Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
23 Am I a God who is only in one place and cannot see what they are doing? 24 Can anyone hide from me? Am I not everywhere in all of heaven and earth?
25 “Listen to the dream I had from God last night,” they say. And then they proceed to lie in my name. 26 How long will this continue? If they are “prophets,” they are prophets of deceit, inventing everything they say. 27 By telling these false dreams they are trying to get my people to forget me in the same way as their fathers did, who turned away to the idols of Baal. 28 Let these false prophets tell their dreams and let my true messengers faithfully proclaim my every word. There is a difference between chaff and wheat! 29 Does not my word burn like fire? asks the Lord. Is it not like a mighty hammer that smashed the rock to pieces?
82 God stands up to open heaven’s court. He pronounces judgment on the judges.[a] 2 How long will you judges refuse to listen to the evidence? How long will you shower special favors on the wicked? 3 Give fair judgment to the poor man, the afflicted, the fatherless, the destitute. 4 Rescue the poor and helpless from the grasp of evil men. 5 But you are so foolish and so ignorant! Because you are in darkness, all the foundations of society[b] are shaken to the core. 6 I have called you all “gods” and “sons of the Most High.” 7 But in death you are mere men. You will fall as any prince—for all must die.
8 Stand up, O God, and judge the earth. For all of it belongs to you. All nations are in your hands.
29 The people of Israel trusted God and went right through the Red Sea as though they were on dry ground. But when the Egyptians chasing them tried it, they all were drowned.
30 It was faith that brought the walls of Jericho tumbling down after the people of Israel had walked around them seven days as God had commanded them. 31 By faith—because she believed in God and his power—Rahab the harlot did not die with all the others in her city when they refused to obey God, for she gave a friendly welcome to the spies.
32 Well, how much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah and David and Samuel and all the other prophets. 33 These people all trusted God and as a result won battles, overthrew kingdoms, ruled their people well, and received what God had promised them; they were kept from harm in a den of lions 34 and in a fiery furnace. Some, through their faith, escaped death by the sword. Some were made strong again after they had been weak or sick. Others were given great power in battle; they made whole armies turn and run away. 35 And some women, through faith, received their loved ones back again from death. But others trusted God and were beaten to death, preferring to die rather than turn from God and be free—trusting that they would rise to a better life afterwards.
36 Some were laughed at and their backs cut open with whips, and others were chained in dungeons. 37-38 Some died by stoning and some by being sawed in two; others were promised freedom if they would renounce their faith, then were killed with the sword. Some went about in skins of sheep and goats, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in dens and caves. They were hungry and sick and ill-treated—too good for this world. 39 And these men of faith, though they trusted God and won his approval, none of them received all that God had promised them; 40 for God wanted them to wait and share the even better rewards that were prepared for us.
12 Since we have such a huge crowd of men of faith watching us from the grandstands, let us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us back, and especially those sins that wrap themselves so tightly around our feet and trip us up; and let us run with patience the particular race that God has set before us.
2 Keep your eyes on Jesus, our leader and instructor. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterwards; and now he sits in the place of honor by the throne of God.
49 “I have come to bring fire to the earth, and, oh, that my task were completed! 50 There is a terrible baptism ahead of me, and how I am pent up until it is accomplished!
51
54 Then he turned to the crowd and said, “When you see clouds beginning to form in the west, you say, ‘Here comes a shower.’ And you are right.
55 “When the south wind blows you say, ‘Today will be a scorcher.’ And it is. 56 Hypocrites! You interpret the sky well enough, but you refuse to notice the warnings all around you about the crisis ahead.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.