[1] O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.

[2] You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

[3] You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

[4] [Jesus speaking] Are not two sparrows sold for a penny ? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

[5] So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

[6] ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

[7] The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

[8]  In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

[9] My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

[10] From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.

[11] I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

[12] For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

[13] From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother’s womb. I will ever praise you.

[14] [Jesus speaking] You are doing the things your own father does.” “We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

[15] And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

[16] How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

[17] [Jesus speaking] If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

[18] Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

[19] Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

[20] [Jesus speaking] So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

[21] For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

[22] The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.

[23] How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.

[24] The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.

[25] I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.

[26] Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.

[27] I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.

[28] ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’

[29] But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.

[30] Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

[31] … for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

[32] Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

[33] May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

[34] Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

[35] The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

[36] He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.

[37] And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

[38] [Jesus speaking] I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

[39] [Jesus speaking] I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

[40] The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

[41] What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

[42] All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

[43] This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

[44] What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

[45] And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us.

[46] For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[47] [Jesus speaking] I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

[48] For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

[49] Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God -  children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

[50] 11  Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons.
12  The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13  “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.
14  After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.
15  So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.
16  He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17  “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!
18  I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
19  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’
20  So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21  “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22  “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
23  Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.
24  For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25  “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.
26  So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on.
27  ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28  “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.
29  But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.
30  But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31  “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.
32  But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’“