Homecoming

Look, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

For your waste and desolate places and your land marked by ruins — will now be indeed too small for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away.

Yet as you listen, the children that you have been deprived of will say, ‘This place is too small for me; make room for me so that I may settle.’

For I know the plans I have for you”  — this is the LORD’s declaration — “plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

For this is what the LORD says: Sing with joy for Jacob; shout for the foremost of the nations! Proclaim, praise, and say, “LORD, save your people, the remnant of Israel!”

Watch! I am going to bring them from the northern land. I will gather them from remote regions of the earth  — the blind and the lame will be with them, along with those who are pregnant and those about to give birth. They will return here as a great assembly!

They will come weeping, but I will bring them back with consolation. I will lead them to wadis filled with water, by a smooth way where they will not stumble, for I am Israel’s Father, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

Nations, hear the word of the LORD, and tell it among the far off coasts and islands! Say, “The one who scattered Israel will gather him. He will watch over him as a shepherd guards his flock,

Jesus did not let him but told him, “Go home to your own people, and report to them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you.”

He also said: “A man had two sons.

The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me.’ So he distributed the assets to them.

Not many days later, the younger son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his estate in foolish living.

After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing.

Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

He longed to eat his fill from the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one would give him anything.

When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger!

I’ll get up, go to my father, and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.

I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired workers.”’

So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him.

The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.’

“But the father told his servants, ‘Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let’s celebrate with a feast,

because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found! ’ So they began to celebrate.

“Now his older son was in the field; as he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.

So he summoned one of the servants, questioning what these things meant.

‘Your brother is here,’ he told him, ‘and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

“Then he became angry and didn’t want to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him.

But he replied to his father, ‘Look, I have been slaving many years for you, and I have never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends.

But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.’

“‘Son,’ he said to him, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

In my Father’s house are many rooms; if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you.

“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.

For we know that if our earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands.

Indeed, we groan in this tent, desiring to put on our heavenly dwelling,

since, when we have taken it off, we will not be found naked.

Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.

So we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.

For we walk by faith, not by sight.

In fact, we are confident, and we would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

Therefore, since we know the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade people. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your consciences.

We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, so that you may have a reply for those who take pride in outward appearance rather than in the heart.

For if we are out of our mind, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.

For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If one died for all, then all died.

And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.

From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: “Be reconciled to God.”

He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful.

Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us,

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: To the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. Greetings.

Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials,

because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God — who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly — and it will be given to him.

But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord,

being double-minded and unstable in all his ways.

Let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his exaltation,

but let the rich boast in his humiliation because he will pass away like a flower of the field.

For the sun rises and, together with the scorching wind, dries up the grass; its flower falls off, and its beautiful appearance perishes. In the same way, the rich person will wither away while pursuing his activities.

Blessed is the one who endures trials, because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God,” since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone.

But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire.

Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.

Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.

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

By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,

for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.

Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror.

For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was.

But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works — this person will be blessed in what he does.

If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself.

Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father — Jesus Christ the righteous one.

He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.

This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commands.

The one who says, “I have come to know him,” and yet doesn’t keep his commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

But whoever keeps his word, truly in him the love of God is made complete. This is how we know we are in him:

The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked.

Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old command that you have had from the beginning. The old command is the word you have heard.

Yet I am writing you a new command, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

The one who says he is in the light but hates his brother or sister is in the darkness until now.

The one who loves his brother or sister remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.

But the one who hates his brother or sister is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he’s going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

I am writing to you, little children, since your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.

I am writing to you, fathers, because you have come to know the one who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have conquered the evil one.

I have written to you, children, because you have come to know the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have come to know the one who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, God’s word remains in you, and you have conquered the evil one.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For everything in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions — is not from the Father, but is from the world.

And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.

Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. By this we know that it is the last hour.

They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.

I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth.

Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son.

No one who denies the Son has the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well.

What you have heard from the beginning is to remain in you. If what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father.

And this is the promise that he himself made to us: eternal life.

I have written these things to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you.

As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you don’t need anyone to teach you. Instead, his anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie; just as it has taught you, remain in him.

So now, little children, remain in him so that when he appears we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

If you know that he is righteous, you know this as well: Everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands.

And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!

All the angels stood around the throne, and along with the elders and the four living creatures they fell facedown before the throne and worshiped God,

saying, Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen.