Spiritual Gifts (I Corinthians 12:1-11) ESV

1    Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 

2    You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 

3    Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.

4    Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit;
5    and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord;
6    and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.
7    To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
8    For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit,
9    to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,
10  to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.
11  All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

Salvation is for All (Romans 10:5-21) ESV

5    For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.
6    But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down)
7    “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
8    But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);
9    because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 
10  For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 
11  For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
12  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.
13  For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14  How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
15  And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 
16  But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?”
17  So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
18  But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”

19  But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.”

20  Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”

21  But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

The Supremacy of God's Son (Hebrews 1) ESV

1   Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 

2   but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 

3    He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 

4    having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

5    For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”?  Or again,

“I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”?

6    And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God's angels worship him.”

7    Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.”

8    But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

9    You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;  therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

10   And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands;

11  they will perish, but you remain;  they will all wear out like a garment,
12  like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed.  But you are the same, and your years will have no end.”

13  And to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?

14  Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

Peace With God Through Faith (Romans 5:1-11) ESV

1    Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

2    Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 

3    Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 

4    and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 

5    and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

6    For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 

7    For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 

8    but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

9    Since, therefore, we ve now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 

10  For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 

11  More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received  

*******English Standard Version

God and His People (Romans 9:1-29) GNT

1    I am speaking the truth; I belong to Christ and I do not lie. My conscience, ruled by the Holy Spirit, also assures me that I am not lying
2    when I say how great is my sorrow, how endless the pain in my heart
3    for my people, my own flesh and blood! For their sake I could wish that I myself were under God's curse and separated from Christ.
4    They are God's people; he made them his children and revealed his glory to them; he made his covenants with them and gave them the Law; they have the true worship; they have received God's promises;
5    they are descended from the famous Hebrew ancestors; and Christ, as a human being, belongs to their race. May God, who rules over all, be praised forever! Amen.
6    I am not saying that the promise of God has failed; for not all the people of Israel are the people of God.
7    Nor are all of Abraham's descendants the children of God. God said to Abraham, "It is through Isaac that you will have the descendants I promised you."
8    This means that the children born in the usual way are not the children of God; instead, the children born as a result of God's promise are regarded as the true descendants.
9    For God's promise was made in these words:  "At the right time I will come back, and Sarah will have a son."
10   And this is not all. For Rebecca's two sons had the same father, our ancestor Isaac.
11   But in order that the choice of one son might be completely the result of God's own purpose, God said to her, "The older will serve the younger. "
12   He said this before they were born, before they had done anything either good or bad; so God's choice was based on his call, and not on anything they had done.
13   As the scripture says, "I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau."
14   Shall we say, then, that God is unjust? Not at all.
15   For he said to Moses, "I will have mercy on anyone I wish; I will take pity on anyone I wish.
16   So then, everything depends, not on what we humans want or do, but only on God's mercy.
17  For the scripture says to the king of Egypt, "I made you king in order to use you to show my power and to spread my fame over the whole world."
18  So then, God has mercy on anyone he wishes, and he makes stubborn anyone he wishes.
19  But one of you will say to me, "If this is so, how can God find fault with anyone? Who can resist God's will?"
20  But who are you, my friend, to talk back to God? A clay pot does not ask the man who made it, 
Why did you make me like this?
21  After all, the man who makes the pots has the right to use the clay as he wishes, and to make two pots from the same lump of clay, one for special occasions and the other for ordinary use.
22  And the same is true of what God has done. He wanted to show his anger and to make his power known. But he was very patient in enduring those who were the objects of his anger, who were doomed to destruction.
23  And he also wanted to reveal his abundant glory, which was poured out on us who are the objects of his mercy, those of us whom he has prepared to receive his glory
24  For we are the people he called, not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles.
25  This is what he says in the book of Hosea:  "The people who were not mine I will call 'My People.'  The nation that I did not love I will call 'My Beloved'.
26   And in the very place where they were told, 'You are not my people, 'there they will be called the children of the living God."
27   And Isaiah exclaims about Israel: "Even if the people of Israel are as many as the grains of sand by the sea, yet only a few of them will be saved;
28   for the Lord will quickly settle his full account with the world."
29   It is as Isaiah had said before, "If the Lord Almighty had not left us some descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah."

