Matthew 5:1-12 Acts 6 Psalms 10 Genesis 25-26

Matthew 5:1-12
Mat 5:1 When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down
Mat 5:2 and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:
Mat 5:3 "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.
Mat 5:4 "You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.
Mat 5:5 "You're blessed when you're content with just who you are--no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.
Mat 5:6 "You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.
Mat 5:7 "You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'carefull,' you find yourselves cared for.
Mat 5:8 "You're blessed when you get your inside world--your mind and heart--put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
Mat 5:9 "You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.
Mat 5:10 "You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.
Mat 5:11 "Not only that--count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable.
Mat 5:12 You can be glad when that happens--give a cheer, even!--for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.

Acts 6
Act 6:1 During this time, as the disciples were increasing in numbers by leaps and bounds, hard feelings developed among the Greek-speaking believers--"Hellenists"--toward the Hebrew-speaking believers because their widows were being discriminated against in the daily food lines.
Act 6:2 So the Twelve called a meeting of the disciples. They said, "It wouldn't be right for us to abandon our responsibilities for preaching and teaching the Word of God to help with the care of the poor.
Act 6:3 So, friends, choose seven men from among you whom everyone trusts, men full of the Holy Spirit and good sense, and we'll assign them this task.
Act 6:4 Meanwhile, we'll stick to our assigned tasks of prayer and speaking God's Word."
Act 6:5 The congregation thought this was a great idea. They went ahead and chose-- Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, Nicolas, a convert from Antioch.
Act 6:6 Then they presented them to the apostles. Praying, the apostles laid on hands and commissioned them for their task.
Act 6:7 The Word of God prospered. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased dramatically. Not least, a great many priests submitted themselves to the faith.
Act 6:8 Stephen, brimming with God's grace and energy, was doing wonderful things among the people, unmistakable signs that God was among them.
Act 6:9 But then some men from the meeting place whose membership was made up of freed slaves, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and some others from Cilicia and Asia, went up against him trying to argue him down.
Act 6:10 But they were no match for his wisdom and spirit when he spoke.
Act 6:11 So in secret they bribed men to lie: "We heard him cursing Moses and God."
Act 6:12 That stirred up the people, the religious leaders, and religion scholars. They grabbed Stephen and took him before the High Council
Act 6:13 They put forward their bribed witnesses to testify: "This man talks nonstop against this Holy Place and God's Law.
Act 6:14 We even heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth would tear this place down and throw out all the customs Moses gave us."
Act 6:15 As all those who sat on the High Council looked at Stephen, they found they couldn't take their eyes off him--his face was like the face of an angel!

Psalms 10
Psa 10:1 GOD, are you avoiding me? Where are you when I need you?
Psa 10:2 Full of hot air, the wicked are hot on the trail of the poor. Trip them up, tangle them up in their fine-tuned plots.
Psa 10:3 The wicked are windbags, the swindlers have foul breath.
Psa 10:4 The wicked snub GOD, their noses stuck high in the air. Their graffiti are scrawled on the walls: "Catch us if you can!" "God is dead."
Psa 10:5 They care nothing for what you think; if you get in their way, they blow you off.
Psa 10:6 They live (they think) a charmed life: "We can't go wrong. This is our lucky year!"
Psa 10:7 They carry a mouthful of hexes, their tongues spit venom like adders.
Psa 10:8 They hide behind ordinary people, then pounce on their victims.
Psa 10:9 They mark the luckless, then wait like a hunter in a blind; When the poor wretch wanders too close, they stab him in the back.
Psa 10:10 The hapless fool is kicked to the ground, the unlucky victim is brutally axed.
Psa 10:11 He thinks God has dumped him, he's sure that God is indifferent to his plight.
Psa 10:12 Time to get up, GOD--get moving. The luckless think they're Godforsaken.
Psa 10:13 They wonder why the wicked scorn God and get away with it, Why the wicked are so cocksure they'll never come up for audit.
Psa 10:14 But you know all about it-- the contempt, the abuse. I dare to believe that the luckless will get lucky someday in you. You won't let them down: orphans won't be orphans forever.
