MY SON, LISTEN CLOSELY TO MY WORDS: PROVERBS 4:20-23

²⁰ My Son, Pay Attention To What I Say;
    Turn Your Ear To My Words.
²¹ Do Not Let Them Out Of Your Sight,
    Keep Them Within Your Heart;
²² For They Are Life To Those Who Find Them
    And Health To One’s Whole Body.
²³ Above All Else, Guard Your Heart,
    For Everything You Do Flows From It.

THE LORD IS MY REFUGE AND FORTRESS, MY GOD, IN WHOM I TRUST: PSALM 91

Psalm 91

¹ Whoever Dwells in the Shelter of the Most High
    Will Rest in the Shadow of the Almighty.^[a]
2 I Will Say of the Lord, “He is My Refuge and My Fortress,
    My God, in Whom I Trust.”

³ Surely God Will Save You
    From the Fowler’s Snare
    and From the Deadly Pestilence.
⁴ God Covers You With His Feathers,
    and Under God's Wings You Will Find Refuge;
    God's Faithfulness Will Be Your Shield and Rampart.
⁵ You Will Not Fear the Terror of Night,
    Nor the Arrow That Flies By Day,
⁶ Nor the Pestilence That Stalks in the Darkness,
    Nor the Plague That Destroys at Midday.
⁷ A Thousand May Fall at Your Side,
    Ten Thousand at Your Right Hand,
    But it Will Not Come Near You.
⁸ You Will Only Observe With Your Eyes
    and See the Punishment of the Wicked.

⁹ If You Say, “The Lord is My Refuge,”
    and You Make the Most High Your Dwelling,
¹⁰ No Harm Will Overtake You,
    No Disaster Will Come Near Your Tent.
¹¹ For God Will Command His Angels Concerning You
    to Guard You in All Your Ways;
¹² They Will Lift You Up in Their Hands,
    So That You Will Not Strike Your Foot Against a Stone.
¹³ You Will Tread On the Lion and the Cobra;
    You Will Trample the Great Lion and the Serpent.

¹⁴ “Because He^[b] Loves Me,” Says the Lord, “I Will Rescue Him;
    I Will Protect Him, For He Acknowledges My Name.
¹⁵ He Will Call On Me, and I Will Answer Him;
    I Will Be With Him in Trouble,
    I Will Deliver Him and Honor Him.
¹⁶ With Long Life I Will Satisfy Him
    and Show Him My Salvation.”

 

TWO KINDS OF WISDOM: JAMES 3:13 - 4:10

Two Kinds of Wisdom

¹³ Who is Wise and Understanding Among You? Let Him Show it by His Good Life, by Deeds Done in the Humility That Comes From Wisdom. ¹⁴ But if You Harbor Bitter Envy and Selfish Ambition in Your Hearts, do not Boast About it or Deny the Truth. ¹⁵ Such “Wisdom” does not Come Down From Heaven but is Earthly, Unspiritual, of the Devil. ¹⁶ For Where You Have Envy and Selfish Ambition, There You Find Disorder and Every Evil practice.
¹⁷ But the Wisdom That Comes From Heaven is First of All Pure; Then Peace-Loving, Considerate, Submissive, Full of Mercy and Good Fruit, Impartial and Sincere. ¹⁸ Peacemakers Who Sow in Peace Reap a Harvest of Righteousness.

Submit Yourselves to God

4 What Causes Fights and Quarrels Among You? Don’t They Come From Your Desires That Battle Within You? ²  You Want Something but Don't Get it. You Kill and Covet, but You Cannot Have What You Want,  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,^[a] Don’t You Know That Friendship With the World is Hatred Towards God?  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 the Spirit God Caused to Live in Us Envies Intensely? ⁶ But God Gives Us More Grace. That is Why Scripture Says:

“God Opposes the Proud
    but Gives Grace to the humble.”^[c]

⁷ Submit Yourselves, Then, to God. Resist the Devil, and He Will Flee From You. ⁸ Come Near to God and God 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.

