Pastor Jason BauerDecember 31st 2020
8Go now, write it on a tablet for them, inscribe it on a scroll, that for the days to come it may be an everlasting witness. 9These are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the Lord's instruction. 10They say to the seers, 'See no more visions!' and to the prophets, 'Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. 11Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!' 12Therefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says: 'Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit, 13this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant. 14It will break in pieces like pottery, shattered so mercilessly that among its pieces not a fragment will be found for taking coals from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern.' 15This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: 'In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. 16You said, 'No, we will flee on horses.' Therefore you will flee! You said, 'We will ride off on swift horses.' Therefore your pursuers will be swift! 17A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee away, till you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.'
1A prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. 2Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3You turn men back to dust, saying, 'Return to dust, O sons of men.' 4For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. 5You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning-- 6though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered. 7We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation. 8You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 9All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. 10The length of our days is seventy years-- or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. 11Who knows the power of your anger? For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you. 12Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. 13Relent, O LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants. 14Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. 15Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. 16May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children. 17May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us-- yes, establish the work of our hands.
31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written: 'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
35'Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. 39But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.'