O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny.
Yet not one of them will fall to the ground
apart from the will of your Father.
And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

'For in him we live and move and have our being.'
As some of your own poets have said,
'We are his offspring.'

The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

In him we were also chosen,
having been predestined according to the plan of him
who works out everything in
conformity with the purpose of his will,
in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ,
might be for the praise of his glory.

My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

From one man he made every nation of men,
that they should inhabit the whole earth;
and he determined the times set for them
and the exact places where they should live.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
From birth I have relied on you;
you brought me forth from my mother's womb.
I will ever praise you.

You are doing the things your own father does."
"We are not illegitimate children," they protested.
"The only Father we have is God himself." Jesus said to them,
"If God were your Father, you would love me,
for I came from God and now am here.
I have not come on my own; but he sent me.
Why is my language not clear to you?
Because you are unable to hear what I say.
You belong to your father,
the devil and you want to carry out your father's desire.
He was a murderer from the beginning,
not holding to the truth,
for there is no truth in him.
When he lies, he speaks his native language,
for he is a liar and the father of lies.

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love.
Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him.
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us,
that we should be called children of God!
And that is what we are!
The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

If you, then, though you are evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father in heaven
give good gifts to those who ask him!
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Every good and perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights,
who does not change like shifting shadows.

So do not worry, saying,
'What shall we eat?' or
'What shall we drink?' or
'What shall we wear?'
For the pagans run after all these things
and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness
and all these things will be given to you as well.

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD,
"plans to prosper you and not to harm you
plans to give you hope and a future.
The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying:
"I have loved you with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with loving-kindness.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you

The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."

I will rejoice in doing them good
and will assuredly plant them in this
land with all my heart and soul.
'Call to me and I will answer you and
tell you great and
unsearchable things you do not know.'

But if from there you seek the LORD your God,
you will find him if you look for him with
all your heart and with all your soul.

Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
for it is God who works in you to will and
to act according to his good purpose.

20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably
more than all we ask or imagine,
according to his power that is at work within us,

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and
God our Father, who loved us and by his grace
gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,
encourage your hearts and strengthen
you in every good deed and word.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,
who comforts us in all our troubles,
so that we can comfort those in any trouble
with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
"Now the dwelling of God is with men,
and he will live with them. They will be his people,
and God himself will be with them and be their God.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain,
for the old order of things has passed away."

I in them and you in me.
May they be brought to complete unity
to let the world know that you sent me
and have loved them even as you have loved me.
I have made you known to them,
and will continue to make you known
in order that the love you have for me
may be in them and that I myself may be in them."

The Son is the radiance of God's glory
and the exact representation of his being,
sustaining all things by his powerful word.
After he had provided purification for sins,
he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

What, then, shall we say in response to this?
If God is for us, who can be against us?

All this is from God,
who reconciled us to himself through Christ
and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ,
not counting men's sins against them.
And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

"When he came to his senses, he said,
'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare,
and here I am starving to death!

Jesus replied: "
'Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind.'

-Xiaowei

8:17 AM