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VERSES FOR OFFERINGS
Think about giving – it's truly beautiful in God's eyes. When you're preparing your offering, remember it should be your best, given with a sincere heart. It should be a joyful act, knowing how much God has already blessed us with, even when we don't deserve it. He's been incredibly generous, hasn't He?
If you only give what's leftover, well, life might just mirror that back to you. Think about it – give as if you're giving to yourself. Don't do it out of obligation or because you expect something in return. True giving comes from the heart.
Don't make a big show of it either. It's not about getting praised or patted on the back. Let your giving be a quiet act between you and God. He sees what's in your heart, and He loves a cheerful giver. Remember what it says in 2 Corinthians 9:7: "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."
Giving is an act of worship, a way to give back a portion of what God has already given us. And when God gives, He gives abundantly. When you offer from the heart, you're opening the door for even more blessings. The more you give, the more you receive. It's a beautiful cycle.
You adulterers! Do you not know that the friendship of this world is hostile to God? Therefore, whoever has chosen to be a friend of this world has been made into an enemy of God.
Blessed is the man who has not followed the counsel of the impious, and has not remained in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the chair of pestilence.
If anyone comes to you, and does not bring this doctrine, do not be willing to receive him into the house, and do not speak a greeting to him.
For whoever speaks a greeting to him, is speaking with his evil works.
Do not be willing to be a friend to an angry man, and do not walk with a furious man,
lest perhaps you learn his ways, and take up a stumbling block to your soul.
Do not choose to love the world, nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him.
Whoever keeps step with the wise shall be wise. A friend of the foolish will become like them.
But now I have written to you: do not associate with anyone who is called a brother and yet is a fornicator, or greedy, or a servant of idolatry, or a slanderer, or inebriated, or a robber. With such a one as this, do not even take food.
BETH. Weeping, she has wept through the night, and her tears are on her cheeks. There is no one to be a comfort to her and to all her beloved. All her friends have spurned her, and they have become her enemies.
Whoever conceals an offense seeks friendships. Whoever repeats the words of another separates allies.
But we strongly caution you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to draw yourselves away from every brother who is walking in disorder and not according to the tradition that they received from us.
Avoid a man who is a heretic, after the first and second correction,
knowing that one who is like this has been subverted, and that he offends; for he has been condemned by his own judgment.
For everyone who ridicules is an abomination to the Lord, and his communication is for the simple.
Riches adds many friends. But from the pauper, even those whom he had become separated.
Whoever works his land shall be satisfied with bread. But whoever pursues leisure will be filled with need.
And the seer Jehu, the son of Hanani, met him, and said to him: "You offer assistance to the impious, and you are joined in friendship with those who hate the Lord. And for this reason, you certainly deserve the wrath of the Lord.
One thing I have asked of the Lord, this I will seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, so that I may behold the delight of the Lord, and may visit his temple.
For he has hidden me in his tabernacle. In the day of evils, he has protected me in the hidden place of his tabernacle.
But if anyone does not obey our word by this epistle, take note of him and do not keep company with him, so that he may be ashamed.
But do not be willing to consider him as an enemy; instead, correct him as a brother.
Wisdom is better than weapons of war. And whoever offends in one thing, shall lose many good things.
He who ignores a loss for the sake of a friend is just. But the way of the impious will deceive them.
Blessed is the man who has not followed the counsel of the impious, and has not remained in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the chair of pestilence.
But his will is with the law of the Lord, and he will meditate on his law, day and night.
And he will be like a tree that has been planted beside running waters, which will provide its fruit in its time, and its leaf will not fall away, and all things whatsoever that he does will prosper.
And so, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead, refute them.
Do not choose to bear the yoke with unbelievers. For how can justice be a participant with iniquity? Or how can the fellowship of light be a participant with darkness?
You have run well. So what has impeded you, that you would not obey the truth?
This kind of influence is not from him who is calling you.
A little leaven corrupts the whole mass.
Be sober and vigilant. For your adversary, the devil, is like a roaring lion, traveling around and seeking those whom he might devour.
Do not choose to love the world, nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world is the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the arrogance of a life which is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world is passing away, with its desire. But whoever does the will of God abides unto eternity.
But I beg you, brothers, to take note of those who cause dissensions and offenses contrary to the doctrine that you have learned, and to turn away from them.
For ones such as these do not serve Christ our Lord, but their inner selves, and, through pleasing words and skillful speaking, they seduce the hearts of the innocent.
But you, O man of God, flee from these things, and truly pursue justice, piety, faith, charity, patience, meekness.
Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you have been called, and make a good profession of faith in the sight of many witnesses.
My son, if sinners should entice you, do not consent to them.
If they should say: "Come with us. We will lie in wait for blood. We will lay traps against the innocent, without cause.
Let us swallow him alive, like Hell, and whole, like one descending into the pit.
We will discover every precious substance. We will fill our houses with spoils.
Cast your lot with us. One purse will be for us all."
My son, do not walk with them. Preclude your feet from their paths.
He who walks in simplicity walks in confidence. But he who corrupts his ways shall be discovered.
Listen to counsel and take up discipline, so that you may be wise in your latter days.
About this, they wonder why you do not rush with them into the same confusion of indulgences, blaspheming.
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
He who corrupts himself does not love the one who afflicts him, nor will he step toward the wise.
Whoever sets his hopes on the unfaithful in a day of anguish is like a rotten tooth and weary foot,
Son, do not cease listening to doctrine, and do not be ignorant of the sermons of knowledge.
And, brothers, if a man has been overtaken by any offense, you who are spiritual should instruct someone like this with a spirit of leniency, considering that you yourselves might also be tempted.
So then, flee from the desires of your youth, yet truly, pursue justice, faith, hope, charity, and peace, along with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart.
having been completely filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, avarice, wickedness; full of envy, murder, contention, deceit, spite, gossiping;
about his Son, who was made for him from the offspring of David according to the flesh,
slanderous, hateful toward God, abusive, arrogant, self-exalting, devisers of evil, disobedient to parents,
foolish, disorderly; without affection, without fidelity, without mercy.
And these, though they had known the justice of God, did not understand that those who act in such a manner are deserving of death, and not only those who do these things, but also those who consent to what is done.
Do not choose to love the world, nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world is the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the arrogance of a life which is not of the Father, but is of the world.