Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
29 The people believed God and went through the Red Sea on dry land. When the people of Egypt tried to do that, they were drowned.
30 The people believed God and walked around the walls of the city of Jericho for seven days. The walls fell down.
31 Rahab was a woman who used her body wrongly for sex to get money. But she believed in God, so she did not die with the people who did not believe in God. This was when the men came to spy out her country. She took them into her house in peace.
32 What more should I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets.
33 Men believed God and were able to win over other nations. They made people do what was right. They got what God promised them. They were not eaten by lions.
34 The big, hot fire did not burn them. They got away from men who wanted to kill them with long knives or swords. They were weak, but they became strong. They became very strong to fight. They drove away the armies of their enemies.
35 Women had children who died and were raised to life again. Some people allowed themselves to be beaten to death. They would not go free because they wanted to rise again to a better life.
36 Others were laughed at and beaten very hard. They were even tied with chains and put into prison.
37 They were killed with stones. They were tested. They were cut in pieces. They were killed with swords. They walked about wearing skins of sheep and goats. They were very poor. They were treated very badly. They were punished.
38 They were really too good to be in this world. They walked about in the desert and in the mountains, and in the holes in the hills and in the holes among the rocks on the earth.
39 All of these people had good things said about them because they believed God. But they did not get what God had promised.
40 God planned something better. They will be made perfect but only with us.
12 We have all these people all around us, proving to us that we should believe God. So then, like people running a race, we must take off everything that is heavy. We must put off all wrong, wrong things that get in our way. We must not stop running until we reach the mark that has been put in front of us.
2 We must keep our eyes on Jesus. He believed from first to last. What was put in front of him made him glad, so he did not give up when the people nailed him on a cross. He did not care about the shame. And now he is sitting beside God.
49 `I came to start a fire on the earth. I wish the fire were already burning!
50 I will be going through a big trouble, and I feel like a prisoner until it is all over.
51 Do you think that I came to bring peace on the earth? I tell you, "No". I came to take away peace.
52 From now, if there are five in a family, they will be against each other. Three of them will be against the other two. And two of them will be against the other three.
53 A father will be against his son, and the son will be against his father. The mother will be against her daughter, and the daughter will be against her mother. A man's mother will be against his wife, and his wife will be against his mother.'
54 Jesus also said to the people, `When you see a cloud coming up in the west, you say right away, "Rain is coming." And it comes.
55 When the wind is blowing from the south, you say, "It will be very hot." And it is.
56 You are not true to yourselves! You know the meaning of these signs in the earth and sky. But you do not know the meaning of the signs about the time in which we are living.'
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