Victory over the World

1 John 5 If we believe that Jesus is truly Christ, we are God's children. Everyone who loves the Father will also love his children. ²If we love and obey God, we know that we will love his children. ³We show our love for God by obeying his commandments, and they are not hard to follow.
⁴Every child of God can defeat the world, and our faith is what gives us this victory. ⁵No one can defeat the world without having faith in Jesus as the Son of God.

Who Jesus Is

⁶Water and blood came out from the side of Jesus Christ. It wasn't just water, but water and blood. The Spirit tells about this, because the Spirit is truthful. ⁷In fact, there are three who tell about it. ⁸They are the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and they all agree.
⁹We believe what people tell us. But we can trust what God says even more, and God is the one who has spoken about his Son. ¹⁰If we have faith in God's Son, we have believed what God has said. But if we don't believe what God has said about his Son, it is the same as calling God a liar. ¹¹God has also said that he gave us eternal life and that this life comes to us from his Son. ¹²And so, if we have God's Son, we have this life. But if we don't have the Son, we don't have this life.

Knowing about Eternal Life

¹³All of you have faith in the Son of God, and I have written to let you know that you have eternal life. ¹⁴We are certain that God will hear our prayers when we ask for what pleases him. ¹⁵And if we know that God listens when we pray, we are sure that our prayers have already been answered.
¹⁶Suppose you see one of our people commit a sin that isn't a deadly sin. You can pray, and that person will be given eternal life. But the sin must not be one that is deadly. ¹⁷Everything that is wrong is sin, but not all sins are deadly.
¹⁸We are sure that God's children do not keep on sinning. God's own Son protects them, and the devil cannot harm them.
¹⁹We are certain that we come from God and that the rest of the world is under the power of the devil.
²⁰We know that Jesus Christ the Son of God has come and has shown us the true God. And because of Jesus, we now belong to the true God who gives eternal life.
²¹Children, you must stay away from idols.

The First Offering on the New Altar

Ezra 3 During the seventh month of the year, the Israelites who had settled in their towns went to Jerusalem. ²The priest Joshua son of Jozadak, together with the other priests, and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his relatives rebuilt the altar of Israel's God. Then they were able to offer sacrifices there by following the instructions God had given to Moses. ³And they built the altar where it had stood before, even though they were afraid of the people who were already living around there. Then every morning and evening they burned sacrifices and offerings to the LORD.
⁴The people followed the rules for celebrating the Festival of Shelters and offered the proper sacrifices each day. ⁵They offered sacrifices to please the LORD, sacrifices at each New Moon Festival, and sacrifices at the rest of the LORD's festivals. Every offering the people had brought was presented to the LORD.
⁶Although work on the temple itself had not yet begun, the people started offering sacrifices on the LORD's altar on the first day of the seventh month of that year.

The Rebuilding of the Temple Begins

⁷King Cyrus of Persia had said the Israelites could have cedar trees brought from Lebanon to Joppa by sea. So they sent grain, wine, and olive oil to the cities of Tyre and Sidon as payment for these trees, and they gave money to the stoneworkers and carpenters.
⁸During the second month of the second year after the people had returned from Babylonia, they started rebuilding the LORD's temple. Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak, the priests, the Levites, and everyone else who had returned started working. Every Levite over twenty years of age was put in charge of some part of the work. ⁹The Levites in charge of the whole project were Joshua and his sons and relatives and Kadmiel and his sons from the family of Hodaviah. The family of Henadad worked along with them.
¹⁰When the builders had finished laying the foundation of the temple, the priests put on their robes and blew trumpets in honor of the LORD, while the Levites from the family of Asaph praised God with cymbals. All of them followed the instructions given years before by King David. ¹¹They praised the LORD and gave thanks as they took turns singing:
"The LORD is good!
His faithful love for Israel
will last forever."
Everyone started shouting and praising the LORD because work on the foundation of the temple had begun. ¹²Many of the older priests and Levites and the heads of families cried aloud because they remembered seeing the first temple years before. But others were so happy that they celebrated with joyful shouts. ¹³Their shouting and crying were so noisy that it all sounded alike and could be heard a long way off.

