Matthew 5:33-48 Acts 8:1-25 Psalms 13 Genesis 31

Matthew 5:33-48
Mat 5:33 "And don't say anything you don't mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions.
Mat 5:34 You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, 'I'll pray for you,' and never doing it, or saying, 'God be with you,' and not meaning it. You don't make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true.
Mat 5:35 (SEE 5:34)
Mat 5:36 (SEE 5:34)
Mat 5:37 Just say 'yes' and 'no.' When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.
Mat 5:38 "Here's another old saying that deserves a second look: 'Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.'
Mat 5:39 Is that going to get us anywhere? Here's what I propose: 'Don't hit back at all.' If someone strikes you, stand there and take it.
Mat 5:40 If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it.
Mat 5:41 And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life.
Mat 5:42 No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.
Mat 5:43 "You're familiar with the old written law, 'Love your friend,' and its unwritten companion, 'Hate your enemy.'
Mat 5:44 I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer,
Mat 5:45 for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best--the sun to warm and the rain to nourish--to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty.
Mat 5:46 If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that.
Mat 5:47 If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.
Mat 5:48 "In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.

Acts 8:1-25
Act 8:1 That set off a terrific persecution of the church in Jerusalem. The believers were all scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. All, that is, but the apostles.
Act 8:2 Good and brave men buried Stephen, giving him a solemn funeral--not many dry eyes that day!
Act 8:3 And Saul just went wild, devastating the church, entering house after house after house, dragging men and women off to jail.
Act 8:4 Forced to leave home base, the Christians all became missionaries. Wherever they were scattered, they preached the Message about Jesus.
Act 8:5 Going down to a Samaritan city, Philip proclaimed the Message of the Messiah.
Act 8:6 When the people heard what he had to say and saw the miracles, the clear signs of God's action, they hung on his every word.
Act 8:7 Many who could neither stand nor walk were healed that day. The evil spirits protested loudly as they were sent on their way.
Act 8:8 And what joy in the city!
Act 8:9 Previous to Philip's arrival, a certain Simon had practiced magic in the city, posing as a famous man and dazzling all the Samaritans with his wizardry.
Act 8:10 He had them all, from little children to old men, eating out of his hand. They all thought he had supernatural powers, and called him "the Great Wizard."
Act 8:11 He had been around a long time and everyone was more or less in awe of him.
Act 8:12 But when Philip came to town announcing the news of God's kingdom and proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ, they forgot Simon and were baptized, becoming believers right and left!
Act 8:13 Even Simon himself believed and was baptized. From that moment he was like Philip's shadow, so fascinated with all the God-signs and miracles that he wouldn't leave Philip's side.
Act 8:14 When the apostles in Jerusalem received the report that Samaria had accepted God's Message, they sent Peter and John down
Act 8:15 to pray for them to receive the Holy Spirit.
Act 8:16 Up to this point they had only been baptized in the name of the Master Jesus; the Holy Spirit hadn't yet fallen on them.
Act 8:17 Then the apostles laid their hands on them and they did receive the Holy Spirit.
Act 8:18 When Simon saw that the apostles by merely laying on hands conferred the Spirit, he pulled out his money, excited,
Act 8:19 and said, "Sell me your secret! Show me how you did that! How much do you want? Name your price!"
Act 8:20 Peter said, "To hell with your money! And you along with it. Why, that's unthinkable--trying to buy God's gift!
Act 8:21 You'll never be part of what God is doing by striking bargains and offering bribes.
Act 8:22 Change your ways--and now! Ask the Master to forgive you for trying to use God to make money.
Act 8:23 I can see this is an old habit with you; you reek with money-lust."
Act 8:24 "Oh!" said Simon, "pray for me! Pray to the Master that nothing like that will ever happen to me!"
Act 8:25 And with that, the apostles were on their way, continuing to witness and spread the Message of God's salvation, preaching in every Samaritan town they passed through on their return to Jerusalem.

Psalms 13
Psa 13:1 A David psalm. Long enough, GOD-- you've ignored me long enough. I've looked at the back of your head long enough.
Psa 13:2 Long enough I've carried this ton of trouble, lived with a stomach full of pain. Long enough my arrogant enemies have looked down their noses at me.
Psa 13:3 Take a good look at me, GOD, my God; I want to look life in the eye,
Psa 13:4 So no enemy can get the best of me or laugh when I fall on my face.
Psa 13:5 I've thrown myself headlong into your arms-- I'm celebrating your rescue.
Psa 13:6 I'm singing at the top of my lungs, I'm so full of answered prayers.

