Michael Levitt

Matthew 13:58

Matthew 13:58 (MSG)
But Jesus said, "A prophet is taken for granted in his hometown and his family." He didn't do many miracles there because of their hostile indifference.

Matthew 5:4

Matthew 5:4 (MSG)
"You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

1 Samuel 15:24

1 Samuel 15:24 (MSG)
Saul gave in and confessed, "I've sinned. I've trampled roughshod over god's Word and your instructions. I cared more about pleasing the people. I let them tell me what to do. Oh, absolve me of my sin! Take my hand and lead me to the altar so I can worship god!"

2 Corinthians 8:10

2 Corinthians 8:10 (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 1:7

2 Corinthians 1:7 (MSG)
When we see that you're just as willing to endure the hard times as to enjoy the good times, we know you're going to make it, no doubt about it.

1 Corinthians 15:38

1 Corinthians 15:38 (MSG)
You could never guess what a tomato would look like by looking at a tomato seed. What we plant in the soil and what grows out of it don't look anything alike. The dead body that we bury in the ground and the resurrection body that comes from it will be dramatically different.

1 Corinthians 7:19, 1 Corinthians 7:24

1 Corinthians 7:19 (MSG)
Being Jewish isn't the point. The really important thing is obeying God's call, following his commands.

1 Corinthians 7:24 (MSG)
Friends, stay where you were called to be. God is there. Hold the high ground with him at your side.

Galatians 6:14

Galatians 6:14 (MSG)
For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can't you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God—his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them!

Galatians 5:2, Galatians 5:6, Galatians 5:13, Galatians 5:16, Galatians 5:20, Galatians 5:25-26

Galatians 5:2 (MSG)
I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ's hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law.

Galatians 5:6 (MSG)
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?

Galatians 5:16 (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 5:20 (MSG)
trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits;

Galatians 5:25-26 (MSG)
Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.

Mark 2:27

Mark 2:27 (MSG)
Then Jesus said, "The Sabbath was made to serve us; we weren't made to serve the Sabbath.

Psalm 101:4

Psalm 101:4 (NIV)
The perverse of heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with what is evil.

Luke 5:32

Luke 5:32 (MSG)
I'm here inviting outsiders, not insiders-an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out."

Genesis 12:4

Genesis 12:4 (MSG)
So Abram left just as god said, and Lot left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, along with all the possessions and people they had gotten in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan and arrived safe and sound. Abram passed through the country as far as Shechem and the Oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites occupied the land.

Luke 9:4

Luke 9:4 (MSG)
Keep it simple; you are the equipment. And no luxury inns-get a modest place and be content there until you leave.

John 5:43

John 5:43 (MSG)
I came with the authority of my Father, and you either dismiss me or avoid me. If another came, acting self-important, you would welcome him with open arms.

Matthew 6:34

Matthew 6:34 (MSG)
"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

Matthew 6:21

Matthew 6:21 (MSG)
It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.

2 Corinthians 12:10

2 Corinthians 12:10 (NIV84)
That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.