Thursday 16 November 2028

7For we have much joy and comfort in your love,because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.

8Therefore though I have all boldness in Christ to command youthat which is appropriate,9yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you,being such a one as Paul,the aged, but also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.10I appeal to you for my child Onesimus,whom I have become the father of in my chains,11who once was useless to you,but now is useful to you and to me.12I am sending him back.Therefore receive him, that is, my own heart,13whom I desired to keep with me,that on your behalf he might serve me in my chains for the Good News.14But I was willing to do nothing without your consent,that your goodness would not be as of necessity, but of free will.15For perhaps he was therefore separated from you for awhile that you would have him forever,16no longer as a slave,but more than a slave,a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much rather to you,both in the flesh and in the Lord.

17If then you count me a partner,receive him as you would receive me.18But if he has wronged you at all or owes you anything,put that to my account.19I, Paul, write this with my own hand:I will repay it (not to mention to youthat you owe to me even your own self besides).20Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord.Refresh my heart in the Lord.

7who executes justice for the oppressed;who gives food to the hungry.The Lord frees the prisoners.

8The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.The Lord raises up those who are bowed down.The Lord loves the righteous.9The Lord preserves the foreigners.

9He upholds the fatherless and widow,but he turns the way of the wicked upside down.10The Lord will reign forever;your God, O Zion, to all generations.Praise the Lord!

20Being asked by the Phariseeswhen God’s Kingdom would come,he answered them, “God’s Kingdom doesn’t come with observation;21neither will they say, ‘Look, here!’or, ‘Look, there!’for behold, God’s Kingdom is within you.”

22He said to the disciples,“The days will comewhen you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man,and you will not see it.23They will tell you, ‘Look, here!’or ‘Look, there!’Don’t go away or follow after them,24for as the lightning,when it flashes out of one part under the sky,shines to another part under the sky,so will the Son of Man be in his day.25But first, he must suffer many thingsand be rejected by this generation.