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Titus 3:1-15 (Good News Translation)   1Remind your people to submit to rulers and authorities, to obey them, and to be ready to do good in every way. 2Tell them not to speak evil of anyone, but to be peaceful and friendly, and always to show a gentle attitude toward everyone. 3For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, and wrong. We were slaves to passions and pleasures of all kinds. We spent our lives in malice and envy; others hated us and we hated them. 4But when the kindness and love of God our Savior was revealed, 5he saved us. It was not because of any good deeds that we ourselves had done, but because of his own mercy that he saved us, through the Holy Spirit, who gives us new birth and new life by washing us. 6God poured out the Holy Spirit abundantly on us through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that by his grace we might be put right with God and come into possession of the eternal life we hope for. 8This is a true saying. I want you to give special emphasis to these ...

Philemon (Good News Translation)   1From Paul, a prisoner for the sake of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy— To our friend and fellow worker Philemon, 2and the church that meets in your house, and our sister Apphia, and our fellow soldier Archippus: 3May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. 4Brother Philemon, every time I pray, I mention you and give thanks to my God. 5For I hear of your love for all of God's people and the faith you have in the Lord Jesus. 6My prayer is that our fellowship with you as believers will bring about a deeper understanding of every blessing which we have in our life in union with Christ. 7Your love, dear brother, has brought me great joy and much encouragement! You have cheered the hearts of all of God's people. 8For this reason I could be bold enough, as your brother in Christ, to order you to do what should be done. 9But because I love you, I make a request instead. I do this even though I am Paul, the a...

Titus 2:1-15 (Good News Translation) 1But you must teach what agrees with sound doctrine. 2Instruct the older men to be sober, sensible, and self-controlled; to be sound in their faith, love, and endurance. 3In the same way instruct the older women to behave as women should who live a holy life. They must not be slanderers or slaves to wine. They must teach what is good, 4in order to train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled and pure, and to be good housewives who submit themselves to their husbands, so that no one will speak evil of the message that comes from God. 6In the same way urge the young men to be self-controlled. 7In all things you yourself must be an example of good behavior. Be sincere and serious in your teaching. 8Use sound words that cannot be criticized, so that your enemies may be put to shame by not having anything bad to say about us. 9Slaves are to submit themselves to their masters and please them in all thin...

"I Love the Lord, because He has heard My voice and supplications Because He has inclined His ear to me, There I will call Him as long as I live." God bless you.

Titus 1:1-16 (Good News Translation) 1From Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ.  I was chosen and sent to help the faith of God's chosen people and to lead them to the truth taught by our religion, 2which is based on the hope for eternal life. God, who does not lie, promised us this life before the beginning of time, 3and at the right time he revealed it in his message. This was entrusted to me, and I proclaim it by order of God our Savior. 4I write to Titus, my true son in the faith that we have in common.  May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior give you grace and peace. 5I left you in Crete, so that you could put in order the things that still needed doing and appoint church elders in every town. Remember my instructions: 6an elder must be without fault; he must have only one wife, and his children must be believers and not have the reputation of being wild or disobedient. 7For since a church leader is in charge of God's work, he shou...

"Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.' And He laid His hands on them and departed from there." Jesus said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven." God bless you.

2Timothy 4:1-22 (Good News Translation) 1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and because he is coming to rule as King, I solemnly urge you 2to preach the message, to insist upon proclaiming it (whether the time is right or not), to convince, reproach, and encourage, as you teach with all patience. 3The time will come when people will not listen to sound doctrine, but will follow their own desires and will collect for themselves more and more teachers who will tell them what they are itching to hear. 4They will turn away from listening to the truth and give their attention to legends. 5But you must keep control of yourself in all circumstances; endure suffering, do the work of a preacher of the Good News, and perform your whole duty as a servant of God. 6As for me, the hour has come for me to be sacrificed; the time is here for me to leave this life. 7I have done my best in the race, I have run the full distance, and I have k...

"I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables."   God bless you.

2 Timothy 3:1-17 (Good News Translation) 1Remember that there will be difficult times in the last days. 2People will be selfish, greedy, boastful, and conceited; they will be insulting, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, and irreligious; 3they will be unkind, merciless, slanderers, violent, and fierce; they will hate the good; 4they will be treacherous, reckless, and swollen with pride; they will love pleasure rather than God; 5they will hold to the outward form of our religion, but reject its real power. Keep away from such people. 6Some of them go into people's houses and gain control over weak women who are burdened by the guilt of their sins and driven by all kinds of desires, 7women who are always trying to learn but who can never come to know the truth. 8As Jannes and Jambres were opposed to Moses, so also these people are opposed to the truth—people whose minds do not function and who are failures in the faith. 9But they will not get very far, because eve...