Genesis 31
Gen 31:1 Jacob learned that Laban's sons were talking behind his back: "Jacob has used our father's wealth to make himself rich at our father's expense."
Gen 31:2 At the same time, Jacob noticed that Laban had changed toward him. He wasn't treating him the same.
Gen 31:3 That's when GOD said to Jacob, "Go back home where you were born. I'll go with you."
Gen 31:4 So Jacob sent word for Rachel and Leah to meet him out in the field where his flocks were.
Gen 31:5 He said, "I notice that your father has changed toward me; he doesn't treat me the same as before. But the God of my father hasn't changed; he's still with me.
Gen 31:6 You know how hard I've worked for your father.
Gen 31:7 Still, your father has cheated me over and over, changing my wages time and again. But God never let him really hurt me.
Gen 31:8 If he said, 'Your wages will consist of speckled animals' the whole flock would start having speckled lambs and kids. And if he said, 'From now on your wages will be streaked animals' the whole flock would have streaked ones.
Gen 31:9 Over and over God used your father's livestock to reward me.
Gen 31:10 "Once, while the flocks were mating, I had a dream and saw the billy goats, all of them streaked, speckled, and mottled, mounting their mates.
Gen 31:11 In the dream an angel of God called out to me, 'Jacob!' "I said, 'Yes?'
Gen 31:12 "He said, 'Watch closely. Notice that all the goats in the flock that are mating are streaked, speckled, and mottled. I know what Laban's been doing to you.
Gen 31:13 I'm the God of Bethel where you consecrated a pillar and made a vow to me. Now be on your way, get out of this place, go home to your birthplace.'"
Gen 31:14 Rachel and Leah said, "Has he treated us any better?
Gen 31:15 Aren't we treated worse than outsiders? All he wanted was the money he got from selling us, and he's spent all that.
Gen 31:16 Any wealth that God has seen fit to return to us from our father is justly ours and our children's. Go ahead. Do what God told you."
Gen 31:17 Jacob did it. He put his children and his wives on camels
Gen 31:18 and gathered all his livestock and everything he had gotten, everything acquired in Paddan Aram, to go back home to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
Gen 31:19 Laban was off shearing sheep. Rachel stole her father's household gods.
Gen 31:20 And Jacob had concealed his plans so well that Laban the Aramean had no idea what was going on--he was totally in the dark.
Gen 31:21 Jacob got away with everything he had and was soon across the Euphrates headed for the hill country of Gilead.
Gen 31:22 Three days later, Laban got the news: "Jacob's run off."
Gen 31:23 Laban rounded up his relatives and chased after him. Seven days later they caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.
Gen 31:24 That night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and said, "Be careful what you do to Jacob, whether good or bad."
Gen 31:25 When Laban reached him, Jacob's tents were pitched in the Gilead mountains; Laban pitched his tents there too.
Gen 31:26 "What do you mean," said Laban, "by keeping me in the dark and sneaking off, hauling my daughters off like prisoners of war?
Gen 31:27 Why did you run off like a thief in the night? Why didn't you tell me? Why, I would have sent you off with a great celebration--music, timbrels, flutes!
Gen 31:28 But you wouldn't permit me so much as a kiss for my daughters and grandchildren. It was a stupid thing for you to do.
Gen 31:29 If I had a mind to, I could destroy you right now, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, 'Be careful what you do to Jacob, whether good or bad.'
Gen 31:30 I understand. You left because you were homesick. But why did you steal my household gods?"
Gen 31:31 Jacob answered Laban, "I was afraid. I thought you would take your daughters away from me by brute force.
Gen 31:32 But as far as your gods are concerned, if you find that anybody here has them, that person dies. With all of us watching, look around. If you find anything here that belongs to you, take it." Jacob didn't know that Rachel had stolen the gods.
Gen 31:33 Laban went through Jacob's tent, Leah's tent, and the tents of the two maids but didn't find them. He went from Leah's tent to Rachel's.
Gen 31:34 But Rachel had taken the household gods, put them inside a camel cushion, and was sitting on them. When Laban had gone through the tent, searching high and low without finding a thing,
Gen 31:35 Rachel said to her father, "Don't think I'm being disrespectful, my master, that I can't stand before you, but I'm having my period." So even though he turned the place upside down in his search, he didn't find the household gods.
Gen 31:36 Now it was Jacob's turn to get angry. He lit into Laban: "So what's my crime, what wrong have I done you that you badger me like this?
Gen 31:37 You've ransacked the place. Have you turned up a single thing that's yours? Let's see it--display the evidence. Our two families can be the jury and decide between us.
Gen 31:38 "In the twenty years I've worked for you, ewes and she-goats never miscarried. I never feasted on the rams from your flock.
Gen 31:39 I never brought you a torn carcass killed by wild animals but that I paid for it out of my own pocket--actually, you made me pay whether it was my fault or not.
Gen 31:40 I was out in all kinds of weather, from torrid heat to freezing cold, putting in many a sleepless night.
Gen 31:41 For twenty years I've done this: I slaved away fourteen years for your two daughters and another six years for your flock and you changed my wages ten times.
Gen 31:42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not stuck with me, you would have sent me off penniless. But God saw the fix I was in and how hard I had worked and last night rendered his verdict."
Gen 31:43 Laban defended himself: "The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flock is my flock--everything you see is mine. But what can I do about my daughters or for the children they've had?
Gen 31:44 So let's settle things between us, make a covenant--God will be the witness between us."
Gen 31:45 Jacob took a stone and set it upright as a pillar.
Gen 31:46 Jacob called his family around, "Get stones!" They gathered stones and heaped them up and then ate there beside the pile of stones.
Gen 31:47 Laban named it in Aramaic, Yegar-sahadutha (Witness Monument); Jacob echoed the naming in Hebrew, Galeed (Witness Monument).
Gen 31:48 Laban said, "This monument of stones will be a witness, beginning now, between you and me." (That's why it is called Galeed--Witness Monument.)
Gen 31:49 It is also called Mizpah (Watchtower) because Laban said, "GOD keep watch between you and me when we are out of each other's sight.
Gen 31:50 If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives when there's no one around to see you, God will see you and stand witness between us."
Gen 31:51 Laban continued to Jacob, "This monument of stones and this stone pillar that I have set up is a witness,
Gen 31:52 a witness that I won't cross this line to hurt you and you won't cross this line to hurt me.
Gen 31:53 The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor (the God of their ancestor) will keep things straight between us." Jacob promised, swearing by the Fear, the God of his father Isaac.
Gen 31:54 Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and worshiped, calling in all his family members to the meal. They ate and slept that night on the mountain.
Gen 31:55 Laban got up early the next morning, kissed his grandchildren and his daughters, blessed them, and then set off for home.