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SPIRITUAL EYES
Ezekiel 36 English Standard Version (ESV)
Prophecy to the Mountains of Israel
And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, O mountains of
Israel, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD: Because the enemy said
of you, Aha! and, The ancientheights have become our possession, therefore
prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Precisely because they made you
desolate and crushed you from all sides, so that you became the possession of the
rest of the nations, and you became the talk and evil gossip of the people, therefore,
O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD: Thus says the Lord GOD to the
mountains and the hills, the ravines and the valleys, the desolate wastes and the
deserted cities, which have become a prey and derision to the rest of the nations all
around, therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Surely I have spoken in my hot jealousy
against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who gave my land to themselves
as a possession with wholehearted joy and utter contempt, that they might make its
pasturelands a prey. Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the
mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I
have spoken in my jealous wrath, because you have suffered the reproach of the
nations. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: I swear that the nations that are all
around you shall themselves suffer reproach.
But you, O mountains of Israel, shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to
my people Israel, for they will soon come home. For behold, I am for you, and I will
turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown. And I will multiply people on you, the
whole house of Israel, all of it. The cities shall be inhabited and the waste places
rebuilt. And I will multiply on you man and beast, and they shall multiply and be
fruitful. And I will cause you to be inhabited as in your former times, and will do more
good to you than ever before. Then you will know that I am the LORD. I will let people
walk on you, even my people Israel. And they shall possess you, and you shall be
their inheritance, and you shall no longer bereave them of children. Thus says the
Lord GOD: Because they say to you, You devour people, and you bereave your
nation of children, therefore you shall no longer devour people and no longer
bereave your nation of children, declares the Lord GOD. And I will not let you hear
anymore the reproach of the nations, and you shall no longer bear the disgrace of the
peoples and no longer cause your nation to stumble, declares the Lord GOD.
The LORD's Concern for His Holy Name
The word of the LORD came to me: Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in
their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds. Their ways before me
were like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity. So I poured out my
wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols with which
they had defiled it. I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed
through the countries. In accordance with their ways and their deeds I judged
them. But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my
holy name, in that people said of them, These are the people of the LORD, and yet
they had to go out of his land. But I had concernfor my holy name, which the house
of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came.
I Will Put My Spirit Within You
Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake,
O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you
have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the
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holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which
you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD,
declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I
will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into
your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your
uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new
heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from
your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause
you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land
that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I
will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it
abundant and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the
increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine
among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that
were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your
abominations. It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD; let that be
known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.
Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will
cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt. And the land
that was desolate shall be tilled, instead of being the desolation that it was in the
sight of all who passed by. And they will say, This land that was desolate has
become like the garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are
now fortified and inhabited. Then the nations that are left all around you shall know
that I am the LORD; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was
desolate. I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it.
Thus says the Lord GOD: This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for
them: to increase their people like a flock. Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at
Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of
people. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

Psalm 73 English Standard Version (ESV)
Book Three
God Is My Strength and Portion Forever
A Psalm of Asaph.
Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
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Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.
And they say, How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?
Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
If I had said, I will speak thus,
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.
Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.



1 John 2:15-17English Standard Version
(ESV)
Do Not Love the World
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of
the Father is not in him. For all that is in the worldthe desires of the flesh and the
desires of the eyes and pride of lifeis not from the Father but is from the
world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will
of God abides forever.

