# verses

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And that special gift of ministry you were given when the leaders of the church laid hands on you and prayed—keep that dusted off and in use.


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Cultivate these things. Immerse yourself in them. The people will all see you mature right before their eyes!


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Keep a firm grasp on both your character and your teaching. Don't be diverted. Just keep at it. Both you and those who hear you will experience salvation.


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Don't be harsh or impatient with an older man. Talk to him as you would your own father, and to the younger men as your brothers.


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If a widow has family members to take care of her, let them learn that religion begins at their own doorstep and that they should pay back with gratitude some of what they have received. This pleases God immensely.


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You can tell a legitimate widow by the way she has put all her hope in God, praying to him constantly for the needs of others as well as her own.


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Anyone who neglects to care for family members in need repudiates the faith. That's worse than refusing to believe in the first place.


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Sign some widows up for the special ministry of offering assistance. They will in turn receive support from the church. They must be over sixty, married only once,


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and have a reputation for helping out with children, strangers, tired Christians, the hurt and troubled.


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Don't put young widows on this list. No sooner will they get on than they'll want to get off, obsessed with wanting to get a husband rather than serving Christ in this way.


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No, I'd rather the young widows go ahead and get married in the first place, have children, manage their homes, and not give critics any foothold for finding fault.


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Any Christian woman who has widows in her family is responsible for them. They shouldn't be dumped on the church. The church has its hands full already with widows who need help.


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Give a bonus to leaders who do a good job, especially the ones who work hard at preaching and teaching.


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Don't listen to a complaint against a leader that isn't backed up by two or three responsible witnesses.


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If anyone falls into sin, call that person on the carpet. Those who are inclined that way will know right off they can't get by with it.


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God and Jesus and angels all back me up in these instructions. Carry them out without favoritism, without taking sides.


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Don't appoint people to church leadership positions too hastily. If a person is involved in some serious sins, you don't want to become an unwitting accomplice. In any event, keep a close check on yourself.


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And don't worry too much about what the critics will say. Go ahead and drink a little wine, for instance; it's good for your digestion, good medicine for what ails you.


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The sins of some people are blatant and march them right into court. The sins of others don't show up until much later.


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Whoever is a slave must make the best of it, giving respect to his master so that outsiders don't blame God and our teaching for his behavior.


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Slaves with Christian masters all the more so—their masters are really their beloved brothers! These are the things I want you to teach and preach.


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If you have leaders there who teach otherwise, who refuse the solid words of our Master Jesus and this godly instruction,


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tag them for what they are: ignorant windbags who infect the air with germs of envy, controversy, bad-mouthing, suspicious rumors.


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Eventually there's an epidemic of backstabbing, and truth is but a distant memory. They think religion is a way to make a fast buck.


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Lust for money brings trouble and nothing but trouble. Going down that path, some lose their footing in the faith completely and live to regret it bitterly ever after.


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But you, Timothy, man of God: Run for your life from all this. Pursue a righteous life—a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy.


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Run hard and fast in the faith. Seize the eternal life, the life you were called to, the life you so fervently embraced in the presence of so many witnesses.


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I'm charging you before the life-giving God and before Christ, who took his stand before Pontius Pilate and didn't give an inch:


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He'll show up right on time, his arrival guaranteed by the Blessed and Undisputed Ruler, High King, High God.


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He's the only one death can't touch, his light so bright no one can get close. He's never been seen by human eyes—human eyes can't take him in! Honor to him, and eternal rule! Oh, yes.


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Tell those rich in this world's wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—


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And oh, my dear Timothy, guard the treasure you were given! Guard it with your life. Avoid the talk-show religion and the practiced confusion of the so-called experts.


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I, Paul, am on special assignment for Christ, carrying out God's plan laid out in the Message of Life by Jesus.


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I write this to you, Timothy, the son I love so much. All the best from our God and Christ be yours!


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Every time I say your name in prayer—which is practically all the time—I thank God for you, the God I worship with my whole life in the tradition of my ancestors.


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I miss you a lot, especially when I remember that last tearful good-bye, and I look forward to a joy-packed reunion.


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That precious memory triggers another: your honest faith—and what a rich faith it is, handed down from your grandmother Lois to your mother Eunice, and now to you!


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So don't be embarrassed to speak up for our Master or for me, his prisoner. Take your share of suffering for the Message along with the rest of us. We can only keep on going, after all, by the power of God,


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who first saved us and then called us to this holy work. We had nothing to do with it. It was all his idea, a gift prepared for us in Jesus long before we knew anything about it.


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But we know it now. Since the appearance of our Savior, nothing could be plainer: death defeated, life vindicated in a steady blaze of light, all through the work of Jesus.


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It's also the cause of all this trouble I'm in. But I have no regrets. I couldn't be more sure of my ground—the One I've trusted in can take care of what he's trusted me to do right to the end.


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So keep at your work, this faith and love rooted in Christ, exactly as I set it out for you. It's as sound as the day you first heard it from me.


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I'm sure you know by now that everyone in the province of Asia deserted me, even Phygelus and Hermogenes.


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But God bless Onesiphorus and his family! Many's the time I've been refreshed in that house. And he wasn't embarrassed a bit that I was in jail.


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May God on the Last Day treat him as well as he treated me. And then there was all the help he provided in Ephesus—but you know that better than I.


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Pass on what you heard from me—the whole congregation saying Amen!—to reliable leaders who are competent to teach others.


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A soldier on duty doesn't get caught up in making deals at the marketplace. He concentrates on carrying out orders.


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Fix this picture firmly in your mind: Jesus, descended from the line of David, raised from the dead. It's what you've heard from me all along.


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That's why I stick it out here—so that everyone God calls will get in on the salvation of Christ in all its glory.


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If we stick it out with him, we'll rule with him; If we turn our backs on him, he'll turn his back on us;


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Repeat these basic essentials over and over to God's people. Warn them before God against pious nitpicking, which chips away at the faith. It just wears everyone out.


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Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won't be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple.


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Stay clear of pious talk that is only talk. Words are not mere words, you know. If they're not backed by a godly life,


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throwing believers off stride and missing the truth by a mile by saying the resurrection is over and done with.


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Meanwhile, God's firm foundation is as firm as ever, these sentences engraved on the stones: god knows who belongs to him. spurn evil, all you who name god as god.


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In a well-furnished kitchen there are not only crystal goblets and silver platters, but waste cans and compost buckets—some containers used to serve fine meals, others to take out the garbage.


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Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing.


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Run away from infantile indulgence. Run after mature righteousness—faith, love, peace—joining those who are in honest and serious prayer before God.


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working firmly but patiently with those who refuse to obey. You never know how or when God might sober them up with a change of heart and a turning to the truth,


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enabling them to escape the Devil's trap, where they are caught and held captive, forced to run his errands.


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As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse,


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These are the kind of people who smooth-talk themselves into the homes of unstable and needy women and take advantage of them; women who, depressed by their sinfulness, take up with every new religious fad that calls itself "truth."


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These men are like those old Egyptian frauds Jannes and Jambres, who challenged Moses. They were rejects from the faith, twisted in their thinking, defying truth itself.


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But nothing will come of these latest impostors. Everyone will see through them, just as people saw through that Egyptian hoax.


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You've been a good apprentice to me, a part of my teaching, my manner of life, direction, faith, steadiness, love, patience,


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troubles, sufferings—suffering along with me in all the grief I had to put up with in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. And you also well know that God rescued me!


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Anyone who wants to live all out for Christ is in for a lot of trouble; there's no getting around it.


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Unscrupulous con men will continue to exploit the faith. They're as deceived as the people they lead astray. As long as they are out there, things can only get worse.


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But don't let it faze you. Stick with what you learned and believed, sure of the integrity of your teachers—


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why, you took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother's milk! There's nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.


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Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way.


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I can't impress this on you too strongly. God is looking over your shoulder. Christ himself is the Judge, with the final say on everyone, living and dead. He is about to break into the open with his rule,


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so proclaim the Message with intensity; keep on your watch. Challenge, warn, and urge your people. Don't ever quit. Just keep it simple.


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You're going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food—catchy opinions that tickle their fancy.


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But you—keep your eye on what you're doing; accept the hard times along with the good; keep the Message alive; do a thorough job as God's servant.


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All that's left now is the shouting—God's applause! Depend on it, he's an honest judge. He'll do right not only by me, but by everyone eager for his coming.


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Demas, chasing fads, went off to Thessalonica and left me here. Crescens is in Galatia province, Titus in Dalmatia.


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Fiercely opposed to our Message, he caused no end of trouble. God will give him what he's got coming.


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At my preliminary hearing no one stood by me. They all ran like scared rabbits. But it doesn't matter—


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the Master stood by me and helped me spread the Message loud and clear to those who had never heard it. I was snatched from the jaws of the lion!


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God's looking after me, keeping me safe in the kingdom of heaven. All praise to him, praise forever! Oh, yes!


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Try hard to get here before winter. Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all your friends here send greetings.


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I, Paul, am God's slave and Christ's agent for promoting the faith among God's chosen people, getting out the accurate word on God and how to respond rightly to it.


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My aim is to raise hopes by pointing the way to life without end. This is the life God promised long ago—and he doesn't break promises!


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And then when the time was ripe, he went public with his truth. I've been entrusted to proclaim this Message by order of our Savior, God himself.


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Dear Titus, legitimate son in the faith: Receive everything God our Father and Jesus our Savior give you!


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I left you in charge in Crete so you could complete what I left half-done. Appoint leaders in every town according to my instructions.


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As you select them, ask, "Is this man well-thought-of? Are his children believers? Do they respect him and stay out of trouble?"


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It's important that a church leader, responsible for the affairs in God's house, be looked up to—not pushy, not short-tempered, not a drunk, not a bully, not money-hungry.


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and have a good grip on the Message, knowing how to use the truth to either spur people on in knowledge or stop them in their tracks if they oppose it.


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For there are a lot of rebels out there, full of loose, confusing, and deceiving talk. Those who were brought up religious and ought to know better are the worst.


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They've got to be shut up. They're disrupting entire families with their teaching, and all for the sake of a fast buck.


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One of their own prophets said it best: The Cretans are liars from the womb, barking dogs, lazy bellies.


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He certainly spoke the truth. Get on them right away. Stop that diseased talk of Jewish make-believe and made-up rules


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Everything is clean to the clean-minded; nothing is clean to dirty-minded unbelievers. They leave their dirty fingerprints on every thought and act.


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They say they know God, but their actions speak louder than their words. They're real creeps, disobedient good-for-nothings.


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Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance.


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Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness.


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be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don't want anyone looking down on God's Message because of their behavior.


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your words solid and sane. Then anyone who is dead set against us, when he finds nothing weird or misguided, might eventually come around.


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no petty thievery. Then their good character will shine through their actions, adding luster to the teaching of our Savior God.


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We're being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now,


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and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears.


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He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.


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Tell them all this. Build up their courage, and discipline them if they get out of line. You're in charge. Don't let anyone put you down.


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It wasn't so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back.


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he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit.


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God's gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there's more life to come—an eternity of life!


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You can count on this. I want you to put your foot down. Take a firm stand on these matters so that those who have put their trust in God will concentrate on the essentials that are good for everyone.


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Stay away from mindless, pointless quarreling over genealogies and fine print in the law code. That gets you nowhere.


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It's obvious that such a person is out of line, rebellious against God. By persisting in divisiveness he cuts himself off.


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As soon as I send either Artemas or Tychicus to you, come immediately and meet me in Nicopolis. I've decided to spend the winter there.


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Our people have to learn to be diligent in their work so that all necessities are met (especially among the needy) and they don't end up with nothing to show for their lives.


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I, Paul, am a prisoner for the sake of Christ, here with my brother Timothy. I write this letter to you, Philemon, my good friend and companion in this work—


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also to our sister Apphia, to Archippus, a real trooper, and to the church that meets in your house.


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I keep hearing of the love and faith you have for the Master Jesus, which brims over to other Christians.


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And I keep praying that this faith we hold in common keeps showing up in the good things we do, and that people recognize Christ in all of it.


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Friend, you have no idea how good your love makes me feel, doubly so when I see your hospitality to fellow believers.


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In line with all this I have a favor to ask of you. As Christ's ambassador and now a prisoner for him, I wouldn't hesitate to command this if I thought it necessary,


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While here in jail, I've fathered a child, so to speak. And here he is, hand-carrying this letter—Onesimus!


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I wanted in the worst way to keep him here as your stand-in to help out while I'm in jail for the Message.


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But I didn't want to do anything behind your back, make you do a good deed that you hadn't willingly agreed to.


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and no mere slave this time, but a true Christian brother! That's what he was to me—he'll be even more than that to you.


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This is my personal signature—Paul—and I stand behind it. (I don't need to remind you, do I, that you owe your very life to me?)


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And by the way, get a room ready for me. Because of your prayers, I fully expect to be your guest again.


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Going through a long line of prophets, God has been addressing our ancestors in different ways for centuries.


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Recently he spoke to us directly through his Son. By his Son, God created the world in the beginning, and it will all belong to the Son at the end.


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This Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God's nature. He holds everything together by what he says—powerful words! After he finished the sacrifice for sins, the Son took his honored place high in the heavens right alongside God,


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Did God ever say to an angel, "You're my Son; today I celebrate you"? Or, "I'm his Father, he's my Son"?


