Celebrating Christmas

Thus said Jehovah: Unto the way of the nations accustom not yourselves, And by the signs of the heavens be not affrighted, For the nations are affrighted by them. — read the full passage →

And him who is weak in the faith receive ye--not to determinations of reasonings; — read the full passage →

because there was born to you to-day a Saviour--who is Christ the Lord--in the city of David,

For a Child hath been born to us, A Son hath been given to us, And the princely power is on his shoulder, And He doth call his name Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace. — read the full passage →

Therefore the Lord Himself giveth to you a sign, Lo, the Virgin is conceiving, And is bringing forth a son, And hath called his name Immanuel,

Let no one, then, judge you in eating or in drinking, or in respect of a feast, or of a new moon, or of sabbaths,

and having been made perfect, he did become to all those obeying him a cause of salvation age-during,

Rejoice exceedingly, O daughter of Zion, Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, Lo, thy King doth come to thee, Righteous--and saved is He, Afflicted--and riding on an ass, And on a colt--a son of she-asses.

And a rod hath come out from the stock of Jesse, And a branch from his roots is fruitful.

thanks also to God for His unspeakable gift!

and there shall be joy to thee, and gladness, and many at his birth shall joy,

And the Word became flesh, and did tabernacle among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of an only begotten of a father, full of grace and truth.

every good giving, and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the lights, with whom is no variation, or shadow of turning;

Jesus saith to him, `I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one doth come unto the Father, if not through me;

as days on which the Jews have rested from their enemies, and the month that hath been turned to them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning to a good day, to make them days of banquet and of joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the needy.

and this is the testimony, that life age-during did God give to us, and this--the life--is in His Son;

and the God of the hope shall fill you with all joy and peace in the believing, for your abounding in the hope in power of the Holy Spirit.

all things I did shew you, that, thus labouring, it behoveth <FI>us<Fi> to partake with the ailing, to be mindful also of the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.'

`The thief doth not come, except that he may steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they may have life, and may have <FI>it<Fi> abundantly.

See that no one shall be carrying you away as spoil through the philosophy and vain deceit, according to the deliverance of men, according to the rudiments of the world, and not according to Christ,

whom also having seized, he did put in prison, having delivered <FI>him<Fi> to four quaternions of soldiers to guard him, intending after the passover to bring him forth to the people.

Now gather thyself together, O daughter of troops, A siege he hath laid against us, With a rod they smite on the cheek the judge of Israel. — read the full passage →

this one God, a Prince and a Saviour, hath exalted with His right hand, to give reformation to Israel, and forgiveness of sins;

And all kings do bow themselves to him, All nations do serve him,

sanctify them in Thy truth, Thy word is truth;

Hear ye the word, O house of Israel, That Jehovah hath spoken for you. — read the full passage →

`Verily, verily, I say to you, he who is believing in me, the works that I do--that one also shall do, and greater than these he shall do, because I go on to my Father; — read the full passage →

but, there cometh an hour, and it now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father also doth seek such to worship him; — read the full passage →

`Three times thou dost keep a feast to Me in a year; — read the full passage →

Henceforth, brethren, rejoice; be made perfect, be comforted, be of the same mind, be at peace, and the God of the love and peace shall be with you;

and ye have taken to yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palms, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of a brook, and have rejoiced before Jehovah your God seven days.

`These <FI>are<Fi> appointed seasons of Jehovah, holy convocations, which ye proclaim in their appointed seasons: — read the full passage →

Seek ye Jehovah and His strength, Seek His face continually.

Therefore the Lord Himself giveth to you a sign, Lo, the Virgin is conceiving, And is bringing forth a son, And hath called his name Immanuel, — read the full passage →

For lo, the winter hath passed by, The rain hath passed away--it hath gone.

