Joshua Rago

John 5:14

John 5:14 (MSG)
A little later Jesus found him in the Temple and said, "You look wonderful! You're well! Don't return to a sinning life or something worse might happen."

Ephesians 2:1-3, Ephesians 2:5, Ephesians 2:10-11, Ephesians 2:13, Ephesians 2:15, Ephesians 2:18, Ephesians 2:20-21

Ephesians 2:1-3 (MSG)
It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

Ephesians 2:5 (MSG)
he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us!

Ephesians 2:10-11 (MSG)
No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

Ephesians 2:13 (MSG)
Now because of Christ-dying that death, shedding that blood-you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.

Ephesians 2:15 (MSG)
He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.

Ephesians 2:18 (MSG)
He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.

Ephesians 2:20-21 (MSG)
He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone

John 4:34-38

John 4:34-38 (MSG)
Jesus said, "The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started. As you look around right now, wouldn't you say that in about four months it will be time to harvest? Well, I'm telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what's right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It's harvest time!

John 3:17, John 3:19-21

John 3:17 (MSG)
God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.

John 3:19-21 (MSG)
"This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is."

John 1:14

John 1:14 (MSG)
The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.

Luke 21:18-19, Luke 21:28, Luke 21:34-36

Luke 21:18-19 (MSG)
Even so, every detail of your body and soul-even the hairs of your head!-is in my care; nothing of you will be lost.

Luke 21:28 (MSG)
When all this starts to happen, up on your feet. Stand tall with your heads high. Help is on the way!"

Luke 21:34-36 (MSG)
"But be on your guard. Don't let the sharp edge of your expectation get dulled by parties and drinking and shopping. Otherwise, that Day is going to take you by complete surprise, spring on you suddenly like a trap, for it's going to come on everyone, everywhere, at once. So, whatever you do, don't go to sleep at the switch. Pray constantly that you will have the strength and wits to make it through everything that's coming and end up on your feet before the Son of Man."

Luke 19:40

Luke 19:40 (MSG)
But he said, "If they kept quiet, the stones would do it for them, shouting praise."

Luke 17:1-4

Luke 17:1-4 (NIV)
Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come.

Luke 16:10-11

Luke 16:10-11 (NIV)
"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

Galatians 5:16-18

Galatians 5:16-18 (MSG)
My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

Galatians 5:4-6, Galatians 5:13

Galatians 5:4-6 (MSG)
I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.

Galatians 5:13 (MSG)
It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?

2 Corinthians 9:6-15

2 Corinthians 9:6-15 (MSG)
Remember: A stingy planter gets a stingy crop; a lavish planter gets a lavish crop. I want each of you to take plenty of time to think it over, and make up your own mind what you will give. That will protect you against sob stories and arm-twisting. God loves it when the giver delights in the giving.

2 Corinthians 8:10-12, 2 Corinthians 8:20-21

2 Corinthians 8:10-12 (MSG)
So here's what I think: The best thing you can do right now is to finish what you started last year and not let those good intentions grow stale. Your heart's been in the right place all along. You've got what it takes to finish it up, so go to it. Once the commitment is clear, you do what you can, not what you can't. The heart regulates the hands. This isn't so others can take it easy while you sweat it out. No, you're shoulder to shoulder with them all the way, your surplus matching their deficit, their surplus matching your deficit. In the end you come out even. As it is written, Nothing left over to the one with the most, Nothing lacking to the one with the least. I thank God for giving Titus the same devoted concern for you that I have. He was most considerate of how we felt, but his eagerness to go to you and help out with this relief offering is his own idea. We're sending a companion along with him, someone very popular in the churches for his preaching of the Message. But there's far more to him than popularity. He's rock-solid trustworthy. The churches handpicked him to go with us as we travel about doing this work of sharing God's gifts to honor God as well as we can, taking every precaution against scandal.

2 Corinthians 8:20-21 (MSG)
taking every precaution against scandal.

2 Corinthians 8:20-21

2 Corinthians 8:20-21 (MSG)
taking every precaution against scandal.

Mark 4:24-25

Mark 4:24-25 (NIV)
"Consider carefully what you hear," he continued. "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more.

Genesis 41:39-44, Genesis 41:52

Genesis 41:39-44 (KJV)
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art:

Genesis 41:52 (KJV)
And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.

Genesis 41:39-44

Genesis 41:39-44 (KJV)
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art:

Genesis 3:14-15

Genesis 3:14-15 (MSG)
god told the serpent: "Because you've done this, you're cursed, cursed beyond all cattle and wild animals, Cursed to slink on your belly and eat dirt all your life. I'm declaring war between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers. He'll wound your head, you'll wound his heel."