Friday, August 5, 2016
Revelation 1
Revelation 1 NLT
1 This is a revelation from Jesus
Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the events that must soon take
place. He sent an angel to present this revelation to his servant John,
2 who faithfully reported everything he
saw. This is his report of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus
Christ.
3 God blesses the one who reads the
words of this prophecy to the church, and he blesses all who listen to its
message and obey what it says, for the time is near.
4 This letter is from John to the seven
churches in the province of Asia. Grace and peace to you from the one who is,
who always was, and who is still to come; from the sevenfold Spirit before his
throne;
5 and from Jesus Christ. He is the faithful
witness to these things, the first to rise from the dead, and the ruler of all
the kings of the world. All glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our
sins by shedding his blood for us.
6 He has made us a Kingdom of priests
for God his Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.
7 Look! He comes with the clouds of
heaven. And everyone will see him— even those who pierced him. And all the
nations of the world will mourn for him. Yes! Amen!
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning
and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who
is still to come—the Almighty One.”
9 I, John, am your brother and your
partner in suffering and in God’s Kingdom and in the patient endurance to which
Jesus calls us. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of
God and for my testimony about Jesus.
10 It was the Lord’s Day, and I was
worshiping in the Spirit. Suddenly, I heard behind me a loud voice like a
trumpet blast.
11 It said, “Write in a book everything
you see, and send it to the seven churches in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna,
Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
12 When I turned to see who was speaking
to me, I saw seven gold lampstands.
13 And standing in the middle of the
lampstands was someone like the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a
gold sash across his chest.
14 His head and his hair were white like wool,
as white as snow. And his eyes were like flames of fire.
15 His feet were like polished bronze refined
in a furnace, and his voice thundered like mighty ocean waves.
16 He held seven stars in his right
hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came from his mouth. And his face was like
the sun in all its brilliance.
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as
if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I
am the First and the Last.
18 I am the living one. I died, but
look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the
grave.
19 “Write down what you have seen—both
the things that are now happening and the things that will happen.
20 This is the meaning
of the mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and the seven gold
lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven
lampstands are the seven churches.
Thursday, August 4, 2016
The Book of Jude (NLT)
Outline
A.
The Change of Subject
(1:3)
B.
The Reason for the
Change: The Presence of Godless Apostates (1:4)
1. Unbelieving Israel (1:5)
2. Angels who fell (1:6)
3. Sodom and Gomorrah (1:7)
Jude 1 NLT
1 This letter is from Jude, a slave of
Jesus Christ and a brother of James. I am writing to all who have been called
by God the Father, who loves you and keeps you safe in the care of Jesus
Christ.
2 May God give you more and more mercy,
peace, and love.
3 Dear friends, I had been eagerly
planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that
I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has
entrusted once for all time to his holy people.
4 I say this because some ungodly
people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous
grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was
recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
5So I want to remind you, though you already
know these things, that Jesus first rescued the nation of Israel from Egypt,
but later he destroyed those who did not remain faithful.
6 And I remind you of the angels who
did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them but left the place
where they belonged. God has kept them securely chained in prisons of darkness,
waiting for the great day of judgment.
7 And don’t forget Sodom and Gomorrah
and their neighboring towns, which were filled with immorality and every kind
of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and serve as a
warning of the eternal fire of God’s judgment.
8 In the same way, these people—who
claim authority from their dreams—live immoral lives, defy authority, and scoff
at supernatural beings.
9 But even Michael, one of the
mightiest of the angels, did not dare accuse the devil of blasphemy, but simply
said, “The Lord rebuke you!” (This took place when Michael was arguing with the
devil about Moses’ body.)
10 But these people scoff at things they
do not understand. Like unthinking animals, they do whatever their instincts
tell them, and so they bring about their own destruction.
11 What sorrow awaits them! For they
follow in the footsteps of Cain, who killed his brother. Like Balaam, they
deceive people for money. And like Korah, they perish in their rebellion.
12 When these people eat with you in
your fellowship meals commemorating the Lord’s love, they are like dangerous
reefs that can shipwreck you. They are like shameless shepherds who care only
for themselves. They are like clouds blowing over the land without giving any
rain. They are like trees in autumn that are doubly dead, for they bear no
fruit and have been pulled up by the roots.
13They are like wild waves of the sea,
churning up the foam of their shameful deeds. They are like wandering stars,
doomed forever to blackest darkness.
