Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
LAMED
89 Lord, your teaching will always be there.
You keep it safe in heaven.
90 You continue to show that people can trust you,
from one century to the next.
You have fixed the earth in its place,
and it will remain.
91 It is by your command that all things continue.
You have put them there to serve you.
92 If your Law had not made me happy,
I would have been sad until I died.
93 I will never forget your rules,
because you have used them to give me life.
94 I belong to you. Please save me!
I have respected your rules.
95 Wicked people are ready to kill me,
but I think carefully about your teaching.
96 I have learned that all things will come to an end,
but your commands have no end.
King Jehoiakim destroys the Lord's message
36 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah in the fourth year that Josiah's son Jehoiakim ruled Judah as king. He said, 2 ‘Write down on a scroll all the messages that I have spoken to you. Since Josiah was king until now, I have given you messages about Israel, Judah and the other nations. Write them all on a scroll. 3 That will warn the people of Judah about the very bad things that I have decided to do to them. When they hear about it, perhaps they will stop doing the evil things that they have been doing. Then I will forgive their sins and everything wrong that they have done.’
4 So Jeremiah told Neriah's son Baruch to come to him. Jeremiah spoke all the words that the Lord had told him to say. Baruch wrote them down on a scroll. 5 Then Jeremiah said to Baruch, ‘The officers will not let me go to the Lord's temple. 6 So you must go to the temple yourself. Go on a special day when people are fasting and they have come from their towns. Read the words that you wrote on the scroll to the people, so that they can all hear them. 7 Perhaps they will ask the Lord to forgive them. Perhaps they will stop doing all the evil things that they have been doing. The Lord is very angry with them and he has warned them that he will punish them.’
8 Neriah's son Baruch did everything that the prophet Jeremiah had told him. He went to the Lord's temple. He read the Lord's message that was written on the scroll. 9 That happened in the ninth month of the fifth year that Jehoiakim ruled Judah as king. People from all Judah's towns had come to Jerusalem. They joined with the people of Jerusalem to fast and pray in the Lord's temple. 10 Baruch stood in the temple, at the entrance of the room of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan. Shaphan had been the king's secretary. Gemariah's room was in the higher yard of the temple, near the New Gate. Baruch stood there. He read the Lord's message that Jeremiah had told him to write on the scroll.
Messages from God
14 So you must always want to love other people. Also, want very much to receive spiritual gifts from God. More than anything else, want to speak messages from God. 2 If someone speaks in a different language, he is speaking only to God. The people who hear him do not understand his message. God's Spirit is causing him to speak about secret things. It does not help people. 3 But if someone speaks a clear message from God, he helps the people who hear him. He helps them to become stronger as believers. He helps them to be happy and strong in their troubles. 4 Anyone who speaks in a different language only helps himself. But a person who speaks a message from God helps the believers in the church to become strong.
5 I would like all of you to speak in different kinds of languages. But even more, I want you to speak God's message clearly to people. Anyone who can speak a message from God is important in the church. He is more important than someone who speaks in different kinds of languages. That person only helps the church if someone can explain what he says. Only in that way will his message help the church to become stronger.
6 My Christian friends, if I come to visit you, then I want to help you. But if I speak to you in languages that you do not understand, that will not help you at all. I would need to explain to you what God has shown to me. I would need to help you to understand something. I would need to speak a clear message from God, or teach you something. Only that would help you. 7 Think about how people make music with flutes or harps. Those things are not alive. We have to use them to make clear sounds. If we do not use them properly, then nobody can recognize the music. 8 Soldiers will not prepare to fight unless they hear a clear sound from the trumpet.
9 It is the same for you. You must use your tongue to speak clearly. If not, nobody will understand what you are saying. You will only be speaking words into the air. 10 There are many different kinds of languages in this world. They all mean something to the people who speak them. 11 Perhaps somebody may speak to me in a language that I do not understand. Then we are like foreign people to each other. 12 So think about what is best for you. You really want the gifts that come from God's Spirit. Most of all, you should want the gifts that will help the whole church to become stronger.
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.