Lawsuits against Fellow Christians

1 Corinthians 6 If any of you have a dispute with another Christian, how dare you go before heathen judges instead of letting God's people settle the matter? ²Don't you know that God's people will judge the world? Well, then, if you are to judge the world, aren't you capable of judging small matters? ³Do you not know that we shall judge the angels? How much more, then, the things of this life! ⁴If such matters come up, are you going to take them to be settled by people who have no standing in the church? ⁵Shame on you! Surely there is at least one wise person in your fellowship who can settle a dispute between fellow Christians. ⁶Instead, one Christian goes to court against another and lets unbelievers judge the case!
⁷The very fact that you have legal disputes among yourselves shows that you have failed completely. Would it not be better for you to be wronged? Would it not be better for you to be robbed? ⁸Instead, you yourselves wrong one another and rob one another, even other believers! ⁹Surely you know that the wicked will not possess God's Kingdom. Do not fool yourselves; people who are immoral or who worship idols or are adulterers or homosexual perverts ¹⁰or who steal or are greedy or are drunkards or who slander others or are thieves--none of these will possess God's Kingdom. ¹¹Some of you were like that. But you have been purified from sin; you have been dedicated to God; you have been put right with God by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Use Your Bodies for God's Glory

¹²Someone will say, "I am allowed to do anything." Yes; but not everything is good for you. I could say that I am allowed to do anything, but I am not going to let anything make me its slave. ¹³Someone else will say, "Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food." Yes; but God will put an end to both. The body is not to be used for sexual immorality, but to serve the Lord; and the Lord provides for the body. ¹⁴God raised the Lord from death, and he will also raise us by his power.
¹⁵You know that your bodies are parts of the body of Christ. Shall I take a part of Christ's body and make it part of the body of a prostitute? Impossible! ¹⁶Or perhaps you don't know that the man who joins his body to a prostitute becomes physically one with her? The scripture says quite plainly, "The two will become one body." ¹⁷But he who joins himself to the Lord becomes spiritually one with him.
¹⁸Avoid immorality. Any other sin a man commits does not affect his body; but the man who is guilty of sexual immorality sins against his own body. ¹⁹Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and who was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourselves but to God; ²⁰he bought you for a price. So use your bodies for God's glory.

Elijah on Mount Sinai

1 Kings 19 King Ahab told his wife Jezebel everything that Elijah had done and how he had put all the prophets of Baal to death. ²She 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." ³Elijah was afraid and fled for his life; he took his servant and went to Beersheba in Judah.
Leaving the servant there, ⁴Elijah 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!"
⁵He lay down under the tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said, "Wake up and eat." ⁶He looked around and saw a loaf of bread and a jar of water near his head. He ate and drank, and lay down again. ⁷The LORD's angel returned and woke him up a second time, saying, "Get up and eat, or the trip will be too much for you." ⁸Elijah got up, ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to walk forty days to Sinai, the holy mountain. ⁹There he went into a cave to spend the night.
Suddenly the LORD spoke to him, "Elijah, what are you doing here?"
¹⁰He 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. ¹²After 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.
¹³When 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?"
¹⁴He 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."
¹⁵The LORD said, "Return to the wilderness near Damascus, then enter the city and anoint Hazael as king of Syria; ¹⁶anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king of Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. ¹⁷Anyone who escapes being put to death by Hazael will be killed by Jehu, and anyone who escapes Jehu will be killed by Elisha. ¹⁸Yet I will leave seven thousand people alive in Israel--all those who are loyal to me and have not bowed to Baal or kissed his idol."

The Call of Elisha

¹⁹Elijah left and found Elisha plowing with a team of oxen; there were eleven teams ahead of him, and he was plowing with the last one. Elijah took off his cloak and put it on Elisha. ²⁰Elisha then left his oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, "Let me kiss my father and mother good-bye, and then I will go with you."
Elijah answered, "All right, go back. I'm not stopping you!"
²¹Then 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.

The Prophet's Task

Amos 3 ³Do two people start traveling together without arranging to meet?
⁴Does a lion roar in the forest unless he has found a victim?
Does a young lion growl in his den unless he has caught something?
⁵Does a bird get caught in a trap if the trap has not been baited?
Does a trap spring unless something sets it off ?
⁶Does the war trumpet sound in a city without making the people afraid?
Does disaster strike a city unless the LORD sends it?
⁷The Sovereign LORD never does anything without revealing his plan to his servants, the prophets.
⁸When a lion roars, who can keep from being afraid?
When the Sovereign LORD speaks, who can keep from proclaiming his message?

The Doom of Samaria

⁹Announce to those who live in the palaces of Egypt and Ashdod: "Gather together in the hills around Samaria and see the great disorder and the crimes being committed there."
¹⁰The LORD says, "These people fill their mansions with things taken by crime and violence. They don't even know how to be honest. ¹¹And so an enemy will surround their land, destroy their defenses, and plunder their mansions."
¹²The LORD says, "As a shepherd recovers only two legs or an ear of a sheep that a lion has eaten, so only a few will survive of Samaria's people, who now recline on luxurious couches. ¹³Listen now, and warn the descendants of Jacob," says the Sovereign LORD Almighty. ¹⁴"On the day when I punish the people of Israel for their sins, I will destroy the altars of Bethel. The corners of every altar will be broken off and will fall to the ground. ¹⁵I will destroy winter houses and summer houses. The houses decorated with ivory will fall in ruins; every large house will be destroyed."
Amos 4 Listen to this, you women of Samaria, who grow fat like the well-fed cows of Bashan, who mistreat the weak, oppress the poor, and demand that your husbands keep you supplied with liquor! ²As the Sovereign LORD is holy, he has promised, "The days will come when they will drag you away with hooks; every one of you will be like a fish on a hook. ³You will be dragged to the nearest break in the wall and thrown out."