Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Happy Home
A song for going up to worship.
128 Happy are those who respect the Lord
and obey him.
2 You will enjoy what you work for.
You will be blessed with good things.
3 Your wife will give you many children.
She will be like a vine that produces a lot of fruit.
Your children will bring you much good.
They will be like olive branches that produce many olives.
4 This is how the man who respects the Lord
will be blessed.
5 May the Lord bless you from Mount Zion.
May you enjoy the good things of Jerusalem all your life.
6 May you see your grandchildren.
Let there be peace in Israel.
27 Don’t brag about what will happen tomorrow.
You don’t really know what will happen then.
2 Don’t praise yourself. Let someone else do it.
Let the praise come from a stranger and not from your own mouth.
3 Stone is heavy, and sand is hard to carry.
But the complaining of a foolish person causes more trouble than either.
4 Anger is cruel. It destroys like a flood.
But who can put up with jealousy!
5 It is better to correct someone openly
than to love him and not show it.
6 The slap of a friend can be trusted to help you.
But the kisses of an enemy are nothing but lies.
7 When someone is full, not even honey tastes good.
But when he is hungry, even something bitter tastes sweet.
8 A man who leaves his home
is like a bird that leaves its nest.
9 Perfume and oils make you happy.
And good advice from a friend is sweet.
10 Don’t forget your friend or your father’s friend.
Don’t always go to your brother for help when trouble comes.
A neighbor close by is better than a brother far away.
11 Be wise, my child, and you will make me happy.
Then I can respond to any insult.
12 When a wise person sees danger ahead, he avoids it.
But a foolish person keeps going and gets into trouble.
13 Take the coat of someone who promises to pay what a stranger owes.
Keep it until he pays the stranger’s bills.
14 Don’t greet your neighbor loudly early in the morning.
He will think of it as a curse.
15 A quarreling wife is as bothersome
as a continual dripping on a rainy day.
16 Stopping her is like stopping the wind.
It’s like trying to grab oil in your hand.
17 Iron can sharpen iron.
In the same way, people can help each other.
18 The person who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit.
And the person who takes care of his master will be honored.
19 As water shows you your face,
so your mind shows you what kind of person you are.
20 People will never stop dying and being destroyed.
In the same way, people will never stop wanting more than they have.
21 A hot furnace tests silver and gold.
And people are tested by the praise they receive.
22 Even if you ground up a foolish person like grain in a bowl,
you couldn’t remove his foolishness.
23 Be sure you know how your sheep are doing.
Pay close attention to the condition of your cattle.
24 Riches will not continue forever.
Nor do governments continue forever.
25 Bring in the hay. Let the new grass appear.
Gather the grass from the hills.
26 Make clothes from the lambs’ wool.
Sell some goats to buy a field.
27 There will be plenty of goat milk
to feed you and your family.
It will make your servant girls healthy.
8 Come near to God, and God will come near to you. You are sinners. So clean sin out of your lives. You are trying to follow God and the world at the same time. Make your thinking pure. 9 Be sad, cry, and weep! Change your laughter into crying. Change your joy into sadness. 10 Humble yourself before the Lord, and he will honor you.
You Are Not the Judge
11 Brothers, do not say bad things about each other. If you say bad things about your brother in Christ or judge him, then you are saying bad things about the law he follows. You are also judging the law he follows. And when you are judging the law, you are not a follower of the law. You have become a judge! 12 God is the only One who makes laws, and he is the only Judge. He is the only One who can save and destroy. So it is not right for you to judge your neighbor.
Let God Plan Your Life
13 Some of you say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to some city. We will stay there a year, do business, and make money.” 14 But you do not know what will happen tomorrow! Your life is like a mist. You can see it for a short time, but then it goes away. 15 So you should say, “If the Lord wants, we will live and do this or that.” 16 But now you are proud and you brag. All of this bragging is wrong. 17 And when a person knows the right thing to do, but does not do it, then he is sinning.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.