An Accounting of God’s Name

Mark’s Prophecy of Rich Blessings.

The People’s Testimony of Conscience for the Churches & To All Nations.

(Colored Engraving by :  C. Jacquemin after Langlois)
The State of the Origin or History of a Word or Name From its More Original Root or Stem
The Drawing or Tracing of a Word (“of a Name“) in its Development or Formation.
“derivation of a word, its etymology”  “Origination, Descent“
“The Act or Fact of drawing or receiving from a source“
“If you could feel the impulse of my mind“
From the Beginning.

Let’s Keep It Interesting, Yes?
“This is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, I will send My messenger ahead of You,
who will prepare Your way.”   “A voice of one calling in the wilderness,  ‘Prepare the way for the Lord,  make straight paths for Him.’ 
–  Mark 1
“consecrated to the god Mars”  “God of war”  “to be warlike“ “boundary, limit; sign, landmark”  “to denote” “sign, omen, aim”  “margin”

I Was Born to Do a Certain Job.
At best, a diligent student and a very imperfect practitioner of a philosophy developed by others.

Who Has Believed Our Message?

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“As Above, So Below.“

I Tell You The Future. Before It Happens, Just Like Magic.

The Word Which Was Ordained For a Thousand Generations Proved Right.

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“The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own.
Instead, it is the Father dwelling in Me, performing His works.
Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me—or at least believe on account of the works themselves.
Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I am doing. He will do even greater things than these, because
I am going to the Father.  And I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.   If you ask Me for anything in My name, I will do it.“
– John 14 (New International Version) “gift of jehova“

Mark  David  Rich

“To Denote”     “Beloved”     “Wealth“
“To Remove”    “Abhorrent”   “Poor“

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Rage Against The Machine – Testify

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3dvbM6Pias

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A Proclamation to The Nations.
Come Now.  Let Us Settle the Matter.
All Demographics Have Been Represented Here.
Therefore Do What We Say or We Shall Bring Democracy to Your Country.
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A Prophetic Oracle

Messages From God/Universe/Higher Intelligence Expressed by Divine Inspiration Through a Messenger, Prophet, Priest or Priestess.
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Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus

by: Theodor de Bry

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“Such will be the old age of the world: irreverence, disorder, disregard for everything good. When all this comes to pass, Asclepius, then the master and father, the god whose power is primary, governor of the first god, will look on this conduct and these willful crimes, and in an act of will – which is god’s benevolence – he will take his stand against the vices and the perversion in everything, righting wrongs, washing away malice in a flood or consuming it in fire or ending it by spreading pestilential disease everywhere. Then he will restore the world to its beauty of old so that the world itself will again seem deserving of worship and wonder, and with constant benedictions and proclamations of praise the people of that time will honor the god who makes and restores so great a work.”

–    Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus

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As Above, So Below.

A Special Civil Operation :  Pragmatic Idealism

On Earth as it is In Heaven.  A Biblical Renewal of All Things.

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“Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.  Without speech or language,
without a sound to be heard, their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens He has pitched a tent for the sun.“
–  Psalm 19

Mr.  President,

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Τ Ε Λ Ο Σ

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God’s Silence is Louder than Man’s Speach Yes?

Hello, My name is Mark Rich and I am a true son of David.
I have been sent to give you this weighty testimony for the churches because the times have reached their fulfillment.
For Your Consideration, a Millennial Vision of the gospel of the kingdom as “It is Written.”  The object of which is to usher forth the creation of a political move so sweeping as to immortalize the reign and legacy of all involved.  The Super Bowl of politicking.  A cosmic tidal wave. Shall we finish the remaining bit together?  Call it “The Rose Bowl?”  Your servant is listening. I Am Your “Freeman.”  “Free” as in “The Absence of restraint.”  Free in all the ways you are not.  A People’s grand reset to change the game.

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“As it is Written.“
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  I have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us in The Bible.  (“The Books“).  I have studied the Scriptures diligently, calling the past to account.  Of what was promised by our ancestors long ago.  Of what God said through his holy prophets (Isaiah).  In the spirit of prophecy, I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, (In the Beginning Was the Word.)  adding one thing to another to discover the general scheme of things.  Thus I present this orderly account for you so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.  I only ask you to look at what is obvious.  The word which was ordained for a thousand generations has been proved right.  

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Not of the Letter but of the Spirit
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As the “Archivist” and “Compiler” of These Collections of Books, I am not allowed to take credit for these words.  Only the arrangement.  I have pondered, searched out, and arranged many accurate words of truth.  Words of Wisdom that None of Your Adversaries Will be Able to Resist or Contradict.  This is Sound learning, worthy of full acceptance.  “Anthologies of the Masters.”   If you were to Accept This Coming Pattern of Teaching Which has Now Claimed your Allegiance.  As if “He” is making His Appeal through me (as “He” is working through all of us.)  Great truths common to all mankind.

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Building a Mystery.
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Taking it from an Eleveated Perspective.
There is something that has been trying to complete itself through human beings.
To use human beings as its vehicle.  Again and again, a fire is being built.  Some kind of wholeness trying to assemble itself.
The process is for serving some further end and I am the beginning of this transformation.  How is your curiosity?  Your Sense of adventure.

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Provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
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As I have sown much and harvested little.  I pray the word does not come back to me void.
That once my time of service is completed, that this hard working farmer, will be able to take part in the harvest.  As One cannot serve both God and money at the same time.

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Penance
A Call to Maturity and Endurance.
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May those who seek You not be dishonored through me.  As Obviously you are aware of my humble circumstances.  I have remained in seclusion for obvious reasons.  As no doubt I will be subjected to public humiliation from those who get a kick out of criticising others.  Merciless and destructive criticism in undermining much that has already been generally accepted.  Those who seem to threaten the very foundations of truth.  I will endure the scorn and the chastisement for the sake of the elect.  Perhaps your favor will be enough to take away my disgrace among the people.  Neverthless, my hypocrisy only goes so far.  It is the work upon which I stand.

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Leave Out All the Rest.
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Knock Knock, Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

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Gladiator – Now We Are Free Super Theme Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yOZEiHLuVU

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Bob Moses – Enough to Believe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqcbMlyPK48

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Star Trek Dimensions

 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/R2WdLJeBwpc

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The Key to Effective Leadership

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rSwVC-OK9AM

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 2 Thessalonians 2
(“Victory“)
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(New International Version)

The Man of Lawlessness

Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters,  not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come.  Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.  He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things?  And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time.  For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.  And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.  The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie,  and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.  For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

Stand Firm

But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.  He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,  encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

Dude Bro Trust Me

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Ark of the Covenant

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Jan Luyken, Pieter Mortier

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Enoch

(“dedicated, consecrated”  “he dedicated”  “the act of inaugurating, training, or dedicating something or someone” )
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” By “faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death:
“He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
–                               Hebrews 11 

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Lithograph by William Blake  (1803 – 1807)

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Enoch  is a person in the Book of Genesis.   He is described as a son of Cain, and father of Irad and Methuselah

Enoch is the subject of many Jewish and Christian traditions. He was considered the author of the Book of Enoch and also called the scribe of judgment.  In the New Testament, Enoch is referenced in the Gospel of Luke, the Epistle to the Hebrews, and in the Epistle of Jude, the last of which also quotes from it.  In the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Oriental Orthodoxy, he is venerated as a saint. In Islam, Enoch is identified with Idris (Arabic: إدريس, romanized: ʾIdrīs) and is considered a prophet.

There are few details about Enoch. We learn that he lived 365 years, and then Enoch “walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away” (Genesis 5:24)    Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enoch_(son_of_Cain)

After the birth of Enoch, the Hebrew text of Genesis 4:17 is unclear. Either Cain built a city and named it after the mighty Enoch, or else Enoch built a city.[1] In the King James Bible, the text makes it clear that Cain built the city and named it after his son.

