Tag: Salvation
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Known Because of Joseph – Genesis 50:10-11
Genesis 50:10-11 And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This…
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Gathered to His People – Genesis 49:33
Genesis 49:33 “And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.” There is something very peaceful about that. Jacob finishes speaking to his sons. He says what he needs to say. He gives his…
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Waiting for Salvation – Genesis 49:18
Genesis 49:18 “I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord.” Right in the middle of all of this, Jacob suddenly cries out, “I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord.” It is brief, but it is weighty. After speaking of Dan as a serpent by the way, after giving that dark picture of deception and…
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Saved Lives and Glad Hearts – Genesis 47:25-26
Genesis 47:25-26 And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants. And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part; except the land of the priests only, which…
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Grace Put Back in the Sack – Genesis 42:25-28
Genesis 42:25 Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and to restore every man’s money into his sack, and to give them provision for the way: and thus did he unto them. I love this scene because Joseph does not just feed his brothers. He overwhelms them with undeserved kindness. He fills their…
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Come Buy Without Money – Genesis 42:1-3
Genesis 42:1-3 Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look one upon another? And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt: get you down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not die. And…
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The Cup Returned – Genesis 40:5-13
Genesis 40:5-13 And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison. And Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and looked upon them,…
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The Stripped Robe – Genesis 37:23
Genesis 37:23 And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stript Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours that was on him; There is more happening here than brothers roughing up Joseph. That coat was not just clothing. It was the mark of his father’s love.…
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I Seek My Brethren – Genesis 37:15-18
Genesis 37:15-18And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou? And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks. And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let…
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Enough Already – Genesis 33:9
Genesis 33:9And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; keep that thou hast unto thyself. That had to stop Jacob in his tracks. All that planning.All those droves.All that effort to secure favor. And Esau says, “I have enough… keep it.” In other words, “You don’t need to buy anything here.” That is striking, because…
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Trying to Buy What Can Only Be Given – Genesis 33:6-8
Genesis 33:6-8Then the handmaidens came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves. And Leah also with her children came near, and bowed themselves: and after came Joseph near and Rachel, and they bowed themselves. And he said, What meanest thou by all this drove which I met?And he said, These are to find…
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Grace at the End of the Day – Genesis 28:10-12
Genesis 28:10-12 And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed,…
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Working It Out His Way – Genesis 28:1-2
Genesis 28:1-2 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother’s brother. The…
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Beauty by the Water – Genesis 24:15-16
Genesis 24:15-16 And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder.And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her: and she…
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Rightly Clothed – Genesis 15:6
Genesis 15:6And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness. This is one of the great verses in all of Scripture. It is so important that Paul builds on it in Romans 4 and Galatians 3. Why? Because it tells us plainly how a man is made right with God.…
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Shut In by the Lord – Genesis 7:14-16
Genesis 7:14-16 They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein…
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The Call Still Stands – Genesis 7:1
Genesis 7:1 And the Lord said unto Noah, Come, thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. The first word that catches my heart here is Come. Not build.Not strive.Not prove.Come. That is just like the Lord. Even in a chapter where judgment is…
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The Finished Work – Genesis 6:22
Genesis 6:22 Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he. There is something deeply powerful in that simple line. Noah did not partially obey. He did not build most of the ark and then shrug his shoulders. He did not get tired halfway through and decide that near enough was…
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Safe Through the Storm – Genesis 6:17-18
Genesis 6:17-18 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou,…
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One Window, One Door, One Journey – Genesis 6:16
Genesis 6:16 A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. This verse is rich. First, there was a window in the ark. Noah…
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Built to Ride Above It – Genesis 6:15
Genesis 6:15 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. The ark Noah built was not fashioned to slice through the water like some sleek ship. It was built…
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Sheltered by Atonement – Genesis 6:14
Genesis 6:14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. This verse is doing far more than giving Noah carpentry instructions. It is quietly telling the story of salvation. The ark was to be made of gopher wood. I do…