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You love it when things are right; you hate it when things are wrong. That is why God, your God, poured fragrant oil on your head, Marking you out as king, far above your dear companions.


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And again to the Son, You, Master, started it all, laid earth's foundations, then crafted the stars in the sky.


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You'll fold them up like a worn-out cloak, and lay them away on the shelf. But you'll stay the same, year after year; you'll never fade, you'll never wear out.


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And did he ever say anything like this to an angel? Sit alongside me here on my throne Until I make your enemies a stool for your feet.


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do you think we can risk neglecting this latest message, this magnificent salvation? First of all, it was delivered in person by the Master, then accurately passed on to us by those who heard it from him.


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All the while God was validating it with gifts through the Holy Spirit, all sorts of signs and miracles, as he saw fit.


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It says in Scripture, What is man and woman that you bother with them; why take a second look their way?


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Then you put them in charge of your entire handcrafted world. When God put them in charge of everything, nothing was excluded. But we don't see it yet, don't see everything under human jurisdiction.


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What we do see is Jesus, made "not quite as high as angels," and then, through the experience of death, crowned so much higher than any angel, with a glory "bright with Eden's dawn light." In that death, by God's grace, he fully experienced death in every person's place.


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It makes good sense that the God who got everything started and keeps everything going now completes the work by making the Salvation Pioneer perfect through suffering as he leads all these people to glory.


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Since the One who saves and those who are saved have a common origin, Jesus doesn't hesitate to treat them as family,


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saying, I'll tell my good friends, my brothers and sisters, all I know about you; I'll join them in worship and praise to you.


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Again, he puts himself in the same family circle when he says, Even I live by placing my trust in God. And yet again, I'm here with the children God gave me.


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Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it's logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil's hold on death


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It's obvious, of course, that he didn't go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham.


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That's why he had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people's sins,


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he would have already experienced it all himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed.


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So, my dear Christian friends, companions in following this call to the heights, take a good hard look at Jesus. He's the centerpiece of everything we believe,


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Moses did a good job in God's house, but it was all servant work, getting things ready for what was to come.


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Christ as Son is in charge of the house. Now, if we can only keep a firm grip on this bold confidence, we're the house!


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Even though they watched me at work for forty years, your ancestors refused to let me do it my way; over and over they tried my patience.


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And I was provoked, oh, so provoked! I said, "They'll never keep their minds on God; they refuse to walk down my road."


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So watch your step, friends. Make sure there's no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God.


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For as long as it's still God's Today, keep each other on your toes so sin doesn't slow down your reflexes.


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If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we're in this with Christ for the long haul.


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These words keep ringing in our ears: Today, please listen; don't turn a deaf ear as in the bitter uprising.


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And who was God provoked with for forty years? Wasn't it those who turned a deaf ear and ended up corpses in the wilderness?


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And when he swore that they'd never get where they were going, wasn't he talking to the ones who turned a deaf ear?


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For as long, then, as that promise of resting in him pulls us on to God's goal for us, we need to be careful that we're not disqualified.


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We received the same promises as those people in the wilderness, but the promises didn't do them a bit of good because they didn't receive the promises with faith.


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If we believe, though, we'll experience that state of resting. But not if we don't have faith. Remember that God said, Exasperated, I vowed, "They'll never get where they're going, never be able to sit down and rest." God made that vow, even though he'd finished his part before the foundation of the world.


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So this promise has not yet been fulfilled. Those earlier ones never did get to the place of rest because they were disobedient.


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God keeps renewing the promise and setting the date as today, just as he did in David's psalm, centuries later than the original invitation: Today, please listen, don't turn a deaf ear...


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And so this is still a live promise. It wasn't canceled at the time of Joshua; otherwise, God wouldn't keep renewing the appointment for "today."


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So let's keep at it and eventually arrive at the place of rest, not drop out through some sort of disobedience.


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God means what he says. What he says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon's scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey.


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Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let's not let it slip through our fingers.


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We don't have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He's been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin.


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Every high priest selected to represent men and women before God and offer sacrifices for their sins


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should be able to deal gently with their failings, since he knows what it's like from his own experience.


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Neither did Christ presume to set himself up as high priest, but was set apart by the One who said to him, "You're my Son; today I celebrate you!"


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While he lived on earth, anticipating death, Jesus cried out in pain and wept in sorrow as he offered up priestly prayers to God. Because he honored God, God answered him.


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Then, having arrived at the full stature of his maturity and having been announced by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek,


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I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you've picked up this bad habit of not listening.


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By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby's milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago!


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So come on, let's leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on "salvation by self-help" and turning in trust toward God;


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Once people have seen the light, gotten a taste of heaven and been part of the work of the Holy Spirit,


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once they've personally experienced the sheer goodness of God's Word and the powers breaking in on us—


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if then they turn their backs on it, washing their hands of the whole thing, well, they can't start over as if nothing happened. That's impossible. Why, they've re-crucified Jesus! They've repudiated him in public!


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Parched ground that soaks up the rain and then produces an abundance of carrots and corn for its gardener gets God's "Well done!"


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But if it produces weeds and thistles, it's more likely to get cussed out. Fields like that are burned, not harvested.


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God doesn't miss anything. He knows perfectly well all the love you've shown him by helping needy Christians, and that you keep at it.


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And now I want each of you to extend that same intensity toward a full-bodied hope, and keep at it till the finish.


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Don't drag your feet. Be like those who stay the course with committed faith and then get everything promised to them.


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When God made his promise to Abraham, he backed it to the hilt, putting his own reputation on the line.


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When people make promises, they guarantee them by appeal to some authority above them so that if there is any question that they'll make good on the promise, the authority will back them up.


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God can't break his word. And because his word cannot change, the promise is likewise unchangeable. We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go.


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It's an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God


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where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us, in the order of Melchizedek.


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Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of the Highest God. He met Abraham, who was returning from "the royal massacre," and gave him his blessing.


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Abraham in turn gave him a tenth of the spoils. "Melchizedek" means "King of Righteousness." "Salem" means "Peace." So, he is also "King of Peace."


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Melchizedek towers out of the past—without record of family ties, no account of beginning or end. In this way he is like the Son of God, one huge priestly presence dominating the landscape always.


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You realize just how great Melchizedek is when you see that Father Abraham gave him a tenth of the captured treasure.


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Priests descended from Levi are commanded by law to collect tithes from the people, even though they are all more or less equals, priests and people, having a common father in Abraham.


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But this man, a complete outsider, collected tithes from Abraham and blessed him, the one to whom the promises had been given.


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Or look at it this way: We pay our tithes to priests who die, but Abraham paid tithes to a priest who, the Scripture says, "lives."


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Ultimately you could even say that since Levi descended from Abraham, who paid tithes to Melchizedek,


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If the priesthood of Levi and Aaron, which provided the framework for the giving of the law, could really make people perfect, there wouldn't have been need for a new priesthood like that of Melchizedek.


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But since it didn't get the job done, there was a change of priesthood, which brought with it a radical new kind of law.


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The former way of doing things, a system of commandments that never worked out the way it was supposed to, was set aside;


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the law brought nothing to maturity. Another way—Jesus!—a way that does work, that brings us right into the presence of God, is put in its place.


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The old priesthood of Aaron perpetuated itself automatically, father to son, without explicit confirmation by God.


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But then God intervened and called this new, permanent priesthood into being with an added promise: God gave his word; he won't take it back: "You're the permanent priest."


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This makes Jesus the guarantee of a far better way between us and God—one that really works! A new covenant.


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So now we have a high priest who perfectly fits our needs: completely holy, uncompromised by sin, with authority extending as high as God's presence in heaven itself.


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Unlike the other high priests, he doesn't have to offer sacrifices for his own sins every day before he can get around to us and our sins. He's done it, once and for all: offered up himself as the sacrifice.


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The law appoints as high priests men who are never able to get the job done right. But this intervening command of God, which came later, appoints the Son, who is absolutely, eternally perfect.


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The assigned task of a high priest is to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and it's no different with the priesthood of Jesus.


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If he were limited to earth, he wouldn't even be a priest. We wouldn't need him since there are plenty of priests who offer the gifts designated in the law.


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These priests provide only a hint of what goes on in the true sanctuary of heaven, which Moses caught a glimpse of as he was about to set up the tent-shrine. It was then that God said, "Be careful to do it exactly as you saw it on the Mountain."


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But Jesus' priestly work far surpasses what these other priests do, since he's working from a far better plan.


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But we know the first was found wanting, because God said, Heads up! The days are coming when I'll set up a new plan for dealing with Israel and Judah.


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I'll throw out the old plan I set up with their ancestors when I led them by the hand out of Egypt. They didn't keep their part of the bargain, so I looked away and let it go.


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This new plan I'm making with Israel isn't going to be written on paper, isn't going to be chiseled in stone; This time I'm writing out the plan in them, carving it on the lining of their hearts. I'll be their God, they'll be my people.


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They won't go to school to learn about me, or buy a book called God in Five Easy Lessons. They'll all get to know me firsthand, the little and the big, the small and the great.


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By coming up with a new plan, a new covenant between God and his people, God put the old plan on the shelf. And there it stays, gathering dust.


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A large outer tent was set up. The lampstand, the table, and "the bread of presence" were placed in it. This was called "the Holy Place."


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Then a curtain was stretched, and behind it a smaller, inside tent set up. This was called "the Holy of Holies."


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In it were placed the gold incense altar and the gold-covered ark of the covenant containing the gold urn of manna, Aaron's rod that budded, the covenant tablets,


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Only the high priest entered the smaller, inside tent, and then only once a year, offering a blood sacrifice for his own sins and the people's accumulated sins.


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This was the Holy Spirit's way of showing with a visible parable that as long as the large tent stands, people can't just walk in on God.


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Under this system, the gifts and sacrifices can't really get to the heart of the matter, can't assuage the conscience of the people,


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but are limited to matters of ritual and behavior. It's essentially a temporary arrangement until a complete overhaul could be made.


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But when the Messiah arrived, high priest of the superior things of this new covenant, he bypassed the old tent and its trappings in this created world and went straight into heaven's "tent"—the true Holy Place—once and for all.


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He also bypassed the sacrifices consisting of goat and calf blood, instead using his own blood as the price to set us free once and for all.


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If that animal blood and the other rituals of purification were effective in cleaning up certain matters of our religion and behavior,


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Through the Spirit, Christ offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice, freeing us from all those dead-end efforts to make ourselves respectable, so that we can live all out for God.


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Like a will that takes effect when someone dies, the new covenant was put into action at Jesus' death. His death marked the transition from the old plan to the new one, canceling the old obligations and accompanying sins, and summoning the heirs to receive the eternal inheritance that was promised them. He brought together God and his people in this new way.


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After Moses had read out all the terms of the plan of the law—God's "will"—he took the blood of sacrificed animals and, in a solemn ritual, sprinkled the document and the people who were its beneficiaries.


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And then he attested its validity with the words, "This is the blood of the covenant commanded by God."


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Moses said to the people, "This is the blood of the covenant God has established with you." Practically everything in a will hinges on a death. That's why blood, the evidence of death, is used so much in our tradition, especially regarding forgiveness of sins.


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That accounts for the prominence of blood and death in all these secondary practices that point to the realities of heaven. It also accounts for why, when the real thing takes place, these animal sacrifices aren't needed anymore, having served their purpose.


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For Christ didn't enter the earthly version of the Holy Place; he entered the Place Itself, and offered himself to God as the sacrifice for our sins.


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He doesn't do this every year as the high priests did under the old plan with blood that was not their own;


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if that had been the case, he would have to sacrifice himself repeatedly throughout the course of history. But instead he sacrificed himself once and for all, summing up all the other sacrifices in this sacrifice of himself, the final solution of sin.


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Christ's death was also a one-time event, but it was a sacrifice that took care of sins forever. And so, when he next appears, the outcome for those eager to greet him is, precisely, salvation.


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The old plan was only a hint of the good things in the new plan. Since that old "law plan" wasn't complete in itself, it couldn't complete those who followed it. No matter how many sacrifices were offered year after year, they never added up to a complete solution.


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If they had, the worshipers would have gone merrily on their way, no longer dragged down by their sins.


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But instead of removing awareness of sin, when those animal sacrifices were repeated over and over they actually heightened awareness and guilt.


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That is what is meant by this prophecy, put in the mouth of Christ: You don't want sacrifices and offerings year after year; you've prepared a body for me for a sacrifice.


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When he said, "You don't want sacrifices and offerings," he was referring to practices according to the old plan.


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Every priest goes to work at the altar each day, offers the same old sacrifices year in, year out, and never makes a dent in the sin problem.


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As a priest, Christ made a single sacrifice for sins, and that was it! Then he sat down right beside God


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It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process.


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This new plan I'm making with Israel isn't going to be written on paper, isn't going to be chiseled in stone; This time "I'm writing out the plan in them, carving it on the lining of their hearts."


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So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God, into "the Holy Place." Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The "curtain" into God's presence is his body.


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not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.


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If we give up and turn our backs on all we've learned, all we've been given, all the truth we now know, we repudiate Christ's sacrifice


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what do you think will happen if you turn on God's Son, spit on the sacrifice that made you whole, and insult this most gracious Spirit?


