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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.
I have put my rainbow among the clouds in the sky. It will show you clearly that I have made this covenant with everything on the earth.When I bring clouds over the earth, a rainbow will sometimes appear.Then I will remember the covenant that I have made with you and with all the different kinds of living things. Never again will the water become so deep that it destroys everything that lives.
On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram. The Lord promised, ‘I give this land to your descendants. The land starts from the river of Egypt and continues as far as the Euphrates River.
I will make this covenant with you and with your descendants. It will continue for many generations of your descendants, for all time. I will be your God. I will also be the God of all your descendants.You are now living here in Canaan as a foreign person. But I will give all of this land to you and to your descendants. It will belong to them for ever. I will be their God.’
Now you must be careful to obey me and my covenant with you. Then you will belong to me as my special people. The whole earth belongs to me, and I have chosen you from among all the nations.You will be my priests who serve in my kingdom. You will be a nation that is special to me.” These are the words that you must speak to the Israelites.’
Then he took the Book of God's Covenant and he read it to the people. They replied, ‘We will do everything that the Lord has told us. We will obey his commands.’Then Moses used the blood in the bowls to splash on the people. He said, ‘This blood shows that you accept the covenant that the Lord has made with you. You agree to obey the rules of his covenant.’
Remember that the Lord your God is the only true God. So love him and obey his commands. Then you can trust him to be faithful to his covenant. He made that covenant with you, his people, and with your descendants for ever.
It is not because you are doing right things. It is not because you are good, honest people. That is not the reason that you will take their land for yourselves. Instead, it is because these nations are wicked people. That is why the Lord your God will chase them away as you move in there. He will do what he promised to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
So be careful to obey the words of this covenant. If you are faithful, everything that you do will go well.
Look! You must choose between the things that I am offering you today. You may choose to have life and many good things. Or you may choose to have death and many troubles.I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God. Live in a way that pleases him. Obey his commands, his rules and his laws. If you do that, you will live. You will become a nation of many people. The Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are going into as your new home.
The mountains may shake to pieces, and the hills may disappear. But I will never take my love away from you. My covenant that brings peace between us will never finish.’ That is what the Lord who is very kind to you says.
I, the Lord, love justice. I hate it when people rob others, or they do other wrong things. Because I am faithful, I will give help to my people. I will make a covenant with them that will continue for ever.
The Lord says, ‘A time will soon come when I make a new covenant with Israel's people and with Judah's people.It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors. At that time, I brought them safely out of Egypt. I took care of them, like a faithful husband who takes care of his wife. But they did not obey my covenant.’ That is what the Lord says.‘Yes, I will make a new covenant with Israel's people at that time. It will be like this: I will put my Law deep inside them, in their hearts and minds. I will be their God, and they will be my people.’ That is what the Lord says.‘Then people will not have to teach their friends or their family about me. They will all know me already. The important people and the ordinary people will all know me. I will forgive the wicked things that they have done. I will no longer think about their sins.’ That is what the Lord says.
I will make an agreement with them, that I will give them peace. I will remove the dangerous wild animals from the land. Then they can live there safely, even in the wilderness. They will not be afraid when they sleep in the forests.
I will give you new thoughts. I will put a new spirit in you. You will no longer refuse to obey me. Instead, you will want to please me.I will put my Spirit in you, so that you obey my commands. You will be careful to obey my laws.
I promised to give them a good life with many blessings. Levi received what I promised to him. He served me and he respected me, as a priest should do.
This is my blood that shows the agreement that God makes with his people. When I die, my blood will pour out of my body. In that way God will forgive many people for the wrong things that they have done. That is the agreement that God makes because of my death.
After supper, Jesus took a cup of wine and he did the same thing. He said, ‘This cup shows the new agreement that God makes because of my death. When I die, my blood will pour out of my body. I will do that for you.
But now God has given Jesus a much better way to serve him as a priest. The new covenant that God makes with his people is possible because of Jesus. Because of Jesus' work on our behalf, the new covenant is better than the old one. It is much better because it started with better promises.If there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, nobody would have needed a second covenant.
So, by Christ's death, God brings a new covenant between him and his people. God's people receive from him the good things that will be with them for ever. God has promised to give those things to the people that he has chosen. Christ's death has made them free from their sins. God will no longer punish them like the first covenant says should happen.
‘The Lord God says: After the time of the old covenant, I will make a new covenant with my people. It will be like this: I will put my laws deep inside them. I will put them into their thoughts.’ Then he says this: ‘I will not continue to think about their sins. I will forgive them when they do not obey my laws.’
