Nrsv Bible Quotes

18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.

The heart of the wise inclines to the right,        but the heart of a fool to the left.

will appoint Peace as your overseer           and Righteousness as your taskmaster.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

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The True Wealth 13Happy are those who find wisdom, and those who get understanding, 14for her income is better than silver,

1It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; 2to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night,

Nothing can make up for the absence of someone whom we love, and it would be wrong to try to find a substitute; we must simply hold out and see it through. That sounds very hard at first, but at the same time it is a great consolation, for the gap, as long as it remains unfilled, preserves the bonds between us. It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap; God does not fill it, but on the contrary, God keeps it empty and so helps us keep alive our former communion with each other, even at the cost of pain. . . . The dearer and richer our memories, the more difficult the separation. But gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy. The beauties of the past are borne, not as a thorn in the flesh, but as a precious gift in themselves. We must take care not to wallow in our memories or to hand ourselves over to them, just as we do not gaze all the time at a valuable present, but only at special times, and apart from these keep it simply as a hidden treasure that is ours for certain. In this way the past gives us lasting joy and strength. —Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

Don’t bother about the idea that God “has known for millions of years exactly what you are about to pray.” That isn’t what it’s like. God is hearing you now, just as simply as a mother hears a child. The difference His timelessness makes is that this now (which slips away from you even as you say the word now) is for Him infinite.

IF THEN there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.

Only a bad person needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly. The worse you are the more you need it and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person—and he would not need it. Remember, this repentance, this willing submission to humiliation and a kind of death, is not something God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could let you off if He chose: it is simply a description of what going back to Him is like.

Although the American Standard Version (1901) had used “Jehovah” to render the tetragrammaton (the sound of y being represented by j and the sound of w by v, as in Latin), for two reasons the Committees that produced the RSV and the NRSV returned to the more familiar usage of the King James Version. (1) The word “Jehovah” does not accurately represent any form of the divine name ever used in Hebrew. (2) The use of any proper name for the one and only God, as though there were other gods from whom the true God had to be distinguished, began to be discontinued in Judaism before the Christian era and is inappropriate for the universal faith of the Christian church.

The Cost of Freedom God has made it a rule for Himself that He won’t alter people’s character by force. He can and will alter them—but only if the people will let Him. In that way He has really and truly limited His power. Sometimes we wonder why He has done so, or even wish that He hadn’t. But apparently He thinks it worth doing. He would rather have a world of free beings, with all its risks, than a world of people who did right like machines because they couldn’t do anything else. The more we succeed in imagining what a world of perfect automatic beings would be like, the more, I think, we shall see His wisdom. —from “ ‘The Trouble with “X,” ’ ” God in the Dock

Becoming the Enemy Where the tide flows towards increasing State control, Christianity, with its claims in one way personal and in the other way ecumenical and both ways antithetical to omnicompetent government, must always in fact (though not for a long time yet in words) be treated as an enemy. Like learning, like the family, like any ancient and liberal profession, like the common law, it gives the individual a standing ground against the State. Hence Rousseau, the father of the totalitarians, said wisely enough, from his own point of view, of Christianity, je ne connais rien de plus contrarie a l’esprit social [I know nothing more opposed to the social spirit] . . . . What a society has, that, be sure, and nothing else will it hand on to its young. The work is urgent, for men perish around us.

AN EXPLANATION OF TIME: “Son,” he said, “ye cannot in your present state understand eternity . . . . But ye can get some likeness of it if ye say that both good and evil, when they are full grown, become retrospective. Not only this valley but all their earthly past will have been Heaven to those who are saved. Not only the twilight in that town, but all their life on Earth too, will then be seen by the damned to have been Hell. That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say ‘Let me have but this and I’ll take the consequences’: little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man’s past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man’s past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why, at the end of all things, when the sun rises here and the twilight turns to blackness down there, the Blessed will say ‘We have never lived anywhere except

awaken in me a hunger and longing to weave your word into the fibers of my life.

