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Genesis
12:1-4a
Psalm 121
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
John 3:1-17
Genesis
12:1-4a
12:1 Now the LORD said
to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your
father's house to the land that I will show you.
12:2
I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make
your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
12:3
I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I
will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be
blessed."
12:4a
So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him.
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Psalm
121
121:1 I lift up my eyes
to the hills-- from where will my help come?
121:2
My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
121:3
He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not
slumber.
121:4
He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
121:5
The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade at your right
hand.
121:6
The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
121:7
The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
121:8
The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this
time on and forevermore.
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Romans
4:1-5, 13-17
4:1 What then are we to
say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh?
4:2
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast
about, but not before God.
4:3
For what does the scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and
it was reckoned to him as righteousness."
4:4
Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as
something due.
4:5
But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly,
such faith is reckoned as righteousness.
4:13
For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to
Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the
righteousness of faith.
4:14
If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith
is null and the promise is void.
4:15
For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is
there violation.
4:16
For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may
rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only
to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith
of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us,
4:17
as it is written, "I have made you the father of many
nations") -- in the presence of the God in whom he believed,
who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things
that do not exist.
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John
3:1-17
3:1 Now there was a
Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.
3:2
He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know
that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do
these signs that you do apart from the presence of God."
3:3
Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see
the kingdom of God without being born from above."
3:4
Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having
grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and
be born?"
3:5
Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the
kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.
3:6
What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit
is spirit.
3:7
Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from
above.'
3:8
The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but
you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is
with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
3:9
Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?"
3:10
Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you
do not understand these things?
3:11
"Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify
to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony.
3:12
If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe,
how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
3:13
No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from
heaven, the Son of Man.
3:14
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must
the Son of Man be lifted up,
3:15
that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
3:16
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so
that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have
eternal life.
3:17
"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn
the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
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