SIMPLE: Returning to the Essence of Easter

The Shift: Part 3

Daily Bible Reading— April 2025, God’s Strengthening Word: Assurance of Hope in Christ Jesus

Horizon Church April Bible Reading Plan - Strengthened by Grace: A Journey Through 1 & 2 Peter

Priceless

Redeeming Anger: Turning Pain Into Purpose

Financial Discipleship – the Bible on Restitution

The Transformed Life – a Call to Consecration

A New Way to Love Your Neighbor

Purpose in the Pause: Finding Hope in the Waiting

The Listener’s Bible®: NIV Edition

New International Version™  (Anglicised), Audio Edition

Holy Bible, New International Version™ (Anglicised), South Asian Audio Edition

<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkEZK">
 <div class="chapter ch1" data-usfm="EZK.1">
 <div class="label">1</div><div class="s1">Ezekiel&#8217;s Inaugural Vision</div><div class="p">1In my thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.</div><div class="p">2On the fifth of the month&#8212;it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin&#8212; 3the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, by the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians.#1:3 Or Chaldeans There the hand of the Lord was on him.</div><div class="p">4I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north&#8212;an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, 5and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was human, 6but each of them had four faces and four wings. 7Their legs were straight; their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze. 8Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. All four of them had faces and wings, 9and the wings of one touched the wings of another. Each one went straight ahead; they did not turn as they moved.</div><div class="p">10Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle. 11Such were their faces. They each had two wings spreading out upward, each wing touching that of the creature on either side; and each had two other wings covering its body. 12Each one went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they went. 13The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire or like torches. Fire moved back and forth among the creatures; it was bright, and lightning flashed out of it. 14The creatures sped back and forth like flashes of lightning.</div><div class="p">15As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. 16This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like topaz, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. 17As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced; the wheels did not change direction as the creatures went. 18Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around.</div><div class="p">19When the living creatures moved, the wheels beside them moved; and when the living creatures rose from the ground, the wheels also rose. 20Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. 21When the creatures moved, they also moved; when the creatures stood still, they also stood still; and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels rose along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.</div><div class="p">22Spread out above the heads of the living creatures was what looked something like a vault, sparkling like crystal, and awesome. 23Under the vault their wings were stretched out one toward the other, and each had two wings covering its body. 24When the creatures moved, I heard the sound of their wings, like the roar of rushing waters, like the voice of the Almighty,#1:24 Hebrew Shaddai like the tumult of an army. When they stood still, they lowered their wings.</div><div class="p">25Then there came a voice from above the vault over their heads as they stood with lowered wings. 26Above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne of lapis lazuli, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. 27I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. 28Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him.</div><div class="p">This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkEZK">
 <div class="chapter ch2" data-usfm="EZK.2">
 <div class="label">2</div><div class="s1">Ezekiel&#8217;s Call to Be a Prophet</div><div class="p">1He said to me, &#8220;Son of man,#2:1 The Hebrew phrase ben adam means human being. The phrase son of man is retained as a form of address here and throughout Ezekiel because of its possible association with &#8220;Son of Man&#8221; in the New Testament. stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.&#8221; 2As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.</div><div class="p">3He said: &#8220;Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have been in revolt against me to this very day. 4The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, &#8216;This is what the Sovereign Lord says.&#8217; 5And whether they listen or fail to listen&#8212;for they are a rebellious people&#8212;they will know that a prophet has been among them. 6And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or be terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people. 7You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. 8But you, son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not rebel like that rebellious people; open your mouth and eat what I give you.&#8221;</div><div class="p">9Then I looked, and I saw a hand stretched out to me. In it was a scroll, 10which he unrolled before me. On both sides of it were written words of lament and mourning and woe.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkEZK">
 <div class="chapter ch3" data-usfm="EZK.3">
 <div class="label">3</div><div class="p">1And he said to me, &#8220;Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the people of Israel.&#8221; 2So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.</div><div class="p">3Then he said to me, &#8220;Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.&#8221; So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.</div><div class="p">4He then said to me: &#8220;Son of man, go now to the people of Israel and speak my words to them. 5You are not being sent to a people of obscure speech and strange language, but to the people of Israel&#8212; 6not to many peoples of obscure speech and strange language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely if I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you. 7But the people of Israel are not willing to listen to you because they are not willing to listen to me, for all the Israelites are hardened and obstinate. 8But I will make you as unyielding and hardened as they are. 9I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people.&#8221;</div><div class="p">10And he said to me, &#8220;Son of man, listen carefully and take to heart all the words I speak to you. 11Go now to your people in exile and speak to them. Say to them, &#8216;This is what the Sovereign Lord says,&#8217; whether they listen or fail to listen.&#8221;</div><div class="p">12Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a loud rumbling sound as the glory of the Lord rose from the place where it was standing.#3:12 Probable reading of the original Hebrew text; Masoretic Text sound&#8212;may the glory of the Lord be praised from his place 13It was the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against each other and the sound of the wheels beside them, a loud rumbling sound. 14The Spirit then lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of the Lord on me. 15I came to the exiles who lived at Tel Aviv near the Kebar River. And there, where they were living, I sat among them for seven days&#8212;deeply distressed.</div><div class="s1">Ezekiel&#8217;s Task as Watchman</div><div class="p">16At the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me: 17&#8220;Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 18When I say to a wicked person, &#8216;You will surely die,&#8217; and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for#3:18 Or in; also in verses 19 and 20 their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. 19But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself.</div><div class="p">20&#8220;Again, when a righteous person turns from their righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before them, they will die. Since you did not warn them, they will die for their sin. The righteous things that person did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. 21But if you do warn the righteous person not to sin and they do not sin, they will surely live because they took warning, and you will have saved yourself.&#8221;</div><div class="p">22The hand of the Lord was on me there, and he said to me, &#8220;Get up and go out to the plain, and there I will speak to you.&#8221; 23So I got up and went out to the plain. And the glory of the Lord was standing there, like the glory I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell facedown.</div><div class="p">24Then the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet. He spoke to me and said: &#8220;Go, shut yourself inside your house. 25And you, son of man, they will tie with ropes; you will be bound so that you cannot go out among the people. 26I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, for they are a rebellious people. 27But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth and you shall say to them, &#8216;This is what the Sovereign Lord says.&#8217; Whoever will listen let them listen, and whoever will refuse let them refuse; for they are a rebellious people.</div>
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New International Version