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The Hierophant (V)  stands for tradition and convention.  It is the fifth card of the Major Arcana in occult Tarot decks. It is derived from the historical card known as the Pope in playing card decks and is used in divination.   It can represent marriage in an arranged setup.  It can also mean a teacher or counsellor who will help in learning / education of the querent.  A person, especially a priest in ancient Greece, who interprets sacred mysteries or esoteric principles.  One who teaches the rites of sacrifice and worship.  An expounder of esoteric doctrines.  “One who shows sacred things.”  To reveal, show, bring to light Sacred.  An interpreter of sacred Mysteries and arcane principles.  “To Show Holy”  A spokesperson, a commentator, an interpreter, or a leading advocate.  In most iconographic depictions, the Hierophant is seen seated on a throne between two pillars symbolizing Law and Freedom or obedience and disobedience, according to different interpretations. He wears a triple crown, and the keys to Heaven are at his feet. Sometimes he is shown with worshippers, as his alternate title is the Pope or, sometimes, Jupiter.  The card is also known as “The High Priest”, as a counterpart to “The High Priestess” (which itself is also sometimes known as “The Papess”, as counterpart to “The Pope”).

Interpretation

Marriage, alliance, captivity, servitude; by another account, mercy, and goodness; inspiration; the man to whom the Querent has recourse. Reversed: Society, good understanding, concord, over kindness, weakness.

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Isaiah (Outline)
“salvation of the Lord”   “salvation, deliverance.“
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https://biblehub.com/outline/isaiah/

1. The Judgments  ( 1:1⁠–⁠35:10 )

     a. Judgment and Hope for Judah  ( 1:1⁠–⁠12:6 )

          i.   Judgement for Sin  ( 1:1⁠–⁠6:13 )

                1. Judah’s Rebellion  ( 1:1⁠–⁠31 )

                2. Hope for the Future  ( 2:1⁠–⁠4:6 )

                         a. The Mountain of the House of the LORD  ( 2:1⁠–⁠5 )

                         b. Judgement on Jerusalem and Judah  ( 2:6⁠–⁠3:26 )

                         c. A Remnant in Zion  ( 4:1⁠–⁠6 )

                3. The Song of the Vineyard  ( 5:1⁠–⁠30 )

                4. Isaiah’s Commission  ( 6:1⁠–⁠13 )

          ii.  Prophecies Concerning Political Threats against Judah  ( 7:1⁠–⁠12:6 )

                1. Message to Ahaz King of Judah  ( 7:1⁠–⁠25 )

                         a. Aram and Israel Advance  ( 7:1⁠–⁠9 )

                         b. The Sign of Immanuel  ( 7:10⁠–⁠16 )

                         c. Judgement to Come  ( 7:17⁠–⁠25 )

                2. Assyrian Invasion Prophesied  ( 8:1⁠–⁠22 )

                3. Unto Us a Child Is Born  ( 9:1⁠–⁠7 )

                4. Judgement against Israel  ( 9:8⁠–⁠21 )

                       a. For Pride  ( 9:8⁠–⁠12 )

                       b. For Hypocrisy  ( 9:13⁠–⁠17 )

                       c. For Unrepentance  ( 9:18⁠–⁠21 )

                5. The Destruction of the Assyrian Empire  ( 10:1⁠–⁠34 )

                6. Messiah’s Kingdom through the Root of Jesse  ( 11:1⁠–⁠16 )

                7. Joyful Thanksgiving  ( 12:1⁠–⁠6 )

     b. Judgment and Hope for the Nations  ( 13:1⁠–⁠27:13 )

                i.   Judgements  ( 13:1⁠–⁠23:18 )

                                1. Against Babylon  ( 13:1⁠–⁠14:23 )

                                2. Against Assyria  ( 14:24⁠–⁠27 )

                                3. Against Philistia  ( 14:28⁠–⁠32 )

                                4. Against Moab  ( 15:1⁠–⁠16:13 )

                                5. Against Damascus  ( 17:1⁠–⁠14 )

                                6. Against Cush  ( 18:1⁠–⁠7 )

                                7. Against Egypt  ( 19:1⁠–⁠20:6 )

                                8. Against Babylon Again  ( 21:1⁠–⁠10 )

                                9. Against Edom  ( 21:11⁠–⁠12 )

                                10. Against Arabia  ( 21:13⁠–⁠17 )

                                11. Against the Valley of Vision  ( 22:1⁠–⁠25 )

                                12. Against Tyre  ( 23:1⁠–⁠18 )

          ii.  Judgment and Promise for the Future  ( 24:1⁠–⁠27:13 )

                1. God’s Judgement on the Earth  ( 24:1⁠–⁠23 )

                2. Praise to the Victorious God  ( 25:1⁠–⁠12 )

                3. A Song of Salvation  ( 26:1⁠–⁠21 )

                4. The LORD’s Vineyard  ( 27:1⁠–⁠13 )

     c. The Woes  ( 28:1⁠–⁠33:24 )

          i.   Woe to Ephraim  ( 28:1⁠–⁠29 )

          ii.  Woe to David’s City  ( 29:1⁠–⁠14 )

          iii. Woe to Those Who Rely on Foreign Alliances  ( 29:15⁠–⁠24 )

          iv. Woe to the Rebellious Children  ( 30:1⁠–⁠33 )

          v.  Woe to Those Who Rely on Egypt  ( 31:1⁠–⁠32:20 )

          vi. Woe to Assyria  ( 33:1⁠–⁠24 )

     d. Conclusion of Judgments and Hope  ( 34:1⁠–⁠35:10 )

          i.   Judgement on the Nations  ( 34:1⁠–⁠17 )

          ii.  The Glory of Zion  ( 35:1⁠–⁠10 )

2. The Nation of Judah from Assyria to Babylon  ( 36:1⁠–⁠39:8 )

     a. Judah Saved from the Assyrians  ( 36:1⁠–⁠37:38 )

          i.   Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem  ( 36:1⁠–⁠22 )

          ii.  The LORD Delivers Jerusalem  ( 37:1⁠–⁠38 )

     b. Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery  ( 38:1⁠–⁠22 )

     c. Hezekiah’s Error  ( 39:1⁠–⁠8 )

          i.   Hezekiah Shows His Treasures to Babylon  ( 39:1⁠–⁠2 )

          ii.  Isaiah Prophesies the Babylonian Exile  ( 39:3⁠–⁠8 )

3. The Salvation  ( 40:1⁠–⁠66:24 )

     a. The Deliverance from Exile  ( 40:1⁠–⁠48:22 )

          i.   Prepare the Way for the LORD  ( 40:1⁠–⁠31 )

          ii.  God’s Help to Israel  ( 41:1⁠–⁠29 )

          iii. God’s Servant  ( 42:1⁠–⁠9 )

          iv. A New Song of Praise  ( 42:10⁠–⁠25 )

          v.  Israel’s Only Savior  ( 43:1⁠–⁠28 )

                    1. The Holy One of Israel, your Savior  ( 43:1⁠–⁠13 )

                    2. A Way in the Wilderness  ( 43:14⁠–⁠21 )

                    3. Israel’s Unfaithfulness  ( 43:22⁠–⁠28 )

          vi. The LORD Has Chosen Israel  ( 44:1⁠–⁠20 )

          vii. Jerusalem to Be Restored  ( 44:21⁠–⁠28 )

          viii. God Calls Cyrus  ( 45:1⁠–⁠25 )

          ix. The Judgement of Babylon  ( 46:1⁠–⁠47:15 )

