I promised to let you live there, but not one of you will, except Caleb and Joshua.

Those who wept as they went out carrying the seed will come back singing for joy, as they bring in the harvest.

No, it is rather by means of God's power that I drive out demons, and this proves that the Kingdom of God has already come to you.

Didn't he really mean us when he said that? Of course that was written for us. Anyone who plows and anyone who reaps should do their work in the hope of getting a share of the crop.

These people really did not belong to our fellowship, and that is why they left us; if they had belonged to our fellowship, they would have stayed with us. But they left so that it might be clear that none of them really belonged to us.

But I reckon my own life to be worth nothing to me; I only want to complete my mission and finish the work that the Lord Jesus gave me to do, which is to declare the Good News about the grace of God.

I consider that what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.

All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death,

After a life of suffering, he will again have joy; he will know that he did not suffer in vain. My devoted servant, with whom I am pleased, will bear the punishment of many and for his sake I will forgive them.

The LORD says, "The wise should not boast of their wisdom, nor the strong of their strength, nor the rich of their wealth.

If any want to boast, they should boast that they know and understand me, because my love is constant, and I do what is just and right. These are the things that please me. I, the LORD, have spoken."

At that time Jesus said, "Father, Lord of heaven and earth! I thank you because you have shown to the unlearned what you have hidden from the wise and learned.

"My Father has given me all things. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

"Good for you, Simon son of John!" answered Jesus. "For this truth did not come to you from any human being, but it was given to you directly by my Father in heaven.

At that time Jesus was filled with joy by the Holy Spirit and said, "Father, Lord of heaven and earth! I thank you because you have shown to the unlearned what you have hidden from the wise and learned. Yes, Father, this was how you were pleased to have it happen.

"My Father has given me all things. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."

Now that you have known me," he said to them, "you will know my Father also, and from now on you do know him and you have seen him."

When that day comes, you will know that I am in my Father and that you are in me, just as I am in you.

People will do these things to you because they have not known either the Father or me.

And eternal life means to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, whom you sent.

I gave them the message that you gave me, and they received it; they know that it is true that I came from you, and they believe that you sent me.

For while I was with you, I made up my mind to forget everything except Jesus Christ and especially his death on the cross.

They do not believe, because their minds have been kept in the dark by the evil god of this world. He keeps them from seeing the light shining on them, the light that comes from the Good News about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

The God who said, "Out of darkness the light shall shine!" is the same God who made his light shine in our hearts, to bring us the knowledge of God's glory shining in the face of Christ.

to reveal his Son to me, so that I might preach the Good News about him to the Gentiles, I did not go to anyone for advice,

and ask the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, to give you the Spirit, who will make you wise and reveal God to you, so that you will know him.

I ask that your minds may be opened to see his light, so that you will know what is the hope to which he has called you, how rich are the wonderful blessings he promises his people,

I am less than the least of all God's people; yet God gave me this privilege of taking to the Gentiles the Good News about the infinite riches of Christ,

and of making all people see how God's secret plan is to be put into effect. God, who is the Creator of all things, kept his secret hidden through all the past ages,

so that you, together with all God's people, may have the power to understand how broad and long, how high and deep, is Christ's love.

Yes, may you come to know his love---although it can never be fully known---and so be completely filled with the very nature of God.

I do this in order that they may be filled with courage and may be drawn together in love, and so have the full wealth of assurance which true understanding brings. In this way they will know God's secret, which is Christ himself.

He is the key that opens all the hidden treasures of God's wisdom and knowledge.

This stone is of great value for you that believe; but for those who do not believe: "The stone which the builders rejected as worthless turned out to be the most important of all."

God's divine power has given us everything we need to live a truly religious life through our knowledge of the one who called us to share in his own glory and goodness.

But continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, now and forever! Amen.

We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we know the true God. We live in union with the true God---in union with his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and this is eternal life.

Why should this great thing happen to me, that my Lord's mother comes to visit me?

For David himself says in the book of Psalms, 'The Lord said to my Lord: Sit here at my right side

David called him 'Lord'; how, then, can the Messiah be David's descendant?"

"Woman, why are you crying?" they asked her. She answered, "They have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have put him!"

Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"

But all those things that I might count as profit I now reckon as loss for Christ's sake.

Then Peter spoke up. "Look," he said, "we have left everything and followed you. What will we have?"

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake, will receive a hundred times more and will be given eternal life.

For it seems to me that God has given the very last place to us apostles, like people condemned to die in public as a spectacle for the whole world of angels and of human beings.

To this very moment we go hungry and thirsty; we are clothed in rags; we are beaten; we wander from place to place;

when we are insulted, we answer back with kind words. We are no more than this world's garbage; we are the scum of the earth to this very moment!

Are they Christ's servants? I sound like a madman---but I am a better servant than they are! I have worked much harder, I have been in prison more times, I have been whipped much more, and I have been near death more often.

three times I was whipped by the Romans; and once I was stoned. I have been in three shipwrecks, and once I spent twenty-four hours in the water.

There has been work and toil; often I have gone without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty; I have often been without enough food, shelter, or clothing.

As for me, the hour has come for me to be sacrificed; the time is here for me to leave this life.

Because of this I will bring disaster on your dynasty and will kill all your male descendants, young and old alike. I will get rid of your family; they will be swept away like dung.

Her remains will be scattered there like dung, so that no one will be able to identify them.' "

but they will be blown away like dust. Those who used to know them will wonder where they have gone.

I will punish your children and rub your faces in the dung of the animals you sacrifice---and you will be taken out to the dung heap.

"The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man happens to find a treasure hidden in a field. He covers it up again, and is so happy that he goes and sells everything he has, and then goes back and buys that field.

and when he finds one that is unusually fine, he goes and sells everything he has, and buys that pearl.

For we are all partners with Christ if we hold firmly to the end the confidence we had at the beginning.

What we have seen and heard we announce to you also, so that you will join with us in the fellowship that we have with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.