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When Violence Fills the Earth – Genesis 6:11-13
Genesis 6:11, 12, 13 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the…
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From Darkness to Light – Genesis 1:3-4
Genesis 1:3-4 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. I love how direct this is. God speaks, and light appears. The Hebrew has that sharp, sudden feel to it. Light be. And light was.…
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Still Saying Come – Revelation 22:17
Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. What a way for the Bible to close. After all the thunder, all the warnings, all the visions, all the…
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Outside the City – Revelation 22:15
Revelation 22:15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. John is drawing a hard line here. Inside the city is life, light, and fellowship with the Lord. Outside is everything that resists Him. This is not God being harsh for the sake of…
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The Door Is Still Open – Revelation 22:12-14
Revelation 22:12-14 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life,…
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Judged at the Wood, Not the White Throne – Revelation 20:11-13
Revelation 20:11-13 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled awayand there was found no place for them.And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before Godand the books were openedand another book was opened, which is the book of…
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The Table Before the Battle – Revelation 19:20-21
Revelation 19:20-21 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain…
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Two Tables – Revelation 19:1-2
Revelation 19:1-2 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God:For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the…
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The Voice That Says Go – Revelation 16:1
Revelation 16:1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. Now the command is given. Up to this point, John has seen the angels, the vials, the smoke filling the temple, and…
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At Home in the World, Amazed by the Lamb – Revelation 13:7-8
Revelation 13:7-8 And power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. One of the saddest phrases in this passage is the phrase dwell…
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Washed in the Blood and Brought Through – Revelation 7:14-17
Revelation 7:14-17 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his…
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A Song Too Big to Count – Revelation 7:9-11
Revelation 7:9-11 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon…
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Who Shall Be Able to Stand? – Revelation 6:17
Revelation 6:17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? That is the question hanging in the air when chapter 6 closes. The earth is shaking. The heavens are rolled back. Kings and captains are hiding in caves. Men are crying to the rocks. And then comes…
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A Holy Interruption – Jude 3
Jude 3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Jude sat down to write one kind of letter, but the Spirit…
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Life or No Life – 1 John 5:12
1 John 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. John now reduces the whole matter to one clear dividing line. Not religion or irreligion. Not church background or lack of background. Not morality or immorality. Not education, effort, or sincerity. The dividing line…
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Life Is in the Son – 1 John 5:10-11
1 John 5:10, 11 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is…
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The Fire That Warms or Burns – 1 John 4:7-8
1 John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. After warning us about false spirits and deceptive voices, John now shifts the focus back to something central.…
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The Judge Who Paid the Fine – 1 John 2:2
1 John 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. John now tells us why Jesus can be our Advocate with the Father. It is not because He twists the facts. It is not because He makes excuses for us.…
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Mercy in the Delay – 2 Peter 3:9
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Peter says the Lord is not slack. Men may look at the passing years and think God is slow, careless,…
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Only God Gets a Man Through – 1 Peter 4:18
1 Peter 4:18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Peter is not saying the righteous are barely saved because the work of Jesus is barely enough. Not at all. He is saying that if salvation is this great, this costly, this impossible apart from divine intervention,…
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Held, Not Hanging – 1 Peter 1:5
1 Peter 1:5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Peter gives suffering believers a truth strong enough to carry them: we are kept by the power of God. Not by our grip. Not by our consistency. Not by our spiritual stamina.…
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Commended Before Completion – Hebrews 11:39
Hebrews 11:39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise. After all the names, all the stories, all the victories, all the suffering, Hebrews brings us to this surprising line: they obtained a good report through faith, yet they did not receive the promise. That is a remarkable sentence. These…
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Don’t Go Back to a Wasted Life – Hebrews 10:38–39
Hebrews 10:38, 39 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. These verses draw a hard line in the dirt.…
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Resting in What Was Finished – Hebrews 10:30–31
Picture a man who has just finished paying off a crushing debt. For years he tried to chip away at it—extra shifts, tighter budgets, sleepless nights worrying about the balance that never seemed to disappear. Then one day the notice comes: the account is settled. Paid in full. But imagine if that man kept sending payments anyway.…