14 Enoch, who lived in the seventh
generation after Adam, prophesied about these people. He said, “Listen! The
Lord is coming with countless thousands of his holy ones
15 to execute judgment on the people of
the world. He will convict every person of all the ungodly things they have
done and for all the insults that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
16 These people are grumblers and
complainers, living only to satisfy their desires. They brag loudly about
themselves, and they flatter others to get what they want.
17 But you, my dear friends, must
remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ predicted.
18 They told you that in the last times
there would be scoffers whose purpose in life is to satisfy their ungodly
desires.
19 These people are the ones who are
creating divisions among you. They follow their natural instincts because they
do not have God’s Spirit in them.
20But you, dear friends, must build each
other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit,
21 and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves
safe in God’s love.
22 And you must show mercy to those
whose faith is wavering.
23 Rescue others by snatching them from
the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great
caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives.
24 Now all glory to God, who is able to
keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious
presence without a single fault.
25 All glory to him
who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty,
power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond
all time! Amen.
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
3rd John
Outline
IV.
Exhortation to Gaius
(a href="/nlt/3-john/1-11.html">11)
V.
Example of Demetrius
(a href="/nlt/3-john/1-12.html">12)
3 John 1 NLT
1 This letter is from John, the elder.
I am writing to Gaius, my dear friend, whom I love in the truth.
2 Dear friend, I hope all is well with
you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit.
3 Some of the traveling teachers
recently returned and made me very happy by telling me about your faithfulness
and that you are living according to the truth.
4 I could have no greater joy than to
hear that my children are following the truth.
5 Dear friend, you are being faithful
to God when you care for the traveling teachers who pass through, even though
they are strangers to you.
6They have told the church here of your
loving friendship. Please continue providing for such teachers in a manner that
pleases God.
7 For they are traveling for the Lord,
and they accept nothing from people who are not believers.
8 So we ourselves should support them
so that we can be their partners as they teach the truth.
9 I wrote to the church about this, but
Diotrephes, who loves to be the leader, refuses to have anything to do with us.
10 When I come, I will report some of
the things he is doing and the evil accusations he is making against us. Not
only does he refuse to welcome the traveling teachers, he also tells others not
to help them. And when they do help, he puts them out of the church.
11 Dear friend, don’t let this bad
example influence you. Follow only what is good. Remember that those who do
good prove that they are God’s children, and those who do evil prove that they
do not know God.
12Everyone speaks highly of Demetrius, as
does the truth itself. We ourselves can say the same for him, and you know we
speak the truth.
13 I have much more to say to you, but I
don’t want to write it with pen and ink.
14 For I hope to see you soon, and then
we will talk face to face.
15 Peace be with you.
Your friends here send you their greetings. Please give my personal greetings
to each of our friends there.
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
2nd John
Outline
- Greetings (1-3)
- Commendation (4)
- Exhortation and Warning (5-11)
- Conclusion and Final Greetings (12-13)
2 John 1 NLT
1 This letter is from John, the elder.
I am writing to the chosen lady and to her children, whom I love in the
truth—as does everyone else who knows the truth—
2 because the truth lives in us and
will be with us forever.
3 Grace, mercy, and peace, which come
from God the Father and from Jesus Christ—the Son of the Father—will continue
to be with us who live in truth and love.
4 How happy I was to meet some of your
children and find them living according to the truth, just as the Father
commanded.
5 I am writing to remind you, dear
friends, that we should love one another. This is not a new commandment, but
one we have had from the beginning.
6 Love means doing what God has
commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard
from the beginning.
7 I say this because many deceivers
have gone out into the world. They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real body.
Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist.
8 Watch out that you do not lose what
we have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full
reward.
9 Anyone who wanders away from this
teaching has no relationship with God. But anyone who remains in the teaching
of Christ has a relationship with both the Father and the Son.
10 If anyone comes to your meeting and
does not teach the truth about Christ, don’t invite that person into your home
or give any kind of encouragement.
11 Anyone who encourages such people
becomes a partner in their evil work.
12 I have much more to say to you, but I
don’t want to do it with paper and ink. For I hope to visit you soon and talk
with you face to face. Then our joy will be complete.
13 Greetings from the
children of your sister, chosen by God.
Monday, August 1, 2016
1st John ~ The Christian Life as an Integration of the Ethical and the Christological (4:7;5:12) ~ Conclusion: Great Christian Certainties (5:13-21)
1 John 4 NLT
7 Dear friends, let us continue to love
one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and
knows God.
8 But anyone who does not love does not
know God, for God is love.
