Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

God is a safe place^[a]

That is what the Lord says.

²⁵ ‘I have heard the lies that these prophets are saying. They say that they have messages from me. They say, “God has spoken to me in a dream!” ²⁶ But all their words are lies. Their messages are their own ideas. When will they stop deceiving people? ²⁷ They want to make my people forget who I am. They use their dreams to do this. They tell them to each other. They are as bad as their ancestors. They also forgot who I am when they worshipped the false god, Baal.

²⁸ If a prophet has a dream, he should say what it is. If a prophet receives a message from me, he should speak that message faithfully. But dreams are very different from my messages. Straw is not the same as wheat! ²⁹ A message from me is like a fire that burns things. It is like a hammer that breaks a rock into pieces.’ That is what the Lord says.

³⁰ ‘I tell you that I am against those prophets! They say that they speak messages from me. But they are using each other's ideas. ³¹ They say, “This message is from the Lord,” but it is their own words that they speak. ³² Yes, I am against those who have dreams and use them to deceive people. They are using cruel lies to lead the people away from me. I did not send those prophets to speak on my behalf. They do nothing to help my people.’ That is what the Lord says.

God has made us alive with Christ

2 Remember how you lived before. You did wrong things and bad things. As a result, you were dead in your spirits. ² You lived in a bad way, like the people who belong to this world. You were obeying Satan, who rules the powerful spirits in the air. Those spirits are working now in everyone who refuses to obey God. ³ At one time, all of us lived like those people. We did whatever bad things our bodies wanted to do. If our thoughts made us want to do something, we did it. Because we were like that, God was angry with us. He should have punished us, just like everyone else.

⁴ But God is very good and kind! He loved us very much. ⁵ Because of our sins, we were dead in our spirits. But God gave us a new life, because we are united with Christ. Yes, God has saved you because he is so kind. ⁶ Also, God raised us up with Christ, so that we now sit with Christ in heaven. God has done this for us because we are united with Christ Jesus. ⁷ He wanted to show, for all future time, how very kind he is. He has helped us so much because of what Christ Jesus has done. ⁸ When you believed in Jesus, God saved you because he is very kind. You could not save yourselves, but that is God's gift to you. ⁹ He has not saved you as a result of any good things that you have done. So nobody has any reason to be proud about it. ¹⁰ It is God who has worked in us to make us what we are. He has given us a new life because we are united with Christ Jesus. He saved us so that now we can do good things in our lives. Those are good things that he has already prepared for us to do.