Sunday, April 25

1Now Jacob called his sons and said, 'Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days:

2And listen to Israel your father.

3'Reuben, you are my firstborn, My might and the beginning of my children; You are hard to bear; You are hardened in your self-will.

4Unstable as water in your insolence, You went up to your father's bed; Then you defiled it.

5'Simeon and Levi are brothers; They accomplished their injustice from their free choice.

6Let not my soul enter their council; Let not my honor be united to their assembly; For in their anger they slew a man, And in their self-will they hamstrung an ox.

7Cursed be their anger, for it was self-willed; And their wrath, for it was hardened. I will divide them in Jacob, And scatter them in Israel.

8'Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise; Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; Your father's sons shall bow down before you.

9Judah is a lion's cub; From being a shoot, my son, you have grown up. He bows down, and slept as a lion and a cub; And who shall rouse him?

10The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from his loins, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the expectation of the nations.

11Binding his colt to a vine, And his donkey's colt to its branch, He will wash his garments in wine, And his clothes in the blood of grapes.

12His eyes are gladdened from the wine, And his teeth are whiter than milk.

14Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Cry aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Be glad and rejoice with your whole heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!

15The Lord has taken away your iniquities and ransomed you from your enemies. The Lord, the King of Israel, is in your midst; you will no longer see any evil.

16At that time the Lord shall say to Jerusalem, 'O Zion, be of good courage; do not let your hands grow slack.

17The Lord your God is with you. The Mighty One shall save you. He shall bring gladness upon you and will renew you with His love. He will delight over you with joy as in a day of feasting.

18I shall gather together your broken ones. Alas! who has taken up a reproach against her?

19'Behold, at that time I will act among you for your sake,' says the Lord. 'I will save the oppressed and welcome those being rejected. I will make them a praise and renowned throughout the whole earth.

9'Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Proclaim it aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you; He is righteous and saving; He is gentle and mounted upon a donkey, even a young foal.

10He will utterly destroy the chariots out of Ephraim and the horse out of Jerusalem. The bow of war shall be utterly destroyed, and there shall be abundance and peace among the nations. He shall rule over the waters as far as the sea and over the rivers to the ends of the earth.

11'And by the blood of your covenant, you freed your prisoners from the pit having no water.

12You prisoners from the congregation, you shall live in the fortress, and for one day of your exile, I will repay to you double.

13For I have bent you, O Judah, for Myself as a bow; I have filled Ephraim. And I will arouse your sons, O Zion, against the sons of the Greeks, and I will handle you as the sword of a warrior.'

14And the Lord will be over them, and He shall go forth like a lightning bolt. The Lord Almighty shall sound with the trumpet and shall go forth with the tumult of His threat.

15The Lord Almighty will shield them, and they shall devour their enemy and overwhelm them with sling-stones. They will drink them down as wine, and they shall fill the bowls as at the altar.

1James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings.

2My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,

3knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

4But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

5If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

6But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

7For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

9Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation,

10but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away.

11For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.

12Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

13Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.

14But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

15Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

16Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.

17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

18Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.

19So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;

20for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

21Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

22But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;

24for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

25But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

26If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless.

27Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

1My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.

2For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes,

3and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, 'You sit here in a good place,' and say to the poor man, 'You stand there,' or, 'Sit here at my footstool,'

4have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

5Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?

6But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?

7Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?

8If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you do well;

9but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

10For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.

11For He who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not murder.' Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

12So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.

13For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

1Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,

2saying to them, 'Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me.

3And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and immediately he will send them.'

4All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:

5'Tell the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.' '

6So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.

7They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them.

8And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

9Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: 'Hosanna to the Son of David!

10'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!' Hosanna in the highest!' And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, 'Who is this?'

11So the multitudes said, 'This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.'

12Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.

13And He said to them, 'It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.' '

14Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.

15But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, 'Hosanna to the Son of David!' they were indignant

16and said to Him, 'Do You hear what these are saying?' And Jesus said to them, 'Yes. Have you never read, 'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise'?'

17Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.

4Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!

5Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.

6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

7and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

8Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

9The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

6Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,

7casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

8Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

9Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

10But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.

11To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

12By Silvanus, our faithful brother as I consider him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand.

13She who is in Babylon, elect together with you, greets you; and so does Mark my son.

14Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.

1Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead.

2There they made Him a supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him.

3Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.

4But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, who would betray Him, said,

5'Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?'

6This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it.

7But Jesus said, 'Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial.

8For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always.'

9Now a great many of the Jews knew that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.

10But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also,

11because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus.

12The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: 'Hosanna!

13'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!' The King of Israel!'

14Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written:

15'Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, Sitting on a donkey's colt.'

16His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him.

17Therefore the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead, bore witness.

18For this reason the people also met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign.

7And He called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits.

8He commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bag, no bread, no copper in their money belts—

9but to wear sandals, and not to put on two tunics.

10Also He said to them, 'In whatever place you enter a house, stay there till you depart from that place.

11And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!'

12So they went out and preached that people should repent.

13And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them.