The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country and the people of your father's family. Go to the land that I will show you. There was a famine in the land of Canaan. So Abram went to live in Egypt for some time, because the famine was very bad.When Abram came near to Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, ‘Listen to me. I know that you are a very beautiful woman.When the Egyptians see you they will say, “This is Abram's wife.” Then they will kill me, but they will let you live.So tell them that you are my sister. Then they will do good things to me, because they want to please you. They will not kill me because they will think that you are my sister.’When Abram arrived in Egypt, the people saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman.The king's officers saw her. They told Pharaoh that she was very beautiful. They took her to the king's palace. Pharaoh did good things to help Abram because of Sarai. He gave Abram sheep, cows, donkeys and camels. He also gave Abram male servants and female servants.But the Lord made Pharaoh and the people in his palace very ill. The Lord did this because the king had taken Abram's wife Sarai.So Pharaoh called Abram to come to him. Pharaoh said, ‘You have done this bad thing to me! You did not tell me that Sarai is your wife! Why not?You told me, “She is my sister.” As a result, I took her to be my wife. Now, here is your wife. Take her and go away!’I will cause your descendants to become a great nation. I will bless you. Everyone will know your name. You will bring my blessing to other people.Pharaoh told his officers what to do with Abram. They sent Abram away, with his wife and everything that belonged to them.I will bless those people who bless you. But I will curse anyone who insults you. I will bless all the families of people on the earth because of you.’
When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him. The Lord said, ‘I am God Almighty. In all your life, obey me and do nothing wrong.This is what you and all your descendants must do to obey my covenant. Every male person in your family must be circumcised.Your circumcision will show that you have agreed to my covenant with you.Every male child among you must be circumcised when he is eight days old. You must continue to do this for every generation of your descendants. Circumcise every male that lives with you. Circumcise your own family. Circumcise servants that have been born in your house. Also circumcise foreign servants that you have bought with money.You must circumcise all the male servants who work for you in your house. Circumcision will be a mark in your bodies which shows that you accept my covenant. It will continue for all time.If any male person among you has not been circumcised, I will not accept him as one of my people. He must become separate from his people. He has not obeyed my covenant.’Then God said to Abraham, ‘As for your wife, do not call her Sarai any more. Instead, her name will be Sarah.I will bless her. She will give birth to a son for you. Many nations of people will be her descendants. Some of them will become kings. That is how much I will bless her!’Abraham fell down so that his face touched the ground. He laughed and he said to himself, ‘I am now 100 years old. That is too old to have a son. Sarah is 90 years old, so she could never give birth to a child.’So Abraham said to God, ‘I would be happy if you would bless Ishmael as my son.’God said to Abraham, ‘No, your wife Sarah will give birth to a son for you. You must give him the name “Isaac”. I will make my covenant with him and with his descendants for all time.Then I will certainly keep my covenant with you. I will make your descendants grow in number.’
He said, ‘This is what the Lord says. I promise that this is what I will do for you. You did not try to keep your son safe, but you offered him to me. And he was your only son.Because you have done this, I will bless you. I will cause your descendants to be so many that people cannot count them. They will be as many as the stars that are in the sky. They will be as many as the pieces of sand on the shore by the sea. Your descendants will win against their enemies and take their enemies' cities for themselves.I will bless all the nations on the earth through your descendants. I will do this because you have obeyed me.’
Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write down these words. They are the rules of the covenant that I have made with you and with the Israelites.’Moses was there on the mountain with the Lord for 40 days and 40 nights. He did not eat anything or drink anything during that time. He wrote the words of God's covenant on the flat stones. Those were God's ten special commands.
The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Sinai.You must not say false things against your neighbour.You must not want to take your neighbour's wife for yourself. You must not want his house or his land, or his servants, male or female. You must not want his ox or his donkey or anything else that belongs to your neighbour.’These are the commands that the Lord spoke to you. You were all there together at the mountain. He spoke with a loud voice from the middle of a great fire. There was a cloud and it was very dark. He gave only those commands. Then he wrote them on two flat stones and he gave them to me.The mountain was burning with fire and you heard God's voice speak from the darkness. Then the leaders and older men of your tribes came to speak to me.They said, ‘The Lord our God has shown us how great and how powerful he is. We have heard his voice from the middle of the fire. We have learned this: People can continue to live, even after God has spoken to them.But now we think that this great fire will kill us. We do not want to die! If we continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God, we will surely die.The God who lives for ever has spoken to us from the middle of the fire. Has anyone ever heard him speak like that and then continued to live?We ask you to go near to the Lord our God. Listen to everything that he says. Then you should tell us what he says to you. We will listen carefully and we will obey him.’The Lord heard what you said to me. He said to me, ‘I have heard what these people have said to you. What they said is right.I really want them to respect me with fear. I want them to obey my commands in the future! If they do that, everything will be well for them and for their descendants for ever.He did not make this agreement with our ancestors. He made it with all of us who are alive here today.
