Romans 1
16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ.
It is the power of God at work,
saving everyone who believes...
17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight.
This is accomplished from start to finish by faith.
As the Scriptures say,
“It is through faith that a righteous person has life."
John 10
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. 12 A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don’t belong to him and he isn’t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. 13 The hired hand runs away because he’s working only for the money and doesn’t really care about the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, 15 just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.
17 “The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. 18 No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.”
1 John 4
7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another,
for love comes from God.
Anyone who loves
is a child of God
and knows God.
8 But anyone who does not love
does not know God,
for God is love.
9 God showed how much he loved us
by sending his one and only Son into the world
so that we might have eternal life through him.
10 This is real love—not that we loved God,
but that he loved us
and sent his Son
as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much,
we surely ought to love each other.
12 No one has ever seen God.
But if we love each other,
God lives in us,
and his love is brought to full expression in us.
13 And God has given us his Spirit
as proof that we live in him
and he in us.
14 Furthermore,
we have seen with our own eyes
and now testify
that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God
have God living in them,
and they live in God.
16 We know how much God loves us,
and we have put our trust in his love.
God is love,
and all who live in love live in God,
and God lives in them.
17 And as we live in God,
our love grows more perfect.
So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment,
but we can face him with confidence
because we live like Jesus here in this world.
18 Such love has no fear,
because perfect love expels all fear.
If we are afraid,
it is for fear of punishment,
and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.
19 We love each other because he loved us first.
20 If someone says,
“I love God,”
but hates a fellow believer,
that person is a liar;
for if we don’t love people we can see,
how can we love God,
whom we cannot see?
21 And he has given us this command:
Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.
1 John 3
1 See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. 2 Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. 3 And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.
4 Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. 5 And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him. 6 Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.
7 Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. 8 But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. 9 Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God. 10 So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.
11 This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous. 13 So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.
14 If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. 15 Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.
16 We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person?
18 Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. 19 Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. 20 Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.
21 Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. 22 And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.
23 And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.
This is the disciple, John, writing these words...
Do these few verses seem pretty appropriate & relevant to things these days?
1 John 2
1 My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin.
But if anyone does sin,
we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father.
He is Jesus Christ,
the one who is truly righteous.
2 He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins;
and not only our sins
but the sins of all the world.
3 And we can be sure that we know him
if we obey his commandments.
4 If someone claims, “I know God,”
but doesn’t obey God’s commandments,
that person is a liar
and is not living in the truth.
5 But those who obey God’s word
truly show how completely they love him.
That is how we know we are living in him.
6 Those who say they live in God
should live their lives as Jesus did.
1 John 1
5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you:
God is light,
and there is no darkness in him
at all.
6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God
but go on living in spiritual darkness;
we are not practicing the truth.
7 But if we are living in the light,
as God is in the light,
then we have fellowship with each other,
and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we claim we have no sin,
we are only fooling ourselves
and not living in the truth.
9 But if we confess our sins to him,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
10 If we claim we have not sinned,
we are calling God a liar
and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
2 Peter 3
1 This is my second letter to you, dear friends, and in both of them I have tried to stimulate your wholesome thinking and refresh your memory. 2 I want you to remember what the holy prophets said long ago and what our Lord and Savior commanded through your apostles.
3 Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. 4 They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”
5 They deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. 6 Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. 7 And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.
8 But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. 9 The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.
11 Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, 12 looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames. 13 But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.
14 And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.
15 And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him— 16 speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction.
Psalm 73:24-26
24 You will keep on guiding me with your counsel,
leading me to a glorious destiny.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
I desire you more than anything on earth.
26 My health may fail,
and my spirit may grow weak,
but God remains the strength of my heart;
he is mine forever.
2 Peter 1
3 As we know Jesus better,
his divine power gives us
everything we need for living a godly life.
We have received all of this by coming to know him,
the one who called us to himself
by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.
4 And because of his glory and excellence,
he has given us great and precious promises.
These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature
and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises.
Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence,
and moral excellence with knowledge,
6 and knowledge with self-control,
and self-control with patient endurance,
and patient endurance with godliness,
7 and godliness with brotherly affection,
and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
8 The more you grow like this,
the more productive and useful you will be
in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind,
forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.
10 So, dear brothers and sisters,
work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen.
Do these things,
and you will never fall away.
11 Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
John 1
1 In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He existed in the beginning with God.
3 God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
4 The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
6 God sent a man, John the Baptist, 7 to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. 8 John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. 9 The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
1 Peter 4
1 So then, since Christ suffered physical pain,
you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had,
and be ready to suffer, too.
For if you have suffered physically for Christ,
you have finished with sin.
2 You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires,
but you will be anxious to do the will of God.
3 You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy;
their immorality and lust,
their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties,
and their terrible worship of idols.