Psa 10:15 Break the wicked right arms, break all the evil left arms. Search and destroy every sign of crime.
Psa 10:16 GOD's grace and order wins; godlessness loses.
Psa 10:17 The victim's faint pulse picks up; the hearts of the hopeless pump red blood as you put your ear to their lips.
Psa 10:18 Orphans get parents, the homeless get homes. The reign of terror is over, the rule of the gang lords is ended.

Genesis 25-26
Gen 25:1 Abraham married a second time; his new wife was named Keturah.
Gen 25:2 She gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.
Gen 25:3 Jokshan had Sheba and Dedan. Dedan's descendants were the Asshurim, the Letushim, and the Leummim.
Gen 25:4 Midian had Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah--all from the line of Keturah.
Gen 25:5 But Abraham gave everything he possessed to Isaac.
Gen 25:6 While he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons he had by his concubines, but then sent them away to the country of the east, putting a good distance between them and his son Isaac.
Gen 25:7 Abraham lived 175 years.
Gen 25:8 Then he took his final breath. He died happy at a ripe old age, full of years, and was buried with his family.
Gen 25:9 His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, next to Mamre.
Gen 25:10 It was the field that Abraham had bought from the Hittites. Abraham was buried next to his wife Sarah.
Gen 25:11 After Abraham's death, God blessed his son Isaac. Isaac lived at Beer Lahai Roi.
Gen 25:12 This is the family tree of Ishmael son of Abraham, the son that Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's maid, bore to Abraham.
Gen 25:13 These are the names of Ishmael's sons in the order of their births: Nebaioth, Ishmael's first-born, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,
Gen 25:14 Mishma, Dumah, Massa,
Gen 25:15 Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah--
Gen 25:16 all the sons of Ishmael. Their settlements and encampments were named after them. Twelve princes with their twelve tribes.
Gen 25:17 Ishmael lived 137 years. When he breathed his last and died he was buried with his family.
Gen 25:18 His children settled down all the way from Havilah near Egypt eastward to Shur in the direction of Assyria. The Ishmaelites didn't get along with any of their kin.
Gen 25:19 This is the family tree of Isaac son of Abraham: Abraham had Isaac.
Gen 25:20 Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan Aram. She was the sister of Laban the Aramean.
Gen 25:21 Isaac prayed hard to GOD for his wife because she was barren. GOD answered his prayer and Rebekah became pregnant.
Gen 25:22 But the children tumbled and kicked inside her so much that she said, "If this is the way it's going to be, why go on living?" She went to GOD to find out what was going on.
Gen 25:23 GOD told her, Two nations are in your womb, two peoples butting heads while still in your body. One people will overpower the other, and the older will serve the younger.
Gen 25:24 When her time to give birth came, sure enough, there were twins in her womb.
Gen 25:25 The first came out reddish, as if snugly wrapped in a hairy blanket; they named him Esau (Hairy).
Gen 25:26 His brother followed, his fist clutched tight to Esau's heel; they named him Jacob (Heel). Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.
Gen 25:27 The boys grew up. Esau became an expert hunter, an outdoorsman. Jacob was a quiet man preferring life indoors among the tents.
Gen 25:28 Isaac loved Esau because he loved his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Gen 25:29 One day Jacob was cooking a stew. Esau came in from the field, starved.
Gen 25:30 Esau said to Jacob, "Give me some of that red stew--I'm starved!" That's how he came to be called Edom (Red).
Gen 25:31 Jacob said, "Make me a trade: my stew for your rights as the firstborn."
Gen 25:32 Esau said, "I'm starving! What good is a birthright if I'm dead?"
Gen 25:33 Jacob said, "First, swear to me." And he did it. On oath Esau traded away his rights as the firstborn.
Gen 25:34 Jacob gave him bread and the stew of lentils. He ate and drank, got up and left. That's how Esau shrugged off his rights as the firstborn.
Gen 26:1 There was a famine in the land, as bad as the famine during the time of Abraham. And Isaac went down to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, in Gerar.