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Grace Insulted – Hebrews 10:29
Imagine someone giving you an extraordinary gift. Not something small. Not something casual. But something costly—something that required real sacrifice. They hand it to you freely, with kindness and love. Now imagine pushing the gift back across the table and saying, “No thanks. I’ll pay for it myself.” That wouldn’t simply be unnecessary. It would…
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A Warning Worth Hearing – Hebrews 10:26–29
A father is teaching his young son to cross a busy street. Cars rush by. Engines roar. The boy is eager to run ahead, but the father grabs his shoulder and says, “Stop.” The boy frowns, thinking the warning is harsh. But the father isn’t trying to control him—he’s trying to protect him. Think about…
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Mercy Over the Record — Hebrews 10:15–20
Hebrews 10:15–20 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will…
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Perfected Forever — Hebrews 10:13–14
Hebrews 10:13–14 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Jesus is seated now, waiting until every enemy is finally put under His feet. That means history is not drifting. It is moving. The King is not worried, not scrambling, not…
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Shadow and Savior — Hebrews 10:1–4
Hebrews 10:1–4 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have…
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Crown, Not Cross — Hebrews 9:28
Hebrews 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. The first coming of Jesus and the second coming of Jesus are not for the same purpose. The first time He came, He came to…
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One Life, One Death, One Judgment — Hebrews 9:27
Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. This is one of those verses that clears the air fast. We do not move through endless cycles of lives, coming back again and again in different forms, hoping eventually to work our way upward. Scripture does not…
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Forever Enough — Hebrews 7:26–28
Hebrews 7:26–28 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.For the…
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Saved All the Way Through — Hebrews 7:25
Hebrews 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. That is not thin comfort. That is deep water. Jesus does not save halfway. He does not get a man started and then leave him to finish…
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Persuaded of Better Things — Hebrews 6:9
Hebrews 6:9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. Just before this verse, the writer of Hebrews speaks very seriously. He talks about ground that receives rain yet produces only thorns and briers. The warning is real. It’s meant to wake people up and…
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Perfected Through the Road — Hebrews 5:9
Hebrews 5:9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. When the writer of Hebrews says Jesus was made perfect, he is not saying that Jesus was once flawed and later improved. That would miss the heart of the passage completely. Jesus was always perfect in His…
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Washed by Mercy — Titus 3:4–6
Titus 3:4–6 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour. After describing…
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The Wisdom of the Scriptures — 2 Timothy 3:15
2 Timothy 3:15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Paul reminds Timothy of something deeply personal here. Timothy did not come to the Scriptures late in life. He had known them since he was…
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The Price He Paid — 1 Timothy 2:6
1 Timothy 2:6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. Paul keeps tightening the focus. There is one God.One Mediator.And now he tells us what that Mediator did. He gave Himself. No one forced Him. No one cornered Him. No one negotiated the price down. He gave Himself. A…
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What God Desires — 1 Timothy 2:3–4
1 Timothy 2:3–4 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. Paul has just urged the church to pray for everyone, even rulers. Now he tells us why. Because this is good in the…
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He Came for People Like Me — 1 Timothy 1:15
1 Timothy 1:15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Paul does not say, I was chief. He says, I am. And he says it near the end of his life. That tells me something about sanctification.…
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Why the Law Still Speaks — 1 Timothy 1:9–11
1 Timothy 1:9–11 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured…
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Chosen and Called — 2 Thessalonians 2:13–14
2 Thessalonians 2:13–14 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord…
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The Love of the Truth — 2 Thessalonians 2:10–12
2 Thessalonians 2:10–12 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure…
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Not Appointed to Wrath – 1 Thessalonians 5:9–10
1 Thessalonians 5:9–10 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. This is one of those verses you don’t rush past. “God hath not appointed us to wrath.” Let that land.…
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Written in Ink That Cannot Fade – Philippians 4:3
Philippians 4:3 And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow… Paul moves from pleading with two women to pulling in a third voice. “True yokefellow.” That is not a casual nickname. A yoke is wood laid across two animals so they move as one. It rubs. It presses. It distributes weight. Whoever this man was, he…
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Saved by Grace – Ephesians 2:8-9
Ephesians 2:8, 9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:Not of works, lest any man should boast. In verses 4 through 7, we saw what He did for us. He found us dead. He made us alive. He raised us up. He seated…