The difficulty lies within the man for whom God has not yet become everything. If God were everything, the man would get along well wherever he went and among whatever people, for he would possess God and no one could rob him or disturb his work.

THUS says the LORD:           Maintain justice, and do what is right,

The LORD saw it, and it displeased him           that there was no justice.

O LORD, be gracious to us; we wait for you. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble. (Isaiah 33:2)

not fear, for I have redeemed you;           I have called you by name, you are mine.

The grass withers, the flower fades;           but the word of our God will stand forever.

will pour my spirit upon your descendants,           and my blessing on your offspring.

Do I recognize the difference between a good action designed to impress God and a good action simply inspired by God?

Look at the proud!           Their spirit is not right in them,           but the righteous live by their faith.

Almighty God, I may not like your chastisements, but I realize they are necessary.

The strength in your approach always seems to match the hardness of my heart.

Seek good and not evil,           that you may live;       and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you,

let justice roll down like waters,           and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

To “decide not to decide” is still a decision.

we will walk in the name of the LORD our God           forever and ever.

The law of cause and effect is a basic law of life. The Bible calls it the Law of Sowing and Reaping. “You reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit” (Gal. 6:7–8 NRSV). When God tells us that we will reap what we sow, he is not punishing us; he’s telling us how things really are. If you smoke cigarettes, you most likely will develop a smoker’s hack, and you may even get lung cancer. If you overspend, you most likely will get calls from creditors, and you may even go hungry because you have no money for food. On the other hand, if you eat right and exercise regularly, you may suffer from fewer colds and bouts with the flu. If you budget wisely, you will have money for the bill collectors and for the grocery store.

When I consider how I gained new life through the Savior’s pain, I am humbled and awed.

For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. —Mark 10:45

because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold.

break up your fallow ground;       for it is time to seek the LORD,

The ways of the LORD are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them. —Hosea 14:9b

I WILL bless the LORD at all times;       his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

The LORD redeems the life of his servants;           none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters. [14] Love One Another 11 For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We must

Of David. 1 TO YOU, O LORD, I lift up my soul. 2 O my God, in you I trust;                     do not let me be put to shame;           do not let my enemies exult over me. 3 Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame;           let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. 4 Make me to know your ways, O LORD;           teach me your paths. 5 Lead me in your truth, and teach me,           for you are the God of my salvation;           for you I wait all day long. 6 Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love,           for they have been from of old. 7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions;           according to your steadfast love remember me,           for your goodness’ sake, O LORD! 8 Good and upright is the LORD;           therefore he instructs sinners in the way. 9 He leads the humble in what is right,           and teaches the humble his way. 10 All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness,           for those who keep his covenant and his decrees. 11 For your name’s sake, O LORD,           pardon my guilt, for it is great. 12 Who are they that fear the LORD?           He will teach them the way that they should choose. 13 They will abide in prosperity,           and their children shall possess the land. 14 The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him,           and he makes his covenant known to them. 15 My eyes are ever toward the LORD,           for he will pluck my feet out of the net. 16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,           for I am lonely and afflicted. 17 Relieve the troubles of my heart,           and bring me [44] out of my distress. 18 Consider my affliction and my trouble,           and forgive all my sins. 19 Consider how many are my foes,           and with what violent hatred they hate me. 20 O guard my life, and deliver me;           do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. 21 May integrity and uprightness preserve me,           for I wait for you. 22 Redeem Israel, O God,           out of all its troubles.

The power of the Bible is most evident in its ability to change lives. It can transform a wealthy Italian playboy into a saint (Saint Francis of Assisi). By its amazing grace, it can transform a debauching, murderous slave trader into a humble abolitionist (John Newton). It can transfigure prostitutes into women of virtue, cowards into rocks of the church, and the proud into the meek.

I lie down and sleep;           I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.

Ascribe to the LORD the glory of his name;           worship the LORD in holy splendor.

THE LORD is my light and my salvation;           whom shall I fear?       The LORD is the stronghold [46] of my life;           of whom shall I be afraid?

