Proverbs 10:28

²⁸ The hope of the righteous is gladness, But the expectation of the wicked perishes.

Things to Consider While You Read:

Scripture: Take time reading and allow God to speak to you. When you are done, look for a verse that particularly spoke to you, write it out.

Observation: What do you think God is saying to you in this scripture? Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and reveal Jesus to you.

Application: Personalize what you have read by asking yourself how it applies to your life right now.

Prayer: Ask God to help you use this scripture. Pray for a greater insight on what He may be revealing to you.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation (www.lockman.org)

John 16:16-24

Jesus’ Death and Resurrection Foretold

16 “A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.” 17 Some of His disciples then said to one another, “What is this thing He is telling us, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?” 18 So they were saying, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is talking about.” 19 Jesus knew that they wished to question Him, and He said to them, “Are you deliberating together about this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me’? 20 Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. 21 Whenever a woman is in labor she has [a]pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a [b]child has been born into the world. 22 Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.

Prayer Promises

23 In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. 24 Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.

Things to Consider While You Read:

Scripture: Take time reading and allow God to speak to you. When you are done, look for a verse that particularly spoke to you, write it out.

Observation: What do you think God is saying to you in this scripture? Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and reveal Jesus to you.

Application: Personalize what you have read by asking yourself how it applies to your life right now.

Prayer: Ask God to help you use this scripture. Pray for a greater insight on what He may be revealing to you.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation (www.lockman.org)

Isaiah 35:1-10

(This weekend’s message scripture for Week 3 of Advent: Joy)

The wilderness and the desert will be glad,
And the Arabah will rejoice and blossom;
Like the crocus
² It will blossom profusely
And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
The majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of the Lord,
The majesty of our God.
³ Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble.
⁴ Say to those with anxious heart,
“Take courage, fear not.
Behold, your God will come with vengeance;
The recompense of God will come,
But He will save you.”
⁵ Then the eyes of the blind will be opened
And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
⁶ Then the lame will leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.
For waters will break forth in the wilderness
And streams in the Arabah.
⁷ The scorched land will become a pool
And the thirsty ground springs of water;
In the haunt of jackals, its resting place,
Grass becomes reeds and rushes.
⁸ A highway will be there, a roadway,
And it will be called the Highway of Holiness.
The unclean will not travel on it,
But it will be for him who walks that way,
And fools will not wander on it.
⁹ No lion will be there,
Nor will any vicious beast go up on it;
These will not be found there.
But the redeemed will walk there,
¹⁰ And the ransomed of the Lord will return
And come with joyful shouting to Zion,
With everlasting joy upon their heads.
They will find gladness and joy,
And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation (www.lockman.org)

Psalm 34:12-14

¹² Who is the man who desires life
And loves length of days that he may see good?
¹³ Keep your tongue from evil
And your lips from speaking deceit.
¹⁴ Depart from evil and do good;
Seek peace and pursue it.

Isaiah 26:3

³ “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace,
Because he trusts in You.

Philippians 4:6-7

⁶ Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

2 Thessalonians 3:16

¹⁶ Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all!

Things to Consider While You Read:

Scripture: Take time reading and allow God to speak to you. When you are done, look for a verse that particularly spoke to you, write it out.

Observation: What do you think God is saying to you in this scripture? Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and reveal Jesus to you.

Application: Personalize what you have read by asking yourself how it applies to your life right now.

Prayer: Ask God to help you use this scripture. Pray for a greater insight on what He may be revealing to you.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation (www.lockman.org)

Colossians 1:15-23

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶ For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. ¹⁸ He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. ¹⁹ For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, ²⁰ and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

²¹ And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, ²² yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— ²³ if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

Things to Consider While You Read:

Scripture: Take time reading and allow God to speak to you. When you are done, look for a verse that particularly spoke to you, write it out.

Observation: What do you think God is saying to you in this scripture? Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and reveal Jesus to you.

Application: Personalize what you have read by asking yourself how it applies to your life right now.

Prayer: Ask God to help you use this scripture. Pray for a greater insight on what He may be revealing to you.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation (www.lockman.org)

John 14:15-30

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

Role of the Spirit

¹⁶ I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; ¹⁷ that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

¹⁸ “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹ After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. ²⁰ In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. ²¹ He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” ²² Judas (not Iscariot) *said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” ²³ Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. ²⁴ He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.

²⁵ “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. ²⁶ But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. ²⁷ Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. ²⁸ You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. ²⁹ Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe. ³⁰ I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me;

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation (www.lockman.org)

Ephesians 2:13-22

But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, ¹⁵ by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. ¹⁷ And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; ¹⁸ for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹ So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, ²⁰ having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, ²¹ in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, ²² in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation (www.lockman.org)