Sunday, October 26

15Return from heaven, and look from Your holy and glorious dwelling-place. Where are Your zeal and Your strength; where is the multitude of Your mercy and Your compassion, so as to be patient with us?

16You are our Father, although Abraham did not know us, and Israel did not acknowledge us; but You, O Lord, are our Father. You delivered us, and from the beginning Your name was upon us.

17Why have you led us astray, O Lord, from Your path, and hardened our hearts so as not to fear You? Return for the sake of Your servants, for the sake of the tribes of Your inheritance,

18that we may inherit a small portion of Your holy mountain.

19For our adversaries trampled down Your sanctuary, and we have become as we were from the beginning, when You did not rule us, neither did we call upon Your name.

20If You open heaven, trembling shall take hold of the mountains before You, and they shall melt as wax melts before the fire.

1The fire shall burn up the adversaries, and the Lord's name shall be manifest among the adversaries; and the nations shall be troubled by Your presence.

2When You do glorious things, trembling shall take hold of the mountains because of You.

3From of old we have not heard, nor have our eyes seen any God but You, and Your works which You shall do for those who wait for Your mercy.

4For mercy shall meet with those who do righteousness, and they shall remember your ways. Behold, You were angry, for we sinned; therefore, we went astray.

5We all are become as unclean, and all our righteousness is like a filthy rag. We fall off like leaves because of our wrongdoings; thus the wind will carry us away.

6There is no one who calls upon Your name and who remembers to take hold of You; for You turned away Your face from us, and delivered us over because of our sins.

7And now, O Lord, You are our Father, and all we are clay, the work of Your hands.

8Do not be exceedingly angry with us, and do not remember our sins in an opportune time. And now look upon us, for we are all Your people.

9The city of Your holy place has become a desert. Zion is like a desert, and Jerusalem is for a curse.

2'I remember your compassion and youth and your love and maturity, so as to follow the Holy One of Israel,' says the Lord.

3'Israel, the beginning of His harvest, was holy to the Lord. All who devour him shall transgress, and evils will come upon them,' ' says the Lord.

4Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all families of the house of Israel.

5Thus says the Lord: 'What transgression have your fathers found in Me, so as to go far from Me, to follow after vain and worthless things?

6They did not say, 'Where is the Lord, who led us out of the land of Egypt, who guided us in the wilderness, in an unknown and untrodden land, a land that was waterless and barren, in which no one traversed and where no son of man dwelt?'

7I brought you into Carmel to eat its fruit and its good things, but you entered and defiled My land, and made My heritage an abomination.

8The priests did not say, 'Where is the Lord?' But those who handle the law did not trust Me, and the shepherds acted profanely toward Me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and walked after unprofitable things.

9'Therefore I will yet bring charges against you,' says the Lord, 'and I will bring charges against the sons of your sons.

10For pass by the islands of Chettim and see. Send to Kedar and consider diligently. See if such things happened,

11whether nations will change their gods; though they are not gods. But My people changed their glory to a glory from which they will not profit.

12Heaven was amazed at this and was exceedingly horror-struck,' says the Lord.

7But though a righteous man may die before his time, He shall be at rest.

8For old age is not honored for its length of existence, Nor measured by its number of years;

9But discernment is gray hair for mankind, And a spotless life is the maturity of old age.

10There was once a man pleasing to God and loved by Him, And while living among sinners he was taken up.

11He was caught up lest evil change his understanding Or deceit deceive his soul.

12For envy arising from lack of judgment obscures what is good, And a whirling of desire undermines an innocent heart.

13He was made perfect, For in a short time he fulfilled long years,

14For his soul was pleasing to the Lord; Therefore, He took him early from the midst of evil. Yet peoples saw this but did not understand, Nor take such a thing to heart,

15That the Lord's grace and mercy are with His elect And that He watches over His holy ones.

19Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, 'Peace be with you.'

20When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

21So Jesus said to them again, 'Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.'

22And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.

23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.'

24Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.

25The other disciples therefore said to him, 'We have seen the Lord.' So he said to them, 'Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.'

26And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, 'Peace to you!'

27Then He said to Thomas, 'Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.'

28And Thomas answered and said to Him, 'My Lord and my God!'

29Jesus said to him, 'Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'

30And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book;

31but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

11But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.

12For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

13For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.

14And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

15But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace,

16to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,

17nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

18Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.

19But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother.

6For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.'

7If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?

8But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

9Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?

10For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.

11Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

12Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees,

13and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

14Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:

15looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;

16lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.

17For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

18For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest,

19and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.

20(For they could not endure what was commanded: 'And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.'

21And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, 'I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.')

22But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,

23to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,

24to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

25See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven,

26whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, 'Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.'

27Now this, 'Yet once more,' indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

1You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

2And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

3You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

4No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.

5And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.

6The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops.

7Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.

8Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel,

9for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained.

10Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

19'There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.

20But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate,

21desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

22So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.

23And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

24'Then he cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.'

25But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented.

26And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.'

27'Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house,

28for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.'

29Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.'

30And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'

31But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.' '

23Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him.

24And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep.

25Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, 'Lord, save us! We are perishing!'

26But He said to them, 'Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?' Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.

27So the men marveled, saying, 'Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?'

17These things I command you, that you love one another.

18'If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.

19If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

20Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

21But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.

22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

23He who hates Me hates My Father also.

24If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.

25But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without cause.'

26'But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.

27And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

1These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble.

2They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.