Patience is a hard discipline. It is not just waiting until something happens over which we have no control: the arrival of the bus, the end of the rain, the return of a friend, the resolution of a conflict. Patience is not a waiting passivity until someone else does something. Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later, and somewhere else. Lets’ be patient and trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand.

They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever.

Inside ‘Hezekiah’s Tunnel’ in Jerusalem was the famous ‘Siloam Inscription’ describing the tunnel’s construction (see ‘Jerusalem in the 1st Millennium BCE’). Approximately contemporary was the inscription carved into the lintel of a rock-cut tomb at Silwan (Siloam), overlooking the Kidron valley and Jerusalem. The damaged inscription suggested that the tomb was that of someone whose name ended-yahu (usually anglicized as-iah in personal names) and who was (literally) ‘over the house’, that is, a steward. In Isaiah 22: 15–16, this precise description (NRSV ‘master of the household’) is used of the royal steward Shebna, who is criticized for ‘cutting a tomb on the height’.

Attending worship service and Bible study gave Black people a way to conceptualize their struggles within the larger struggle between good and evil.4 We cling to the scripture that says, “We boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Rom 5:3–5, NRSV).

many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother.

The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her,

They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

Take a look in your own Bible at these verses and see if they are in brackets, as in the NRSV, or have a footnote, as in the NIV, or are simply included with no note, as in the CEB, or not included at all, as in the RSV.

The statement in Daniel 12:1-4 (NRSV) that "many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" is usually cited as the earliest clear expression of this hope in the Bible.

For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

lived after the birth of Mahalalel eight hundred and forty years, and had other sons and daughters. 14Thus all the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died.

Rise up, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand;           do not forget the oppressed.

May he grant you your heart’s desire,           and fulfill all your plans. 5 May we shout for joy over your victory,           and in the name of our God set up our banners.       May the LORD fulfill all your petitions.

My foot stands on level ground;           in the great congregation I will bless the LORD.

God is my shield,           who saves the upright in heart.

Who is this King of glory?           The LORD of hosts,           he is the King of glory.

Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,           your judgments are like the great deep;           you save humans and animals alike, O LORD.

O Lord, all my longing is known to you;           my sighing is not hidden from you.

The law of the LORD is perfect,           reviving the soul;       the decrees of the LORD are sure,           making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the LORD are right,           rejoicing the heart;       the commandment of the LORD is clear,           enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the LORD is pure,           enduring forever;       the ordinances of the LORD are true           and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than gold,           even much fine gold;       sweeter also than honey,           and drippings of the honeycomb.

Happy are all who take refuge in him.

The salvation of the righteous is from the LORD;           he is their refuge in the time of trouble.

But I trusted in your steadfast love;           my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. 6 I will sing to the LORD,           because he has dealt bountifully with me.

The LORD is my strength and my shield;           in him my heart trusts;       so I am helped, and my heart exults,           and with my song I give thanks to him.

For his anger is but for a moment;           his favor is for a lifetime.       Weeping may linger for the night,           but joy comes with the morning.

Be strong, and let your heart take courage,           all you who wait for the LORD.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart           be acceptable to you,           O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

The LORD has heard my supplication;           the LORD accepts my prayer.

Happy is the nation whose God is the LORD,           the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.

O GIVE thanks to the LORD, for he is good;           for his steadfast love endures forever.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,           and let your glory be over all the earth.

Pray Lord God, it is difficult to comprehend that you would step from eternity to join us in time! How astounding it is to me that you would go to such lengths and cost to make eternity my hope. Thank you for glimpses of what life itself is all about.

I love you, O LORD, my strength. 2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer,           my God, my rock in whom I take refuge,           my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

8 I will both lie down and sleep in peace;           for you alone, O LORD, make me lie down in safety.

AS A deer longs for flowing streams,       so my soul longs for you, O God.

Be still, and know that I am God!           I am exalted among the nations,           I am exalted in the earth.

My Redeemer Lives

Bildad Speaks: God Punishes the Wicked

At the very least, we must concede the deep tension between these texts and what we learn of God from other places in the Bible: The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. (Ex 34:6, NRSV)