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Monday, May 5, 2025

On This Day: When Our Destination is an Open Door

   So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. (Luke 24:28-31)

   The older I get, the more patterns I see in God’s word. As threads in a tapestry create amazing scenes, these themes of Scripture teach us about life in our Creator’s kingdom.

   I have known for a long time that the bull’s eye of God’s work is our hearts. I have also learned that Larry Crabb was correct that, in the church, more people are committed to their self-protection than to knowing and doing the will of God.1 

   That being proven true too many sad times to count, it is evident that self-protection is a conflict with God. God is pursuing our hearts; we are doing everything we can to keep him and everyone else as far away from our inner beings as we can manage. 

   When I look back to my earliest experience of God, and I trace all the times it appeared that God was silent, or anything that fit this picture of a pause in God’s work, what did I learn about me in relation to him? How many times did I show my sarky and self-centered belief that I was a poor victim of God failing to keep his word, and how often did I feel in myself a hunger and thirst for the righteousness of knowing God better than I had ever known him before?

   And today (I would say “by accident”, but it was really “by divine appointment"), I looked up the Scripture about Gideon because he fit the theme of someone who had experienced a pause in God’s work in Israel and God invited him to look into his heart to know what he wanted. I realized that this Scripture had much more to say to me than I would have guessed.

   Gideon’s response to the LORD’s greeting was, 

   “Please, my lord, if the LORD (Yahweh) is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian” (Judges 6:13).

  There it was. Yahweh greeted Gideon and paused. Gideon knew immediately what was in his heart. It is the cry of so many people when God’s pauses are WAY… TOO… LONG!!! And when God drew this out of Gideon’s heart (which is feeling SO SIMILAR to what Jesus was doing with the two men on the road to Emmaus), God could begin telling him the divine plan and how Gideon would join God in his work.

   For me, this is one of the most gracious smacks upside the head (no, not really, but that’s what I think I need so often!) to get me to concentrate and look where the Holy Spirit is pointing. The divine pauses are often what I have made a destination but God is turning into an open door. Am I okay with Jesus moving on down the road while I get back to my normal? Or does my heart burn to know how I can know the Triune God better than I have ever known him/them before?

   Today, I repent for so easily losing heart and feeling sorry for myself. God has paused long enough for me to see I hate doing things my way, and he has renewed my hope that he will continue doing in my life what he did in the lives of those two men on the road to Emmaus, and Gideon in a winepress, and two pairs of brothers on a lakeshore mending their nets, and…

   Well, you get the picture. How have you felt God pause his work in your life so that you have struggled to know why you’re not experiencing things you thought he promised? Can you see that he is just waiting to see what you want to do when it looks like he’s carrying on without you?


© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)


1 Inside Out, Larry Crabb, The Navigators; 25th Anniversary ed. edition (June 5 2013)


Tuesday, April 22, 2025

On This Day: A Rebuke, a Reminder, a Resurrection

   And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. (Luke 24:4-9)

   First, I was blown away by how my journey through Easter week 2025 coincided with Luke’s description of those events. I have never gone through those scenes so quickly to keep pace with the unfolding week. But it gave me a sense of the big picture of what Jesus was doing, and made me feel that I was there.

   Second, once I got to Resurrection Sunday, the resurrection had taken place, and now I could slow down again and consider all the lessons God has for me about how we ought to live. And the starting place for me has been the contrast in how we behave based on the contrast in what we believe. 

   The women behaved as grieving disciples because they believed Jesus was dead. There are huge lessons for me in this! If what I believe is wrong, so will my actions be, no matter how devoted I am!

   As I continued looking at the experience of the women, the gentle rebuke/reproof from the messengers, followed by the reminder of what they had been taught, changed everything. If they were in the wrong place because of wrong beliefs, reminding them of the right beliefs would lead to right actions. They would never stay where they were once they realized there was much better news than what they were thinking that day. 

   When we expand this to what we are to believe about Scripture, that it will always be teaching us, reproving/rebuking us, correcting us, and training us in righteousness, we can submit everything we believe to the daily inspection of Scripture to let God gently rebuke us when we’re heading in the wrong direction, and lovingly remind us where we ought to be. The better we get to know Scripture, the more we can be reminded of what we were already taught. 