                    1. Babylon’s Idols  ( 46:1⁠–⁠13 )

                    2. The Humiliation of Babylon  ( 47:1⁠–⁠15 )

          x.  Deliverance Promised to Israel  ( 48:1⁠–⁠22 )

     b. The Servant’s Ministry  ( 49:1⁠–⁠55:8 )

          i.   The Servant and Light to the Gentiles  ( 49:1⁠–⁠26 )

          ii.  Israel’s Sin  ( 50:1⁠–⁠3 )

          iii. The Servant’s Obedience  ( 50:4⁠–⁠11 )

          iv. Salvation for Zion  ( 51:1⁠–⁠16 )

          v.  God’s Fury Removed  ( 51:17⁠–⁠23 )

          vi. Deliverance for Jerusalem  ( 52:1⁠–⁠12 )

          vii. The Servant Exalted  ( 52:13⁠–⁠15 )

          viii. The Suffering Servant  ( 53:1⁠–⁠12 )

          ix. The Future Blessing for Zion  ( 54:1⁠–⁠17 )

          x.  Invitation to the Needy  ( 55:1⁠–⁠8 )

     c. The Servants Inherit God’s Kingdom  ( 56:1⁠–⁠66:24 )

          i.   Salvation for the Nations  ( 56:1⁠–⁠8 )

          ii.  The Wicked and the Servants  ( 56:9⁠–⁠58:14 )

                    1. Israel’s Sinful Leaders  ( 56:9⁠–⁠12 )

                    2. The Blessed Death of the Righteous  ( 57:1⁠–⁠2 )

                    3. God Condemns Idolatry  ( 57:3⁠–⁠13 )

                    4. Healing for the Repentant  ( 57:14⁠–⁠21 )

                    5. True Fasts and Sabbaths  ( 58:1⁠–⁠14 )

          iii. Prayer of Repentance  ( 59:1⁠–⁠21 )

                    1. Sin Separates Us from God  ( 59:1⁠–⁠15 )

                    2. Salvation is Only of God  ( 59:16⁠–⁠19 )

                    3. The Covenant of the Redeemer  ( 59:20⁠–⁠21 )

          iv. God’s Kingdom  ( 60:1⁠–⁠62:12 )

                    1. Future Glory for Zion  ( 60:1⁠–⁠22 )

                    2. The Year of the LORD’s Favor  ( 61:1⁠–⁠11 )

                    3. Zion’s Salvation and New Name  ( 62:1⁠–⁠12 )

          v.  Prayer for Mercy  ( 63:1⁠–⁠64:12 )

                  1. God’s Vengeance on the Nations  ( 63:1⁠–⁠6 )

                  2. God’s Mercies Recalled  ( 63:7⁠–⁠14 )

                  3. The People Pray  ( 63:15⁠–⁠64:12 )

          vi. The Righteous and the Wicked  ( 65:1⁠–⁠66:17 )

                  1. Judgement and Promises  ( 65:1⁠–⁠16 )

                  2. A New Heaven and a New Earth  ( 65:17⁠–⁠25 )

                  3. Heaven Is My Throne  ( 66:1⁠–⁠6 )

                  4. Rejoice with Jerusalem  ( 66:7⁠–⁠14 )

                  5. Final Judgments against the Wicked  ( 66:15⁠–⁠17 )

          vii. Call to the Nations  ( 66:18⁠–⁠24 )

The Science of Classification. 

“Arrangement.”    –    “Categorization.“

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Saint Mark the Evangelist

By : Vladimir Borovikovsky
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(Icon from the royal gates of the central iconostasis of the Kazan Cathedral in St.-Petersburgh)

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Jacob’s Ladder

“The Bridge Between Man and God”

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A Drawing By William Blake

A staircase representing the Gulf between man and God.

Jacob’s Ladder, or Jacob’s Dream, illustration to the Bible painted for Thomas Butts, Genesis, xxviii, 12;

Jacob lies in Foreground left dreaming, behind him rises spiral staircase amid stars and golden rays above,

three women stand at foot of staircase carrying trays and urns, other figures ascend or descend stairs. c.1799-1807

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Judging “God.“

Taking God’s “Measure“.  A “Coincidence of Opposites.“

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Engraving of the “thrice-great Hermes” by Michael Maier in Symbola aureae mensae (1617):
In Maier’s rendering, Hermes Trismegistus holds an armillary sphere and points to images of the
Sun and Moon (Sol and Luna; Sulphur and Mercury) being joined by fire–the process that creates the Philosopher’s Stone.

“For none of the heavenly gods will go down to earth, leaving behind the bounds of heaven, yet the human rises up to heaven and takes its measure and knows what is in its
heights and its depths, and he understands all else exactly and – greater than all of this – he comes to be on high without leaving earth behind,  so enormous
is his range. Therefore, we must dare to say that the human on earth is a mortal god but that god in heaven is an immortal human.
Through these two, then, cosmos and human, all things exist, but they all exist by action of the one.“

                                                                                                                          –               Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus  (From Stolcius ,Viridarium Chymicun 1624)

Saint Paul the Apostle

۩۞۩ஜ▬Saint Paul

By Peter Paul Rubens (c. 1611)

Of the 27 books in the New Testament, 13 identify Paul as the author
Epistle to the Romans :  1 Corinthians  ;  2 Corinthians  :  Epistle to the Galatians  :  Ephesians  :  Philippians  : 
Epistle to the Colossians  :  1 Thessalonians  :  1 Timothy  :  2 Timothy  :  Titus  :  Philemon  :  Hebrews

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          The figure of Paul his person and his ministry, the whole of his life and his hard work for the Kingdom of God is entirely dedicated to the service of the Gospel. In these texts one notices a sense of movement where the protagonist is not man, but God, the breath of the Holy Spirit, that impels the Apostle on the highways of the world to bring the Good News to everyone: the promises of the Prophets are fulfilled in Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, who died for our sins and was raised for our justification. Saul is no longer, instead there is Paul, indeed there is Christ who lives in him (cf. Gal 2:20) and wants to reach out to all people. Although the Feast of the Holy Patrons of Rome thus calls to mind the twofold aspiration to unity and to universality that is characteristic of this Church, the context in which we are gathered this evening calls us to give priority to the latter, letting ourselves, so to speak, be “drawn” by St Paul and his extraordinary vocation.”

– Pope Benedict XVI

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Saint Peter the Apostle

by Peter Paul Rubens (1610–1612)

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One of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ and One of the First Leaders of the Early Christian Church.
Depicted Here vested in the pallium and
holding the Keys of Heaven.

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Saint James the Great

By : Peter Paul Rubens (1612–1613)

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.James is described as one of the first disciples to join Jesus

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Job

by :  Léon Bonnat (1880)

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Ancient Wisdom & Guidance from Classical Antiquity

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An Archaic Definition of God.

That There Exists A Single, True Theology Which is Present in All Religions. Given by God to humankind in the distant, primeval past.

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Hermes Trismegistus

Attributed to Stefano di Giovanni (1488)

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        “God, as The maker of the world and all it contains.  The Essential Nature Underlying All Phenomena in the Universe.  The entire combination of cosmic influence, renewed by nature.  The continuous influence that carries through all the world, through all souls and all forms throughout nature.  The fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence.  God governs all things along with mankind.  And mankind is what then governs what is composite.  Those who would miss the point of this proclamation are people of reason because they do not know the purpose or the agents of their coming to be.  Sensation much like those of unreasoning animals since their temperament is willful and angry, they feel no awe of things that deserve to be admired; they divert their attention to the pleasures and appetites of their bodies; and they believe that mankind came to be for such purposes.

And after this: “…, o my mind. I love the word also.” Poimandres (“Knowledge of Re / Shepard of Men”) said: “This is the mystery that has been kept hidden until this very day. When nature made love with the man, she bore a wonder most wondrous. In him he had the nature of the cosmic framework of the seven, who are made of fire and spirit, as I told you, and without delay nature at once gave birth to seven men, androgyne and exalted, whose natures were like those of the seven governors.”

                                                                                                           –               Hermes Trismegistus  (A contemporary of Moses)  (Source:  Corpus Hermeticum)

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Saint Timothy

– By:  Unknown –

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Timothy (Greek: Τιμόθεος, Timótheos, meaning “honouring God” or “honoured by God“)
was an early Christian evangelist and the first Catholic bishop of Ephesus, whom the Acts of Timothy relates died around the year AD 97.
The Apostle Paul met him during his second missionary journey and he became Paul’s companion and missionary partner.

