Saturday, July 26

1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

3For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

7But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.

8Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ

9and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;

10that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,

11if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

12Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

13Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,

14I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

37He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

38And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.

39He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

40'He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.

41He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.

42And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.'

11:1Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities.

29So Jesus answered and said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel's,

30who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.

31But many who are first will be last, and the last first.'

42But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, 'You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

43Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.

44And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all.

45For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.'

9I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

10The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

11'I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.

12But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.

13The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.

14I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.

15As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.

16And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.

15But the righteous live forever, And their reward is with the Lord; And their care is by the Most High.

16Therefore they shall receive a kingly dwelling of dignity And a crown of beauty from the hand of the Lord, Because He will shelter them with His right hand And protect them with His arm.

17He will take His zeal as His full armor And will turn His creation into weapons against His enemies.

18He will wear righteousness as a breastplate And put on impartial judgment as a helmet.

19He will take holiness as an unconquerable shield

20And sharpen His relentless wrath for a sword; And creation will fight with Him against the senseless.

21Well-aimed flashes of lightning will strike And leap to their object as from a well-drawn bow of clouds;

22And hailstones full of anger will be hurled As from an engine of war. The water of the sea will be vexed with them, And the rivers will wash over them severely.

23A powerful wind will oppose them, And like a storm it will winnow them away. Lawlessness will lay waste all the earth, And wrongdoing will overturn the thrones of rulers.

6:1Listen therefore, O kings, and understand; Learn, O judges of the ends of the earth.

2Give ear, you that rule over multitudes, And take pride in yourself over a multitude of nations.

3For power was given to you from the Lord, And your lordship from the Most High, Who will make a careful search of your works And examine closely your plans.

1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

2By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,

3and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

4You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

5They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.

6We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

20If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

21And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

5:1Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.

2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.

3For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

4For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

5Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?