I will not spoil the covenant that I have made with him. I will always do what I have promised to do.
He says, ‘Bring my people to me. They are the people who offered sacrifices to me, to agree our covenant.’
Lord, you are my God! I will praise you because your name is great. You have done wonderful things. You decided a long time ago what you would do. And you have done exactly what you promised to do.
But it was our sins that caused his wounds. The bad things that we had done crushed him. The punishment that he received has brought peace to us. The wounds that he received have made us well.
I will make a covenant with them to give them peace. It is a promise to my people that will continue for ever. I will cause them to live safely in their land. I will cause them to grow in number. I will put my temple among them, to be with them for ever.
Jesus said, ‘You should not think that I have come to destroy God's Law. Also, I have not come to destroy the messages that God's prophets spoke. No, I have not come to destroy their words. I have come to make what they taught become true.I tell you this. One day, even the earth and the sky will finish. But while they remain, God's Law will also remain. Nobody can remove even the smallest thing from it. The Law will remain until everything in it has happened.
God promised Abraham and his descendants that the world would belong to them one day. God did not promise this because Abraham obeyed any rules. God promised it because Abraham believed in him. That is why God accepted Abraham as right with him.
My Christian friends, I will use an example from our lives. Two people may make an agreement together and they both agree to it properly. If they do that, nobody else can change that agreement. Nobody can take away its authority.In the same way, God promised to bless Abraham and Abraham's descendant. The Bible does not say ‘descendants’. It does not speak about ‘many people’. No, God promised to bless Abraham's descendant. He speaks about one person, and that person is Christ.
And if you belong to Christ, then you are descendants of Abraham. Because of that, you will receive all the good things that God promised to Abraham.
But the faithful love of the Lord will always be with people who worship him. He promises to be kind to their descendants for ever.
The Lord says this: ‘I will bless eunuchs who obey my laws. They must respect the rules for Sabbath days. They must choose to do what pleases me. They must always obey my covenant with my people.If they do that, I will give them a special place in my temple. It will cause people to remember them. Their name will continue in a better way than through sons and daughters. People will always give honour to their name. It will never disappear.
In future years, you must remember this day as a special day every year. It will be a festival when you worship me, the Lord. You and your descendants must do this every year, for all time.
Then the Lord said, ‘I will make a covenant with the Israelites. I will do great miracles for them to see. Nobody in any nation anywhere in the world has ever done such great things. All the people who live near you will see the great things that I, the Lord, will do. The powerful things that I do among you will make them very afraid.
Be careful! Do not forget the covenant that the Lord your God has made with you. Do not make for yourselves any kind of image as your idol. That is the command that he has given to you.That is because the Lord your God wants you to belong to him alone. He is like a fire that destroys all bad things.
Listen to these rules and be careful to obey them. If you do that, the Lord your God will be faithful to the covenant that he has made with you. He promised your ancestors that he would do this.He will love you and he will bless you. He will give you many children so that you become a large nation. He will cause your fields to give you plenty of food: grain, wine and olive oil. He will cause your cows, sheep and goats to have many babies. That is how he will bless you in the land that he promised your ancestors to give you.
The Lord is kind to his people in everything that he does. He shows his faithful love to those who obey the rules of his covenant.
This is what the Lord says: ‘I will answer your prayers at the time that I have chosen to help you. Yes, I will come to save you on that day. I will keep you safe, so that I can make a covenant with people through you. You will make the land safe again. People will return to live there, in places that had become empty.
‘Yes, I will make a new covenant with Israel's people at that time. It will be like this: I will put my Law deep inside them, in their hearts and minds. I will be their God, and they will be my people.’ That is what the Lord says.
But I will remember the covenant that I made with you when you were still young. I will make that covenant strong and it will continue for ever.