Praise to God for a Living Hope (I Peter 1:3-12) NIV

3    Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4    and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,
5    who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
6    In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
7    These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
8    Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
9    for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10  Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care,
11  trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.
12  It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

The Shepherd and His Flock (John 10:1-18) NIV

1    “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 
2    The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 
3    The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 
4    When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 
5    But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” 
6    Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.
7    Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 
8    All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 
9    I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 
10  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
11  “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 
12  The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 
13  The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14  “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 
15  just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 
16  I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 
17  The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 
18  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

Dead to Sin, Alive In Christ (Romans 6:1-14) NIV

1   What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
2    By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
3    Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4    We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5    For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
6    For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—
7    because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
8    Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
9    For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.
10  The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11   In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12   Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
13   Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.
14   For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace. 

Freedom In Christ (Galatians 5:1-15) NIV

1    It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
2    Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.
3    Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.
4    You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
5    For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.
6    For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
7    You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?
8    That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.
9    “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”
10   I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty.
11   Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.
12   As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!
13  You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
14   For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
15   If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

Footnotes:

1. Galatians 5:13 In contexts like this, the Greek word for flesh (sarx) refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit; also in verses 16, 17, 19 and 24; and in 6:8.
2. Galatians 5:14 Lev. 19:18

The Person and Work of Christ (Colossians 1:15-23) GNT

15  Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God. He is the first-born Son, superior to all created things.
16  For through him God created everything in heaven and on earth, the seen and the unseen things, including spiritual powers, lords, rulers, and authorities. God created the whole universe through him and for him.
17  Christ existed before all things, and in union with him all things have their proper place.
18  He is the head of his body, the church; he is the source of the body's life. He is the first-born Son, who was raised from death, in order that he alone might have the first place in all things.
19  For it was by God's own decision that the Son has in himself the full nature of God.
20  Through the Son, then, God decided to bring the whole universe back to himself. God made peace through his Son's blood on the cross and so brought back to himself all things, both on earth and in heaven.
21  At one time you were far away from God and were his enemies because of the evil things you did and thought.
22  But now, by means of the physical death of his Son, God has made you his friends, in order to bring you, holy, pure, and faultless, into his presence.
23  You must, of course, continue faithful on a firm and sure foundation, and must not allow yourselves to be shaken from the hope you gained when you heard the gospel. It is of this gospel that I, Paul, became a servant—this gospel which has been preached to everybody in the world.

Jesus Prays for All Believers (John 17:20-26) NIV

20  “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 
21  that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 
22  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 
23  I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24  “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
25  “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 
26  I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

The Work of the Holy Spirit (John 16:5-16) NIV

5    "Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, "Where are you going?'
6    Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief.  
7    But I tell you the truth:  It is for your good that I am going away.  Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
8    When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment;
9    in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 
10  in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 
11  and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
12  "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.  
13  But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.  He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
14  He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.
15  All that belongs to the Father is mine.  That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.
16  "In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me."

Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-31)NIV

15  “If you love me, keep my commands. 
16  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 
17  the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 
18  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 
19  Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 
20  On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 
21  Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
22  Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
23  Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 
24  Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25  “All this I have spoken while still with you. 
26  But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 
27  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
28  “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 
29  I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 
30  I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 
31  but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.  “Come now; let us leave.

Life Through the Spirit (Romans 8:1-17) NIV

1    Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
2    because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
3    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,
4    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.
5    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.
6    The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.
7    The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
8    Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
9    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.
10  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.
11  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.
12  Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.
13  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.
14  For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
15  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.” 
16  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
17  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.

God's Sure Promise (Hebrews 6:13-20) GNT

13  When God made his promise to Abraham, he made a vow to do what he had promised. Since there was no one greater than himself, he used his own name when he made his vow.
14  He said, "I promise you that I will bless you and give you many descendants."
15  Abraham was patient, and so he received what God had promised.
16  When we make a vow, we use the name of someone greater than ourselves, and the vow settles all arguments.
17  To those who were to receive what he promised, God wanted to make it very clear that he would never change his purpose; so he added his vow to the promise.
18  There are these two things, then, that cannot change and about which God cannot lie. So we who have found safety with him are greatly encouraged to hold firmly to the hope placed before us.
19  We have this hope as an anchor for our lives. It is safe and sure, and goes through the curtain of the heavenly temple into the inner sanctuary.
20  On our behalf Jesus has gone in there before us and has become a high priest forever, in the priestly order of Melchizedek.

