2019-06 Lectionary Slides
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2019-06-02
2019-06-02
16 One day as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a young servant woman who had an evil spirit that enabled her to predict the future. She earned a lot of money for her owners by telling fortunes.
17 She followed Paul and us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God! They announce to you how you can be saved!”
18 She did this for many days, until Paul became so upset that he turned round and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I order you to come out of her!” The spirit went out of her that very moment.
19 When her owners realized that their chance of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the authorities in the public square.
20 They brought them before the Roman officials and said, “These men are Jews, and they are causing trouble in our city.
21 They are teaching customs that are against our law; we are Roman citizens, and we cannot accept these customs or practice them.”
22 And the crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas. Then the officials tore the clothes off Paul and Silas and ordered them to be whipped.
23 After a severe beating, they were thrown into jail, and the jailer was ordered to lock them up tight.
24 Upon receiving this order, the jailer threw them into the inner cell and fastened their feet between heavy blocks of wood.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
26 Suddenly there was a violent earthquake, which shook the prison to its foundations. At once all the doors opened, and the chains fell off all the prisoners.
27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he thought that the prisoners had escaped; so he pulled out his sword and was about to kill himself.
28 But Paul shouted at the top of his voice, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
29 The jailer called for a light, rushed in, and fell trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas.
30 Then he led them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 They answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your family.”
32 Then they preached the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.
33 At that very hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; and he and all his family were baptized at once.
34 Then he took Paul and Silas up into his house and gave them some food to eat. He and his family were filled with joy, because they now believed in God.
1 The Lord is king! Earth, be glad! Rejoice, you islands of the seas!
2 Clouds and darkness surround him; he rules with righteousness and justice.
3 Fire goes in front of him and burns up his enemies round him.
4 His lightning lights up the world; the earth sees it and trembles.
5 The hills melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the nations see his glory.
7 Everyone who worships idols is put to shame; all the gods bow down before the Lord.
8 The people of Zion are glad, and the cities of Judah rejoice because of your judgements, O Lord.
9 Lord Almighty, you are ruler of all the earth; you are much greater than all the gods.
10 The Lord loves those who hate evil; he protects the lives of his people; he rescues them from the power of the wicked.
11 Light shines on the righteous, and gladness on the good.
12 All you that are righteous be glad because of what the Lord has done! Remember what the holy God has done, and give thanks to him.
12 “Listen!” says Jesus. “I am coming soon! I will bring my rewards with me, to give to each one according to what he has done.
13 I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
14 Happy are those who wash their robes clean and so have the right to eat the fruit from the tree of life and to go through the gates into the city.
16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to announce these things to you in the churches. I am descended from the family of David; I am the bright morning star.”
17 The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come!” Everyone who hears this must also say, “Come!” Come, whoever is thirsty; accept the water of life as a gift, whoever wants it.
, ,
20 He who gives his testimony to all this says, “Yes indeed! I am coming soon!” So be it. Come, Lord Jesus!
21 May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with everyone.
20 “I pray not only for them, but also for those who believe in me because of their message.
21 I pray that they may all be one. Father! May they be in us, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they be one, so that the world will believe that you sent me.
22 I gave them the same glory you gave me, so that they may be one, just as you and I are one:
23 I in them and you in me, so that they may be completely one, in order that the world may know that you sent me and that you love them as you love me.
24 “Father! You have given them to me, and I want them to be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory, the glory you gave me; for you loved me before the world was made.
25 Righteous Father! The world does not know you, but I know you, and these know that you sent me.
26 I made you known to them, and I will continue to do so, in order that the love you have for me may be in them, and so that I also may be in them.”
2019-06-09
2019-06-09
1 When the day of Pentecost came, all the believers were gathered together in one place.
2 Suddenly there was a noise from the sky which sounded like a strong wind blowing, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person there.
4 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.
5 There were Jews living in Jerusalem, religious people who had come from every country in the world.
6 When they heard this noise, a large crowd gathered. They were all excited, because each one of them heard the believers speaking in his or her own language.
