The Daily Practice

23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”

29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’[a]? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

19 “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. 20 The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels[a] of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

2 “To the angel[b] of the church in Ephesus write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

1 In the Lord I take refuge.     How then can you say to me:     “Flee like a bird to your mountain. 2 For look, the wicked bend their bows;     they set their arrows against the strings to shoot from the shadows     at the upright in heart. 3 When the foundations are being destroyed,     what can the righteous do?”

4 The Lord is in his holy temple;     the Lord is on his heavenly throne. He observes everyone on earth;     his eyes examine them. 5 The Lord examines the righteous,     but the wicked, those who love violence,     he hates with a passion. 6 On the wicked he will rain     fiery coals and burning sulfur;     a scorching wind will be their lot.

7 For the Lord is righteous,     he loves justice;     the upright will see his face.

6 Woe to you who are complacent in Zion,     and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation,     to whom the people of Israel come! 2 Go to Kalneh and look at it;     go from there to great Hamath,     and then go down to Gath in Philistia. Are they better off than your two kingdoms?     Is their land larger than yours? 3 You put off the day of disaster     and bring near a reign of terror. 4 You lie on beds adorned with ivory     and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs     and fattened calves. 5 You strum away on your harps like David     and improvise on musical instruments. 6 You drink wine by the bowlful     and use the finest lotions,     but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. 7 Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile;     your feasting and lounging will end.

8 The Sovereign Lord has sworn by himself—the Lord God Almighty declares:

“I abhor the pride of Jacob     and detest his fortresses; I will deliver up the city     and everything in it.”

9 If ten people are left in one house, they too will die. 10 And if the relative who comes to carry the bodies out of the house to burn them[a] asks anyone who might be hiding there, “Is anyone else with you?” and he says, “No,” then he will go on to say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”

11 For the Lord has given the command,     and he will smash the great house into pieces     and the small house into bits.

12 Do horses run on the rocky crags?     Does one plow the sea[b] with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison     and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness— 13 you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debar[c]     and say, “Did we not take Karnaim[d] by our own strength?”

14 For the Lord God Almighty declares,     “I will stir up a nation against you, Israel, that will oppress you all the way     from Lebo Hamath to the valley of the Arabah.”

15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax[a] to Caesar or not?”

18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.

Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

9 I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 11 which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”

12 I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man,[a] dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

1 Why, Lord, do you stand far off?     Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

2 In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak,     who are caught in the schemes he devises. 3 He boasts about the cravings of his heart;     he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord. 4 In his pride the wicked man does not seek him;     in all his thoughts there is no room for God. 5 His ways are always prosperous;     your laws are rejected by[b] him;     he sneers at all his enemies. 6 He says to himself, “Nothing will ever shake me.”     He swears, “No one will ever do me harm.”

7 His mouth is full of lies and threats;     trouble and evil are under his tongue. 8 He lies in wait near the villages;     from ambush he murders the innocent. His eyes watch in secret for his victims; 9     like a lion in cover he lies in wait. He lies in wait to catch the helpless;     he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net. 10 His victims are crushed, they collapse;     they fall under his strength. 11 He says to himself, “God will never notice;     he covers his face and never sees.”

12 Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God.     Do not forget the helpless. 13 Why does the wicked man revile God?     Why does he say to himself,     “He won’t call me to account”? 14 But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted;     you consider their grief and take it in hand. The victims commit themselves to you;     you are the helper of the fatherless. 15 Break the arm of the wicked man;     call the evildoer to account for his wickedness     that would not otherwise be found out.

16 The Lord is King for ever and ever;     the nations will perish from his land. 17 You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted;     you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, 18 defending the fatherless and the oppressed,     so that mere earthly mortals     will never again strike terror.

16 “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. 3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. 4 I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, 5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. 7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

18 Woe to you who long     for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord?     That day will be darkness, not light. 19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion     only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house     and rested his hand on the wall     only to have a snake bite him. 20 Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light—     pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?

21 “I hate, I despise your religious festivals;     your assemblies are a stench to me. 22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,     I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,     I will have no regard for them. 23 Away with the noise of your songs!     I will not listen to the music of your harps. 24 But let justice roll on like a river,     righteousness like a never-failing stream!

25 “Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings     forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel? 26 You have lifted up the shrine of your king,     the pedestal of your idols,     the star of your god[a]—     which you made for yourselves. 27 Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,”     says the Lord, whose name is God Almighty.

22 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”