Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Asaph wrote this song for the music leader. Use special music.
God gives us strength[a]
81 Sing with joy to praise God!
He is the one who makes us strong!
Shout aloud to the God of Jacob.[b]
2 Start the music! Beat your tambourines!
Make beautiful music on your harps and lyres.
3 Start the New Moon Festival
with the sound of the trumpet.
Also do it on the day of the Full Moon.[c]
4 This is a rule for Israel's people.
The God of Jacob commanded us to do it.
5 When God punished the land of Egypt,
he gave this rule to Joseph's family.
I heard a voice that I did not know.
6 It said: ‘I took the heavy load off your back.
You no longer had to carry those heavy baskets.
7 When you had trouble, you called to me for help
and I made you safe.
I answered your prayers
from the middle of the dark storm.
I tested you at Meribah,
when you had no water in the wilderness.
Selah.
8 I said, “My people, listen to me!
I warn you now.
Listen carefully to me, Israel's people!
9 There must not be any strange god among you.
You must never worship a foreign god.
10 I am the Lord, your God.
I brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide,
and I will fill it with many good things.”[d]
11 But my people refused to listen to me.
My people, Israel, did not obey me.
12 So I let them follow their own proud ideas.
They could do whatever they wanted to do.
13 But my people should listen to me!
Yes, Israel should obey my commands!
14 Then I would quickly win against their enemies.
I would attack them all.’
15 (Then people who hate the Lord
would fall down with fear in front of him.
They would be ashamed for ever.)
16 ‘But I would feed you, my people, with the best wheat.
I would give you plenty of honey from the rock,
for you to eat and be full.’
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.
Be very careful how you live
5 You are God's children and he loves you very much. So you must try to be like him. 2 Show that you love other people. Remember how much Christ loved us. He gave himself as a sacrifice on our behalf. He offered himself in a way that pleased God, like a sacrifice with a lovely smell.
3 So, as God's people, you must never have sex with anyone that you are not married to. Do not do any kind of disgusting thing like that. Do not want many things for yourselves, just to make you happy. That is not how God's people should live. 4 Do not speak in a way which uses dirty words. Do not talk about silly things, like fools do. It is not right for God's people to talk like that. Instead, you should speak in a way which shows that you are thanking God.
5 You can be sure about this: If anyone has sex in a wrong way, that person does not belong to God's people. Nobody who does any kind of disgusting thing belongs to God's people. People who want many things just to please themselves are like people who worship an idol. They also do not belong to God's people. Nobody like that belongs to the kingdom where Christ and God rule. They will not receive the good things that God has prepared for his people.
6 Do not let anyone have a chance to deceive you with a false message about those kinds of bad things. God will certainly punish people who do not obey him. 7 So keep away from those kinds of people. 8 Once your minds were completely in the dark. But now you belong to the Lord. As a result, you have become full of light. So now you must live as people who belong to the light. 9 The light helps you to live in a way that is good, right and true. 10 You should learn more and more to do the things that please the Lord. 11 People whose minds are in the dark do things that have no good purpose. Keep away from wrong things like that. Instead, show how bad those things really are. 12 People like that should be ashamed of the things that they do secretly. Those things are too bad for us even to talk about. 13 But when God's light shines on something, people can see clearly its true nature. 14 Everything that becomes clear to see is in the light. That is why it says:
‘Wake up, you people who are asleep!
Rise up from among the dead people!
Then Christ will shine his light on you.’[a]
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