7 In amazement and wonder they exclaimed, “These people who are talking like this are Galileans!
8 How is it, then, that all of us hear them speaking in our own native languages?
9 We are from Parthia, Media, and Elam; from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia; from Pontus and Asia,
10 from Phrygia and Pamphylia, from Egypt and the regions of Libya near Cyrene. Some of us are from Rome,
11 both Jews and Gentiles converted to Judaism, and some of us are from Crete and Arabia—yet all of us hear them speaking in our own languages about the great things that God has done!”
12 Amazed and confused, they kept asking each other, “What does this mean?”
13 But others made fun of the believers, saying, “These people are drunk!”
14 Then Peter stood up with the other eleven apostles and in a loud voice began to speak to the crowd: “Fellow-Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, listen to me and let me tell you what this means.
15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose; it is only nine o’clock in the morning.
16 Instead, this is what the prophet Joel spoke about:
17 ‘This is what I will do in the last days, God says: I will pour out my Spirit on everyone. Your sons and daughters will proclaim my message; your young men will see visions, and your old men will have dreams.
18 Yes, even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will proclaim my message.
19 I will perform miracles in the sky above and wonders on the earth below. There will be blood, fire, and thick smoke;
20 the sun will be darkened, and the moon will turn red as blood, before the great and glorious Day of the Lord comes.
21 And then, whoever calls out to the Lord for help will be saved.’
1 At first, the people of the whole world had only one language and used the same words.
2 As they wandered about in the East, they came to a plain in Babylonia and settled there.
3 They said to one another, “Come on! Let’s make bricks and bake them hard.” So they had bricks to build with and tar to hold them together.
4 They said, “Now let’s build a city with a tower that reaches the sky, so that we can make a name for ourselves and not be scattered all over the earth.”
5 Then the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which those men had built,
6 and he said, “Now then, these are all one people and they speak one language; this is just the beginning of what they are going to do. Soon they will be able to do anything they want!
7 Let us go down and mix up their language so that they will not understand one another.”
8 So the Lord scattered them all over the earth, and they stopped building the city.
9 The city was called Babylon, because there the Lord mixed up the language of all the people, and from there he scattered them all over the earth.
24 Lord, you have made so many things! How wisely you made them all! The earth is filled with your creatures.
25 There is the ocean, large and wide, where countless creatures live, large and small alike.
26 The ships sail on it, and in it plays Leviathan, that sea monster which you made.
27 All of them depend on you to give them food when they need it.
28 You give it to them, and they eat it; you provide food, and they are satisfied.
29 When you turn away, they are afraid; when you take away your breath, they die and go back to the dust from which they came.
30 But when you give them breath, they are created; you give new life to the earth.
31 May the glory of the Lord last for ever! May the Lord be happy with what he has made!
32 He looks at the earth, and it trembles; he touches the mountains, and they pour out smoke.
33 I will sing to the Lord all my life; as long as I live I will sing praises to my God.
34 May he be pleased with my song, for my gladness comes from him.
35 May sinners be destroyed from the earth; may the wicked be no more. Praise the Lord, my soul! Praise the Lord!
14 Those who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s children.
15 For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God’s children, and by the Spirit’s power we cry out to God, “Father! my Father!”
16 God’s Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God’s children.
17 Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him; for if we share Christ’s suffering, we will also share his glory.
1 When the day of Pentecost came, all the believers were gathered together in one place.
2 Suddenly there was a noise from the sky which sounded like a strong wind blowing, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person there.
4 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.
5 There were Jews living in Jerusalem, religious people who had come from every country in the world.
6 When they heard this noise, a large crowd gathered. They were all excited, because each one of them heard the believers speaking in his or her own language.
7 In amazement and wonder they exclaimed, “These people who are talking like this are Galileans!
8 How is it, then, that all of us hear them speaking in our own native languages?
9 We are from Parthia, Media, and Elam; from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia; from Pontus and Asia,
10 from Phrygia and Pamphylia, from Egypt and the regions of Libya near Cyrene. Some of us are from Rome,
11 both Jews and Gentiles converted to Judaism, and some of us are from Crete and Arabia—yet all of us hear them speaking in our own languages about the great things that God has done!”
12 Amazed and confused, they kept asking each other, “What does this mean?”
13 But others made fun of the believers, saying, “These people are drunk!”
14 Then Peter stood up with the other eleven apostles and in a loud voice began to speak to the crowd: “Fellow-Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, listen to me and let me tell you what this means.