2 Timothy 2:14-26 (GNT)   14Remind your people of this, and give them a solemn warning in God's presence not to fight over words. It does no good, but only ruins the people who listen. 15Do your best to win full approval in God's sight, as a worker who is not ashamed of his work, one who correctly teaches the message of God's truth. 16Keep away from profane and foolish discussions, which only drive people farther away from God. 17Such teaching is like an open sore that eats away the flesh. Two men who have taught such things are Hymenaeus and Philetus. 18They have left the way of truth and are upsetting the faith of some believers by saying that our resurrection has already taken place. 19But the solid foundation that God has laid cannot be shaken; and on it are written these words: The Lord knows those who are his and Those who say that they belong to the Lord must turn away from wrongdoing. 20In a large house there are dishes and bowls of all kinds: some are made of ...

"A soft answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness."   A soft word turns away wrath and the tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly.   God bless you.

2 Timothy 2:1-13 (GNT) 1As for you, my son, be strong through the grace that is ours in union with Christ Jesus. 2Take the teachings that you heard me proclaim in the presence of many witnesses, and entrust them to reliable people, who will be able to teach others also. 3Take your part in suffering, as a loyal soldier of Christ Jesus. 4A soldier on active duty wants to please his commanding officer and so does not get mixed up in the affairs of civilian life. 5An athlete who runs in a race cannot win the prize unless he obeys the rules. 6The farmer who has done the hard work should have the first share of the harvest. 7Think about what I am saying, because the Lord will enable you to understand it all. 8Remember Jesus Christ, who was raised from death, who was a descendant of David, as is taught in the Good News I preach. 9Because I preach the Good News, I suffer and I am even chained like a criminal. But the word of God is not in chains, 10and so I endure everything for ...

2Timothy 1:1-18 (GNT) 1From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will, sent to proclaim the promised life which we have in union with Christ Jesus— 2To Timothy, my dear son:  May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace. 3I give thanks to God, whom I serve with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did. I thank him as I remember you always in my prayers night and day. 4I remember your tears, and I want to see you very much, so that I may be filled with joy. 5I remember the sincere faith you have, the kind of faith that your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice also had. I am sure that you have it also. 6For this reason I remind you to keep alive the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you. 7For the Spirit that God has given us does not make us timid; instead, his Spirit fills us with power, love, and self-control. 8Do not be ashamed, then, of witnessing for our Lord; neither be ashamed of me, a prisoner for Christ...

1 Timothy 6:2b-21 (GNT)   2You must teach and preach these things. 3Whoever teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the true words of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the teaching of our religion 4is swollen with pride and knows nothing. He has an unhealthy desire to argue and quarrel about words, and this brings on jealousy, disputes, insults, evil suspicions, 5and constant arguments from people whose minds do not function and who no longer have the truth. They think that religion is a way to become rich. 6Well, religion does make us very rich, if we are satisfied with what we have. 7What did we bring into the world? Nothing! What can we take out of the world? Nothing! 8So then, if we have food and clothes, that should be enough for us. 9But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and are caught in the trap of many foolish and harmful desires, which pull them down to ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a source of all kinds of evil. Some have been ...

"Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorites, to obey, tobe ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men."   God bless you.

1 Timothy 5:1-6:2a (GNT)   1Do not rebuke an older man, but appeal to him as if he were your father. Treat the younger men as your brothers, 2the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, with all purity. 3Show respect for widows who really are all alone. 4But if a widow has children or grandchildren, they should learn first to carry out their religious duties toward their own family and in this way repay their parents and grandparents, because that is what pleases God. 5A widow who is all alone, with no one to take care of her, has placed her hope in God and continues to pray and ask him for his help night and day. 6But a widow who gives herself to pleasure has already died, even though she lives. 7Give them these instructions, so that no one will find fault with them. 8But if any do not take care of their relatives, especially the members of their own family, they have denied the faith and are worse than an unbeliever. 9Do not add any widow to the list of widows ...

1 Timothy 4:1-16 (GNT)   1The Spirit says clearly that some people will abandon the faith in later times; they will obey lying spirits and follow the teachings of demons. 2Such teachings are spread by deceitful liars, whose consciences are dead, as if burnt with a hot iron. 3Such people teach that it is wrong to marry and to eat certain foods. But God created those foods to be eaten, after a prayer of thanks, by those who are believers and have come to know the truth. 4Everything that God has created is good; nothing is to be rejected, but everything is to be received with a prayer of thanks, 5because the word of God and the prayer make it acceptable to God. 6If you give these instructions to the believers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, as you feed yourself spiritually on the words of faith and of the true teaching which you have followed. 7But keep away from those godless legends, which are not worth telling. Keep yourself in training for a godly life. 8Physical exe...

