Closer To God

He said to all, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross,and follow me.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

“Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.

Am I a God at hand, says Yahweh, and not a God afar off? — read the full passage →

“Moreover when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen by men to be fasting. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward. — read the full passage →

I exhort therefore, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and givings of thanks, be made for all men: — read the full passage →

For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

“But I tell you who hear: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

But it is good for me to come close to God. I have made the Lord Yahweh my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.

My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have a Counselor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. — read the full passage →

Now accept one who is weak in faith, but not for disputes over opinions. — read the full passage →

Don’t be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding, who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you.

Pray without ceasing.

coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, precious.

Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before Yahweh, and fasted that day until evening; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Yahweh.

Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. There were added that day about three thousand souls.

but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. — read the full passage →

Now in the assembly that was at Antioch there were some prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen the foster brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. — read the full passage →

Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry; — read the full passage →

When they had appointed elders for them in every assembly, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ: — read the full passage →

For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. — read the full passage →

Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.

However, what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ. — read the full passage →

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

For this cause I, Paul, am the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, — read the full passage →

John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and asked him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?”

Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry; — read the full passage →

let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water,

You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.

Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways: as a nation that did righteousness, and didn’t forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.

By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had testimony given to him that he was righteous, God testifying with respect to his gifts; and through it he, being dead, still speaks.

I desire therefore that the men in every place pray, lifting up holy hands without anger and doubting.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. — read the full passage →

But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name:

For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies, says the Lord Yahweh: therefore turn yourselves, and live.

Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great things, and difficult, which you don’t know.

You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace for help in time of need.

who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ;

He opened his mouth and taught them, saying,

For all these things has my hand made, and so all these things came to be,” says Yahweh: “but to this man will I look, even to him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.

Seek Yahweh while he may be found; call you on him while he is near:

Yahweh is near to all those who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.”

for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;

This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.

“Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you.

Therefore tell them: Thus says Yahweh of Armies: ‘Return to me,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says Yahweh of Armies.

Wash yourselves, make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil.

Yet shall the righteous hold on his way. He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.

and he went out to meet Asa, and said to him, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin! Yahweh is with you, while you are with him; and if you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.

knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

(for the law made nothing perfect), and a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.

I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.

In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. — read the full passage →

that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death;

But as it is written, “Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear, which didn’t enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him.”

This was the first enrollment made when Quirinius was governor of Syria.

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. — read the full passage →

I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with people, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me.

This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things which must happen soon, which he sent and made known by his angel to his servant, John,

For if God didn’t spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, — read the full passage →

so that we ourselves boast about you in the assemblies of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which you endure.

Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision.

as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who testified to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

When he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, to whom he also testified, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’

Where I go, you know, and you know the way.”

and she had been a widow for about eighty-four years), who didn’t depart from the temple, worshiping with fastings and petitions night and day.

Early in the morning, while it was still dark, he rose up and went out, and departed into a deserted place, and prayed there.

But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

“When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Most certainly, I tell you, they have received their reward.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says Yahweh, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.

Take wives, and father sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there, and don’t be diminished.

Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the peoples.

“Come now, and let us reason together,” says Yahweh: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Hear, heavens, and listen, earth; for Yahweh has spoken: “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

Don’t let kindness and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart.

Yahweh is my shepherd: I shall lack nothing. — read the full passage →

After the death of Saul, when David had returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and David had stayed two days in Ziklag; — read the full passage →