Isaiah 39
1 At that time, Merodach the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters, ambassadors, and gifts to Hezekiah, for he heard he was sick and almost died, but had recovered.†
2 Hezekiah was very glad they came, and he showed them the house of his treasures—the oil of myrrh, the fragrant incense, the ointment, the silver and the gold—and all the treasure houses with their vessels, and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house he did not show them.
3 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?” So Hezekiah said, “They came to me from a far country, from Babylon.”
4 Then he said, “What did they see in your house?” So Hezekiah answered, “They saw everything in my house; there is nothing in my house they did not see, even among my treasures.”
5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts:†
6 ‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘when everything in your house and everything your fathers accumulated until this day shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left.’
7 God also said they shall take away some of your sons whom you begot, and make them eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
8 So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The Lord’s word you spoke is good. Let there indeed be peace and righteousness in my days.”†
Psalms 84
1 For the End; a psalm for the sons of Korah. †
2 O Lord, You were pleased with Your land; You turned back the captivity of Jacob;
3 You forgave the transgressions of Your people; You covered all their sins. (Pause)
4 You ended all Your wrath; You turned from the wrath of Your anger.
5 Turn us, O God of our salvation, And turn away Your anger from us.
6 Will You be angry with us forever, Or will You prolong Your anger from generation to generation?
7 O God, You will turn and give us life, And Your people will be glad in You.
8 Show us Your mercy, O Lord, And grant us Your salvation.
9 I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me, For He will speak peace To His people and to His holy ones, And to those who turn their heart to Him.
10 His salvation is very close at hand to those who fear Him, That glory may dwell in our land.
11 Mercy and truth met together; Righteousness and peace kissed each other;
12 Truth arose from the earth, And righteousness looked down from heaven.
13 For the Lord will give goodness, And our land shall yield its fruit.
14 Righteousness shall go before Him And establish His footsteps as our pathway.
Proverbs of Solomon 17
26 The face of a wise man shows understanding, But the eyes of the man without discernment are upon the ends of the earth.
27 A son without discernment is wrath to a father And grief to her who bore him.
28 It is not good to punish a righteous man, Nor is it holy to plot against righteous princes.
29 He who refrains from uttering a harsh word is intelligent, And a longsuffering man has discernment.†
30 Wisdom shall be imputed to a man without understanding who asks for wisdom, And anyone who holds his peace will seem to have discernment.†
Colossians 1
Greeting
1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving for Abundant Growth
3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,†
4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints;
5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel,
6 which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth;
7 as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf,
8 who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.
Petition for Continued Growth
9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;†
10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;
12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.†
13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
Apostolic Christology: A Hymn
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.†
16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.†
17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.†
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,†
20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. †
Salvation with Perseverance
21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled
22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—†
23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Paul’s Sacrificial Service
24 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church,†
25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God,†
26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.†
27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
29 To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.