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Jeremiah 31 English Standard Version (ESV)
The LORD Will Turn Mourning to Joy
At that time, declares the LORD, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they
shall be my people.
Thus says the LORD:
The people who survived the sword
found grace in the wilderness;
when Israel sought for rest,
the LORD appeared to him from far away.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
Again I will build you, and you shall be built,
O virgin Israel!
Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines
and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
Again you shall plant vineyards
on the mountains of Samaria;
the planters shall plant
and shall enjoy the fruit.
For there shall be a day when watchmen will call
in the hill country of Ephraim:
Arise, and let us go up to Zion,
to the LORD our God.
For thus says the LORD:
Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob,
and raise shouts for the chief of the nations;
proclaim, give praise, and say,
O LORD, save your people,
the remnant of Israel.
Behold, I will bring them from the north country
and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,
among them the blind and the lame,
the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together;
a great company, they shall return here.
With weeping they shall come,
and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back,
I will make them walk by brooks of water,
in a straight path in which they shall not stumble,
for I am a father to Israel,
and Ephraim is my firstborn.
Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
and declare it in the coastlands far away;
say, He who scattered Israel will gather him,
and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.
For the LORD has ransomed Jacob
and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,
and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD,
over the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and over the young of the flock and the herd;
their life shall be like a watered garden,
and they shall languish no more.
Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,
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and the young men and the old shall be merry.
I will turn their mourning into joy;
I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance,
and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,
declares the LORD.
Thus says the LORD:
A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more.
Thus says the LORD:
Keep your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears,
for there is a reward for your work,
declares the LORD,
and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
There is hope for your future,
declares the LORD,
and your children shall come back to their own country.
I have heard Ephraim grieving,
You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined,
like an untrained calf;
bring me back that I may be restored,
for you are the LORD my God.
For after I had turned away, I relented,
and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh;
I was ashamed, and I was confounded,
because I bore the disgrace of my youth.
Is Ephraim my dear son?
Is he my darling child?
For as often as I speak against him,
I do remember him still.
Therefore my heart yearns for him;
I will surely have mercy on him,
declares the LORD.
Set up road markers for yourself;
make yourself guideposts;
consider well the highway,
the road by which you went.
Return, O virgin Israel,
return to these your cities.
How long will you waver,
O faithless daughter?
For the LORD has created a new thing on the earth:
a woman encircles a man.
Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Once more they shall use these
words in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I restore their fortunes:
The LORD bless you, O habitation of righteousness,
O holy hill!
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And Judah and all its cities shall dwell there together, and the farmers and those who
wander with their flocks. For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I
will replenish.
At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.
Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel
and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. And it shall
come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to
overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,
declares the LORD. In those days they shall no longer say:
The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children's teeth are set on edge.
But everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth
shall be set on edge.
The New Covenant
Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made
with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the
land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares
the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those
days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their
hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each
one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, Know the LORD, for they shall
all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will
forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Thus says the LORD,
who gives the sun for light by day
and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar
the LORD of hosts is his name:
If this fixed order departs
from before me, declares the LORD,
then shall the offspring of Israel cease
from being a nation before me forever.
Thus says the LORD:
If the heavens above can be measured,
and the foundations of the earth below can be explored,
then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel
for all that they have done,
declares the LORD.
Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when the city shall be rebuilt for
the LORD from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. And the measuring line shall
go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah. The whole valley
of the dead bodies and the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the
corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be sacred to the LORD. It shall not be
plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.

John 8:12English Standard Version (ESV)
I Am the Light of the World
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me
will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

John 8:23English Standard Version (ESV)
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He said to them, You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am
not of this world.

John 8:31-38English Standard Version
(ESV)
The Truth Will Set You Free
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, If you abide in my word, you are
truly my disciples,and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. They
answered him, We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to
anyone. How is it that you say, You will become free?
Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a
slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains
forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are
offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in
you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have
heard from your father.

Deuteronomy 28 English Standard Version (ESV)
Blessings for Obedience
And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his
commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high
above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you
and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God.Blessed shall you be in
the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb
and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and
the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading
bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go
out.
The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you.
They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven
ways. The LORD will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you
undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving
you. The LORD will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you,
if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. And all