"Now the men who held Jesus mocked Him and beat Him. And having blindfolded Him, they struck Him on the face and asked Him, saying, 'Prophesy! Who is the one who struck You?' And many other things they blasphemously spoke against Him." The men who held Jesus mocked Him and beat Him. Then they blindfolded Him and struck Him on the face and asked Him, saying, "Prophesy! Who is the one who struck You?" And many other things they blasphemously spoke against Him. God bless you.

1 Timothy 3:1-16 (GNT)   1This is a true saying: If a man is eager to be a church leader, he desires an excellent work. 2A church leader must be without fault; he must have only one wife, be sober, self-controlled, and orderly; he must welcome strangers in his home; he must be able to teach; 3he must not be a drunkard or a violent man, but gentle and peaceful; he must not love money; 4he must be able to manage his own family well and make his children obey him with all respect. 5For if a man does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of the church of God? 6He must be mature in the faith, so that he will not swell up with pride and be condemned, as the Devil was. 7He should be a man who is respected by the people outside the church, so that he will not be disgraced and fall into the Devil's trap. 8Church helpers must also have a good character and be sincere; they must not drink too much wine or be greedy for money; 9they should hold to the revealed truth ...

"Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him." Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness, tempted by Satan, and the angels ministered to Him. God bless you.

1 Timothy 2:1-15 (GNT)   1First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, requests, and thanksgivings be offered to God for all people; 2for kings and all others who are in authority, that we may live a quiet and peaceful life with all reverence toward God and with proper conduct. 3This is good and it pleases God our Savior, 4who wants everyone to be saved and to come to know the truth. 5For there is one God, and there is one who brings God and human beings together, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave himself to redeem the whole human race. That was the proof at the right time that God wants everyone to be saved, 7and that is why I was sent as an apostle and teacher of the Gentiles, to proclaim the message of faith and truth. I am not lying; I am telling the truth! 8In every church service I want the men to pray, men who are dedicated to God and can lift up their hands in prayer without anger or argument. 9I also want the women to be modest and sensible about their clothes and to...

1 Timothy 1:1-20 (GNT)   1From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by order of God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope— 2To Timothy, my true son in the faith: May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace. 3I want you to stay in Ephesus, just as I urged you when I was on my way to Macedonia. Some people there are teaching false doctrines, and you must order them to stop. 4Tell them to give up those legends and those long lists of ancestors, which only produce arguments; they do not serve God's plan, which is known by faith. 5The purpose of this order is to arouse the love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a genuine faith. 6Some people have turned away from these and have lost their way in foolish discussions. 7They want to be teachers of God's law, but they do not understand their own words or the matters about which they speak with so much confidence. 8We know that the Law is good if it is used as it should be used. 9It mu...

"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away."   God bless you.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-17 (GNT) 1Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to be with him: I beg you, my friends, 2not to be so easily confused in your thinking or upset by the claim that the Day of the Lord has come. Perhaps it is thought that we said this while prophesying or preaching, or that we wrote it in a letter. 3Do not let anyone deceive you in any way. For the Day will not come until the final Rebellion takes place and the Wicked One appears, who is destined to hell. 4He will oppose every so-called god or object of worship and will put himself above them all. He will even go in and sit down in God's Temple and claim to be God. 5Don't you remember? I told you all this while I was with you. 6Yet there is something that keeps this from happening now, and you know what it is. At the proper time, then, the Wicked One will appear. 7The Mysterious Wickedness is already at work, but what is going to happen will not happen until ...

"That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old." God bless you.

2 Thessalonians 1:1-12 (GNT) 1From Paul, Silas, and Timothy—  To the people of the church in Thessalonica, who belong to God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: 2May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. 3Our friends, we must thank God at all times for you. It is right for us to do so, because your faith is growing so much and the love each of you has for the others is becoming greater. 4That is why we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God. We boast about the way you continue to endure and believe through all the persecutions and sufferings you are experiencing. 5All of this proves that God's judgment is just and as a result you will become worthy of his Kingdom, for which you are suffering. 6God will do what is right: he will bring suffering on those who make you suffer, 7and he will give relief to you who suffer and to us as well. He will do this when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven with his mighty angels, 8with a flamin...

