Refined by Fire

Biblical Money Wisdom for College Students

Parenting Your Child's Heart -- Not Just Their Head

The Spiritual Journey of Mankind

Names of Jesus | Advent Devotional

Grateful Hearts in Lean Times

The Importance of Exercising Patience

Trusting God's Plan When You Don't See Him: Lessons From the Book of Esther

Thankful

EquipHer Vol. 4: "Unlocking Your Power of Influence"

The Listener’s Bible®: NIV Edition

New International Version™  (Anglicised), Audio Edition

Holy Bible, New International Version™ (Anglicised), South Asian Audio Edition

<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk1JN">
 <div class="chapter ch1" data-usfm="1JN.1">
 <div class="label">1</div><div class="s1">The Incarnation of the Word of Life</div><div class="p"> 1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched&#8212;this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4We write this to make our#1:4 Some manuscripts your joy complete.</div><div class="s1">Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness</div><div class="p"> 5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all#1:7 Or every sin.</div><div class="p"> 8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk1JN">
 <div class="chapter ch2" data-usfm="1JN.2">
 <div class="label">2</div><div class="p"> 1My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father&#8212;Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.</div><div class="s1">Love and Hatred for Fellow Believers</div><div class="p"> 3We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4Whoever says, &#8220;I know him,&#8221; but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5But if anyone obeys his word, love for God#2:5 Or word, God&#8217;s love is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.</div><div class="p"> 7Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.</div><div class="p"> 9Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister#2:9 The Greek word for brother or sister (adelphos) refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God&#8217;s family; also in verse 11; and in 3:15, 17; 4:20; 5:16. is still in the darkness. 10Anyone who loves their brother and sister#2:10 The Greek word for brother and sister (adelphos) refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God&#8217;s family; also in 3:10; 4:20, 21. lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.</div><div class="s1">Reasons for Writing</div><div class="q1"> 12I am writing to you, dear children,</div><div class="q2">because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.</div><div class="q1"> 13I am writing to you, fathers,</div><div class="q2">because you know him who is from the beginning.</div><div class="q1">I am writing to you, young men,</div><div class="q2">because you have overcome the evil one.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1"> 14I write to you, dear children,</div><div class="q2">because you know the Father.</div><div class="q1">I write to you, fathers,</div><div class="q2">because you know him who is from the beginning.</div><div class="q1">I write to you, young men,</div><div class="q2">because you are strong,</div><div class="q2">and the word of God lives in you,</div><div class="q2">and you have overcome the evil one.</div><div class="s1">On Not Loving the World</div><div class="p"> 15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father#2:15 Or world, the Father&#8217;s love is not in them. 16For everything in the world&#8212;the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life&#8212;comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.</div><div class="s1">Warnings Against Denying the Son</div><div class="p"> 18Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.</div><div class="p"> 20But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.#2:20 Some manuscripts and you know all things 21I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist&#8212;denying the Father and the Son. 23No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.</div><div class="p"> 24As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25And this is what he promised us&#8212;eternal life.</div><div class="p"> 26I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit&#8212;just as it has taught you, remain in him.</div><div class="s1">God&#8217;s Children and Sin</div><div class="p"> 28And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.</div><div class="p"> 29If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.</div>
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 <div class="book bk1JN">
 <div class="chapter ch3" data-usfm="1JN.3">
 <div class="label">3</div><div class="p"> 1See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,#3:2 Or when it is made known we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.</div><div class="p"> 4Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.</div><div class="p"> 7Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil&#8217;s work. 9No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God&#8217;s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God&#8217;s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.</div><div class="s1">More on Love and Hatred</div><div class="p"> 11For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother&#8217;s were righteous. 13Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters,#3:13 The Greek word for brothers and sisters (adelphoi) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God&#8217;s family; also in verse 16. if the world hates you. 14We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.</div><div class="p"> 16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.</div><div class="p"> 19This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24The one who keeps God&#8217;s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk1JN">
 <div class="chapter ch4" data-usfm="1JN.4">
 <div class="label">4</div><div class="s1">On Denying the Incarnation</div><div class="p"> 1Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.</div><div class="p"> 4You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit#4:6 Or spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.</div><div class="s1">God&#8217;s Love and Ours</div><div class="p"> 7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.</div><div class="p"> 13This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.</div><div class="p">God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.</div><div class="p"> 19We love because he first loved us. 20Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.</div>
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 <div class="label">5</div><div class="s1">Faith in the Incarnate Son of God</div><div class="p"> 1Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.</div><div class="p"> 6This is the one who came by water and blood&#8212;Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7For there are three that testify: 8the#5:7,8 Late manuscripts of the Vulgate testify in heaven: the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. 8 And there are three that testify on earth: the (not found in any Greek manuscript before the fourteenth century) Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. 9We accept human testimony, but God&#8217;s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. 10Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. 11And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.</div><div class="s1">Concluding Affirmations</div><div class="p"> 13I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15And if we know that he hears us&#8212;whatever we ask&#8212;we know that we have what we asked of him.</div><div class="p"> 16If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. 17All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.</div><div class="p"> 18We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. 19We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. 20We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.</div><div class="p"> 21Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk2JN">
 <div class="chapter ch1" data-usfm="2JN.1">
 <div class="label">1</div><div class="p"> 1The elder,</div><div class="b"></div><div class="p">To the lady chosen by God and to her children, whom I love in the truth&#8212;and not I only, but also all who know the truth&#8212; 2because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:</div><div class="b"></div><div class="p"> 3Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father&#8217;s Son, will be with us in truth and love.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="b"></div><div class="p"> 4It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. 5And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 6And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.</div><div class="p"> 7I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8Watch out that you do not lose what we#1:8 Some manuscripts you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 9Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. 11Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.</div><div class="p"> 12I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="b"></div><div class="p"> 13The children of your sister, who is chosen by God, send their greetings.</div>