the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and
they shall be afraid of you. And the LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the
fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground,
within the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. The LORD will open to
you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to
bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall
not borrow. And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only
go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I
command you today, being careful to do them, and if you do not turn aside from any
of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after
other gods to serve them.
Curses for Disobedience
But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his
commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses
shall come upon you and overtake you.Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed
shall you be in the field. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed
shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds
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and the young of your flock. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall
you be when you go out.
The LORD will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you
undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of
your deeds, because you have forsaken me.The LORD will make the pestilence stick
to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take
possession of it. The LORD will strike you with wasting disease and with fever,
inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought and with blight and with mildew. They
shall pursue you until you perish. And the heavens over your head shall be bronze,
and the earth under you shall be iron. The LORD will make the rain of your land
powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one
way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you shall be a horror to all
the kingdoms of the earth. And your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air
and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them
away. The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with tumors and scabs
and itch, of which you cannot be healed. The LORD will strike you with madness and
blindness and confusion of mind, and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind grope
in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. And you shall be only oppressed
and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you. You shall betroth a
wife, but another man shall ravish her. You shall build a house, but you shall not
dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit. Your ox shall be
slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it. Your donkey shall be
seized before your face, but shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given
to your enemies, but there shall be no one to help you. Your sons and your
daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with
longing for them all day long, but you shall be helpless. A nation that you have not
known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be
only oppressed and crushed continually, so that you are driven mad by the sights that
your eyes see. The LORD will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous
boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your
head.
The LORD will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither
you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and
stone. And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the
peoples where the LORD will lead you away. You shall carry much seed into the field
and shall gather in little, for the locust shall consume it. You shall plant vineyards and
dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the
worm shall eat them. You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but
you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off. You shall father
sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity. The
cricket shall possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground. The sojourner who is
among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower
and lower. He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head,
and you shall be the tail.
All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are
destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his
commandments and his statutes that he commanded you. They shall be a sign and a
wonder against you and your offspring forever. Because you did not serve
the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance
of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against
you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a
yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. The LORD will bring a nation
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against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a
nation whose language you do not understand, a hard-faced nation who shall not
respect the old or show mercy to the young. It shall eat the offspring of your cattle
and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; it also shall not leave you grain,
wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock, until they have
caused you to perish.
They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which
you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all
your towns throughout all your land, which the LORD your God has given
you. And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters,
whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which
your enemies shall distress you. The man who is the most tender and refined among
you willbegrudge food to his brother, to the wife he embraces, and to the last of the
children whom he has left, so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of
his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left, in the siege and in
the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns. The most
tender and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her
foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will begrudge to the
husband she embraces, to her son and to her daughter, her afterbirth that comes out
from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything
she will eat them secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy
shall distress you in your towns.
If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that
you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the LORD your God, then
the LORD will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions
severe and lasting, and sicknesses grievous and lasting. And he will bring upon you
again all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to
you. Every sickness also and every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this
law, the LORD will bring upon you, until you are destroyed. Whereas you were as
numerous as the stars of heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did
not obey the voice of the LORD your God. And as the LORDtook delight in doing you
good and multiplying you, so the LORD will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and
destroying you. And you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take
possession of it.
And the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the
other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor
your fathers have known. And among these nations you shall find no respite, and
there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot, butthe LORD will give you
there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul. Your life shall hang in
doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your
life. In the morning you shall say, If only it were evening! and at evening you shall
say, If only it were morning! because of the dread that your heart shall feel, and the
sights that your eyes shall see. And the LORD will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a
journey that I promised that you should never make again; and there you shall offer
yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no
buyer.

