Saturday, December 24, 2033

^3:8The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Good News beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you all the nations will be blessed.” ⁹So then, those who are of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham. ¹⁰For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.” ¹¹Now that no man is justified by the law before God is evident, for, “The righteous will live by faith.” ¹²The law is not of faith, but, “The man who does them will live by them.”

^13:18He said, “What is God’s Kingdom like? To what shall I compare it? ¹⁹It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and put in his own garden. It grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the sky live in its branches.” ²⁰Again he said, “To what shall I compare God’s Kingdom? ²¹It is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.” ²²He went on his way through cities and villages, teaching, and traveling on to Jerusalem.

²³One said to him, “Lord, are they few who are saved?” He said to them, ²⁴“Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in and will not be able. ²⁵When once the master of the house has risen up and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ then he will answer and tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ ²⁶Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’

²⁷He will say, ‘I tell you, I don’t know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.’ ²⁸There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in God’s Kingdom, and yourselves being thrown outside. ²⁹They will come from the east, west, north, and south, and will sit down in God’s Kingdom.

^1:1In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. ²But the earth was unsightly and unfurnished, and darkness was over the deep, and the Spirit of God moved over the water. ³And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. ⁴And God saw the light that it was good, and God divided between the light and the darkness. ⁵And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night, and there was evening and there was morning, the first day. ⁶And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it be a division between water and water, and it was so.

⁷And God made the firmament, and God divided between the water which was under the firmament and the water which was above the firmament. ⁸And God called the firmament Heaven, and God saw that it was good, and there was evening and there was morning, the second day. ⁹And God said, Let the water which is under the heaven be collected into one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so. And the water which was under the heaven was collected into its places, and the dry land appeared.

¹⁰And God called the dry land Earth, and the gatherings of the waters he called Seas, and God saw that it was good. ¹¹And God said, Let the earth bring forth the herb of grass bearing seed according to its kind and according to its likeness, and the fruit-tree bearing fruit whose seed is in it, according to its kind on the earth, and it was so. ¹²And the earth brought forth the herb of grass bearing seed according to its kind and according to its likeness, and the fruit tree bearing fruit whose seed is in it, according to its kind on the earth, and God saw that it was good. ¹³And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

^24:3And he took up his parable and said, Balaam son of Beor says, the man who sees truly says, ⁵How goodly are thy habitations, Jacob, and thy tents, Israel! ⁶as shady groves, and as gardens by a river, and as tents which God pitched, and as cedars by the waters. ⁷There shall come a man out of his seed, and he shall rule over many nations; and the kingdom of Gog shall be exalted, and his kingdom shall be increased. ⁸God led him out of Egypt; he has as it were the glory of a unicorn: he shall consume the nations of his enemies, and he shall drain their marrow, and with his darts he shall shoot through the enemy.

⁹He lay down, he rested as a lion, and as a young lion; who shall stir him up? they that bless thee are blessed, and they that curse thee are cursed. ¹⁷I will point to him, but not now; I bless him, but he draws not near: a star shall rise out of Jacob, a man shall spring out of Israel; and shall crush the princes of Moab, and shall spoil all the sons of Seth. ¹⁸And Edom shall be an inheritance, and Esau his enemy shall be an inheritance of Israel, and Israel wrought valiantly.

^4:6In that day, saith the Lord, I will gather her that is bruised, and will receive her that is cast out, and those whom I rejected. ⁷And I will make her that was bruised a remnant, and her that was rejected a mighty nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Sion from henceforth, even for ever. ^5:2Therefore shall he appoint them to wait till the time of her that travails: she shall bring forth, and then the remnant of their brethren shall return to the children of Israel.

³And the Lord shall stand, and see, and feed his flock with power, and they shall dwell in the glory of the name of the Lord their God: for now shall they be magnified to the ends of the earth. ⁴And she shall have peace when Assur shall come into your land, and when he shall come up upon your country; and there shall be raised up against him seven shepherds, and eight attacks of men.

^11:1And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a blossom shall come up from his root: ²and the Spirit of God shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and godliness shall fill him; ³the spirit of the fear of God. He shall not judge according to appearance, nor reprove according to report: ⁴but he shall judge the cause of the lowly, and shall reprove the lowly of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the word of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he destroy the ungodly one.

⁵And he shall have his loins girt with righteousness, and his sides clothed with truth. ⁶And the wolf shall feed with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the young calf and bull and lion shall feed together; and a little child shall lead them. ⁷And the ox and bear shall feed together; and their young shall be together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. ⁸And an infant shall put his hand on the holes of asps, and on the nest of young asps.

⁹And they shall not hurt, nor shall they at all be able to destroy any one on my holy mountain: for the whole world is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as much water covers the seas. ¹⁰And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall arise to rule over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust, and his rest shall be glorious.

