Matthew 6:16-24 Acts 9:1-19 Psalms 15 Genesis 34-35

Matthew 6:16-24
Mat 6:16 "When you practice some appetite-denying discipline to better concentrate on God, don't make a production out of it. It might turn you into a small-time celebrity but it won't make you a saint.
Mat 6:17 If you 'go into training' inwardly, act normal outwardly. Shampoo and comb your hair, brush your teeth, wash your face.
Mat 6:18 God doesn't require attention-getting devices. He won't overlook what you are doing; he'll reward you well.
Mat 6:19 "Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or--worse!--stolen by burglars.
Mat 6:20 Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars.
Mat 6:21 It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
Mat 6:22 "Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light.
Mat 6:23 If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!
Mat 6:24 "You can't worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you'll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can't worship God and Money both.

Acts 9:1-19
Act 9:1 All this time Saul was breathing down the necks of the Master's disciples, out for the kill. He went to the Chief Priest
Act 9:2 and got arrest warrants to take to the meeting places in Damascus so that if he found anyone there belonging to the Way, whether men or women, he could arrest them and bring them to Jerusalem.
Act 9:3 He set off. When he got to the outskirts of Damascus, he was suddenly dazed by a blinding flash of light.
Act 9:4 As he fell to the ground, he heard a voice: "Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me?"
Act 9:5 He said, "Who are you, Master?" "I am Jesus, the One you're hunting down.
Act 9:6 I want you to get up and enter the city. In the city you'll be told what to do next."
Act 9:7 His companions stood there dumbstruck--they could hear the sound, but couldn't see anyone--
Act 9:8 while Saul, picking himself up off the ground, found himself stone blind. They had to take him by the hand and lead him into Damascus.
Act 9:9 He continued blind for three days. He ate nothing, drank nothing.
Act 9:10 There was a disciple in Damascus by the name of Ananias. The Master spoke to him in a vision: "Ananias." "Yes, Master?" he answered.
Act 9:11 "Get up and go over to Straight Avenue. Ask at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus. His name is Saul. He's there praying.
Act 9:12 He has just had a dream in which he saw a man named Ananias enter the house and lay hands on him so he could see again."
Act 9:13 Ananias protested, "Master, you can't be serious. Everybody's talking about this man and the terrible things he's been doing, his reign of terror against your people in Jerusalem!
Act 9:14 And now he's shown up here with papers from the Chief Priest that give him license to do the same to us."
Act 9:15 But the Master said, "Don't argue. Go! I have picked him as my personal representative to Gentiles and kings and Jews.
Act 9:16 And now I'm about to show him what he's in for--the hard suffering that goes with this job."
Act 9:17 So Ananias went and found the house, placed his hands on blind Saul, and said, "Brother Saul, the Master sent me, the same Jesus you saw on your way here. He sent me so you could see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit."
Act 9:18 No sooner were the words out of his mouth than something like scales fell from Saul's eyes--he could see again! He got to his feet, was baptized,
Act 9:19 and sat down with them to a hearty meal. Saul spent a few days getting acquainted with the Damascus disciples,

Psalms 15
Psa 15:1 A David psalm. GOD, who gets invited to dinner at your place? How do we get on your guest list?
Psa 15:2 "Walk straight, act right, tell the truth.
Psa 15:3 "Don't hurt your friend, don't blame your neighbor;
Psa 15:4 despise the despicable. "Keep your word even when it costs you,
Psa 15:5 make an honest living, never take a bribe. "You'll never get blacklisted if you live like this."