1 Peter 1:13-2:12English Standard Version (ESV)
Called to Be Holy
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope
fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As
obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former
ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your
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conduct, since it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on him as
Father whojudges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with
fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the
futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or
gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lambwithout blemish or
spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifestin
the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised
him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly
love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born
again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word
of God; for
All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
but the word of the Lord remains forever.
And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
A Living Stone and a Holy People
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like
newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into
salvation if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen
and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house,
to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ. For it stands in Scripture:
Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.
So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,
and
A stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense.
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own
possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of
darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are
God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the
flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles
honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your
good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.


Galatians 5:16-26English Standard Version
(ESV)
Keep in Step with the Spirit
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the
desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the
flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you
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want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works
of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery,
enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries,
dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you,
as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of
God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those
who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become
conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

1 Corinthians 15:50-58English Standard Version (ESV)
Mystery and Victory
I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does
the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all
sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last
trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, andthe dead will be raised imperishable, and we
shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this
mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable,
and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who
gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the
work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Ezekiel 36 The Message (MSG)
Back to Your Own Land
And now, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel. Say, Mountains of Israel,
listen to GODs Message. GOD, the Master, says, Because the enemy crowed over
you, Good! Those old hills are now ours! now here is a prophecy in the name
of GOD, the Master: Because nations came at you from all sides, ripping and
plundering, hauling pieces of you off every which way, and youve become the butt of
cheap gossip and jokes, therefore, Mountains of Israel, listen to the Message of GOD,
the Master. My Message to mountains and hills, to ditches and valleys, to the heaps
of rubble and the emptied towns that are looted for plunder and turned into jokes by
all the surrounding nations: Therefore, saysGOD, the Master, now Im speaking in a
fiery rage against the rest of the nations, but especially against Edom, who in an orgy
of violence and shameless insolence robbed me of my land, grabbed it for
themselves.
Therefore prophesy over the land of Israel, preach to the mountains and hills, to
every ditch and valley: The Message of GOD, the Master: Look! Listen! Im angry
and I care. Im speaking to you because youve been humiliated among the nations.
Therefore I, GOD, the Master, am telling you that Ive solemnly sworn that the nations
around you are next. Its their turn to be humiliated.
But you, Mountains of Israel, will burst with new growth, putting out branches and
bearing fruit for my people Israel. My people are coming home! Do you see? Im back
again. Im on your side. Youll be plowed and planted as before! Ill see to it that your
population grows all over Israel, that the towns fill up with people, that the ruins are
rebuilt. Ill make this place teem with lifehuman and animal. The country will burst
"#
into life, life, and more life, your towns and villages full of people just as in the old
days. Ill treat you better than I ever have. And youll realize that I am GOD. Ill put
people over youmy own people Israel! Theyll take care of you and youll be their
inheritance. Never again will you be a harsh and unforgiving land to them.
GOD, the Master, says: Because you have a reputation of being a land that eats
people alive and makes women barren, Im now telling you that youll never eat
people alive again nor make women barren. Decree of GOD, the Master. And Ill
never again let the taunts of outsiders be heard over you nor permit nations to look
down on you. Youll no longer be a land that makes women barren. Decree of GOD,
the Master.
GODs Message came to me: Son of man, when the people of Israel lived in their
land, they polluted it by the way they lived. I poured out my anger on them because
of the polluted blood they poured out on the ground. And so I got thoroughly angry
with them polluting the country with their wanton murders and dirty gods. I kicked
them out, exiled them to other countries. I sentenced them according to how they had
lived. Wherever they went, they gave me a bad name. People said, These are GODs
people, but they got kicked off his land. I suffered much pain over my holy reputation,
which the people of Israel blackened in every country they entered.
Therefore, tell Israel, Message of GOD, the Master: Im not doing this for you, Israel.
Im doing it for me, to save my character, my holy name, which youve blackened in
every country where youve gone. Im going to put my great and holy name on
display, the name that has been ruined in so many countries, the name that you
blackened wherever you went. Then the nations will realize who I really am, that I
am GOD, when I show my holiness through you so that they can see it with their own
eyes.
For heres what Im going to do: Im going to take you out of these countries, gather
you from all over, and bring you back to your own land. Ill pour pure water over you
and scrub you clean. Ill give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you. Ill remove the
stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart thats God-willed, not self-
willed. Ill put my Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you and
live by my commands. Youll once again live in the land I gave your ancestors. Youll
be my people! Ill be your God!
Ill pull you out of that stinking pollution. Ill give personal orders to the wheat fields,
telling them to grow bumper crops. Ill send no more famines. Ill make sure your fruit
trees and field crops flourish. Other nations wont be able to hold you in contempt
again because of famine.
And then youll think back over your terrible livesthe evil, the shameand be
thoroughly disgusted with yourselves, realizing how badly youve livedall those
obscenities youve carried out.
Im not doing this for you. Get this through your thick heads! Shame on you. What a
mess you made of things, Israel!
Message of GOD, the Master: On the day I scrub you clean from all your filthy living,
Ill also make your cities livable. The ruins will be rebuilt. The neglected land will be
worked again, no longer overgrown with weeds and thistles, worthless in the eyes of
passersby. People will exclaim, Why, this weed patch has been turned into a Garden
of Eden! And the ruined cities, smashed into oblivion, are now thriving! The nations
around you that are still in existence will realize that I, GOD, rebuild ruins and replant
empty waste places. I, GOD, said so, and Ill do it.
Message of GOD, the Master: Yet again Im going to do what Israel asks. Ill
increase their population as with a flock of sheep. Like the milling flocks of sheep
brought for sacrifices in Jerusalem during the appointed feasts, the ruined cities will
be filled with flocks of people. And theyll realize that I amGOD.

"$
Psalm 73 The Message (MSG)
An Asaph Psalm
No doubt about it! God is good
good to good people, good to the good-hearted.
But I nearly missed it,
missed seeing his goodness.
I was looking the other way,
looking up to the people
At the top,
envying the wicked who have it made,
Who have nothing to worry about,
not a care in the whole wide world.
Pretentious with arrogance,
they wear the latest fashions in violence,
Pampered and overfed,
decked out in silk bows of silliness.
They jeer, using words to kill;
they bully their way with words.
Theyre full of hot air,
loudmouths disturbing the peace.
People actually listen to themcan you believe it?
Like thirsty puppies, they lap up their words.
Whats going on here? Is God out to lunch?
Nobodys tending the store.
The wicked get by with everything;
they have it made, piling up riches.
Ive been stupid to play by the rules;
what has it gotten me?
A long run of bad luck, thats what
a slap in the face every time I walk out the door.
If Id have given in and talked like this,
I would have betrayed your dear children.
Still, when I tried to figure it out,
all I got was a splitting headache . . .
Until I entered the sanctuary of God.
Then I saw the whole picture:
The slippery road youve put them on,
with a final crash in a ditch of delusions.
In the blink of an eye, disaster!
A blind curve in the dark, andnightmare!
We wake up and rub our eyes. . . . Nothing.
Theres nothing to them. And there never was.
When I was beleaguered and bitter,
totally consumed by envy,
I was totally ignorant, a dumb ox
in your very presence.
Im still in your presence,
but youve taken my hand.
You wisely and tenderly lead me,
and then you bless me.
Youre all I want in heaven!
Youre all I want on earth!
"%
When my skin sags and my bones get brittle,
GOD is rock-firm and faithful.
Look! Those who left you are falling apart!
Deserters, theyll never be heard from again.
But Im in the very presence of GOD
oh, how refreshing it is!
Ive made Lord GOD my home.
GOD, Im telling the world what you do!


