Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
God Calls Samuel
3 The boy Samuel served the Lord under Eli. In those days the Lord did not speak directly to people very often; there were very few visions.
2 Eli’s eyes were so weak he was almost blind. One night he was lying in bed. 3 Samuel was also in bed in the Lord’s house, where the Ark of the Agreement was. God’s lamp was still burning.
4 Then the Lord called Samuel, and Samuel answered, “I am here!” 5 He ran to Eli and said, “I am here. You called me.”
But Eli said, “I didn’t call you. Go back to bed.” So Samuel went back to bed.
6 The Lord called again, “Samuel!”
Samuel again went to Eli and said, “I am here. You called me.”
Again Eli said, “I didn’t call you. Go back to bed.”
7 Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the Lord had not spoken directly to him yet.
8 The Lord called Samuel for the third time. Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “I am here. You called me.”
Then Eli realized the Lord was calling the boy. 9 So he told Samuel, “Go to bed. If he calls you again, say, ‘Speak, Lord. I am your servant and I am listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in bed.
10 The Lord came and stood there and called as he had before, “Samuel, Samuel!”
Samuel said, “Speak, Lord. I am your servant and I am listening.”
11 The Lord said to Samuel, “Watch, I am going to do something in Israel that will shock those who hear about it. 12 At that time I will do to Eli and his family everything I promised, from beginning to end. 13 I told Eli I would punish his family always, because he knew his sons were evil. They acted without honor, but he did not stop them. 14 So I swore to Eli’s family, ‘Your guilt will never be removed by sacrifice or offering.’”
15 Samuel lay down until morning. Then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. He was afraid to tell Eli about the vision, 16 but Eli called to him, “Samuel, my son!”
Samuel answered, “I am here.”
17 Eli asked, “What did the Lord say to you? Don’t hide it from me. May God punish you terribly if you hide from me anything he said to you.” 18 So Samuel told Eli everything and did not hide anything from him. Then Eli said, “He is the Lord. Let him do what he thinks is best.”
19 The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up; he did not let any of Samuel’s messages fail to come true. 20 Then all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba,[a] knew Samuel was a true prophet of the Lord.
God Knows Everything
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
139 Lord, you have examined me
and know all about me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I get up.
You know my thoughts before I think them.
3 You know where I go and where I lie down.
You know everything I do.
4 Lord, even before I say a word,
you already know it.
5 You are all around me—in front and in back—
and have put your hand on me.
6 Your knowledge is amazing to me;
it is more than I can understand.
13 You made my whole being;
you formed me in my mother’s body.
14 I praise you because you made me in an amazing and wonderful way.
What you have done is wonderful.
I know this very well.
15 You saw my bones being formed
as I took shape in my mother’s body.
When I was put together there,
16 you saw my body as it was formed.
All the days planned for me
were written in your book
before I was one day old.
17 God, your thoughts are precious to me.
They are so many!
18 If I could count them,
they would be more than all the grains of sand.
When I wake up,
I am still with you.
Use Your Bodies for God’s Glory
12 “I am allowed to do all things,” but not all things are good for me to do. “I am allowed to do all things,” but I will not let anything make me its slave. 13 “Food is for the stomach, and the stomach for food,” but God will destroy them both. The body is not for sexual sin but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14 By his power God has raised the Lord from the dead and will also raise us from the dead. 15 Surely you know that your bodies are parts of Christ himself. So I must never take the parts of Christ and join them to a prostitute! 16 It is written in the Scriptures, “The two will become one body.”[a] So you should know that anyone who joins with a prostitute becomes one body with the prostitute. 17 But the one who joins with the Lord is one spirit with the Lord.
18 So run away from sexual sin. Every other sin people do is outside their bodies, but those who sin sexually sin against their own bodies. 19 You should know that your body is a temple for the Holy Spirit who is in you. You have received the Holy Spirit from God. So you do not belong to yourselves, 20 because you were bought by God for a price. So honor God with your bodies.
43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”
44 Philip was from the town of Bethsaida, where Andrew and Peter lived. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the man that Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets also wrote about him. He is Jesus, the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”
46 But Nathanael said to Philip, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”
Philip answered, “Come and see.”
47 As Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said, “Here is truly an Israelite. There is nothing false in him.”
48 Nathanael asked, “How do you know me?”
Jesus answered, “I saw you when you were under the fig tree, before Philip told you about me.”
49 Then Nathanael said to Jesus, “Teacher, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”
50 Jesus said to Nathanael, “Do you believe simply because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than that.” 51 And Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and ‘angels of God going up and coming down’[a] on the Son of Man.”
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.