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“It is Written.“
The Mystery of the Gospel Revealed.
To Those Who Live by Faith, Not by Sight.
“Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll.“
This is the Covenant I Will Make With Them After That Time
I Will Put my Laws in Their Hearts, and I Will Write Them on Their Minds.
Although I am Less Than the Least of all the Lord’s People, this Grace Was Given Me.
I Only Ask you to Look at What is Obvious Because I am Only a Poor Man and Little Known.
In Reading This, Then, You will be Able to Understand my Insight Into the Mystery of Christ & The Gospel.
 “Riches Found in Hidden Places.”  Called By Name.  The Word has Become Flesh.  The Boundless Manifold Wisdom of Christ.  “Transfiguration.“
Salvation is Found in No One Else, for There is No Other Name Under Heaven Given to Mankind by Which we Must be Saved.  (Oh That’s Right, I Went There.)
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An Accounting of God’s Name

Mark’s Prophecy of Rich Blessings.

The People’s Testimony of Conscience & Offering for the Churches & To All Nations.

(Colored Engraving by :  C. Jacquemin after Langlois)
The State of the Origin or History of a Word or Name From its More Original Root or Stem
The Drawing or Tracing of a Word (“of a Name“) in its Development or Formation.
“derivation of a word, its etymology”  “Origination, Descent“
“The Act or Fact of drawing or receiving from a source“
“If you could feel the impulse of my mind“
From the Beginning.

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I Tell You The Future

Before It Happens Just Like Magic

The Word Which Was Ordained For a Thousand Generations Proved Right.

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“The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own.
Instead, it is the Father dwelling in Me, performing His works.
Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me—or at least believe on account of the works themselves.
Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I am doing. He will do even greater things than these, because
I am going to the Father.  And I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.   If you ask Me for anything in My name, I will do it.“
– John 14 (New International Version) “gift of jehova“

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Mark David Rich

“To Denote”     “Beloved”     “Wealth“
“To Remove”    “Abhorrent”   “Poor“
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Tony Anderson – The King

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVIqlKNwKyU
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A Proclamation to The Nations.
Come Now.  Let Us Settle the Matter.
All Demographics Have Been Represented Here.
Therefore Do What We Say or We Shall Bring Democracy to Your Country.
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 Revelation 22
“Disclosure of information or knowledge to man by a divine or supernatural agency.”
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“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
“I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”

KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
                                                         –  2 Corinthians 12  (“point” “peak“)

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The Earliest Known Surviving Depiction of Jesus Christ  as ‘Pantocrator‘ (literally “Ruler of All“)

(From Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai.)
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Entrust These Commands & Regulations.  It is The Word Which Judges Justly.
(If Serving The Holy Author of Our Religeon Seems Undesirable to You,
Then Choose for Yourselves, This Day Whom you Will Serve.)
“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.  He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.  For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.“
–  Ephesians 2  (“overseer.“)

Let’s Keep It Interesting, Yes?
“This is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, I will send My messenger ahead of You,
who will prepare Your way.”   “A voice of one calling in the wilderness,  ‘Prepare the way for the Lord,  make straight paths for Him.’ 
–  Mark 1
“consecrated to the god Mars”  “God of war”  “to be warlike“ “boundary, limit; sign, landmark”  “to denote” “sign, omen, aim”  “margin”

I Was Born to Do a Certain Job.
At best, a diligent student and a very imperfect practitioner of a philosophy developed by others.

Who Has Believed Our Message?

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The “Winged Lion ” With the Scroll of Isaiah.

Symbol of Saint Mark the Evangelist

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These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. 
What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.  See I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
–  Revelation 3
“Disclosure of information or knowledge to man by a divine or supernatural agency.”
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“I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”
“Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy written in this scroll.”
“Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll, because the time is near.
“Look, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy written in this scroll.”
“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done.
Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right
continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy.” I will give to each person according to what they have done.
–   Revelation 22
“Disclosure of information or knowledge to man by a divine or supernatural agency.”

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“You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.
Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
–  Mark 10  (NIV)
“consecrated to the god Mars”  “God of war”  “to be warlike“ “boundary, limit; sign, landmark”  “to denote” “sign, omen, aim”  “margin”

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God’s Chosen Servant
Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill.  He warned them not to tell others about him.  This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:  “Here is my servant whom I have chosen,  the one I love, in whom I delight;  I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.  He will not quarrel or cry out;  no one will hear his voice in the streets.  A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he has brought justice through to victory.  In his name the nations will put their hope.”
               –  Matthew 12     (“gift of Jehovah”)

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Isaiah 42
“salvation of the Lord” “salvation, deliverance“
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(Berean Standard Bible)

Here Is My Servant

“Here is My Servant, whom I uphold,

My Chosen One, in whom My soul delights.

I will put My Spirit on Him,

and He will bring justice to the nations.

He will not cry out or raise His voice,

nor make His voice heard in the streets.

A bruised reed He will not break

and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish;

He will faithfully bring forth justice.

He will not grow weak or discouraged

before He has established justice on the earth.

In His law the islands will put their hope.”

This is what God the LORD says—

He who created the heavens

and stretched them out,

who spread out the earth and its offspring,

who gives breath to the people on it

and life to those who walk in it:

“I, the LORD, have called you

for a righteous purpose,

and I will take hold of your hand.

I will keep you and appoint you

to be a covenant for the people

and a light to the nations,

to open the eyes of the blind,

to bring prisoners out of the dungeon

and those sitting in darkness

out from the prison house.

I am the LORD;

that is My name!

I will not yield My glory to another

or My praise to idols.

Behold, the former things have happened,

and now I declare new things.

Before they spring forth

I proclaim them to you.”

A New Song of Praise

Sing to the LORD a new song—

His praise from the ends of the earth—

you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,

you islands, and all who dwell in them.

Let the desert and its cities raise their voices;

let the villages of Kedar cry aloud.

Let the people of Sela sing for joy;

let them cry out from the mountaintops.

Let them give glory to the LORD

and declare His praise in the islands.

The LORD goes forth like a mighty one;

He stirs up His zeal like a warrior.

He shouts; yes, He roars

in triumph over His enemies:

“I have kept silent from ages past;

I have remained quiet and restrained.

But now I will groan like a woman in labor;

I will at once gasp and pant.

I will lay waste the mountains and hills

and dry up all their vegetation.

I will turn the rivers into dry land

and drain the marshes.

I will lead the blind by a way they did not know;

I will guide them on unfamiliar paths.

I will turn darkness into light before them

and rough places into level ground.

These things I will do for them,

and I will not forsake them.

But those who trust in idols

and say to molten images, ‘You are our gods!’

will be turned back in utter shame.

Israel Is Deaf and Blind

Listen, you deaf ones;

look, you blind ones, that you may see!

Who is blind but My servant,

or deaf like the messenger I am sending?

Who is blind like My covenant partner,

or blind like the servant of the LORD?

Though seeing many things, you do not keep watch.

Though your ears are open, you do not hear.”

The LORD was pleased, for the sake of His righteousness,

to magnify His law and make it glorious.

But this is a people plundered and looted,

all trapped in caves or imprisoned in dungeons.

They have become plunder with no one to rescue them,

and loot with no one to say, “Send them back!”

Who among you will pay attention to this?

Who will listen and obey hereafter?

Who gave Jacob up for spoil,

and Israel to the plunderers?

Was it not the LORD,

against whom we have sinned?

They were unwilling to walk in His ways,

and they would not obey His law.

So He poured out on them His furious anger

and the fierceness of battle.

It enveloped them in flames,

but they did not understand;

it consumed them,

but they did not take it to heart.

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 2 Thessalonians 2
(“Victory“)
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(New International Version)

The Man of Lawlessness

Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters,  not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come.  Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.  He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things?  And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time.  For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.  And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.  The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie,  and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.  For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

Stand Firm

But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.  He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,  encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

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 Revelation 1
“Disclosure of information or knowledge to man by a divine or supernatural agency.”
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(New International Version)

Prologue

This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon come to pass. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John, who testifies to everything he saw. This is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and obey what is written in it, because the time is near.

