| So then the Lord, after he had spoken to them, was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. | When the Lord Jesus had finished talking with them, he was taken up into heaven and sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. |
| I will make them and the places around my hill a blessing. I will cause the shower to come down in its season. There will be showers of blessing. | I will bless my people and their homes around my holy hill. And in the proper season I will send the showers they need. There will be showers of blessing. |
| But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream. | Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living. |
| For if we live, we live to the Lord. Or if we die, we die to the Lord. If therefore we live or die, we are the Lord’s. | If we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. |
| Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You perceive my thoughts from afar. | O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. |
| Whom, not having known, you love. In him, though now you don’t see him, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. | You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls. |
| Yahweh preserves the foreigners. He upholds the fatherless and widow, but he turns the way of the wicked upside down. | The Lord protects the foreigners among us. He cares for the orphans and widows, but he frustrates the plans of the wicked. |
| And if we know that he listens to us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him. | And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for. |
| Nevertheless in your manifold mercies you didn’t make a full end of them, nor forsake them; for you are a gracious and merciful God. | But in your great mercy, you did not destroy them completely or abandon them forever. What a gracious and merciful God you are! |
| These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. | And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. |
| For in him all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily, and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power. | For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. |
| His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, who, when he had by himself purified us of our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. | The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. |
| But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience. | But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently. |
| “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this,” says Yahweh of Armies, “if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there will not be enough room for.” | “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!” |
| Looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. | We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. |
| Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted. | Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! |
| If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie and don’t tell the truth. | So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. |
| I know how to be humbled, and I also know how to abound. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in need. | I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. |
| Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God. | Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God! |
| I ate no pleasant food. No meat or wine came into my mouth. I didn’t anoint myself at all, until three whole weeks were fulfilled. | All that time I had eaten no rich food. No meat or wine crossed my lips, and I used no fragrant lotions until those three weeks had passed. |
| What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? | Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? |
| Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say, “Rejoice!” | Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! |
| For though we walk in the flesh, we don’t wage war according to the flesh. | We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. |
| This saying is trustworthy: “For if we died with him, we will also live with him.” | This is a trustworthy saying: If we die with him, we will also live with him. |
| No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us. | No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. |
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