15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose; it is only nine o’clock in the morning.
16 Instead, this is what the prophet Joel spoke about:
17 ‘This is what I will do in the last days, God says: I will pour out my Spirit on everyone. Your sons and daughters will proclaim my message; your young men will see visions, and your old men will have dreams.
18 Yes, even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will proclaim my message.
19 I will perform miracles in the sky above and wonders on the earth below. There will be blood, fire, and thick smoke;
20 the sun will be darkened, and the moon will turn red as blood, before the great and glorious Day of the Lord comes.
21 And then, whoever calls out to the Lord for help will be saved.’
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father; that is all we need.”
9 Jesus answered, “For a long time I have been with you all; yet you do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Why, then, do you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
10 Do you not believe, Philip, that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I have spoken to you,” Jesus said to his disciples, “do not come from me. The Father, who remains in me, does his own work.
11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. If not, believe because of the things I do.
12 I am telling you the truth: those who believe in me will do what I do—yes, they will do even greater things, because I am going to the Father.
13 And I will do whatever you ask for in my name, so that the Father’s glory will be shown through the Son.
14 If you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it.
15 “If you love me, you will obey my commandments.
16 I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you for ever.
17 He is the Spirit who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot receive him, because it cannot see him or know him. But you know him, because he remains with you and is in you.
2019-06-16
2019-06-16
1 Listen! Wisdom is calling out. Reason is making herself heard.
2 On the hilltops near the road and at the crossroads she stands.
3 At the entrance to the city, beside the gates, she calls:
4 “I appeal to all of you; I call to everyone on earth.
22 “The Lord created me first of all, the first of his works, long ago.
23 I was made in the very beginning, at the first, before the world began.
24 I was born before the oceans, when there were no springs of water.
25 I was born before the mountains, before the hills were set in place,
26 before God made the earth and its fields or even the first handful of soil.
27 I was there when he set the sky in place, when he stretched the horizon across the ocean,
28 when he placed the clouds in the sky, when he opened the springs of the ocean
29 and ordered the waters of the sea to rise no further than he said. I was there when he laid the earth’s foundations.
30 I was beside him like an architect, I was his daily source of joy, always happy in his presence-
31 happy with the world and pleased with the human race.
1 O Lord, our Lord, your greatness is seen in all the world! Your praise reaches up to the heavens;
2 it is sung by children and babies. You are safe and secure from all your enemies; you stop anyone who opposes you.
3 When I look at the sky, which you have made, at the moon and the stars, which you set in their places-
4 what are human beings, that you think of them; mere mortals, that you care for them?
5 Yet you made them inferior only to yourself; you crowned them with glory and honour.
6 You appointed them rulers over everything you made; you placed them over all creation:
7 sheep and cattle, and the wild animals too;
8 the birds and the fish and the creatures in the seas.
9 O Lord, our Lord, your greatness is seen in all the world!
1 Now that we have been put right with God through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 He has brought us by faith into this experience of God’s grace, in which we now live. And so we boast of the hope we have of sharing God’s glory!
3 We also boast of our troubles, because we know that trouble produces endurance,
4 endurance brings God’s approval, and his approval creates hope.
5 This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God’s gift to us.
12 “I did not tell you these things at the beginning, for I was with you.
13 When, however, the Spirit comes, who reveals the truth about God, he will lead you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own authority, but he will speak of what he hears, and will tell you of things to come.
14 He will give me glory, because he will take what I say and tell it to you.
15 All that my Father has is mine; that is why I said that the Spirit will take what I give him and tell it to you.
2019-06-23
2019-06-23
1 King Ahab told his wife Jezebel everything that Elijah had done and how he had put all the prophets of Baal to death.
2 She sent a message to Elijah: “May the gods strike me dead if by this time tomorrow I don’t do the same thing to you that you did to the prophets.”
3 Elijah was afraid, and fled for his life; he took his servant and went to Beersheba in Judah. Leaving the servant there,
4 Elijah walked a whole day into the wilderness. He stopped and sat down in the shade of a tree and wished he would die. “It’s too much, Lord,” he prayed. “Take away my life; I might as well be dead!”
