"Yet my people and I cannot really give you anything, because everything is a gift from you, and we have only given back what is yours already.

O LORD, our God, we have brought together all this wealth to build a temple to honor your holy name, but it all came from you and all belongs to you.

The world and all that is in it belong to the LORD; the earth and all who live on it are his.

all the animals in the forest are mine and the cattle on thousands of hills.

All the wild birds are mine and all living things in the fields.

All the silver and gold of the world is mine.

The new Temple will be more splendid than the old one, and there I will give my people prosperity and peace." The LORD Almighty has spoken.

The Father loves his Son and has put everything in his power.

For you gave him authority over all people, so that he might give eternal life to all those you gave him.

Nor does he need anything that we can supply by working for him, since it is he himself who gives life and breath and everything else to everyone.

You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; rich as he was, he made himself poor for your sake, in order to make you rich by means of his poverty.

Saul also went back home to Gibeah. Some powerful men, whose hearts God had touched, went with him.

"Now go to the town of Zarephath, near Sidon, and stay there. I have commanded a widow who lives there to feed you."

In the first year that Cyrus of Persia was emperor, the LORD made what he had said through the prophet Jeremiah come true. He prompted Cyrus to issue the following command and send it out in writing to be read aloud everywhere in his empire:

Then the heads of the clans of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, the priests and Levites, and everyone else whose heart God had moved got ready to go and rebuild the LORD's Temple in Jerusalem.

Ezra said, "Praise the LORD, the God of our ancestors! He has made the emperor willing to honor in this way the Temple of the LORD in Jerusalem.

Our friends, we want you to know what God's grace has accomplished in the churches in Macedonia.

They have been severely tested by the troubles they went through; but their joy was so great that they were extremely generous in their giving, even though they are very poor.

How we thank God for making Titus as eager as we are to help you!

Every good gift and every perfect present comes from heaven; it comes down from God, the Creator of the heavenly lights, who does not change or cause darkness by turning.