4 Of course, your former friends are surprised
when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do.
So they slander you.
5 But remember that they will have to face God,
who stands ready to judge everyone,
both the living and the dead.
6 That is why the Good News was preached to those who are now dead;
so although they were destined to die like all people,
they now live forever with God in the Spirit.
7 The end of the world is coming soon.
Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers.
8 Most important of all,
continue to show deep love for each other,
for love covers a multitude of sins.
9 Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.
10 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts.
Use them well to serve one another.
11 Do you have the gift of speaking?
Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you.
Do you have the gift of helping others?
Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies.
Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ.
All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.
1 Peter 3
8 Finally, all of you should be of one mind.
Sympathize with each other.
Love each other as brothers and sisters.
Be tenderhearted,
and keep a humble attitude.
9 Don’t repay evil for evil.
Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you.
Instead,
pay them back with a blessing.
That is what God has called you to do,
and he will grant you his blessing.
10 For the Scriptures say,
“If you want to enjoy life
and see many happy days,
keep your tongue from speaking evil
and your lips from telling lies.
11 Turn away from evil and do good.
Search for peace, and work to maintain it.
12 The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right,
and his ears are open to their prayers.
But the Lord turns his face
against those who do evil.”
13 Now, who will want to harm you if you are eager to do good?
14 But even if you suffer for doing what is right,
God will reward you for it.
So don’t worry or be afraid of their threats.
15 Instead,
you must worship Christ as Lord of your life.
And if someone asks about your hope as a believer,
always be ready to explain it.
16 But do this in a gentle and respectful way.
Keep your conscience clear.
Then if people speak against you,
they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live
because you belong to Christ.
17 Remember,
it is better to suffer for doing good,
if that is what God wants,
than to suffer for doing wrong!
Psalm 37
1 Don’t worry about the wicked
or envy those who do wrong.
2 For like grass, they soon fade away.
Like spring flowers, they soon wither.
3 Trust in the Lord and do good.
Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.
4 Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you your heart’s desires.
5 Commit everything you do to the Lord.
Trust him, and he will help you.
6 He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn,
and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.
7 Be still in the presence of the Lord,
and wait patiently for him to act.
Don’t worry about evil people who prosper
or fret about their wicked schemes.
8 Stop being angry!
Turn from your rage!
Do not lose your temper—
it only leads to harm.
9 For the wicked will be destroyed,
but those who trust in the Lord will possess the land.
10 Soon the wicked will disappear.
Though you look for them, they will be gone.
11 The lowly will possess the land
and will live in peace and prosperity.
12 The wicked plot against the godly;
they snarl at them in defiance.
13 But the Lord just laughs,
for he sees their day of judgment coming.
14 The wicked draw their swords
and string their bows
to kill the poor and the oppressed,
to slaughter those who do right.
15 But their swords will stab their own hearts,
and their bows will be broken.
16 It is better to be godly and have little
than to be evil and rich.
17 For the strength of the wicked will be shattered,
but the Lord takes care of the godly.
18 Day by day the Lord takes care of the innocent,
and they will receive an inheritance that lasts forever.
19 They will not be disgraced in hard times;
even in famine they will have more than enough.
20 But the wicked will die.
The Lord’s enemies are like flowers in a field—
they will disappear like smoke.
21 The wicked borrow and never repay,
but the godly are generous givers.
22 Those the Lord blesses will possess the land,
but those he curses will die.
23 The Lord directs the steps of the godly.
He delights in every detail of their lives.
24 Though they stumble, they will never fall,
for the Lord holds them by the hand.
25 Once I was young, and now I am old.
Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned
or their children begging for bread.
26 The godly always give generous loans to others,
and their children are a blessing.
27 Turn from evil and do good,
and you will live in the land forever.
28 For the Lord loves justice,
and he will never abandon the godly.
He will keep them safe forever,
but the children of the wicked will die.
29 The godly will possess the land
and will live there forever.
30 The godly offer good counsel;
they teach right from wrong.
31 They have made God’s law their own,
so they will never slip from his path.
32 The wicked wait in ambush for the godly,
looking for an excuse to kill them.
33 But the Lord will not let the wicked succeed
or let the godly be condemned when they are put on trial.
34 Put your hope in the Lord.
Travel steadily along his path.
He will honor you by giving you the land.
You will see the wicked destroyed.
35 I have seen wicked and ruthless people
flourishing like a tree in its native soil.
36 But when I looked again, they were gone!
Though I searched for them, I could not find them!
37 Look at those who are honest and good,
for a wonderful future awaits those who love peace.
38 But the rebellious will be destroyed;
they have no future.
39 The Lord rescues the godly;
he is their fortress in times of trouble.
40 The Lord helps them,
rescuing them from the wicked.
He saves them,
and they find shelter in him.