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This is no light matter. God has warned us that he'll hold us to account and make us pay. He was quite explicit: "Vengeance is mine, and I won't overlook a thing," and, "God will judge his people."


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Kicked around in public, targets of every kind of abuse—some days it was you, other days your friends.


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If some friends went to prison, you stuck by them. If some enemies broke in and seized your goods, you let them go with a smile, knowing they couldn't touch your real treasure. Nothing they did bothered you, nothing set you back.


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But you need to stick it out, staying with God's plan so you'll be there for the promised completion.


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The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see.


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By faith, we see the world called into existence by God's word, what we see created by what we don't see.


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By an act of faith, Abel brought a better sacrifice to God than Cain. It was what he believed, not what he brought, that made the difference. That's what God noticed and approved as righteous. After all these centuries, that belief continues to catch our notice.


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By an act of faith, Enoch skipped death completely. "They looked all over and couldn't find him because God had taken him." We know on the basis of reliable testimony that before he was taken "he pleased God."


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It's impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.


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By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn't see, and acted on what he was told. The result? His family was saved. His act of faith drew a sharp line between the evil of the unbelieving world and the rightness of the believing world. As a result, Noah became intimate with God.


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By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God's call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going.


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By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents. Isaac and Jacob did the same, living under the same promise.


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Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations—the City designed and built by God.


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By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time, because she believed the One who made a promise would do what he said.


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That's how it happened that from one man's dead and shriveled loins there are now people numbering into the millions.


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Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world.


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But they were after a far better country than that—heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them.


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By faith, Abraham, at the time of testing, offered Isaac back to God. Acting in faith, he was as ready to return the promised son, his only son, as he had been to receive him—


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Abraham figured that if God wanted to, he could raise the dead. In a sense, that's what happened when he received Isaac back, alive from off the altar.


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By an act of faith, Jacob on his deathbed blessed each of Joseph's sons in turn, blessing them with God's blessing, not his own—as he bowed worshipfully upon his staff.


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By an act of faith, Joseph, while dying, prophesied the exodus of Israel, and made arrangements for his own burial.


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By an act of faith, Moses' parents hid him away for three months after his birth. They saw the child's beauty, and they braved the king's decree.


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He chose a hard life with God's people rather than an opportunistic soft life of sin with the oppressors.


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He valued suffering in the Messiah's camp far greater than Egyptian wealth because he was looking ahead, anticipating the payoff.


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By an act of faith, he turned his heel on Egypt, indifferent to the king's blind rage. He had his eye on the One no eye can see, and kept right on going.


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By an act of faith, he kept the Passover Feast and sprinkled Passover blood on each house so that the destroyer of the firstborn wouldn't touch them.


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By an act of faith, Israel walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. The Egyptians tried it and drowned.


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By faith, the Israelites marched around the walls of Jericho for seven days, and the walls fell flat.


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By an act of faith, Rahab, the Jericho harlot, welcomed the spies and escaped the destruction that came on those who refused to trust God.


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I could go on and on, but I've run out of time. There are so many more—Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets... .


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Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. They were protected from lions,


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Women received their loved ones back from the dead. There were those who, under torture, refused to give in and go free, preferring something better: resurrection.


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We have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood; stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless—


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Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised.


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God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours.


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Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins.


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Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.


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When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!


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In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through—all that bloodshed!


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So don't feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children? My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline, but don't be crushed by it either.


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God is educating you; that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children. This trouble you're in isn't punishment; it's training,


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the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God?


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We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God's training so we can truly live?


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While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God's holy best.


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At the time, discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.


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Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!


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Work at getting along with each other and with God. Otherwise you'll never get so much as a glimpse of God.


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Make sure no one gets left out of God's generosity. Keep a sharp eye out for weeds of bitter discontent. A thistle or two gone to seed can ruin a whole garden in no time.


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Watch out for the Esau syndrome: trading away God's lifelong gift in order to satisfy a short-term appetite.


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You well know how Esau later regretted that impulsive act and wanted God's blessing—but by then it was too late, tears or no tears.


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Unlike your ancestors, you didn't come to Mount Sinai—all that volcanic blaze and earthshaking rumble—


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to hear God speak. The earsplitting words and soul-shaking message terrified them and they begged him to stop.


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When they heard the words—"If an animal touches the Mountain, it's as good as dead"—they were afraid to move.


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No, that's not your experience at all. You've come to Mount Zion, the city where the living God resides. The invisible Jerusalem is populated by throngs of festive angels


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You've come to Jesus, who presents us with a new covenant, a fresh charter from God. He is the Mediator of this covenant. The murder of Jesus, unlike Abel's—a homicide that cried out for vengeance—became a proclamation of grace.


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So don't turn a deaf ear to these gracious words. If those who ignored earthly warnings didn't get away with it, what will happen to us if we turn our backs on heavenly warnings?


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His voice that time shook the earth to its foundations; this time—he's told us this quite plainly—he'll also rock the heavens: "One last shaking, from top to bottom, stem to stern."


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The phrase "one last shaking" means a thorough housecleaning, getting rid of all the historical and religious junk so that the unshakable essentials stand clear and uncluttered.


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Do you see what we've got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander.


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He's actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won't quit until it's all cleansed. God himself is Fire!


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Be ready with a meal or a bed when it's needed. Why, some have extended hospitality to angels without ever knowing it!


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Regard prisoners as if you were in prison with them. Look on victims of abuse as if what happened to them had happened to you.


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Honor marriage, and guard the sacredness of sexual intimacy between wife and husband. God draws a firm line against casual and illicit sex.


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Don't be obsessed with getting more material things. Be relaxed with what you have. Since God assured us, "I'll never let you down, never walk off and leave you,"


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we can boldly quote, God is there, ready to help; I'm fearless no matter what. Who or what can get to me?


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Appreciate your pastoral leaders who gave you the Word of God. Take a good look at the way they live, and let their faithfulness instruct you, as well as their truthfulness. There should be a consistency that runs through us all.


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Don't be lured away from him by the latest speculations about him. The grace of Christ is the only good ground for life. Products named after Christ don't seem to do much for those who buy them.


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The altar from which God gives us the gift of himself is not for exploitation by insiders who grab and loot.


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In the old system, the animals are killed and the bodies disposed of outside the camp. The blood is then brought inside to the altar as a sacrifice for sin.


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It's the same with Jesus. He was crucified outside the city gates—that is where he poured out the sacrificial blood that was brought to God's altar to cleanse his people.


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So let's go outside, where Jesus is, where the action is—not trying to be privileged insiders, but taking our share in the abuse of Jesus.


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Let's take our place outside with Jesus, no longer pouring out the sacrificial blood of animals but pouring out sacrificial praises from our lips to God in Jesus' name.


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Make sure you don't take things for granted and go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others. God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship—a different kind of "sacrifice"—that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets.


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Be responsive to your pastoral leaders. Listen to their counsel. They are alert to the condition of your lives and work under the strict supervision of God. Contribute to the joy of their leadership, not its drudgery. Why would you want to make things harder for them?


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Pray for us. We have no doubts about what we're doing or why, but it's hard going and we need your prayers. All we care about is living well before God.


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May God, who puts all things together, makes all things whole, Who made a lasting mark through the sacrifice of Jesus, the sacrifice of blood that sealed the eternal covenant, Who led Jesus, our Great Shepherd, up and alive from the dead,


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Now put you together, provide you with everything you need to please him, Make us into what gives him most pleasure, by means of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Messiah. All glory to Jesus forever and always! Oh, yes, yes, yes.


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Friends, please take what I've written most seriously. I've kept this as brief as possible; I haven't piled on a lot of extras.


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You'll be glad to know that Timothy has been let out of prison. If he leaves soon, I'll come with him and get to see you myself.


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Say hello to your pastoral leaders and all the congregations. Everyone here in Italy wants to be remembered to you.


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I, James, am a slave of God and the Master Jesus, writing to the twelve tribes scattered to Kingdom Come: Hello!


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So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.


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If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You'll get his help, and won't be condescended to when you ask for it.


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Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who "worry their prayers" are like wind-whipped waves.


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And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer! Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don't ever count on it.


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You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem. Well, that's a picture of the "prosperous life." At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing.


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Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.


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Don't let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, "God is trying to trip me up." God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one's way.


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The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust.


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Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle.


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Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear.


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So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.


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Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!


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But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.


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Anyone who sets himself up as "religious" by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air.


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Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.


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My dear friends, don't let public opinion influence how you live out our glorious, Christ-originated faith.


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If a man enters your church wearing an expensive suit, and a street person wearing rags comes in right after him,


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and you say to the man in the suit, "Sit here, sir; this is the best seat in the house!" and either ignore the street person or say, "Better sit here in the back row,"


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Listen, dear friends. Isn't it clear by now that God operates quite differently? He chose the world's down-and-out as the kingdom's first citizens, with full rights and privileges. This kingdom is promised to anyone who loves God.


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And here you are abusing these same citizens! Isn't it the high and mighty who exploit you, who use the courts to rob you blind?


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But if you play up to these so-called important people, you go against the Rule and stand convicted by it.


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You can't pick and choose in these things, specializing in keeping one or two things in God's law and ignoring others.


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The same God who said, "Don't commit adultery," also said, "Don't murder." If you don't commit adultery but go ahead and murder, do you think your non-adultery will cancel out your murder? No, you're a murderer, period.


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For if you refuse to act kindly, you can hardly expect to be treated kindly. Kind mercy wins over harsh judgment every time.


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Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it?


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and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you?


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I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, "Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I'll handle the works department." Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.


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Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That's just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them?


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Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?


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Wasn't our ancestor Abraham "made right with God by works" when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar?


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Isn't it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are "works of faith"?


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The full meaning of "believe" in the Scripture sentence, "Abraham believed God and was set right with God," includes his action. It's that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named "God's friend."


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Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works?


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The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn't her action in hiding God's spies and helping them escape—that seamless unity of believing and doing—what counted with God?


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The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse.


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Don't be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends. Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards.


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And none of us is perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you'd have a perfect person, in perfect control of life.


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A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds.


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A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it! It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire.


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A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.


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With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image.


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Apple trees don't bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don't bear apples, do they? You're not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?


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Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here's what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It's the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts.


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Mean-spirited ambition isn't wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn't wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn't wisdom.


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Whenever you're trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others' throats.


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Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced.


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You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.


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Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves.


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You lust for what you don't have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn't yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it. You wouldn't think of just asking God for it, would you?


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And why not? Because you know you'd be asking for what you have no right to. You're spoiled children, each wanting your own way.


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You're cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way.


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And what he gives in love is far better than anything else you'll find. It's common knowledge that "God goes against the willful proud; God gives grace to the willing humble."


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Say a quiet yes to God and he'll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field.


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Don't bad-mouth each other, friends. It's God's Word, his Message, his Royal Rule, that takes a beating in that kind of talk. You're supposed to be honoring the Message, not writing graffiti all over it.


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God is in charge of deciding human destiny. Who do you think you are to meddle in the destiny of others?


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And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, "Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we're off to such and such a city for the year. We're going to start a business and make a lot of money."


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You don't know the first thing about tomorrow. You're nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing.


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Instead, make it a habit to say, "If the Master wills it and we're still alive, we'll do this or that."


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And a final word to you arrogant rich: Take some lessons in lament. You'll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you.


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Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you've piled up is judgment.


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All the workers you've exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger.


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You've looted the earth and lived it up. But all you'll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse.


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In fact, what you've done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it.


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Meanwhile, friends, wait patiently for the Master's Arrival. You see farmers do this all the time, waiting for their valuable crops to mature, patiently letting the rain do its slow but sure work.


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Friends, don't complain about each other. A far greater complaint could be lodged against you, you know. The Judge is standing just around the corner.


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Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God.


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What a gift life is to those who stay the course! You've heard, of course, of Job's staying power, and you know how God brought it all together for him at the end. That's because God cares, cares right down to the last detail.


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And since you know that he cares, let your language show it. Don't add words like "I swear to God" to your own words. Don't show your impatience by concocting oaths to hurry up God. Just say yes or no. Just say what is true. That way, your language can't be used against you.


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Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master.


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Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you've sinned, you'll be forgiven—healed inside and out.


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Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.


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Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't—not a drop for three and a half years.


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Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again.


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My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God's truth, don't write them off. Go after them. Get them back


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and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God.


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I, Peter, am an apostle on assignment by Jesus, the Messiah, writing to exiles scattered to the four winds. Not one is missing, not one forgotten.


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God the Father has his eye on each of you, and has determined by the work of the Spirit to keep you obedient through the sacrifice of Jesus. May everything good from God be yours!


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What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for,


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God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you'll have it all—life healed and whole.


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I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime.


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Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.


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You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don't see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing.


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The prophets who told us this was coming asked a lot of questions about this gift of life God was preparing.


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The Messiah's Spirit let them in on some of it—that the Messiah would experience suffering, followed by glory. They clamored to know who and when.


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All they were told was that they were serving you, you who by orders from heaven have now heard for yourselves—through the Holy Spirit—the Message of those prophecies fulfilled. Do you realize how fortunate you are? Angels would have given anything to be in on this!


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So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that's coming when Jesus arrives.


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Don't lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn't know any better then; you do now.


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As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness.


