Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Prayer for the Nation
For the director of music. A song of the sons of Korah.
85 Lord, you have been kind to your land.
You gave the people of Jacob back their riches.
2 You forgave the guilt of the people.
You covered all their sins. Selah
3 You stopped all your anger.
You stopped your strong anger.
4 God our Savior, bring us back again.
Stop being angry with us.
5 Will you be angry with us forever?
Will you stay angry from now on?
6 Won’t you give us life again?
Your people would rejoice in you.
7 Lord, show us your love.
Save us.
8 I will listen to God the Lord.
He has ordered peace for his people who worship him.
Don’t let them go back to foolishness.
9 God will soon save those who respect him.
And his greatness will be seen in our land.
10 Love and truth will belong to God’s people.
Goodness and peace will be theirs.
11 On earth people will be loyal to God.
And God’s goodness will shine down from heaven.
12 The Lord will give his goodness.
And the land will give its crops.
13 Goodness will go before God
and prepare the way for him.
11 Then the people of Judah and Israel will be joined together again. They will choose one leader for themselves. And again they will grow in their land. The day of Jezreel, when God plants, will be truly great.
2 “Your brothers and your sisters will be called ‘my people’ and ‘you have been shown love.’
God Speaks About Israel
2 “Plead with your mother.[a]
Plead with her because she no longer acts like a wife to me.
And I am not treated like her husband.
Tell her to stop acting like a prostitute.
Tell her to stop behaving like an unfaithful wife.
3 If she refuses, I will strip her naked.
I will leave her bare like the day she was born.
I will make her dry like a desert.
I will make her like a land without water.
I will kill her with thirst.
4 I will not take pity on her children.
They are the children of an unfaithful wife.
5 Their mother has acted like a prostitute.
The one who became pregnant with them has acted disgracefully.
She said, ‘I will chase after my lovers.[b]
They give me food and water.
They give me wool and linen.
They give me wine and olive oil.’
6 So I will block her road with thornbushes.
I will build a wall around her
so she cannot find her way.
7 She will run after her lovers.
But she won’t catch up to them.
She will look for them.
But she won’t find them.
Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband.[c]
Life was better for me then than it is now.’
8 But she has not accepted that I was the one
who gave her grain, wine and oil.
I gave her much silver and gold.
But she used it to make statues of Baal.
9 “So I will take away my grain at harvest time.
And I will take away my wine when it is ready.
I will take back my wool and linen.
I gave her those things to cover her nakedness.
10 So I will show her nakedness to her lovers.
No one will save her from my punishment.
11 I will put an end to all her celebrations:
her yearly festivals, her New Moon festivals and her Sabbaths.
I will stop all of her special feasts.
12 I will destroy her vines and fig trees.
She said they were her pay from her lovers.
I will turn them into a forest.
Wild animals will eat those plants.
13 I will punish her for all the times
she burned incense to the Baals.
She put on her rings and jewelry.
Then she went chasing after her lovers.
But she has forgotten me!”
says the Lord.
14 “So I am going to attract her.
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her.
15 Then I will give her back her vineyards.
And I will make the Valley of Achor[d] a door of hope.
Then she will respond as when she was young,
as when she came out of Egypt.”
Jesus Stops a Storm
22 One day Jesus and his followers got into a boat. He said to them, “Come with me across the lake.” And so they started across. 23 While they were sailing, Jesus fell asleep. A big storm blew up on the lake. The boat began to fill with water, and they were in danger.
24 The followers went to Jesus and woke him. They said, “Master! Master! We will drown!”
Jesus got up and gave a command to the wind and the waves. The wind stopped, and the lake became calm. 25 Jesus said to his followers, “Where is your faith?”
The followers were afraid and amazed. They said to each other, “What kind of man is this? He commands the wind and the water, and they obey him!”
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.