Warning Against Falling Away (Hebrews 5:11-14 & Hebrews 6:1-12) NIV

^{Hebrews 5:11-14}
11  We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand.
12  In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!
13  Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.
14  But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Hebrews 6:1-12
1    Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God,
2    instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3    And God permitting, we will do so.
4    It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit,
5    who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age
6    and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
7    Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God.
8    But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.
9    Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case—the things that have to do with salvation.
10  God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.
11  We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized.
12  We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

Jesus Made Like His Brothers (Hebrews 2:5-18) NIV

5    It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking.
6    But there is a place where someone has testified:  “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him?
7    You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor
8    and put everything under their feet.”  In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.
9    But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
10  In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.
11  Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. 
12  He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises.”
13  And again, “I will put my trust in him.”  And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.”
14  Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—
15  and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 
16  For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 
17  For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18  Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. 

Life Through The Son (John 5:16-30) NIV

16  So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him.
17  In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.”
18  For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
19  Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
20  For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.
21  For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.
22  Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,
23  that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.
24  “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.
25  Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
26  For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.
27  And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.
28  “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice
29  and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.
30  By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

Thanksgiving And Prayer (2 Thessalonians 1:3-12)NIV

3    We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.
4    Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
5    All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.
6    God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you
7    and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.
8    He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
9    They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might
10  on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
11  With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.
12  We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Blood Of Christ (Hebrews 9:11-28) NIV

11  But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation.
12  He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.
13  The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.
14  How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
15  For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
16  In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it,
17  because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living.
18  This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood.
19  When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people.
20  He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.”
21  In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies.
22  In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
23  It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24  For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence.
25  Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own.
26  Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27  Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,
28  so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Applying the Blood of Jesus Prayer

Heavenly Father, I (we) bow and worship and praise before You and I (we) apply the Blood of Jesus Christ over myself (ourselves), each person that I (we) have prayed for today; from the tops of our heads to the soles of our feet. I (we) apply the Blood of Jesus over each of us, over the airways that surround us, over us and under us, over telephone lines, over our homes, properties, offices, cars, trucks, businesses, finances, marriages,  ministries, cell phone frequencies, and I (we) ask You to render powerless and harmless and nullify the power, destroy the power, cancel the power of any evil spirit, demonic spirit, demonic strongman, messenger of satan and witchcraft prayer that tries to come into our presence, our homes, everything in our homes, our pets, our properties, our cars, our trucks,  everything in our cars and trucks, our marriages, our finances, our ministries, our telephone lines, our telephone frequencies… in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Lord Jesus Christ, I (we) ask You to wash and cleanse my (our) mind(s) with Your Precious Blood. Give each of us clarity of thought; give each of us a sound and sober mind, in Jesus Christ Holy Name; according to John 14:14. To God be the Glory. Amen!

“Daily Confession of Faith” (Reprint from 1/8/12)

In Christ I am anointed and a powerful person of God.

I am a joint-heir with Jesus and more than a conqueror.

I am a doer of the Word of God and a channel for His blessings.

If God be for me, who can be against me?

I am blessed coming in and I am blessed

Going out. My enemies are fleeing before me. God has commanded

His blessing on my storehouses. He has opened His

Good treasures and I shall lend and not borrow.

I am the head and not the tail.

He has given me power to make wealth.

I dwell in the secret place I have

His protection and provision. God is my refuge, my fortress

I am not afraid of the snare of the fowler. No

Evil shall befall me and no plague shall come nigh

My dwelling. God has given his angels

Charge over me and they are bearing me up in their hands lest

I dash my foot against a stone, as declared in Psalms 91.

I Peter 2:9 establishes I am a chosen generation,

A royal priesthood, a holy nation.

I am a peculiar person called out of darkness

Into His marvelous light.

I Peter 2:24 states, I have been healed by the stripes of Jesus.

Cancer, sugar diabetes, heart disease, sickness,

Afflictions, infections, or any other disease can not enter my body.

I am without spot or blemish,

An intercessor, the righteousness of God, saved, and washed in the

Blood of Jesus.

“No weapon formed against me shall prosper, and every tongue

Which rises against me in judgment You shall condemn.

This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their

Righteousness is from Me," Says the LORD.

I am saved from wrath by Him and justified

by the Blood of the Lamb.

Lord I pray that those may prosper that love Jerusalem and that peace will be within them and prosperity in their houses according to Psalms 122:6-9. 

