Thursday, 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.

16'Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

17But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues.

18You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.

19But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak;

20for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.

21'Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.

22And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.

24I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church,

25of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God,

26the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.

27To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

28Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

29To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.

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.

14And He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. So it was, when the demon had gone out, that the mute spoke; and the multitudes marveled.

15But some of them said, 'He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.'

16Others, testing Him, sought from Him a sign from heaven.

17But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them: 'Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls.

18If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Because you say I cast out demons by Beelzebub.

19And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.

20But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.

21When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace.

22But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.

23He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.

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.