- Let everything that breathes
offer praise to the Lord.
Alleluia. - I will offer praise to you, O Lord,
with my whole heart;
I will recount all your wondrous deeds. - Prepare in advance what you want to say,
and return to the Lord.
Say to him, “Take away all guilt
and give us what is good,
so that we may present as offerings
the bullocks from our stalls.” - But I with hymns of praise
will offer sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will fulfill.
Salvation comes from the Lord. - Therefore, brethren, I implore you by the mercies of God to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to God—a spiritual act of worship.
- Let mutual love continue, and do not forget to offer hospitality to strangers, for by doing this some have entertained angels without knowing it.
- For I know full well the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for your misfortune, plans that will offer you a future filled with hope.
- But who am I, and what are your people,
that we should be able to do this?
All things belong to you,
and everything that we have given you is from your hand. - Rather, revere Christ as Lord in your hearts.
Always be prepared to offer an explanation to anyone who asks you to justify the hope that is in you. However, do so with gentleness and respect. - To you, O God of my fathers,
I offer thanks and praise
because you have given me wisdom and power.
Now you have made known to me
what we asked of you;
you have revealed to us the king’s dream. - Nor should you present any part of your body as an instrument for wickedness leading to sin. Rather, present yourselves to God as having been raised from death to life and the parts of your body to God as instruments for righteousness.
- And ‘to love him with all your heart, and with all your understanding, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself,’ is worth more than any burnt offerings and sacrifices.
- And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a sacrificial offering whose fragrance is pleasing to God.
- To do what is right and just
is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. - And the good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the entire world as a testimony offered to all the nations. And then the end will come.
- So Christ, having been offered once to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to bring salvation to those who are eagerly waiting for him.
- Then he took a cup, and after offering thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from this, all of you. For this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.”
- For I am not ashamed of the gospel, since it is the power of God that offers salvation to everyone who has faith—to Jews first, and then to Gentiles as well.
- I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
Whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh, for the life of the world. - How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from acts that lead to death so that we may worship the living God.
- You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother. Love your neighbor as yourself.
- Go and learn what this text means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.
- Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercy and the God of all consolation. He consoles us in all our afflictions and thereby enables us to console others in their tribulations, offering them the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.
- They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and offered worship and service to the creature rather than to the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural practices. Likewise, men gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameful acts with men and received in their own persons the fitting penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since these people did not see fit to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their depraved way of thinking and to all types of vile behavior.
Then I came to realize that all toil and skill in work derive from one person’s envy of another. This also is vanity and a chase after the wind. The Lord does not delay in keeping his promise, as some think in terms of delay, but he is patient with you. It is not his wish that any should perish but rather that all should be brought to repentance.Next verse!With image