Sunday, February 16, 2025

^28:16But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had sent them. ¹⁷When they saw him, they bowed down to him; but some doubted. ¹⁸Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

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^6:12“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are expedient. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be brought under the power of anything. ¹³“Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods,” but God will bring to nothing both it and them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴Now God raised up the Lord, and will also raise us up by his power. ¹⁵Don’t you know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! ¹⁶Or don’t you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, “The two”, he says, “will become one flesh.” ¹⁷But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. ¹⁸Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. ¹⁹Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, ²⁰for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

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^15:11He said, “A certain man had two sons. ¹²The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ So he divided his livelihood between them. ¹³Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living. ¹⁴When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶He wanted to fill his belly with the pods that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any. ¹⁷But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger! ¹⁸I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. ¹⁹I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’ ²⁰“He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him. ²¹The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ²²“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. ²³Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let’s eat and celebrate; ²⁴for this, my son, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.’ Then they began to celebrate. ²⁵“Now his elder son was in the field. As he came near to the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶He called one of the servants to him and asked what was going on. ²⁷He said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and healthy.’ ²⁸But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and begged him. ²⁹But he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. ³⁰But when this your son came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’ ³¹“He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. ³²But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’”

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