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Genesis 12:1-9

12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.

12:2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

12:4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him.   Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

12:5 Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother's son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan.  When they had come to the land of Canaan,

12:6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh.  At that time the Canaanites were in the land.

12:7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, "To your offspring I will give this land."  So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

12:8 From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord.

12:9 And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.

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Psalm 33:1-12

33:1 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous.  Praise befits the upright.

33:2 Praise the Lord with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.

33:3 Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

33:4 For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.

33:5 He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

33:6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.

33:7 He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle; he put the deeps in storehouses.

33:8 Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

33:9 For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.

33:10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.

33:11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

33:12 Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.

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Hosea 5:15-6:6

5:15 I will return again to my place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face.  In their distress they will beg my favor:

6:1 "Come, let us return to the Lord; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up.

6:2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.

6:3 Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord; his appearing is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth."

6:4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?  What shall I do with you, O Judah?  Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early.

6:5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have killed them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light.

6:6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

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Psalm 50:7-15

50:7 "Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, I will testify against you.   I am God, your God.

50:8 Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me.

50:9 I will not accept a bull from your house, or goats from your folds.

50:10 For every wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.

50:11 I know all the birds of the air, and all that moves in the field is mine.

50:12 "If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and all that is in it is mine.

50:13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? 

50:14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High.

50:15 Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me."

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Romans 4:13-25

4:13 For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith.

4:14 If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.

4:15 For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

4:16 For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us,

4:17 as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations")-- in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

4:18 Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become "the father of many nations," according to what was said, "So numerous shall your descendants be."

4:19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.

4:20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,

4:21 being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

4:22 Therefore his faith "was reckoned to him as righteousness."

4:23 Now the words, "it was reckoned to him," were written not for his sake alone,

4:24 but for ours also.  It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,

4:25 who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

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Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

9:9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, "Follow me."  And he got up and followed him.

9:10 And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples.

9:11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

9:12 But when he heard this, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

9:13 Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'  For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners."

9:18 While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, "My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live."

9:19 And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples.

9:20 Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak,

9:21 for she said to herself, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well."

9:22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, "Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well." and instantly the woman was made well.

9:23 When Jesus came to the leader's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion,

9:24 he said, "Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping."   And they laughed at him.

9:25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.

9:26 And the report of this spread throughout that district.

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