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You call out to God for help and he helps—he's a good Father that way. But don't forget, he's also a responsible Father, and won't let you get by with sloppy living. Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God.


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And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately—at the end of the ages—become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you.


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It's because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God.


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Now that you've cleaned up your lives by following the truth, love one another as if your lives depended on it.


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Your new life is not like your old life. Your old birth came from mortal sperm; your new birth comes from God's living Word. Just think: a life conceived by God himself!


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That's why the prophet said, The old life is a grass life, its beauty as short-lived as wildflowers; Grass dries up, flowers droop,


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Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God's pure kindness. Then you'll grow up mature and whole in God.


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Welcome to the living Stone, the source of life. The workmen took one look and threw it out; God set it in the place of honor.


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Present yourselves as building stones for the construction of a sanctuary vibrant with life, in which you'll serve as holy priests offering Christ-approved lives up to God.


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The Scriptures provide precedent: Look! I'm setting a stone in Zion, a cornerstone in the place of honor. Whoever trusts in this stone as a foundation will never have cause to regret it.


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To you who trust him, he's a Stone to be proud of, but to those who refuse to trust him, The stone the workmen threw out is now the chief foundation stone.


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For the untrusting it's ... a stone to trip over, a boulder blocking the way. They trip and fall because they refuse to obey, just as predicted.


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But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God's instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—


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Friends, this world is not your home, so don't make yourselves cozy in it. Don't indulge your ego at the expense of your soul.


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Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they'll be won over to God's side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives.


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It is God's will that by doing good, you might cure the ignorance of the fools who think you're a danger to society.


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Treat everyone you meet with dignity. Love your spiritual family. Revere God. Respect the government.


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You who are servants, be good servants to your masters—not just to good masters, but also to bad ones.


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There's no particular virtue in accepting punishment that you well deserve. But if you're treated badly for good behavior and continue in spite of it to be a good servant, that is what counts with God.


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This is the kind of life you've been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came his way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step-by-step.


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They called him every name in the book and he said nothing back. He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right.


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He used his servant body to carry our sins to the Cross so we could be rid of sin, free to live the right way. His wounds became your healing.


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You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going. Now you're named and kept for good by the Shepherd of your souls.


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The same goes for you wives: Be good wives to your husbands, responsive to their needs. There are husbands who, indifferent as they are to any words about God, will be captivated


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What matters is not your outer appearance—the styling of your hair, the jewelry you wear, the cut of your clothes—


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The holy women of old were beautiful before God that way, and were good, loyal wives to their husbands.


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Sarah, for instance, taking care of Abraham, would address him as "my dear husband." You'll be true daughters of Sarah if you do the same, unanxious and unintimidated.


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The same goes for you husbands: Be good husbands to your wives. Honor them, delight in them. As women they lack some of your advantages. But in the new life of God's grace, you're equals. Treat your wives, then, as equals so your prayers don't run aground.


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That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that's your job, to bless. You'll be a blessing and also get a blessing.


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Whoever wants to embrace life and see the day fill up with good, Here's what you do: Say nothing evil or hurtful;


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God looks on all this with approval, listening and responding well to what he's asked; But he turns his back on those who do evil things.


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Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you're living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy.


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Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They'll end up realizing that they're the ones who need a bath.


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That's what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others' sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God.


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He went and proclaimed God's salvation to earlier generations who ended up in the prison of judgment


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because they wouldn't listen. You know, even though God waited patiently all the days that Noah built his ship, only a few were saved then, eight to be exact—saved from the water by the water.


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The waters of baptism do that for you, not by washing away dirt from your skin but by presenting you through Jesus' resurrection before God with a clear conscience.


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Jesus has the last word on everything and everyone, from angels to armies. He's standing right alongside God, and what he says goes.


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Since Jesus went through everything you're going through and more, learn to think like him. Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way.


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Then you'll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want.


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You've already put in your time in that God-ignorant way of life, partying night after night, a drunken and profligate life. Now it's time to be done with it for good.


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Of course, your old friends don't understand why you don't join in with the old gang anymore. But you don't have to give an account to them.


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Listen to the Message. It was preached to those believers who are now dead, and yet even though they died (just as all people must), they will still get in on the life that God has given in Jesus.


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Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay wide-awake in prayer.


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Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything.


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if words, let it be God's words; if help, let it be God's hearty help. That way, God's bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he'll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!


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Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.


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If you're abused because of Christ, count yourself fortunate. It's the Spirit of God and his glory in you that brought you to the notice of others.


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But if it's because you're a Christian, don't give it a second thought. Be proud of the distinguished status reflected in that name!


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It's judgment time for Christians. We're first in line. If it starts with us, think what it's going to be like for those who refuse God's Message!


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So if you find life difficult because you're doing what God said, take it in stride. Trust him. He knows what he's doing, and he'll keep on doing it.


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I have a special concern for you church leaders. I know what it's like to be a leader, in on Christ's sufferings as well as the coming glory.


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Here's my concern: that you care for God's flock with all the diligence of a shepherd. Not because you have to, but because you want to please God. Not calculating what you can get out of it, but acting spontaneously.


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When God, who is the best shepherd of all, comes out in the open with his rule, he'll see that you've done it right and commend you lavishly.


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And you who are younger must follow your leaders. But all of you, leaders and followers alike, are to be down to earth with each other, for— God has had it with the proud, But takes delight in just plain people.


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So be content with who you are, and don't put on airs. God's strong hand is on you; he'll promote you at the right time.


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Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The Devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping.


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Keep your guard up. You're not the only ones plunged into these hard times. It's the same with Christians all over the world. So keep a firm grip on the faith.


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The suffering won't last forever. It won't be long before this generous God who has great plans for us in Christ—eternal and glorious plans they are!—will have you put together and on your feet for good.


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I'm sending this brief letter to you by Silas, a most dependable brother. I have the highest regard for him. I've written as urgently and accurately as I know how. This is God's generous truth; embrace it with both arms!


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The church in exile here with me—but not for a moment forgotten by God—wants to be remembered to you. Mark, who is like a son to me, says hello.


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I, Simon Peter, am a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. I write this to you whose experience with God is as life-changing as ours, all due to our God's straight dealing and the intervention of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.


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Grace and peace to you many times over as you deepen in your experience with God and Jesus, our Master.


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Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received!


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We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust.


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So don't lose a minute in building on what you've been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding,


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With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus.


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Without these qualities you can't see what's right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books.


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So, friends, confirm God's invitation to you, his choice of you. Don't put it off; do it now. Do this, and you'll have your life on a firm footing,


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the streets paved and the way wide open into the eternal kingdom of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ.


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Because the stakes are so high, even though you're up-to-date on all this truth and practice it inside and out, I'm not going to let up for a minute in calling you to attention before it.


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This is the post to which I've been assigned—keeping you alert with frequent reminders—and I'm sticking to it as long as I live.


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And so I am especially eager that you have all this down in black and white so that after I die, you'll have it for ready reference.


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We weren't, you know, just wishing on a star when we laid the facts out before you regarding the powerful return of our Master, Jesus Christ. We were there for the preview! We saw it with our own eyes:


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Jesus resplendent with light from God the Father as the voice of Majestic Glory spoke: "This is my Son, marked by my love, focus of all my delight."


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We were there on the holy mountain with him. We heard the voice out of heaven with our very own ears.


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We couldn't be more sure of what we saw and heard—God's glory, God's voice. The prophetic Word was confirmed to us. You'll do well to keep focusing on it. It's the one light you have in a dark time as you wait for daybreak and the rising of the Morning Star in your hearts.


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The main thing to keep in mind here is that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of private opinion.


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And why? Because it's not something concocted in the human heart. Prophecy resulted when the Holy Spirit prompted men and women to speak God's Word.


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But there were also lying prophets among the people then, just as there will be lying religious teachers among you. They'll smuggle in destructive divisions, pitting you against each other—biting the hand of the One who gave them a chance to have their lives back! They've put themselves on a fast downhill slide to destruction,


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but not before they recruit a crowd of mixed-up followers who can't tell right from wrong. They give the way of truth a bad name.


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They're only out for themselves. They'll say anything, anything, that sounds good to exploit you. They won't, of course, get by with it. They'll come to a bad end, for God has never just stood by and let that kind of thing go on.


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Neither did he let the ancient ungodly world off. He wiped it out with a flood, rescuing only eight people—Noah, the sole voice of righteousness, was one of them.


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God decreed destruction for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. A mound of ashes was all that was left—grim warning to anyone bent on an ungodly life.


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But that good man Lot, driven nearly out of his mind by the sexual filth and perversity, was rescued.


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So God knows how to rescue the godly from evil trials. And he knows how to hold the feet of the wicked to the fire until Judgment Day.


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God is especially incensed against these "teachers" who live by lust, addicted to a filthy existence. They despise interference from true authority, preferring to indulge in self-rule. Insolent egotists, they don't hesitate to speak evil against the most splendid of creatures.


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Even angels, their superiors in every way, wouldn't think of throwing their weight around like that, trying to slander others before God.


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These people are nothing but brute beasts, born in the wild, predators on the prowl. In the very act of bringing down others with their ignorant blasphemies, they themselves will be brought down, losers in the end.


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Their evil will boomerang on them. They're so despicable and addicted to pleasure that they indulge in wild parties, carousing in broad daylight.


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They're obsessed with adultery, compulsive in sin, seducing every vulnerable soul they come upon. Their specialty is greed, and they're experts at it. Dead souls!


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They've left the main road and are directionless, having taken the way of Balaam, son of Beor, the prophet who turned profiteer, a connoisseur of evil.


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But Balaam was stopped in his wayward tracks: A dumb animal spoke in a human voice and prevented the prophet's craziness.


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There's nothing to these people—they're dried-up fountains, storm-scattered clouds, headed for a black hole in hell.


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They are loudmouths, full of hot air, but still they're dangerous. Men and women who have recently escaped from a deviant life are most susceptible to their brand of seduction.


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They promise these newcomers freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, for if they're addicted to corruption—and they are—they're enslaved.


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If they've escaped from the slum of sin by experiencing our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ, and then slid back into that same old life again, they're worse than if they had never left.


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Better not to have started out on the straight road to God than to start out and then turn back, repudiating the experience and the holy command.


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They prove the point of the proverbs, "A dog goes back to its own vomit," and, "A scrubbed-up pig heads for the mud."


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My dear friends, this is now the second time I've written to you, both letters reminders to hold your minds in a state of undistracted attention.


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Keep in mind what the holy prophets said, and the command of our Master and Savior that was passed on by your apostles.


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First off, you need to know that in the last days, mockers are going to have a heyday. Reducing everything to the level of their puny feelings,


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they'll mock, "So what's happened to the promise of his Coming? Our ancestors are dead and buried, and everything's going on just as it has from the first day of creation. Nothing's changed."


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They conveniently forget that long ago all the galaxies and this very planet were brought into existence out of watery chaos by God's word.


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The current galaxies and earth are fuel for the final fire. God is poised, ready to speak his word again, ready to give the signal for the judgment and destruction of the desecrating skeptics.


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Don't overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day.


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God isn't late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn't want anyone lost. He's giving everyone space and time to change.


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But when the Day of God's Judgment does come, it will be unannounced, like a thief. The sky will collapse with a thunderous bang, everything disintegrating in a huge conflagration, earth and all its works exposed to the scrutiny of Judgment.


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Since everything here today might well be gone tomorrow, do you see how essential it is to live a holy life?


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Daily expect the Day of God, eager for its arrival. The galaxies will burn up and the elements melt down that day—


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but we'll hardly notice. We'll be looking the other way, ready for the promised new heavens and the promised new earth, all landscaped with righteousness.


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So, my dear friends, since this is what you have to look forward to, do your very best to be found living at your best, in purity and peace.


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Interpret our Master's patient restraint for what it is: salvation. Our good brother Paul, who was given much wisdom in these matters,


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refers to this in all his letters, and has written you essentially the same thing. Some things Paul writes are difficult to understand. Irresponsible people who don't know what they are talking about twist them every which way. They do it to the rest of the Scriptures, too, destroying themselves as they do it.


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But you, friends, are well-warned. Be on guard lest you lose your footing and get swept off your feet by these lawless and loose-talking teachers.


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Grow in grace and understanding of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ. Glory to the Master, now and forever! Yes!


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From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in—we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands.


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The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we're telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us.


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We saw it, we heard it, and now we're telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ.


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Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!


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This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there's not a trace of darkness in him.


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If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we're obviously lying through our teeth—we're not living what we claim.


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But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God's Son, purges all our sin.


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If we claim that we're free of sin, we're only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense.


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On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.


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If we claim that we've never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.


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I write this, dear children, to guide you out of sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a Priest-Friend in the presence of the Father: Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus.


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When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good—not only ours, but the whole world's.


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If someone claims, "I know him well!" but doesn't keep his commandments, he's obviously a liar. His life doesn't match his words.


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But the one who keeps God's word is the person in whom we see God's mature love. This is the only way to be sure we're in God.


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My dear friends, I'm not writing anything new here. This is the oldest commandment in the book, and you've known it from day one. It's always been implicit in the Message you've heard.


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On the other hand, perhaps it is new, freshly minted as it is in both Christ and you—the darkness on its way out and the True Light already blazing!


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It's the person who loves brother and sister who dwells in God's light and doesn't block the light from others.


