Friday in Advent

2Verse 2. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. For the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and He also has become my salvation.” 3Verse 3. With joy you will draw water from the springs of salvation, 4Verse 4. and on that day you will say: “Give praise to the LORD; proclaim His name! Make His works known among the peoples; declare that His name is exalted. 5Verse 5. Sing to the LORD, for He has done glorious things. Let this be known in all the earth. 6Verse 6. Cry out and sing, O citizen of Zion, for great among you is the Holy One of Israel.”

4Verse 4. Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land, 5Verse 5. asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us cheat with dishonest scales. 6Verse 6. Let us buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the chaff with the wheat!” 7Verse 7. The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget any of their deeds. 8Verse 8. Will not the land quake for this, and all its dwellers mourn? All of it will swell like the Nile; it will surge and then subside like the Nile in Egypt. 9Verse 9. And in that day, declares the Lord GOD, I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the daytime. 10Verse 10. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and its outcome like a bitter day. 11Verse 11. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land — not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. 12Verse 12. People will stagger from sea to sea and roam from north to east, seeking the word of the LORD, but they will not find it.

1Verse 1. Now about the service to the saints, there is no need for me to write to you. 2Verse 2. For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting to the Macedonians that since last year you in Achaia were prepared to give. And your zeal has stirred most of them to do likewise. 3Verse 3. But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove empty, but that you will be prepared, just as I said. 4Verse 4. Otherwise, if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we — to say nothing of you — would be ashamed of having been so confident. 5Verse 5. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you beforehand and make arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. This way, your gift will be prepared generously and not begrudgingly. 6Verse 6. Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7Verse 7. Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not out of regret or compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. 8Verse 8. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9Verse 9. As it is written: “He has scattered abroad His gifts to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.” 10Verse 10. Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your store of seed and will increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11Verse 11. You will be enriched in every way to be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will produce thanksgiving to God. 12Verse 12. For this ministry of service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanksgiving to God. 13Verse 13. Because of the proof this ministry provides, the saints will glorify God for your obedient confession of the gospel of Christ, and for the generosity of your contribution to them and to all the others. 14Verse 14. And their prayers for you will express their affection for you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15Verse 15. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!