My conversation and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium compete, but only one receives the prize? So run to win.

It is the same with you. Since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, ¹  seek to abound in order to strengthen the church.

Brothers and sisters, ¹  do not be children in your thinking. Instead, be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.

and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you – unless you believed in vain.

Sober up as you should, and stop sinning! For some have no knowledge of God – I say this to your shame!

Let the peace of Christ be in control in your heart (for you were in fact called as one body ¹  to this peace), and be thankful.

Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the later times some will desert the faith and occupy themselves ¹  with deceiving spirits and demonic teachings, ² 

“Therefore, I became provoked at that generation and said, ‘Their hearts are always wandering ¹  and they have not known my ways.’

Indeed, as long as I am in this tabernacle, ¹  I consider it right to stir you up by way of a reminder,

Look! I am throwing her onto a bed of violent illness, ¹  and those who commit adultery with her into terrible suffering, ²  unless they repent of her deeds.

Hushai went on to say, “You know your father and his men – they are soldiers and are as dangerous as a bear out in the wild that has been robbed of her cubs. ¹  Your father is an experienced soldier; he will not stay overnight with the army.

“And you, Solomon my son, obey ¹  the God of your father and serve him with a submissive attitude and a willing spirit, ²  for the Lord examines all minds and understands every motive of one’s thoughts. If you seek him, he will let you find him, ³  but if you abandon him, he will reject you permanently.

When I had made an inspection, ¹  I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the great and awesome Lord, ²  and fight on behalf of your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your families!” ³ 

These days were to be remembered and to be celebrated in every generation and in every family, every province, and every city. The Jews were not to fail to observe these days of Purim; the remembrance of them was not to cease among their descendants.

In those days, your population will greatly increase ¹  in the land. At that time,” says the Lord, “people will no longer talk about having the ark ²  that contains the Lord’s covenant with us. ³  They will not call it to mind, remember it, or miss it. No, that will not be done any more! ⁴ 

“And you, son of man, this is what will happen on the day I take ¹  from them their stronghold – their beautiful source of joy, the object in which their eyes delight, and the main concern of their lives, ²  as well as their sons and daughters: ³ 

therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Surely I have spoken in the fire of my zeal against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who with great joy and utter contempt have made my land their property and prey, because of its pasture.’

But the Lord saw ¹  that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination ²  of the thoughts ³  of their minds ⁴  was only evil ⁵  all the time. ⁶ 

But seven years of famine will occur ¹  after them, and all the abundance will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will devastate ²  the land.