1 John 2:15-17The Message (MSG)
Dont love the worlds ways. Dont love the worlds goods. Love of the world
squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world
wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear
importanthas nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world
and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way outbut whoever does what God
wants is set for eternity.

Jeremiah 31 The Message (MSG)
And when that happensGODs Decree
it will be plain as the sun at high noon:
Ill be the God of every man, woman, and child in Israel
and they shall be my very own people.
This is the way GOD put it:
They found grace out in the desert,
these people who survived the killing.
Israel, out looking for a place to rest,
met God out looking for them!
GOD told them, Ive never quit loving you and never will.
Expect love, love, and more love!
And so now Ill start over with you and build you up again,
dear virgin Israel.
Youll resume your singing,
grabbing tambourines and joining the dance.
Youll go back to your old work of planting vineyards
on the Samaritan hillsides,
And sit back and enjoy the fruit
oh, how youll enjoy those harvests!
The times coming when watchmen will call out
from the hilltops of Ephraim:
On your feet! Lets go to Zion,
go to meet our GOD!
Oh yes, GOD says so:
Shout for joy at the top of your lungs for Jacob!
Announce the good news to the number-one nation!
Raise cheers! Sing praises. Say,
GOD has saved his people,
saved the core of Israel.
Watch what comes next:
Ill bring my people back
from the north country
"&
And gather them up from the ends of the earth,
gather those whove gone blind
And those who are lame and limping,
gather pregnant women,
Even the mothers whose birth pangs have started,
bring them all back, a huge crowd!
Watch them come! Theyll come weeping for joy
as I take their hands and lead them,
Lead them to fresh flowing brooks,
lead them along smooth, uncluttered paths.
Yes, its because Im Israels Father
and Ephraims my firstborn son!
Hear this, nations! GODs Message!
Broadcast this all over the world!
Tell them, The One who scattered Israel
will gather them together again.
From now on hell keep a careful eye on them,
like a shepherd with his flock.
I, GOD, will pay a stiff ransom price for Jacob;
Ill free him from the grip of the Babylonian bully.
The people will climb up Zions slopes shouting with joy,
their faces beaming because of GODs bounty
Grain and wine and oil,
flocks of sheep, herds of cattle.
Their lives will be like a well-watered garden,
never again left to dry up.
Young women will dance and be happy,
young men and old men will join in.
Ill convert their weeping into laughter,
lavishing comfort, invading their grief with joy.
Ill make sure that their priests get three square meals a day
and that my people have more than enough. GODs Decree.
Again, GODs Message:
Listen to this! Laments coming out of Ramah,
wild and bitter weeping.
Its Rachel weeping for her children,
Rachel refusing all solace.
Her children are gone,
gonelong gone into exile.
But GOD says, Stop your incessant weeping,
hold back your tears.
Collect wages from your grief work. GODs Decree.
Theyll be coming back home!
Theres hope for your children. GODs Decree.
Ive heard the contrition of Ephraim.
Yes, Ive heard it clearly, saying,
You trained me well.
You broke me, a wild yearling horse, to the saddle.
Now put me, trained and obedient, to use.
You are my GOD.
After those years of running loose, I repented.
After you trained me to obedience,
I was ashamed of my past, my wild, unruly past.
"'
Humiliated, I beat on my chest.
Will I ever live this down?
Oh! Ephraim is my dear, dear son,
my child in whom I take pleasure!
Every time I mention his name,
my heart bursts with longing for him!
Everything in me cries out for him.
Softly and tenderly I wait for him. GODs Decree.
Set up signposts to mark your trip home.
Get a good map.
Study the road conditions.
The road out is the road back.
Come back, dear virgin Israel,
come back to your hometowns.
How long will you flit here and there, indecisive?
How long before you make up your fickle mind?
GOD will create a new thing in this land:
A transformed woman will embrace the transforming GOD!
A Message from Israels GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies: When Ive turned everything
around and brought my people back, the old expressions will be heard on the streets:
GOD bless you! . . . O True Home! . . . O Holy Mountain! All Judahs people,
whether in town or country, will get along just fine with each other.
Ill refresh tired bodies;
Ill restore tired souls.
Just then I woke up and looked aroundwhat a pleasant and satisfying sleep!
Be ready. The times comingGODs Decreewhen I will plant people and
animals in Israel and Judah, just as a farmer plants seed. And in the same way that
earlier I relentlessly pulled up and tore down, took apart and demolished, so now I
am sticking with them as they start over, building and planting.
When that time comes you wont hear the old proverb anymore,
Parents ate the green apples,
their children got the stomachache.
No, each person will pay for his own sin. You eat green apples, youre the one who
gets sick.
Thats right. The time is coming when I will make a brand-new covenant with Israel
and Judah. It wont be a repeat of the covenant I made with their ancestors when I
took their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant even
though I did my part as their Master. GODs Decree.
This is the brand-new covenant that I will make with Israel when the time comes. I
will put my law within themwrite it on their hearts!and be their God. And they will
be my people. They will no longer go around setting up schools to teach each other
about GOD. Theyll know me firsthand, the dull and the bright, the smart and the slow.
Ill wipe the slate clean for each of them. Ill forget they ever sinned! GODs Decree.
If This Ordered Cosmos Ever Fell to Pieces
GODs Message, from the God who lights up the day with sun and
brightens the night with moon and stars,
Who whips the ocean into a billowy froth,
whose name is GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies:
If this ordered cosmos ever fell to pieces,
fell into chaos before meGODs Decree
Then and only then might Israel fall apart
and disappear as a nation before me.
GODs Message:
"(
If the skies could be measured with a yardstick
and the earth explored to its core,
Then and only then would I turn my back on Israel,
disgusted with all theyve done. GODs Decree.
The time is comingits GODs Decreewhen GODs city will be rebuilt, rebuilt all
the way from the Citadel of Hanamel to the Corner Gate. The master plan will extend
west to Gareb Hill and then around to Goath. The whole valley to the south where
incinerated corpses are dumpeda death valley if there ever was one!and all the
terraced fields out to the Brook Kidron on the east as far north as the Horse Gate will
be consecrated to me as a holy place.
This city will never again be torn down or destroyed.