Genesis 34-35
Gen 34:1 One day Dinah, the daughter Leah had given Jacob, went to visit some of the women in that country.
Gen 34:2 Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite who was chieftain there, saw her and raped her.
Gen 34:3 Then he felt a strong attraction to Dinah, Jacob's daughter, fell in love with her and wooed her.
Gen 34:4 Shechem went to his father Hamor, "Get me this girl for my wife."
Gen 34:5 Jacob heard that Shechem had raped his daughter Dinah, but his sons were out in the fields with the livestock so he didn't say anything until they got home.
Gen 34:6 Hamor, Shechem's father, went to Jacob to work out marriage arrangements.
Gen 34:7 Meanwhile Jacob's sons on their way back from the fields heard what had happened. They were outraged, explosive with anger. Shechem's rape of Jacob's daughter was intolerable in Israel and not to be put up with.
Gen 34:8 Hamor spoke with Jacob and his sons, "My son Shechem is head over heels in love with your daughter--give her to him as his wife.
Gen 34:9 Intermarry with us. Give your daughters to us and we'll give our daughters to you.
Gen 34:10 Live together with us as one family. Settle down among us and make yourselves at home. Prosper among us."
Gen 34:11 Shechem then spoke for himself, addressing Dinah's father and brothers: "Please, say yes. I'll pay anything.
Gen 34:12 Set the bridal price as high as you will--the sky's the limit! Only give me this girl for my wife."
Gen 34:13 Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father with cunning. Their sister, after all, had been raped.
Gen 34:14 They said, "This is impossible. We could never give our sister to a man who was uncircumcised. Why, we'd be disgraced.
Gen 34:15 The only condition on which we can talk business is if all your men become circumcised like us.
Gen 34:16 Then we will freely exchange daughters in marriage and make ourselves at home among you and become one big, happy family.
Gen 34:17 But if this is not an acceptable condition, we will take our sister and leave."
Gen 34:18 That seemed fair enough to Hamor and his son Shechem.
Gen 34:19 The young man was so smitten with Jacob's daughter that he proceeded to do what had been asked. He was also the most admired son in his father's family.
Gen 34:20 So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the public square and spoke to the town council:
Gen 34:21 "These men like us; they are our friends. Let them settle down here and make themselves at home; there's plenty of room in the country for them. And, just think, we can even exchange our daughters in marriage.
Gen 34:22 But these men will only accept our invitation to live with us and become one big family on one condition, that all our males become circumcised just as they themselves are.
Gen 34:23 This is a very good deal for us--these people are very wealthy with great herds of livestock and we're going to get our hands on it. So let's do what they ask and have them settle down with us."
Gen 34:24 Everyone who was anyone in the city agreed with Hamor and his son, Shechem; every male was circumcised.
Gen 34:25 Three days after the circumcision, while all the men were still very sore, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each with his sword in hand, walked into the city as if they owned the place and murdered every man there.
Gen 34:26 They also killed Hamor and his son Shechem, rescued Dinah from Shechem's house, and left.
Gen 34:27 When the rest of Jacob's sons came on the scene of slaughter, they looted the entire city in retaliation for Dinah's rape.
Gen 34:28 Flocks, herds, donkeys, belongings--everything, whether in the city or the fields--they took.
Gen 34:29 And then they took all the wives and children captive and ransacked their homes for anything valuable.
Gen 34:30 Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You've made my name stink to high heaven among the people here, these Canaanites and Perizzites. If they decided to gang up on us and attack, as few as we are we wouldn't stand a chance; they'd wipe me and my people right off the map."
Gen 34:31 They said, "Nobody is going to treat our sister like a whore and get by with it."
Gen 35:1 God spoke to Jacob: "Go back to Bethel. Stay there and build an altar to the God who revealed himself to you when you were running for your life from your brother Esau."
Gen 35:2 Jacob told his family and all those who lived with him, "Throw out all the alien gods which you have, take a good bath and put on clean clothes,
Gen 35:3 we're going to Bethel. I'm going to build an altar there to the God who answered me when I was in trouble and has stuck with me everywhere I've gone since."
Gen 35:4 They turned over to Jacob all the alien gods they'd been holding on to, along with their lucky-charm earrings. Jacob buried them under the oak tree in Shechem.
Gen 35:5 Then they set out. A paralyzing fear descended on all the surrounding villages so that they were unable to pursue the sons of Jacob.
Gen 35:6 Jacob and his company arrived at Luz, that is, Bethel, in the land of Canaan.
Gen 35:7 He built an altar there and named it El-Bethel (God-of-Bethel) because that's where God revealed himself to him when he was running from his brother.
Gen 35:8 And that's when Rebekah's nurse, Deborah, died. She was buried just below Bethel under the oak tree. It was named Allon-Bacuth (Weeping-Oak).
Gen 35:9 God revealed himself once again to Jacob, after he had come back from Paddan Aram and blessed him:
Gen 35:10 "Your name is Jacob (Heel); but that's your name no longer. From now on your name is Israel (God-Wrestler)."
Gen 35:11 God continued, I am The Strong God. Have children! Flourish! A nation--a whole company of nations!-- will come from you. Kings will come from your loins;
Gen 35:12 the land I gave Abraham and Isaac I now give to you, and pass it on to your descendants.
Gen 35:13 And then God was gone, ascended from the place where he had spoken with him.
Gen 35:14 Jacob set up a stone pillar on the spot where God had spoken with him. He poured a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil.
Gen 35:15 Jacob dedicated the place where God had spoken with him, Bethel (God's-House).
Gen 35:16 They left Bethel. They were still quite a ways from Ephrath when Rachel went into labor--hard, hard labor.
Gen 35:17 When her labor pains were at their worst, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid--you have another boy."
Gen 35:18 With her last breath, for she was now dying, she named him Ben-oni (Son-of-My-Pain), but his father named him Ben-jamin (Son-of-Good-Fortune).
Gen 35:19 Rachel died and was buried on the road to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem.
Gen 35:20 Jacob set up a pillar to mark her grave. It is still there today, "Rachel's Grave Stone."
Gen 35:21 Israel kept on his way and set up camp at Migdal Eder.
Gen 35:22 While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went and slept with his father's concubine, Bilhah. And Israel heard of what he did. There were twelve sons of Jacob.
Gen 35:23 The sons by Leah: Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun.
Gen 35:24 The sons by Rachel: Joseph, Benjamin.
Gen 35:25 The sons by Bilhah, Rachel's maid: Dan, Naphtali.
Gen 35:26 The sons by Zilpah, Leah's maid: Gad, Asher. These were Jacob's sons, born to him in Paddan Aram.
Gen 35:27 Finally, Jacob made it back home to his father Isaac at Mamre in Kiriath Arba, present-day Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had lived.
Gen 35:28 Isaac was now 180 years old.
Gen 35:29 Isaac breathed his last and died--an old man full of years. He was buried with his family by his sons Esau and Jacob.