Amos 4:6–13

4:6 “But surely I gave you no food to eat in all your cities;

you lacked food everywhere you lived.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking.

7“I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest.

I gave rain to one city, but not to another.

One field would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.

8People from two or three cities staggered into one city to get water,

but remained thirsty.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking.

9“I destroyed your crops with blight and disease.

Locusts kept devouring your orchards, vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking.

10“I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues.

I killed your young men with the sword,

along with the horses you had captured.

I made the stench from the corpses rise up into your nostrils.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking.

11“I overthrew some of you the way God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

You were like a burning stick snatched from the flames.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking.

12“Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel.

Because I will do this to you,

prepare to meet your God, Israel!”

13For here he is!

He formed the mountains and created the wind.

He reveals his plans to men.

He turns the dawn into darkness

and marches on the heights of the earth.

The Lord God of Heaven’s Armies is his name!

Ps. 92

92:1 A psalm; a song for the Sabbath day.

It is fitting to thank the Lord,

and to sing praises to your name, O Most High.

2It is fitting to proclaim your loyal love in the morning

and your faithfulness during the night,

3to the accompaniment of a ten-stringed instrument and a lyre,

to the accompaniment of the meditative tone of the harp.

4For you, O Lord, have made me happy by your work.

I will sing for joy because of what you have done.

5How great are your works, O Lord!

Your plans are very intricate!

6The spiritually insensitive do not recognize this;

the fool does not understand this.

7When the wicked sprout up like grass,

and all the evildoers glisten,

it is so that they may be annihilated.

8But you, O Lord, reign forever.

9Indeed, look at your enemies, O Lord.

Indeed, look at how your enemies perish.

All the evildoers are scattered.

10You exalt my horn like that of a wild ox.

I am covered with fresh oil.

11I gloat in triumph over those who tried to ambush me;

I hear the defeated cries of the evil foes who attacked me.

12The godly grow like a palm tree;

they grow high like a cedar in Lebanon.

13Planted in the Lord’s house,

they grow in the courts of our God.

14They bear fruit even when they are old;

they are filled with vitality and have many leaves.

15So they proclaim that the Lord, my Protector,

is just and never unfair.

Mark 1:35–2:12

1:35 Then Jesus got up early in the morning when it was still very dark, departed, and went out to a deserted place, and there he spent time in prayer. 36Simon and his companions searched for him. 37When they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you.” 38He replied, “Let us go elsewhere, into the surrounding villages, so that I can preach there too. For that is what I came out here to do.” 39So he went into all of Galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

40Now a leper came to him and fell to his knees, asking for help. “If you are willing, you can make me clean,” he said. 41Moved with indignation, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be clean!” 42The leprosy left him at once, and he was clean. 43Immediately Jesus sent the man away with a very strong warning. 44He told him, “See that you do not say anything to anyone, but go, show yourself to a priest, and bring the offering that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45But as the man went out he began to announce it publicly and spread the story widely, so that Jesus was no longer able to enter any town openly but stayed outside in remote places. Still they kept coming to him from everywhere.

2:1 Now after some days, when he returned to Capernaum, the news spread that he was at home. 2So many gathered that there was no longer any room, not even by the door, and he preached the word to them. 3Some people came bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4When they were not able to bring him in because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Jesus. Then, after tearing it out, they lowered the stretcher the paralytic was lying on. 5When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 6Now some of the experts in the law were sitting there, turning these things over in their minds: 7“Why does this man speak this way? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8Now immediately, when Jesus realized in his spirit that they were contemplating such thoughts, he said to them, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts? 9Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up, take your stretcher, and walk’? 10But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”—he said to the paralytic— 11“I tell you, stand up, take your stretcher, and go home.” 12And immediately the man stood up, took his stretcher, and went out in front of them all. They were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”