Romans 5

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

2 through whom we have gained access [by faith] to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God.

3 Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance,

4 and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope,

5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us.

6 For Christ, while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly.

7 Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die.

8 But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. 

9 How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath. 

10 Indeed, if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 

11 Not only that, but we also boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. 

12 Therefore, just as through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all, inasmuch as all sinned

13 for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world, though sin is not accounted when there is no law.

14 But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin after the pattern of the trespass of Adam, who is the type of the one who was to come.

15 But the gift is not like the transgression. For if by that one person’s transgression the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one person Jesus Christ overflow for the many.

16 And the gift is not like the result of the one person’s sinning. For after one sin there was the judgment that brought condemnation; but the gift, after many transgressions, brought acquittal.

17 For if, by the transgression of one person, death came to reign through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one person Jesus Christ.

18 In conclusion, just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so through one righteous act acquittal and life came to all.

19 For just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous.

20 The law entered in so that transgression might increase but, where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more,

21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Romans, chapter 5

https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/romans-5/

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hebrews 13

Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels. Be mindful of prisoners as if sharing their imprisonment, and of the ill-treated as of yourselves, for you also are in the body. Let marriage be honored among all and the marriage bed be kept undefiled, for God will judge the immoral and adulterers. Let your life be free from love of money but be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never forsake you or abandon you.” Thus we may say with confidence: “The Lord is my helper, [and] I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?”

Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teaching. It is good to have our hearts strengthened by grace and not by foods, which do not benefit those who live by them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. The bodies of the animals whose blood the high priest brings into the sanctuary as a sin offering are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate, to consecrate the people by his own blood. Let us then go to him outside the camp, bearing the reproach that he bore. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come. Through him [then] let us continually offer God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have; God is pleased by sacrifices of that kind.

Obey your leaders and defer to them, for they keep watch over you and will have to give an account, that they may fulfill their task with joy and not with sorrow, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Pray for us, for we are confident that we have a clear conscience, wishing to act rightly in every respect. I especially ask for your prayers that I may be restored to you very soon.

May the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant, Jesus our Lord, furnish you with all that is good, that you may do his will. May he carry out in you what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever [and ever]. Amen.

Brothers, I ask you to bear with this message of encouragement, for I have written to you rather briefly. I must let you know that our brother Timothy has been set free. If he comes soon, I shall see you together with him. Greetings to all your leaders and to all the holy ones. Those from Italy send you greetings. Grace be with all of you. 

image by Martin LaBar

Hebrews 13:5 don't worry about money - be content with wha… | Flickr

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      faith

                 hope
                             love

faith

Do you believe in God?

Do you believe that God created all that exists?

Do you believe that you are a child of God?

Do you believe that God loves you?

Are you sorry for your sins?

Do you forgive others who have sinned against you?

Do you believe that God knows that you are sorry for your sins?

Do you believe that God in the person of Jesus died for your sins?

Do you believe in heaven?

Do you believe that God wants you with Him in heaven?

wisdom of God

Yet we do speak a wisdom to those who are mature, but not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away. Rather, we speak God’s wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory, and which none of the rulers of this age knew; for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written: “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him,” this God has revealed to us through the Spirit. (Isaiah 64:3)

For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God. Among human beings, who knows what pertains to a person except the spirit of the person that is within? Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God. And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms.

Now the natural person does not accept what pertains to the Spirit of God, for to him it is foolishness, and he cannot understand it, because it is judged spiritually. The spiritual person, however, can judge everything but is not subject to judgment by anyone. For “who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (Wisdom 9:13; Isaiah 40:13; Romans 11:34)

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/2 

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Book of Lamentations

THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS

The Book of Lamentations is a collection of five poems that serve as an anguished response to the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C., after a long siege by the invading Babylonian army. (See 2 Kgs 25 for a prose account of the fall of Jerusalem.) Although the poems are traditionally ascribed to the prophet Jeremiah, this is unlikely. The Hebrew text of the book does not mention Jeremiah at all, and it is difficult to square some of the content of the poetry with what one finds in the Book of Jeremiah itself (cf. Lam 1:10; 2:9; 4:17, 20). While there are connections in theme and vocabulary among all five chapters (and especially between chaps. 1 and 2), the poems may have been composed separately and grouped together later. In any case, they are anonymous compositions probably used by survivors of the catastrophe of 587 B.C. in a communal expression of grief and mourning.

Jewish liturgical tradition considers the book one of the “scrolls” (megillot); it is read once a year on the ninth of Av (August–September), a fast day commemorating the destruction of both the first Temple in 587 B.C. and the second Temple in A.D. 70. While passages from chap. 3 are often incorporated into Christian services for Holy Thursday or Good Friday, the Church has otherwise tended to neglect the book. It is not hard to see why; a more anguished piece of writing is scarcely imaginable: from its portrayal of Jerusalem in chaps. 1 and 2 as an abandoned widow exposed to endless dangers, to the broken man of chap. 3, to the bleak description in chap. 4 of the inhabitants of the devastated city, to the final unanswered communal lament of chap. 5, the reader is not so much engaged by the Book of Lamentations as assaulted by it. But with its unsparing focus on destruction, pain, and suffering the book serves an invaluable function as part of Scripture, witnessing to a biblical faith determined to express honestly the harsh realities of a violent world and providing contemporary readers the language to do the same.

As a literary work, the Book of Lamentations combines elements of communal and individual laments (in which the speakers attempt to persuade God to intervene in the face of an acute crisis), funeral dirges (in which a death is mourned), and ancient Near Eastern city-laments (in which the destruction of a city is mourned). The meter is called Qinah (lament), that is, each verse normally has three beats followed by two. The poems are acrostics: in chaps. 1–4, the separate stanzas begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet from the first to the last. The last chapter, while not strictly an acrostic, nevertheless partially conforms to the pattern in its use of 22 lines, the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Far from destroying the spontaneous pathos of the songs, this feature conveys the expression of a profound grief that might otherwise seem to be without limit (cf. 2:13).

The book may be divided as follows:The Desolation of Jerusalem (1:1–22).
The Lord’s Wrath and Zion’s Ruin (2:1–22).
The Voice of a Suffering Individual (3:1–66).
Miseries of the Besieged City (4:1–22).
The Community’s Lament to the Lord (5:1–22).

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/lamentations/0

Written more than 2500 years ago, the Book of Lamentations describes the weakness of mankind and the poignant grief of our lamentations. 

Some of us lament our past and present failures. Lamentations describes how when our imperfect faith, hope, and love are combined with God's perfect love that God's perfect love conquers all. 

We don't need to continue to lament over our past transgressions. With our imperfect faith, hope, and love and God's perfect love, God forgives us for our past sins. 

FAITH

           HOPE

                      LOVE

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