So I ask this: ‘Has God turned away from his people?’ No, certainly, he has not done that! I myself belong to Israel's people. I am a descendant of Abraham and I belong to Benjamin's tribe.Let their eyes become dark so that they cannot see. Let their bodies always be in pain, like slaves.’ So now I ask this: ‘When Israel's people failed to accept God's Messiah, did they make themselves separate from God for ever?’ No, certainly that is not true! Because of their mistake, God is now saving Gentiles. He is doing that to make Israel's people become jealous.Because of their mistake, God has blessed everyone in the world. Israel's people failed to receive what God wanted to give them. As a result, God has blessed the Gentiles with many good things. So, when the complete number of Israel's people do turn to God, the result will be even better!Now I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. God has sent me to be his apostle to the Gentiles. I thank him that he has given this important work to me.I hope that my work among you Gentiles will cause my own people to be jealous. As a result, some of them may turn to God, so that he saves them.When God turned away from Israel's people, he then accepted other people in the world as his friends. So, when God does accept Israel's people, the result will be even better! It will seem that dead people have become alive again!If you offer the first piece of bread to God, then all the bread will belong to God. If the roots of a tree belong to God, then the branches will also be his.Israel's people are like an olive tree that a farmer has planted. But God has broken off some of that tree's branches. Then he has taken a branch from a wild olive tree. He has put that wild branch into the farmer's tree, to become part of that tree. You Gentiles are like the wild branch. Now you receive food from the root of the farmer's tree, to make you strong.Israel's people are like the branches that God broke off. But you Gentiles must not think that you are better than those branches. Remember that you are still only a branch. You do not make the root strong. No, it is the root that holds you up and makes you strong.You might say, ‘God broke off the branches so that I could become part of the tree.’God chose who would be his people from the beginning. He has not turned against them now. Remember what the Bible tells us about Elijah. He wanted God to punish Israel's people. Elijah said,
Because God promised that to Jesus, we know that his new covenant with his people is very strong. It is a much better covenant than the old one.
I will always love him with my faithful love. I will never change the covenant that I have made with him.
Remember the word that you have spoken to me, your servant. You have helped me to hope in it.
This is a list of the ancestors of Jesus Christ. Jesus was a descendant of King David. David was a descendant of Abraham. Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh. Manasseh was the father of Amon. Amon was the father of Josiah.Josiah was the father of Jeconiah and his brothers. This was at the time when Babylon's army took the Israelites away to Babylon as their prisoners. Here is a list of Jesus' ancestors who lived after that time: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel.Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud. Abiud was the father of Eliakim. Eliakim was the father of Azor.Azor was the father of Zadok. Zadok was the father of Akim. Akim was the father of Eliud.Eliud was the father of Eleazar. Eleazar was the father of Matthan. Matthan was the father of Jacob.Jacob was the father of Joseph. Joseph married Mary. Mary was the mother of Jesus. Jesus is the one who is called Christ, the Messiah. So there were 14 generations from Abraham to David. There were another 14 generations from David to the time they took the Israelites away to Babylon. Then there were 14 generations from that time until Jesus, the Messiah, was born.
He promised to be kind to our ancestors. He will do the things that he promised in his holy covenant.Yes, he will remember the strong promises that he spoke to Abraham.
You are the people who receive that message from God today. The promise that God made to bless our ancestors is the same promise that he makes to you. God said to our ancestor Abraham, “Through your descendants, I will bless all the people on the earth.”
They are Israelites. God chose them to belong to him as his own children. He showed them his great glory. He made covenants with them and he gave his Law to them. He showed them how they should worship him. He promised them many good things.It was their ancestors that God chose as his people many years ago. And Christ himself, as a man, was born to an Israelite family. Christ is God, who rules over all things. We should praise him for ever! This is true! Amen.
Christ says ‘Yes’ to all of God's promises, so that they become true. So when we pray, we say ‘Yes, amen!’ because we know that Christ has done it. And when we do that, we are saying that God is great.
Some people try to obey all the rules of God's Law. They think that they will become right with God if they do this very well. But those people are under a curse of God's punishment. It is written in the Bible: ‘God will curse anyone who does not continue to obey all the rules in his Law.’We know that the Law cannot cause anyone to become right with God. The Bible says, ‘The righteous person will live because he trusts God.’But the Law does not tell people to trust God. It tells people about all the things that they must do. The Law says, ‘The person who obeys all the rules in God's Law will live’. So God's Law puts us under a curse, because we have not completely obeyed it. But Christ took that curse away from us, because God punished him instead of us. The Bible says, ‘If someone's body is hanging on a tree, it shows that God has cursed him.’Christ died on the cross so that God would bless the Gentiles, as he promised to Abraham. And if we believe in Christ, we can receive God's Spirit that he promised.
