- All this knowledge comes from the Lord of hosts
whose counsel is wonderful
and whose wisdom is great. - O Lord, you are my God.
I will exalt you and praise your name,
for you have accomplished wonderful things,
formulated in ages past, faithful and sure. - For a child has been born to us,
a son has been given to us.
Upon his shoulders dominion rests,
and this is the name he has been given:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. - How wonderful and delightful it is
for brothers to live together in unity. - You created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am wonderfully made;
awesome are your works,
as I know very well. - I will offer praise to you, O Lord,
with my whole heart;
I will recount all your wondrous deeds. - Sing praise to the Lord for his mighty deeds;
let this be known throughout the entire world. - A man is joyful when he utters apt answers,
and even more satisfying is a word in season. - But you are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people claimed by God as his own possession,” so that you may proclaim the praise of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
- What then can we say in response to all this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
- Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with your whole heart, considering the great things he has done for you.
- And you will say on that day:
Give thanks to the Lord,
invoke his name;
make known his deeds among the nations;
proclaim that his name is exalted. - On one Sabbath as Jesus was teaching in the synagogue, a woman was present, possessed by a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and completely unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said, “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.” Then he laid his hands on her, and immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.
But the leader of the synagogue was indignant because Jesus had effected a cure on the Sabbath, and he said to the assembled people, “There are six days when work is permitted. Come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath.” The Lord said to him in reply, “You hypocrites! Is there a single one of you who does not untie his ox or his donkey and lead it from its stall to give it water on the Sabbath? Should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has held bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath?” At these words, all his adversaries were put to shame, and the people rejoiced at all the wonderful things he was doing. - In other words, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, and not holding people’s transgressions against them, and he committed to us the message of reconciliation.
- Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
- What then shall we say? Should we persist in sin in order that grace may abound? Of course not! We have died to sin. How can we live in it any longer?
- As for me, I do not regard my life as of any value, only that I finish the race and complete the mission that I received from the Lord Jesus—to bear witness to the gospel of God’s grace.
- Hence, as sin’s reign resulted in death, so the grace of God also might reign through righteousness resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- However, the gift is not like the transgression. For if the transgression of one man led to the death of the many, how much greater was the overflowing effect of the grace of God and the gift of the one man Jesus Christ that has abounded for the many.
May the Lord, our God, be with us, just as he was with our fathers; may he not leave us or abandon us.