Isaiah 26:1-19
GOD’S WORD Translation
The Lord’s People Praise Him for Salvation
26 On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city.
Its walls and fortifications provide safety.
2 Open the gates, and let the righteous nation come in,
the nation that remains faithful.
3 With perfect peace you will protect those whose minds cannot be changed,
because they trust you.
4 Trust the Lord always,
because the Lord, the Lord alone, is an everlasting rock.
5 He has brought down those who live high in the towering city.
He levels it.
He levels it to the ground and throws it into the dust.
6 Feet trample it,
the feet of the oppressed,
the footsteps of the poor.
7 The path of the righteous is level.
O Upright One, you make the road of the righteous smooth.
8 Certainly, we wait with hope for you, O Lord,
⌞as we follow⌟ the path of your guiding principles.
We want to remember you and your name.
9 With my soul I long for you at night.
Yes, with my spirit I eagerly look for you.
When your guiding principles are on earth,
those who live in the world learn to do what is right.
10 Although the wicked are shown pity,
they do not learn to do what is right.
They do what is wrong in the upright land
and do not see the majesty of the Lord.
11 O Lord, your power is visible, but they do not see it.
They will see how devoted your people are,
and they will be put to shame.
Your burning anger will destroy your enemies.
12 O Lord, you will establish peace for us,
since you have done everything for us.
13 O Lord, our God, you are not the only master to rule us,
but we acknowledge only you.
14 The wicked are dead.
They are no longer alive.
The spirits of the dead won’t rise.
You have punished them, destroyed them,
and wiped out all memory of them.
15 You have expanded the nation, O Lord.
You have expanded the nation.
You are honored.
You have extended all the land’s boundaries.
16 O Lord, the people have come to you in trouble.
They were humbled by oppression, by your discipline upon them.
17 O Lord, when we are with you,
we are like pregnant women ready to give birth.
They writhe and cry out in their labor pains.
18 We were pregnant; we writhed with labor pains
only to give birth to the wind.
We weren’t able to bring salvation to the land,
and no new people were born on earth.
19 Your dead will live.
Their corpses will rise.
Those who lie dead in the dust will wake up and shout for joy,
because your dew is a refreshing dew,
and the earth will revive the spirits of the dead.
1 John 3
GOD’S WORD Translation
3 Consider this: The Father has given us his love. He loves us so much that we are actually called God’s dear children. And that’s what we are. For this reason the world doesn’t recognize us, and it didn’t recognize him either. 2 Dear friends, now we are God’s children. What we will be isn’t completely clear yet. We do know that when Christ appears we will be like him because we will see him as he is. 3 So all people who have this confidence in Christ keep themselves pure, as Christ is pure.
4 Those who live sinful lives are disobeying God. Sin is disobedience. 5 You know that Christ appeared in order to take away our sins. He isn’t sinful. 6 Those who live in Christ don’t go on sinning. Those who go on sinning haven’t seen or known Christ.
7 Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you. Whoever does what God approves of has God’s approval as Christ has God’s approval. 8 The person who lives a sinful life belongs to the devil, because the devil has been committing sin since the beginning. The reason that the Son of God appeared was to destroy what the devil does. 9 Those who have been born from God don’t live sinful lives. What God has said lives in them, and they can’t live sinful lives. They have been born from God. 10 This is the way God’s children are distinguished from the devil’s children. Everyone who doesn’t do what is right or love other believers isn’t God’s child.
Love One Another
11 The message that you have heard from the beginning is to love each other. 12 Don’t be like Cain. He was a child of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did Cain murder his brother? Because the things Cain did were evil and the things his brother did had God’s approval. 13 Brothers and sisters, don’t be surprised if the world hates you.
14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love other believers. The person who doesn’t grow in love remains in death. 15 Everyone who hates another believer is a murderer, and you know that a murderer doesn’t have eternal life.
16 We understand what love is when we realize that Christ gave his life for us. That means we must give our lives for other believers. 17 Now, suppose a person has enough to live on and notices another believer in need. How can God’s love be in that person if he doesn’t bother to help the other believer? 18 Dear children, we must show love through actions that are sincere, not through empty words.
19 This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and how we will be reassured in his presence. 20 Whenever our conscience condemns us, we will be reassured that God is greater than our conscience and knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our conscience doesn’t condemn us, we can boldly look to God 22 and receive from him anything we ask. We receive it because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 This is his commandment: to believe in his Son, the one named Jesus Christ, and to love each other as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey Christ’s commandments live in God, and God lives in them. We know that he lives in us because he has given us the Spirit.
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