Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
What God Demands
A song of David.
15 Lord, who may enter your Holy Tent?
Who may live on your holy mountain?
2 Only a person who is innocent
and who does what is right.
He must speak the truth from his heart.
3 He must not tell lies about others.
He must do no wrong to his neighbors.
He must not gossip.
4 He must not respect hateful people.
He must honor those who honor the Lord.
He must keep his promises to his neighbor,
even when it hurts.
5 He must not charge interest on money he lends.
And he must not take money to hurt innocent people.
Whoever does all these things will never be destroyed.
Abram and Lot Separate
13 So Abram, his wife and Lot left Egypt. They took everything they owned and traveled to southern Canaan. 2 Abram was very rich in cattle, silver and gold.
3 He left southern Canaan and went back to Bethel. He went where he had camped before, between Bethel and Ai. 4 It was the place where Abram had built an altar before. So he worshiped the Lord there.
5 During this time Lot was traveling with Abram. Lot also had many sheep, cattle and tents. 6 Abram and Lot had so many animals that the land could not support both of them together. 7 Abram’s herders and Lot’s herders began to argue. The Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land at this time.
8 So Abram said to Lot, “There should be no arguing between you and me. Your herders and mine should not argue either. We are brothers. 9 We should separate. The whole land is there in front of you. If you go to the left, I will go to the right. If you go to the right, I will go to the left.”
10 Lot looked all around and saw the whole Jordan Valley. He saw that there was much water there. It was like the Lord’s garden, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose to move east and live in the Jordan Valley. In this way Abram and Lot separated. 12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan. But Lot lived among the cities in the Jordan Valley. He moved very near to Sodom. 13 Now the people of Sodom were very evil. They were always sinning against the Lord.
14 After Lot left, the Lord said to Abram, “Look all around you. Look north and south and east and west. 15 All this land that you see I will give to you and your descendants forever. 16 I will make your descendants as many as the dust of the earth. If anyone could count the dust on the earth, he could count your people. 17 Get up! Walk through all this land. I am now giving it to you.”
18 So Abram moved his tents. He went to live near the great trees of Mamre. This was at the city of Hebron. There he built an altar to the Lord.
The Love of Christ
14 So I bow in prayer before the Father. 15 Every family in heaven and on earth gets its true name from him. 16 I ask the Father in his great glory to give you the power to be strong in spirit. He will give you that strength through his Spirit. 17 I pray that Christ will live in your hearts because of your faith. I pray that your life will be strong in love and be built on love. 18 And I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love. I pray that you can understand how wide and how long and how high and how deep that love is. 19 Christ’s love is greater than any person can ever know. But I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with the fullness of God.
20 With God’s power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or think of. 21 To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever. Amen.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.