1 Thessalonians 5:1-28 (GNT) 1There is no need to write you, friends, about the times and occasions when these things will happen. 2For you yourselves know very well that the Day of the Lord will come as a thief comes at night. 3When people say, Everything is quiet and safe, then suddenly destruction will hit them! It will come as suddenly as the pains that come upon a woman in labor, and people will not escape. 4But you, friends, are not in the darkness, and the Day should not take you by surprise like a thief. 5All of you are people who belong to the light, who belong to the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6So then, we should not be sleeping like the others; we should be awake and sober. 7It is at night when people sleep; it is at night when they get drunk. 8But we belong to the day, and we should be sober. We must wear faith and love as a breastplate, and our hope of salvation as a helmet. 9God did not choose us to suffer his anger, but to posses...

1 Thessalonians 4:1-18 (GNT) 1Finally, our friends, you learned from us how you should live in order to please God. This is, of course, the way you have been living. And now we beg and urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to do even more. 2For you know the instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3God wants you to be holy and completely free from sexual immorality. 4Each of you should know how to live with your wife in a holy and honorable way, 5not with a lustful desire, like the heathen who do not know God. 6In this matter, then, none of you should do wrong to other Christians or take advantage of them. We have told you this before, and we strongly warned you that the Lord will punish those who do that. 7God did not call us to live in immorality, but in holiness. 8So then, whoever rejects this teaching is not rejecting a human being, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit. 9There is no need to write you about love for each other. You yourselves hav...

1 Thessalonians 2:17-3:13 (GNT) 17As for us, friends, when we were separated from you for a little while—not in our thoughts, of course, but only in body—how we missed you and how hard we tried to see you again! 18We wanted to return to you. I myself tried to go back more than once, but Satan would not let us. 19After all, it is you—you, no less than others!—who are our hope, our joy, and our reason for boasting of our victory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes. 20Indeed, you are our pride and our joy! 1Finally, we could not bear it any longer. So we decided to stay on alone in Athens 2while we sent Timothy, our brother who works with us for God in preaching the Good News about Christ. We sent him to strengthen you and help your faith, 3so that none of you should turn back because of these persecutions. You yourselves know that such persecutions are part of God's will for us. 4For while we were still with you, we told you ahead of time that we were going ...

1 Thessalonians 2:1-16 (GNT) 1Our friends, you yourselves know that our visit to you was not a failure. 2You know how we had already been mistreated and insulted in Philippi before we came to you in Thessalonica. And even though there was much opposition, our God gave us courage to tell you the Good News that comes from him. 3Our appeal to you is not based on error or impure motives, nor do we try to trick anyone. 4Instead, we always speak as God wants us to, because he has judged us worthy to be entrusted with the Good News. We do not try to please people, but to please God, who tests our motives. 5You know very well that we did not come to you with flattering talk, nor did we use words to cover up greed—God is our witness! 6We did not try to get praise from anyone, either from you or from others, 7even though as apostles of Christ we could have made demands on you. But we were gentle when we were with you, like a mother taking care of her children. 8Because of our love ...

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 (GNT) 1From Paul, Silas, and Timothy—  To the people of the church in Thessalonica, who belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:  May grace and peace be yours. 2We always thank God for you all and always mention you in our prayers. 3For we remember before our God and Father how you put your faith into practice, how your love made you work so hard, and how your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ is firm. 4Our friends, we know that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own. 5For 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. 6You imitated us and the Lord; and even though you suffered much, you received the message with the joy that comes from the Holy Spirit. 7So you became an example to all believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8For not only did the message about the Lord go out f...

Philippians 4:2-23 (GNT) 2Euodia and Syntyche, please, I beg you, try to agree as sisters in the Lord. 3And you too, my faithful partner, I want you to help these women; for they have worked hard with me to spread the gospel, together with Clement and all my other fellow workers, whose names are in God's book of the living. 4May you always be joyful in your union with the Lord. I say it again: rejoice! 5Show a gentle attitude toward everyone. The Lord is coming soon. 6Don't worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking him with a thankful heart. 7And God's peace, which is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus. 8In conclusion, my friends, fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable. 9Put into practice what you learned and received from me, both from my words and from my ac...

Philippians 3:12-4:1 (GNT) 12I do not claim that I have already succeeded or have already become perfect. I keep striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself. 13Of course, my friends, I really do not think that I have already won it; the one thing I do, however, is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead. 14So I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize, which is God's call through Christ Jesus to the life above. 15All of us who are spiritually mature should have this same attitude. But if some of you have a different attitude, God will make this clear to you. 16However that may be, let us go forward according to the same rules we have followed until now. 17Keep on imitating me, my friends. Pay attention to those who follow the right example that we have set for you. 18I have told you this many times before, and now I repeat it with tears: there are many whose lives make them enemies of Christ's death on t...