The first covenant included rules about how people should worship God. It also spoke about a special place for people to worship God on this earth.
In this way, God's Holy Spirit was showing that the most holy place was not yet open to everyone. While the tent with its first room was still there, those were the rules for people to worship God.This is like a picture that means something for us today. It teaches us about the gifts and sacrifices that people offered to God, to worship him. When someone gave those things to God, it could not make him clean again in his mind.
Today the Lord has accepted you to be his own special people. He already promised that he would do that. As his people, you must obey all his commands.
He sends his message to Jacob's descendants. He gives his rules and laws to Israel's people. The Lord is building Jerusalem again. He is bringing home the Israelite exiles.He has not done that for any other nation. They do not know his laws. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
The Lord stood at the top of the steps. He said, ‘I am the Lord. I am the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of Isaac, your father. I will give the land that you are lying on to you and to your descendants.Your descendants will be as many as the dust of the earth. They will go to the west and to the east. They will go to the north and to the south. Through you and your descendants I will bless all the families of people on the earth.I am with you. I will take care of you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you. I will do what I have promised to do for you.’
God said to Abraham, ‘No, your wife Sarah will give birth to a son for you. You must give him the name “Isaac”. I will make my covenant with him and with his descendants for all time.
Today, I want the sky and the earth to hear what I have said to you. I have told you what you may choose. You may choose life or death. You may choose the Lord to bless you or to curse you. Choose life today, so that you and your descendants will live!Then you and your children may decide to turn back to the Lord. You may choose to obey him completely in everything that you think and in everything that you do. That is what I am commanding you to do today.Yes, love the Lord your God. Obey him and serve him faithfully. He is the one who gives you life. He will let you live for a long time in the land that he is giving to you. That is the land that he promised to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
He causes your borders to be safe from your enemies. He gives you lots of the best wheat to eat.
Instead, he chose the tribe of Judah. He chose Mount Zion, the place which he loves.There he built a temple for himself, to be like his home in heaven. He made it to be strong, like the earth itself, so that it would always be there.
The Lord says, ‘This is the covenant that I make with those people. My Spirit is now with you, and he will not leave you. I have put my words into your mouth, and they will always be with you. They will continue to be in the mouths of your children, and your descendants for ever.’ That is what the Lord says.
I, the Lord, will be their God. My servant David will be their ruler. I, the Lord, have said this.
I tell you this. I will not drink wine again until I drink it with you in my Father's kingdom. Then it will be new wine.’
‘Praise the Lord God of Israel! He has come to save his people. He has come to make them free.He has sent a very strong person to save us, a descendant of God's servant, King David.
God has promised to do all this for you and your children. He has also promised this to people who live far away in other places. The Lord our God will do it for all the people that he has called to come to him.’
It says ‘everyone’. There is no difference between Jews and Gentiles. There is the same Lord for all of us. He blesses everyone who asks him for help.As it says in the Bible: ‘Everyone who calls out to the Lord God for help will be safe.’
But you are not like that. You are a special group of people that God has chosen. You serve God like priests who serve a King. You are his own holy people who belong to him. He has taken you out of the dark place of sin, and he has brought you into his great light. God has done all this so that you can tell people how great he is.
This is the covenant that I promise to keep: I will never cause water to destroy all living things on the earth again. Deep water will never again come again to destroy the earth.’
‘Listen to me. This is my covenant that I have made with you. You will become the ancestor of many nations of people.Your name will not be Abram any more. Instead your name will be Abraham, because I will cause you to become the ancestor of many nations.
He gives food to the people who serve him. He always remembers the covenant that he made with his people.
The Lord made the skies, the earth and the sea. He also made everything that is in them. He always does what he has promised to do.
So I will put him in a place of honour, as a great person deserves. He will share the good things that powerful men receive when they have won a battle. He deserves this, because he agreed to die as a sacrifice. People thought that he himself was a sinner when he took away the sins of many people. He prayed that God would forgive sinners.’
‘I, the Lord, say to you, “The day and the night will always come at their proper times. I have made that agreement with them, and nobody can stop it.In the same way, nobody can stop the covenant that I have made with my servant David, and with the Levites. I promise you that there will always be a descendant of King David who rules as king. I also promise that there will always be descendants of Levi to serve me as priests.
I will give them new thoughts so that they will choose to worship only me. I will put a new spirit in them. They will no longer refuse to change their way of life. Instead, I will help them to want to obey me.