^3:35This is our God, and there shall none other be accounted of in comparison of him. ³⁶He hath found out all the way of knowledge, and hath given it unto Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved. ³⁷Afterward did he shew himself upon earth, and conversed with men. ^4:1This is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that endureth for ever: all they that keep it shall come to life; but such as leave it shall die. ²Turn thee, O Jacob, and take hold of it: walk in the presence of the light thereof, that thou mayest be illuminated.

³Give not thine honour to another, nor the things that are profitable unto thee to a strange nation. ⁴O Israel, happy are we: for things that are pleasing to God are made known unto us.

^9:6His government shall be great, and of his peace there is no end: it shall be upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to support it with judgment and with righteousness, from henceforth and for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall perform this. ⁷The Lord has sent death upon Jacob, and it has come upon Israel.

^7:10And the Lord again spoke to Achaz, saying, ¹¹Ask for thyself a sign of the Lord thy God, in the depth or in the height. ¹²And Achaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. ¹³And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; is it a little thing for you to contend with men? and how do ye contend against the Lord? ¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel.

¹⁵Butter and honey shall he eat, before he knows either to prefer evil, or choose the good. ¹⁶For before the child shall know good or evil, he refuses evil, to choose the good; and the land shall be forsaken which thou art afraid of because of the two kings. ^8:1And the Lord said to me, Take to thyself a volume of a great new book, and write in it with a man's pen concerning the making a rapid plunder of spoils; for it is near at hand. ²And make me witnesses of faithful men, Urias, and Zacharias the son of Barachias.

³And I went in to the prophetess; and she conceived, and bore a son. And the Lord said to me, Call his name, Spoil quickly, plunder speedily. ⁴For before the child shall know how to call his father or his mother, one shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria before the king of the Assyrians. ⁹Know, ye Gentiles, and be conquered; hearken ye, even to the extremity of the earth: be conquered, after ye have strengthened yourselves; for even if ye should again strengthen yourselves, ye shall again be conquered. ¹⁰And whatsoever counsel ye shall take, the Lord shall bring it to nought; and whatsoever word ye shall speak, it shall not stand among you: for God is with us.

^3:15Brothers, speaking of human terms, though it is only a man’s covenant, yet when it has been confirmed, no one makes it void or adds to it. ¹⁶Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his offspring. He doesn’t say, “To descendants”, as of many, but as of one, “To your offspring”, which is Christ. ¹⁷Now I say this: A covenant confirmed beforehand by God in Christ, the law, which came four hundred thirty years after, does not annul, so as to make the promise of no effect. ¹⁸For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no more of promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by promise.

¹⁹Then why is there the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise has been made. It was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator. ²⁰Now a mediator is not between one, but God is one. ²¹Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could make alive, most certainly righteousness would have been of the law. ²²But the Scripture imprisoned all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

^2:1Now in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. ²This was the first enrollment made when Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³All went to enroll themselves, everyone to his own city. ⁴Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to David’s city, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, ⁵to enroll himself with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him as wife, being pregnant. ⁶While they were there, the day had come for her to give birth.

⁷She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a feeding trough, because there was no room for them in the inn. ⁸There were shepherds in the same country staying in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock. ⁹Behold, an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰The angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all the people.

¹¹For there is born to you today, in David’s city, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹²This is the sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a feeding trough.” ¹³Suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army praising God and saying, ¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men.” ¹⁵When the angels went away from them into the sky, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem, now, and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”

¹⁶They came with haste and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby was lying in the feeding trough. ¹⁷When they saw it, they publicized widely the saying which was spoken to them about this child. ¹⁸All who heard it wondered at the things which were spoken to them by the shepherds. ¹⁹But Mary kept all these sayings, pondering them in her heart. ²⁰The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, just as it was told them.

^1:16don’t cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, ¹⁷that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, ¹⁸having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might ²⁰which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,

²¹far above all rule, authority, power, dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. ²²He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly, ²³which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

^13:18He said, “What is God’s Kingdom like? To what shall I compare it? ¹⁹It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and put in his own garden. It grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the sky live in its branches.” ²⁰Again he said, “To what shall I compare God’s Kingdom? ²¹It is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.” ²²He went on his way through cities and villages, teaching, and traveling on to Jerusalem.

²³One said to him, “Lord, are they few who are saved?” He said to them, ²⁴“Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in and will not be able. ²⁵When once the master of the house has risen up and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ then he will answer and tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ ²⁶Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’

²⁷He will say, ‘I tell you, I don’t know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.’ ²⁸There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in God’s Kingdom, and yourselves being thrown outside. ²⁹They will come from the east, west, north, and south, and will sit down in God’s Kingdom.