the people of Israel. Tell them that they and all their children-to-come are to make tassels for themselves on the corners of their clothing. And they are to put a blue rope on the tassel of each corner. 39 It will be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the Laws of the Lord, and to do them. Do not follow your own heart and your own eyes, as you did when you acted like a woman selling the use of her body. 40 It will be so that you may remember to obey all My Laws, and be holy to your God. 41 I am the Lord your God Who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God.”
3 Sinful men spoke words of hate against Christ. He was willing to take such shame from sinners. Think of this so you will not get tired and give up. 4 In your fight against sin, you have not yet had to stand against sin with your blood. 5 Do you remember what God said to you when He called you His sons? “My son, listen when the Lord punishes you. Do not give up when He tells you what you must do. 6 The Lord punishes everyone He loves. He whips every son He receives.” (A) 7 Do not give up when you are punished by God. Be willing to take it, knowing that God is teaching you as a son. Is there a father who does not punish his son sometimes? 8 If you are not punished as all sons are, it means that you are not a true son of God. You are not a part of His family and He is not your Father. 9 Remember that our fathers on earth punished us. We had respect for them. How much more should we obey our Father in heaven and live? 10 For a little while our fathers on earth punished us when they thought they should. But God punishes us for our good so we will be holy as He is holy. 11 There is no joy while we are being punished. It is hard to take, but later we can see that good came from it. And it gives us the peace of being right with God.
12 So lift up your hands that have been weak. Stand up on your weak legs. 13 Walk straight ahead so the weak leg will not be turned aside, but will be healed.
14 Be at peace with all men. Live a holy life. No one will see the Lord without having that kind of life. 15 See that no one misses God’s loving-favor. Do not let wrong thoughts about others get started among you. If you do, many people will be turned to a life of sin. 16 None of you should fall into sex sins or forget God like Esau did. He had a right to get all Isaac had because he was the oldest son. But for one plate of food he sold this right to his brother. 17 You know that later he would have received everything. But he did not get it even when he asked for it with tears. It was too late to make right the wrong he had done.
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