Friday in Season after Pentecost

1Verse 1. Behold, a day of the LORD is coming when your plunder will be divided in your presence. 2Verse 2. For I will gather all the nations for battle against Jerusalem, and the city will be captured, the houses looted, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be removed from the city. 3Verse 3. Then the LORD will go out to fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. 4Verse 4. On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half the mountain moving to the north and half to the south. 5Verse 5. You will flee by My mountain valley, for it will extend to Azal. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with Him. 6Verse 6. On that day there will be no light, no cold or frost. 7Verse 7. It will be a unique day known only to the LORD, without day or night; but when evening comes, there will be light. 8Verse 8. And on that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it toward the Eastern Sea and the other half toward the Western Sea, in summer and winter alike. 9Verse 9. On that day the LORD will become King over all the earth— the LORD alone, and His name alone.

1Verse 1. Finally, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to live in a way that is pleasing to God, just as you have received from us. This is how you already live, so you should do so all the more. 2Verse 2. For you know the instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3Verse 3. For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality; 4Verse 4. each of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5Verse 5. not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6Verse 6. and no one should ever violate or exploit his brother in this regard, because the Lord will avenge all such acts, as we have already told you and solemnly warned you. 7Verse 7. For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness. 8Verse 8. Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit. 9Verse 9. Now about brotherly love, you do not need anyone to write to you, because you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. 10Verse 10. And you are indeed showing this love to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to excel more and more 11Verse 11. and to aspire to live quietly, to attend to your own matters, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you. 12Verse 12. Then you will behave properly toward outsiders, without being dependent on anyone. 13Verse 13. Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who are without hope. 14Verse 14. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. 15Verse 15. By the word of the Lord, we declare to you that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep. 16Verse 16. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. 17Verse 17. After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. 18Verse 18. Therefore encourage one another with these words.