And lo, one having come near, said to him, `Good teacher, what good thing shall I do, that I may have life age-during?' — read the full passage →

Words of a Gatherer, son of an obedient one, the declaration, an affirmation of the man: --I have wearied myself <FI>for<Fi> God, I have wearied myself <FI>for<Fi> God, and am consumed. — read the full passage →

for to me to live <FI>is<Fi> Christ, and to die gain. — read the full passage →

Come, we sing to Jehovah, We shout to the rock of our salvation. — read the full passage →

Wherefore, having left the word of the beginning of the Christ, unto the perfection we may advance, not again a foundation laying of reformation from dead works, and of faith on God, — read the full passage →

I give thanks to my God, always making mention of thee in my prayers, — read the full passage →

`Peace I leave to you; my peace I give to you, not according as the world doth give do I give to you; let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid;

Then thou seest, and hast become bright, And thine heart hath been afraid and enlarged, For turn unto thee doth the multitude of the sea, The forces of nations do come to thee. — read the full passage →

Call with the throat, restrain not, As a trumpet lift up thy voice, And declare to My people their transgression, And to the house of Jacob their sins;

of the hospitality be not forgetful, for through this unawares certain did entertain messengers; — read the full passage →

For such a chief priest did become us--kind, harmless, undefiled, separate from the sinners, and become higher than the heavens, — read the full passage →

and the Writing having foreseen that by faith God doth declare righteous the nations did proclaim before the good news to Abraham-- — read the full passage →

I call upon you, therefore, brethren, through the compassions of God, to present your bodies a sacrifice--living, sanctified, acceptable to God--your intelligent service; — read the full passage →

`But I tell you the truth; it is better for you that I go away, for if I may not go away, the Comforter will not come unto you, and if I go on, I will send Him unto you; — read the full passage →

Go, eat with joy thy bread, and drink with a glad heart thy wine, for already hath God been pleased with thy works. — read the full passage →

And he maketh for himself houses in the city of David, and prepareth a place for the ark of God, and stretcheth out for it a tent. — read the full passage →

for when they may say, Peace and surety, then sudden destruction doth stand by them, as the travail <FI>doth<Fi> her who is with child, and they shall not escape;

and these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, they received the word with all readiness of mind, every day examining the Writings whether those things were so; — read the full passage →

And he, having lifted up his eyes to his disciples, said: `Happy the poor--because yours is the reign of God. — read the full passage →

Hearken unto Me, ye pursuing righteousness, Seeking Jehovah, Look attentively unto the rock--ye have been hewn, And unto the hole of the pit--ye have been digged. — read the full passage →

O the happiness of a man fearing continually, And whoso is hardening his heart falleth into evil. — read the full passage →

And I say, `Not good <FI>is<Fi> the thing that ye are doing; in the fear of our God do ye not walk, because of the reproach of the nations our enemies? — read the full passage →

and it hath been, from the brook thou dost drink, and the ravens I have commanded to sustain thee there.'

`When Jehovah thy God doth cut off the nations--whither thou art going in to possess them--from thy presence, and thou hast possessed them, and hast dwelt in their land-- — read the full passage →

After these things did Jesus manifest himself again to the disciples on the sea of Tiberias, and he did manifest himself thus: — read the full passage →

A crooked thing <FI>one<Fi> is not able to make straight, and a lacking thing is not able to be numbered. — read the full passage →

and set up for them standing-pillars and shrines on every high height, and under every green tree,

A son of twenty years <FI>is<Fi> Ahaz in his reigning, and sixteen years he hath reigned in Jerusalem, and he hath not done that which <FI>is<Fi> right in the eyes of Jehovah his God, like David his father, — read the full passage →

And they build--also they--for themselves high places, and standing-pillars, and shrines, on every high height, and under every green tree;

For no enchantment <FI>is<Fi> against Jacob, Nor divination against Israel, At the time it is said of Jacob and Israel, What hath God wrought! — read the full passage →

`And ye have kept all My statutes, and all My judgments, and have done them, and the land vomiteth you not out whither I am bringing you in to dwell in it; — read the full passage →

`Thou dost not take up the name of Jehovah thy God for a vain thing, for Jehovah acquitteth not him who taketh up His name for a vain thing. — read the full passage →

