Matthew 3:13-17 Acts 4:1-22 Psalms 6 Genesis 15-17

Matthew 3:13-17
Mat 3:13 Jesus then appeared, arriving at the Jordan River from Galilee. He wanted John to baptize him.
Mat 3:14 John objected, "I'm the one who needs to be baptized, not you!"
Mat 3:15 But Jesus insisted. "Do it. God's work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism." So John did it.
Mat 3:16 The moment Jesus came up out of the baptismal waters, the skies opened up and he saw God's Spirit--it looked like a dove--descending and landing on him.
Mat 3:17 And along with the Spirit, a voice: "This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life."

Acts 4:1-22
Act 4:1 While Peter and John were addressing the people, the priests, the chief of the Temple police, and some Sadducees came up,
Act 4:2 indignant that these upstart apostles were instructing the people and proclaiming that the resurrection from the dead had taken place in Jesus.
Act 4:3 They arrested them and threw them in jail until morning, for by now it was late in the evening.
Act 4:4 But many of those who listened had already believed the Message--in round numbers about five thousand!
Act 4:5 The next day a meeting was called in Jerusalem. The rulers, religious leaders, religion scholars,
Act 4:6 Annas the Chief Priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander--everybody who was anybody was there.
Act 4:7 They stood Peter and John in the middle of the room and grilled them: "Who put you in charge here? What business do you have doing this?"
Act 4:8 With that, Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, let loose: "Rulers and leaders of the people,
Act 4:9 if we have been brought to trial today for helping a sick man, put under investigation regarding this healing,
Act 4:10 I'll be completely frank with you--we have nothing to hide. By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the One you killed on a cross, the One God raised from the dead, by means of his name this man stands before you healthy and whole.
Act 4:11 Jesus is 'the stone you masons threw out, which is now the cornerstone.'
Act 4:12 Salvation comes no other way; no other name has been or will be given to us by which we can be saved, only this one."
Act 4:13 They couldn't take their eyes off them--Peter and John standing there so confident, so sure of themselves! Their fascination deepened when they realized these two were laymen with no training in Scripture or formal education. They recognized them as companions of Jesus,
Act 4:14 but with the man right before them, seeing him standing there so upright--so healed!--what could they say against that?
Act 4:15 They sent them out of the room so they could work out a plan. They talked it over:
Act 4:16 "What can we do with these men? By now it's known all over town that a miracle has occurred, and that they are behind it. There is no way we can refute that.
Act 4:17 But so that it doesn't go any further, let's silence them with threats so they won't dare to use Jesus' name ever again with anyone."
Act 4:18 They called them back and warned them that they were on no account ever again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus.
Act 4:19 But Peter and John spoke right back, "Whether it's right in God's eyes to listen to you rather than to God, you decide.
Act 4:20 As for us, there's no question--we can't keep quiet about what we've seen and heard."
Act 4:21 The religious leaders renewed their threats, but then released them. They couldn't come up with a charge that would stick, that would keep them in jail. The people wouldn't have stood for it--they were all praising God over what had happened.
Act 4:22 The man who had been miraculously healed was over forty years old.

Psalms 6
Psa 6:1 A David psalm. Please, GOD, no more yelling, no more trips to the woodshed.
Psa 6:2 Treat me nice for a change; I'm so starved for affection. Can't you see I'm black and blue, beat up badly in bones
Psa 6:3 and soul? GOD, how long will it take for you to let up?
Psa 6:4 Break in, GOD, and break up this fight; if you love me at all, get me out of here.
Psa 6:5 I'm no good to you dead, am I? I can't sing in your choir if I'm buried in some tomb!
Psa 6:6 I'm tired of all this--so tired. My bed has been floating forty days and nights On the flood of my tears. My mattress is soaked, soggy with tears.
Psa 6:7 The sockets of my eyes are black holes; nearly blind, I squint and grope.
Psa 6:8 Get out of here, you Devil's crew: at last GOD has heard my sobs.
Psa 6:9 My requests have all been granted, my prayers are answered.
Psa 6:10 Cowards, my enemies disappear. Disgraced, they turn tail and run.