TRIALS AND TEMPTATIONS: JAMES 1:2-8

Trials and Temptations

² Consider it Pure Joy, My Brothers and Sisters,^[a] Whenever You Face Trials of Many Kinds, ³ Because You Know That the Testing of Your Faith Produces Perseverance. ⁴ Let Perseverance Finish its Work so That You May Be Mature and Complete, not Lacking Anything. ⁵ If Any of You Lacks Wisdom, You Should Ask God, Who Gives Generously to All Without Finding Fault, and it Will Be Given to You. ⁶ But When You Ask, You Must Believe and Not Doubt, Because the One Who Doubts is Like a Wave of the Sea, Blown and Tossed by the Wind. ⁷ That Person Should Not Expect to Receive Anything From the Lord. ⁸ Such a Person is Double-minded and Unstable in All They Do.

FREEDOM FROM HUMAN REGULATIONS THROUGH LIFE WITH CHRIST: Col. 2:6-23

Spiritual Fullness in Christ

⁶ So Then, Just as You Received Christ Jesus as Lord, Continue to Live in Christ, Rooted and Built up in Christ, 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 Basic Principles of this world rather than on Christ.
⁹ For in Christ All the Fullness of the Deity Lives in Bodily form, ¹⁰ and You Have Been Given  fullness in Christ. Who is the Head Over Every Power and Authority. In Christ You Were Also Circumcised, in the Putting Off of the Sinful Nature, Not With a  Circumcision Done by the  Hands of Men But With the Circumcision Done by Christ,  Having Been Buried With Christ in Baptism and  Raised With Christ Through Your Faith in the Power of God, Who Raised Christ From the Dead.
¹³ When You Were Dead in Your Sins and in the Uncircumcision of Your Sinful Nature, God Made You^[d] Alive With Christ. God Forgave Us All Our Sins, ¹⁴ Having Canceled the Written Code, With it's Regulations, That Was Against Us and That Stood Opposed to Us; God Took It Away , Nailing It  to the Cross. ¹⁵ And Having Disarmed the Powers and Authorities, God Made a Public Spectacle of Them, Triumphing Over Them in Christ by the Cross.

Freedom From Human Rules

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 for the Prize. Such a Person  Goes Into Great Detail About What He Has Seen, and His Unspiritual mind Puffs Him Up With Idle Notions. He Has ¹⁹  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 Basic Principles  of This World, Why, as Though You Still Belonged to it, do You Submit to its Rules: ²¹ “Do Not Handle! Do Not Taste! Do Not Touch!”? ²² These Are All Destined to Perish With Use, Because They Are Based on 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.

PRESSING ON TOWARD MY GOAL: Phil.3:12-14

¹² Not That I Have Already Obtained All This, or Have Already Been Made Perfect, But I Press on to Take Hold of That for Which Christ Jesus Took Hold of Me. ¹³ Brothers and Sisters, I do not Consider Myself Yet to Have Taken Hold of it. But One Thing I Do: Forgetting What is Behind and Straining Toward What is Ahead, ¹⁴ I Press on Toward the Goal to Win the Prize for Which God Has Called Me Heavenward in Christ Jesus.

BE MADE NEW IN THE ATTITUDE OF YOUR MINDS, BE IMITATORS OF GOD: Eph.4:17-24

Instructions for Christian Living

¹⁷ 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. ¹⁸ 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. ¹⁹ Having Lost All Sensitivity, They Have Given Themselves Over to Sensuality so as to Indulge in Every Kind of Impurity, With a Continual Lust for More
²⁰ You, However, Did Not Come to Know Christ That Way. Surly You Heard of Christ and Were Taught in Christ in Accordance With the Truth That is in Jesus. ²² 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; ²³ to be Made New in the Attitude of Your Minds; ²⁴ and to Put on the New Self, Created to be Like God in True Righteousness and Holiness.

WHAT HAPPEN WHEN I FIRST BELIEVE: Eph.1:13-14

¹³ And You Also Were Included in Christ When You Heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of Your Salvation. When You Believed, You Were Marked in Christ With a Seal, the Promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ Who is a Deposit Guaranteeing Our Inheritance Until the Redemption of Those Who Are God’s Possession—to the Praise of God's Glory.

