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First Reading: Micah Chapter 6 and 7Micah 6
6:1 Listen to what the LORD says:
"Stand up, plead your case before the mountains; let the hills hear what
you have to say. 2 Hear, O mountains, the LORD's accusation; listen, you everlasting
foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against his people; he is
lodging a charge against Israel.
3 "My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer
me. 4 I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery.
I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam. 5 My people, remember what
Balak king of Moab counseled and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember
[ your journey] from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts
of the LORD."
6 With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will
the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the
sin of my soul? 8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the
LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with
your God.
9 Listen! The LORD is calling to the city- and to fear your name is wisdom-
"Heed the rod and the One who appointed it. 10 Am I still to forget, O
wicked house, your ill-gotten treasures and the short ephah, which is accursed?
11 Shall I acquit a man with dishonest scales, with a bag of false weights?
12 Her rich men are violent; her people are liars and their tongues speak deceitfully.
13 Therefore, I have begun to destroy you, to ruin you because of your sins.
14 You will eat but not be satisfied; your stomach will still be empty. You
will store up but save nothing, because what you save I will give to the sword.
15 You will plant but not harvest; you will press olives but not use the oil
on yourselves, you will crush grapes but not drink the wine. 16 You have observed
the statutes of Omri and all the practices of Ahab's house, and you have followed
their traditions. Therefore I will give you over to ruin and your people to
derision; you will bear the scorn of the nations."
Micah 7
7:1
What misery is mine! I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning
of the vineyard; there is no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs
that I crave. 2 The godly have been swept from the land; not one upright man
remains. All men lie in wait to shed blood; each hunts his brother with a net.
3 Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts
bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire- they all conspire together. 4
The best of them is like a brier, the most upright worse than a thorn hedge.
The day of your watchmen has come, the day God visits you. Now is the time of
their confusion. 5 Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even
with her who lies in your embrace be careful of your words. 6 For a son dishonors
his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against
her mother-in-law- a man's enemies are the members of his own household.
7 But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my
God will hear me.
8 Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though
I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light. 9 Because I have sinned against
him, I will bear the LORD's wrath, until he pleads my case and establishes my
right. He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness. 10
Then my enemy will see it and will be covered with shame, she who said to me,
"Where is the LORD your God?" My eyes will see her downfall; even
now she will be trampled underfoot like mire in the streets.
11 The day for building your walls will come, the day for extending your boundaries.
12 In that day people will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt,
even from Egypt to the Euphrates and from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
13 The earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants, as the result
of their deeds.
14 Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, which
lives by itself in a forest, in fertile pasturelands. Let them feed in Bashan
and Gilead as in days long ago.
15 "As in the days when you came out of Egypt, I will show them my wonders."
16 Nations will see and be ashamed, deprived of all their power. They will lay
their hands on their mouths and their ears will become deaf. 17 They will lick
dust like a snake, like creatures that crawl on the ground. They will come trembling
out of their dens; they will turn in fear to the LORD our God and will be afraid
of you. 18 Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression
of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight
to show mercy. 19 You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins
underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. 20 You will
be true to Jacob, and show mercy to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our fathers
in days long ago.
2 Thessalonians 1
1:1 Paul, Silas
and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your
faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other
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 majesty of his power 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 count you
worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose
of yours and every act prompted by your 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.
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE
II THESSALONIANS
The theme of Paul's second letter to the Thessalonian believers is "Christ as our victory." A key verse is chapter 1:7-10:
This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 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.
The main parts of the letter are:
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