And help my son Solomon be true to you.\par Help him always obey your commands, laws, and rules.\par Help Solomon to do these things.\par and help him build this capital city\par that I have planned.”\par
The guards (prophets) are all blind.\par They don’t know what they are doing.\par They are like dogs that won’t bark.\par They lie on the ground and sleep.\par Oh, they love to sleep.\par
“In the future, I will make this Agreement {\cf2\super [261]} with the people of Israel.” This message is from the Lord. “I will put my teachings in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
I will bring them together and make them like one person. I will put a new spirit {\cf2\super [98]} in them. I will take away that heart of stone, and I will put a real heart in its place.
Then Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. I praise you because you have hidden these things from the wise and smart people. But you have shown these things to people that are like little children.
Stay away from the Pharisees. {\cf2\super [208]} They lead the people, but they are like blind men leading other blind men. And if a blind man leads another blind man, then both men will fall into a hole.”
After three days they found him. Jesus was sitting in the temple {\cf2\super [42]} area with the religious teachers, listening and asking them questions.
One day Jesus was teaching the people. The Pharisees {\cf2\super [94]} and teachers of the law were sitting there too. They had come from every town in Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. The Lord (God) was giving Jesus the power to heal people.
One of the Pharisees {\cf2\super [102]} in the meeting stood up. His name was Gamaliel. He was a teacher of the law, and all the people respected him. He told the men to make the apostles leave the meeting for a few minutes.
But we are the people who are truly circumcised. {\cf2\super [16]} We worship (serve) God through his Spirit. {\cf2\super [17]} We are proud to be in Christ Jesus. And we don’t trust in ourselves or anything we can do.
In Christ you had a different kind of circumcision. {\cf2\super [9]} That circumcision was not done by the hands of any person. I mean you were made free from the power of your sinful self. That is the kind of circumcision Christ does.