WE ARE ABRAHAM'S SEED THROUGH CHRIST: GALATIANS 3:16, 3:26-29, 5:6

^3:16
16 The Promises Were Spoken to Abraham and to His Seed. Scripture Does Not Say “and to Seeds,” Meaning Many People, But “and to Your Seed,”^[i] Meaning One Person, Who Is Christ.



3:26-29
 ²⁶ You are All Children of God Through Faith in Christ Jesus, ²⁷ for All of You Who Were Baptized Into Christ Have Clothed Yourselves With Christ. ²⁸ There is Neither Jew Nor Gentile, Neither Slave Nor Free, Nor is There Male and Female, for You are All One in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ If You Belong to Christ, Then You are Abraham’s Seed, and Heirs According to the Promise.



⁶ For in Christ Jesus Neither Circumcision Nor Uncircumcision Has Any Value. The Only Thing That Counts is Faith Expressing Itself Through Love.

GOD COMMITTED TO US THE MESSAGE OF RECONCILIATION, WE ARE CHRIST AMBASSADORS: 2Cor. 5:13-21

¹³ If We are “Out of Our Mind,” as Some Say, it is for God; if We are in Our Right Mind, it is for You. ¹⁴ For Christ’s Love Compels Us, Because We are Convinced That One Died for All, and Therefore All Died. ¹⁵ And Christ Died for All, That Those Who Live Should No Longer Live for Themselves But for Christ Who Died for Us and Was Raised Again.
¹⁶ So From Now On We Regard No One From a Worldly Point of View. Though We Once Regarded Christ in This Way, We Do So No Longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if Anyone is in Christ, He is a  New Creation;  The Old Has Gone, the New is Here! ¹⁸ All This is From God, Who Reconciled Us to Himself Through Christ and Gave Us the Ministry of Reconciliation: ¹⁹ That God Was Reconciling the World to Himself in Christ, Not Counting People’s Sins Against Them. And God Has Committed to Us the Message of Reconciliation. ²⁰ We are Therefore Christ’s Ambassadors, as Though God Were Making His Appeal Through Us. We Implore You On Christ’s Behalf: Be Reconciled to God. ²¹ God Made Christ Who Had No Sin to Be Sin^[b] for Us, so That in Christ We Might Become the Righteousness of God.

THE GOD OF THIS AGE BLINDS THE MINDS OF UNBELIEVERS: 2Cor.4:4

 ⁴ The God of This Age Has Blinded the Minds of Unbelievers, so That They Cannot See the Light of the Gospel That Displays the Glory of Christ, Who is the Image of God.

WARNINGS FROM ISRAEL'S HISTORY:1 Cor.10:1-13

Warnings From Israel’s History

10 For I Do Not Want You to Be Ignorant of the Fact, Brothers and Sisters, That Our Forefathers Were All Under the Cloud and That They All Passed Through the Sea. ² They Were All Baptized Into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea. ³ They All Ate the Same Spiritual Food ⁴ and Drank the Same Spiritual Drink; for They Drank From the Spiritual Rock That Accompanied Them, and That Rock Was Christ. ⁵ Nevertheless, God Was Not Pleased With Most of Them; Their Bodies Were Scattered in the Wilderness.

⁶ Now These Things Occurred As Examples to Keep Us From Setting Our Hearts On Evil Things As They Did. ⁷ Do Not Be Idolaters, As Some of Them Were; As it is Written: “The People Sat Down to Eat and Drink and Got Up to Indulge in Pagan Revelry.”^{[a] 8} We Should Not Commit Sexual Immorality, As Some of Them Did—and in One Day Twenty-Three Thousand of Them Died. ⁹ We Should Not Test Christ,^[b] As Some of Them Did—and Were Killed By Snakes. ¹⁰ And Do Not Grumble, As Some of Them Did—and Were Killed By the Destroying Angel.
¹¹ These Things Happened to Them As Examples and Were Written Down As Warnings for Us, On Whom the Fulfillment of the Ages Has Come. ¹² So, if You Think You Are Standing Firm, Be Careful That You Don’t Fall! ¹³ No Temptation^[c] Has Overtaken You Except What is Common to Man. And God is Faithful; God Will Not Let You Be Tempted^[d] Beyond What You Can Bear. But When You Are Tempted,^[e] God Will Also Provide a Way Out so That You Can Endure It.

