Jeremiah 1:4-10

The Voice

⁴And now the fateful day when the Eternal One first spoke to me:

⁵Eternal One: Before I even formed you in your mother’s womb,
        I knew all about you.
    Before you drew your first breath, I had already chosen you
        to be My prophet to speak My word to the nations.

⁶Jeremiah: Ah, Eternal Lord!
I’m too young and inexperienced to speak for You.

⁷Eternal One: Don’t use your youth as an excuse;
        you can and will go wherever I send you.
        You can and will say whatever I tell you to say.
⁸    You have no reason to fear the people you speak to,
        for I am with you and will defend you.

⁹Then the Eternal reached out and touched my mouth, and He gave me His divine message.

Eternal One: Look, I have placed My words in you.
        You will know what to say now, for you will be My voice.
¹⁰    This very day I appointed you to speak with My authority over nations and kingdoms.
        Your word—My word—will have the power to uproot and stamp out;
        it will destroy and upend.
    And then your word—My word—will rebuild and plant anew.

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Psalm 71:1-6

The Voice

Psalm 71

¹I have found shelter in You, Eternal One;
    I count on You to shield me always from humiliation and disgrace.
²Rescue and save me in Your justice.
    Turn Your ear to me, and hurry to deliver me from my enemies.
³Be my rock of refuge where I can always hide.
    You have given the order to keep me safe;
    You are my solid ground—my rock and my fortress.

⁴Save me from the power of sinful people, O my God,
    from the grip of unjust and cruel men.
⁵For You are my hope, Eternal One;
    You, Lord, have been the source of my confidence since I was young.
⁶I have leaned upon You since I came into this world;
    I have relied on You since You took me safely from my mother’s body,
So I will ever praise You.

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1 Corinthians 13

The Voice

Gifts of the Spirit, which are intended to strengthen the church body, often divide the body because members of the church elevate those who possess the more visible gifts over those whose gifts function in the background. In fact, this is the very problem facing the Corinthians. So while talking about the importance and function of these gifts in chapters 12 and 14, Paul shifts his focus to the central role love plays in a believer’s life in chapter 13. Love is essential for the body to be unified and for members to work together. Members of the body that are very different, with little in common, are able to appreciate and even enjoy others because of the love that comes when a life is submitted to God.

13 What if I speak in the most elegant languages of people or in the exotic languages of the heavenly messengers, but I live without love? Well then, anything I say is like the clanging of brass or a crashing cymbal. ²What if I have the gift of prophecy, am blessed with knowledge and insight to all the mysteries, or what if my faith is strong enough to scoop a mountain from its bedrock, yet I live without love? If so, I am nothing. ³I could give all that I have to feed the poor, I could surrender my body to be burned as a martyr, but if I do not live in love, I gain nothing by my selfless acts.

Paul boils it all down for the believers in Corinth. Religious people often spend their time practicing rituals, projecting dogma, and going through routines that might look like Christianity on the outside but that lack the essential ingredient that brings all of it together—love! It is a loving God who birthed creation and now pursues a broken people in the most spectacular way. That same love must guide believers, so faith doesn’t appear to be meaningless noise.

⁴Love is patient; love is kind. Love isn’t envious, doesn’t boast, brag, or strut about. There’s no arrogance in love; ⁵it’s never rude, crude, or indecent—it’s not self-absorbed. Love isn’t easily upset. Love doesn’t tally wrongs ⁶or celebrate injustice; but truth—yes, truth—is love’s delight! ⁷Love puts up with anything and everything that comes along; it trusts, hopes, and endures no matter what. ⁸Love will never become obsolete. Now as for the prophetic gifts, they will not last; unknown languages will become silent, and the gift of knowledge will no longer be needed. ⁹Gifts of knowledge and prophecy are partial at best, at least for now, ¹⁰but when the perfection and fullness of God’s kingdom arrive, all the parts will end. ¹¹When I was a child, I spoke, thought, and reasoned in childlike ways as we all do. But when I became a man, I left my childish ways behind. ¹²For now, we can only see a dim and blurry picture of things, as when we stare into polished metal. I realize that everything I know is only part of the big picture. But one day, when Jesus arrives, we will see clearly, face-to-face. In that day, I will fully know just as I have been wholly known by God. ¹³But now faith, hope, and love remain; these three virtues must characterize our lives. The greatest of these is love.

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Luke 4:21-30

The Voice

²¹He told them that these words from the Hebrew Scriptures were being fulfilled then and there, in their hearing.

²²At first everyone was deeply impressed with the gracious words that poured from Jesus’ lips. Everyone spoke well of Him and was amazed that He could say these things.

Everyone: Wait. This is only the son of Joseph, right?

Jesus: ²³You’re about to quote the old proverb to Me, “Doctor, heal yourself!” Then you’re going to ask Me to prove Myself to you by doing the same miracles I did in Capernaum. ²⁴But face the truth: hometowns always reject their homegrown prophets.

²⁵Think back to the prophet Elijah. There were many needy Jewish widows in his homeland, Israel, when a terrible famine persisted there for three and a half years. ²⁶Yet the only widow God sent Elijah to help was an outsider from Zarephath in Sidon.^[a]

²⁷It was the same with the prophet Elisha. There were many Jewish lepers in his homeland, but the only one he healed—Naaman—was an outsider from Syria.^[b]

²⁸The people in the synagogue became furious when He said these things. ²⁹They seized Jesus, took Him to the edge of town, and pushed Him right to the edge of the cliff on which the city was built. They would have pushed Him off and killed Him, ³⁰but He passed through the crowd and went on His way.

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