Sunday, December 10, 2028

¹God, give the king your justice; your righteousness to the royal son. ²He will judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice. ⁷In his days, the righteous shall flourish, and abundance of peace, until the moon is no more. ⁸He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth. ¹²For he will deliver the needy when he cries; the poor, who has no helper. ¹³He will have pity on the poor and needy. He will save the souls of the needy. ¹⁷His name endures forever. His name continues as long as the sun. Men shall be blessed by him. All nations will call him blessed.

⁴For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through perseverance and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. ⁵Now the God of perseverance and of encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, ⁶that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁷Therefore accept one another, even as Christ also accepted you, to the glory of God. ⁸Now I say that Christ has been made a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given to the fathers, ⁹and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will give praise to you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.”

¹In those days, John the Baptizer came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, ²“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” ³For this is he who was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, make the way of the Lord ready! Make his paths straight!” ⁴Now John himself wore clothing made of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵Then people from Jerusalem, all of Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him. ⁶They were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁷But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸Therefore produce fruit worthy of repentance! ⁹Don’t think to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. ¹⁰Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down, and cast into the fire. ¹¹“I indeed baptize you in water for repentance, but he who comes after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit. ¹²His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.”