<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkEZK">
 <div class="chapter ch33" data-usfm="EZK.33.1+EZK.33.2+EZK.33.3+EZK.33.4+EZK.33.5+EZK.33.6+EZK.33.7+EZK.33.8+EZK.33.9+EZK.33.10+EZK.33.11+EZK.33.12+EZK.33.13+EZK.33.14+EZK.33.15+EZK.33.16+EZK.33.17+EZK.33.18+EZK.33.19+EZK.33.20">
 <div class="p">1The word of the Lord came to me: 2&#8220;Son of man, speak to your people and say to them: &#8216;When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, 3and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, 4then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head. 5Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved themselves. 6But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone&#8217;s life, that person&#8217;s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.&#8217;</div><div class="p">7&#8220;Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 8When I say to the wicked, &#8216;You wicked person, you will surely die,&#8217; and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for#33:8 Or in; also in verse 9 their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. 9But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved.</div><div class="p">10&#8220;Son of man, say to the Israelites, &#8216;This is what you are saying: &#8220;Our offenses and sins weigh us down, and we are wasting away because of#33:10 Or away in them. How then can we live?&#8221;&#8198;&#8217; 11Say to them, &#8216;As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?&#8217;</div><div class="p">12&#8220;Therefore, son of man, say to your people, &#8216;If someone who is righteous disobeys, that person&#8217;s former righteousness will count for nothing. And if someone who is wicked repents, that person&#8217;s former wickedness will not bring condemnation. The righteous person who sins will not be allowed to live even though they were formerly righteous.&#8217; 13If I tell a righteous person that they will surely live, but then they trust in their righteousness and do evil, none of the righteous things that person has done will be remembered; they will die for the evil they have done. 14And if I say to a wicked person, &#8216;You will surely die,&#8217; but they then turn away from their sin and do what is just and right&#8212; 15if they give back what they took in pledge for a loan, return what they have stolen, follow the decrees that give life, and do no evil&#8212;that person will surely live; they will not die. 16None of the sins that person has committed will be remembered against them. They have done what is just and right; they will surely live.</div><div class="p">17&#8220;Yet your people say, &#8216;The way of the Lord is not just.&#8217; But it is their way that is not just. 18If a righteous person turns from their righteousness and does evil, they will die for it. 19And if a wicked person turns away from their wickedness and does what is just and right, they will live by doing so. 20Yet you Israelites say, &#8216;The way of the Lord is not just.&#8217; But I will judge each of you according to your own ways.&#8221;</div>
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