For we brought the Good News to you, not with words only, but also with power and the Holy Spirit, and with complete conviction of its truth. You know how we lived when we were with you; it was for your own good.

You imitated us and the Lord; and even though you suffered much, you received the message with the joy that comes from the Holy Spirit.

Our friends, you yourselves know that our visit to you was not a failure.

And there is another reason why we always give thanks to God. When we brought you God's message, you heard it and accepted it, not as a message from human beings but as God's message, which indeed it is. For God is at work in you who believe.

Human pride will be ended, and human arrogance will be destroyed. Idols will completely disappear, and the LORD alone will be exalted on that day.

People will hide in caves in the rocky hills or dig holes in the ground to try to escape from the LORD's anger and to hide from his power and glory, when he comes to shake the earth.

When the LORD comes to shake the earth, people will hide in holes and caves in the rocky hills to try to escape from his anger and to hide from his power and glory.

LORD, you are the one who protects me and gives me strength; you help me in times of trouble. Nations will come to you from the ends of the earth and say, "Our ancestors had nothing but false gods, nothing but useless idols.

The LORD will terrify them. He will reduce the gods of the earth to nothing, and then every nation will worship him, each in its own land.

The LORD Almighty says, "The time is coming when people from many cities will come to Jerusalem.

Many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to worship the LORD Almighty and to pray for his blessing.

People from one end of the world to the other honor me. Everywhere they burn incense to me and offer acceptable sacrifices. All of them honor me!

"Why are you doing this? We ourselves are only human beings like you! We are here to announce the Good News, to turn you away from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven, earth, sea, and all that is in them.

I will rescue you from the people of Israel and from the Gentiles to whom I will send you.

You are to open their eyes and turn them from the darkness to the light and from the power of Satan to God, so that through their faith in me they will have their sins forgiven and receive their place among God's chosen people.'

You know that while you were still heathen, you were led astray in many ways to the worship of lifeless idols.

In the past you did not know God, and so you were slaves of beings who are not gods.

But now that you know God---or, I should say, now that God knows you---how is it that you want to turn back to those weak and pitiful ruling spirits? Why do you want to become their slaves all over again?

Has any human being ever lived after hearing the living God speak from a fire?

David asked the men who were near him, "What will the man get who kills this Philistine and frees Israel from this disgrace? After all, who is this heathen Philistine to defy the army of the living God?"

I have killed lions and bears, and I will do the same to this heathen Philistine, who has defied the army of the living God.

I thirst for you, the living God. When can I go and worship in your presence?

How I want to be there! I long to be in the LORD's Temple. With my whole being I sing for joy to the living God.

The Assyrian emperor has sent his chief official to insult the living God. May the LORD your God hear these insults and punish those who spoke them. So pray to God for those of our people who survive."

Now, LORD, hear us and look at what is happening to us. Listen to all the things that Sennacherib is saying to insult you, the living God.

But you, LORD, are the true God, you are the living God and the eternal king. When you are angry, the world trembles; the nations cannot endure your anger.

I command that throughout my empire everyone should fear and respect Daniel's God. "He is a living God, and he will rule forever. His kingdom will never be destroyed, and his power will never come to an end.

The people of Israel will become like the sand of the sea, more than can be counted or measured. Now God says to them, "You are not my people," but the day is coming when he will say to them, "You are the children of the living God!"

And in the very place where they were told, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called the children of the living God."

How can God's temple come to terms with pagan idols? For we are the temple of the living God! As God himself has said, "I will make my home with my people and live among them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

And so the Lord says, "You must leave them and separate yourselves from them. Have nothing to do with what is unclean, and I will accept you.

We struggle and work hard, because we have placed our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all and especially of those who believe.

Instead, you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, with its thousands of angels.

The kings of the earth practiced sexual immorality with her, and the people of the world became drunk from drinking the wine of her immorality."