4 Go to the Lord for help;

and worship him continually.

11 Go to the Lord for help,

and worship him continually.

6 Turn to the Lord and pray to him,

now that he is near.

4 I have asked the Lord for one thing;

one thing only do I want:

to live in the Lord's house all my life,

to marvel there at his goodness,

and to ask for his guidance.

10 One day spent in your Temple

is better than a thousand anywhere else;

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

than live in the homes of the wicked.

11 You will show me the path that leads to life;

your presence fills me with joy

and brings me pleasure forever.

17 The righteous call to the Lord, and he listens;

he rescues them from all their troubles.

18 The Lord is near to those who are discouraged;

he saves those who have lost all hope.

5 Show a gentle attitude toward everyone. The Lord is coming soon.

13 But now, in union with Christ Jesus you, who used to be far away, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.*

6 I know that your goodness and love will be with me all my life;

and your house will be my home as long as I live.

18 "When I go, you will not be left all alone; I will come back to you.

57 May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us or abandon us;

31 And yet, because your mercy is great,

you did not forsake or destroy them.

You are a gracious and merciful God!

16 May the Lord himself, who is our source of peace, give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with you all.

11 And now, my friends, good-bye! Strive for perfection; listen to my appeals; agree with one another; live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.

13 We are sure that we live in union with God and that he lives in union with us, because he has given us his Spirit.

18 No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

28 Moses stayed there with the Lord forty days and nights, eating and drinking nothing. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.

9 heal the sick in that town, and say to the people there, ‘The Kingdom of God has come near you.’

1 The spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded, 2 and he went to meet King Asa. He called out, "Listen to me, King Asa, and all you people of Judah and Benjamin! The Lord is with you as long as you are with him. If you look for him, he will let you find him, but if you turn away, he will abandon you. 3 For a long time Israel lived without the true God, without priests to teach them, and without a law. 4 But when trouble came, they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel. They searched for him and found him. 5 In those days no one could come and go in safety, because there was trouble and disorder in every land. 6 One nation oppressed another nation, and one city oppressed another city, because God was bringing trouble and distress on them. 7 But you must be strong and not be discouraged. The work that you do will be rewarded."

8 When Asa heard the prophecy that Azariah son of* Oded had spoken, he was encouraged. He did away with all the idols in the land of Judah and Benjamin and all the idols in the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He also repaired the altar of the Lord that stood in the Temple courtyard.

9 Many people had come over to Asa’s side from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, and were living in his kingdom, because they had seen that the Lord was with him. Asa summoned all of them and the people of Judah and Benjamin. 10 They assembled in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year that Asa was king. 11 On that day they offered sacrifices to the Lord from the loot they had brought back: seven hundred head of cattle and seven thousand sheep. 12 They made a covenant in which they agreed to worship the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul. 13 Anyone, young or old, male or female, who did not worship him was to be put to death. 14 In a loud voice they took an oath in the Lord's name that they would keep the covenant, and then they shouted and blew trumpets. 15 All the people of Judah were happy because they had made this covenant with all their heart. They took delight in worshiping the Lord, and he accepted them and gave them peace on every side.

16 King Asa removed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made an obscene idol of the fertility goddess Asherah. Asa cut down the idol, chopped it up, and burned the pieces in Kidron Valley. 17 Even though Asa did not destroy all the pagan places of worship in the land, he remained faithful to the Lord all his life. 18 He placed in the Temple all the objects his father Abijah had dedicated to God, as well as the gold and silver objects that he himself dedicated. 19 There was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of his reign.