4 Seek the  Lord and his strength;

seek his face always.  *

11 Seek the  Lord and his strength;

seek his face always.  *

6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;

call to him while he is near.  *

4 I have asked one thing from the  Lord;

it is what I desire:

to dwell in the house of the  Lord

all the days of my life,  *

gazing on the beauty of the  Lord*

and seeking him in his temple.  *

10 Better a day in your courts

than a thousand anywhere else.

I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God

than live in the tents of wicked people.  *

11 You reveal the path of life to me;

in your presence is abundant joy;  *

at your right hand are eternal pleasures.  *

17 The righteous  * cry out, and the  Lord  hears,

and rescues them from all their troubles.  *

18 The Lord is near the brokenhearted;

he saves those crushed in spirit.  *

5 Let your graciousness  * be known to everyone. The Lord is near.  *

13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood  * of Christ.

6 Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me

all the days of my life,  *

and I will dwell in  *  the house of the  Lord

as long as I live.  *,*

18 "I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.

57 May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors. May he not abandon us or leave us  *

31 However, in your abundant compassion,

you did not destroy them or abandon them,  *

for you are a gracious and compassionate God.  *

16 May the Lord of peace  * himself give you peace always in every way.  * The Lord be with all of you.  *

11 Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice.  * Become mature, be encouraged,  * be of the same mind,  * be at peace,  * and the God of love  * and peace will be with you.

13 This is how we know that we remain in him  * and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.  *

18 No one has ever seen God. The one and only  * Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s  * side  *  — he has revealed him.  *

28 Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat food or drink water. He wrote the Ten Commandments,  * the words of the covenant, on the tablets.

9 Heal the sick*who are there, and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God*has come near*you.’

1 The Spirit of God came on Azariah son of Oded.  *2 So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, "Asa and all Judah and Benjamin, hear me. The Lord is with you  * when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you,  * but if you abandon him, he will abandon you.  *3 For many years Israel has been without the true God,  * without a teaching priest, and without instruction,  *4 but when they turned to the Lord God of Israel in their distress and sought him, he was found by them. 5 In those times there was no peace for those who went about their daily activities because the residents of the lands had many conflicts. 6 Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them with every possible distress. 7 But as for you, be strong; don’t give up,  * for your work has a reward."  *

8 When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the abhorrent idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim.  * He renovated the altar of the Lord that was in front of the portico of the Lord’s temple.  *9 Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, as well as those from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing among them, for they had defected to him from Israel in great numbers when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.  *

10 They were gathered in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign. 11 At that time they sacrificed to the Lord seven hundred cattle and seven thousand sheep and goats from all the plunder they had brought.  *12 Then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their ancestors with all their heart and all their soul.  *13 Whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel would be put to death, young or old,  * man or woman.  *14 They took an oath to the Lord in a loud voice, with shouting, with trumpets, and with rams’ horns. 15 All Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They had sought him with all sincerity, and he was found by them.  * So the Lord gave them rest on every side.  *

16 King Asa  * also removed Maacah, his grandmother,  *,* from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. Asa chopped down her obscene image, then crushed it and burned it in the Kidron Valley.  *17 The high places were not taken away from Israel; nevertheless, Asa was wholeheartedly devoted his entire life.  *18 He brought his father’s consecrated gifts and his own consecrated gifts into God’s temple: silver, gold, and utensils.

19 There was no war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.