Jesus Made Like His Brothers (Hebrews 2:5-18)NIV

5    It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking.
6    But there is a place where someone has testified:  “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him?
7    You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor
8    and put everything under their feet.”
In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.
9    But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
10  In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.
11  Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.
12  He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises.”
13  And again, “I will put my trust in him.”  And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.”
14  Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—
15  and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
16  For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants.
17  For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18  Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

The Prayer of Faith (James 5:13-19) NIV

13  Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.
14  Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.
15  And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.
16  Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
17  Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
18  Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
19  My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back,

Praise To God For A Living Hope (I Peter 1:3-12) GNT

3    Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of his great mercy he gave us new life by raising Jesus Christ from death. This fills us with a living hope,
4    and so we look forward to possessing the rich blessings that God keeps for his people. He keeps them for you in heaven, where they cannot decay or spoil or fade away.
5   They are for you, who through faith are kept safe by God's power for the salvation which is ready to be revealed at the end of time.
6    Be glad about this, even though it may now be necessary for you to be sad for a while because of the many kinds of trials you suffer.
7   Their purpose is to prove that your faith is genuine. Even gold, which can be destroyed, is tested by fire; and so your faith, which is much more precious than gold, must also be tested, so that it may endure. Then you will receive praise and glory and honor on the Day when Jesus Christ is revealed.
8    You love him, although you have not seen him, and you believe in him, although you do not now see him. So you rejoice with a great and glorious joy which words cannot express,
9    because you are receiving the salvation of your souls, which is the purpose of your faith in him.
10  It was concerning this salvation that the prophets made careful search and investigation, and they prophesied about this gift which God would give you.
11  They tried to find out when the time would be and how it would come. This was the time to which Christ's Spirit in them was pointing, in predicting the sufferings that Christ would have to endure and the glory that would follow.
12  God revealed to these prophets that their work was not for their own benefit, but for yours, as they spoke about those things which you have now heard from the messengers who announced the Good News by the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. These are things which even the angels would like to understand.

Warning Against Unbelief (Hebrews 3:7-19) NIV

7    So, as the Holy Spirit says:  “Today, if you hear his voice,
8    do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness,
9    where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did.
10  That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’
11  So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
12  See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
13  But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
14  We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.
15  As has just been said:  “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”
16  Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?
17  And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness?
18  And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?
19  So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

The Validity of Jesus Testimony (John 8:12-30) GNT

12  Jesus spoke to the Pharisees again.  "I am the light of the world," he said. " Whoever follows me will have the light of life and will never walk in darkness."
13  The Pharisees said to him, Now you are testifying on your own behalf; what you say proves nothing.
14  No, Jesus answered, "even though I do testify on my own behalf, what I say is true, because I know where I came from and where I am going. You do not know where I came from or where I am going.
15  You make judgments in a purely human way; I pass judgment on no one.
16  But if I were to do so, my judgment would be true, because I am not alone in this; the Father who sent me is with me.
17  It is written in your Law that when two witnesses agree, what they say is true.
18  I testify on my own behalf, and the Father who sent me also testifies on my behalf."
19  Where is your father? they asked him.  "You know neither me nor my Father," Jesus answered.
"If you knew me, you would know my Father also."
20  Jesus said all this as he taught in the Temple, in the room where the offering boxes were placed. And no one arrested him, because his hour had not come.
21  Again Jesus said to them, "I will go away; you will look for me, but you will die in your sins. You cannot go where I am going."
22  So the Jewish authorities said, He says that we cannot go where he is going. Does this mean that he will kill himself
23  Jesus answered, "You belong to this world here below, but I come from above. You are from this world, but I am not from this world.
24  That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. And you will die in your sins if you do not believe that I Am Who I Am."
25  Who are you? they asked him. Jesus answered, "What I have told you from the very beginning.
26  I have much to say about you, much to condemn you for. The one who sent me, however, is truthful, and I tell the world only what I have heard from him."
27  They did not understand that Jesus was talking to them about the Father.
28  So he said to them, "When you lift up the Son of Man, you will know that 
I Am Who I Am; then you will know that I do nothing on my own authority, but I say only what the Father has instructed me to say.
29  And he who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him."
30  Many who heard Jesus say these things believed in him.