I will cause the covenant that I make with you to be strong. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
So God gives us his promise as a gift, because he is very kind. We receive it when we trust him. If we believe in God like Abraham did, then God accepts us. That is God's promise to all of Abraham's family. If we believe in God, we can call Abraham our ancestor. We can all receive what God has promised. It is not only for those who have Moses' Law to obey.
My Christian friends, I will use an example from our lives. Two people may make an agreement together and they both agree to it properly. If they do that, nobody else can change that agreement. Nobody can take away its authority.
But when the time that God had decided arrived, he sent his Son into the world. A human mother gave birth to him. He was born a Jew, under the authority of God's Law.In this way, he made us free from the authority of the Law. Before that, we were like slaves under the Law. But God's Son paid our debt, so that God would accept us as his own children.
He continues to love people who obey his covenant. Those are the people who obey his laws.
Jesus said, ‘You should not think that I have come to destroy God's Law. Also, I have not come to destroy the messages that God's prophets spoke. No, I have not come to destroy their words. I have come to make what they taught become true.
‘The Lord God says: After the time of the old covenant, I will make a new covenant with my people. It will be like this: I will put my laws deep inside them. I will put them into their thoughts.’
Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write down these words. They are the rules of the covenant that I have made with you and with the Israelites.’
He chose you as his special people because he loved your ancestors. You are their descendants so he rescued you out of Egypt. He himself showed you his great power.Now he is chasing out other nations so that you can take their land to live in. They are greater and stronger nations than you are, but he has given their land to you.
But I will punish his descendants, if they do not accept my laws. If they do not obey my teaching, my rules, or my commands,I will punish them. Because of their sins, I will cause them to suffer.
Lord, please be kind to me and show me your faithful love. From long ago you have always been like that.Do not punish me for the sins that I did long ago. When I was young, I turned against you. Please be kind to me, because of your faithful love!
When this has happened, God will save all Israel's people. This is written in the Bible: ‘The one who rescues will come from Zion. He will turn Jacob's people away from their sins. And I will make this covenant with them. I will forgive them for their sins.’
But Abraham's wife, Sarah, is a picture of the new Jerusalem that is above. Sarah was a free person, not a slave, and she is like our mother.
It is good for a family of God's people to live together in peace. Yes! It brings great pleasure!
The Lord destroyed the firstborn sons in Egypt. He brought the Israelites out from among the Egyptians. He did this with his great power and strength. He cut the Red Sea into two separate parts. He led the Israelites through the middle of the sea. He threw Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea to drown. The Lord led his people through the wilderness. So thank the Lord! His faithful love will always continue.
‘Here is my servant. I have chosen him to serve me. I love him and he makes me very happy. I will give him the strength of my Spirit. He will tell all the nations that I will judge them fairly.
Your ancestors lived in a way that did not make them truly happy. That is the way that you learned to live as well. But now God has saved you from that way of life. You know that he has bought you for himself. He did not buy you with things that do not continue for ever, like silver or gold.Instead, he bought you with the very valuable blood of Christ, who died as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. He died like a lamb that is perfect and has nothing wrong with it.
So, because of all the things that God does for us, we can certainly say this: if God is working on our behalf, nobody can do anything against us.
He rescued his people so that they became free. He made his covenant with them so that it would continue for ever. His name is holy, and people should respect him with fear.
But it was the Lord who chose to hurt his servant. He caused his servant to receive much pain. His servant died to remove people's guilt. As a result, God will bless him with many descendants, and he will have a long life. What the Lord wants will happen, because of what his servant does.When God's servant sees the result of his pain, he will understand what he has done. And he will be happy. The Lord says, ‘My righteous servant will cause many people to be “not guilty”, because he will take the punishment for all their sins.
Go and study what it says in the Bible. God says there, “I want people to be kind to each other. I do not want them only to offer sacrifices to me.” Some people think that they always obey God. I did not come to help people like that. But some people know that they have done wrong things. I am asking those people to come to me for help.’
People everywhere in the world will respect the Lord. They will turn to him for help. Families from all nations will worship you.
