Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A prayer of Moses, God's servant.
God lives for ever![a]
90 Lord, from long ago,
you have always been a safe home for us.[b]
2 From before the mountains began,
and before you made the world,
you were already there, as God.
You have no beginning and no end.
3 People return to dust in the ground when they die.
You say, ‘Become dust again, you people.’[c]
4 For you, a thousand years is only a short time.
They pass as quickly as a day for you,
or just a few hours in the night.
5 You cause people's lives to end,
as a dream finishes when you wake up.
People are like grass that appears in the morning.
6 During the morning, it grows well.
By the evening,
it becomes dry and it dies.
13 Lord, return to help us!
How long will you be angry with us?
Please be kind to us, your servants!
14 Show your faithful love to us every morning.
Then we will sing with joy,
and we will be happy for as long as we live.
15 For many years you have sent trouble to us.
Now, please make us happy
for as many years as you have given us pain.
16 Do great things again,
so that we, your servants, see them!
Let our children see that you rule as King!
17 Yes, may the Lord our God bless us.
May everything that we do go well!
Yes, may everything go well!
Joshua becomes the new leader
14 The Lord said to Moses, ‘You will soon die. Fetch Joshua and come with him to the Tent of Meeting. When you meet with me there, I will give Joshua authority to be the leader of my people.’
So Moses and Joshua went to meet the Lord at his special tent.
15 The Lord appeared in a pillar of cloud. The cloud was above the door of the tent. 16 The Lord said to Moses, ‘You will soon die. After you die, the people will soon go away from me. They will start to worship foreign gods of the land where they are going. They will turn against me. They will not obey the covenant that I made with them. 17 When that happens, I will be very angry with them. I will leave them. I will refuse to help them until they are destroyed. Many bad things will happen to them so that they are in great trouble. Then they will say, “These bad things have happened to us because our God is no longer with us.”
18 But at that time I will certainly refuse to help them. That is because of all the wicked things that they will have done. They will start to worship other gods.
19 Now write down this song that I will give to you. Teach the Israelites to sing it. Its words will show them that they are guilty because they have not obeyed me. 20 I will take them into this land, where there is plenty of food and drink, enough for everyone. It is the land that I promised to give to their ancestors. When they live there, they will eat as much food as they want. They will be fat and healthy. But then they will start to worship other gods. They will turn against me. They will not obey the covenant that I made with them. 21 Many bad things will happen to them so that they are in great trouble. Then this song will show them that they are guilty. Their descendants will never forget it. Even now, I know what they are thinking. I know what they want to do, even before I take them into the land that I have promised to them.’
22 So Moses wrote down this song on that same day. He taught it to the Israelites.
Titus's work in Crete
5 I left you in Crete so that you could finish certain things. You should make right some things that were wrong. And you should choose leaders of the believers in every town, as I told you.
6 This is what a leader in the church must be like. Nobody should have a reason to say that he has done something wrong. He must be the husband of only one wife. He must have children who respect him. Nobody should say that they enjoy bad things or that they do not obey their parents.[a] 7 A leader in the church serves the believers on God's behalf. Because of that, nobody should have a reason to say that the leader has done anything wrong. A leader must not be proud. He must not become angry easily. He should not like to drink too much wine. He must not be someone who likes to fight. He must not want to get a lot of money for himself. 8 Instead, he must be happy to have visitors in his home. He must want to do good things. He must be careful in how he lives. He must do what is right. He must want to serve God well. He must control himself well.
9 A leader in the church must continue to believe the true message very well. That is the message which we have taught. Then he will be able to teach people what is true and right. He will also show that people who speak against the true message are wrong.
10 I say this because there are many people who refuse to obey their leaders. They speak about useless things and they deceive people. Many of them want the believers to obey all the Jewish rules.[b] 11 You must stop those people from teaching false things like that. They are causing whole families to believe their lies. They teach things that they should not teach. They deceive people because they want people to give them money. 12 Many years ago, there was a certain man who lived on Crete. The people there called him their prophet. Even he said, ‘People who live on Crete are always telling lies and doing wicked things. They are lazy and they eat too much food.’
13 What that man said is true. So you must warn the people there. Help them to believe the true message about Jesus more and more. 14 They must not listen to Jewish stories that are not true, or to human rules. Those things are the ideas of people who refuse to obey God's true message.
15 If someone is clean and good inside, everything is clean and good for them to enjoy. But if someone is not a believer and has an unclean mind, nothing is clean or good for that person. Their minds no longer think properly. They no longer feel guilty when they do something wrong. 16 People like that say that they know God. But they do disgusting things. This shows that they do not know him. They are completely bad. They refuse to obey God. They are not able to do anything good.
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