Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
God is great![a]
104 I say to myself, ‘Praise the Lord!’
Lord, my God, you are very great!
You rule with authority as a great king.
2 Light is all round you,
like the clothes that you wear.
You have put the skies as a roof over the earth.
3 You have built the beams of your home
on the clouds of rain.
The clouds carry you as you travel,
and you ride on the wind.
4 You use the winds to carry your messages.
Flames of fire are your servants.
5 You, Lord, built the earth
on its strong foundations.
Nothing will ever shake it from its place.
6 You covered the earth with deep water,
like a coat.
The water covered the tops of the mountains.
7 But when you shouted,
the water went back.
It ran away,
when you shouted like thunder.
8 The water poured down from the mountains,
and it went down into the valleys.
It went to stay in the place that you had chosen for it.
9 You made a border for the water
so that it could not cross.
Never again will the water cover the earth.[b]
10 You cause springs of water
to pour along the valleys.
Streams of water run between the hills.
11 They give water to all the wild animals.
Wild donkeys drink from them.
12 The birds make their homes beside the streams.
They sing from the branches of the trees.
13 You pour down rain on the mountains
from your home above the sky.
You cause many fruits to grow on the earth.
14 You give grass for farm animals to eat.
You give crops for people to plant.
In that way, people get food from the ground.
15 They grow grapes for wine,
which makes them happy.
They grow olive trees for oil,
which makes their faces shine.
They grow grain for bread,
which makes them strong.
16 The Lord's own trees receive plenty of rain.
They are the cedar trees
that he planted in Lebanon.
17 The birds make their nests there.
Storks live there in the fir trees.
18 The wild goats live high up in the mountains.
Rock badgers hide among the rocks.
19 You made the moon
to tell us the months and seasons.
The sun also knows the right time for sunset.
20 At night you make it dark,
so that the forest animals come out.
21 The lions roar
while they look for animals to kill.
They look for the food that God gives to them.
22 At sunrise, they go back to their homes,
and they lie down to rest.
23 During the day, people go out to work.
They work at their jobs until it is evening.
24 Lord, you have made very many different things!
You were very wise in the way that you have made them all.
The earth is full of the living things
that you have made.[c]
25 Look at the sea, which is deep and wide!
It is full of living things,
that are both large and small.
They are more than anyone can count.
26 Ships travel on the sea.
You made the monster, Leviathan,
to swim and to play in the sea.
27 All these living things wait for you
to give them their food when they need it.
28 When you give it to them, they take it.
You open your hand to feed them,
and they have plenty of good things.
29 When you turn away from them,
they become very afraid.
When you take away their breath,
they die and they return to the dust.
30 But when you breathe into anything,
it receives life.
In that way, you bring new life to the earth.
31 I pray that the glory of the Lord
will continue for ever!
I pray that the Lord will be happy
with everything that he has made!
32 When he looks down at the earth,
it shakes!
When he touches the mountains,
they pour out smoke!
33 All my life, I will sing to praise the Lord.
I will always sing songs to praise my God,
for as long as I live.
34 I want my song to make him happy.
I will be happy,
because of what the Lord has done.
35 I pray that wicked people will disappear from the earth.
May they disappear for ever!
I say to myself, ‘Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!’
Elijah and the widow
17 There was a prophet called Elijah who came from Tishbe in Gilead. He said to King Ahab, ‘I am a servant of the Lord, Israel's God. As surely as God lives, there will be no rain or dew for the next few years. Nothing will make the ground wet until I command it to happen.’
2 Then the Lord told Elijah, 3 ‘Leave here! Go to the east. Hide in the Kerith valley, east of the Jordan River.[a] 4 You will drink water from the stream. I have also commanded the ravens to feed you there.’ 5 Elijah obeyed the Lord's message. He went to live in the Kerith valley, near the Jordan River. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat to eat, every morning and every evening. He drank water from the stream.
7 After some time the stream became dry, because there had been no rain in the whole land.
8 Then the Lord told Elijah, 9 ‘Go now to Zarephath in the region of Sidon. Go and live there. I have told a widow who lives there that she must give you food to eat.’
10 So Elijah went to Zarephath. When he arrived at the town gate, he met a widow.[b] She was picking up some sticks. Elijah asked her, ‘Please bring me some water in a jar, so that I can drink it.’ 11 While she went to get it, he said, ‘Please bring me a piece of bread too.’ 12 She replied, ‘As surely as the Lord your God lives, I do not have any bread. I have only a small amount of flour in a bowl and some olive oil in a small jar. I am now picking up a few sticks to take home. Then I will cook a meal for myself and for my son. We will eat it. Then we will die because there is nothing else to eat.’
13 Elijah said to her, ‘Do not be afraid. Go home and do what you have said. But first, use some of your flour to make a small piece of bread for me. Then bring it to me. After that, you should make something for yourself and for your son. 14 This is what the Lord, Israel's God, says: “You will not use all the flour in your bowl. You will not use all the oil in your jar. They will not become empty until the day when the Lord causes rain to fall on the ground again.” ’
15 Then the widow went home. She did what Elijah had told her to do. After that, there was enough food every day for Elijah and for the widow and her family. 16 The flour in the bowl and the olive oil in the jar never finished. The Lord had promised Elijah that this would happen.
6 My Christian friends, I want to help you to understand these things. That is why I have used Apollos and myself as examples. You should learn from us what this means: ‘Obey what is written in the Bible.’ None of you should be proud of one leader and not respect another leader. 7 Do not think that any of you are better than anyone else. You received from God everything that you have. So you have no reason to be proud of what you have. It is all a gift!
8 You already have everything that you need, do you? You think that you are very rich already! You are ready to rule as kings. You no longer need us to help you. I think it would be good if you had really become kings. Then we could also rule together with you! 9 This is what I think: as apostles, God has put us last of everyone. People see us like we are prisoners at the end of the line. They are taking us to die in a public place. Everybody in the world has come to look at us, both people and angels.
10 We have become like fools so that we can serve Christ. But you think that you are wise because you belong to Christ. We seem like weak people, but you seem to be strong! People respect you but they insult us!
11 Until now, we continue to be hungry and thirsty. Our clothes have become old. Sometimes people hit us for no reason. We do not have our own homes. 12 We work hard, so that we become very tired. When people insult us, we ask God to bless them. When people give us trouble, we are patient and brave. 13 When people say bad things against us, we answer with kind words. We have become like dirty things that people throw away. That is still true, even today.
14 I do not write these things to make you ashamed. You are like my own children that I love. So I want to teach you what is right. 15 When I told the good news about Jesus Christ to you, I became like a father for you. You may have ten thousand teachers to help you understand the message about Christ. But I am the only person who is like a father for you. 16 That is why I want you to copy my example. 17 To help you to do that, I have sent Timothy to visit you. He is like a son to me, and I love him very much. He continues to serve the Lord well. He will help you to remember how I live as a Christian. I teach the same things to all groups of Christians everywhere.
18 Some people among you have become proud. They think that I will never come back to warn them. 19 But I will come to visit you again soon, if the Lord wants me to. Then I will find out what these proud people are really like. It is not just the words that they say. I will find out if they have the power of God. 20 When people serve God as their king, they have God's power. They do not just speak proud words. 21 I will come and I will find out what is really true. So you must choose. Will I need to be angry and punish you? Or will I speak kind words to show that I love you? Which do you want me to do?
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