"The virgin will become pregnant and have a son, and they will call Him Immanuel" -- which means "God with us."

'And you, Bethlehem in Judah's land, You are not at all the least among the leading places of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler, who will shepherd my people Israel.'"

he stayed there until Herod's death, so as to fulfill what the Lord had said by the prophet, "Out of Egypt I called my Son."

"A sob was heard in Ramah, weeping and great wailing, Rachel weeping for her children, and she refused to be comforted, because they were gone."

"A sob was heard in Ramah, weeping and great wailing, Rachel weeping for her children, and she refused to be comforted, because they were gone."

He went to a town called Nazareth and made his home there, so that the saying of the prophet was fulfilled: "He shall be called a Nazarene."

"Land of Zebulon and land of Naphtali, on the road to the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the nations;

"Blessed are the lowly in mind, for they will possess the land.

"You have heard that it was said to the men of old, 'You must not murder,' and 'Whoever murders will have to answer to the court.'

"You have heard it was said, 'You must not commit adultery.'

"It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.'

and so fulfilled what was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, "He took our sicknesses and bore away our diseases."

Go, learn what this means, 'It is mercy and not sacrifice that I want.' It is not upright but sinful people that I have come to invite."

For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,

"Here is my Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved, in whom my soul delights itself. I will endow Him with my Spirit, and He will announce a judgment to the heathen.

For as Jonah was in the whale's stomach for three days and nights, the Son of Man will be three days and nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise with the leaders of this age at the judgment and condemn them, for they turned to the message preached by Jonah, and there is more than Jonah here!

to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: "I will open my mouth in stories, I will utter truths concealed since creation."

You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied beautifully about you, when he said: "'This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far, far away from me; read more. Their worship of me is an empty show; the things they teach are only men's precepts.'"

"Tell the daughter of Zion, your King is now coming to you, gentle, and riding on a donkey, yea, on the colt of a beast of burden."

Then Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures: 'That stone which the builders threw away has become the cornerstone; this is the work of the Lord and seems wonderful to us!'

In that way the words spoken by the prophet Jeremiah were fulfilled: "They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one whose price had been fixed by some Israelites,

He is a voice of one who shouts in the desert, 'Get the road ready for the Lord; make the paths straight for Him.'"

He answered them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his soldiers were in need and hungry?

But as to the rising of the dead, did you never read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?

Jesus answered, "The first one is, 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,

Since many writers have undertaken to compose narratives about the facts established among us, just as the original eyewitnesses who became ministers of the message read more. have handed them down to us, I too, most excellent Theophilus, because I have carefully investigated them all from the start, have felt impressed to write them out in order for you that you may better know the certainty of those things that you have been taught.

and, 'They will bear you up on their hands, so that you will never strike your foot against a stone.'"

Now as the crowds continued to throng upon Him, He began to say: "This is a wicked age. It is looking for a spectacular sign, but none will be given it but the sign of Jonah.

So they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but let us draw for it to see who gets it." This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, "They divided my clothes among them, and for my clothing they cast lots." Now this was what the soldiers did.

'It will occur in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all mankind. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will have visions. Your old men will have dreams.

But the Most High does not live in buildings built by human hands. As the prophet says:

Now this was the passage of Scripture that he was reading: "Like a sheep He was led away to be slaughtered, and just as a lamb is dumb before its shearer, so He does not open His mouth.

For it is through union with Him that we live and move and exist, as some of your own poets have said, "'For we are His offspring too.'

'Go to this people and say to them, "You will listen, and listen, and never understand, and you will look, and look, and never see!

Not at all. Let God prove true, though every man be false! As the Scripture says, "That you may prove yourself upright in words you speak, and win your case when you go into court."

as the Scriptures say: "Not a single human creature is upright, No one understands, no one is searching for God; read more. They all have turned aside, all have become corrupt; No one does good, not even one! Their throats are just like open graves, with their tongues they have spoken treachery; the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouths are full of bitter cursing. Their feet are swift for shedding blood, Ruin and wretchedness are on their paths, They do not know the way of peace. There is no reverence for God before their eyes."

Now does this happiness come to the Jews alone, or to the heathen peoples too? For we say, "Abraham's faith was credited to him as right standing."

Now I take up the matters about which you wrote me. It may be good thing for a man to remain unmarried;

Now about the foods that have been sacrificed to idols: We know that every one of us has some knowledge of the matter. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

For in the law of Moses it is written, "You must not muzzle an ox that is treading out your grain." Is it that God is concerned about oxen only?