8 Elijah got up, ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to walk 40 days to Sinai, the holy mountain.
9 There he went into a cave to spend the night. Suddenly the Lord spoke to him, “Elijah, what are you doing here?”
10 He answered, “Lord God Almighty, I have always served you—you alone. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed all your prophets. I am the only one left—and they are trying to kill me!”
11 “Go out and stand before me on top of the mountain,” the Lord said to him. Then the Lord passed by and sent a furious wind that split the hills and shattered the rocks—but the Lord was not in the wind. The wind stopped blowing, and then there was an earthquake—but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
12 After the earthquake, there was a fire—but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, there was the soft whisper of a voice.
13 When Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. A voice said to him, “Elijah, what are you doing here?”
14 He answered, “Lord God Almighty, I have always served you—you alone. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed all your prophets. I am the only one left—and they are trying to kill me.”
15 The Lord said, “Return to the wilderness near Damascus, then enter the city and anoint Hazael as king of Syria;
1 As a deer longs for a stream of cool water, so I long for you, O God.
2 I thirst for you, the living God; when can I go and worship in your presence?
3 Day and night I cry, and tears are my only food; all the time my enemies ask me, “Where is your God?”
4 My heart breaks when I remember the past, when I went with the crowds to the house of God and led them as they walked along, a happy crowd, singing and shouting praise to God.
5 Why am I so sad? Why am I so troubled? I will put my hope in God, and once again I will praise him, my saviour and my God.
6 Here in exile my heart is breaking, and so I turn my thoughts to him. He has sent waves of sorrow over my soul; chaos roars at me like a flood, like waterfalls thundering down to the Jordan from Mount Hermon and Mount Mizar.
8 May the Lord show his constant love during the day, so that I may have a song at night, a prayer to the God of my life.
9 To God, my defender, I say, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go on suffering from the cruelty of my enemies?”
10 I am crushed by their insults, as they keep on asking me, “Where is your God?”
11 Why am I so sad? Why am I so troubled? I will put my hope in God, and once again I will praise him, my saviour and my God.
1 O God, declare me innocent, and defend my cause against the ungodly; deliver me from lying and evil people!
2 You are my protector; why have you abandoned me? Why must I go on suffering from the cruelty of my enemies?
3 Send your light and your truth; may they lead me and bring me back to Zion, your sacred hill, and to your Temple, where you live.
4 Then I will go to your altar, O God; you are the source of my happiness. I will play my harp and sing praise to you, O God, my God.
5 Why am I so sad? Why am I so troubled? I will put my hope in God, and once again I will praise him, my saviour and my God.
1 The Lord said, “I was ready to answer my people’s prayers, but they did not pray. I was ready for them to find me, but they did not even try. The nation did not pray to me, even though I was always ready to answer, ‘Here I am; I will help you.’
2 I have always been ready to welcome my people, who stubbornly do what is wrong and go their own way.
3 They shamelessly keep on making me angry. They offer pagan sacrifices in sacred gardens and burn incense on pagan altars.
4 At night they go to caves and tombs to consult the spirits of the dead. They eat pork and drink broth made from meat offered in pagan sacrifices.
5 And then they say to others, ‘Keep away from us; we are too holy for you to touch!’ I cannot stand people like that—my anger against them is like a fire that never goes out.
6 “I have already decided on their punishment, and their sentence is written down. I will not overlook what they have done, but will repay them
7 for their sins and the sins of their ancestors. They have burnt incense at pagan hill shrines and spoken evil of me. So I will punish them as their past deeds deserve.”
8 The Lord says, “No one destroys good grapes; instead, they make wine with them. Neither will I destroy all my people—I will save those who serve me.
9 I will bless the Israelites who belong to the tribe of Judah, and their descendants will possess my land of mountains. My chosen people, who serve me, will live there.
19 O Lord, don’t stay away from me! Come quickly to my rescue!
20 Save me from the sword; save my life from these dogs.
21 Rescue me from these lions; I am helpless before these wild bulls.
22 I will tell my people what you have done; I will praise you in their assembly:
23 “Praise him, you servants of the Lord! Honour him, you descendants of Jacob! Worship him, you people of Israel!
