8    “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Smyrna. This is the message from the one who is the First and the Last, who was dead but is now alive:

9    “I know about your suffering and your poverty—but you are rich! I know the blasphemy of those opposing you. They say they are Jews, but they are not, because their synagogue belongs to Satan. 

10  Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The devil will throw some of you into prison to test you. You will suffer for ten days. But if you remain faithful even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life.

11  “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. Whoever is victorious will not be harmed by the second death.

1    I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

2    And now here we are, standing inside your gates, O Jerusalem.

3    Jerusalem is a well-built city; its seamless walls cannot be breached.

4    All the tribes of Israel—the Lord’s people— make their pilgrimage here. They come to give thanks to the name of the Lord, as the law requires of Israel.

5    Here stand the thrones where judgment is given, the thrones of the dynasty of David.

6    Pray for peace in Jerusalem. May all who love this city prosper.

7    O Jerusalem, may there be peace within your walls and prosperity in your palaces.

8    For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, “May you have peace.”

9    For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek what is best for you, O Jerusalem.

17  One day while Jesus was teaching, some Pharisees and teachers of religious law were sitting nearby. (It seemed that these men showed up from every village in all Galilee and Judea, as well as from Jerusalem.) And the Lord’s healing power was strongly with Jesus.

18  Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat. They tried to take him inside to Jesus, 

19  but they couldn’t reach him because of the crowd. So they went up to the roof and took off some tiles. Then they lowered the sick man on his mat down into the crowd, right in front of Jesus. 

20  Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, “Young man, your sins are forgiven.”

21  But the Pharisees and teachers of religious law said to themselves, “Who does he think he is? That’s blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!”

22  Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts? 

23  Is it easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up and walk’? 

24  So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”

25  And immediately, as everyone watched, the man jumped up, picked up his mat, and went home praising God. 

26  Everyone was gripped with great wonder and awe, and they praised God, exclaiming, “We have seen amazing things today!”

1    Then Job spoke again:

2    “You people really know everything, don’t you? And when you die, wisdom will die with you!

3    Well, I know a few things myself— and you’re no better than I am. Who doesn’t know these things you’ve been saying?

4    Yet my friends laugh at me, for I call on God and expect an answer. I am a just and blameless man, yet they laugh at me.

5    People who are at ease mock those in trouble. They give a push to people who are stumbling.

6    But robbers are left in peace, and those who provoke God live in safety— though God keeps them in his power.

7    “Just ask the animals, and they will teach you. Ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.

8    Speak to the earth, and it will instruct you. Let the fish in the sea speak to you.

9    For they all know that my disaster has come from the hand of the Lord.

10  For the life of every living thing is in his hand, and the breath of every human being.

11  The ear tests the words it hears just as the mouth distinguishes between foods.

12  Wisdom belongs to the aged, and understanding to the old.

1    On July 31 of my thirtieth year, while I was with the Judean exiles beside the Kebar River in Babylon, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. 

2    This happened during the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity. 

3    (The Lord gave this message to Ezekiel son of Buzi, a priest, beside the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians, and he felt the hand of the Lord take hold of him.)

4    As I looked, I saw a great storm coming from the north, driving before it a huge cloud that flashed with lightning and shone with brilliant light. There was fire inside the cloud, and in the middle of the fire glowed something like gleaming amber. 

5    From the center of the cloud came four living beings that looked human, 

6    except that each had four faces and four wings. 

7    Their legs were straight, and their feet had hooves like those of a calf and shone like burnished bronze. 

8    Under each of their four wings I could see human hands. So each of the four beings had four faces and four wings. 

9    The wings of each living being touched the wings of the beings beside it. Each one moved straight forward in any direction without turning around.

10  Each had a human face in the front, the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and the face of an eagle at the back. 

11  Each had two pairs of outstretched wings—one pair stretched out to touch the wings of the living beings on either side of it, and the other pair covered its body. 12  They went in whatever direction the spirit chose, and they moved straight forward in any direction without turning around.

13  The living beings looked like bright coals of fire or brilliant torches, and lightning seemed to flash back and forth among them. 

14  And the living beings darted to and fro like flashes of lightning.

15  As I looked at these beings, I saw four wheels touching the ground beside them, one wheel belonging to each. 

16  The wheels sparkled as if made of beryl. All four wheels looked alike and were made the same; each wheel had a second wheel turning crosswise within it. 

17  The beings could move in any of the four directions they faced, without turning as they moved. 

18  The rims of the four wheels were tall and frightening, and they were covered with eyes all around.

19  When the living beings moved, the wheels moved with them. When they flew upward, the wheels went up, too. 

20  The spirit of the living beings was in the wheels. So wherever the spirit went, the wheels and the living beings also went. 

21  When the beings moved, the wheels moved. When the beings stopped, the wheels stopped. When the beings flew upward, the wheels rose up, for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels.

22  Spread out above them was a surface like the sky, glittering like crystal. 

23  Beneath this surface the wings of each living being stretched out to touch the others’ wings, and each had two wings covering its body. 

24  As they flew, their wings sounded to me like waves crashing against the shore or like the voice of the Almighty or like the shouting of a mighty army. When they stopped, they let down their wings. 

25  As they stood with wings lowered, a voice spoke from beyond the crystal surface above them.

1    Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You may speak in your defense.”

So Paul, gesturing with his hand, started his defense: 

2    “I am fortunate, King Agrippa, that you are the one hearing my defense today against all these accusations made by the Jewish leaders, 

3    for I know you are an expert on all Jewish customs and controversies. Now please listen to me patiently!

4    “As the Jewish leaders are well aware, I was given a thorough Jewish training from my earliest childhood among my own people and in Jerusalem. 

5    If they would admit it, they know that I have been a member of the Pharisees, the strictest sect of our religion. 

6    Now I am on trial because of my hope in the fulfillment of God’s promise made to our ancestors. 

7    In fact, that is why the twelve tribes of Israel zealously worship God night and day, and they share the same hope I have. Yet, Your Majesty, they accuse me for having this hope! 

8    Why does it seem incredible to any of you that God can raise the dead?

9    “I used to believe that I ought to do everything I could to oppose the very name of Jesus the Nazarene. 

10  Indeed, I did just that in Jerusalem. Authorized by the leading priests, I caused many believers there to be sent to prison. And I cast my vote against them when they were condemned to death. 

11  Many times I had them punished in the synagogues to get them to curse Jesus. I was so violently opposed to them that I even chased them down in foreign cities.

12  “One day I was on such a mission to Damascus, armed with the authority and commission of the leading priests. 

13  About noon, Your Majesty, as I was on the road, a light from heaven brighter than the sun shone down on me and my companions. 

14  We all fell down, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is useless for you to fight against my will.’

15  “‘Who are you, lord?’ I asked.

“And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. 

16  Now get to your feet! For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and witness. Tell people that you have seen me, and tell them what I will show you in the future. 

17  And I will rescue you from both your own people and the Gentiles. Yes, I am sending you to the Gentiles

18  to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in me.’

5    The Lord himself watches over you! The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade.

6    The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night.

7    The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life.

8    The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever.

27  Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. 

28  So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.

29  Later, Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor. Many of Levi’s fellow tax collectors and other guests also ate with them. 

30  But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with such scum?”

31  Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. 32  I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”

33  One day some people said to Jesus, “John the Baptist’s disciples fast and pray regularly, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. Why are your disciples always eating and drinking?”

34  Jesus responded, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. 

35  But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

36  Then Jesus gave them this illustration: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment.

37  “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. 

38  New wine must be stored in new wineskins. 

39  But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.”