Isaiah 54
1 “Be glad, O barren woman who does not bear; break forth and cry out, you who are not in travail, for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord.†
2 “Enlarge the place of your tent and courtyard; set it up; do not avoid it; lengthen your ropes and strengthen your pegs.†
3 Spread out further to the right and the left, and your seed shall inherit the Gentiles. You shall cause the desolate cities to be inhabited.
4 Fear not that you were shamed, neither be confounded and disgraced; for you will forget your former shame and will not remember the disgrace of your widowhood.
bookmarked5 For it is the Lord who is your Maker; the Lord of hosts is His name. He is your Deliverer, and He shall be called the God of Israel by all the earth.
6 The Lord has not called you like a woman forsaken and fainthearted, nor like a wife hated from her youth,” says your God.
7 “I forsook you for a short while, but with great compassion I will have mercy on you.
8 In a little anger I turned away My face from you, but in everlasting compassion I will have mercy on you,” says the Lord who delivered you.
9 “This little anger is to Me as it was at the time of Noah’s Flood, when I swore to him regarding the earth, that I would no longer be angry with it, neither would I again threaten to remove its mountains nor move its hills.†
10 So neither shall My compassion fail you, nor shall your covenant of peace be removed; for the Lord who is merciful to you has spoken.
11 “Servile and unstable, you were not comforted. Behold, I am preparing you carbuncle for your stone and sapphire for your foundations,†
12 and I will make your battlements jasper and your gates crystal stones, and the enclosing wall of your temple choice stones.
13 I will cause all your children to be taught by God, and your children to be in great peace.
14 You shall be built in righteousness. Keep away from wrongdoing, and you will not be afraid, and trembling shall not come near you.
15 Behold, resident aliens shall come to you because of Me, and they shall flee to you.
16 Behold, I created you, not as a metalworker who blows coals in the fire and brings out a vessel fit for work; and I created you, not for ruin so as to destroy you.
17 I will not prosper any instrument of destruction used against you, and every voice raised against you in judgment, you shall overcome them all; and your adversaries shall be judged guilty. This is the inheritance for those who serve the Lord, and you shall be my righteous ones,” says the Lord.
Psalms 96
1 By David; when His earth is restored. †The Lord reigns; let the earth greatly rejoice; Let the many islands be glad.
2 Clouds and darkness surround Him; Righteousness and judgment are the right ordering of His throne.
3 Fire shall go out before Him And burn up His enemies on every side.
4 His lightning gave light to the world; The earth saw and was shaken.
5 The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, At the presence of the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaimed His righteousness; All the peoples saw His glory.
7 Let all who worship the carved images be shamed, All who boast in their idols; Worship Him, all you His angels.
8 Zion heard and was glad, And the daughters of Judah greatly rejoiced Because of Your judgments, O Lord;
9 For You are the Lord Most High over all the earth, Exalted exceedingly over all the gods.
10 You who love the Lord, hate evil; The Lord keeps the souls of His saints; He shall deliver them from the hand of sinners.
11 Light dawned for the righteous And gladness for the upright in heart.
12 Be glad in the Lord, O righteous ones, And give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.
Proverbs of Solomon 21
Godliness: Willing to Do God’s Will
1 As a flow of water, so is the heart of the king in the hand of God; Wherever He wills to incline it, there he turns it.†
2 Every man appears righteous to himself, But the Lord makes hearts right.
3 To do righteous things and to speak the truth Are more pleasing before God than the blood of sacrifices.†
4 A high-minded man is bold-hearted in his arrogance, And the lamp of the ungodly is sin.
5 He who produces treasures with a lying tongue Pursues worthless things upon the snares of death.
1 Timothy 4
False Teachers, False Rules
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,
2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,†
3 forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.†
Orthodox Doctrine, Orthodox Spirituality
4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving;
5 for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.†
6 If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed.
7 But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness.†
8 For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.
9 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance.
10 For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.
11 These things command and teach.
Self-Discipline in Ministry
12 Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
13 Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.†
14 Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.†
15 Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.
16 Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.