Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
169 Hear my cry to you, Lord.
Let your word help me understand.
170 Listen to my prayer;
save me as you promised.
171 Let me speak your praise,
because you have taught me your demands.
172 Let me sing about your promises,
because all your commands are fair.
173 Give me your helping hand,
because I have chosen your commands.
174 I want you to save me, Lord.
I love your teachings.
175 Let me live so I can praise you,
and let your laws help me.
176 I have wandered like a lost sheep.
Look for your servant, because I have not forgotten your commands.
11 Now an old prophet was living in Bethel. His sons came and told him what the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what he had said to King Jeroboam. 12 The father asked, “Which road did he use when he left?” So his sons showed him the road the man of God from Judah had taken. 13 Then the prophet told his sons to put a saddle on his donkey. So they saddled the donkey, and he left.
14 He went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree. The prophet asked, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”
The man answered, “Yes, I am.”
15 The prophet said, “Please come home and eat with me.”
16 “I can’t go home with you,” the man of God answered. “I can’t eat or drink with you in this place. 17 The Lord said to me, ‘Don’t eat or drink anything there or return on the same road by which you came.’”
18 Then the old prophet said, “But I also am a prophet like you.” Then he told a lie. He said, “An angel from the Lord came to me and told me to bring you to my home. He said you should eat and drink with me.” 19 So the man of God went to the old prophet’s house, and he ate and drank with him there.
20 While they were sitting at the table, the Lord spoke his word to the old prophet. 21 The old prophet cried out to the man of God from Judah, “The Lord said you did not obey him! He said you did not do what the Lord your God commanded you. 22 The Lord commanded you not to eat or drink anything in this place, but you came back and ate and drank. So your body will not be buried in your family grave.”
23 After the man of God finished eating and drinking, the prophet put a saddle on his donkey for him, and the man left. 24 As he was traveling home, a lion attacked and killed him. His body lay on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing nearby. 25 Some men who were traveling on that road saw the body and the lion standing nearby. So they went to the city where the old prophet lived and told what they had seen.
Your New Life in Christ
3 Since you were raised from the dead with Christ, aim at what is in heaven, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Think only about the things in heaven, not the things on earth. 3 Your old sinful self has died, and your new life is kept with Christ in God. 4 Christ is your[a] life, and when he comes again, you will share in his glory.
5 So put all evil things out of your life: sexual sinning, doing evil, letting evil thoughts control you, wanting things that are evil, and greed. This is really serving a false god. 6 These things make God angry.[b] 7 In your past, evil life you also did these things.
8 But now also put these things out of your life: anger, bad temper, doing or saying things to hurt others, and using evil words when you talk. 9 Do not lie to each other. You have left your old sinful life and the things you did before. 10 You have begun to live the new life, in which you are being made new and are becoming like the One who made you. This new life brings you the true knowledge of God. 11 In the new life there is no difference between Greeks and Jews, those who are circumcised and those who are not circumcised, or people who are foreigners, or Scythians.[c] There is no difference between slaves and free people. But Christ is in all believers, and Christ is all that is important.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.