With God, is all the fam’ly that I need
for he is Father to each human one,
but always more than one he’ll try to feed
so there’s a chance to end what he’s begun.
And he would set himself the hardest task
to work with not just rocks, but liquids too,
and winds and fire, and plants that gladly bask
in sunlight, & all animals that do
all kinds of things, but then hardest of all
he’s set himself to work and walk with those
small baby gods that love to walk so tall,
and often are quite willful & dispose
of things under their care, as though they know
all things, but then our history does show
a sorry tale for everywhere we go
instead of careful use, we have abuse.
With God, he says the loneliness of “one”
who is alone, is not so very good.
So then he made another, so more fun
could be enjoyed, & also that we could
participate with him in raising up,
some images or icons of himself
on purpose to bring meaning, praising up
all goodness we can see, that is our wealth.
In order to fulfill our purpose here
we need to meet with God, to learn to be
a ruler, judge, and god. It would appear
we also need to meet with folk we see.
[26] What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.
[1] Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! [2] As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! [3] For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. [4] Since ancient times no-one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. [5] You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? [6] All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. [7] No-one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins. [8] Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. [9] Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord; do not remember our sins for ever. Oh, look upon us we pray, for we are all your people. [10] Your sacred cities have become a wasteland; even Zion is a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation. [11] Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins. [12] After all this, Lord, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?
[25] I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. [26] And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; [27] I myself will see him with my own eyes – I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!
[10] And he became more and more powerful, because the Lord God Almighty was with him.
[6] For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. [7] I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. [8] Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
[1] ‘I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,’ says the Lord Almighty. [2] But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. [3] He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, [4] and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years. [5] ‘So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud labourers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,’ says the Lord Almighty. [6] ‘I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. [7] Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘But you ask, “How are we to return?” [8] ‘Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. ‘But you ask, “How are we robbing you?” ‘In tithes and offerings. [9] You are under a curse – your whole nation – because you are robbing me. [10] Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. [11] I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,’ says the Lord Almighty. [12] ‘Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,’ says the Lord Almighty.
[16] Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honoured his name. [17] ‘On the day when I act,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. [18] And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.
[26] But Elisha said to him, ‘Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money or to accept clothes – or olive groves and vineyards, or flocks and herds, or male and female slaves? [27] Naaman’s leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants for ever.’ Then Gehazi went from Elisha’s presence and his skin was leprous – it had become as white as snow.
[14] This is what the Lord says – your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: ‘For your sake I will send to Babylon and bring down as fugitives all the Babylonians, in the ships in which they took pride. [15] I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King.’ [16] This is what the Lord says – he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, [17] who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: [18] ‘Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. [19] See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. [20] The wild animals honour me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, [21] the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise. [22] ‘Yet you have not called on me, Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, Israel. [23] You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings, nor honoured me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with grain offerings nor wearied you with demands for incense. [24] You have not bought any fragrant calamus for me, or lavished on me the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your offences. [25] ‘I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. [26] Review the past for me, let us argue the matter together; state the case for your innocence. [27] Your first father sinned; those I sent to teach you rebelled against me. [28] So I disgraced the dignitaries of your temple; I consigned Jacob to destruction and Israel to scorn.
[18] The word of the Lord Almighty came to me. [19] This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah. Therefore love truth and peace.’ [20] This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Many peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come, [21] and the inhabitants of one city will go to another and say, “Let us go at once to entreat the Lord and seek the Lord Almighty. I myself am going.” [22] And many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord Almighty and to entreat him.’ [23] This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In those days ten people from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, “Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.” ’
[1] I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. [2] Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live. [3] The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came over me; I was overcome by distress and sorrow. [4] Then I called on the name of the Lord: ‘Lord, save me!’ [5] The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion. [6] The Lord protects the unwary; when I was brought low, he saved me. [7] Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you. [8] For you, Lord, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, [9] that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living. [10] I trusted in the Lord when I said, ‘I am greatly afflicted’; [11] in my alarm I said, ‘Everyone is a liar.’ [12] What shall I return to the Lord for all his goodness to me? [13] I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. [14] I will fulfil my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. [15] Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants. [16] Truly I am your servant, Lord; I serve you just as my mother did; you have freed me from my chains. [17] I will sacrifice a thank-offering to you and call on the name of the Lord. [18] I will fulfil my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, [19] in the courts of the house of the Lord – in your midst, Jerusalem. Praise the Lord.
[1] Listen to what the Lord says: ‘Stand up, plead my case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say. [2] ‘Hear, you mountains, the Lord’s accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the Lord has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel. [3] ‘My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me. [4] I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam. [5] My people, remember what Balak king of Moab plotted and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.’ [6] With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? [7] Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? [8] He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. [9] Listen! The Lord is calling to the city – and to fear your name is wisdom – ‘Heed the rod and the One who appointed it. [10] Am I still to forget your ill-gotten treasures, you wicked house, and the short ephah, which is accursed? [11] Shall I acquit someone with dishonest scales, with a bag of false weights? [12] Your rich people are violent; your inhabitants are liars and their tongues speak deceitfully. [13] Therefore, I have begun to destroy you, to ruin you because of your sins. [14] You will eat but not be satisfied; your stomach will still be empty. You will store up but save nothing, because what you save I will give to the sword. [15] You will plant but not harvest; you will press olives but not use the oil, you will crush grapes but not drink the wine. [16] You have observed the statutes of Omri and all the practices of Ahab’s house; you have followed their traditions. Therefore I will give you over to ruin and your people to derision; you will bear the scorn of the nations.’
[32] ‘He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court. [33] If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together, [34] someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more. [35] Then I would speak up without fear of him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot.
[1] Hear this word, people of Israel, the word the Lord has spoken against you – against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt: [2] ‘You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins.’ [3] Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so? [4] Does a lion roar in the thicket when it has no prey? Does it growl in its den when it has caught nothing? [5] Does a bird swoop down to a trap on the ground when no bait is there? Does a trap spring up from the ground if it has not caught anything? [6] When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it? [7] Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. [8] The lion has roared – who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord has spoken – who can but prophesy? [9] Proclaim to the fortresses of Ashdod and to the fortresses of Egypt: ‘Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria; see the great unrest within her and the oppression among her people.’ [10] ‘They do not know how to do right,’ declares the Lord, ‘who store up in their fortresses what they have plundered and looted.’
1 Corinthians 11:27-34 NIVUK
[27] So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. [28] Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. [29] For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. [30] That is why many among you are weak and ill, and a number of you have fallen asleep. [31] But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. [32] Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world. [33] So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. [34] Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment. And when I come I will give further instructions.
[1] As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. [2] My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? [3] My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’ [4] These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng. [5] Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God. [6] My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon – from Mount Mizar. [7] Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. [8] By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me – a prayer to the God of my life. [9] I say to God my Rock, ‘Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?’ [10] My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’ [11] Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God.
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