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 <div class="book bk3JN">
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 <div class="label">1</div><div class="p"> 1The elder,</div><div class="b"></div><div class="p">To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="b"></div><div class="p"> 2Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. 3It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. 4I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.</div><div class="p"> 5Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters,#1:5 The Greek word for brothers and sisters (adelphoi) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God&#8217;s family. even though they are strangers to you. 6They have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way in a manner that honors God. 7It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. 8We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth.</div><div class="p"> 9I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. 10So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.</div><div class="p"> 11Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. 12Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone&#8212;and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.</div><div class="p"> 13I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink. 14I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="b"></div><div class="p"> 15Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
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 <div class="label">1</div><div class="p"> 1Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,</div><div class="b"></div><div class="p">To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for#1:1 Or by; or in Jesus Christ:</div><div class="b"></div><div class="p"> 2Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.</div><div class="s1">The Sin and Doom of Ungodly People</div><div class="p"> 3Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God&#8217;s holy people. 4For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about#1:4 Or individuals who were marked out for condemnation long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.</div><div class="p"> 5Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord#1:5 Some early manuscripts Jesus at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling&#8212;these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.</div><div class="p"> 8In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. 9But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, &#8220;The Lord rebuke you!&#8221;#1:9 Jude is alluding to the Jewish Testament of Moses (approximately the first century a.d.). 10Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct&#8212;as irrational animals do&#8212;will destroy them.</div><div class="p"> 11Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam&#8217;s error; they have been destroyed in Korah&#8217;s rebellion.</div><div class="p"> 12These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm&#8212;shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted&#8212;twice dead. 13They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.</div><div class="p"> 14Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: &#8220;See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.&#8221;#1:15 From the Jewish First Book of Enoch (approximately the first century b.c.) 16These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.</div><div class="s1">A Call to Persevere</div><div class="p"> 17But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18They said to you, &#8220;In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.&#8221; 19These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.</div><div class="p"> 20But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21keep yourselves in God&#8217;s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.</div><div class="p"> 22Be merciful to those who doubt; 23save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear&#8212;hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.#1:23 The Greek manuscripts of these verses vary at several points.</div><div class="s1">Doxology</div><div class="p"> 24To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy&#8212; 25to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.</div>
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 <div class="label">1</div><div class="s1">Prologue</div><div class="p"> 1The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2who testifies to everything he saw&#8212;that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.</div><div class="s1">Greetings and Doxology</div><div class="p"> 4John,</div><div class="b"></div><div class="p">To the seven churches in the province of Asia:</div><div class="b"></div><div class="p">Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits#1:4 That is, the sevenfold Spirit before his throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="b"></div><div class="p">To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father&#8212;to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.</div><div class="q1"> 7&#8220;Look, he is coming with the clouds,&#8221;#1:7 Daniel 7:13</div><div class="q2">and &#8220;every eye will see him,</div><div class="q1">even those who pierced him&#8221;;</div><div class="q2">and all peoples on earth &#8220;will mourn because of him.&#8221;#1:7 Zech. 12:10</div><div class="q4">So shall it be! Amen.</div><div class="p"> 8&#8220;I am the Alpha and the Omega,&#8221; says the Lord God, &#8220;who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.&#8221;</div><div class="s1">John&#8217;s Vision of Christ</div><div class="p"> 9I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10On the Lord&#8217;s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 11which said: &#8220;Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 12I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man,#1:13 See Daniel 7:13. dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.</div><div class="p"> 17When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: &#8220;Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.</div><div class="p"> 19 &#8220;Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. 20The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels#1:20 Or messengers of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.</div>
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 <div class="chapter ch2" data-usfm="REV.2">
 <div class="label">2</div><div class="s1">To the Church in Ephesus</div><div class="m"> 1 &#8220;To the angel # 2:1 Or messenger ; also in verses 8, 12 and 18 of the church in Ephesus write:</div><div class="b"></div><div class="pi1"> These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.</div><div class="pi1"> 4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.</div><div class="pi1"> 7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.</div><div class="s1">To the Church in Smyrna</div><div class="m"> 8 &#8220;To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:</div><div class="b"></div><div class="pi1"> These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. 9I know your afflictions and your poverty&#8212;yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor&#8217;s crown.</div><div class="pi1"> 11 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.</div><div class="s1">To the Church in Pergamum</div><div class="m"> 12 &#8220;To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:</div><div class="b"></div><div class="pi1"> These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. 13I know where you live&#8212;where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city&#8212;where Satan lives.</div><div class="pi1"> 14 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. 15Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.</div><div class="pi1"> 17 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.</div><div class="s1">To the Church in Thyatira</div><div class="m"> 18 &#8220;To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:</div><div class="b"></div><div class="pi1"> These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.</div><div class="pi1"> 20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.</div><div class="pi1"> 24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan&#8217;s so-called deep secrets, &#8216;I will not impose any other burden on you, 25except to hold on to what you have until I come.&#8217;</div><div class="pi1"> 26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations&#8212; 27that one &#8216;will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery&#8217;#2:27 Psalm 2:9&#8212;just as I have received authority from my Father. 28I will also give that one the morning star. 29Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.</div>
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