Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
107 Say thank you to the Lord for being so good, for always being so loving and kind. 2 Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out! Tell others he has saved you from your enemies.
3 He brought the exiles back from the farthest corners of the earth.
33 He dries up rivers 34 and turns the good land of the wicked into deserts of salt. 35 Again, he turns deserts into fertile, watered valleys. 36 He brings the hungry to settle there and build their cities, 37 to sow their fields and plant their vineyards, and reap their bumper crops! 38 How he blesses them! They raise big families there and many cattle.
39 But others become poor through oppression, trouble, and sorrow. 40 For God pours contempt upon the haughty and causes princes to wander among ruins; 41 but he rescues the poor who are godly and gives them many children and much prosperity. 42 Good men everywhere will see it and be glad, while evil men are stricken silent.
43 Listen, if you are wise, to what I am saying. Think about the loving-kindness of the Lord!
8 “You must obey all the commandments I give you today. If you do, you will not only live, you will multiply and will go in and take over the land promised to your fathers by the Lord. 2 Do you remember how the Lord led you through the wilderness for all those forty years, humbling you and testing you to find out how you would respond, and whether or not you would really obey him? 3 Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to both you and your ancestors. He did it to help you realize that food isn’t everything, and that real life comes by obeying every command of God. 4 For all these forty years your clothes haven’t grown old, and your feet haven’t been blistered or swollen. 5 So you should realize that, as a man punishes his son, the Lord punishes you to help you.
6 “Obey the laws of the Lord your God. Walk in his ways and fear him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land of brooks, pools, gushing springs, valleys, and hills; 8 it is a land of wheat and barley, of grapevines, fig trees, pomegranates, olives, and honey; 9 it is a land where food is plentiful, and nothing is lacking; it is a land where iron is as common as stone, and copper is abundant in the hills. 10 When you have eaten your fill, bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
11 “But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty[a] you don’t forget the Lord your God and begin to disobey him. 12-13 For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, and when your flocks and herds have become very large, and your silver and gold have multiplied, 14 that is the time to watch out that you don’t become proud and forget the Lord your God who brought you out of your slavery in the land of Egypt. 15 Beware that you don’t forget the God who led you through the great and terrible wilderness with the dangerous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock! 16 He fed you with manna in the wilderness (it was a kind of bread unknown before) so that you would become humble and so that your trust in him would grow, and he could do you good. 17 He did it so that you would never feel that it was your own power and might that made you wealthy. 18 Always remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you power to become rich, and he does it to fulfill his promise to your ancestors.
19 “But if you forget about the Lord your God and worship other gods instead, and follow evil ways, you shall certainly perish, 20 just as the Lord has caused other nations in the past to perish. That will be your fate, too, if you don’t obey the Lord your God.
27 Now here is what I am trying to say: All of you together are the one body of Christ, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it. 28 Here is a list of some of the parts he has placed in his Church, which is his body:
Apostles,
Prophets—those who preach God’s Word,
Teachers,
Those who do miracles,
Those who have the gift of healing;
Those who can help others,
Those who can get others to work together,
Those who speak in languages they have never learned.
29 Is everyone an apostle? Of course not. Is everyone a preacher? No. Are all teachers? Does everyone have the power to do miracles? 30 Can everyone heal the sick? Of course not. Does God give all of us the ability to speak in languages we’ve never learned? Can just anyone understand and translate what those are saying who have that gift of foreign speech? 31 No, but try your best to have the more important of these gifts.
First, however, let me tell you about something else that is better than any of them!
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.