Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
David wrote this song.
How may we worship God?
15 Lord, who may stay with you,
in your own home?
Who may live there,
on your holy hill?[a]
2 It is the person who does only things that are right.
It is the person who lives in a completely good way,
and who speaks only what he knows is true.
3 He says nothing bad against other people.
He does nothing that will hurt his friends,
nor does he insult them.
4 He does not respect wicked people,
but he does respect people who serve the Lord.
When he promises to do something,
he always does it.
5 He lends his money to help other people,
and he does not ask for more money in return.
He does not accept a bribe,
to speak against people who have done nothing wrong.
People who live in this way will always be safe.
Abram and Lot go different ways
13 Abram left Egypt and he travelled north to the Negev. He took his wife and everything that belonged to him. Lot also went with him. 2 Abram had many valuable things. He had many cows, and much silver and gold.
3 Then Abram left the Negev and he went to different places. He arrived at Bethel. He returned to the place where he had put up his tent before. That place was between Bethel and Ai. 4 It was where Abram had first built an altar to worship the Lord.
5 Lot was travelling with Abram. Lot also had many cows, sheep and tents. 6 But the land could not grow enough food for all of them to eat. They could not all live together in the same place, because they had so many animals and people with them. 7 Abram's shepherds and Lot's shepherds began to quarrel with each other. (At that time, Canaanites and Perizzites also lived in the land.)[a]
8 Abram said to Lot, ‘We must not quarrel with each other. Your shepherds and my shepherds must not quarrel with each other. Remember that we belong to the same family. 9 Look everywhere! There is enough land for all of us. We must go different ways. If you go to the left, I will go to the right. If you go to the right, I will go to the left.’
10 Lot looked up and he saw the flat land of Jordan, as far as Zoar. He saw that it had lots of water, like the garden of the Lord. It was good land, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed the cities there called Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself the valley of the Jordan River. He travelled towards the east.[b]
12 Abram stayed in the land of Canaan and he lived there. But Lot lived near the cities that were in the Jordan Valley. He put up his tents near the city of Sodom. 13 The people of Sodom were very wicked. They did not obey the Lord at all.
14 After Lot had gone away, the Lord said to Abram, ‘Stand where you are and look all around! Look to the north, the south, the east and the west. 15 I will give you all the land that you can see. I will give it to you and your descendants. It will belong to them for ever. 16 I will make your descendants become very many. Like the dust of the ground, people will not be able to count them all. 17 Go and travel round all this land. Look at it, because I am giving it to you!’
18 So Abram moved his tents. He went to live near the special oak trees of Mamre. That place is at Hebron. Abram built an altar to worship the Lord there.
Paul prays for the Christians at Ephesus
14 Yes, that is why I pray for you. I go down on my knees to pray to God, our Father. 15 Every family, those in heaven and those on earth, receives its true name from him. 16 I pray that God will cause you to be strong in your spirits. God has great and valuable things in heaven to help you. I pray that God's Spirit will help you with God's own power. 17 I pray that Christ will make his home in you, as you believe in him. Then you will know God's love very well. You will be like trees that have roots which go down deep into God's love. That will make you strong. 18 Then you will understand, with all God's people, how much Christ loves us. That love is very wide and long and high and deep! 19 Christ's love for us is so great that nobody can ever completely know it. As you understand this more and more, God's own nature will completely fill you.
20 We praise God, who causes his power to work in us. In that way, he is able to do much more than we could ever ask for. He can do much more than we could even think about. 21 We want all God's people to know that God is great! Everyone who belongs to his church and who trusts in Christ Jesus should praise him! We should praise him always and for ever. Amen. That is true!
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