Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
The Lord’s Greatness
For the director of music. On the gittith. A psalm of David.
8 Lord our Lord,
your name is the most wonderful name in all the earth!
It brings you praise in heaven above.
2 You have taught children and babies
to sing praises to you
because of your enemies.
And so you silence your enemies
and destroy those who try to get even.
3 I look at your heavens,
which you made with your fingers.
I see the moon and stars,
which you created.
4 But why are people even important to you?
Why do you take care of human beings?
5 You made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You put them in charge of everything you made.
You put all things under their control:
7 all the sheep, the cattle,
and the wild animals,
8 the birds in the sky,
the fish in the sea,
and everything that lives under water.
9 Lord our Lord,
your name is the most wonderful name in all the earth!
Abraham’s Bargain with Abimelech
22 Then Abimelech came with Phicol, the commander of his army, and said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do. 23 So make a promise to me here before God that you will be fair with me and my children and my descendants. Be kind to me and to this land where you have lived as a stranger—as kind as I have been to you.”
24 And Abraham said, “I promise.” 25 Then Abraham complained to Abimelech about Abimelech’s servants who had seized a well of water.
26 But Abimelech said, “I don’t know who did this. You never told me about this before today.”
27 Then Abraham gave Abimelech some sheep and cattle, and they made an agreement. 28 Abraham also put seven female lambs in front of Abimelech.
29 Abimelech asked Abraham, “Why did you put these seven female lambs by themselves?”
30 Abraham answered, “Accept these lambs from me to prove that you believe I dug this well.”
31 So that place was called Beersheba[a] because they made a promise to each other there.
32 After Abraham and Abimelech made the agreement at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, went back to the land of the Philistines.
33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba and prayed to the Lord, the God who lives forever. 34 And Abraham lived as a stranger in the land of the Philistines for a long time.
Be Ruled by the Spirit
8 So now, those who are in Christ Jesus are not judged guilty.[a] 2 Through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit that brings life made you[b] free from the law that brings sin and death. 3 The law was without power, because the law was made weak by our sinful selves. But God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son to earth with the same human life that others use for sin. By sending his Son to be an offering for sin, God used a human life to destroy sin. 4 He did this so that we could be the kind of people the law correctly wants us to be. Now we do not live following our sinful selves, but we live following the Spirit.
5 Those who live following their sinful selves think only about things that their sinful selves want. But those who live following the Spirit are thinking about the things the Spirit wants them to do. 6 If people’s thinking is controlled by the sinful self, there is death. But if their thinking is controlled by the Spirit, there is life and peace. 7 When people’s thinking is controlled by the sinful self, they are against God, because they refuse to obey God’s law and really are not even able to obey God’s law. 8 Those people who are ruled by their sinful selves cannot please God.
9 But you are not ruled by your sinful selves. You are ruled by the Spirit, if that Spirit of God really lives in you. But the person who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Christ. 10 Your body will always be dead because of sin. But if Christ is in you, then the Spirit gives you life, because Christ made you right with God. 11 God raised Jesus from the dead, and if God’s Spirit is living in you, he will also give life to your bodies that die. God is the One who raised Christ from the dead, and he will give life through[c] his Spirit that lives in you.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.