Christian Relationship Advice: Why Establishing a Strong Friendship Matters

The Church - Ephesians 4

Living With Enthusiasm: A 5 Devotional by Justeina Brownlee

Finding God’s Love in Our Wounds

Gone Fishin' Six

The Desire for Control

Emulating Jesus in a Dark World

A Year in Luke/Acts

Christmas Planting

Making Eye Contact With God - Discovering God's Personality

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">
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 <div class="chapter ch15" data-usfm="GEN.15">
 <div class="label">15</div><div class="s1">The Lord&#8217;s Covenant With Abram</div><div class="p">1After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:</div><div class="q1">&#8220;Do not be afraid, Abram.</div><div class="q2">I am your shield,#15:1 Or sovereign</div><div class="q2">your very great reward.#15:1 Or shield; / your reward will be very great&#8221;</div><div class="p">2But Abram said, &#8220;Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit#15:2 The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain. my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?&#8221; 3And Abram said, &#8220;You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.&#8221;</div><div class="p">4Then the word of the Lord came to him: &#8220;This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.&#8221; 5He took him outside and said, &#8220;Look up at the sky and count the stars&#8212;if indeed you can count them.&#8221; Then he said to him, &#8220;So shall your offspring#15:5 Or seed be.&#8221;</div><div class="p">6Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.</div><div class="p">7He also said to him, &#8220;I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.&#8221;</div><div class="p">8But Abram said, &#8220;Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?&#8221;</div><div class="p">9So the Lord said to him, &#8220;Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.&#8221;</div><div class="p">10Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.</div><div class="p">12As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13Then the Lord said to him, &#8220;Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.&#8221;</div><div class="p">17When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, &#8220;To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi#15:18 Or river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates&#8212; 19the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.&#8221;</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkGEN">
 <div class="chapter ch16" data-usfm="GEN.16">
 <div class="label">16</div><div class="s1">Hagar and Ishmael</div><div class="p">1Now Sarai, Abram&#8217;s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2so she said to Abram, &#8220;The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.&#8221;</div><div class="p">Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.</div><div class="p">When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5Then Sarai said to Abram, &#8220;You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.&#8221;</div><div class="p">6&#8220;Your slave is in your hands,&#8221; Abram said. &#8220;Do with her whatever you think best.&#8221; Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.</div><div class="p">7The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8And he said, &#8220;Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;I&#8217;m running away from my mistress Sarai,&#8221; she answered.</div><div class="p">9Then the angel of the Lord told her, &#8220;Go back to your mistress and submit to her.&#8221; 10The angel added, &#8220;I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.&#8221;</div><div class="p">11The angel of the Lord also said to her:</div><div class="q1">&#8220;You are now pregnant</div><div class="q2">and you will give birth to a son.</div><div class="q1">You shall name him Ishmael,#16:11 Ishmael means God hears.</div><div class="q2">for the Lord has heard of your misery.</div><div class="q1">12He will be a wild donkey of a man;</div><div class="q2">his hand will be against everyone</div><div class="q2">and everyone&#8217;s hand against him,</div><div class="q1">and he will live in hostility</div><div class="q2">toward#16:12 Or live to the east / of all his brothers.&#8221;</div><div class="p">13She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: &#8220;You are the God who sees me,&#8221; for she said, &#8220;I have now seen#16:13 Or seen the back of the One who sees me.&#8221; 14That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi#16:14 Beer Lahai Roi means well of the Living One who sees me.; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.</div><div class="p">15So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. 16Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkLUK">
 <div class="chapter ch8" data-usfm="LUK.8">
 <div class="label">8</div><div class="s1">The Parable of the Sower</div><div class="p">1After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, 2and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; 3Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod&#8217;s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.</div><div class="p">4While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: 5&#8220;A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. 6Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.&#8221;</div><div class="p">When he said this, he called out, &#8220;Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.&#8221;</div><div class="p">9His disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10He said, &#8220;The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,</div><div class="q1">&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;though seeing, they may not see;</div><div class="q2">though hearing, they may not understand.&#8217; #8:10 Isaiah 6:9</div><div class="p">11 &#8220;This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. 14The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life&#8217;s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. 15But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.</div><div class="s1">A Lamp on a Stand</div><div class="p">16 &#8220;No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. 17For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. 18Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.&#8221;</div><div class="s1">Jesus&#8217; Mother and Brothers</div><div class="p">19Now Jesus&#8217; mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. 20Someone told him, &#8220;Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.&#8221;</div><div class="p">21He replied, &#8220;My mother and brothers are those who hear God&#8217;s word and put it into practice.&#8221;</div><div class="s1">Jesus Calms the Storm</div><div class="p">22One day Jesus said to his disciples, &#8220;Let us go over to the other side of the lake.&#8221; So they got into a boat and set out. 23As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.</div><div class="p">24The disciples went and woke him, saying, &#8220;Master, Master, we&#8217;re going to drown!&#8221;</div><div class="p">He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 25&#8220;Where is your faith?&#8221; he asked his disciples.</div><div class="p">In fear and amazement they asked one another, &#8220;Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.&#8221;</div><div class="s1">Jesus Restores a Demon-Possessed Man</div><div class="p">26They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes,#8:26 Some manuscripts Gadarenes; other manuscripts Gergesenes; also in verse 37 which is across the lake from Galilee. 27When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. 28When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, &#8220;What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don&#8217;t torture me!&#8221; 29For Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.</div><div class="p">30Jesus asked him, &#8220;What is your name?&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;Legion,&#8221; he replied, because many demons had gone into him. 31And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.</div><div class="p">32A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission. 33When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.</div><div class="p">34When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, 35and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus&#8217; feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 36Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. 37Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left.</div><div class="p">38The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39&#8220;Return home and tell how much God has done for you.&#8221; So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.</div><div class="s1">Jesus Raises a Dead Girl and Heals a Sick Woman</div><div class="p">40Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. 41Then a man named Jairus, a synagogue leader, came and fell at Jesus&#8217; feet, pleading with him to come to his house 42because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying.</div><div class="p">As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. 43And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years,#8:43 Many manuscripts years, and she had spent all she had on doctors but no one could heal her. 44She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.</div><div class="p">45 &#8220;Who touched me?&#8221; Jesus asked.</div><div class="p">When they all denied it, Peter said, &#8220;Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.&#8221;</div><div class="p">46But Jesus said, &#8220;Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.&#8221;</div><div class="p">47Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. 48Then he said to her, &#8220;Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.&#8221;</div><div class="p">49While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. &#8220;Your daughter is dead,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Don&#8217;t bother the teacher anymore.&#8221;</div><div class="p">50Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, &#8220;Don&#8217;t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.&#8221;</div><div class="p">51When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child&#8217;s father and mother. 52Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. &#8220;Stop wailing,&#8221; Jesus said. &#8220;She is not dead but asleep.&#8221;</div><div class="p">53They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. 54But he took her by the hand and said, &#8220;My child, get up!&#8221; 55Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. 56Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.</div>
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