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But whoever hates is still in the dark, stumbles around in the dark, doesn't know which end is up, blinded by the darkness.


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You veterans were in on the ground floor, and know the One who started all this; you newcomers have won a big victory over the Evil One. And a second reminder, dear children: You know the Father from personal experience.


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You veterans know the One who started it all; and you newcomers—such vitality and strength! God's word is so steady in you. Your fellowship with God enables you to gain a victory over the Evil One.


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Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father.


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Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him.


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The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.


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Children, time is just about up. You heard that Antichrist is coming. Well, they're all over the place, antichrists everywhere you look. That's how we know that we're close to the end.


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They left us, but they were never really with us. If they had been, they would have stuck it out with us, loyal to the end. In leaving, they showed their true colors, showed they never did belong.


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I haven't been writing this to tell you something you don't know, but to confirm the truth you do know, and to remind you that the truth doesn't breed lies.


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So who is lying here? It's the person who denies that Jesus is the Divine Christ, that's who. This is what makes an antichrist: denying the Father, denying the Son.


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No one who denies the Son has any part with the Father, but affirming the Son is an embrace of the Father as well.


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Stay with what you heard from the beginning, the original message. Let it sink into your life. If what you heard from the beginning lives deeply in you, you will live deeply in both Son and Father.


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But they're no match for what is embedded deeply within you—Christ's anointing, no less! You don't need any of their so-called teaching. Christ's anointing teaches you the truth on everything you need to know about yourself and him, uncontaminated by a single lie. Live deeply in what you were taught.


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And now, children, stay with Christ. Live deeply in Christ. Then we'll be ready for him when he appears, ready to receive him with open arms, with no cause for red-faced guilt or lame excuses when he arrives.


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Once you're convinced that he is right and righteous, you'll recognize that all who practice righteousness are God's true children.


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What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we're called children of God! That's who we really are. But that's also why the world doesn't recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he's up to.


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But friends, that's exactly who we are: children of God. And that's only the beginning. Who knows how we'll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we'll see him—and in seeing him, become like him.


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All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus' life as a model for our own.


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All who indulge in a sinful life are dangerously lawless, for sin is a major disruption of God's order.


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Surely you know that Christ showed up in order to get rid of sin. There is no sin in him, and sin is not part of his program.


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No one who lives deeply in Christ makes a practice of sin. None of those who do practice sin have taken a good look at Christ. They've got him all backwards.


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So, my dear children, don't let anyone divert you from the truth. It's the person who acts right who is right, just as we see it lived out in our righteous Messiah.


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Those who make a practice of sin are straight from the Devil, the pioneer in the practice of sin. The Son of God entered the scene to abolish the Devil's ways.


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People conceived and brought into life by God don't make a practice of sin. How could they? God's seed is deep within them, making them who they are. It's not in the nature of the God-begotten to practice and parade sin.


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Here's how you tell the difference between God's children and the Devil's children: The one who won't practice righteous ways isn't from God, nor is the one who won't love brother or sister. A simple test.


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We must not be like Cain, who joined the Evil One and then killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because he was deep in the practice of evil, while the acts of his brother were righteous.


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The way we know we've been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn't love is as good as dead.


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Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know very well that eternal life and murder don't go together.


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This is how we've come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves.


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If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God's love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.


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It's also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.


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And friends, once that's taken care of and we're no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we're bold and free before God!


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We're able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we're doing what he said, doing what pleases him.


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Again, this is God's command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command.


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As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.


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My dear friends, don't believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world.


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Here's how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ—the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person—comes from God and belongs to God.


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And everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing in common with God. This is the spirit of antichrist that you heard was coming. Well, here it is, sooner than we thought!


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My dear children, you come from God and belong to God. You have already won a big victory over those false teachers, for the Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world.


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These people belong to the Christ-denying world. They talk the world's language and the world eats it up.


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But we come from God and belong to God. Anyone who knows God understands us and listens. The person who has nothing to do with God will, of course, not listen to us. This is another test for telling the Spirit of Truth from the spirit of deception.


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My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God.


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The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love.


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This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him.


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This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.


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No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!


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This is how we know we're living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He's given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit.


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Also, we've seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world.


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Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God's Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God.


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We know it so well, we've embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God. God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us.


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This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ's.


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There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.


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We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.


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If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see?


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The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both.


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Every person who believes that Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah, is God-begotten. If we love the One who conceives the child, we'll surely love the child who was conceived.


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The reality test on whether or not we love God's children is this: Do we love God? Do we keep his commands?


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Every God-begotten person conquers the world's ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith.


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The person who wins out over the world's ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God.


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Jesus—the Divine Christ! He experienced a life-giving birth and a death-killing death. Not only birth from the womb, but baptismal birth of his ministry and sacrificial death. And all the while the Spirit is confirming the truth, the reality of God's presence at Jesus' baptism and crucifixion, bringing those occasions alive for us.


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If we take human testimony at face value, how much more should we be reassured when God gives testimony as he does here, testifying concerning his Son.


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Whoever believes in the Son of God inwardly confirms God's testimony. Whoever refuses to believe in effect calls God a liar, refusing to believe God's own testimony regarding his Son.


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My purpose in writing is simply this: that you who believe in God's Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion.


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And how bold and free we then become in his presence, freely asking according to his will, sure that he's listening.


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For instance, if we see a Christian believer sinning (clearly I'm not talking about those who make a practice of sin in a way that is "fatal," leading to eternal death), we ask for God's help and he gladly gives it, gives life to the sinner whose sin is not fatal. There is such a thing as a fatal sin, and I'm not urging you to pray about that.


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We know that none of the God-begotten makes a practice of sin—fatal sin. The God-begotten are also the God-protected. The Evil One can't lay a hand on them.


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We know that we are held firm by God; it's only the people of the world who continue in the grip of the Evil One.


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And we know that the Son of God came so we could recognize and understand the truth of God—what a gift!—and we are living in the Truth itself, in God's Son, Jesus Christ. This Jesus is both True God and Real Life.


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My dear congregation, I, your pastor, love you in very truth. And I'm not alone—everyone who knows the Truth


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Let grace, mercy, and peace be with us in truth and love from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, Son of the Father!


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I can't tell you how happy I am to learn that many members of your congregation are diligent in living out the Truth, exactly as commanded by the Father.


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But permit me a reminder, friends, and this is not a new commandment but simply a repetition of our original and basic charter: that we love each other.


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Love means following his commandments, and his unifying commandment is that you conduct your lives in love. This is the first thing you heard, and nothing has changed.


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There are a lot of smooth-talking charlatans loose in the world who refuse to believe that Jesus Christ was truly human, a flesh-and-blood human being. Give them their true title: Deceiver! Antichrist!


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And be very careful around them so you don't lose out on what we've worked so diligently in together; I want you to get every reward you have coming to you.


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Anyone who gets so progressive in his thinking that he walks out on the teaching of Christ, walks out on God. But whoever stays with the teaching, stays faithful to both the Father and the Son.


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If anyone shows up who doesn't hold to this teaching, don't invite him in and give him the run of the place.


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I have a lot more things to tell you, but I'd rather not use paper and ink. I hope to be there soon in person and have a heart-to-heart talk. That will be far more satisfying to both you and me.


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We're the best of friends, and I pray for good fortune in everything you do, and for your good health—that your everyday affairs prosper, as well as your soul!


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I was most happy when some friends arrived and brought the news that you persist in following the way of Truth.


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Nothing could make me happier than getting reports that my children continue diligently in the way of Truth!


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Dear friend, when you extend hospitality to Christian brothers and sisters, even when they are strangers, you make the faith visible.


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They've made a full report back to the church here, a message about your love. It's good work you're doing, helping these travelers on their way, hospitality worthy of God himself!


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So they deserve any support we can give them. In providing meals and a bed, we become their companions in spreading the Truth.


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Earlier I wrote something along this line to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves being in charge, denigrates my counsel.


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If I come, you can be sure I'll hold him to account for spreading vicious rumors about us. As if that weren't bad enough, he not only refuses hospitality to traveling Christians but tries to stop others from welcoming them. Worse yet, instead of inviting them in he throws them out.


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Friend, don't go along with evil. Model the good. The person who does good does God's work. The person who does evil falsifies God, doesn't know the first thing about God.


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Everyone has a good word for Demetrius—the Truth itself stands up for Demetrius! We concur, and you know we don't hand out endorsements lightly.


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I hope to be there soon in person and have a heart-to-heart talk. Peace to you. The friends here say hello. Greet our friends there by name.


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I, Jude, am a slave to Jesus Christ and brother to James, writing to those loved by God the Father, called and kept safe by Jesus Christ.


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Relax, everything's going to be all right; rest, everything's coming together; open your hearts, love is on the way!


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Dear friends, I've dropped everything to write you about this life of salvation that we have in common. I have to write insisting—begging!—that you fight with everything you have in you for this faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish.


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What has happened is that some people have infiltrated our ranks (our Scriptures warned us this would happen), who beneath their pious skin are shameless scoundrels. Their design is to replace the sheer grace of our God with sheer license—which means doing away with Jesus Christ, our one and only Master.


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I'm laying this out as clearly as I can, even though you once knew all this well enough and shouldn't need reminding. Here it is in brief: The Master saved a people out of the land of Egypt. Later he destroyed those who defected.


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And you know the story of the angels who didn't stick to their post, abandoning it for other, darker missions. But they are now chained and jailed in a black hole until the great Judgment Day.


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Sodom and Gomorrah, which went to sexual rack and ruin along with the surrounding cities that acted just like them, are another example. Burning and burning and never burning up, they serve still as a stock warning.


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This is exactly the same program of these latest infiltrators: dirty sex, rule and rulers thrown out, glory dragged in the mud.


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The Archangel Michael, who went to the mat with the Devil as they fought over the body of Moses, wouldn't have dared level him with a blasphemous curse, but said simply, "No you don't. God will take care of you!"


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But these people sneer at anything they can't understand, and by doing whatever they feel like doing—living by animal instinct only—they participate in their own destruction.


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I'm fed up with them! They've gone down Cain's road; they've been sucked into Balaam's error by greed; they're canceled out in Korah's rebellion.


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These people are warts on your love feasts as you worship and eat together. They're giving you a black eye—carousing shamelessly, grabbing anything that isn't nailed down. They're— Puffs of smoke pushed by gusts of wind; late autumn trees stripped clean of leaf and fruit, Doubly dead, pulled up by the roots;


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wild ocean waves leaving nothing on the beach but the foam of their shame; Lost stars in outer space on their way to the black hole.


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Enoch, the seventh after Adam, prophesied of them: "Look! The Master comes with thousands of holy angels


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to bring judgment against them all, convicting each person of every defiling act of shameless sacrilege, of every dirty word they have spewed of their pious filth."


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These are the "grumpers," the bellyachers, grabbing for the biggest piece of the pie, talking big, saying anything they think will get them ahead.


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But remember, dear friends, that the apostles of our Master, Jesus Christ, told us this would happen:


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"In the last days there will be people who don't take these things seriously anymore. They'll treat them like a joke, and make a religion of their own whims and lusts."


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These are the ones who split churches, thinking only of themselves. There's nothing to them, no sign of the Spirit!


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But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit,


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staying right at the center of God's love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life!


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Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. The sin itself stinks to high heaven.


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And now to him who can keep you on your feet, standing tall in his bright presence, fresh and celebrating—


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to our one God, our only Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Master, be glory, majesty, strength, and rule before all time, and now, and to the end of all time. Yes.


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A revealing of Jesus, the Messiah. God gave it to make plain to his servants what is about to happen. He published and delivered it by Angel to his servant John.


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How blessed the reader! How blessed the hearers and keepers of these oracle words, all the words written in this book! Time is just about up.


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I, John, am writing this to the seven churches in Asia province: All the best to you from The God Who Is, The God Who Was, and The God About to Arrive, and from the Seven Spirits assembled before his throne,


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and from Jesus Christ—Loyal Witness, Firstborn from the dead, Ruler of all earthly kings. Glory and strength to Christ, who loves us, who blood-washed our sins from our lives,


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Riding the clouds, he'll be seen by every eye, those who mocked and killed him will see him, People from all nations and all times will tear their clothes in lament. Oh, Yes.


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The Master declares, <J>"I'm A to Z. I'm The God Who Is, The God Who Was, and The God About to Arrive. I'm the Sovereign-Strong."</J>


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I, John, with you all the way in the trial and the Kingdom and the passion of patience in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of God's Word, the witness of Jesus.


