Apostles of Christ

1 Corinthians 4 You should think of us as Christ's servants, who have been put in charge of God's secret truths. ²The one thing required of such servants is that they be faithful to their master. ³Now, I am not at all concerned about being judged by you or by any human standard; I don't even pass judgment on myself. ⁴My conscience is clear, but that does not prove that I am really innocent. The Lord is the one who passes judgment on me. ⁵So you should not pass judgment on anyone before the right time comes. Final judgment must wait until the Lord comes; he will bring to light the dark secrets and expose the hidden purposes of people's minds. And then all will receive from God the praise they deserve.
⁶For your sake, my friends, I have applied all this to Apollos and me, using the two of us as an example, so that you may learn what the saying means, "Observe the proper rules." None of you should be proud of one person and despise another. ⁷Who made you superior to others? Didn't God give you everything you have? Well, then, how can you boast, as if what you have were not a gift?
⁸Do you already have everything you need? Are you already rich? Have you become kings, even though we are not? Well, I wish you really were kings, so that we could be kings together with you. ⁹For it seems to me that God has given the very last place to us apostles, like people condemned to die in public as a spectacle for the whole world of angels and of human beings. ¹⁰For Christ's sake we are fools; but you are wise in union with Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! We are despised, but you are honored! ¹¹To this very moment we go hungry and thirsty; we are clothed in rags; we are beaten; we wander from place to place; ¹²we wear ourselves out with hard work. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; ¹³when we are insulted, we answer back with kind words. We are no more than this world's garbage; we are the scum of the earth to this very moment!
¹⁴I write this to you, not because I want to make you feel ashamed, but to instruct you as my own dear children. ¹⁵For even if you have ten thousand guardians in your Christian life, you have only one father. For in your life in union with Christ Jesus I have become your father by bringing the Good News to you. ¹⁶I beg you, then, to follow my example. ¹⁷For this purpose I am sending to you Timothy, who is my own dear and faithful son in the Christian life. He will remind you of the principles which I follow in the new life in union with Christ Jesus and which I teach in all the churches everywhere.
¹⁸Some of you have become proud because you have thought that I would not be coming to visit you. ¹⁹If the Lord is willing, however, I will come to you soon, and then I will find out for myself the power which these proud people have, and not just what they say. ²⁰For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of words but of power. ²¹Which do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip, or in a spirit of love and gentleness?

Elijah and the Drought

1 Kings 17 A prophet named Elijah, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to King Ahab, "In the name of the LORD, the living God of Israel, whom I serve, I tell you that there will be no dew or rain for the next two or three years until I say so."
²Then the LORD said to Elijah, ³"Leave this place and go east and hide yourself near Cherith Brook, east of the Jordan. ⁴The brook will supply you with water to drink, and I have commanded ravens to bring you food there."
⁵Elijah obeyed the LORD's command, and went and stayed by Cherith Brook. ⁶He drank water from the brook, and ravens brought him bread and meat every morning and every evening. ⁷After a while the brook dried up because of the lack of rain.

Elijah and the Widow in Zarephath

⁸Then the LORD said to Elijah, ⁹"Now go to the town of Zarephath, near Sidon, and stay there. I have commanded a widow who lives there to feed you." ¹⁰So Elijah went to Zarephath, and as he came to the town gate, he saw a widow gathering firewood. "Please bring me a drink of water," he said to her. ¹¹And as she was going to get it, he called out, "And please bring me some bread, too."
¹²She answered, "By the living LORD your God I swear that I don't have any bread. All I have is a handful of flour in a bowl and a bit of olive oil in a jar. I came here to gather some firewood to take back home and prepare what little I have for my son and me. That will be our last meal, and then we will starve to death."
¹³"Don't worry," Elijah said to her. "Go on and prepare your meal. But first make a small loaf from what you have and bring it to me, and then prepare the rest for you and your son. ¹⁴For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'The bowl will not run out of flour or the jar run out of oil before the day that I, the LORD, send rain.'"
¹⁵The widow went and did as Elijah had told her, and all of them had enough food for many days. ¹⁶As the LORD had promised through Elijah, the bowl did not run out of flour nor did the jar run out of oil.
¹⁷Some time later the widow's son got sick; he got worse and worse, and finally he died. ¹⁸She said to Elijah, "Man of God, why did you do this to me? Did you come here to remind God of my sins and so cause my son's death?"
¹⁹"Give the boy to me," Elijah said. He took the boy from her arms, carried him upstairs to the room where he was staying, and laid him on the bed. ²⁰Then he prayed aloud, "O LORD my God, why have you done such a terrible thing to this widow? She has been kind enough to take care of me, and now you kill her son!" ²¹Then Elijah stretched himself out on the boy three times and prayed, "O LORD my God, restore this child to life!" ²²The LORD answered Elijah's prayer; the child started breathing again and revived.
²³Elijah took the boy back downstairs to his mother and said to her, "Look, your son is alive!"
²⁴She answered, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the LORD really speaks through you!"

The Book of
AMOS

Amos1 These are the words of Amos, a shepherd from the town of Tekoa. Two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel, God revealed to Amos all these things about Israel.
²Amos said,

"The LORD roars from Mount Zion;
his voice thunders from Jerusalem.
The pastures dry up,
and the grass on Mount Carmel turns brown."

God's Judgment on Israel's Neighbors
Syria

³The LORD says, "The people of Damascus have sinned again and again, and for this I will certainly punish them. They treated the people of Gilead with savage cruelty. ⁴So I will send fire upon the palace built by King Hazael and I will burn down the fortresses of King Benhadad. ⁵I will smash the city gates of Damascus and remove the inhabitants of Aven Valley and the ruler of Betheden. The people of Syria will be taken away as prisoners to the land of Kir."

Philistia

⁶The LORD says, "The people of Gaza have sinned again and again, and for this I will certainly punish them. They carried off a whole nation and sold them as slaves to the people of Edom. ⁷So I will send fire upon the city walls of Gaza and burn down its fortresses. ⁸I will remove the rulers of the cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon. I will punish the city of Ekron, and all the Philistines who are left will die."

Tyre

⁹The LORD says, "The people of Tyre have sinned again and again, and for this I will certainly punish them. They carried off a whole nation into exile in the land of Edom, and did not keep the treaty of friendship they had made. ¹⁰So I will send fire upon the city walls of Tyre and burn down its fortresses."

Edom

¹¹The LORD says, "The people of Edom have sinned again and again, and for this I will certainly punish them. They hunted down their relatives, the Israelites, and showed them no mercy. Their anger had no limits, and they never let it die. ¹²So I will send fire upon the city of Teman and burn down the fortresses of Bozrah."

Ammon

¹³The LORD says, "The people of Ammon have sinned again and again, and for this I will certainly punish them. In their wars for more territory they even ripped open pregnant women in Gilead. ¹⁴So I will send fire upon the city walls of Rabbah and burn down its fortresses. Then there will be shouts on the day of battle, and the fighting will rage like a storm. ¹⁵Their king and his officers will go into exile."