JEREMIAH 2:31-4:18
COLOSSIANS 1:1-17
PSALM 76:1-12
PROVERBS 24:21-22
JEREMIAH 2:31-4:18
" O my people, listen to the words of the LORD! Have I been like a desert to Israel? Have I been to them a land of darkness? Why then do my people say, ` At last we are free from God! We won't have anything to do with him anymore!' 32 Does a young woman forget her jewelry? Does a bride hide her wedding dress? No! Yet for years on end my people have forgotten me. 33 " How you plot and scheme to win your lovers. The most experienced prostitute could learn from you! 34 Your clothing is stained with the blood of the innocent and the poor. You killed them even though they didn't break into your houses! 35 And yet you say, ` I haven't done anything wrong. Surely he isn't angry with me!' Now I will punish you severely because you claim you have not sinned. 36 " First here, then there--you flit from one ally to another asking for help. But your new friends in Egypt will let you down, just as Assyria did before. 37 In despair, you will be led into exile with your hands on your heads, for the LORD has rejected the nations you trust. You will not succeed despite their help.3:1 " IF a man divorces a woman and she marries someone else, he is not to take her back again, for that would surely corrupt the land. But you have prostituted yourself with many lovers, says the LORD. Yet I am still calling you to come back to me. 2 " Look all around you. Is there anywhere in the entire land where you have not been defiled by your adulteries? You sit like a prostitute beside the road waiting for a client. You sit alone like a nomad in the desert. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and wickedness. 3 That is why even the spring rains have failed. For you are a prostitute and are completely unashamed. 4 Yet you say to me, ` Father, you have been my guide since the days of my youth. 5 Surely you won't be angry about such a little thing! Surely you can forget it!' So you talk, and keep right on doing all the evil you can." 6 During the reign of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, " Have you seen what fickle Israel does? Like a wife who commits adultery, Israel has worshiped other gods on every hill and under every green tree. 7 I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me. But she did not come back. And though her faithless sister Judah saw this, 8 she paid no attention. She saw that I had divorced faithless Israel and sent her away. But now Judah, too, has left me and given herself to prostitution. 9 Israel treated it all so lightly--she thought nothing of committing adultery by worshiping idols made of wood and stone. So now the land has been greatly defiled. 10 But in spite of all this, her faithless sister Judah has never sincerely returned to me. She has only pretended to be sorry," says the LORD. 11 Then the LORD said to me, " Even faithless Israel is less guilty than treacherous Judah! 12 Therefore, go and say these words to Israel, ` This is what the LORD says: O Israel, my faithless people, come home to me again, for I am merciful. I will not be angry with you forever. 13 Only acknowledge your guilt. Admit that you rebelled against the LORD your God and committed adultery against him by worshiping idols under every green tree. Confess that you refused to follow me. I, the LORD, have spoken!' " 14 " Return home, you wayward children," says the LORD, " for I am your husband. I will bring you again to the land of Israel--one from here and two from there, from wherever you are scattered. 15 And I will give you leaders after my own heart, who will guide you with knowledge and understanding. 16 " And when your land is once more filled with people," says the LORD, " you will no longer wish for ` the good old days' when you possessed the Ark of the LORD's covenant. Those days will not be missed or even thought about, and there will be no need to rebuild the Ark. 17 In that day Jerusalem will be known as The Throne of the LORD. All nations will come there to honor the LORD. They will no longer stubbornly follow their own evil desires. 18 In those days the people of Judah and Israel will return together from exile in the north. They will return to the land I gave their ancestors as an inheritance forever. 19 " I thought to myself, ` I would love to treat you as my own children!' I wanted nothing more than to give you this beautiful land--the finest inheritance in the world. I looked forward to your calling me ` Father,' and I thought you would never turn away from me again. 20 But you have betrayed me, you people of Israel! You have been like a faithless wife who leaves her husband," says the LORD. 21 Voices are heard high on the windswept mountains, the weeping and pleading of Israel's people. For they have forgotten the LORD their God and wandered far from his ways. 22 " My wayward children," says the LORD, " come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts." " Yes, we will come," the people reply, " for you are the LORD our God. 23 Our worship of idols and our religious orgies on the hills and mountains are completely false. Only in the LORD our God will Israel ever find salvation. 24 From childhood we have watched as everything our ancestors worked for--their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters--was squandered on a delusion. 25 Let us now lie down in shame and dishonor, for we and our ancestors have always sinned against the LORD our God. We have never obeyed him."4:1 " O ISRAEL, come back to me," says the LORD. " If you will throw away your detestable idols and go astray no more, 2 and if you will swear by my name alone, and begin to live good, honest lives and uphold justice, then you will be a blessing to the nations of the world, and all people will come and praise my name." 3 This is what the LORD says to the people of Judah and Jerusalem: " Plow up the hard ground of your hearts! Do not waste your good seed among thorns. 