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It was Sunday and I was in the Spirit, praying. I heard a loud voice behind me, trumpet-clear and piercing:


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"<J>Write what you see into a book. Send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea."</J>


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I saw this and fainted dead at his feet. His right hand pulled me upright, his voice reassured me: <J>"Don't fear: I am First, I am Last,</J>


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<J>I'm Alive. I died, but I came to life, and my life is now forever. See these keys in my hand? They open and lock Death's doors, they open and lock Hell's gates.</J>


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<J>The Seven Stars you saw in my right hand and the seven-branched gold menorah—do you want to know what's behind them? The Seven Stars are the Angels of the seven churches; the menorah's seven branches are the seven churches."</J>


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<J>Write this to Ephesus, to the Angel of the church. The One with Seven Stars in his right-fist grip, striding through the golden seven-lights' circle, speaks:</J>


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<J>"I see what you've done, your hard, hard work, your refusal to quit. I know you can't stomach evil, that you weed out apostolic pretenders.</J>


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<J>Do you have any idea how far you've fallen? A Lucifer fall! "Turn back! Recover your dear early love. No time to waste, for I'm well on my way to removing your light from the golden circle.</J>


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<J>"Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. I'm about to call each conqueror to dinner. I'm spreading a banquet of Tree-of-Life fruit, a supper plucked from God's orchard."</J>


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<J>Write this to Smyrna, to the Angel of the church. The Beginning and Ending, the First and Final One, the Once Dead and Then Come Alive, speaks:</J>


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<J>"I can see your pain and poverty—constant pain, dire poverty—but I also see your wealth. And I hear the lie in the claims of those who pretend to be good Jews, who in fact belong to Satan's crowd.</J>


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<J>"Fear nothing in the things you're about to suffer—but stay on guard! Fear nothing! The Devil is about to throw you in jail for a time of testing—ten days. It won't last forever. "Don't quit, even if it costs you your life. Stay there believing. I have a Life-Crown sized and ready for you.</J>


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<J>"Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. Christ-conquerors are safe from Devil-death."</J>


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<J>Write this to Pergamum, to the Angel of the church. The One with the sharp-biting sword draws from the sheath of his mouth—out come the sword words:</J>


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<J>"I see where you live, right under the shadow of Satan's throne. But you continue boldly in my Name; you never once denied my Name, even when the pressure was worst, when they martyred Antipas, my witness who stayed faithful to me on Satan's turf.</J>


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<J>"But why do you indulge that Balaam crowd? Don't you remember that Balaam was an enemy agent, seducing Balak and sabotaging Israel's holy pilgrimage by throwing unholy parties?</J>


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<J>"Enough! Don't give in to them; I'll be with you soon. I'm fed up and about to cut them to pieces with my sword-sharp words.</J>


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<J>"Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. I'll give the sacred manna to every conqueror; I'll also give a clear, smooth stone inscribed with your new name, your secret new name."</J>


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<J>Write this to Thyatira, to the Angel of the church. God's Son, eyes pouring fire-blaze, standing on feet of furnace-fired bronze, says this:</J>


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<J>"I see everything you're doing for me. Impressive! The love and the faith, the service and persistence. Yes, very impressive! You get better at it every day.</J>


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<J>"But why do you let that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet mislead my dear servants into Cross-denying, self-indulging religion?</J>


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<J>I gave her a chance to change her ways, but she has no intention of giving up a career in the god-business.</J>


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<J>I'm about to lay her low, along with her partners, as they play their sex-and-religion games.</J>


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<J>The bastard offspring of their idol-whoring I'll kill. Then every church will know that appearances don't impress me. I x-ray every motive and make sure you get what's coming to you.</J>


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<J>"The rest of you Thyatirans, who have nothing to do with this outrage, who scorn this playing around with the Devil that gets paraded as profundity, be assured I'll not make life any harder for you than it already is.</J>


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<J>"Here's the reward I have for every conqueror, everyone who keeps at it, refusing to give up: You'll rule the nations,</J>


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<J>your Shepherd-King rule as firm as an iron staff, their resistance fragile as clay pots. This was the gift my Father gave me; I pass it along to you—</J>


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<J>"Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches."</J>


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<J>Write this to Sardis, to the Angel of the church. The One holding the Seven Spirits of God in one hand, a firm grip on the Seven Stars with the other, speaks: "I see right through your work. You have a reputation for vigor and zest, but you're dead, stone dead.</J>


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<J>"Up on your feet! Take a deep breath! Maybe there's life in you yet. But I wouldn't know it by looking at your busywork; nothing of God's work has been completed. Your condition is desperate.</J>


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<J>Think of the gift you once had in your hands, the Message you heard with your ears—grasp it again and turn back to God. "If you pull the covers back over your head and sleep on, oblivious to God, I'll return when you least expect it, break into your life like a thief in the night.</J>


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<J>"You still have a few Christians in Sardis who haven't ruined themselves wallowing in the muck of the world's ways. They'll walk with me on parade! They've proved their worth!</J>


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<J>"Conquerors will march in the victory parade, their names indelible in the Book of Life. I'll lead them up and present them by name to my Father and his Angels.</J>


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<J>Write this to Philadelphia, to the Angel of the church. The Holy, the True—David's key in his hand, opening doors no one can lock, locking doors no one can open—speaks:</J>


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<J>"I see what you've done. Now see what I've done. I've opened a door before you that no one can slam shut. You don't have much strength, I know that; you used what you had to keep my Word. You didn't deny me when times were rough.</J>


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<J>"And watch as I take those who call themselves true believers but are nothing of the kind, pretenders whose true membership is in the club of Satan—watch as I strip off their pretensions and they're forced to acknowledge it's you that I've loved.</J>


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<J>"Because you kept my Word in passionate patience, I'll keep you safe in the time of testing that will be here soon, and all over the earth, every man, woman, and child put to the test.</J>


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<J>"I'm on my way; I'll be there soon. Keep a tight grip on what you have so no one distracts you and steals your crown.</J>


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<J>"I'll make each conqueror a pillar in the sanctuary of my God, a permanent position of honor. Then I'll write names on you, the pillars: the Name of my God, the Name of God's City—the new Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven—and my new Name.</J>


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<J>Write to Laodicea, to the Angel of the church. God's Yes, the Faithful and Accurate Witness, the First of God's creation, says:</J>


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<J>"I know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You're not cold, you're not hot—far better to be either cold or hot!</J>


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<J>You brag, 'I'm rich, I've got it made, I need nothing from anyone,' oblivious that in fact you're a pitiful, blind beggar, threadbare and homeless.</J>


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<J>"Here's what I want you to do: Buy your gold from me, gold that's been through the refiner's fire. Then you'll be rich. Buy your clothes from me, clothes designed in Heaven. You've gone around half-naked long enough. And buy medicine for your eyes from me so you can see, really see.</J>


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<J>"The people I love, I call to account—prod and correct and guide so that they'll live at their best. Up on your feet, then! About face! Run after God!</J>


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<J>"Look at me. I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I'll come right in and sit down to supper with you.</J>


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<J>Conquerors will sit alongside me at the head table, just as I, having conquered, took the place of honor at the side of my Father. That's my gift to the conquerors!</J>


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Then I looked, and, oh!—a door open into Heaven. The trumpet-voice, the first voice in my vision, called out, <J>"Ascend and enter. I'll show you what happens next."</J>


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I was caught up at once in deep worship and, oh!—a Throne set in Heaven with One Seated on the Throne,


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Lightning flash and thunder crash pulsed from the Throne. Seven fire-blazing torches fronted the Throne (these are the Sevenfold Spirit of God).


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Before the Throne it was like a clear crystal sea. Prowling around the Throne were Four Animals, all eyes. Eyes to look ahead, eyes to look behind.


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The first Animal like a lion, the second like an ox, the third with a human face, the fourth like an eagle in flight.


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The Four Animals were winged, each with six wings. They were all eyes, seeing around and within. And they chanted night and day, never taking a break: Holy, holy, holy Is God our Master, Sovereign-Strong, The Was, The Is, The Coming.


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Every time the Animals gave glory and honor and thanks to the One Seated on the Throne—the age-after-age Living One—


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the Twenty-four Elders would fall prostrate before the One Seated on the Throne. They worshiped the age-after-age Living One. They threw their crowns at the foot of the Throne, chanting,


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Worthy, O Master! Yes, our God! Take the glory! the honor! the power! You created it all; It was created because you wanted it.


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I saw a scroll in the right hand of the One Seated on the Throne. It was written on both sides, fastened with seven seals.


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I also saw a powerful Angel, calling out in a voice like thunder, "Is there anyone who can open the scroll, who can break its seals?"


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There was no one—no one in Heaven, no one on earth, no one from the underworld—able to break open the scroll and read it.


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One of the Elders said, "Don't weep. Look—the Lion from Tribe Judah, the Root of David's Tree, has conquered. He can open the scroll, can rip through the seven seals."


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So I looked, and there, surrounded by Throne, Animals, and Elders, was a Lamb, slaughtered but standing tall. Seven horns he had, and seven eyes, the Seven Spirits of God sent into all the earth.


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The moment he took the scroll, the Four Animals and Twenty-four Elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb. Each had a harp and each had a bowl, a gold bowl filled with incense, the prayers of God's holy people.


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And they sang a new song: Worthy! Take the scroll, open its seals. Slain! Paying in blood, you bought men and women, Bought them back from all over the earth, Bought them back for God.


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I looked again. I heard a company of Angels around the Throne, the Animals, and the Elders—ten thousand times ten thousand their number, thousand after thousand after thousand


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in full song: The slain Lamb is worthy! Take the power, the wealth, the wisdom, the strength! Take the honor, the glory, the blessing!


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Then I heard every creature in Heaven and earth, in underworld and sea, join in, all voices in all places, singing: To the One on the Throne! To the Lamb! The blessing, the honor, the glory, the strength, For age after age after age.


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I watched while the Lamb ripped off the first of the seven seals. I heard one of the Animals roar, "Come out!"


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I looked—I saw a white horse. Its rider carried a bow and was given a victory garland. He rode off victorious, conquering right and left.


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Another horse appeared, this one red. Its rider was off to take peace from the earth, setting people at each other's throats, killing one another. He was given a huge sword.


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When he ripped off the third seal, I heard the third Animal cry, "Come out!" I looked. A black horse this time. Its rider carried a set of scales in his hand.


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I heard a message (it seemed to issue from the Four Animals): "A quart of wheat for a day's wages, or three quarts of barley, but all the oil and wine you want."


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I looked. A colorless horse, sickly pale. Its rider was Death, and Hell was close on its heels. They were given power to destroy a fourth of the earth by war, famine, disease, and wild beasts.


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When he ripped off the fifth seal, I saw the souls of those killed because they had held firm in their witness to the Word of God. They were gathered under the Altar,


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and cried out in loud prayers, "How long, Strong God, Holy and True? How long before you step in and avenge our murders?"


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Then each martyr was given a white robe and told to sit back and wait until the full number of martyrs was filled from among their servant companions and friends in the faith.


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I watched while he ripped off the sixth seal: a bone-jarring earthquake, sun turned black as ink, moon all bloody,


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And then pandemonium, everyone and his dog running for cover—kings, princes, generals, rich and strong, along with every commoner, slave or free. They hid in mountain caves and rocky dens,


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calling out to mountains and rocks, "Refuge! Hide us from the One Seated on the Throne and the wrath of the Lamb!


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Immediately I saw Four Angels standing at the four corners of earth, standing steady with a firm grip on the four winds so no wind would blow on earth or sea, not even rustle a tree.


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Then I saw another Angel rising from where the sun rose, carrying the seal of the Living God. He thundered to the Four Angels assigned the task of hurting earth and sea,


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"Don't hurt the earth! Don't hurt the sea! Don't so much as hurt a tree until I've sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads!"


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I looked again. I saw a huge crowd, too huge to count. Everyone was there—all nations and tribes, all races and languages. And they were standing, dressed in white robes and waving palm branches, standing before the Throne and the Lamb


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All who were standing around the Throne—Angels, Elders, Animals—fell on their faces before the Throne and worshiped God,


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singing: Oh, Yes! The blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving, The honor and power and strength, To our God forever and ever and ever! Oh, Yes!


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Just then one of the Elders addressed me: "Who are these dressed in white robes, and where did they come from?"


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Taken aback, I said, "O Sir, I have no idea—but you must know." Then he told me, "These are those who come from the great tribulation, and they've washed their robes, scrubbed them clean in the blood of the Lamb.


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That's why they're standing before God's Throne. They serve him day and night in his Temple. The One on the Throne will pitch his tent there for them:


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The Lamb on the Throne will shepherd them, will lead them to spring waters of Life. And God will wipe every last tear from their eyes."


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When the Lamb ripped off the seventh seal, Heaven fell quiet—complete silence for about half an hour.


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Then another Angel, carrying a gold censer, came and stood at the Altar. He was given a great quantity of incense so that he could offer up the prayers of all the holy people of God on the Golden Altar before the Throne.


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Smoke billowed up from the incense-laced prayers of the holy ones, rose before God from the hand of the Angel.


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Then the Angel filled the censer with fire from the Altar and heaved it to earth. It set off thunders, voices, lightnings, and an earthquake.


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At the first trumpet blast, hail and fire mixed with blood were dumped on earth. A third of the earth was scorched, a third of the trees, and every blade of green grass—burned to a crisp.


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The second Angel trumpeted. Something like a huge mountain blazing with fire was flung into the sea. A third of the sea turned to blood,


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The third Angel trumpeted. A huge Star, blazing like a torch, fell from Heaven, wiping out a third of the rivers and a third of the springs.


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The Star's name was Wormwood. A third of the water turned bitter, and many people died from the poisoned water.


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The fourth Angel trumpeted. A third of the sun, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars were hit, blacked out by a third, both day and night in one-third blackout.


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I looked hard; I heard a lone eagle, flying through Middle-Heaven, crying out ominously, "Doom! Doom! Doom to everyone left on earth! There are three more Angels about to blow their trumpets. Doom is on its way!"


