Thursday, September 21

1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus:

2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

4just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,

5having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,

6to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

7In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace

8which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,

9having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,

16So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.

17And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

18'The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;

19To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.'

20Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.

21And He began to say to them, 'Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.'

22So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, 'Is this not Joseph's son?'