Foreigners Want To Help Rebuild the Temple

Ezra 4 The enemies of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people had come back to rebuild the temple of the LORD God of Israel. ²So they went to Zerubbabel and to the family leaders and said, "Let us help! Ever since King Esarhaddon of Assyria brought us here, we have worshiped your God and offered sacrifices to him."
³But Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the family leaders answered, "You cannot take part in building a temple for the LORD our God! We will build it ourselves, just as King Cyrus of Persia commanded us."
⁴Then the neighboring people began to do everything possible to frighten the Jews and to make them stop building. ⁵During the time that Cyrus was king and even until Darius became king, they kept bribing government officials to slow down the work.

Trouble Rebuilding Jerusalem

⁶In the first year that Xerxes was king, the neighboring people brought written charges against the people of Judah and Jerusalem.
⁷Later, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and their advisors got together and wrote a letter to Artaxerxes when he was king of Persia. It was written in Aramaic and had to be translated.
^8-10A letter was also written to Artaxerxes about Jerusalem by Governor Rehum, Secretary Shimshai, and their advisors, including the judges, the governors, the officials, and the local leaders. They were joined in writing this letter by people from Erech and Babylonia, the Elamites from Susa, and people from other foreign nations that the great and famous Ashurbanipal had forced to settle in Samaria and other parts of Western Province.
¹¹This letter said:

Your Majesty King Artaxerxes, we are your servants from everywhere in Western Province, and we send you our greetings.

¹²You should know that the Jews who left your country have moved back to Jerusalem and are now rebuilding that terrible city. In fact, they have almost finished rebuilding the walls and repairing the foundations. ¹³You should also know that if the walls are completed and the city is rebuilt, the Jews won't pay any kind of taxes, and there will be less money in your treasury.

¹⁴We are telling you this, because you have done so much for us, and we want everyone to respect you. ¹⁵If you look up the official records of your ancestors, you will find that Jerusalem has constantly rebelled and has led others to rebel against kings and provinces. That's why the city was destroyed in the first place. ¹⁶If Jerusalem is rebuilt and its walls completed, you will no longer have control over Western Province.

¹⁷King Artaxerxes answered:

Greetings to Governor Rehum, Secretary Shimshai, and to your advisors in Samaria and other parts of Western Province.

¹⁸After your letter was translated and read to me, ¹⁹I had the old records checked. It is true that for years Jerusalem has rebelled and caused trouble for other kings and nations. ²⁰And powerful kings have ruled Western Province from Jerusalem and have collected all kinds of taxes.

²¹I want you to command the people to stop rebuilding the city until I give further notice. ²²Do this right now, so that no harm will come to the kingdom.

²³As soon as this letter was read, Governor Rehum, Secretary Shimshai, and their advisors went to Jerusalem and forced everyone to stop rebuilding the city.

Work on the Temple Starts Again

²⁴The Jews were forced to stop work on the temple and were not able to do any more building until the year after Darius became king of Persia.

Psalm 92
[A psalm and a song for the Sabbath.]
Sing Praises to the LORD

¹It is wonderful to be grateful
and to sing your praises, LORD Most High!
²It is wonderful each morning to tell about your love
and at night to announce how faithful you are.
³I enjoy praising your name to the music of harps,
⁴because everything you do makes me happy,
and I sing joyful songs.

⁵You do great things, LORD. Your thoughts are too deep
⁶for an ignorant fool to know or understand.
⁷Though the wicked sprout and spread like grass,
they will be pulled up by their roots.
⁸But you will rule over all of us forever,
⁹and your hateful enemies will be scattered
and then destroyed.

¹⁰You have given me the strength of a wild ox,
and you have chosen me to be your very own.
¹¹My eyes have seen, and my ears have heard
the doom and destruction of my terrible enemies.

¹²Good people will prosper like palm trees,
and they will grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon.
¹³They will take root in your house, LORD God,
and they will do well.
¹⁴They will be like trees that stay healthy and fruitful,
even when they are old.
¹⁵And they will say about you,
"The LORD always does right!
God is our mighty rock."