Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Hannah Gives Thanks
2 Hannah said,
“My heart is happy in the Lord.
I feel very strong[a] in my God.
I laugh at my enemies.[b]
I am very happy in my victory.
2 There is no holy God like the Lord.
There is no God but you.
There is no Rock like our God.
3 Don’t continue bragging.
Don’t speak proud words,
because the Lord God knows everything.
He leads and judges people.
4 The bows of strong soldiers break,
and weak people become strong.
5 People who had plenty of food in the past
must now work to get food.
But those who were hungry in the past
now grow fat on food.
The woman who was not able to have children
now has seven children.
But the woman who had many children
is sad because her children are gone.
6 The Lord causes people to die,
and he causes them to live.
He sends people down to the grave,
and he can raise them up to live again.
7 The Lord makes some poor,
and he makes others rich.
He humbles some people,
and he honors others.
8 He raises the poor from the dust,
and he takes away their sadness.[c]
He makes them important
and seats them with princes and at the places for honored guests.
The Lord made the whole world,
and the whole world belongs to him.[d]
9 He protects his holy people.
He keeps them from stumbling.
But evil people will be destroyed.
They will fall in the darkness.
Their power won’t help them win.
10 The Lord destroys his enemies.
God Most High will thunder in heaven against people.
The Lord will judge even the lands that are far away.
He will give power to his king.
He will make his chosen king[e] strong.”
18 But Samuel served the Lord. He was a helper who wore the linen ephod. 19 Every year Samuel’s mother made a robe for Samuel. She took the little robe to Samuel when she went up to Shiloh with her husband for the sacrifice every year.
20 Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife. He would say, “May the Lord give you more children through Hannah who will take the place of the boy she prayed for and gave to the Lord.”
Elkanah and Hannah went home. 21 The Lord was kind to Hannah, and she had three sons and two daughters. The boy Samuel grew up at the holy place near the Lord.
Continue to Follow Christ Jesus
6 You accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, so continue to live following him. 7 You must depend on Christ only, drawing life and strength from him. Just as you were taught the truth, continue to grow stronger in your understanding of it. And never stop giving thanks to God.
8 Be sure you are not led away by the teaching of those who have nothing worth saying and only plan to deceive you. That teaching is not from Christ. It is only human tradition and comes from the powers that influence[a] this world. 9 I say this because all of God lives in Christ fully, even in his life on earth. 10 And because you belong to Christ you are complete, having everything you need. Christ is ruler over every other power and authority.
11 In Christ you had a different kind of circumcision, one that was not done by human hands. That is, you were made free from the power of your sinful self. That is the kind of circumcision Christ does. 12 When you were baptized, you were buried with Christ, and you were raised up with him because of your faith in God’s power. God’s power was shown when he raised Christ from death.
13 You were spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were not free from the power of your sinful self. But God gave you new life together with Christ. He forgave all our sins. 14 Because we broke God’s laws, we owed a debt—a debt that listed all the rules we failed to follow. But God forgave us of that debt. He took it away and nailed it to the cross. 15 He defeated the rulers and powers of the spiritual world. With the cross he won the victory over them and led them away, as defeated and powerless prisoners for the whole world to see.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International