John Greets the Seven Churches

John,

To the seven churches in the province of Asia:

Grace and peace to you from Him who is and was and is to come, and from the seven Spirits before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To Him who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood, who has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and power forever and ever! Amen.

Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him—even those who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and was and is to come—the Almighty.

John’s Vision on Patmos

I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance that are in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and my testimony about Jesus.  On the Lord’s day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, saying, “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was One like the Son of Man, dressed in a long robe, with a golden sash around His chest.  The hair of His head was white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like a blazing fire.  His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the roar of many waters.  He held in His right hand seven stars, and a sharp double-edged sword came from His mouth. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.

When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. But He placed His right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last, the Living One. I was dead, and behold, now I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of Death and of Hades.

Therefore write down the things you have seen, and the things that are, and the things that will happen after this.  This is the mystery of the seven stars you saw in My right hand and of the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

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Hebrews 1
(“a biblical Jew Israelite” “one from the other side“)
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(New International Version)

God’s Final Word: His Son

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways,  but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.  The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.  So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.

The Son Superior to Angels

For to which of the angels did God ever say,

Or again,

And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says,

In speaking of the angels he says,

But about the Son he says,

He also says,

To which of the angels did God ever say,

Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

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Ephesians 3
(“overseer.“)
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(Berean Standard Bible)

The Mystery of the Gospel

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles…

Surely you have heard about the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly.  In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets.  This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.

I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace, given me through the working of His power.  Though I am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to illuminate for everyone the stewardship of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.  His purpose was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to the eternal purpose that He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In Him and through faith in Him we may enter God’s presence with boldness and confidence.  So I ask you not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.

Paul’s Prayer for the Ephesians

… for this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  I ask that out of the riches of His glory He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then you, being rooted and grounded in love, will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth of the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

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John 1
(“Jehovah has favored” “Jah is gracious,” “he was gracious“)
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(Berean Standard Bible)

The Beginning

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.  In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The Witness of John

There came a man who was sent from God. His name was John.  He came as a witness to testify about the Light, so that through him everyone might believe.  He himself was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.

The true Light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him.  He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.  But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— children born not of blood, nor of the desire or will of man, but born of God.

The Word Became Flesh

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.  We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John testified concerning Him. He cried out, saying, “This is He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me.’”

From His fullness we have all received grace upon grace.  For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.

The Mission of John the Baptist

And this was John’s testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, “Who are you?” He did not refuse to confess, but openly declared, “I am not the Christ.”

“Then who are you?” they inquired. “Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

He answered, “No.”

So they said to him, “Who are you? We need an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet:

“I am a voice of one calling in the wilderness,

‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”

Then the Pharisees who had been sent asked him, “Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

“I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands One you do not know.  He is the One who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

All this happened at Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Jesus the Lamb of God

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!  This is He of whom I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me.’  I myself did not know Him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that He might be revealed to Israel.”

Then John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and resting on Him.  I myself did not know Him, but the One who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit descend and rest is He who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’  I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”

The First Disciples

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples.  When he saw Jesus walking by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”  And when the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.

Jesus turned and saw them following. “What do you want?” He asked.

They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are You staying?”

“Come and see,” He replied. So they went and saw where He was staying, and spent that day with Him. It was about the tenth hour.

Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John’s testimony and followed Jesus.  He first found his brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated as Christ).

Andrew brought him to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which is translated as Peter).

Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael

The next day Jesus decided to set out for Galilee. Finding Philip, He told him, “Follow Me.”  Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the same town as Andrew and Peter.

Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the One Moses wrote about in the Law, the One the prophets foretold—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

“Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Nathanael asked.

“Come and see,” said Philip.

When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, He said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.”

“How do You know me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus replied, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”

“Rabbi,” Nathanael answered, “You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

Jesus said to him, “Do you believe just because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.”  Then He declared, “Truly, truly, I tell you, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

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Mark 12
“consecrated to the god Mars”  “God of war”  “to be warlike“
“boundary, limit; sign, landmark”  “to denote” “sign, omen, aim”  “margin”
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(New International Version)

The Parable of the Tenants

Jesus then began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.

“He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

“But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’  So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.

“What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.  Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture:

Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.

Paying the Imperial Tax to Caesar

Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words.  They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?  Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”

But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.”   They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”

And they were amazed at him.

Marriage at the Resurrection

Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.  “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.  Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children.  The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third.  In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too.  At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”

Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?  When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.  Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’ ?   He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”

The Greatest Commandment

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’  The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’   There is no commandment greater than these.”

“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him.   To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

Whose Son Is the Messiah?

While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, “Why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David?   David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared:

David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?”

The large crowd listened to him with delight.

Warning Against the Teachers of the Law

As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces,  and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.   They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”

The Widow’s Offering

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.  But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.  They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

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Matthew 16
(“gift of Jehovah”)
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(New international Version)

The Demand for a Sign

The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.

He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’  and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.   A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away.

The Yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees

When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread.  “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

They discussed this among themselves and said, “It is because we didn’t bring any bread.”

Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, “You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?  Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?  How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”  Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Peter Declares That Jesus Is the Messiah

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter,  and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Jesus Predicts His Death

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.  What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?  For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.

“Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

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1 Peter 5
“stone, rock“
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(New International Version)

To the Elders and the Flock

To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed:  Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.  And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.  Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.  To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Final Greetings

With the help of Silas, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it.

She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark.  Greet one another with a kiss of love.

Peace to all of you who are in Christ.

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Isaiah 45
“salvation of the Lord” “salvation, deliverance“
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(New King James Version)

Cyrus, God’s Instrument

The Lord, the Only Savior

Thus says the Lord:

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Proverbs 25
” A common saying, old adage, maxim”   “words put forth“
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(New International Version)

More Proverbs of Solomon

These are more proverbs of Solomon, compiled by the men of Hezekiah king of Judah:

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1 John 1
(“Jehovah has favored”  “Jah is gracious”  “he was gracious“)
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(New International Version)

The Incarnation of the Word of Life

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.  The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.  We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.  We write this to make our joy complete.

Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

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Isaiah 53
“salvation of the Lord” “salvation, deliverance“
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(New King James Version)

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Matthew 13
(“gift of jehova“)
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(New International Version)

The Parable of the Sower

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake.  Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore.  Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed.  As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.  Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.  But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.  Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.  Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.  Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.   Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.   This is why I speak to them in parables:

In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.  For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means:  When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.  The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.  But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.  The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.  But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

The Parable of the Weeds

Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.  But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.  When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

“The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

“ ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

“ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them.  Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ ”

The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.  Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”

He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.  So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:

The Parable of the Weeds Explained

Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man.  The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

“As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.  The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.  They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.   Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.

The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.  When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

The Parable of the Net

“Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish.  When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away.  This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

“Have you understood all these things?” Jesus asked.

“Yes,” they replied.

He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”

A Prophet Without Honor

When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there.  Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked. “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?”  And they took offense at him.

But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home.”

And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.

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Matthew 24
(“gift of Jehovah”)
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(Berean Standard Bible)

Temple Destruction and Other Signs

As Jesus left the temple and was walking away, His disciples came up to Him to point out its buildings.

“Do you see all these things?” He replied. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

While Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?”

Jesus answered, “See to it that no one deceives you.  For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.  You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come.  Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of birth pains.

Witnessing to All Nations

Then they will deliver you over to be persecuted and killed, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.  At that time many will fall away and will betray and hate one another, and many false prophets will arise and deceive many.

Because of the multiplication of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.  But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

The Abomination of Desolation

So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by the prophet Daniel (let the reader understand),  then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.  Let no one on the housetop come down to retrieve anything from his house.  And let no one in the field return for his cloak.

How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers!  Pray that your flight will not occur in the winter or on the Sabbath.  For at that time there will be great tribulation, unseen from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be seen again.  If those days had not been cut short, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.

