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Deuteronomy, chapter 11. Love and serve the Lord. You shall therefore love the Lord your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always. And consider today, since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it, consider the discipline of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched army, his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to all his land, and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day, and what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place, and what he did to Dothan and Abiraim, the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them in the midst of all Israel. For your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord that he did. You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today. That you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess, and that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring. A land flowing with milk and honey. And for the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it like a garden of vegetables. But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water by the rain from heaven. A land that the Lord your God cares for. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. And if you will indeed obey my commandments, then I command you today to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil, and he will give grass in your fields for your livestock. And you shall eat and be full. Take care, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them. Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain and the land will yield no fruit. And you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you. You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise, and you shall write them on the doorsteps of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them as long as the heavens are above the earth. For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the river, the river of Euphrates to the western sea. No one shall be able to stand against you. The Lord your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, as he promised. You see, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God. But turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today to go after other gods that you have not known. And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Grism and the curse on Mount Ebal. Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak of Moreh. For you are to cross over the Jordan to go and to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it, you shall be careful to do all the statutes and rules that I am setting before you today. Deuteronomy, chapter 12. The Lord's chosen place of worship. These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord the God of your fathers has given you to possess all the days that you live on the earth. You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods. On the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree you shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their ashram with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God. And you shall rejoice, you and your households and all that you undertake in which the Lord your God has blessed you. You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes. For you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around so that you live in safety, then to the place that the Lord your God will choose to make his name dwell there. There you shall bring all that I command you. Your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present. And all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God. You and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, but at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes. There you shall offer your burnt offerings. And there you shall do all that I am commanding you. However you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns as much as you desire, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it as of the gazelle and as of the deer. Only you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it out on the earth like water. You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain, or of your wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your free will offerings or the contribution that you present. But you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place that the Lord your God will choose you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite who is within your towns. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake. Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land. When the Lord your God enlarges your territory as he has promised you, and you say, I will eat meat because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire. If the place that the Lord your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, then you may kill any of your herd or your flock which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you. And you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. Just as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. The unclean and the clean alike may eat of it. Only be sure that you do not eat the blood. For the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh shall not eat it. You shall pour it out on the earth like water. You shall not eat it. That all may go well with you and your children after you when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. But the holy things that are due from you and your vow offerings you shall take. And you shall go to the place that the Lord will choose and offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God. But the flesh you may eat. Be careful to obey all these words that I command you. That it may go well with you and with your children after you forever when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God. Warning against idolatry when the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go into dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, Take care that you be not ensnared to follow them after they have been destroyed before you. And that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, how did these nations serve their gods, that I also may do the same. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. For every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods. For they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it, or take from it. Luke 12:35 59 you must be ready. Stay dressed for action, and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service, and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch or in the third, and finds them awake. Blessed are those servants. But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Peter said, lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all? And the Lord said, who then is the faithful and wise manager whom his master will set over his household to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all of his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, my master is delayed in coming, and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master's will, but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given of much will be required and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more not peace, but division. I came to cast fire on the earth, and with that it were already kindled. I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished. Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two, and two against three. They will be divided father against son and son against father, mother against daughter, and daughter against mother, mother in law against her, daughter in law, and daughter in law against her, mother in law interpreting the time. He also said to the crowds, when you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once a shower is coming. And so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, there will be scorching heat. And it happens. You hypocrites, you know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky. But why do you not know how to interpret the present time? Settle with your accuser, and why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge. And the judge hand you over to the officer. And the officer put you in prison. I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny. Psalm, chapter 60, verses 5 through 12. That your beloved ones may be delivered. Give salvation by your right hand and answer us. God has spoken in his holiness. With exultation I will divide up Shechem and portion out the veil of Sukkoth. Gilead is mine. Manasseh is mine. Ephraim is my helmet. Judah is my scepter. Moab is my wash basin. Upon Edom I cast my shoe. Over Philistia I shout in triumph over who will bring me to the fortified city, who will lead me to Edom? Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go forth, O God, with our armies, O grant us help against the foe. For vain is the salvation of man. With God we shall do valiantly. It is he who will tread down our foes.