24 He does not neglect the poor or ignore their suffering; he does not turn away from them, but answers when they call for help.”
25 In the full assembly I will praise you for what you have done; in the presence of those who worship you I will offer the sacrifices I promised.
26 The poor will eat as much as they want; those who come to the Lord will praise him. May they prosper for ever!
27 All nations will remember the Lord. From every part of the world they will turn to him; all races will worship him.
28 The Lord is king, and he rules the nations.
23 But before the time for faith came, the Law kept us all locked up as prisoners until this coming faith should be revealed.
24 And so the Law was in charge of us until Christ came, in order that we might then be put right with God through faith.
25 Now that the time for faith is here, the Law is no longer in charge of us.
26 It is through faith that all of you are God’s children in union with Christ Jesus.
27 You were baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ himself.
28 So there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free people, between men and women; you are all one in union with Christ Jesus.
29 If you belong to Christ, then you are the descendants of Abraham and will receive what God has promised.
26 Jesus and his disciples sailed on over to the territory of Gerasa, which is across the lake from Galilee.
27 As Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a man from the town who had demons in him. For a long time this man had gone without clothes and would not stay at home, but spent his time in the burial caves.
28 When he saw Jesus, he gave a loud cry, threw himself down at his feet, and shouted, “Jesus, Son of the Most High God! What do you want with me? I beg you, don’t punish me!”
29 He said this because Jesus had ordered the evil spirit to go out of him. Many times it had seized him, and even though he was kept a prisoner, his hands and feet fastened with chains, he would break the chains and be driven by the demon out into the desert.
30 Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “My name is ‘Mob’, “ he answered—because many demons had gone into him.
31 The demons begged Jesus not to send them into the abyss.
32 There was a large herd of pigs near by, feeding on a hillside. So the demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he let them.
33 They went out of the man and into the pigs. The whole herd rushed down the side of the cliff into the lake and was drowned.
34 The men who had been taking care of the pigs saw what happened, so they ran off and spread the news in the town and among the farms.
35 People went out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they were all afraid.
36 Those who had seen it told the people how the man had been cured.
37 Then all the people from that territory asked Jesus to go away, because they were terribly afraid. So Jesus got into the boat and left.
38 The man from whom the demons had gone out begged Jesus, “Let me go with you.” But Jesus sent him away, saying,
39 “Go back home and tell what God has done for you.” The man went through the town, telling what Jesus had done for him.
2019-06-30
2019-06-30
1 The time came for the Lord to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elijah and Elisha set out from Gilgal,
2 and on the way Elijah said to Elisha, “Now stay here; the Lord has ordered me to go to Bethel.” But Elisha answered, “I swear by my loyalty to the living Lord and to you that I will not leave you.” So they went on to Bethel.
6 Then Elijah said to Elisha, “Now stay here; the Lord has ordered me to go to the River Jordan.” But Elisha answered, “I swear by my loyalty to the living Lord and to you that I will not leave you.” So they went on,
7 and 50 of the prophets followed them to the Jordan. Elijah and Elisha stopped by the river, and the 50 prophets stood a short distance away.
8 Then Elijah took off his cloak, rolled it up, and struck the water with it; the water divided, and he and Elisha crossed to the other side on dry ground.
9 There, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me what you want me to do for you before I am taken away.” “Let me receive the share of your power that will make me your successor,” Elisha answered.
10 “That is a difficult request to grant,” Elijah replied. “But you will receive it if you see me as I am being taken away from you; if you don’t see me, you won’t receive it.”
11 They kept talking as they walked on; then suddenly a chariot of fire pulled by horses of fire came between them, and Elijah was taken up to heaven by a whirlwind.
12 Elisha saw it and cried out to Elijah, “My father, my father! Mighty defender of Israel! You are gone!” And he never saw Elijah again. In grief, Elisha tore his cloak in two.
13 Then he picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.
14 He struck the water with Elijah’s cloak, and said, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” Then he struck the water again, and it divided, and he walked over to the other side.
