Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
4 All the elders of Israel assembled and came to Samuel at Ramah
5 And said to him, Behold, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint us a king to rule over us like all the other nations.
6 But it displeased Samuel when they said, Give us a king to govern us. And Samuel prayed to the Lord.
7 And the Lord said to Samuel, Hearken to the voice of the people in all they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not be King over them.
8 According to all the works which they have done since I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking Me and serving other gods, so they also do to you.
9 So listen now to their voice; only solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.
10 So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who asked of him a king.
11 And he said, These will be the ways of the king who shall reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots.
12 He will appoint them for himself to be commanders over thousands and over fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his implements of war and equipment for his chariots.
13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers.
14 He will take your fields, your vineyards, and your olive orchards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants.
16 He will take your men and women servants and the best of your cattle and your donkeys and put them to his work.
17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves shall be his slaves.
18 In that day you will cry out because of your king you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not hear you then.
19 Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, No! We will have a king over us,
20 That we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.
14 Samuel said to the people, Come, let us go to Gilgal and there renew the kingdom.
15 All the people went to Gilgal and there they made Saul king before the Lord. And there they sacrificed peace offerings before the Lord, and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.
Psalm 138
[A Psalm] of David.
1 I will confess and praise You [O God] with my whole heart; before the gods will I sing praises to You.
2 I will worship toward Your holy temple and praise Your name for Your loving-kindness and for Your truth and faithfulness; for You have exalted above all else Your name and Your word and You have magnified Your word above all Your name!
3 In the day when I called, You answered me; and You strengthened me with strength (might and inflexibility to temptation) in my inner self.
4 All the kings of the land shall give You credit and praise You, O Lord, for they have heard of the promises of Your mouth [which were fulfilled].
5 Yes, they shall sing of the ways of the Lord and joyfully celebrate His mighty acts, for great is the glory of the Lord.
6 For though the Lord is high, yet has He respect to the lowly [bringing them into fellowship with Him]; but the proud and haughty He knows and recognizes [only] at a distance.(A)
7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me.(B)
8 The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, endure forever—forsake not the works of Your own hands.(C)
13 Yet we have the same spirit of faith as he had who wrote, I have believed, and therefore have I spoken. We too believe, and therefore we speak,(A)
14 Assured that He Who raised up the Lord Jesus will raise us up also with Jesus and bring us [along] with you into His presence.
15 For all [these] things are [taking place] for your sake, so that the more grace (divine favor and spiritual blessing) extends to more and more people and multiplies through the many, the more thanksgiving may increase [and redound] to the glory of God.
16 Therefore we do not become discouraged (utterly spiritless, exhausted, and wearied out through fear). Though our outer man is [progressively] decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self is being [progressively] renewed day after day.
17 For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory [beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!],
18 Since we consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting.
5 For we know that if the tent which is our earthly home is destroyed (dissolved), we have from God a building, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
20 Then He went to a house [probably Peter’s], but a throng came together again, so that Jesus and His disciples could not even take food.
21 And when those [a]who belonged to Him ([b]His kinsmen) heard it, they went out to take Him by force, for they kept saying, He is out of [c]His mind (beside Himself, deranged)!
22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, He is possessed by Beelzebub, and, By [the help of] the prince of demons He is casting out demons.
23 And He summoned them to Him and said to them in parables (illustrations or comparisons put beside truths to explain them), How can Satan drive out Satan?
24 And if a kingdom is divided and rebelling against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
25 And if a house is divided (split into factions and rebelling) against itself, that house will not be able to last.
26 And if Satan has raised an insurrection against himself and is divided, he cannot stand but is [surely] coming to an end.
27 But no one can go into a strong man’s house and ransack his household goods right and left and seize them as plunder unless he first binds the strong man; then indeed he may [thoroughly] plunder his house.(A)
28 Truly and solemnly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever abusive and blasphemous things they utter;
29 But whoever speaks abusively against or maliciously misrepresents the Holy Spirit can never get forgiveness, but is guilty of and is in the grasp of [d]an everlasting trespass.
30 For they [e]persisted in saying, [f]He has an unclean spirit.
31 Then His mother and His brothers came and, standing outside, they sent word to Him, calling [for] Him.
32 And a crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, Your mother and Your brothers and Your sisters are outside asking for You.
33 And He replied, Who are My mother and My brothers?
34 And looking around on those who sat in a circle about Him, He said, See! Here are My mother and My brothers;
35 For whoever does the things God wills is My brother and sister and mother!
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