Gen 26:2 GOD appeared to him and said, "Don't go down to Egypt; stay where I tell you.
Gen 26:3 Stay here in this land and I'll be with you and bless you. I'm giving you and your children all these lands, fulfilling the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.
Gen 26:4 I'll make your descendants as many as the stars in the sky and give them all these lands. All the nations of the Earth will get a blessing for themselves through your descendants.
Gen 26:5 And why? Because Abraham obeyed my summons and kept my charge--my commands, my guidelines, my teachings."
Gen 26:6 So Isaac stayed put in Gerar.
Gen 26:7 The men of the place questioned him about his wife. He said, "She's my sister." He was afraid to say "She's my wife." He was thinking, "These men might kill me to get Rebekah, she's so beautiful."
Gen 26:8 One day, after they had been there quite a long time, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out his window and saw Isaac fondling his wife Rebekah.
Gen 26:9 Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, "So, she's your wife. Why did you tell us 'She's my sister'?" Isaac said, "Because I thought I might get killed by someone who wanted her."
Gen 26:10 Abimelech said, "But think of what you might have done to us! Given a little more time, one of the men might have slept with your wife; you would have been responsible for bringing guilt down on us."
Gen 26:11 Then Abimelech gave orders to his people: "Anyone who so much as lays a hand on this man or his wife dies."
Gen 26:12 Isaac planted crops in that land and took in a huge harvest. GOD blessed him.
Gen 26:13 The man got richer and richer by the day until he was very wealthy.
Gen 26:14 He accumulated flocks and herds and many, many servants, so much so that the Philistines began to envy him.
Gen 26:15 They got back at him by throwing dirt and debris into all the wells that his father's servants had dug back in the days of his father Abraham, clogging up all the wells.
Gen 26:16 Finally, Abimelech told Isaac: "Leave. You've become far too big for us."
Gen 26:17 So Isaac left. He camped in the valley of Gerar and settled down there.
Gen 26:18 Isaac dug again the wells which were dug in the days of his father Abraham but had been clogged up by the Philistines after Abraham's death. And he renamed them, using the original names his father had given them.
Gen 26:19 One day, as Isaac's servants were digging in the valley, they came on a well of spring water.
Gen 26:20 The shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's shepherds, claiming, "This water is ours." So Isaac named the well Esek (Quarrel) because they quarreled over it.
Gen 26:21 They dug another well and there was a difference over that one also, so he named it Sitnah (Accusation).
Gen 26:22 He went on from there and dug yet another well. But there was no fighting over this one so he named it Rehoboth (Wide-Open Spaces), saying, "Now GOD has given us plenty of space to spread out in the land."
Gen 26:23 From there he went up to Beersheba.
Gen 26:24 That very night GOD appeared to him and said, I am the God of Abraham your father; don't fear a thing because I'm with you. I'll bless you and make your children flourish because of Abraham my servant.
Gen 26:25 Isaac built an altar there and prayed, calling on GOD by name. He pitched his tent and his servants started digging another well.
Gen 26:26 Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his advisor and Phicol the head of his troops.
Gen 26:27 Isaac asked them, "Why did you come to me? You hate me; you threw me out of your country."
Gen 26:28 They said, "We've realized that GOD is on your side. We'd like to make a deal between us--a covenant
Gen 26:29 that we maintain friendly relations. We haven't bothered you in the past; we treated you kindly and let you leave us in peace. So--GOD's blessing be with you!"
Gen 26:30 Isaac laid out a feast and they ate and drank together.
Gen 26:31 Early in the morning they exchanged oaths. Then Isaac said good-bye and they parted as friends.
Gen 26:32 Later that same day, Isaac's servants came to him with news about the well they had been digging, "We've struck water!"
Gen 26:33 Isaac named the well Sheba (Oath), and that's the name of the city, Beersheba (Oath-Well), to this day.
Gen 26:34 When Esau was forty years old he married Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, daughter of Elon the Hittite.
Gen 26:35 They turned out to be thorns in the sides of Isaac and Rebekah.