Now stop being idolaters, as some of them were, for the Scripture says, "The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to dance."

I prize and praise you for always remembering me and for firmly standing by the teachings as I passed them on to you.

But as I am giving you these instructions I cannot approve of your meetings, because they do not turn out for the better but for the worse.

About spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be without information.

For those who depend on what the law commands are under a curse, for the Scripture says, "Cursed be everyone who does not continue in all the commands that are written in the book of the law, to do them."

Tell me, you who want to be subject to law, will you not listen to what the law says? For the Scripture says that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave girl, the other by a free woman. read more. But the child of the slave girl was born in the ordinary course of nature, while the child of the free woman was born to fulfill the promise. This is spoken as an allegory. For these women are two covenants, one coming from Mount Sinai, bearing children that are to be slaves; that is, Hagar (and Hagar means Mount Sinai, in Arabia) and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for Jerusalem is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. For the Scripture says: "Rejoice, you childless woman, who never bore a child; break forth into shouting, you who feel no birth pangs; for the desolate woman has many children, even more than the married one." Now we, brothers, like Isaac, are children born to fulfill the promise. But just as then the child born in the ordinary course of nature persecuted the one born by the power of the Spirit, so it is today. But what does the Scripture say? "Drive off the slave girl and her son, for the slave girl's son shall never share the inheritance with the son of the free woman." So, brothers, we are children, not of a slave girl but of a free woman.

I again insist that if any man lets himself be circumcised, he is under obligation to obey the whole law.

For neither circumcision nor the lack of it has any value, but only a new creation. Now peace and mercy be on all who walk by this rule; that is, on the true Israel of God.

when He raised Christ from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in heaven,

Every time I remember you I thank my God,

But I think it proper now to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow-laborer, and fellow-soldier, but your messenger to minister to my needs,

But you did me a kindness to share my sorrow with me. And you Philippians yourselves know that immediately after the good news was first preached to you, when I left Macedonia, no church but yours went into partnership with me to open an account of credits and debits. read more. Even while I was at Thessalonica you sent money more than once for my needs. It is not your gift that I want, but I do want the profits to pile up to your credit. I have received your payment in full, and more too. I am amply supplied after getting the things you sent by Epaphroditus; they are like sweet incense, the kind of sacrifice that God accepts and approves.

One of them, a prophet of their own countrymen, has said, "Cretans are always liars, wicked brutes, lazy bellies."

because I continue to hear of the love and faith you have in the Lord Jesus and all His people, and I pray that their sharing of your faith may result in their recognition in us of everything that is right with reference to Christ. read more. Yes, I have felt great joy and encouragement over your love, because the hearts of God's people have been refreshed by you, my brother.

For this man Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was coming back from the defeat of the kings, and put his blessing on him, to whom Abraham contributed a tenth of all his spoils, who first of all, in accordance with the meaning of his name, is king of righteousness, and then king of Salem, which means king of peace; read more. with no father, no mother, no ancestry; no beginning to his days, no end to his life, but, like the Son of God, as priest continues on and on with no successor. Now see how great this man must have been that even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of his spoils. And those of the descendants of Levi who accept the priesthood are authorized by the law to collect a tenth from the people; that is, from their own brothers, though they have sprung from Abraham. But in this case, the man whose ancestry is not traced from them collected a tenth from Abraham, and put his blessing on the man who had the promises from God. Now beyond any contradiction, it is always the inferior that is blessed by the superior. In the one case, mortal men collect the tenth, in the other, one who, as the witness states, lives on. And I might almost say, Levi too, who now collects the tenth, through Abraham paid the tenth, for he was a vital part of his forefather though yet unborn, when Melchizedek met him.

and the rich brother rejoice in his being on a level with the poor, because the rich will fade away like the flower of the grass.

For "All human life is just like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass dries up; the flowers drop off.

Then I saw in the right hand of Him who was seated on the throne a book with writing on both sides, sealed with seven seals.

After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind should blow on the earth, the sea, or any tree.

say to the sixth angel who had the trumpet: "Turn loose the four angels that are bound at the river Euphrates."

Then a second angel followed, saying: "She has fallen! Mighty Babylon has fallen, who made all the nations drink the wine of vengeance due her immorality!"

and it continued to retain the glory of God. The luster of it was like a very precious stone, like jasper, clear as crystal.