This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. | This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. |
That is why I can never stop praising you; I declare your glory all day long. | My mouth shall be filled with your praise, with your honor all day long. |
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The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. | The heavens declare the glory of God. The expanse shows his handiwork. Day after day they pour out speech, and night after night they display knowledge. |
And every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. | And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. |
If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. | That if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. |
All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. | Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. |
Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’ | He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water. |
For the Scriptures say, “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will declare allegiance to God.’” | For it is written, “‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘to me every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess to God.’” |
But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ. | But the Scripture imprisoned all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. |
In that wonderful day you will sing: “Thank the Lord! Praise his name! Tell the nations what he has done. Let them know how mighty he is!” | In that day you will say, “Give thanks to Yahweh! Call on his name! Declare his doings among the peoples! Proclaim that his name is exalted!” |
I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them. | I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them. |
Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him. | He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of Yahweh, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” |
Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place. | Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. |
He proclaimed his covenant—the Ten Commandments—which he commanded you to keep, and which he wrote on two stone tablets. | He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments. He wrote them on two stone tablets. |
“Can anyone hide from me in a secret place? Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?” says the Lord. | “Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I can’t see him?” says Yahweh. “Don’t I fill heaven and earth?” says Yahweh. |
O Israel, my faithless people, come home to me again, for I am merciful. I will not be angry with you forever. | ‘Return, you backsliding Israel,’ says Yahweh; ‘I will not look in anger on you, for I am merciful,’ says Yahweh. ‘I will not keep anger forever.’ |
No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us. | No one has seen God at any time. The only born Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared him. |
“Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.) | He said to them, “Are you also without understanding? Don’t you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can’t defile him, because it doesn’t go into his heart, but into his stomach, then into the latrine, making all foods clean?” |
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” | “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways,” says Yahweh. |
I don’t want you to die, says the Sovereign Lord. Turn back and live! | “For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies,” says the Lord Yahweh. “Therefore turn yourselves, and live!” |
And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation. | God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work of creation which he had done. |
But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. | But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. |
That is why the Lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.” | “Yet even now,” says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” |
Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses. | Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you confessed the good confession in the sight of many witnesses. |
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” | “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.” |