4 Cleanse your minds and hearts before the LORD, or my anger will burn like an unquenchable fire because of all your sins. 5 " Shout to Jerusalem and to all Judah! Tell them to sound the alarm throughout the land: ` Run for your lives! Flee to the fortified cities!' 6 Send a signal toward Jerusalem: ` Flee now! Do not delay!' For I am bringing terrible destruction upon you from the north." 7 A lion stalks from its den, a destroyer of nations. And it is headed for your land! Your towns will lie in ruins, empty of people. 8 So put on clothes of mourning and weep with broken hearts, for the fierce anger of the LORD is still upon us. 9 " In that day," says the LORD, " the king and the officials will tremble in fear. The priests and the prophets will be struck with horror." 10 Then I said, " O Sovereign LORD, the people have been deceived by what you said, for you promised peace for Jerusalem. Yet the sword is even now poised to strike them dead!" 11 The time is coming when the LORD will say to the people of Jerusalem, " A burning wind is blowing in from the desert. It is not a gentle breeze useful for winnowing grain. 12 It is a roaring blast sent by me! Now I will pronounce your destruction!" 13 Our enemy rushes down on us like a storm wind! His chariots are like whirlwinds; his horses are swifter than eagles. How terrible it will be! Our destruction is sure! 14 O Jerusalem, cleanse your hearts that you may be saved. How long will you harbor your evil thoughts? 15 From Dan and the hill country of Ephraim, your destruction has been announced.16 " Warn the surrounding nations and announce to Jerusalem: ` The enemy is coming from a distant land, raising a battle cry against the towns of Judah. 17 They surround Jerusalem like watchmen surrounding a field, for my people have rebelled against me,' " says the LORD. 18 " Your own actions have brought this upon you. This punishment is a bitter dose of your own medicine. It has pierced you to the heart!"
COLOSSIANS 1:1-17
This letter is from Paul, chosen by God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy. 2 It is written to God's holy people in the city of Colosse, who are faithful brothers and sisters* in Christ. May God our Father give you grace and peace. 3 We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 for we have heard that you trust in Christ Jesus and that you love all of God's people. 5 You do this because you are looking forward to the joys of heaven--as you have been ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News. 6 This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is changing lives everywhere, just as it changed yours that very first day you heard and understood the truth about God's great kindness to sinners. 7 Epaphras, our much loved co-worker, was the one who brought you the Good News. He is Christ's faithful servant, and he is helping us in your place. 8 He is the one who told us about the great love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you. 9 So we have continued praying for you ever since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you a complete understanding of what he wants to do in your lives, and we ask him to make you wise with spiritual wisdom. 10 Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and you will continually do good, kind things for others. All the while, you will learn to know God better and better. 11 We also pray that you will be strengthened with his glorious power so that you will have all the patience and endurance you need. May you be filled with joy, 12 always thanking the Father, who has enabled you to share the inheritance that belongs to God's holy people, who live in the light. 13 For he has rescued us from the one who rules in the kingdom of darkness, and he has brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son. 14 God has purchased our freedom with his blood and has forgiven all our sins.15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before God made anything at all and is supreme over all creation. 16 Christ is the one through whom God created everything in heaven and earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see--kings, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities. Everything has been created through him and for him. 17 He existed before everything else began, and he holds all creation together.
PSALM 76:1-12
For the choir director: A psalm of Asaph, to be accompanied by stringed instruments. A song.
1 God is well known in Judah;
his name is great in Israel.
2 Jerusalem is where he lives;
Mount Zion is his home.
3 There he breaks the arrows of the enemy,
the shields and swords and weapons of his foes.
Interlude4 You are glorious and more majestic
than the everlasting mountains.
5 The mightiest of our enemies have been plundered.
They lie before us in the sleep of death.
No warrior could lift a hand against us.
6 When you rebuked them, O God of Jacob,
their horses and chariots stood still.
7 No wonder you are greatly feared!
Who can stand before you when your anger explodes?
8 From heaven you sentenced your enemies;
the earth trembled and stood silent before you.
9 You stand up to judge those who do evil, O God,
and to rescue the oppressed of the earth.
Interlude10 Human opposition only enhances your glory,
for you use it as a sword of judgment.
11 Make vows to the LORD your God, and fulfill them.
Let everyone bring tribute to the Awesome One.
12 For he breaks the spirit of princes
and is feared by the kings of the earth.
PROVERBS 24:21-22
My child, fear the LORD and the king, and don't associate with rebels. For you will go down with them to sudden disaster. Who knows where the punishment from the LORD and the king will end?
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