Give heed to me, O Lord, and listen to what my adversaries say!Is evil a recompense for good? Yet they have dug a pit for my life.Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them. From Jeremiah 18:18-20, NRSV Jeremiah’s heartfelt plea shows the depth of his feeling…
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Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom!Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes;cease to do evil, learn to do good;seek justice, rescue the oppressed,defend the orphan, plead for the widow. From Isaiah 1:10, 16-20, NRSV…
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Open shame, O Lord, falls on us, our kings, our officials, and our ancestors, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by following his laws, which he set before us by his servants the…
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After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ He said, ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt-offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.’ Genesis 22:1-19,…
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This very day the Lord your God is commanding you to observe these statutes and ordinances; so observe them diligently with all your heart and with all your soul. Today you have obtained the Lord’s agreement: to be your God; and for you to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, and his ordinances, and…
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Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is unfair.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair? When the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity, they shall die for it; for the iniquity that they have committed they shall die. Again,…
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Now as an elder myself and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory to be revealed, I exhort the elders among you to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you…
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Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, ‘Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. From…
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For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth,making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty,but it…
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The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. From Leviticus 19:1-2,11-18, NRSV The book of Leviticus is a book of laws. It contains the laws given by God to the Jewish people, God’s…
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