Freedom From Human Regulations Through Life With Christ (Colossians 2:6-23) NIV

6    So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,
7    rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
8    See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
9    For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,
10  and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.
11  In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ,
12  having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
13  When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
14  having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
15  And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
16  Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.
17  These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
18  Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind.
19  They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
20  Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules:
21  “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”?
22  These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.
23  Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

The Living Stone And A Holy Nation (I Peter 2:1-12) GNT

1    Rid yourselves, then, of all evil; no more lying or hypocrisy or jealousy or insulting language.
2    Be like newborn babies, always thirsty for the pure spiritual milk, so that by drinking it you may grow up and be saved.
3    As the scripture says, "You have found out for yourselves how kind the Lord is."
4    Come to the Lord, the living stone rejected by people as worthless but chosen by God as valuable.
5    Come as living stones, and let yourselves be used in building the spiritual temple, where you will serve as holy priests to offer spiritual and acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.
6    For the scripture says, "I chose a valuable stone, which I am placing as the cornerstone in Zion; and whoever believes in him will never be disappointed."
7    This stone is of great value for you that believe; but for those who do not believe:  "The stone which the builders rejected as worthless turned out to be the most important of all."
8    And another scripture says, "This is the stone that will make people stumble,

the rock that will make them fall."  They stumbled because they did not believe in the word; such was God's will for them.
9    But you are the chosen race, the King's priests, the holy nation, God's own people, chosen to proclaim the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his own marvelous light.
10  At one time you were not God's people, but now you are his people; at one time you did not know God's mercy, but now you have received his mercy.
11  I appeal to you, my friends, as strangers and refugees in this world! Do not give in to bodily passions, which are always at war against the soul.
12  Your conduct among the heathen should be so good that when they accuse you of being evildoers, they will have to recognize your good deeds and so praise God on the Day of his coming.

Submit Yourself To God (James 4:1-12)NIV

1    What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?
2    You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.
3    When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
4    You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
5    Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?
6    But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:  “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
7    Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8    Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9    Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
11  Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.
12  There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

Faith Without Actions (James 2:14-26)GNT

14  My friends, what good is it for one of you to say that you have faith if your actions do not prove it? Can that faith save you?
15  Suppose there are brothers or sisters who need clothes and don't have enough to eat.
16  What good is there in your saying to them, "God bless you! Keep warm and eat well!"—if you don't give them the necessities of life?
17  So it is with faith: if it is alone and includes no actions, then it is dead.
18  But someone will say, "One person has faith, another has actions." My answer is, "Show me how anyone can have faith without actions.   I will show you my faith by my actions."
19  Do you believe that there is only one God? Good! The demons also believe—and tremble with fear.
20  You fool! Do you want to be shown that faith without actions is useless?
21  How was our ancestor Abraham put right with God? It was through his actions, when he offered his son Isaac on the altar.
22  Can't you see? His faith and his actions worked together; his faith was made perfect through his actions.
23  And the scripture came true that said, "Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous."  And so Abraham was called God's friend.
24  You see, then, that it is by our actions that we are put right with God, and not by our faith alone.
25  It was the same with the prostitute Rahab. She was put right with God through her actions, by welcoming the Israelite spies and helping them to escape by a different road.
26  So then, as the body without the spirit is dead, also faith without actions is dead.

Warning Against Prejudice (James 2:1-13) GNT

1    My friends, as believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, you must never treat people in different ways according to their outward appearance.
2    Suppose a rich man wearing a gold ring and fine clothes comes to your meeting, and a poor man in ragged clothes also comes.
3    If you show more respect to the well-dressed man and say to him,
Have this best seat here, but say to the poor man, "Stand over there, or sit here on the floor by my feet,
4    then you are guilty of creating distinctions among yourselves and of making judgments based on evil motives.
5    Listen, my dear friends! God chose the poor people of this world to be rich in faith and to possess the kingdom which he promised to those who love him.
6    But you dishonor the poor! Who are the ones who oppress you and drag you before the judges? The rich!
7    They are the ones who speak evil of that good name which has been given to you.
8    You will be doing the right thing if you obey the law of the Kingdom, which is found in the scripture,
Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
9    But if you treat people according to their outward appearance, you are guilty of sin, and the Law condemns you as a lawbreaker.
10  Whoever breaks one commandment is guilty of breaking them all.
11  For the same one who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not commit murder." Even if you do not commit adultery, you have become a lawbreaker if you commit murder.
12  Speak and act as people who will be judged by the law that sets us free.
13  For God will not show mercy when he judges the person who has not been merciful; but mercy triumphs over judgment.