Whatever the endowment God has given you, use it in service to one another, like good dispensers of God's varied mercy.

If one preaches, let him do it like one who utters the words of God; if one does some service, let him do it as with strength which God supplies, so that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Be calm and watchful. Your opponent the devil is prowling about like a roaring lion, wanting to devour you.

Your sister-church in Babylon, chosen like you, and Mark my son wish to be remembered to you.

These men, like unreasoning animals, mere creatures of instinct created to be caught and killed, abuse what they do not understand and will be destroyed like animals,

But do not overlook this one fact, dear friends, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like one day.

The Day of the Lord will come like a thief; on it the heavens will pass away with a roar, the heavenly bodies will burn up and be destroyed, and the earth and all its works will melt away.

Look upon our Lord's patience as salvation, just as our dear brother Paul, with the wisdom that God gave him, wrote you to do,

Dear friends, we are God's children now; it has not yet been disclosed what we are to be. We know that if he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

We must not be like Cain who was a child of the evil one, and butchered his brother. And why did he butcher him? Because his own actions were wicked and his brother's upright.

Look out for yourselves, take care not to lose what we have worked for, but make sure that you are paid for it in full.

just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns which like them indulged in immorality and unnatural vice stand as a warning, in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

But these people deride anything they do not understand, and the things they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, they use for their own destruction.

Alas for them, for they follow Cain's path, they plunge into Balaam's error for gain, and they perish in rebelliousness like Korah's.

save, snatching them out of the fire, and look on others with pity mixed with fear, loathing even the clothes their animal nature has stained.

On the Lord's day I fell into a trance, and I heard a loud voice like a trumpet behind me

and among the lampstands a being like a man, wearing a long robe, with a gold belt around his breast.

His head and hair were as white as white wool, as white as snow; his eyes blazed like fire;

his feet were like bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the noise of mighty waters.

In his right hand he held seven stars; from his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword, and his face shone like the sun at noonday.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. But he laid his right hand upon me, and said, "Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last,

"To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: " 'The Son of God, whose eyes blaze like fire, and whose feet are like bronze, speaks thus:

To him who is victorious and continues to the end to do the things that please me, I will give authority over the heathen??27 just such authority as I received from my Father; he will shepherd them with an iron staff and shatter them like earthen jars!??28 and I will give him the morning star.

So remember what you received and heard, and obey it, and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I am coming upon you.

Afterward I had another vision: There was a door standing open in the heavens and the first voice like a trumpet that I had heard speak to me, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place."

The one who was seated on it looked like jasper and sardius, and around the throne was a halo of the color of an emerald.

In front of the throne was what looked like a sea of glass, like crystal. Around the throne, in the middle of each side, were four animals covered with eyes in front and behind.

The first animal was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man's, and the fourth was like an eagle flying.

But no one in heaven or on earth or underneath the earth could open the roll or look into it.

Then I cried bitterly because no one could be found fit to open the roll or look into it.

In my vision, when the Lamb broke the first of the seven seals, I heard the first of the four animals say with a voice like thunder, "Come!"

When he broke the sixth seal I saw that there was a great earthquake. The sun turned black as sackcloth; the full moon became like blood;

the sky was torn apart and rolled up like a roll; and every mountain and island was dislodged from its place.

Then the second angel blew his trumpet, and what looked like a great mountain ablaze with fire was thrown into the sea, and one third of the sea turned into blood,

Then the third angel blew his trumpet, and there fell from the sky a great star blazing like a torch, and it fell upon one third of the streams and the springs of water.

and he opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke like the smoke of a great furnace poured up out of the pit, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the pit.

Out of the smoke locusts descended upon the earth, but with powers like those of earthly scorpions.

They were not allowed to kill anyone, but only to torture them for five months, and the torture they inflicted was like that caused by a scorpion when it stings a man.

In appearance the locusts were like war-horses armed for battle; on their heads were what appeared to be crowns like gold; their faces were like human faces;

they had hair like a woman's; their teeth were like those of lions;

their breasts were like iron breast-plates, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of a great number of chariots and horses rushing into battle.

They had tails and stings like scorpions; it was in their tails that their power lay to harm men for five months.

And this was how the horses and their riders looked in my vision: Their breast-plates were fire red, dark blue, and yellow. The horses' heads were like lions' heads, and fire, smoke, and sulphur poured from their mouths.

For the power of the horses lay in their mouths and their tails; their tails were like snakes, and they had heads with which they hurt people.

Then I saw another mighty angel descend from heaven. He was clothed in a cloud, and a rainbow encircled his head. His face was like the sun, his legs were like pillars of fire,

and he uttered a great shout like the roar of a lion; and when he shouted, the seven thunders raised their voices.

Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, "Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count those who worship there,

For three days and a half, men of all peoples, tribes, languages, and nations will look at their bodies, and will not let them be buried.

Then the serpent poured water from his mouth after the woman like a river, to sweep her away.

The animal I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. The dragon gave it his own power and his throne and great authority.

and worshiped the dragon for having given the animal his authority, and they worshiped the animal, and said, "Who is there like the animal? Who can fight with it?"

Then I saw another animal come up out of the land. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon.

And I heard a sound from heaven, like the sound of great waters, and loud peals of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing on their harps.

Then I saw a white cloud, and seated on it a being like a man, with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.

And I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and standing upon the sea of glass those who had come off victorious from the animal and its statue and the number corresponding to its name. They had harps that God had given them,

The second emptied his bowl upon the sea, and it turned into blood like a dead man's, and every live thing in the sea died.

Then I saw three foul spirits like frogs emerge from the mouth of the dragon and from the mouth of the animal and from the mouth of the false prophet.

(See, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who keeps awake, and keeps hold of his clothes, so that he will not have to go naked and be put to shame!)

and cried out when they saw the smoke from her burning, 'What city was like the great city?'

Then a mighty angel caught up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, "With such violence will Babylon the great city be hurled to destruction and never be seen again!

After that I heard what sounded like the loud shout of a great multitude in heaven saying, "Praise the Lord! Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God,

Then I heard what sounded like the shout of a great multitude and the noise of many waters and the sound of mighty thunders, saying, "Praise the Lord; for the Lord our God, the Almighty now reigns!

His eyes blazed like fire. There were many diadems on his head, and there was a name written on him which no one knew but himself.

And the animal was captured and with it the false prophet who performed wonders on its behalf by means of which he led astray those who had let the animal's mark be put on them and who worshiped its statue. Both of them were flung alive into the fiery lake of burning brimstone.

and will go out to lead astray the heathen in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, and to muster them for battle, in numbers like the sand of the seashore.

and the devil who led them astray was flung into the fiery, sulphurous lake, where the animal and the false prophet were, there to be tortured day and night forever and ever.

Then death and Hades were flung into the fiery lake. This is the second death??he fiery lake.

Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was flung into the fiery lake.

And I saw the new Jerusalem, the holy city, come down out of heaven from God, like a bride dressed and ready to meet her husband.

But the cowardly, unfaithful, and polluted??urderers, immoral people, those who practice magic or idolatry, and all liars will find themselves in the burning lake of fire and brimstone. This is the second death."

in all the glory of God. It shone with a radiance like that of some very precious stone, like jasper, clear as crystal.