1 I cry aloud to God; I cry aloud, and he hears me.
2 In times of trouble I pray to the Lord; all night long I lift my hands in prayer, but I cannot find comfort.
11 I will remember your great deeds, Lord; I will recall the wonders you did in the past.
12 I will think about all that you have done; I will meditate on all your mighty acts.
13 Everything you do, O God, is holy. No god is as great as you.
14 You are the God who works miracles; you showed your might among the nations.
15 By your power you saved your people, the descendants of Jacob and of Joseph.
16 When the waters saw you, O God, they were afraid, and the depths of the sea trembled.
17 The clouds poured down rain; thunder crashed from the sky, and lightning flashed in all directions.
18 The crash of your thunder rolled out, and flashes of lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook.
19 You walked through the waves; you crossed the deep sea, but your footprints could not be seen.
20 You led your people like a shepherd, with Moses and Aaron in charge.
15 The Lord said, “Return to the wilderness near Damascus, then enter the city and anoint Hazael as king of Syria;
16 anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king of Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet.
19 Elijah left and found Elisha ploughing with a team of oxen; there were eleven teams ahead of him, and he was ploughing with the last one. Elijah took off his cloak and put it on Elisha.
20 Elisha then left his oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, and then I will go with you.” Elijah answered, “All right, go back. I’m not stopping you!”
21 Then Elisha went to his team of oxen, killed them, and cooked the meat, using the yoke as fuel for the fire. He gave the meat to the people, and they ate it. Then he went and followed Elijah as his helper.
1 Protect me, O God; I trust in you for safety.
2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; all the good things I have come from you.”
3 How excellent are the Lord’s faithful people! My greatest pleasure is to be with them.
4 Those who rush to other gods bring many troubles on themselves. I will not take part in their sacrifices; I will not worship their gods.
5 You, Lord, are all I have, and you give me all I need; my future is in your hands.
6 How wonderful are your gifts to me; how good they are!
7 I praise the Lord, because he guides me, and in the night my conscience warns me.
8 I am always aware of the Lord’s presence; he is near, and nothing can shake me.
9 And so I am thankful and glad, and I feel completely secure,
10 because you protect me from the power of death. I have served you faithfully, and you will not abandon me to the world of the dead.
11 You will show me the path that leads to life; your presence fills me with joy and brings me pleasure for ever.
1 Freedom is what we have—Christ has set us free! Stand, then, as free people, and do not allow yourselves to become slaves again.
13 As for you, my brothers and sisters, you were called to be free. But do not let this freedom become an excuse for letting your physical desires control you. Instead, let love make you serve one another.
14 For the whole Law is summed up in one commandment: “Love your neighbour as you love yourself.”
15 But if you act like wild animals, hurting and harming each other, then watch out, or you will completely destroy one another.
16 What I say is this: let the Spirit direct your lives, and you will not satisfy the desires of the human nature.
17 For what our human nature wants is opposed to what the Spirit wants, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to what our human nature wants. These two are enemies, and this means that you cannot do what you want to do.
18 If the Spirit leads you, then you are not subject to the Law.
19 What human nature does is quite plain. It shows itself in immoral, filthy, and indecent actions;
20 in worship of idols and witchcraft. People become enemies and they fight; they become jealous, angry, and ambitious. They separate into parties and groups;
21 they are envious, get drunk, have orgies, and do other things like these. I warn you now as I have before: those who do these things will not possess the Kingdom of God.
22 But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 humility, and self-control. There is no law against such things as these.
24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have put to death their human nature with all its passions and desires.
25 The Spirit has given us life; he must also control our lives.
51 As the time drew near when Jesus would be taken up to heaven, he made up his mind and set out on his way to Jerusalem.
52 He sent messengers ahead of him, who went into a village in Samaria to get everything ready for him.
53 But the people there would not receive him, because it was clear that he was on his way to Jerusalem.
54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”
55 Jesus turned and rebuked them.
56 Then Jesus and his disciples went on to another village.
57 As they went on their way, a man said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
58 Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lie down and rest.”
59 He said to another man, “Follow me.” But that man said, “Sir, first let me go back and bury my father.”
60 Jesus answered, “Let the dead bury their own dead. You go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.”
61 Someone else said, “I will follow you, sir; but first let me go and say goodbye to my family.”
62 Jesus said to him, “Anyone who starts to plough and then keeps looking back is of no use to the Kingdom of God.”