Philippians 2:19-3:11 (GNT) 19If it is the Lord's will, I hope that I will be able to send Timothy to you soon, so that I may be encouraged by news about you. 20He is the only one who shares my feelings and who really cares about you. 21Everyone else is concerned only with their own affairs, not with the cause of Jesus Christ. 22And you yourselves know how he has proved his worth, how he and I, like a son and his father, have worked together for the sake of the gospel. 23So I hope to send him to you as soon as I know how things are going to turn out for me. 24And I trust in the Lord that I myself will be able to come to you soon. 25I have thought it necessary to send to you our brother Epaphroditus, who has worked and fought by my side and who has served as your messenger in helping me. 26He is anxious to see you all and is very upset because you had heard that he was sick. 27Indeed he was sick and almost died. But God had pity on him, and not only on him but on me, t...

"Now when He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, 'Lord, save us! We are perishing!' But He said to them, 'Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?' Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, 'Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?'"   God bless you.

Philippians 2:1-18 (GNT)   1Your life in Christ makes you strong, and his love comforts you. You have fellowship with the Spirit, and you have kindness and compassion for one another. 2I urge you, then, to make me completely happy by having the same thoughts, sharing the same love, and being one in soul and mind. 3Don't do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves. 4And look out for one another's interests, not just for your own. 5The attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had: 6He always had the nature of God, but he did not think that by force he should try to remain equal with God. 7Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he had, and took the nature of a servant. He became like a human being and appeared in human likeness. 8He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death- his death on the cross. 9For this reason God rai...

"On That day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people, and in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever come into assembly of God, because they had not met the children of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. However, our God turned the curse onto a blessing. So it was, when they had heard the Law, that they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel."   God bless you.

Philippians 1:1-30 (GNT)   1From Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus-To all God's people in Philippi who are in union with Christ Jesus, including the church leaders and helpers: 2May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. 3I thank my God for you every time I think of you; 4and every time I pray for you all, I pray with joy 5because of the way in which you have helped me in the work of the gospel from the very first day until now. 6And 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. 7You are always in my heart! And so it is only right for me to feel as I do about you. For you have all shared with me in this privilege that God has given me, both now that I am in prison and also while I was free to defend the gospel and establish it firmly. 8God is my witness that I tell the truth when I say that my deep feeling for you all comes from the heart of Christ Jesus himself. 9I...

Hebrews 12:1-29 (GNT) 1As for us, we have this large crowd of witnesses around us. So then, let us rid ourselves of everything that gets in the way, and of the sin which holds on to us so tightly, and let us run with determination the race that lies before us. 2Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. He did not give up because of the cross! On the contrary, because of the joy that was waiting for him, he thought nothing of the disgrace of dying on the cross, and he is now seated at the right side of God's throne. 3Think of what he went through; how he put up with so much hatred from sinners! So do not let yourselves become discouraged and give up. 4For in your struggle against sin you have not yet had to resist to the point of being killed. 5Have you forgotten the encouraging words which God speaks to you as his children? My child, pay attention when the Lord corrects you, and do not be discouraged when he rebukes you.  ...

Hebrews 11:23-40 (GNT) 23It was faith that made the parents of Moses hide him for three months after he was born. They saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid to disobey the king's order. 24It was faith that made Moses, when he had grown up, refuse to be called the son of the king's daughter. 25He preferred to suffer with God's people rather than to enjoy sin for a little while. 26He reckoned that to suffer scorn for the Messiah was worth far more than all the treasures of Egypt, for he kept his eyes on the future reward. 27It was faith that made Moses leave Egypt without being afraid of the king's anger. As though he saw the invisible God, he refused to turn back. 28It was faith that made him establish the Passover and order the blood to be sprinkled on the doors, so that the Angel of Death would not kill the first-born sons of the Israelites. 29It was faith that made the Israelites able to cross the Red Sea as if on dry land; when the ...

Hebrews 11:1-22 (GNT)   1To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see. 2It was by their faith that people of ancient times won God's approval. 3It is by faith that we understand that the universe was created by God's word, so that what can be seen was made out of what cannot be seen. 4It was faith that made Abel offer to God a better sacrifice than Cain's. Through his faith he won God's approval as a righteous man, because God himself approved of his gifts. By means of his faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead. 5It was faith that kept Enoch from dying. Instead, he was taken up to God, and nobody could find him, because God had taken him up. The scripture says that before Enoch was taken up, he had pleased God. 6No one can please God without faith, for whoever comes to God must have faith that God exists and rewards those who seek him. 7It was faith that made Noah hear God's warnings about things in t...