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WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY TO YOU?
Are you facing a divorce? Lonely?
To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
O my God, in you I trust;
do not let me be put to shame;
do not let my enemies exult over me.
Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame;
let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
Make me to know your ways, O LORD;
teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth, and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all day long.
Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love,
for they have been from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
according to your steadfast love remember me,
for your goodness' sake, O LORD!
Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
He leads the humble in what is right,
and teaches the humble his way.
All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness,
for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
For your name's sake, O LORD,
pardon my guilt, for it is great. ...
My eyes are ever toward the LORD,
for he will pluck my feet out of the net.
Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.
Relieve the troubles of my heart,
and bring me out of my distress.
Consider my affliction and my trouble,
and forgive all my sins.
Consider how many are my foes,
and with what violent hatred they hate me.
O guard my life, and deliver me;
do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
May integrity and uprightness preserve me,
for I wait for you.
Redeem Israel, O God,
out of all its troubles.
Psalm 25
Some Pharisees came to him, and to test him they asked, "Is
it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?" He answered, "Have you
not read that the one who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' and
said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore
what God has joined together, let no one separate." They said to him, "Why then
did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?" He said
to them, "It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce
your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
Matthew 19:1-8
Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. ...
If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have
more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of
Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of
the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss
because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing
value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all
things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him,
not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through
faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the
power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his
death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Philippians 3:1-11
I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is
anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is
anxious about the affairs of the world, how to please his wife, and his interests are
divided. And the unmarried woman and the virgin are anxious about the affairs of the
Lord, so that they may be holy in body and spirit; but the married woman is anxious about
the affairs of the world, how to please her husband. I say this for your own
benefit, not to put any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and unhindered
devotion to the Lord.
If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his
fiancee, if his passions are strong, and so it has to be, let him marry as he wishes; it
is no sin. Let them marry. But if someone stands firm in his resolve, being
under no necessity but having his own desire under control, and has determined in his own
mind to keep her as his fiancee, he will do well. So then, he who marries his
fiancee does well; and he who refrains from marriage will do better.
1 Corinthians 7:32-38
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not
want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led
astray to idols that could not speak. Therefore I want you to understand that no one
speaking by the Spirit of God ever says "Let Jesus be cursed!" and no one can
say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit.
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there
are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but
it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the
manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the
utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same
Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one
Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the
discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation
of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one
individually just as the Spirit chooses.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the
members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one
Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and
we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If
the foot would say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that
would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, "Because I
am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part
of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body
were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in
the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body
be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand,
"I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of
you." On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are
indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with
greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas
our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving
the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body,
but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer
together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then
deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various
kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work
miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But
strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
1 Corinthians 12:1-31
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest.
Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our ancestors trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried, and were saved;
in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.
But I am a worm, and not human;
scorned by others, and despised by the people.
All who see me mock at me;
they make mouths at me, they shake their heads;
"Commit your cause to the LORD; let him deliver —
let him rescue the one in whom he delights!"
Yet it was you who took me from the womb;
you kept me safe on my mother's breast.
On you I was cast from my birth,
and since my mother bore me you have been my God.
Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
Many bulls encircle me,
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion.
I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
my mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
For dogs are all around me;
a company of evildoers encircles me.
My hands and feet have shriveled;
I can count all my bones.
They stare and gloat over me;
they divide my clothes among themselves,
and for my clothing they cast lots.
But you, O LORD, do not be far away!
O my help, come quickly to my aid!
Deliver my soul from the sword,
my life from the power of the dog!
Save me from the mouth of the lion!
From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me.
I will tell of your name to my brothers and kindred --
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him;
stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
For he did not despise or abhor
the affliction of the afflicted;
he did not hide his face from me,
but heard when I cried to him.
From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the LORD.
May your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the LORD;
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before him.
For dominion belongs to the LORD,
and he rules over the nations.
To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
and I shall live for him.
Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the LORD,
and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
saying that he has done it.
Psalm 22
As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me continually,
"Where is your God?"
These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep
at the thunder of your cataracts;
all your waves and your billows
have gone over me.
By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
I say to God, my rock,
"Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
because the enemy oppresses me?"
As with a deadly wound in my body,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
"Where is your God?"
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.
Psalm 42
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will
ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the
Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.
You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
"I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a
little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you
also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in
you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love
me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them." Judas
(not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and
not to the world?" Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will keep my word, and
my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever
does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is
from the Father who sent me.
"I have said these things to you while I am still with you.
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you
everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my
peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be
troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, 'I am going away, and I
am coming to you.' If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father,
because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so
that when it does occur, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the
ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; but I do as the Father has
commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.
John 14:15-31a
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