9 God showed how much he loved us by
sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life
through him.
10 This is real love—not that we loved
God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our
sins.
11 Dear friends, since God loved us that
much, we surely ought to love each other.
12No one has ever seen God. But if we love
each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
13 And God has given us his Spirit as
proof that we live in him and he in us.
14 Furthermore, we have seen with our
own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the
world.
15 All who declare that Jesus is the Son
of God have God living in them, and they live in God.
16 We know how much God loves us, and we
have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in
God, and God lives in them.
17 And as we live in God, our love grows
more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face
him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.
18 Such love has no fear, because
perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment,
and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.
19 We love each other because he loved
us first.
20 If someone says, “I love God,” but
hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we
can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?
21 And he has given us
this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.
1 John 5 NLT
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is
the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves
his children, too.
2 We know we love God’s children if we
love God and obey his commandments.
3 Loving God means keeping his
commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.
4 For every child of God defeats this
evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.
5And who can win this battle against the
world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
6 And Jesus Christ was revealed as
God’s Son by his baptism in water and by shedding his blood on the cross —not
by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit, who is truth, confirms
it with his testimony.
7 So we have these three witnesses —
8 the Spirit, the water, and the
blood—and all three agree.
9 Since we believe human testimony,
surely we can believe the greater testimony that comes from God. And God has
testified about his Son.
10 All who believe in the Son of God
know in their hearts that this testimony is true. Those who don’t believe this
are actually calling God a liar because they don’t believe what God has
testified about his Son.
11 And this is what God has testified:
He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever
does not have God’s Son does not have life.
13 I have written this to you who
believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal
life.
14 And we are confident that he hears us
whenever we ask for anything that pleases him.
15 And since we know he hears us when we
make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.
16 If you see a fellow believer sinning
in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that
person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you
should pray for those who commit it.
17 All wicked actions are sin, but not
every sin leads to death.
18 We know that God’s children do not
make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one
cannot touch them.
19 We know that we are children of God
and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one.
20 And we know that the Son of God has
come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And
now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with
his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life.
21 Dear children, keep
away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.
Sunday, July 31, 2016
AFWIS TV # 16 I am Glad to go to the house of the Lord:
Published on Sep 28, 2014
AFWIS TV # 16 I am Glad to go to the house of the Lord
September 28, 2014 07:44 AM
September 28, 2014 07:44 AM
Saturday, July 30, 2016
1st John ~ The Christian Life as Divine Sonship (2:29;4:6)
1 John 2 NLT
29 Since we know that
Christ is righteous, we also know that all who do what is right are God’s
children.
1 John 3 NLT
1 See how very much our Father loves
us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who
belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they
don’t know him.
2 Dear friends, we are already God’s
children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears.
But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really
is.
3 And all who have this eager
expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.
4 Everyone who sins is breaking God’s
law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.
5 And you know that Jesus came to take
away our sins, and there is no sin in him.
6 Anyone who continues to live in him
will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand
who he is.
7 Dear children, don’t let anyone
deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are
righteous, even as Christ is righteous.
8But when people keep on sinning, it shows
that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But
the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.
9Those who have been born into God’s family
do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t
keep on sinning, because they are children of God.
10So now we can tell who are children of God
and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and
does not love other believers does not belong to God.
11 This is the message you have heard
from the beginning: We should love one another.
12 We must not be like Cain, who
belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him?
Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what
was righteous.
13 So don’t be surprised, dear brothers
and sisters, if the world hates you.
14 If we love our brothers and sisters
who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a
person who has no love is still dead.
15 Anyone who hates another brother or
sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have
eternal life within them.
16 We know what real love is because
Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our
brothers and sisters.
17 If someone has enough money to live
well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s
love be in that person?
18Dear children, let’s not merely say that we
love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.
19 Our actions will show that we belong
to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.
20 Even if we feel guilty, God is
greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.
21 Dear friends, if we don’t feel
guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence.
22 And we will receive from him whatever
we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.
23 And this is his commandment: We must
believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he
commanded us.
24 Those who obey
God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know
he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.
1 John 4 NLT
1 Dear friends, do not believe everyone
who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they
have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.
2 This is how we know if they have the
Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus
Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God.
3 But if someone claims to be a prophet
and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God.
Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into
the world and indeed is already here.
4 But you belong to God, my dear
children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit
who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.
5 Those people belong to this world, so
they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them.
6 But we belong to God, and those who
know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us.
That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of
deception.
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