Thursday, January 7, 2027

^19:1While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper country, came to Ephesus and found certain disciples. ²He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They said to him, “No, we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” ³He said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” ⁴Paul said, “John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe in the one who would come after him, that is, in Christ Jesus.” ⁵When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke with other languages and prophesied. ⁷They were about twelve men in all. ⁸He entered into the synagogue and spoke boldly for a period of three months, reasoning and persuading about the things concerning God’s Kingdom.

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^4:7Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you. ¹¹Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. ¹²Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another? ¹³Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” ¹⁴Yet you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. ¹⁵For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.” ¹⁶But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷To him therefore who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin. ^5:1Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you. ²Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. ³Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days. ⁴Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies. ⁵You have lived in luxury on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. ⁶You have condemned and you have murdered the righteous one. He doesn’t resist you. ⁷Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and late rain. ⁸You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. ⁹Don’t grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won’t be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door.

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^1:29The next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me.’ ³¹I didn’t know him, but for this reason I came baptizing in water, that he would be revealed to Israel.” ³²John testified, saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending like a dove out of heaven, and it remained on him. ³³I didn’t recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘On whomever you will see the Spirit descending and remaining on him is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴I have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

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^18:31He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all the things that are written through the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be completed. ³²For he will be delivered up to the Gentiles, will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit on. ³³They will scourge and kill him. On the third day, he will rise again.” ³⁴They understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they didn’t understand the things that were said.

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^1:18Now the birth of Jesus Christ was like this: After his mother, Mary, was engaged to Joseph, before they came together, she was found pregnant by the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, intended to put her away secretly. ²⁰But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to yourself Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. ²¹She shall give birth to a son. You shall name him Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.” ²²Now all this has happened that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, ²³“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall give birth to a son. They shall call his name Immanuel,” which is, being interpreted, “God with us.” ²⁴Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took his wife to himself; ²⁵and didn’t know her sexually until she had given birth to her firstborn son. He named him Jesus.

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^4:4But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, ⁵that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as children. ⁶And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” ⁷So you are no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

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^2:1Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, ²“Where is he who is born King of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east, and have come to worship him.” ³When King Herod heard it, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he asked them where the Christ would be born. ⁵They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is written through the prophet, ⁶‘You Bethlehem, land of Judah, are in no way least among the princes of Judah; for out of you shall come a governor who shall shepherd my people, Israel.’” ⁷Then Herod secretly called the wise men, and learned from them exactly what time the star appeared. ⁸He sent them to Bethlehem, and said, “Go and search diligently for the young child. When you have found him, bring me word, so that I also may come and worship him.” ⁹They, having heard the king, went their way; and behold, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them until it came and stood over where the young child was. ¹⁰When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. ¹¹They came into the house and saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Opening their treasures, they offered to him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹²Being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country another way.

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