Genesis 15-17
Gen 15:1 After all these things, this word of GOD came to Abram in a vision: "Don't be afraid, Abram. I'm your shield. Your reward will be grand!"
Gen 15:2 Abram said, "GOD, Master, what use are your gifts as long as I'm childless and Eliezer of Damascus is going to inherit everything?"
Gen 15:3 Abram continued, "See, you've given me no children, and now a mere house servant is going to get it all."
Gen 15:4 Then GOD's Message came: "Don't worry, he won't be your heir; a son from your body will be your heir."
Gen 15:5 Then he took him outside and said, "Look at the sky. Count the stars. Can you do it? Count your descendants! You're going to have a big family, Abram!"
Gen 15:6 And he believed! Believed GOD! God declared him "Set-Right-with-God."
Gen 15:7 GOD continued, "I'm the same GOD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldees and gave you this land to own."
Gen 15:8 Abram said, "Master GOD, how am I to know this, that it will all be mine?"
Gen 15:9 GOD said, "Bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, and a dove and a young pigeon."
Gen 15:10 He brought all these animals to him, split them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. But he didn't split the birds.
Gen 15:11 Vultures swooped down on the carcasses, but Abram scared them off.
Gen 15:12 As the sun went down a deep sleep overcame Abram and then a sense of dread, dark and heavy.
Gen 15:13 GOD said to Abram, "Know this: your descendants will live as outsiders in a land not theirs; they'll be enslaved and beaten down for 400 years.
Gen 15:14 Then I'll punish their slave masters; your offspring will march out of there loaded with plunder.
Gen 15:15 But not you; you'll have a long and full life and die a good and peaceful death.
Gen 15:16 Not until the fourth generation will your descendants return here; sin is still a thriving business among the Amorites."
Gen 15:17 When the sun was down and it was dark, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch moved between the split carcasses.
Gen 15:18 That's when GOD made a covenant with Abram: "I'm giving this land to your children, from the Nile River in Egypt to the River Euphrates in Assyria--
Gen 15:19 the country of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,
Gen 15:20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim,
Gen 15:21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites."
Gen 16:1 Sarai, Abram's wife, hadn't yet produced a child. She had an Egyptian maid named Hagar.
Gen 16:2 Sarai said to Abram, "GOD has not seen fit to let me have a child. Sleep with my maid. Maybe I can get a family from her." Abram agreed to do what Sarai said.
Gen 16:3 So Sarai, Abram's wife, took her Egyptian maid Hagar and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. Abram had been living ten years in Canaan when this took place.
Gen 16:4 He slept with Hagar and she got pregnant. When she learned she was pregnant, she looked down on her mistress.
Gen 16:5 Sarai told Abram, "It's all your fault that I'm suffering this abuse. I put my maid in bed with you and the minute she knows she's pregnant, she treats me like I'm nothing. May GOD decide which of us is right."
Gen 16:6 "You decide," said Abram. "Your maid is your business." Sarai was abusive to Hagar and she ran away.
Gen 16:7 An angel of GOD found her beside a spring in the desert; it was the spring on the road to Shur.
Gen 16:8 He said, "Hagar, maid of Sarai, what are you doing here?" She said, "I'm running away from Sarai my mistress."
Gen 16:9 The angel of GOD said, "Go back to your mistress. Put up with her abuse."
Gen 16:10 He continued, "I'm going to give you a big family, children past counting.
Gen 16:11 From this pregnancy, you'll get a son: Name him Ishmael; for GOD heard you, GOD answered you.
Gen 16:12 He'll be a bucking bronco of a man, a real fighter, fighting and being fought, Always stirring up trouble, always at odds with his family."
Gen 16:13 She answered GOD by name, praying to the God who spoke to her, "You're the God who sees me!" "Yes! He saw me; and then I saw him!"
Gen 16:14 That's how that desert spring got named "God-Alive-Sees-Me Spring." That spring is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
Gen 16:15 Hagar gave Abram a son. Abram named him Ishmael.
Gen 16:16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave him his son, Ishmael.
Gen 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, GOD showed up and said to him, "I am The Strong God, live entirely before me, live to the hilt!
Gen 17:2 I'll make a covenant between us and I'll give you a huge family."
Gen 17:3 Overwhelmed, Abram fell flat on his face. Then God said to him,
Gen 17:4 "This is my covenant with you: You'll be the father of many nations.
Gen 17:5 Your name will no longer be Abram, but Abraham, meaning that 'I'm making you the father of many nations.'
Gen 17:6 I'll make you a father of fathers--I'll make nations from you, kings will issue from you.
Gen 17:7 I'm establishing my covenant between me and you, a covenant that includes your descendants, a covenant that goes on and on and on, a covenant that commits me to be your God and the God of your descendants.
Gen 17:8 And I'm giving you and your descendants this land where you're now just camping, this whole country of Canaan, to own forever. And I'll be their God."
Gen 17:9 God continued to Abraham, "And you: You will honor my covenant, you and your descendants, generation after generation.
Gen 17:10 This is the covenant that you are to honor, the covenant that pulls in all your descendants: Circumcise every male.
Gen 17:11 Circumcise by cutting off the foreskin of the penis; it will be the sign of the covenant between us.
Gen 17:12 Every male baby will be circumcised when he is eight days old, generation after generation--this includes house-born slaves and slaves bought from outsiders who are not blood kin.
Gen 17:13 Make sure you circumcise both your own children and anyone brought in from the outside. That way my covenant will be cut into your body, a permanent mark of my permanent covenant.
Gen 17:14 An uncircumcised male, one who has not had the foreskin of his penis cut off, will be cut off from his people--he has broken my covenant."
Gen 17:15 God continued speaking to Abraham, "And Sarai your wife: Don't call her Sarai any longer; call her Sarah.
Gen 17:16 I'll bless her--yes! I'll give you a son by her! Oh, how I'll bless her! Nations will come from her; kings of nations will come from her."
Gen 17:17 Abraham fell flat on his face. And then he laughed, thinking, "Can a hundred-year-old man father a son? And can Sarah, at ninety years, have a baby?"
Gen 17:18 Recovering, Abraham said to God, "Oh, keep Ishmael alive and well before you!"
Gen 17:19 But God said, "That's not what I mean. Your wife, Sarah, will have a baby, a son. Name him Isaac (Laughter). I'll establish my covenant with him and his descendants, a covenant that lasts forever.
Gen 17:20 "And Ishmael? Yes, I heard your prayer for him. I'll also bless him; I'll make sure he has plenty of children--a huge family. He'll father twelve princes; I'll make him a great nation.
Gen 17:21 But I'll establish my covenant with Isaac whom Sarah will give you about this time next year."
Gen 17:22 God finished speaking with Abraham and left.
Gen 17:23 Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all his servants, whether houseborn or purchased--every male in his household--and circumcised them, cutting off their foreskins that very day, just as God had told him.
Gen 17:24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised.
Gen 17:25 His son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised.
Gen 17:26 Abraham and Ishmael were circumcised the same day
Gen 17:27 together with all the servants of his household, those born there and those purchased from outsiders--all were circumcised with him.