MY CONSCIENCE IS CLEAR, IT IS THE LORD WHO JUDGES ME:1 Cor.4:1-7

The Nature of True Apostleship

4 So Then, Men Ought to Regard Us: As Servants of Christ and As Those Entrusted With the Mysteries God Has Revealed. ² Now it is Required That Those Who Have Been Given a Trust Must Prove Faithful. ³ I Care Very Little if I Am Judged By You or By Any Human Court; Indeed, I Do Not Even Judge Myself. ⁴ My Conscience is Clear, But That Does Not Make Me Innocent. It is the Lord Who Judges Me. ⁵ 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 Men's Heart. At That Time Each Will Receive Their Praise From God.

⁶ 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 Take Pride in One Man over against the Other. ⁷ 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?

MY SPIRITUAL ACT OF WORSHIP IS TO BE HOLY AND PLEASING TO GOD: ROMANS 12:1-8

A Living Sacrifice

12 Therefore, I Urge You, Brothers and Sisters, in View of God’s Mercy, to Offer Your Bodies As  Living Sacrifices, Holy and Pleasing to God—This is Your Spiritual Act of Worship. ² 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—God's Good, Pleasing and Perfect Will.

Humble Service in the Body of Christ

³ 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 Measure of Faith God has Given you.  Just As Each of Us Has One Body With Many Members, and These members Do Not All Have the Same Function, ⁵ So in Christ We, Who Are Many, Form One Body, and Each Member Belongs to All the Others. ⁶ We Have Different Gifts, According to the Grace Given Us. If Your Gift is Prophesying, Then Prophesy in Accordance With Your^[a] Faith; ⁷ If it is Serving, Then Serve; If it is Teaching, Then Teach; ⁸ If it is to Encourage, Then Give Encouragement; If it is Giving, then Give Generously; If it is Leadership,^[b] Let Him Govern Diligently; If it is  Showing Mercy, Let Him  Do it Cheerfully.

GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS COMES THROUGH CHRIST: ROMANS 10:1-4

10 Brothers and Sisters, My Heart’s Desire and Prayer to God for the Israelites is That They May Be Saved. ² For I Can Testify About Them That They Are Zealous for God, But Their Zeal is Not Based on Knowledge. ³ Since They Did Not Know the Righteousness That Comes From God and Sought to Establish Their Own, They Did Not Submit to God’s Righteousness. ⁴ Christ is the Culmination of the Law so That There May Be Righteousness for Everyone Who Believes.

OUR FUTURE GLORY IS: THAT WE WAIT EAGERLY FOR OUR ADOPTION AS SONS, THE REDEMPTION OF OUR BODIES: Rom. 18-39

¹⁸ I Consider That Our Present Sufferings Are Not Worth Comparing With the Glory That Will Be Revealed in Us. ¹⁹ For the Creation Waits in Eager Expectation for the Children of God to Be Revealed. ²⁰ For the Creation Was Subjected to Frustration, Not By its Own Choice, But By the Will of  God Who Subjected it, in Hope ²¹ That^[h] the Creation Itself Will Be Liberated From its Bondage to Decay and Brought Into the Glorious Freedom  of the Children of God.
²² We Know That the Whole Creation Has Been Groaning As in the Pains of Childbirth Right Up to the Present time. ²³ 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. ²⁴ For In This Hope We Were Saved. But Hope That is Seen is No Hope at All. Who Hopes for What They Already Have? ²⁵ But if We Hope for What We Do Not Yet Have, We wait for it Patiently.
²⁶ 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 With Groans That Words Cannot Express. ²⁷ And God Who Searches Our Hearts Knows the Mind of the Spirit, Because the Spirit Intercedes for God’s People in Accordance With God's Will.
²⁸ And We Know That in All Things God Works for the Good of Those Who Love God, Who^[i] Have Been Called According to God's Purpose. ²⁹ For Those God Foreknew God Also Predestined to Be Conformed to the Image of God's Son, That He Might Be the Firstborn Among Many Brothers and Sisters. ³⁰ And Those God Predestined, God also Called; Those God Called, God Also Justified; Those God Justified, God Also Glorified.

