"Watch now," the Lord of Hosts declares, "the day of judgment is coming, burning like a furnace. The proud and wicked will be burned up like straw; like a tree, they will be consumed - roots and all. But for you who fear My name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture. Then you will tread upon the wicked as ashes underfoot," says the Lord of Hosts. "Remember to obey the laws I gave all Israel through Moses my servant on Mount Horeb.

   "See, I will send you another prophet like Elijah before the coming of the great and dreadful judgment day of God. His preaching will bring fathers and children together again, to be of one mind and heart, for they will know that if they do not repent, I will come and utterly destroy their land."

   Let your attitude to life be that of Christ Jesus Himself. For He, Who had always been God by nature, did not cling to His privileges as God's equal, but stripped Himself of every advantage by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born a man. And, plainly seen as a human being, He humbled Himself by living a life of utter obedience, to the point of death, and the death He died was the death of a common criminal. That is why God has now lifted Him to the heights, and has given Him the name beyond all names, so that at the name of Jesus "every knee shall bow," whether in heaven or earth or under the earth. And that is why "every tongue shall confess" that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

   [Paul wrote:] Not that I claim to have achieved all this, nor to have reached perfection already. But I keep going on, trying to grasp that purpose for which Christ Jesus grasped me. My brothers, I do not consider myself to have grasped it fully even now. But I do concentrate on this: I forget all that lies behind me and with hands outstretched to whatever lies ahead I go straight for the goal - my reward the honor of my high calling by God in Christ Jesus. Now I long to know Christ and the power shown by His resurrection; now I long to share His sufferings, even to die as He died, so that I may somehow attain the resurrection from the dead.

Taken from Mal. 4, Phil. 3, The Living Bible and The Phillips Translation.
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