Below are the full scriptures as taken from the
New King James Version for our weekly thoughts.
New King James Version for our weekly thoughts.
Thought For the Week
November 2, 2008
Romans 8
Free from Indwelling Sin
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the
flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law
of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous
requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live
according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor
indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not
have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit
is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He
who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Sonship Through the Spirit
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live
according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of
bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The
Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of
God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
From Suffering to Glory
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which
shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the
sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in
hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious
liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs
together until now. 23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan
within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. 24 For we were saved in this
hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for
what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought,
but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 Now He who
searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints
according to the will of God.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called
according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His
Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also
called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
God’s Everlasting Love
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare
His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who
shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who
died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:
“ For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that
neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor
height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
November 9,2008
Matthew 6
Do Good to Please God
1 “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have
no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet
before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men.
Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 3 But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand
know what your right hand is doing, 4 that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in
secret will Himself reward you openly.
The Model Prayer
5 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues
and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their
reward. 6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father
who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. 7 And when you pray, do
not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.
8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. 9 In
this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
13 And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not
forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Fasting to Be Seen Only by God
16 “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their
faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 17 But you,
when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to
your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
Lay Up Treasures in Heaven
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in
and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where
thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The Lamp of the Body
22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if
your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how
great is that darkness!
You Cannot Serve God and Riches
24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to
the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your
body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of
the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not
of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor
spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God
so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more
clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32
For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its
own trouble.
November 17, 2008
Jeremiah 29
Jeremiah’s Letter to the Captives
1 Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remainder of the
elders who were carried away captive—to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar
had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2 (This happened after Jeconiah the king, the queen
mother, the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths had departed from
Jerusalem.) 3 The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah,
whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, saying,
4 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to
be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5 Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. 6 Take wives and beget sons and
daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and
daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. 7 And seek the peace of the city where I
have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace. 8
For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your
midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. 9 For they prophesy falsely to
you in My name; I have not sent them, says the LORD.
10 For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good
word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says
the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me
and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me
with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will
gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring
you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.
15 Because you have said, “The LORD has raised up prophets for us in Babylon”— 16 therefore thus says the
LORD concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, concerning all the people who dwell in this city, and
concerning your brethren who have not gone out with you into captivity— 17 thus says the LORD of hosts:
Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like rotten figs that
cannot be eaten, they are so bad. 18 And I will pursue them with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence;
and I will deliver them to trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth—to be a curse, an astonishment, a
hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, 19 because they have not heeded My
words, says the LORD, which I sent to them by My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them;
neither would you heed, says the LORD. 20 Therefore hear the word of the LORD, all you of the captivity,
whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon.
21 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and Zedekiah the son
of Maaseiah, who prophesy a lie to you in My name: Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon, and he shall slay them before your eyes. 22 And because of them a curse shall be taken up by
all the captivity of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, “The LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the
king of Babylon roasted in the fire”; 23 because they have done disgraceful things in Israel, have committed
adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and have spoken lying words in My name, which I have not commanded
them. Indeed I know, and am a witness, says the LORD.
24 You shall also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying, 25 Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, the God of
Israel, saying: You have sent letters in your name to all the people who are at Jerusalem, to Zephaniah the son
of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying, 26 “The LORD has made you priest instead of Jehoiada
the priest, so that there should be officers in the house of the LORD over every man who is demented and
considers himself a prophet, that you should put him in prison and in the stocks. 27 Now therefore, why have
you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth who makes himself a prophet to you? 28 For he has sent to us in
Babylon, saying, ‘This captivity is long; build houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens and eat their fruit.’”
29 Now Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the hearing of Jeremiah the prophet. 30 Then the word of the
LORD came to Jeremiah, saying: 31 Send to all those in captivity, saying, Thus says the LORD concerning
Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, and I have not sent him, and he has
caused you to trust in a lie— 32 therefore thus says the LORD: Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite
and his family: he shall not have anyone to dwell among this people, nor shall he see the good that I will do for
My people, says the LORD, because he has taught rebellion against the LORD.