John 8:12The Message (MSG)
Youre Missing God in All This
Jesus once again addressed them: I am the worlds Light. No one who follows me
stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in.

John 8:23The Message (MSG)
Jesus said, Youre tied down to the mundane; Im in touch with what is beyond your
horizons. You live in terms of what you see and touch. Im living on other terms. I told
you that you were missing God in all this. Youre at a dead end. If you wont believe I
am who I say I am, youre at the dead end of sins. Youre missing God in your lives.


John 8:31-38The Message (MSG)
If the Son Sets You Free
Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. If you stick with
this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience
for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.
Surprised, they said, But were descendants of Abraham. Weve never been slaves
to anyone. How can you say, The truth will free you?
Jesus said, I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped
in a dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave. A slave is a transient, who cant come and
go at will. The Son, though, has an established position, the run of the house. So if
the Son sets you free, you are free through and through. I know you are Abrahams
descendants. But I also know that you are trying to kill me because my message
hasnt yet penetrated your thick skulls. Im talking about things I have seen while
keeping company with the Father, and you just go on doing what you have heard
from your father.

Deuteronomy 28 The Message
(MSG)
If you listen obediently to the Voice of GOD, your God, and heartily obey all his
commandments that I command you today, GOD, your God, will place you on high,
high above all the nations of the world. All these blessings will come down on you
and spread out beyond you because you have responded to the Voice of GOD, your
God:
")
GODs blessing inside the city,
GODs blessing in the country;
GODs blessing on your children,
the crops of your land,
the young of your livestock,
the calves of your herds,
the lambs of your flocks.
GODs blessing on your basket and bread bowl;
GODs blessing in your coming in,
GODs blessing in your going out.
GOD will defeat your enemies who attack you. Theyll come at you on one road and
run away on seven roads.
GOD will order a blessing on your barns and workplaces; hell bless you in the land
that GOD, your God, is giving you.
GOD will form you as a people holy to him, just as he promised you, if you keep the
commandments ofGOD, your God, and live the way he has shown you.
All the peoples on Earth will see you living under the Name of GOD and hold you in
respectful awe.
GOD will lavish you with good things: children from your womb, offspring from your
animals, and crops from your land, the land that GOD promised your ancestors that
he would give you. GOD will throw open the doors of his sky vaults and pour rain on
your land on schedule and bless the work you take in hand. You will lend to many
nations but you yourself wont have to take out a loan. GOD will make you the head,
not the tail; youll always be the top dog, never the bottom dog, as you obediently
listen to and diligently keep the commands of GOD, your God, that I am commanding
you today. Dont swerve an inch to the right or left from the words that I command
you today by going off following and worshiping other gods.
Heres what will happen if you dont obediently listen to the Voice of GOD, your God,
and diligently keep all the commandments and guidelines that Im commanding you
today. All these curses will come down hard on you:
GODs curse in the city,
GODs curse in the country;
GODs curse on your basket and bread bowl;
GODs curse on your children,
the crops of your land,
the young of your livestock,
the calves of your herds,
the lambs of your flocks.
GODs curse in your coming in,
GODs curse in your going out.
GOD will send The Curse, The Confusion, The Contrariness down on everything you
try to do until youve been destroyed and theres nothing left of youall because of
your evil pursuits that led you to abandon me.
GOD will infect you with The Disease, wiping you right off the land that youre going in
to possess.
GOD will set consumption and fever and rash and seizures and dehydration and
blight and jaundice on you. Theyll hunt you down until they kill you.
The sky over your head will become an iron roof, the ground under your feet, a slab
of concrete. From out of the skies GOD will rain ash and dust down on you until you
suffocate.
GOD will defeat you by enemy attack. Youll come at your enemies on one road and
run away on seven roads. All the kingdoms of Earth will see you as a horror. Carrion
"*
birds and animals will boldly feast on your dead body with no one to chase them
away.
GOD will hit you hard with the boils of Egypt, hemorrhoids, scabs, and an incurable
itch. Hell make you go crazy and blind and senile. Youll grope around in the middle
of the day like a blind person feeling his way through a lifetime of darkness; youll
never get to where youre going. Not a day will go by that youre not abused and
robbed. And no one is going to help you.
Youll get engaged to a woman and another man will take her for his mistress; youll
build a house and never live in it; youll plant a garden and never eat so much as a
carrot; youll watch your ox get butchered and not get a single steak from it; your
donkey will be stolen from in front of you and youll never see it again; your sheep will
