Is this the way you should treat the LORD, you foolish, senseless people? He is your father, your Creator, he made you into a nation.

Acknowledge that the LORD is God. He made us, and we belong to him; we are his people, we are his flock.

You will do everything you have promised; LORD, your love is eternal. Complete the work that you have begun.

The LORD Almighty will bless them and say, "I will bless you, Egypt, my people; you, Assyria, whom I created; and you, Israel, my chosen people."

When you see the children that I will give you, then you will acknowledge that I am the holy God of Israel. You will honor me and stand in awe of me.

They are the people I made for myself, and they will sing my praises!"

The LORD says, "Israel, remember this; remember that you are my servant. I created you to be my servant, and I will never forget you.

Your people will all do what is right, And will possess the land forever. I planted them, I made them, To reveal my greatness to all.

To give to those who mourn in Zion Joy and gladness instead of grief, A song of praise instead of sorrow. They will be like trees That the LORD himself has planted. They will all do what is right, And God will be praised for what he has done.

The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

I will give them a single purpose in life: to honor me for all time, for their own good and the good of their descendants.

I will make an eternal covenant with them. I will never stop doing good things for them, and I will make them fear me with all their heart, so that they will never turn away from me.

Jesus answered, "I am telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again."

"I am telling you the truth," replied Jesus, "that no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.

For we are partners working together for God, and you are God's field. You are also God's building.

God is the one who has prepared us for this change, and he gave us his Spirit as the guarantee of all that he has in store for us.

Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.

And so I am sure that God, who began this good work in you, will carry it on until it is finished on the Day of Christ Jesus.

because God is always at work in you to make you willing and able to obey his own purpose.

(SEE 13:20)

and you must put on the new self, which is created in God's likeness and reveals itself in the true life that is upright and holy.

Create a pure heart in me, O God, and put a new and loyal spirit in me.

Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.

It does not matter at all whether or not one is circumcised; what does matter is being a new creature.

and have put on the new self. This is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in his own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of himself.

In the same way your light must shine before people, so that they will see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven.

In Joppa there was a woman named Tabitha, who was a believer. (Her name in Greek is Dorcas, meaning "a deer.") She spent all her time doing good and helping the poor.

And God is able to give you more than you need, so that you will always have all you need for yourselves and more than enough for every good cause.

Then you will be able to live as the Lord wants and will always do what pleases him. Your lives will produce all kinds of good deeds, and you will grow in your knowledge of God.

encourage you and strengthen you to always do and say what is good.

but with good deeds, as is proper for women who claim to be religious.

and have a reputation for good deeds: a woman who brought up her children well, received strangers in her home, performed humble duties for other Christians, helped people in trouble, and devoted herself to doing good.

In the same way good deeds are plainly seen, and even those that are not so plain cannot be hidden.

Command them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share with others.

Those who make themselves clean from all those evil things, will be used for special purposes, because they are dedicated and useful to their Master, ready to be used for every good deed.

so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed.

In all things you yourself must be an example of good behavior. Be sincere and serious in your teaching.

He gave himself for us, to rescue us from all wickedness and to make us a pure people who belong to him alone and are eager to do good.

Remind your people to submit to rulers and authorities, to obey them, and to be ready to do good in every way.

This is a true saying. I want you to give special emphasis to these matters, so that those who believe in God may be concerned with giving their time to doing good deeds, which are good and useful for everyone.

Our people must learn to spend their time doing good, in order to provide for real needs; they should not live useless lives.

Let us be concerned for one another, to help one another to show love and to do good.

(SEE 13:20)

Your conduct among the heathen should be so good that when they accuse you of being evildoers, they will have to recognize your good deeds and so praise God on the Day of his coming.

Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before him. Because of his love

Those whom God had already chosen he also set apart to become like his Son, so that the Son would be the first among many believers.

At that time you followed the world's evil way; you obeyed the ruler of the spiritual powers in space, the spirit who now controls the people who disobey God.

I urge you, then---I who am a prisoner because I serve the Lord: live a life that measures up to the standard God set when he called you.

Obey them all, so that everything will go well with you and so that you will continue to live in the land that you are going to occupy.

How I wish my people would listen to me; how I wish they would obey me!

They never do wrong; they walk in the LORD's ways.

and their people will say, "Let us go up the hill of the LORD, to the Temple of Israel's God. He will teach us what he wants us to do; we will walk in the paths he has chosen. For the LORD's teaching comes from Jerusalem; from Zion he speaks to his people."

Now, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light which the LORD gives us!

And so it was that the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had a time of peace. Through the help of the Holy Spirit it was strengthened and grew in numbers, as it lived in reverence for the Lord.

There is no condemnation now for those who live in union with Christ Jesus.

But if we live in the light---just as he is in the light---then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from every sin.

if we say that we remain in union with God, we should live just as Jesus Christ did.