So we see that God has accepted us as right because we trust him. As a result, we have peace with God, because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us.While we were still God's enemies, God's Son died on our behalf. As a result, we became God's friends. So, now that we are God's friends, his Son will certainly save us. Christ will save us because he is alive again.But that is not everything! We are very happy now because of what God has done for us. Our Lord Jesus Christ has made this possible. It is because of him that we have now become God's friends.It was because of one man, Adam, that sin came into the world. Death was the result of Adam's sin. Because of that, death came to all people, because everyone failed to obey God.Before God gave his Law to Moses, people did wrong things. Sin was already there in the world. But at that time, God did not say that people were guilty, because there was no law for them to obey.But death still ruled all people, from the time when Adam lived until the time when Moses lived. Everyone died, even those who did not fail in the same way that Adam failed. Adam shows us something about God's Messiah who would come at a future time.But they are not the same. Adam was the man who did not obey what God said to him. Jesus Christ is the man who brought God's free gift to people. Adam was just one person but many people died because of his sin. But God has shown in a greater way that he is very kind to people. Very many people have received God's gift because of one man, Jesus Christ. So Christ has been very kind to many people!Also, God's gift is different from the result of Adam's sin. Adam chose not to obey God once and punishment came as a result. But the result of God's gift is greater. People have done many wrong things, not only one wrong thing. But God accepts them as right with him. That shows how kind God is!One man, Adam, did not obey God, and death began to rule everyone as a result. But what the one man, Jesus Christ, did is much greater! Because of him, people can become right with God. They receive that great gift from God because he is very good and very kind. Because of what Jesus Christ has done, those people will rule like kings in their lives.So God's punishment came to all people because of that one wrong thing that Adam did. But the one thing that Christ did makes people free. God accepts all people because of that one good thing that Christ did. Those people receive true life from God.One man did not obey God and, as a result, many people became guilty because of their sins. But, because one man did obey God, many people will become right with God. Because we trust him, we know that God has blessed us in a way that we do not deserve. That makes us strong in our lives. We also are sure that we will share God's glory in heaven. So we are very happy.
He will always remember the covenant that he made with us. He made that promise to continue for ever.
But you, my Lord, are a kind God who forgives people. You do not quickly become angry, and your faithful love is very great. We can always trust you to do what you have promised.
Keep hold of faithful love. That will be like a beautiful necklace that you always wear. Think about what it means to love other people.Do not quarrel with other people if they have done nothing to hurt you. You have no reason to accuse them of anything wrong.Do not be jealous of cruel people. Do not try to copy the things that they do.The Lord hates wicked people, but he makes righteous people his friends.The Lord curses the homes of wicked people, but he blesses the homes of righteous people.The Lord laughs at proud people who laugh at other people, but he is kind to humble people.Wise people will receive honour, But fools will only have shame.If you do that, you will make God happy. People will also be pleased and they will respect you.
This is what the Lord says: ‘I will answer your prayers at the time that I have chosen to help you. Yes, I will come to save you on that day. I will keep you safe, so that I can make a covenant with people through you. You will make the land safe again. People will return to live there, in places that had become empty.You will say to the prisoners, “Come out!” You will say to people who are in dark prisons, “Come outside!” Then they will be free to find food for themselves. They will eat along the road and on the tops of the hills.
At that time, you will live in the land that I gave to your ancestors. You will be my people and I will be your God.
Because God loves us, none of these troubles can ever beat us. He makes us win against them.
Yes, the Lord is good. He always loves us as his people. He always does what he has promised to us and to our descendants for ever.
We must not become tired as we do things that are good. We must not become so weak that we stop. Then we will receive a good harvest at the proper time.
I will pour water onto land that is thirsty. I will pour streams of water on the dry ground. I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants, and I will bless them.
His anger continues only for a moment, but he is kind to us for our whole life. We may be sad all through the night, but in the morning, we will be happy again.
Jesus said, ‘Go on asking God for what you need. Then God will give it to you. Go on looking for what you need. Then you will find it. Go on knocking at the door, and God will open it for you.Everyone who asks for something will receive it. Everyone who looks for something will find it. God will open the door for everyone who knocks on it.
I am not ashamed to tell people the good news. God uses that good news to show his great power. He uses it to save all people who believe in Jesus Christ. First, God saves Jews who believe the good news. And he also saves all Gentiles who believe.The good news explains how God accepts people as right with himself. He does this when they believe in Christ. It is only because of their faith. Nothing else. This is what was written in the Bible long ago: ‘The righteous person will live because he trusts God.’
You always show that people can trust you, from one century to the next. You have fixed the earth in its place, and it will remain.
The Mighty God is far higher than all others. He rules from above and he lives for ever. His name is holy. He says, ‘I live in a high and holy place. But I am also with anyone who is humble and who is sorry when he does wrong things. I will comfort people who are like that, and I will give them hope.
Instead, always think about the things that are important in the kingdom of heaven. Always do what God shows you is right. Then he will also give you the things that you need each day.