At that time, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There He is!’ do not believe it.  For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive even the elect, if that were possible.  See, I have told you in advance.

The Return of the Son of Man

So if they tell you, ‘There He is, in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or, ‘Here He is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.  For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.  Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days:

‘The sun will be darkened,

and the moon will not give its light;

the stars will fall from the sky,

and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’

At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven,  and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

The Lesson of the Fig Tree

Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its branches become tender and sprout leaves, you know that summer is near.  So also, when you see all these things, you will know that He is near, right at the door.  Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

Readiness at Any Hour

No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man.  For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark.  And they were oblivious until the flood came and swept them all away. So will it be at the coming of the Son of Man.  Two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day on which your Lord will come.  But understand this: If the homeowner had known in which watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.  For this reason, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.

Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household, to give the others their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.  Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.

But suppose that servant is wicked and says in his heart, ‘My master will be away a long time.’  And he begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards.  The master of that servant will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not anticipate.  Then he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

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Romans 8
(“of Rome.“)
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(New Internatioanl Version)

Life Through the Spirit

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.  And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.  The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.  The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.  Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.  But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.  And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.  For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.  The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.  And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.  Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Present Suffering and Future Glory

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.  For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

More Than Conquerors

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?  Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.  Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written:

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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2 Peter 1
“stone, rock“
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(New International Version)

Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:

Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Confirming One’s Calling and Election

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.  Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.  For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Prophecy of Scripture

So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have.  I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.  And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.

For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.  He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”  We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.  Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things.  For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

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Isaiah 40
( “salvation of the Lord”  “salvation, deliverance” )
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(Berean Standard Bible)

Prepare the Way for the LORD

“Comfort, comfort My people,”

says your God.

“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and proclaim to her

that her forced labor has been completed;

her iniquity has been pardoned.

For she has received from the hand of the LORD

double for all her sins.”

A voice of one calling:

“Prepare the way for the LORD in the wilderness;

make a straight highway for our God in the desert.

Every valley shall be lifted up,

and every mountain and hill made low;

the uneven ground will become smooth,

and the rugged land a plain.

And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,

and all humanity together will see it.

For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

The Enduring Word

A voice says, “Cry out!”

And I asked, “What should I cry out?”

“All flesh is like grass,

and all its glory like the flowers of the field.

The grass withers and the flowers fall

when the breath of the LORD blows on them;

indeed, the people are grass.

The grass withers and the flowers fall,

but the word of our God stands forever.”

Here Is Your God!

Go up on a high mountain,

O Zion, herald of good news.

Raise your voice loudly,

O Jerusalem, herald of good news.

Lift it up,

do not be afraid!

Say to the cities of Judah,

“Here is your God!”

Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might,

and His arm establishes His rule.

His reward is with Him,

and His recompense accompanies Him.

He tends His flock like a shepherd;

He gathers the lambs in His arms

and carries them close to His heart.

He gently leads the nursing ewes.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,

or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand?

Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,

or weighed the mountains on a scale

and the hills with a balance?

Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD,

or informed Him as His counselor?

Whom did He consult to enlighten Him,

and who taught Him the paths of justice?

Who imparted knowledge to Him

and showed Him the way of understanding?

Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;

they are considered a speck of dust on the scales;

He lifts up the islands like fine dust.

Lebanon is not sufficient for fuel,

nor its animals enough for a burnt offering.

All the nations are as nothing before Him;

He regards them as nothingness and emptiness.

To whom will you liken God?

To what image will you compare Him?

To an idol that a craftsman casts

and a metalworker overlays with gold

and fits with silver chains?

To one bereft of an offering

who chooses wood that will not rot,

who seeks a skilled craftsman

to set up an idol that will not topple?

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?

Have you not understood since the foundation of the earth?

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth;

its dwellers are like grasshoppers.

He stretches out the heavens like a curtain,

and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

He brings the princes to nothing

and makes the rulers of the earth meaningless.

No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown,

no sooner have their stems taken root in the ground,

than He blows on them and they wither,

and a whirlwind sweeps them away like stubble.

“To whom will you liken Me,

or who is My equal?” asks the Holy One.

Lift up your eyes on high:

Who created all these?

He leads forth the starry host by number;

He calls each one by name.

Because of His great power and mighty strength,

not one of them is missing.

Why do you say, O Jacob,

and why do you assert, O Israel,

“My way is hidden from the LORD,

and my claim is ignored by my God”?

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary;

His understanding is beyond searching out.

He gives power to the faint

and increases the strength of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall.

But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength;

they will mount up with wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not faint.

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Hebrews 4
(“a biblical Jew Israelite” “one from the other side“)
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(Berean Standard Bible)

The Sabbath Rest

Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be deemed to have fallen short of it.   For we also received the good news just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, since they did not share the faith of those who comprehended it.

Now we who have believed enter that rest. As for the others, it is just as God has said:

“So I swore on oath in My anger,

‘They shall never enter My rest.’ ”

And yet His works have been finished since the foundation of the world.  For somewhere He has spoken about the seventh day in this manner: “And on the seventh day God rested from all His works.”  And again, as He says in the passage above: “They shall never enter My rest.”

Since, then, it remains for some to enter His rest, and since those who formerly heard the good news did not enter because of their disobedience,  God again designated a certain day as “Today,” when a long time later He spoke through David as was just stated: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.  There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God.  For whoever enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His.  Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same pattern of disobedience.

The Living Word

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.   Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we profess.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin.  Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

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Isaiah 50
(“salvation of the Lord,“)
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Christian Standard Bible

This is what the Lord says:

Where is your mother’s divorce certificate

that I used to send her away?

Or to which of my creditors did I sell you?

Look, you were sold for your iniquities,

and your mother was sent away

because of your transgressions.

Why was no one there when I came?

Why was there no one to answer when I called?

Is my arm too weak to redeem?

Or do I have no power to rescue?

Look, I dry up the sea by my rebuke;

I turn the rivers into a wilderness;

their fish rot because of lack of water

and die of thirst.

I dress the heavens in black

and make sackcloth their covering.

The Obedient Servant

The Lord God has given me

the tongue of those who are instructed

to know how to sustain the weary with a word.

He awakens me each morning;

he awakens my ear to listen like those being instructed.

The Lord God has opened my ear,

and I was not rebellious;

I did not turn back.

I gave my back to those who beat me,

and my cheeks to those who tore out my beard.

I did not hide my face from scorn and spitting.

The Lord God will help me;

therefore I have not been humiliated;

therefore I have set my face like flint,

and I know I will not be put to shame.

The one who vindicates me is near;

who will contend with me?

Let us confront each other.

Who has a case against me?

Let him come near me!

In truth, the Lord God will help me;

who will condemn me?

Indeed, all of them will wear out like a garment;

a moth will devour them.

Who among you fears the Lord

and listens to his servant?

Who among you walks in darkness,

and has no light?

Let him trust in the name of the Lord;

let him lean on his God.

Look, all you who kindle a fire,

who encircle yourselves with torches;

walk in the light of your fire

and of the torches you have lit!

This is what you’ll get from my hand:

you will lie down in a place of torment.

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Isaiah 53
“salvation of the Lord”
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(Berean Standard Bible)

The Suffering Servant

Who has believed our message?

And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,

and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no stately form or majesty to attract us,

no beauty that we should desire Him.

He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.

Like one from whom men hide their faces,

He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.

Surely He took on our infirmities

and carried our sorrows;

yet we considered Him stricken by God,

struck down and afflicted.

But He was pierced for our transgressions,

He was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him,

and by His stripes we are healed.

We all like sheep have gone astray,

each one has turned to his own way;

and the LORD has laid upon Him

the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,

yet He did not open His mouth.

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,

so He did not open His mouth.

By oppression and judgment He was taken away,

and who can recount His descendants?

For He was cut off from the land of the living;

He was stricken for the transgression of My people.