November 24, 2008
1 Chronicles 16
The Ark Placed in the Tabernacle
1 So they brought the ark of God, and set it in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it. Then
they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. 2 And when David had finished offering the burnt
offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD. 3 Then he distributed to
everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to everyone a loaf of bread, a piece of meat, and a cake of raisins.
4 And he appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the LORD, to commemorate, to thank, and
to praise the LORD God of Israel: 5 Asaph the chief, and next to him Zechariah, then Jeiel, Shemiramoth,
Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, and Obed-Edom: Jeiel with stringed instruments and harps, but Asaph made
music with cymbals; 6 Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests regularly blew the trumpets before the ark of the
covenant of God.
David’s Song of Thanksgiving
7 On that day David first delivered this psalm into the hand of Asaph and his brethren, to thank the LORD:
8 Oh, give thanks to the LORD!
Call upon His name;
Make known His deeds among the peoples!
9 Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him;
Talk of all His wondrous works!
10 Glory in His holy name;
Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the LORD!
11 Seek the LORD and His strength;
Seek His face evermore!
12 Remember His marvelous works which He has done,
His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth,
13 O seed of Israel His servant,
You children of Jacob, His chosen ones!
14 He is the LORD our God;
His judgments are in all the earth.
15 Remember His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded, for a thousand generations,
16 The covenant which He made with Abraham,
And His oath to Isaac,
17 And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute,
To Israel for an everlasting covenant,
18 Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
As the allotment of your inheritance,”
19 When you were few in number,
Indeed very few, and strangers in it.
20 When they went from one nation to another,
And from one kingdom to another people,
21 He permitted no man to do them wrong;
Yes, He rebuked kings for their sakes,
22 Saying, “Do not touch My anointed ones,
And do My prophets no harm.”
23 Sing to the LORD, all the earth;
Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.
24 Declare His glory among the nations,
His wonders among all peoples.
25 For the LORD is great and greatly to be praised;
He is also to be feared above all gods.
26 For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
But the LORD made the heavens.
27 Honor and majesty are before Him;
Strength and gladness are in His place.
28 Give to the LORD, O families of the peoples,
Give to the LORD glory and strength.
29 Give to the LORD the glory due His name;
Bring an offering, and come before Him.
Oh, worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness!
30 Tremble before Him, all the earth.
The world also is firmly established,
It shall not be moved.
31 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad;
And let them say among the nations, “The LORD reigns.”
32 Let the sea roar, and all its fullness;
Let the field rejoice, and all that is in it.
33 Then the trees of the woods shall rejoice before the LORD,
For He is coming to judge the earth.
34 Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
35 And say, “Save us, O God of our salvation;
Gather us together, and deliver us from the Gentiles,
To give thanks to Your holy name,
To triumph in Your praise.”
36 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel
From everlasting to everlasting!
And all the people said, “Amen!” and praised the LORD.
Regular Worship Maintained
37 So he left Asaph and his brothers there before the ark of the covenant of the LORD to minister before the
ark regularly, as every day’s work required; 38 and Obed-Edom with his sixty-eight brethren, including Obed-
Edom the son of Jeduthun, and Hosah, to be gatekeepers; 39 and Zadok the priest and his brethren the
priests, before the tabernacle of the LORD at the high place that was at Gibeon, 40 to offer burnt offerings to
the LORD on the altar of burnt offering regularly morning and evening, and to do according to all that is written
in the Law of the LORD which He commanded Israel; 41 and with them Heman and Jeduthun and the rest who
were chosen, who were designated by name, to give thanks to the LORD, because His mercy endures forever;
42 and with them Heman and Jeduthun, to sound aloud with trumpets and cymbals and the musical instruments
of God. Now the sons of Jeduthun were gatekeepers.
43 Then all the people departed, every man to his house; and David returned to bless his house.
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