Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
9 Then you will ask the Lord for help
and he will answer you.
When you call out to him,
he will say, “Here I am.”
But you must stop being cruel to other people.
Do not accuse people,
and do not say bad things about them.
10 If people are hungry,
share your own food with them.
Help those people who are in pain.
Then your help to them will be like a light
that shines in a dark place.
You will no longer live in darkness,
but you will have light as bright as the sun at noon.
11 The Lord will always be your guide.
He will give you plenty to eat,
even when the ground is dry.
He will make your bodies strong.
You will be like a garden that has plenty of water.
You will be like a spring of water
that never becomes dry.
12 You will build again the cities
which became heaps of stones a long time ago.
You will build your houses on the old foundations.
People will call you, “Builders who mend the walls and the streets with their houses.”
13 So remember to obey the rules for the Sabbath day.
That is my holy day,
so do not just try to please yourselves.
Enjoy the Sabbath day,
and respect it as the Lord's holy day.
Do not do your usual work on that day.
Do not do things or speak about things,
only to make yourself happy.
14 If you do those things, you will be happy
as you serve me, the Lord.
I will give you all the things that you need.
I will cause crops to grow
on the land that I gave to your ancestor Jacob.’
That is the Lord's message.
This is a song that David wrote.
The love of God[a]
103 I say to myself, ‘Praise the Lord!’
Everything that is in me, praise his holy name!
2 I say to myself, ‘Praise the Lord!’
Never forget all the good things that he has done for you!
3 He forgives all my sins.
He makes me well again when I am ill.
4 He saves me from the deep hole of death's power.
He always loves me and he is kind to me.
That is how he blesses me so much!
5 He gives me many good things for my life here.
So I become strong again, with the strength of a young eagle.
6 The Lord does what is right and fair.
He helps poor people who suffer.
7 He showed Moses how he works to help his people.
He showed the Israelites the great things that he could do.
8 The Lord is kind to people and he forgives them.
He is slow to get angry and his love always continues.
A picture of two mountains
18 You have come near to God. But you have not come to a place that you can touch, like Sinai mountain.[a] That mountain burned with fire. But where the people stood, it was completely dark. They could not see at all. There was also a very strong wind and a storm. 19 There was the loud sound of a trumpet. There was a powerful voice that spoke to them. When the people heard that voice, they were very afraid. So they asked that the voice would not speak to them any more. 20 They were very afraid of what God had told them. God had said, ‘If even an animal touches the mountain, you must kill it with stones.’ 21 Even Moses was very afraid when he saw God's great power. He said, ‘I am full of fear!’
22 But as believers in Christ, you have not come to God in that way. You have come to Mount Zion.[b] You have come to the city of the true God who lives. You have come to the city of Jerusalem that is in heaven. There are many thousands of happy angels all together in that place. 23 All God's people meet together there. They are like his most important sons. They belong in heaven because God has written down their names. You have come to God himself, who will judge all people. You have come to the place where the spirits of God's people are. Those people have become right with God. God has now finished his work in them. 24 You have come to Jesus, who brought the new agreement from God to his people. In that agreement, the blood of Jesus' death makes us clean from our sins. It tells us that God has forgiven us. When Cain killed his brother Abel, Abel's blood brought God's punishment. So we see that Jesus' blood brought us something much better than that.[c]
25 So be careful! Always be ready to listen when God speaks. God used Moses as his servant on the earth to speak to Israel's people. When they refused to obey, God punished them. They could not get away. As for us, God speaks to us from heaven. So we will certainly not get away from God's punishment if we turn away from him. 26 At Sinai mountain many years ago, God's voice caused the earth to shake. But now God has promised this: ‘Once again I will cause the earth to shake. But this time I will also cause heaven to shake.’ 27 These words, ‘once again,’ show us that God will take away the things that he has made. All things on the earth that he causes to shake will finish. After that, everything that nobody can shake will continue to be there.[d]
28 But we are receiving a place where we will rule with God. We belong to God's kingdom, and nobody can ever shake that! So we should thank God. We should worship him in a way that makes him happy. He is great, and we should serve him well and respect him. 29 Remember that our God is like a fire. He destroys everything that is not good.
Jesus makes a sick woman well again
10 One day, Jesus was teaching in a Jewish meeting place. It was the Jewish day of rest.
11 There was a woman there that had a bad spirit inside her. It had lived in her for 18 years and it had made her ill. Her back was bent. She could not stand up straight. 12 Jesus saw her and he called her to come to him. He said, ‘Woman, you are now better from your illness.’ 13 He put his hands on her and immediately she could stand up straight. She praised God.
14 But the leader of the meeting place was angry because Jesus had made a sick person well on their day of rest. He said to the people there, ‘There are six days each week when we should work. Come on any of those days and get well. But you should not come on our day of rest to get well.’
15 ‘You are wrong,’ the Lord Jesus said to him. ‘You teach one thing but you do something different yourselves. On the day of rest you will undo the rope on your ox or your donkey and take it outside. You then give it water to drink. Is that not true?[a] 16 Now look at this woman. She belongs to the family of Abraham. But a bad spirit from the Devil has made her ill for 18 years. It is like he has tied her up. So it must be right to make her free on our day of rest.’
17 These words made the leaders of the meeting place feel ashamed. But the other people there were very happy. They were happy because they had seen Jesus do many good and powerful things.
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.