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The fifth Angel trumpeted. I saw a Star plummet from Heaven to earth. The Star was handed a key to the Well of the Abyss.


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He unlocked the Well of the Abyss—smoke poured out of the Well, billows and billows of smoke, sun and air in blackout from smoke pouring out of the Well.


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They were given their orders: "Don't hurt the grass, don't hurt anything green, don't hurt a single tree—only men and women, and then only those who lack the seal of God on their foreheads."


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They were ordered to torture but not kill, torture them for five months, the pain like a scorpion sting.


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When this happens, people are going to prefer death to torture, look for ways to kill themselves. But they won't find a way—death will have gone into hiding.


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and iron breastplates. The sound of their wings was the sound of horse-drawn chariots charging into battle.


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Their tails were equipped with stings, like scorpion tails. With those tails they were ordered to torture the human race for five months.


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They had a king over them, the Angel of the Abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, in Greek, Apollyon—"Destroyer."


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The sixth Angel trumpeted. I heard a voice speaking to the sixth Angel from the horns of the Golden Altar before God:


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The Four Angels were untied and let loose, Four Angels all prepared for the exact year, month, day, and even hour when they were to kill a third of the human race.


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and saw both horses and riders in my vision: fiery breastplates on the riders, lion heads on the horses breathing out fire and smoke and brimstone.


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The horses killed with their mouths and tails; their serpentlike tails also had heads that wreaked havoc.


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The remaining men and women who weren't killed by these weapons went on their merry way—didn't change their way of life, didn't quit worshiping demons, didn't quit centering their lives around lumps of gold and silver and brass, hunks of stone and wood that couldn't see or hear or move.


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There wasn't a sign of a change of heart. They plunged right on in their murderous, occult, promiscuous, and thieving ways.


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I saw another powerful Angel coming down out of Heaven wrapped in a cloud. There was a rainbow over his head, his face was sun-radiant, his legs pillars of fire.


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He had a small book open in his hand. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left foot on land,


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When the Seven Thunders spoke, I started to write it all down, but a voice out of Heaven stopped me, saying, "Seal with silence the Seven Thunders; don't write a word."


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and swore by the One Living Forever and Ever, who created Heaven and everything in it, earth and everything in it, sea and everything in it, that time was up—


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that when the seventh Angel blew his trumpet, which he was about to do, the Mystery of God, all the plans he had revealed to his servants, the prophets, would be completed.


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The voice out of Heaven spoke to me again: "Go, take the book held open in the hand of the Angel astride sea and earth."


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I went up to the Angel and said, "Give me the little book." He said, "Take it, then eat it. It will taste sweet like honey, but turn sour in your stomach."


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I took the little book from the Angel's hand and it was sweet honey in my mouth, but when I swallowed, my stomach curdled.


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Then I was told, "You must go back and prophesy again over many peoples and nations and languages and kings."


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I was given a stick for a measuring rod and told, "Get up and measure God's Temple and Altar and everyone worshiping in it.


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Exclude the outside court; don't measure it. It's been handed over to non-Jewish outsiders. They'll desecrate the Holy City for forty-two months.


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"Meanwhile, I'll provide my two Witnesses. Dressed in sackcloth, they'll prophesy for one thousand two hundred sixty days.


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If anyone tries to hurt them, a blast of fire from their mouths will incinerate them—burn them to a crisp just like that.


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They'll have power to seal the sky so that it doesn't rain for the time of their prophesying, power to turn rivers and springs to blood, power to hit earth with any and every disaster as often as they want.


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"When they've completed their witness, the Beast from the Abyss will emerge and fight them, conquer and kill them,


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leaving their corpses exposed on the street of the Great City spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, the same City where their Master was crucified.


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For three and a half days they'll be there—exposed, prevented from getting a decent burial, stared at by the curious from all over the world.


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Those people will cheer at the spectacle, shouting 'Good riddance!' and calling for a celebration, for these two prophets pricked the conscience of all the people on earth, made it impossible for them to enjoy their sins.


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"Then, after three and a half days, the Living Spirit of God will enter them—they're on their feet!—and all those gloating spectators will be scared to death."


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I heard a strong voice out of Heaven calling, "Come up here!" and up they went to Heaven, wrapped in a cloud, their enemies watching it all.


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At that moment there was a gigantic earthquake—a tenth of the city fell to ruin, seven thousand perished in the earthquake, the rest frightened to the core of their being, frightened into giving honor to the God of Heaven.


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The seventh Angel trumpeted. A crescendo of voices in Heaven sang out, The kingdom of the world is now the Kingdom of our God and his Messiah! He will rule forever and ever!


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and sang, We thank you, O God, Sovereign-Strong, Who Is and Who Was. You took your great power and took over—reigned!


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The angry nations now get a taste of your anger. The time has come to judge the dead, to reward your servants, all prophets and saints, Reward small and great who fear your Name, and destroy the destroyers of earth.


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The doors of God's Temple in Heaven flew open, and the Ark of his Covenant was clearly seen surrounded by flashes of lightning, loud shouts, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a fierce hailstorm.


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A great Sign appeared in Heaven: a Woman dressed all in sunlight, standing on the moon, and crowned with Twelve Stars.


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And then another Sign alongside the first: a huge and fiery Dragon! It had seven heads and ten horns, a crown on each of the seven heads.


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With one flick of its tail it knocked a third of the Stars from the sky and dumped them on earth. The Dragon crouched before the Woman in childbirth, poised to eat up the Child when it came.


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The Woman gave birth to a Son who will shepherd all nations with an iron rod. Her Son was seized and placed safely before God on his Throne.


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The Woman herself escaped to the desert to a place of safety prepared by God, all comforts provided her for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.


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War broke out in Heaven. Michael and his Angels fought the Dragon. The Dragon and his Angels fought back,


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The great Dragon—ancient Serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, the one who led the whole earth astray—thrown out, and all his Angels thrown out with him, thrown down to earth.


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Then I heard a strong voice out of Heaven saying, Salvation and power are established! Kingdom of our God, authority of his Messiah! The Accuser of our brothers and sisters thrown out, who accused them day and night before God.


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They defeated him through the blood of the Lamb and the bold word of their witness. They weren't in love with themselves; they were willing to die for Christ.


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So rejoice, O Heavens, and all who live there, but doom to earth and sea, For the Devil's come down on you with both feet; he's had a great fall; He's wild and raging with anger; he hasn't much time and he knows it.


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When the Dragon saw he'd been thrown to earth, he went after the Woman who had given birth to the Man-Child.


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The Woman was given wings of a great eagle to fly to a place in the desert to be kept in safety and comfort for a time and times and half a time, safe and sound from the Serpent.


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Helpless with rage, the Dragon raged at the Woman, then went off to make war with the rest of her children, the children who keep God's commands and hold firm to the witness of Jesus.


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And the Dragon stood on the shore of the sea. I saw a Beast rising from the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads—on each horn a crown, and each head inscribed with a blasphemous name.


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The Beast I saw looked like a leopard with bear paws and a lion's mouth. The Dragon turned over its power to it, its throne and great authority.


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One of the Beast's heads looked as if it had been struck a deathblow, and then healed. The whole earth was agog, gaping at the Beast.


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They worshiped the Dragon who gave the Beast authority, and they worshiped the Beast, exclaiming, "There's never been anything like the Beast! No one would dare go to war with the Beast!"


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The Beast had a loud mouth, boastful and blasphemous. It could do anything it wanted for forty-two months.


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It yelled blasphemies against God, blasphemed his Name, blasphemed his Church, especially those already dwelling with God in Heaven.


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It was permitted to make war on God's holy people and conquer them. It held absolute sway over all tribes and peoples, tongues and races.


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Everyone on earth whose name was not written from the world's foundation in the slaughtered Lamb's Book of Life will worship the Beast.


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They've made their bed; now they must lie in it. Anyone marked for prison goes straight to prison; anyone pulling a sword goes down by the sword. Meanwhile, God's holy people passionately and faithfully stand their ground.


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I saw another Beast rising out of the ground. It had two horns like a lamb but sounded like a dragon when it spoke.


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It was a puppet of the first Beast, made earth and everyone in it worship the first Beast, which had been healed of its deathblow.


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It used the magic it got from the Beast to dupe earth dwellers, getting them to make an image of the Beast that received the deathblow and lived.


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It was able to animate the image of the Beast so that it talked, and then arrange that anyone not worshiping the Beast would be killed.


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It forced all people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to have a mark on the right hand or forehead.


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Without the mark of the name of the Beast or the number of its name, it was impossible to buy or sell anything.


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Solve a riddle: Put your heads together and figure out the meaning of the number of the Beast. It's a human number: six hundred sixty-six.


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I saw—it took my breath away!—the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, One Hundred and Forty-four Thousand standing there with him, his Name and the Name of his Father inscribed on their foreheads.


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And I heard a voice out of Heaven, the sound like a cataract, like the crash of thunder. And then I heard music, harp music


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and the harpists singing a new song before the Throne and the Four Animals and the Elders. Only the Hundred and Forty-four Thousand could learn to sing the song. They were bought from earth,


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lived without compromise, virgin-fresh before God. Wherever the Lamb went, they followed. They were bought from humankind, firstfruits of the harvest for God and the Lamb.


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I saw another Angel soaring in Middle-Heaven. He had an Eternal Message to preach to all who were still on earth, every nation and tribe, every tongue and people.


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He preached in a loud voice, "Fear God and give him glory! His hour of judgment has come! Worship the Maker of Heaven and earth, salt sea and fresh water!"


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A second Angel followed, calling out, "Ruined, ruined, Great Babylon ruined! She made all the nations drunk on the wine of her whoring!"


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A third Angel followed, shouting, warning, "If anyone worships the Beast and its image and takes the mark on forehead or hand,


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that person will drink the wine of God's wrath, prepared unmixed in his chalice of anger, and suffer torment from fire and brimstone in the presence of Holy Angels, in the presence of the Lamb.


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Smoke from their torment will rise age after age. No respite for those who worship the Beast and its image, who take the mark of its name."


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Meanwhile, the saints stand passionately patient, keeping God's commands, staying faithful to Jesus.


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I heard a voice out of Heaven, "Write this: Blessed are those who die in the Master from now on; how blessed to die that way!" "Yes," says the Spirit, "and blessed rest from their hard, hard work. None of what they've done is wasted; God blesses them for it all in the end."


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I looked up, I caught my breath!—a white cloud and one like the Son of Man sitting on it. He wore a gold crown and held a sharp sickle.


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Another Angel came out of the Temple, shouting to the Cloud-Enthroned, "Swing your sickle and reap. It's harvest time. Earth's harvest is ripe for reaping."


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Yet another Angel, the one in charge of tending the fire, came from the Altar. He thundered to the Angel who held the sharp sickle, "Swing your sharp sickle. Harvest earth's vineyard. The grapes are bursting with ripeness."


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The Angel swung his sickle, harvested earth's vintage, and heaved it into the winepress, the giant winepress of God's wrath.


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The winepress was outside the City. As the vintage was trodden, blood poured from the winepress as high as a horse's bridle, a river of blood for two hundred miles.


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I saw another Sign in Heaven, huge and breathtaking: seven Angels with seven disasters. These are the final disasters, the wrap-up of God's wrath.


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I saw something like a sea made of glass, the glass all shot through with fire. Carrying harps of God, triumphant over the Beast, its image, and the number of its name, the saved ones stood on the sea of glass.


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They sang the Song of Moses, servant of God; they sang the Song of the Lamb: Mighty your acts and marvelous, O God, the Sovereign-Strong! Righteous your ways and true, King of the nations!


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Who can fail to fear you, God, give glory to your Name? Because you and you only are holy, all nations will come and worship you, because they see your judgments are right.


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The Seven Angels carrying the seven disasters came out of the Temple. They were dressed in clean, bright linen and wore gold vests.


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One of the Four Animals handed the Seven Angels seven gold bowls, brimming with the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever.


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Smoke from God's glory and power poured out of the Temple. No one was permitted to enter the Temple until the seven disasters of the Seven Angels were finished.


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I heard a shout of command from the Temple to the Seven Angels: "Begin! Pour out the seven bowls of God's wrath on earth!"


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The first Angel stepped up and poured his bowl out on earth: Loathsome, stinking sores erupted on all who had taken the mark of the Beast and worshiped its image.


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The second Angel poured his bowl on the sea: The sea coagulated into blood, and everything in it died.


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I heard the Angel of Waters say, Righteous you are, and your judgments are righteous, The Is, The Was, The Holy.


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They poured out the blood of saints and prophets so you've given them blood to drink— they've gotten what they deserve!


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Just then I heard the Altar chime in, Yes, O God, the Sovereign-Strong! Your judgments are true and just!


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Burned and blistered, they cursed God's Name, the God behind these disasters. They refused to repent, refused to honor God.


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The fifth Angel poured his bowl on the throne of the Beast: Its kingdom fell into sudden eclipse. Mad with pain, men and women bit and chewed their tongues,


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The sixth Angel poured his bowl on the great Euphrates River: It dried up to nothing. The dry riverbed became a fine roadbed for the kings from the East.


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From the mouths of the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet I saw three foul demons crawl out—they looked like frogs.