More Than Conquerors

³¹ What, Then, Shall We Say in Response to This? If God is for Us, Who Can Be Against Us? ³² God Who Did Not Spare His Own Son, But Gave Christ Up for Us All—How Will God Not Also, Along With Christ, Graciously Give Us All Things? ³³ Who Will Bring Any Charge Against Those Whom God Has Chosen? It is God Who Justifies. ³⁴ Who is He That Condemns? 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. ³⁵ Who Shall Separate Us From the Love of Christ? Shall Trouble or Hardship or Persecution or Famine or Nakedness or Danger or Sword? ³⁶ As it is Written:

“For Your Sake We Face Death All Day Long;
    We Are Considered As Sheep to Be Slaughtered.”^[j]

³⁷ No, in All These Things We Are More Than Conquerors Through Christ Who Loved Us. ³⁸ For I am Convinced That Neither Death Nor Life, Neither Angels Nor Demons,^[k] Neither the Present Nor the Future, Nor Any Powers, ³⁹ 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.

 

AN ILLUSTRATION FROM MARRIAGE: ROMANS 7:1-6

7 Do You Not know, Brothers and Sisters—for I Am Speaking to Those Who Know the Law—That the Law Has Authority Over Someone Only As Long As That Person Lives? ² For Example, By Law a Married Woman is Bound to Her Husband As Long As He is Alive, But if Her Husband Dies, She is Released From the Law of Marriage. ³ So Then, if She Has Sexual Relations With Another Man While Her Husband is Still Alive, She is Called an Adulteress. But if Her Husband Dies, She is Released From That Law and is Not an Adulteress if She Marries Another Man.

⁴ So, My Brothers and Sisters, You Also Died to the Law Through the Body of Christ, That You Might Belong to Another, to Christ Who Was Raised From the Dead, in Order That We Might Bear Fruit for God. ⁵ For When We Were Controlled By the Sinful Nature,  the Sinful Passions Aroused By the Law Were at Work in Our Bodies, so That We Bore Fruit for Death. ⁶ But Now, By Dying to What Once Bound Us, We Have Been Released From the Law so That We Serve in the New Way of the Spirit, and Not in the Old Way of the Written Code.

GOD JUSTIFIES ABRAHAM BY FAITH: ROMANS 4:16 - 5:2

¹⁶ Therefore, the Promise Comes By Faith, so That it May Be By Grace and May Be Guaranteed to All Abraham’s Offspring—Not Only to Those Who Are of the Law But Also to Those Who Have the Faith of Abraham. He is the Father of Us All. ¹⁷ As it is Written: “I Have Made You a Father of Many Nations.”^[c] He is Our Father in the Sight of God, in Whom He Believed—the God Who Gives Life to the Dead and Calls Things That Are Not As Though They Were. 
¹⁸ Against All Hope, Abraham in Hope Believed and so Became the Father of Many Nations, Just As it Had Been Said to Him, “So Shall Your Offspring Be.”^{[d] 19} Without Weakening in His Faith, He Faced the Fact That His Body Was As Good As Dead—Since He Was About a Hundred Years Old—and That Sarah’s Womb Was Also Dead. ²⁰ Yet He Did Not Waver Through Unbelief Regarding the Promise of God, But Was Strengthened in His Faith and Gave Glory to God, ²¹ Being Fully Persuaded That God Had Power to Do What God Had Promised. ²² This is Why “it Was Credited to Him As Righteousness.” ²³ The Words “it Was Credited to Him” Were Written Not for Him Alone, ²⁴ But Also for Us, to Whom God Will Credit Righteousness—for Us Who Believe in God Who Raised Jesus Our Lord From the Dead. ²⁵ Christ Was Delivered Over to Death for Our Sins and Was Raised to Life for Our Justification.

 5 Therefore, Since We Have Been Justified Through Faith, We^[a] Have Peace With God Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, ² Through Whom We Have Gained Access By Faith Into This Grace in Which We Now Stand. And We^[b] Boast in the Hope of the Glory of God.