Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A Prayer for Protection[a]
5 Listen to my words, O Lord,
and hear my sighs.
2 Listen to my cry for help,
my God and king!
I pray to you, O Lord;
3 you hear my voice in the morning;
at sunrise I offer my prayer[b]
and wait for your answer.
4 You are not a God who is pleased with wrongdoing;
you allow no evil in your presence.
5 You cannot stand the sight of the proud;
you hate all wicked people.
6 You destroy all liars
and despise violent, deceitful people.
7 But because of your great love
I can come into your house;
I can worship in your holy Temple
and bow down to you in reverence.
8 Lord, I have so many enemies!
Lead me to do your will;
make your way plain for me to follow.
9 (A)What my enemies say can never be trusted;
they only want to destroy.
Their words are flattering and smooth,
but full of deadly deceit.
10 Condemn and punish them, O God;
may their own plots cause their ruin.
Drive them out of your presence
because of their many sins
and their rebellion against you.
11 But all who find safety in you will rejoice;
they can always sing for joy.
Protect those who love you;
because of you they are truly happy.
12 You bless those who obey you, Lord;
your love protects them like a shield.
18 The Lord Almighty gave this message to Zechariah: 19 “The fasts held in the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months will become festivals of joy and gladness for the people of Judah. You must love truth and peace.”
20 The Lord Almighty says, “The time is coming when people from many[a] cities will come to Jerusalem. 21 Those from one city will say to those from another, ‘We are going to worship the Lord Almighty and pray for his blessing. Come with us!’ 22 Many[b] peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to worship the Lord Almighty and to pray for his blessing. 23 In those days ten foreigners will come to one Jew and say, ‘We want to share in your destiny, because we have heard that God is with you.’”
The Enemy of Christ
18 My children, the end is near! You were told that the Enemy of Christ would come; and now many enemies of Christ have already appeared, and so we know that the end is near. 19 These people really did not belong to our fellowship, and that is why they left us; if they had belonged to our fellowship, they would have stayed with us. But they left so that it might be clear that none of them really belonged to us.
20 But you have had the Holy Spirit poured out on you by Christ, and so all of you know the truth. 21 I write you, then, not because you do not know the truth; instead, it is because you do know it, and you also know that no lie ever comes from the truth.
22 Who, then, is the liar? It is those who say that Jesus is not the Messiah. Such people are the Enemy of Christ—they reject both the Father and the Son. 23 For those who reject the Son reject also the Father; those who accept the Son have the Father also.
24 Be sure, then, to keep in your hearts the message you heard from the beginning. If you keep that message, then you will always live in union with the Son and the Father. 25 And this is what Christ himself promised to give us—eternal life.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.