Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
GIMEL
17 Please be kind to me, your servant.
Then I will live and I will obey your message.
18 Open my eyes wide!
Then I will see great things in your Law.
19 I live like a stranger here on the earth.
Please do not hide your commands from me.
20 I really want to obey your rules all the time.
I want that more than anything else.
21 You warn people who are proud.
If they turn away from your commands,
you will surely punish them.
22 I obey your rules.
So do not let people insult me,
so that I become ashamed.
23 Rulers may think of ways to hurt me.
But I will think carefully about your rules.
24 Yes, your laws make me really happy.
They show me the right way to live.
DALETH
25 I have fallen to the ground. I am almost dead.
Give me life again, as you have promised to do.
26 I told you what my life is like,
and you answered me.
Please teach me your laws.
27 Help me to understand what your teaching means.
Then I will think carefully about the great things that you do.
28 I am so sad that I feel very weak.
Use your word to make me strong again.
29 Stop me from living in a wrong way.
Please be kind to me,
so that I know your Law.
30 I have chosen to live in the right way.
I will continue to obey your rules.
31 Yes, Lord, I will always respect your teaching.
Please do not let me become ashamed.
32 I want to obey your commands all the time.
Help me to understand them more and more.
The Locusts
7 The Lord God showed a vision to me. I saw a crowd of locusts. The Lord was ready to send them to destroy the crops in the fields. They would come after we had taken the early crops to give to the king. Then the later crops were beginning to make grain. 2 I saw that the locusts came and they ate everything. I asked the Lord, ‘Lord God, please forgive your people. We cannot continue to live if those locusts destroy our food. We are too weak!’
3 Then the Lord decided not to do it. He said to me, ‘That will not happen.’
The Fire
4 After that, the Lord God showed to me a vision of a fire. He was ready to send it to punish us. I saw that it caused the deep sea to become dry. It also burnt all the land. 5 I said, ‘Lord God, please do not do that! Your people cannot continue to live. We are too weak!’
6 Then the Lord decided not to do it. He said to me, ‘That too will not happen.’
27 God wanted them to understand how great this secret is. It shows that God will bless people who live in all countries of the world. This secret message is that Christ lives in you. And because of that, you know that you will live with God in heaven one day.
28 That is why we tell everyone the message about Christ. God helps us to be very wise as we warn people and we teach them. We want every person who belongs to Christ to become complete, as God sees them. 29 That is why I work very hard. Christ works powerfully in me to make me strong for this difficult work.
2 I want you to know that I am doing a difficult work on your behalf. I am also working to help the people at Laodicea and other people who have never met me. 2 I want all the believers to become strong in their spirits. I want them to help each other because they love one another. Then God will bless them very much, because they understand God's secret message very well. They will be completely sure of it. And they will know Christ himself, who is God's secret. 3 Christ is the one who holds everything that makes people wise. He helps people to know the true message that God had hidden.
4 I am telling you these things so that false teachers will not deceive you. They may teach ideas that seem good, but do not listen to them. 5 My body is not there with you, but I think about you a lot. I hear that you are living and working well together. I also hear that you continue to trust Christ strongly. That makes me very happy.
How Christians should live
6 You have accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord. So remember that you belong to him as you live your lives. 7 Get your strength from Christ himself, so that you become stronger and stronger.[a] Continue to believe the true message that we taught you. And thank God very much for everything.
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