2 Chronicles 6

• 1. Then Solomon said, "The LORD has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud;
• 2. I have built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever."
• 3. While the whole assembly of Israel was standing there, the king turned around and blessed them.
• 4. Then he said: "Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his hands has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to my father David. For he said,
• 5. 'Since the day I brought my people out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city in any tribe of Israel to have a temple built for my Name to be there, nor have I chosen anyone to be the leader over my people Israel.
• 6. But now I have chosen Jerusalem for my Name to be there, and I have chosen David to rule my people Israel.'
• 7. "My father David had it in his heart to build a temple for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
• 8. But the LORD said to my father David, 'Because it was in your heart to build a temple for my Name, you did well to have this in your heart.
• 9. Nevertheless, you are not the one to build the temple, but your son, who is your own flesh and blood-he is the one who will build the temple for my Name.'
• 10. "The LORD has kept the promise he made. I have succeeded David my father and now I sit on the throne of Israel, just as the LORD promised, and I have built the temple for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
• 11. There I have placed the ark, in which is the covenant of the LORD that he made with the people of Israel."
• 12. Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands.
• 13. Now he had made a bronze platform, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had placed it in the center of the outer court. He stood on the platform and then knelt down before the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven.
• 14. He said: "O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth-you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way.
• 15. You have kept your promise to your servant David my father; with your mouth you have promised and with your hand you have fulfilled it-as it is today.
• 16. "Now LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father the promises you made to him when you said, 'You shall never fail to have a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons are careful in all they do to walk before me according to my law, as you have done.'
• 17. And now, O LORD, God of Israel, let your word that you promised your servant David come true.
• 18. "But will God really dwell on earth with men? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!
• 19. Yet give attention to your servant's prayer and his plea for mercy, O LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence.
• 20. May your eyes be open toward this temple day and night, this place of which you said you would put your Name there. May you hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place.
• 21. Hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.
• 22. "When a man wrongs his neighbor and is required to take an oath and he comes and swears the oath before your altar in this temple,
• 23. then hear from heaven and act. Judge between your servants, repaying the guilty by bringing down on his own head what he has done. Declare the innocent not guilty and so establish his innocence.
• 24. "When your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you and when they turn back and confess your name, praying and making supplication before you in this temple,
• 25. then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land you gave to them and their fathers.
• 26. "When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them,
• 27. then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live, and send rain on the land you gave your people for an inheritance.
• 28. "When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when enemies besiege them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come,
• 29. and when a prayer or plea is made by any of your people Israel-each one aware of his afflictions and pains, and spreading out his hands toward this temple-
• 30. then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive, and deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of men),
• 31. so that they will fear you and walk in your ways all the time they live in the land you gave our fathers.
• 32. "As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm-when he comes and prays toward this temple,
• 33. then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name.
• 34. "When your people go to war against their enemies, wherever you send them, and when they pray to you toward this city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name,
• 35. then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause.
• 36. "When they sin against you-for there is no one who does not sin-and you become angry with them and give them over to the enemy, who takes them captive to a land far away or near;
• 37. and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captivity and say, 'We have sinned, we have done wrong and acted wickedly';
• 38. and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their captivity where they were taken, and pray toward the land you gave their fathers, toward the city you have chosen and toward the temple I have built for your Name;
• 39. then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their pleas, and uphold their cause. And forgive your people, who have sinned against you.
• 40. "Now, my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.
• 41. "Now arise, O LORD God, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. May your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, may your saints rejoice in your goodness.
• 42. O LORD God, do not reject your anointed one. Remember the great love promised to David your servant."

1 John 5

• 1. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
• 2. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
• 3. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,
• 4. for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
• 5. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
• 6. This is the one who came by water and blood--Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
• 7. For there are three that testify:
• 8. the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.
• 9. We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.
• 10. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.
• 11. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
• 12. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
• 13. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
• 14. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
• 15. And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him.
• 16. If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that.
• 17. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.
• 18. We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.
• 19. We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
• 20. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true--even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
• 21. Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.

Habakkuk 1

• 1. The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received.
• 2. How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save?
• 3. Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.
• 4. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
• 5. "Look at the nations and watch- and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.
• 6. I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own.
• 7. They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor.
• 8. Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar. They fly like a vulture swooping to devour;
• 9. they all come bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand.
• 10. They deride kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; they build earthen ramps and capture them.
• 11. Then they sweep past like the wind and go on- guilty men, whose own strength is their god."
• 12. O LORD, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, we will not die. O LORD, you have appointed them to execute judgment; O Rock, you have ordained them to punish.
• 13. Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
• 14. You have made men like fish in the sea, like sea creatures that have no ruler.
• 15. The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks, he catches them in his net, he gathers them up in his dragnet; and so he rejoices and is glad.
• 16. Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, for by his net he lives in luxury and enjoys the choicest food.
• 17. Is he to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy?

New International Version

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