Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Prayer for Help

5 Hear my words, O Lord. Think about my crying. ² Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God. For I pray to you. ³ In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice. In the morning I will lay my prayers before You and will look up.

⁴ You are not a God Who is pleased with what is bad. The sinful cannot be with You. ⁵ The proud cannot stand before You. You hate all who do wrong. ⁶ You destroy those who tell lies. The Lord hates liars and men who kill other people.

⁷ But as for me, by Your great loving-kindness, I will come into Your house. At Your holy house I will put my face to the ground before You in love and fear. ⁸ O Lord, lead me in what is right and good, because of the ones who hate me. Make Your way straight in front of me.

⁹ For in their talk there is no truth. Their hearts destroy. Their mouths are like an open grave. With their tongues, they say sweet-sounding words that are not true. ¹⁰ Hold them guilty, O God! Let them fall by their own plans. Throw them out because of their many sins. For they have fought against You. ¹¹ But let all who put their trust in You be glad. Let them sing with joy forever. You make a covering for them, that all who love Your name may be glad in You. ¹² For You will make those happy who do what is right, O Lord. You will cover them all around with Your favor.

¹⁸ Then the Word of the Lord came to me saying, ¹⁹ “The Lord of All says, ‘The times when you do not eat in the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become glad times of joy. They will become happy, special suppers for the people of Judah. So love truth and peace.’ ²⁰ The Lord of All says, ‘Many people will yet come from many cities. ²¹ The people of one city will say to another, “Let us go at once and pray to the Lord and ask for His favor. I will go also.” ²² ‘So many people and powerful nations will come to look for the Lord of All in Jerusalem and to ask for the Lord’s favor.’ ²³ The Lord of All says, ‘In those days ten men from the nations of every language will take hold of the coat of a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’”

¹⁸ My children, we are near the end of the world. You have heard that the false-christ is coming. Many false-christs have already come. This is how we know the end of the world is near. ¹⁹ These left us. But they never belonged to us. If they had been a part of us, they would have stayed with us. Because they left, it is known they did not belong to us. ²⁰ The Holy Spirit has been given to you and you all know the truth. ²¹ I have not written to you because you do not know the truth. I have written because you do know the truth and you know that no lie comes from the truth.

²² Who is a liar? He is a person who says that Jesus is not the Christ. The false-christ will have nothing to do with the Father and the Son and he will turn away from Them. ²³ A person who will have nothing to do with the Son and turns against Him does not have the Father. The one who says he knows the Son has the Father also.

²⁴ Keep in your heart what you have heard from the beginning. Then you will belong to the Son and to the Father if what you have heard from the beginning is in you. ²⁵ And He has promised us life that lasts forever!