Key Thought

Today's Prayer

O holy and righteous Father, conform me to your character and write your moral will on my heart so that I can display it in my daily life. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Today's Verses in Context

People brought their small children to Jesus, so that Jesus could touch them. But the followers told the people to stop bringing their children to Jesus. Jesus saw what happened. He did not like his followers telling the children not to come. Jesus said to them, "Let the little children come to me. Don't stop them, because the kingdom of God belongs to people that are like these little children. I tell you the truth. You must accept the kingdom of God like a little child accepts things, or you will never enter it." Then Jesus held the children in his arms. Jesus put his hands on them and blessed them. Jesus started to leave, but a man ran to him and bowed on his knees before Jesus. The man asked, "Good teacher, what must I do to get the life that never ends?" Jesus answered, "Why do you call me good? No person is good. Only God is good. {But I will answer your question.} You know the commands: 'You must not murder anyone, you must not do the sin of adultery, you must not steal, you must not lie, you must not cheat, you must honor (respect) your father and mother

Related Scripture Readings

Then God said, "I am the Lord your God. I led you out of the land of Egypt where you were slaves. {So you must obey these commands:} "You must not worship any other gods except me. "You must not make any idols. Don't make any statues or pictures of anything up in the sky or of anything on the earth or of anything down in the water. Don't worship or serve idols of any kind. Why? Because I, the Lord, am your God. I hate my people worshiping other gods. People who sin against me become my enemies. And I will punish those people. And I will punish their children, their grandchildren, and even their great-grandchildren. But I will be very kind to people who love me and obey my commands. I will be kind to their families for thousands of generations! "You must not use the name of the Lord your God in a wrong way. If a person uses the Lord's name in a wrong way, then that person is guilty. And the Lord will not make him innocent. "You must remember to keep the Sabbath a special day. Work at your job six days a week. But the seventh day is a day of rest in honor of the Lord your God. So on that day no person should work—not you, your sons and daughters, or your men and women slaves. Even your animals and the foreigners living in your cities must not work! Why? Because the Lord worked six days and made the sky, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. And on the seventh day, God rested. In this way, the Lord blessed the Sabbath—the day of rest. The Lord made that a very special day. "You must honor (respect) your father and your mother. Do this so you will have a full life in the land that the Lord your God gives you. "You must not murder anyone. "You must not do the sin of adultery. "You must not steal anything. "You must not tell lies about other people. "You must not want to take your neighbor's house. You must not want his wife. And you must not want his men and women servants, or his cattle, or his donkeys. You must not want to take anything that belongs to anotherperson!"

So now people that are in Christ Jesus are not judged guilty. Why? Because in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit that brings life made you free. It made you free from the law that brings sin and death. The law was without power because the law was made weak by our sinful selves. But God did what the law could not do. God sent his own Son to earth with the same human life that other people use for sin. God sent his Son to be an offering to pay for sin. So God used a human life to condemn (destroy) sin. God did this so that we could be right like the law said we must be. Now we don't live following our sinful selves. We live following the Spirit.

"In the future, I will make this Agreement with the people of Israel." This message is from the Lord. "I will put my teachings in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.