I pray that God will help you. He is the one who gives us peace in our minds. He caused our Lord Jesus Christ to become alive again after death. God forgives us because of the blood of Jesus' death on the cross. That is God's new covenant with his people that will be true for ever. Jesus is our great shepherd. He takes care of us like his sheep.I pray that God will give you every good thing that you need to serve him. Then you can do everything that he wants. I pray that God will help us to serve him in a way that will make him happy. He will do that because we belong to Jesus Christ. Jesus is very great, and we should praise him always and for ever! Amen.
I love your commands and they make me very happy.I respect your commands, and I love them. I am always thinking about your laws.
I look towards your holy temple, and I bend down to worship you. I thank you for who you are. You love your people with a faithful love and they can always trust you. You are more famous than anyone, because you always do what you promise.
I am with you, so do not be afraid. I am your God, so do not be upset. I will make you strong and I will help you. My powerful right hand will keep you safe.”
Come and see the great things that God has done. He has done wonderful miracles for people!
I will not spoil the covenant that I have made with him. I will always do what I have promised to do.I made a promise to David at one time, and that will not change. I promised him by my holy name and I will never deceive him.
God promised good things to Israel's people. But I am not saying that God's promises failed. It is clear that not all of Israel's people are God's true people.
The Lord says to his people, ‘You are the people who must say that I am right. I have chosen you as my servant. I chose you so that you may know me, and also believe in me. Then you would understand that I am the true God. There has never been any other god except me, and there never will be.
He remembered the covenant that he had made with them. Because of his faithful love for his people, he stopped punishing them.
Your faithful love for me is better than life itself. So I will speak aloud to praise you.
He never stopped believing what God had promised. Instead, he believed in God more strongly. He gave honour to God.
The Lord will do what he has promised for me. Yes, Lord, your faithful love will always continue. You have made us who we are, so do not leave us now!
I say to myself, ‘Praise the Lord!’ Lord, my God, you are very great! You rule with authority as a great king.You cause springs of water to pour along the valleys. Streams of water run between the hills.They give water to all the wild animals. Wild donkeys drink from them.The birds make their homes beside the streams. They sing from the branches of the trees.You pour down rain on the mountains from your home above the sky. You cause many fruits to grow on the earth.You give grass for farm animals to eat. You give crops for people to plant. In that way, people get food from the ground.They grow grapes for wine, which makes them happy. They grow olive trees for oil, which makes their faces shine. They grow grain for bread, which makes them strong.The Lord's own trees receive plenty of rain. They are the cedar trees that he planted in Lebanon.The birds make their nests there. Storks live there in the fir trees.The wild goats live high up in the mountains. Rock badgers hide among the rocks.You made the moon to show us the months and seasons. The sun also knows the right time for sunset.Light is all around you, like the clothes that you wear. You have put the skies as a roof over the earth.At night you make it dark, so that the forest animals come out.The lions roar while they look for animals to kill. They look for the food that God gives to them.At sunrise, they go back to their homes, and they lie down to rest.During the day, people go out to work. They work at their jobs until it is evening.Lord, you have made very many different things! You were very wise in the way that you have made them all. The earth is full of the living things that you have made.Look at the sea, which is deep and wide! It is full of living things, which are both large and small. They are more than anyone can count.Ships travel on the sea. You made the monster, Leviathan, to swim and to play in the sea.All these living things wait for you to give them their food when they need it.When you give it to them, they take it. You open your hand to feed them, and they have plenty of good things.When you turn away from them, they become very afraid. When you take away their breath, they die and they return to the dust.You have built the beams of your home on the clouds of rain. The clouds carry you as you travel, and you ride on the wind.But when you breathe into anything, it receives life. In that way, you bring new life to the earth.I pray that the glory of the Lord will continue for ever! I pray that the Lord will be happy with everything that he has made!When he looks down at the earth, it shakes! When he touches the mountains, they pour out smoke!All my life, I will sing to praise the Lord. I will always sing songs to praise my God, for as long as I live.I want my song to make him happy. I will be happy, because of what the Lord has done.I pray that wicked people will disappear from the earth. May they disappear for ever! I say to myself, ‘Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!’You use the winds to carry your messages. Flames of fire are your servants.You, Lord, built the earth on its strong foundations. Nothing will ever shake it from its place.
But God's Spirit causes us to live in a different way. We love other people. We are happy and we have peace in our minds. We are patient, kind and good. People can trust us to do what is right.We respect other people and we control ourselves properly. God's Spirit helps us to live in that way. There is no law that says these things are wrong.