be sent off to your enemies and no one will lift a hand to help you.
Your sons and daughters will be shipped off to foreigners; youll wear your eyes out
looking vainly for them, helpless to do a thing. Your crops and everything you work
for will be eaten and used by foreigners; youll spend the rest of your lives abused
and knocked around. What you see will drive you crazy.
GOD will hit you with painful boils on your knees and legs and no healing or relief
from head to foot.
GOD will lead you and the king you set over you to a country neither you nor your
ancestors have heard of; there youll worship other gods, no-gods of wood and stone.
Among all the peoples where GOD will take you, youll be treated as a lesson or a
proverba horror!
Youll plant sacks and sacks of seed in the field but get almost nothingthe
grasshoppers will devour it. Youll plant and hoe and prune vineyards but wont drink
or put up any winethe worms will devour them. Youll have groves of olive trees
everywhere, but youll have no oil to rub on your face or handsthe olives will have
fallen off. Youll have sons and daughters but they wont be yours for longtheyll go
off to captivity. Locusts will take over all your trees and crops.
The foreigner who lives among you will climb the ladder, higher and higher, while you
go deeper and deeper into the hole. Hell lend to you; you wont lend to him. Hell be
the head; youll be the tail.
All these curses are going to come on you. Theyre going to hunt you down and get
you until theres nothing left of you because you didnt obediently listen to the Voice
of GOD, your God, and diligently keep his commandments and guidelines that I
commanded you. The curses will serve as signposts, warnings to your children ever
after.
Because you didnt serve GOD, your God, out of the joy and goodness of your heart
in the great abundance, youll have to serve your enemies whom GOD will send
against you. Life will be famine and drought, rags and wretchedness; then hell put an
iron yoke on your neck until hes destroyed you.
Yes, GOD will raise up a faraway nation against you, swooping down on you like an
eagle, a nation whose language you cant understand, a mean-faced people, cruel to
grandmothers and babies alike. Theyll ravage the young of your animals and the
crops from your fields until youre destroyed. Theyll leave nothing behind: no grain,
no wine, no oil, no calves, no lambsand finally, no you. Theyll lay siege to you
while youre huddled behind your town gates. Theyll knock those high, proud walls
flat, those walls behind which you felt so safe. Theyll lay siege to your fortified cities
all over the country, this country that GOD, your God, has given you.
And youll end up cannibalizing your own sons and daughters that GOD, your God,
has given you. When the suffering from the siege gets extreme, youre going to eat
your own babies. The most gentle and caring man among you will turn hard, his eye
evil, against his own brother, his cherished wife, and even the rest of his children who
are still alive, refusing to share with them a scrap of meat from the cannibal child-
#+
stew he is eating. Hes lost everything, even his humanity, in the suffering of the
siege that your enemy mounts against your fortified towns.
And the most gentle and caring woman among you, a woman who wouldnt step on a
wildflower, will turn hard, her eye evil, against her cherished husband, against her
son, against her daughter, against even the afterbirth of her newborn infants; she
plans to eat them in secretshe does eat them!because she has lost everything,
even her humanity, in the suffering of the siege that your enemy mounts against your
fortified towns.
If you dont diligently keep all the words of this Revelation written in this book, living in
holy awe before This Name glorious and terrible, GOD, your God, then GOD will
pound you with catastrophes, you and your children, huge interminable catastrophes,
hideous interminable illnesses. Hell bring back and stick you with every old Egyptian
malady that once terrorized you. And yes, every disease and catastrophe
imaginablethings not even written in the Book of this RevelationGOD will bring on
you until youre destroyed.
Because you didnt listen obediently to the Voice of GOD, your God, youll be left with
a few pitiful stragglers in place of the dazzling stars-in-the-heavens multitude you had
become.
And this is how things will end up: Just as GOD once enjoyed you, took pleasure in
making life good for you, giving you many children, so GOD will enjoy getting rid of
you, clearing you off the Earth. Hell weed you out of the very soil that you are
entering in to possess. Hell scatter you to the four winds, from one end of the Earth
to the other. Youll worship all kinds of other gods, gods neither you nor your parents
ever heard of, wood and stone no-gods. But you wont find a home there, youll not
be able to settle down. GOD will give you a restless heart, longing eyes, a homesick
soul. You will live in constant jeopardy, terrified of every shadow, never knowing what
youll meet around the next corner.
In the morning youll say, I wish it were evening. In the evening youll say, I wish it
were morning. Afraid, terrorized at whats coming next, afraid of the unknown,
because of the sights youve witnessed.
GOD will ship you back to Egypt by a road I promised youd never see again. There
youll offer yourselves for sale, both men and women, as slaves to your enemies. And
not a buyer to be found.