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These are demon spirits performing signs. They're after the kings of the whole world to get them gathered for battle on the Great Day of God, the Sovereign-Strong.


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"<J>Keep watch! I come unannounced, like a thief. You're blessed if, awake and dressed, you're ready for me. Too bad if you're found running through the streets, naked and ashamed."</J>


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followed by lightning flashes and shouts, thunder crashes and a colossal earthquake—a huge and devastating earthquake, never an earthquake like it since time began.


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The Great City split three ways, the cities of the nations toppled to ruin. Great Babylon had to drink the wine of God's raging anger—God remembered to give her the cup!


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Hailstones weighing a ton plummeted, crushing and smashing men and women as they cursed God for the hail, the epic disaster of hail.


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One of the Seven Angels who carried the seven bowls came and invited me, "Come, I'll show you the judgment of the great Whore who sits enthroned over many waters,


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the Whore with whom the kings of the earth have gone whoring, show you the judgment on earth dwellers drunk on her whorish lust."


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In the Spirit he carried me out in the desert. I saw a woman mounted on a Scarlet Beast. Stuffed with blasphemies, the Beast had seven heads and ten horns.


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The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, festooned with gold and gems and pearls. She held a gold chalice in her hand, brimming with defiling obscenities, her foul fornications.


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A riddle-name was branded on her forehead: great babylon, mother of whores and abominations of the earth.


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I could see that the woman was drunk, drunk on the blood of God's holy people, drunk on the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. Astonished, I rubbed my eyes. I shook my head in wonder.


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The Angel said, "Does this surprise you? Let me tell you the riddle of the woman and the Beast she rides, the Beast with seven heads and ten horns.


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The Beast you saw once was, is no longer, and is about to ascend from the Abyss and head straight for Hell. Earth dwellers whose names weren't written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world will be dazzled when they see the Beast that once was, is no longer, and is to come.


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"But don't drop your guard. Use your head. The seven heads are seven hills; they are where the woman sits.


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They are also seven kings: five dead, one living, the other not yet here—and when he does come his time will be brief.


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The Beast that once was and is no longer is both an eighth and one of the seven—and headed for Hell.


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"The ten horns you saw are ten kings, but they're not yet in power. They will come to power with the Scarlet Beast, but won't last long—a very brief reign.


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They will go to war against the Lamb but the Lamb will defeat them, proof that he is Lord over all lords, King over all kings, and those with him will be the called, chosen, and faithful."


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The Angel continued, "The waters you saw on which the Whore was enthroned are peoples and crowds, nations and languages.


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And the ten horns you saw, together with the Beast, will turn on the Whore—they'll hate her, violate her, strip her naked, rip her apart with their teeth, then set fire to her.


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It was God who put the idea in their heads to turn over their rule to the Beast until the words of God are completed.


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Following this I saw another Angel descend from Heaven. His authority was immense, his glory flooded earth with brightness,


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his voice thunderous: Ruined, ruined, Great Babylon, ruined! A ghost town for demons is all that's left! A garrison of carrion spirits, garrison of loathsome, carrion birds.


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All nations drank the wild wine of her whoring; kings of the earth went whoring with her; entrepreneurs made millions exploiting her.


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Just then I heard another shout out of Heaven: Get out, my people, as fast as you can, so you don't get mixed up in her sins, so you don't get caught in her doom.


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Give her back what she's given, double what she's doubled in her works, double the recipe in the cup she mixed;


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Bring her flaunting and wild ways to torment and tears. Because she gloated, "I'm queen over all, and no widow, never a tear on my face,"


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In one day, disasters will crush her— death, heartbreak, and famine— Then she'll be burned by fire, because God, the Strong God who judges her, has had enough.


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"The kings of the earth will see the smoke of her burning, and they'll cry and carry on, the kings who went night after night to her brothel.


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They'll keep their distance for fear they'll get burned, and they'll cry their lament: Doom, doom, the great city doomed! City of Babylon, strong city! In one hour it's over, your judgment come!


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"The traders will cry and carry on because the bottom dropped out of business, no more market for their goods:


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gold, silver, precious gems, pearls; fabrics of fine linen, purple, silk, scarlet; perfumed wood and vessels of ivory, precious woods, bronze, iron, and marble;


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cinnamon and spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; wine and oil, flour and wheat; cattle, sheep, horses, and chariots. And slaves—their terrible traffic in human lives.


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Everything you've lived for, gone! All delicate and delectable luxury, lost! Not a scrap, not a thread to be found!


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"The traders who made millions off her kept their distance for fear of getting burned, and cried and carried on all the more:


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in one hour such wealth wiped out! "All the ship captains and travelers by sea, sailors and toilers of the sea, stood off at a distance


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and cried their lament when they saw the smoke from her burning: 'Oh, what a city! There was never a city like her!'


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They threw dust on their heads and cried as if the world had come to an end: Doom, doom, the great city doomed! All who owned ships or did business by sea Got rich on her getting and spending. And now it's over—wiped out in one hour!


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"O Heaven, celebrate! And join in, saints, apostles, and prophets! God has judged her; every wrong you suffered from her has been judged."


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A strong Angel reached for a boulder—huge, like a millstone—and heaved it into the sea, saying, Heaved and sunk, the great city Babylon, sunk in the sea, not a sign of her ever again.


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Silent the music of harpists and singers— you'll never hear flutes and trumpets again. Artisans of every kind—gone; you'll never see their likes again. The voice of a millstone grinding falls dumb; you'll never hear that sound again.


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The light from lamps, never again; never again laughter of bride and groom. Her traders robbed the whole earth blind, and by black-magic arts deceived the nations.


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The only thing left of Babylon is blood— the blood of saints and prophets, the murdered and the martyred.


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I heard a sound like massed choirs in Heaven singing, Hallelujah! The salvation and glory and power are God's—


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his judgments true, his judgments just. He judged the great Whore who corrupted the earth with her lust. He avenged on her the blood of his servants.


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Then, more singing: Hallelujah! The smoke from her burning billows up to high Heaven forever and ever and ever.


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The Twenty-four Elders and the Four Animals fell to their knees and worshiped God on his Throne, praising, Amen! Yes! Hallelujah!


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From the Throne came a shout, a command: Praise our God, all you his servants, All you who fear him, small and great!


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Then I heard the sound of massed choirs, the sound of a mighty cataract, the sound of strong thunder: Hallelujah! The Master reigns, our God, the Sovereign-Strong!


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Let us celebrate, let us rejoice, let us give him the glory! The Marriage of the Lamb has come; his Wife has made herself ready.


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She was given a bridal gown of bright and shining linen. The linen is the righteousness of the saints.


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The Angel said to me, "Write this: 'Blessed are those invited to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb.' " He added, "These are the true words of God!"


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I fell at his feet to worship him, but he wouldn't let me. "Don't do that," he said. "I'm a servant just like you, and like your brothers and sisters who hold to the witness of Jesus. The witness of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."


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Then I saw Heaven open wide—and oh! a white horse and its Rider. The Rider, named Faithful and True, judges and makes war in pure righteousness.


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His eyes are a blaze of fire, on his head many crowns. He has a Name inscribed that's known only to himself.


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A sharp sword comes out of his mouth so he can subdue the nations, then rule them with a rod of iron. He treads the winepress of the raging wrath of God, the Sovereign-Strong.


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I saw an Angel standing in the sun, shouting to all flying birds in Middle-Heaven, "Come to the Great Supper of God!


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Feast on the flesh of kings and captains and champions, horses and their riders. Eat your fill of them all—free and slave, small and great!"


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I saw the Beast and, assembled with him, earth's kings and their armies, ready to make war against the One on the horse and his army.


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The Beast was taken, and with him, his puppet, the False Prophet, who used signs to dazzle and deceive those who had taken the mark of the Beast and worshiped his image. They were thrown alive, those two, into Lake Fire and Brimstone.


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The rest were killed by the sword of the One on the horse, the sword that comes from his mouth. All the birds held a feast on their flesh.


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He grabbed the Dragon, that old Snake—the very Devil, Satan himself!—chained him up for a thousand years,


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dumped him into the Abyss, slammed it shut and sealed it tight. No more trouble out of him, deceiving the nations—until the thousand years are up. After that he has to be let loose briefly.


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I saw thrones. Those put in charge of judgment sat on the thrones. I also saw the souls of those beheaded because of their witness to Jesus and the Word of God, who refused to worship either the Beast or his image, refused to take his mark on forehead or hand—they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years!


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and those involved most blessed, most holy. No second death for them! They're priests of God and Christ; they'll reign with him a thousand years.


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and will launch again his old work of deceiving the nations, searching out victims in every nook and cranny of earth, even Gog and Magog! He'll talk them into going to war and will gather a huge army, millions strong.


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They'll stream across the earth, surround and lay siege to the camp of God's holy people, the Beloved City. They'll no sooner get there than fire will pour out of Heaven and burn them up.


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The Devil who deceived them will be hurled into Lake Fire and Brimstone, joining the Beast and False Prophet, the three in torment around the clock for ages without end.


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I saw a Great White Throne and the One Enthroned. Nothing could stand before or against the Presence, nothing in Heaven, nothing on earth.


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And then I saw all the dead, great and small, standing there—before the Throne! And books were opened. Then another book was opened: the Book of Life. The dead were judged by what was written in the books, by the way they had lived.


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Sea released its dead, Death and Hell turned in their dead. Each man and woman was judged by the way he or she had lived.


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I saw Holy Jerusalem, new-created, descending resplendent out of Heaven, as ready for God as a bride for her husband.


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I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: "Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God.


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He'll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone."


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The Enthroned continued, "Look! I'm making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate."


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Then he said, "It's happened. I'm A to Z. I'm the Beginning, I'm the Conclusion. From Water-of-Life Well I give freely to the thirsty.


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But for the rest—the feckless and faithless, degenerates and murderers, sex peddlers and sorcerers, idolaters and all liars—for them it's Lake Fire and Brimstone. Second death!"


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One of the Seven Angels who had carried the bowls filled with the seven final disasters spoke to me: "Come here. I'll show you the Bride, the Wife of the Lamb."


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He took me away in the Spirit to an enormous, high mountain and showed me Holy Jerusalem descending out of Heaven from God,


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resplendent in the bright glory of God. The City shimmered like a precious gem, light-filled, pulsing light.


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She had a wall majestic and high with twelve gates. At each gate stood an Angel, and on the gates were inscribed the names of the Twelve Tribes of the sons of Israel:


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three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, three gates on the west.


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The wall was set on twelve foundations, the names of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb inscribed on them.


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The City was laid out in a perfect square. He measured the City with the measuring stick: twelve thousand stadia, its length, width, and height all equal.


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The foundations of the City walls were garnished with every precious gem imaginable: the first foundation jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald,


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the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst.


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The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate a single pearl. The main street of the City was pure gold, translucent as glass.


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But there was no sign of a Temple, for the Lord God—the Sovereign-Strong—and the Lamb are the Temple.


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Nothing dirty or defiled will get into the City, and no one who defiles or deceives. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life will get in.


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Then the Angel showed me Water-of-Life River, crystal bright. It flowed from the Throne of God and the Lamb,


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right down the middle of the street. The Tree of Life was planted on each side of the River, producing twelve kinds of fruit, a ripe fruit each month. The leaves of the Tree are for healing the nations.


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Never again will anything be cursed. The Throne of God and of the Lamb is at the center. His servants will offer God service—worshiping,


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Never again will there be any night. No one will need lamplight or sunlight. The shining of God, the Master, is all the light anyone needs. And they will rule with him age after age after age.


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The Angel said to me, "These are dependable and accurate words, every one. The God and Master of the spirits of the prophets sent his Angel to show his servants what must take place, and soon.


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And tell them, <J>'Yes, I'm on my way!' Blessed be the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book."</J>


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I, John, saw all these things with my own eyes, heard them with my ears. Immediately when I heard and saw, I fell on my face to worship at the feet of the Angel who laid it all out before me.


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He objected, "No you don't! I'm a servant just like you and your companions, the prophets, and all who keep the words of this book. Worship God!"


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The Angel continued, "Don't seal the words of the prophecy of this book; don't put it away on the shelf. Time is just about up.


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Let evildoers do their worst and the dirty-minded go all out in pollution, but let the righteous maintain a straight course and the holy continue on in holiness."


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"<J>Yes, I'm on my way! I'll be there soon! I'm bringing my payroll with me. I'll pay all people in full for their life's work.</J>


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<J>"How blessed are those who wash their robes! The Tree of Life is theirs for good, and they'll walk through the gates to the City.</J>


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<J>But outside for good are the filthy curs: sorcerers, fornicators, murderers, idolaters—all who love and live lies.</J>


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"<J>I, Jesus, sent my Angel to testify to these things for the churches. I'm the Root and Branch of David, the Bright Morning Star."</J>


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"Come!" say the Spirit and the Bride. Whoever hears, echo, "Come!" Is anyone thirsty? Come! All who will, come and drink, Drink freely of the Water of Life!


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I give fair warning to all who hear the words of the prophecy of this book: If you add to the words of this prophecy, God will add to your life the disasters written in this book;


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if you subtract from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will subtract your part from the Tree of Life and the Holy City that are written in this book.


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He who testifies to all these things says it again: <J>"I'm on my way! I'll be there soon!"</J> Yes! Come, Master Jesus!