A Grave Assigned
(Matthew 27:57–61; Mark 15:42–47; Luke 23:50–56; John 19:38–42)

He was assigned a grave with the wicked,

and with a rich man in His death,

although He had done no violence,

nor was any deceit in His mouth.

Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him

and to cause Him to suffer;

and when His soul is made a guilt offering,

He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days,

and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.

After the anguish of His soul,

He will see the light of life and be satisfied.

By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many,

and He will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great,

and He will divide the spoils with the strong,

because He has poured out His life unto death,

and He was numbered with the transgressors.

Yet He bore the sin of many

and made intercession for the transgressors.

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Matthew 12
(“gift of Jehovah”)
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(New International Version)

Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them.  When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?  He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.  Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent?  I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.  If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.  For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?  How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other.  But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.

God’s Chosen Servant

Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill.  He warned them not to tell others about him.  This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

Jesus and Beelzebul

Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see.  All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”

But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”

Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.  If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?  And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges.  But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

“Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.

“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.  And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.  Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.  You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.  A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.  But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.  For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

The Sign of Jonah

Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”

He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.  For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.  The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.  The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here.

“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.  Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order.  Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”

Jesus’ Mother and Brothers

While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him.  Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”

He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”  Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers.  For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

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Romans 12
(“of Rome”)
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(New International Version)

A Living Sacrifice

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.  Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Humble Service in the Body of Christ

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.  For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,  so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.  We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

Love in Action

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.  Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.  Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.  Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.  Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.  Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.  Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.  Do not be conceited.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.  If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.  Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.  On the contrary:

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

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Isaiah 49
“salvation of the Lord” “salvation, deliverance“
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(Berean Standard Bible)

The Servant and Light to the Gentiles

Listen to Me, O islands;

pay attention, O distant peoples:

The LORD called Me from the womb;

from the body of My mother He named Me.

He made My mouth like a sharp sword;

He hid Me in the shadow of His hand.

He made Me like a polished arrow;

He hid Me in His quiver.

He said to Me, “You are My Servant, Israel,

in whom I will display My glory.”

But I said, “I have labored in vain,

I have spent My strength in futility and vanity;

yet My vindication is with the LORD,

and My reward is with My God.”

And now says the LORD,

who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,

to bring Jacob back to Him,

that Israel might be gathered to Him—

for I am honored in the sight of the LORD,

and My God is My strength—

He says: “It is not enough for You to be My Servant,

to raise up the tribes of Jacob,

and to restore the protected ones of Israel.

I will also make You a light for the nations,

to bring My salvation to the ends of the earth.”

Thus says the LORD,

the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel,

to Him who was despised and abhorred by the nation,

to the Servant of rulers:

“Kings will see You and rise,

and princes will bow down,

because of the LORD, who is faithful,

the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen You.”

This is what the LORD says:

“In the time of favor I will answer You,

and in the day of salvation I will help You;

I will keep You and appoint You

to be a covenant for the people,

to restore the land,

to apportion its desolate inheritances,

to say to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’

and to those in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’

They will feed along the pathways,

and find pasture on every barren hill.

They will not hunger or thirst,

nor will scorching heat or sun beat down on them.

For He who has compassion on them will guide them

and lead them beside springs of water.

I will turn all My mountains into roads,

and My highways will be raised up.

Behold, they will come from far away,

from the north and from the west,

and from the land of Aswan.”

Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth;

break forth in song, O mountains!

For the LORD has comforted His people,

and He will have compassion on His afflicted ones.

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me;

the Lord has forgotten me!”

“Can a woman forget her nursing child,

or lack compassion for the son of her womb?

Even if she could forget,

I will not forget you!

Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;

your walls are ever before Me.

Your builders hasten back;

your destroyers and wreckers depart from you.

Lift up your eyes and look around.

They all gather together; they come to you.

As surely as I live,” declares the LORD,

“you will wear them all as jewelry

and put them on like a bride.

For your ruined and desolate places

and your ravaged land

will now indeed be too small for your people,

and those who devoured you will be far away.

Yet the children of your bereavement

will say in your hearing,

‘This place is too small for us;

make room for us to live here.’

Then you will say in your heart,

‘Who has begotten these for me?

I was bereaved and barren;

I was exiled and rejected.

So who has reared them?

Look, I was left all alone,

so where did they come from?’”

This is what the Lord GOD says:

“Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations,

and raise My banner to the peoples.

They will bring your sons in their arms

and carry your daughters on their shoulders.

Kings will be your foster fathers,

and their queens your nursing mothers.

They will bow to you facedown

and lick the dust at your feet.

Then you will know that I am the LORD;

those who hope in Me will never be put to shame.”

Can the plunder be snatched from the mighty,

or the captives of a tyrant be delivered?

Indeed, this is what the LORD says:

“Even the captives of the mighty will be taken away,

and the plunder of the tyrant will be retrieved;

I will contend with those who contend with you,

and I will save your children.

I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh;

they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine.

Then all mankind will know that I, the LORD,

am your Savior and your Redeemer,

the Mighty One of Jacob.”

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1 John 5
(“Jehovah has favored”  “Jah is gracious”  “he was gracious“)
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(New International Version)

Faith in the Incarnate Son of God

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.  This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.  In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.  Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.  For there are three that testify:  the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.  We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.  Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.  And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.  Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Concluding Affirmations

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.  This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that.  All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.

We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them.  We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.  We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.

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Colossians 1
“gigantic statue”   “any thing of awesome greatness or vastness”   “the idea of setting up a sacred space or shrine.“
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(New International Version)

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father. 

Thanksgiving and Prayer

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,  because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.  You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.  For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The Supremacy of the Son of God

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.  For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.  But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Paul’s Labor for the Church

Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.  I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people.  To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.  To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.

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Hebrews 11
(“a biblical Jew Israelite” “one from the other side“)
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(New International Version)

Faith in Action

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.  This is what the ancients were commended for.

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.”  For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.  And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.  By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.  For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.  And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.  And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.  People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.  If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.  Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”  Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.

By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.

By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.

By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.  He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.  He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.  By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.  By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.

By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.

By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. 

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.  Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection.  Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.  They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

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1 John 4
(“Jehovah has favored”  “Jah is gracious”  “he was gracious“)
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(New International Version)

On Denying the Incarnation

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.  This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.  They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.  We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

God’s Love and Ours

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.  If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.  And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.  This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.  There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us.  Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.  And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

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1 John 2
(“Jehovah has favored”  “Jah is gracious”  “he was gracious“)
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(New International Version)

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.  He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Love and Hatred for Fellow Believers

We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.  Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.  But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him:  Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard.  Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.  Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.  But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

Reasons for Writing

On Not Loving the World

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.  For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

Warnings Against Denying the Son

Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.  They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.  I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.  Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son.  No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.  And this is what he promised us—eternal life.

I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.  As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

God’s Children and Sin

And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

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Ephesians 4
(“overseer.“)
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(New International Version)

Unity and Maturity in the Body of Christ

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.  This is why it says:

(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions?  He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)  So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.  Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.  From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Instructions for Christian Living

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.  They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.  Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.  You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.  “In your anger do not sin”  : Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.  Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

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Colossians 4
“gigantic statue”   “any thing of awesome greatness or vastness”   “the idea of setting up a sacred space or shrine.“
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(New King James Version)

Christian Graces; Final Greetings

Masters, give your bondservants what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

Christian Graces

Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.

Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.  Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

Final Greetings

Tychicus, a beloved brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me.  I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts, with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will make known to you all things which are happening here.

Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, with Mark the cousin of Barnabas (about whom you received instructions: if he comes to you, welcome him), and Jesus who is called Justus. These are my only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are of the circumcision; they have proved to be a comfort to me.

Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.  For I bear him witness that he has a great zeal for you, and those who are in Laodicea, and those in Hierapolis.  Luke the beloved physician and Demas greet you.  Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea, and Nymphas and the church that is in his house.

Closing Exhortations and Blessing

Now when this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.  And say to Archippus, “Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.”

This salutation by my own hand—Paul. Remember my chains. Grace be with you. Amen.