1 Peter 1:13-2:12The Message (MSG)
A Future in God
So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift
thats coming when Jesus arrives. Dont lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil,
doing just what you feel like doing. You didnt know any better then; you do now. As
obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by Gods life, a
life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, I am holy; you be holy.
You call out to God for help and he helpshes a good Father that way. But dont
forget, hes also a responsible Father, and wont let you get by with sloppy living.
Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God
plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid
with Christs sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb.
And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only latelyat the end of the
agesbecome public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you.
Its because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and
glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God.
Now that youve cleaned up your lives by following the truth, love one another as if
your lives depended on it. Your new life is not like your old life. Your old birth came
#"
from mortal sperm; your new birth comes from Gods living Word. Just think: a life
conceived by God himself! Thats why the prophet said,
The old life is a grass life,
its beauty as short-lived as wildflowers;
Grass dries up, flowers droop,
Gods Word goes on and on forever.
This is the Word that conceived the new life in you.
So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk.
Youve had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of Gods pure
kindness. Then youll grow up mature and whole in God.
The Stone
Welcome to the living Stone, the source of life. The workmen took one look and threw
it out; God set it in the place of honor. Present yourselves as building stones for the
construction of a sanctuary vibrant with life, in which youll serve as holy priests
offering Christ-approved lives up to God. The Scriptures provide precedent:
Look! Im setting a stone in Zion,
a cornerstone in the place of honor.
Whoever trusts in this stone as a foundation
will never have cause to regret it.
To you who trust him, hes a Stone to be proud of, but to those who refuse to trust
him,
The stone the workmen threw out
is now the chief foundation stone.
For the untrusting its
. . . a stone to trip over,
a boulder blocking the way.
They trip and fall because they refuse to obey, just as predicted.
But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work,
chosen to be a holy people, Gods instruments to do his work and speak out for him,
to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for youfrom nothing to
something, from rejected to accepted.
Friends, this world is not your home, so dont make yourselves cozy in it. Dont
indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life among the
natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then theyll be won over to
Gods side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives.


Galatians 5:16-26The Message (MSG)
My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by Gods Spirit. Then you
wont feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in
us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with
selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times
one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why
dont you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a
law-dominated existence?
It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time:
repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional
garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion;
paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a
brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives;
small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone
into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I
could go on.
##
This isnt the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this
way, you will not inherit Gods kingdom.
But what happens when we live Gods way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the
same way that fruit appears in an orchardthings like affection for others,
exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a
sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates
things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to
force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who
belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly
responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for goodcrucified.
Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure
that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but
work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare
ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far
more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.

1 Corinthians 10:13The Message (MSG)
No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have
had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; hell never
let you be pushed past your limit; hell always be there to help you come through it.

1 Corinthians 15:50-58The Message (MSG)
I need to emphasize, friends, that our natural, earthy lives dont in themselves lead us
by their very nature into the kingdom of God. Their very nature is to die, so how
could they naturally end up in the Life kingdom?
But let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery Ill probably never fully
understand. Were not all going to diebut we are all going to be changed. You hear
a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink
your eyesits over. On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up
and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. At the same
moment and in the same way, well all be changed. In the resurrection scheme of
things, this has to happen: everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced
by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal. Then the saying will come
true:
Death swallowed by triumphant Life!
Who got the last word, oh, Death?
Oh, Death, whos afraid of you now?
It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its
leverage, its destructive power. But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all
threesin, guilt, deathare gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God!
With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And dont hold
back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for
him is a waste of time or effort.