Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
It Is Better to Confess Sin
A maskil of David.
32 Happy is the person
whose sins are forgiven,
whose wrongs are pardoned.
2 Happy is the person
whom the Lord does not consider guilty.
In that person there is nothing false.
3 When I kept things to myself,
I felt weak deep inside me.
I moaned all day long.
4 Day and night
you punished me.
My strength was gone
as in the summer heat. Selah
5 Then I confessed my sins to you.
I didn’t hide my guilt.
I said, “I will confess my sins to the Lord.”
And you forgave my guilt. Selah
6 For this reason, all who obey you
should pray to you while they still can.
When troubles rise like a flood,
they will not reach them.
7 You are my hiding place.
You protect me from my troubles.
You fill me with songs of salvation. Selah
8 The Lord says, “I will make you wise. I will show you where to go.
I will guide you and watch over you.
9 So don’t be like a horse or donkey.
They don’t understand.
They must be led with bits and reins,
or they will not come near you.”
10 Wicked people have many troubles.
But the Lord’s love surrounds those who trust him.
11 Good people, rejoice and be happy in the Lord.
All you whose hearts are right, sing.
Rocks to Remind the People
4 All the people finished crossing the Jordan. Then the Lord said to Joshua, 2 “Choose 12 men from among the people. Choose 1 from each tribe. 3 Tell the men to get 12 large rocks from the middle of the river. Take them from where the priests stood. Carry the rocks and put them down where you stay tonight.”
4 So Joshua chose 1 man from each tribe. Then he called the 12 men together. 5 He said to them, “Go out into the river where the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God is. Each of you should find 1 large rock. There will be 1 rock for each tribe of Israel. Carry the rock on your shoulder. 6 They will be a sign among you. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these rocks mean?’ 7 Tell them the Lord stopped the water from flowing in the Jordan. When the Ark of the Covenant with the Lord crossed the river, the water was stopped. These rocks will help the Israelites remember this forever.”
8 So the Israelites obeyed Joshua. They carried 12 rocks from the middle of the Jordan River. There was 1 rock for each of the 12 tribes of Israel. They did this the way the Lord had commanded Joshua. They carried the rocks with them. And they put them down where they made their camp. 9 Joshua also put 12 rocks in the middle of the Jordan River. He put them where the priests had stood while carrying the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. These rocks are still there today.
10 The Lord had commanded Joshua to tell the people what to do. It was what Moses had said Joshua must do. So the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant continued standing in the middle of the river until everything was done. And the people hurried across the river. 11 The people finished crossing the river. Then the priests carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to the other side. As they carried it, the people watched. 12 The men from the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the eastern half-tribe of Manasseh obeyed what Moses had told them. They were prepared for war. So they crossed the river ahead of the other people. 13 About 40,000 soldiers were prepared for war. They passed before the Lord as they marched across the river. Then they went toward the plains of Jericho to go to war.
Living by Faith
16 So we do not give up. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new every day. 17 We have small troubles for a while now, but they are helping us gain an eternal glory. That glory is much greater than the troubles. 18 So we set our eyes not on what we see but on what we cannot see. What we see will last only a short time. But what we cannot see will last forever.
5 We know that our body—the tent we live in here on earth—will be destroyed. But when that happens, God will have a house for us to live in. It will not be a house made by men. It will be a home in heaven that will last forever. 2 But now we are tired of this body. We want God to give us our heavenly home. 3 It will clothe us, and we will not be naked. 4 While we live in this body, we have burdens, and we complain. We do not want to be naked. We want to be clothed with our heavenly home. Then this body that dies will be fully covered with life. 5 This is what God made us for. And he has given us the Spirit to be a guarantee for this new life.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.