`And when they may finish their testimony, the beast that is coming up out of the abyss shall make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them, — read the full passage →

A revelation of Jesus Christ, that God gave to him, to shew to his servants what things it behoveth to come to pass quickly; and he did signify <FI>it<Fi> , having sent through his messenger to his servant John, — read the full passage →

My little children, these things I write to you, that ye may not sin: and if any one may sin, an advocate we have with the Father, Jesus Christ, a righteous one, — read the full passage →

to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and unfading, reserved in the heavens for you,

and if any of you do lack wisdom, let him ask from God, who is giving to all liberally, and not reproaching, and it shall be given to him; — read the full passage →

teaching us, that denying the impiety and the worldly desires, soberly and righteously and piously we may live in the present age,

for there shall be a season when the sound teaching they will not suffer, but according to their own desires to themselves they shall heap up teachers--itching in the hearing, — read the full passage →

As many as are servants under a yoke, their own masters worthy of all honour let them reckon, that the name of God and the teaching may not be evil spoken of;

nor to give heed to fables and endless genealogies, that cause questions rather than the building up of God that is in faith: -- — read the full passage →

because of the hope that is laid up for you in the heavens, which ye heard of before in the word of the truth of the good news, — read the full passage →

in which once ye did walk according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, — read the full passage →

And I say, so long time as the heir is a babe, he differeth nothing from a servant--being lord of all, — read the full passage →

Wherefore, my beloved, flee from the idolatry; — read the full passage →

And concerning the things sacrificed to idols, we have known that we all have knowledge: knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up; — read the full passage →

And I call upon you, brethren, to mark those who the divisions and the stumbling-blocks, contrary to the teaching that ye did learn, are causing, and turn ye away from them; — read the full passage →

for I delight in the law of God according to the inward man, — read the full passage →

After these things Jesus went away beyond the sea of Galilee (of Tiberias), — read the full passage →

And also the Pharisees, being lovers of money, were hearing all these things, and were deriding him, — read the full passage →

And he said unto them, `Observe, and beware of the covetousness, because not in the abundance of one's goods is his life.' — read the full passage →

lo, I give to you the authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and on all the power of the enemy, and nothing by any means shall hurt you; — read the full passage →

Seeing that many did take in hand to set in order a narration of the matters that have been fully assured among us, — read the full passage →

And gathered together unto him are the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, having come from Jerusalem, — read the full passage →

`Verily I say to you, Whatever things ye may bind upon the earth shall be having been bound in the heavens, and whatever things ye may loose on the earth shall be having been loosed in the heavens. — read the full passage →

Because of this I say to you, all sin and evil speaking shall be forgiven to men, but the evil speaking of the Spirit shall not be forgiven to men. — read the full passage →

`Ye may not, therefore, fear them, for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed, and hid, that shall not be known; — read the full passage →

A roll of the birth of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham. — read the full passage →

Hear this word that I am bearing to you, A lamentation, O house of Israel: — read the full passage →

Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because of the saying of Moab and Seir: Lo, as all the nations <FI>is<Fi> the house of Judah;

And ye have known that I <FI>am<Fi> Jehovah, In their wounded being in the midst of their idols, Round about their altars, On every high hill, on all tops of mountains, And under every green tree, and under every thick oak, The place where they gave sweet fragrance to all their idols.

The prophets have prophesied falsely, And the priests bear rule by their means, And My people have loved <FI>it<Fi> so, And what do they at its latter end?

For from of old thou hast broken thy yoke, Drawn away thy bands, and sayest, `I do not serve,' For, on every high height, and under every green tree, Thou art wandering--a harlot. — read the full passage →

A Song of the Ascents, by David. I have rejoiced in those saying to me, `To the house of Jehovah we go.' — read the full passage →

For we have known that if our earthly house of the tabernacle may be thrown down, a building from God we have, an house not made with hands--age-during--in the heavens, — read the full passage →