Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Habakkuk has a problem

1 This is the message that God showed to his prophet Habakkuk.

The Lord answers Habakkuk

2 I will stand at my place on the wall of the city. I will watch from there. I will wait to see what God will say to me. I have complained to him and now I will see how he answers me.

² The Lord answered me. He said:

‘Write down what I will show to you. Make it very clear on the page where you write it. Then someone can easily read it, and he can tell the message to other people. ³ What I will show to you must happen at the time that I have decided. That is a future time, but it will certainly happen, as I have said. It may not happen very soon, but you must be patient. What I show to you will certainly happen at the right time, so wait for it.

⁴ Look now! The enemy is very proud. They do not want to do what is right.^[a] But righteous people will live because of their faith in God.

TSADHE

Paul says ‘Hello’

1 This letter is from Paul, Silas and Timothy.

We are writing to the people of the church in Thessalonica. You belong to God our Father, and to the Lord Jesus Christ.

² We pray that God, the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ will continue to help you. We pray that they will give you peace in your minds.

Paul thanks God because of the believers at Thessalonica

³ Our Christian friends, we ought always to thank God because of you. It is right that we do this, because you are learning to trust Christ more and more. All of you are also loving each other more and more. ⁴ As a result, we are proud to tell believers in other churches about you. We tell them how you continue to trust God in your many troubles. You are patient and brave, even when people cause you to have much pain.

Paul prays for the believers

¹¹ So we always pray for you. Our God has chosen you to be his own people. We pray that he will help you, so that you continue to please him. We also pray that God will work powerfully in you. Then you will be able to do every good thing that you want to do. You will do the things that you want to do because you trust God. ¹² As a result, people will praise our Lord Jesus because of how you live. You also will receive praise, because you belong to Jesus. All this is possible because our God and the Lord Jesus Christ are very kind.

Zacchaeus meets Jesus

19 Jesus went into Jericho and he was walking through the city. ² There was a man there called Zacchaeus. He was a leader of the men who took taxes from people. He had become very rich. ³ He was trying to see who Jesus was. There was a big crowd there and he was a small man. So he could not see Jesus. ⁴ He ran on in front of the crowd and he climbed up a tree. He could see Jesus more easily from the tree, because Jesus would walk along that way. ⁵ When Jesus came to the tree, he looked up at Zacchaeus. He said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down quickly. Today I must stay in your home.’

⁶ So Zacchaeus came down immediately and took Jesus into his home. He was very happy about this. ⁷ The people saw what had happened. They were not happy, and they were saying, ‘Jesus has gone to stay in the home of a man that does bad things.’

⁸ Later, Zacchaeus stood up in front of everyone. He said to the Lord Jesus, ‘Listen, Master! I will give half of all the things that I have to poor people. I may have taken too much money from some people. I will give back to them four times as much as I took from them wrongly.’

⁹ Jesus said to him, ‘Today God has saved people in this home. Now Zacchaeus also belongs to the family of Abraham. ¹⁰ I, the Son of Man, came to look for people who are far away from God. They are in danger and I have come to save them.’