Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Worship and Obey the Lord
1 Sing joyful songs to the Lord!
Praise the mighty rock[a]
where we are safe.
2 Come to worship him
with thankful hearts
and songs of praise.
3 The Lord is the greatest God,
king over all other gods.
4 He holds the deepest part
of the earth in his hands,
and the mountain peaks
also belong to him.
5 The ocean is the Lord's
because he made it,
and with his own hands
he formed the dry land.
6 Bow down and worship
the Lord our Creator!
7 (A)(B) The Lord is our God,
and we are his people,
the sheep he takes care of
in his own pasture.
Listen to God's voice today!
8 (C) Don't be stubborn and rebel
as your ancestors did
at Meribah and Massah[b]
out in the desert.
9 For forty years
they tested God and saw
the things he did.
10 Then God got tired of them
and said,
“You never show good sense,
and you don't understand
what I want you to do.”
11 (D) In his anger, God told them,
“You people will never enter
my place of rest.”
The Lord Sends Food from Heaven
16 On the fifteenth day of the second month after the Israelites had escaped from Egypt, they left Elim and started through the western edge of the Sinai Desert[a] in the direction of Mount Sinai. 2 There in the desert they started complaining to Moses and Aaron, 3 “We wish the Lord had killed us in Egypt. When we lived there, we could at least sit down and eat all the bread and meat we wanted. But you have brought us out here into this desert, where we are going to starve.”
4 (A) The Lord said to Moses, “I will send bread[b] down from heaven like rain. Tell the people to go out each day and gather only enough for that day. That's how I will see if they obey me. 5 But on the sixth day of each week they must gather and cook twice as much.”
6 Moses and Aaron told the people, “This evening you will know that the Lord was the one who rescued you from Egypt. 7 And in the morning you will see his glorious power, because he has heard your complaints against him. Why should you grumble to us? Who are we?”
8 Then Moses continued, “You will know it is the Lord when he gives you meat each evening and more than enough bread each morning. He is really the one you are complaining about, not us—we are nobodies—but the Lord has heard your complaints.”
15 (A) Christ is exactly like God,
who cannot be seen.
He is the first-born Son,
superior to all creation.
16 Everything was created by him,
everything in heaven
and on earth,
everything seen and unseen,
including all forces
and powers,
and all rulers
and authorities.
All things were created
by God's Son,
and everything was made
for him.
17 God's Son was before all else,
and by him everything
is held together.
18 (B) He is the head of his body,
which is the church.
He is the very beginning,
the first to be raised
from death,
so that he would be
above all others.
19 God himself was pleased
to live fully in his Son.
20 (C) And God was pleased
for him to make peace
by sacrificing his blood
on the cross,
so that all beings in heaven
and on earth
would be brought back to God.
21 You used to be far from God. Your thoughts made you his enemies, and you did evil things. 22 But his Son became a human and died. So God made peace with you, and now he lets you stand in his presence as people who are holy and faultless and innocent. 23 But you must stay deeply rooted and firm in your faith. You must not give up the hope you received when you heard the good news. It was preached to everyone on earth, and I myself have become a servant of this message.
Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.