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Psalm 32
“sacred poem or song“
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(King James Version)

The Providence of God

{A Psalm of David, Maschil.} Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.

For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.

Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.

Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.

Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about.

Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

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Proverbs 18
” A common saying, old adage, maxim”   “words put forth“
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(New King James Version)

The Name of the Lord Is a Strong Tower

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Psalm 25
“sacred poem or song“
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(King James Version)

To You, O Lord, I Lift Up My Soul

{A Psalm of David.}

א

Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.

ב

O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.

ג

Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.

ד

Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.

הו

Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.

ז

Remember, O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.

ח

Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O LORD.

ט

Good and upright is the LORD: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.

י

The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.

כ

All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

ל

For thy name’s sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.

מ

What man is he that feareth the LORD? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.

נ

His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth.

ס

The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.

ע

Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.

פ

Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted.

צ

The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses.

ר

Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.

Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred.

ש

O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee.

ת

Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.

Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.

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Pslams 123
(“sacred poem or song”)
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(Berean Standard Bible)

I Lift Up My Eyes to You

                                            A song of ascents.

I lift up my eyes to You,

the One enthroned in heaven.

As the eyes of servants

look to the hand of their master,

as the eyes of a maidservant

look to the hand of her mistress,

so our eyes are on the LORD our God

until He shows us mercy.

Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy,

for we have endured much contempt.

We have endured much scorn from the arrogant,

much contempt from the proud.

The Winged Lion.

With the Scroll of Isaiah

The Symbol of Saint Mark.  “The Messiah’s Herald.“

Evangelist

An Evangelist is one of a class of spiritual beings.  Attendants and messengers of God.  A way of life and a practice of announcing or proclaiming good news.  Evangelists are Christian preachers who proclaims good news and tries to persuade people to become Christians.  “Bringer of good news”  “the reward of good tidings“

The feast of St. Mark, who was a cousin of barnabas (“son of exhortation”  “son of prophecy”  “son of consolation“
“son of the right hand”  and who accompanied the apostle Paul (“small” “little“)  on his first missionary journey ;
later he followed him to Rome.

The lion is one of Mark’s symbols because his Gospel begins with the voice of one crying in the desert,
and the lion was seen as an image of such a creature

Hello World.
Thank You For Your Attention.  My Name Is Mark.
I Have Made Myself Nothing.  For “The Pride of Man.”  From the Top to the Bottom.  As Above, So Below.
“Those who are going to rule in the authoritative offices ought to have three things: first, affection for the established regime; next, a very great capacity for the work involved in rule; third, virtue and justice –  in each regime the sort that is relative to the regime… It is difficult to find all three of these in many men, but it is important for the regime to make use of the men with these qualities to the greatest degree possible, or else the regime will be harmed, either by sedition, incompetence, or corruption… While the virtuous also have a claim to rule, the very fact that they are virtuous leads them to avoid factional conflict.  They are also too small a group to be politically consequential.”
–   Aristotle

“States will never be happy until rulers become philosophers or philosophers become rulers.“
– PLATO, The Republic
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Christopher Tin – Sogno di Volare (“The Dream of Flight”) (Civilization VI Main Theme)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQYN2P3E06s

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Archetype:  ALCHEMIST

“Scientist”  “Psychologist”  “Logician”  “Strategist“
 “Researcher”  “Archivist”  “Compiler”  “Writer”   “Messenger”  “Teacher”  “Civil Servant”
“Watchman”   “Intercessor” “Tertiary Adjunct Witness.“

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History –  Culture
Religion  –  Theology – Eschatology
Psychology  –  Philosophy  –   Epistemology –  Linguistics  –  Literature
Etymology – – Philology –  Onomastics –  Toponymy –  Theurgy –  Hermetics – Hermeneutics 
Theophany – Theodicy –  Mythology – Cosmography – Stoichiometry – Sortition  – Ethnography  –  Folklore
Lexicography – Doxology – Phylogeny – Ontogeny –  Tropology –  Ontology –  Anthropology – Phenomenology – Praxeology –  Trust Law
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Dispute Resolution.
A Special Civil Operation.
The People Request a Coming & Going.
In Order To Make the Rough Places Smooth.
As a witness or mediator, umpire, judge. arbiter,   He who hears and Decides a Case.
A Special Citizen Who is Entitled to Participate in an Office Involving Deliberation or Decision.
A Person who has Power of Judging Absolutely According to his Own Pleasure in a Dispute or Issue.
To Be The One Chosen by Two Disputing Parties to Decide a Matter.  Someone who Settles Disputes.  One Who Goes Somewhere (as witness or judge).
As the Proposer of this new Motion/Law. I Request to be Used as a Spectator & Eye-Witnesses. A Right or Privilege Exclusive to a Particular Individual or Class.
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The End of Capitalism is Closer Than You Think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F2FyxVGfwo
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“The dread of evil is a much more forcible principle of human actions than the prospect of good.”
“It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of the truth.” 
                                                                                            –  John Locke

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1 Corinthians 4
(“point” “peak“)
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(New International Version)

The Nature of True Apostleship

This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed.  Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.  I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself.  My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.  Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.

Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other.  For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you!  For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings.  We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!  To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.  We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it;  when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.

Paul’s Appeal and Warning

I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children.  Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.  Therefore I urge you to imitate me.  For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.

Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you.  But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have.  For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.  What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline, or shall I come in love and with a gentle spirit?

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Deuteronomy 30
“second law”  “after-law”  “assign, allot; take”  
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(New International Version)

Prosperity After Turning to the Lord

When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come on you and you take them to heart wherever the Lord your God disperses you among the nations, and when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.  Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back.  He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors.  The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.  The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you.  You will again obey the Lord and follow all his commands I am giving you today.  Then the Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your ancestors, if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

The Offer of Life or Death

Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.  It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”  Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”  No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.  For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,  I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

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James 2
“one that takes by the heel; a supplanter“
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(New International Version)

Favoritism Forbidden

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.  Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in.  If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,”  have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?  But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?  Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?

If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,”  you are doing right.  But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.  For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.  For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,”   also said, “You shall not murder.”  If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom,  because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith and Deeds

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?  Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.  You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless ?   Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?  You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.  And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”  and he was called God’s friend.  You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?  As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

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Ephesians 5
(“overseer.“)
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(Berean Standard Bible)

Imitators of God

Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.

But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or crude joking, which are out of character, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.  Therefore do not be partakers with them.

Children of Light

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,  for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.  Test and prove what pleases the Lord.

Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.  For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.  But everything exposed by the light becomes visible,  for everything that is illuminated becomes a light itself.  So it is said:

“Wake up, O sleeper,

rise up from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.”

Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,  redeeming the time, because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.  Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to reckless indiscretion. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord,  always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Wives and Husbands

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior.  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her  to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,  and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.

In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.  Indeed, no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.  For we are members of His body.

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”  This mystery is profound, but I am speaking about Christ and the church.  Nevertheless, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

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1 Timothy 1
(“honor, respect”  “Honoring God“)
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(Berean Standard Bible)

Paul’s Greeting to Timothy

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,

To Timothy, my true child in the faith:

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Correcting False Teachers

As I urged you on my departure to Macedonia, you should stay on at Ephesus to instruct certain men not to teach false doctrines or devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculation rather than the stewardship of God’s work, which is by faith.

The goal of our instruction is the love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a sincere faith.  Some have strayed from these ways and turned aside to empty talk.  They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not understand what they are saying or that which they so confidently assert.

Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it legitimately.  We realize that law is not enacted for the righteous, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for killers of father or mother, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave traders and liars and perjurers, and for anyone else who is averse to sound teaching  that agrees with the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.

God’s Grace to Paul

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, that He considered me faithful and appointed me to service.  I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man; yet because I had acted in ignorance and unbelief, I was shown mercy.  And the grace of our Lord overflowed to me, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

This is a trustworthy saying, worthy of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.  But for this very reason I was shown mercy, so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His perfect patience as an example to those who would believe in Him for eternal life.  Now to the King eternal, immortal, and invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.