   One of the things this brings onto the stage is whether we relate to God’s “adjustments” in the Beatitudinal way, or we recoil against them in the prideful way. Whenever we hear God’s word, do we feel the blessing of poverty of spirit leading us to the blessing of mourning whatever is wrong in our beliefs and behaviors? Do we feel the blessing of mourning (even if it is very short because we’re so aware of the good news set before us) leading us into the blessing of meekness that knows we can’t fix ourselves but Jesus can? And do we feel the blessing of meekness stirring in our hearts the blessing of hungering and thirsting for the righteousness of whatever God is speaking to us about?

   I can’t say the reasons this is hitting me with such personal applications. It’s enough that it is another reminder to pay attention to how God is changing our minds (repentance) so we can join him in his work (faith). I see some ways I am looking for the living among the dead, and cannot continue to do so. I see some ways to look for the living among the living, and I want to put this into practice with all my heart. 

   If nothing else, Jesus is alive, and that means we should want to experience

“what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:19-20). 

   And to do that, we likely need the same rebuke and reminder as the women needed, followed by meeting with God’s people where God is working. I can see how I am to do that this week, and expect ongoing “refreshers” to keep me heading in the right direction.


© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)




Sunday, April 20, 2025

On This Day: When Burial Plans Go All Wrong

   But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. (Luke 24:1-9)

   I found it interesting this morning to come to Luke 24 knowing that my journey through Luke is running parallel to the days of this Easter weekend. So today is Resurrection Sunday of Easter weekend and Luke 24 is Luke's account of that event.

   What stood out is that the first thing Luke writes is about the women who went to the tomb with their burial spices. In other words, that first Resurrection Sunday, they were planning a FUNERAL! 

   The disciples had already settled that Jesus was dead and there was nothing they could do about it. They were devoted. They loved Jesus. They were sacrificial. They were serving. But they were filled with grief because of what they had believed (with lots of physical evidence to affirm this).

   However, their worship of Jesus was based on their wrong beliefs. Hold on to that thought as we continue!

   So, I see very devoted, loving, dedicated women doing a whole bunch of unnecessary work to show their love for Jesus by preparing his body for long-term burial. They were grieving. Their loss would have been the most intense ever since the expectation of the Messiah's coming was the greatest longing of the Jewish people. For them to be 100% convinced Jesus was the Messiah meant they had let their hopes rise to the highest pinnacle of expectation. But Jesus' crucifixion was too graphic, too torturous, too real, for them to believe anything except that he was dead. So they planned to worship him with the best burial anyone had ever received. Jesus deserved it.

   What was extra fascinating to me was to see that this was the very way I was beginning my day, like someone had died and I didn’t want to go to the funeral! I was confronted with how many ways we can do the wrong things in “worship” because we believe the wrong things about Jesus. We don’t believe he loves us, so we live like orphans. We don’t think he cares about what we’re going through, so we handle everything ourselves. We don’t think he has answers to the world’s challenges of “Did God actually say?”, so we keep quiet and don’t tell anyone what God actually said! Whatever we believe directs how we behave.

   I'm still praying through this for myself this morning. Especially the way the women who were worshiping out of so much grief never would have brought burial spices that morning if they had understood and believed what Jesus had said. 

   I mean, think about it: even his enemies knew he said he would rise on the third day because that's why they were guarding the tomb! But none of Jesus' disciples could believe something so wonderful after what they had witnessed of his suffering and death.

   The point for me today is that it was such a beautiful picture of how the messengers turned the women’s attention from what they were thinking to what was true. No time to feel bad about it, just get on with finding Jesus! He is alive! Just go attach to him! Get in his word! Listen to him! Take his words to heart!

   Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16)


© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)




Saturday, April 5, 2025

On This Day: Receiving the Kingdom Like a Child

   Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Luke 18:15-17)

   

   I love it when I come to a very familiar passage of Scripture, wonder how “our Father in heaven” will get through to me with anything new and applicable to my present life situation, and then feel the wonder of God taking my little chin in his hands and turning my attention to the exact thing he wants me to see. And today, that hit me more meaningfully than ever!

   I have been a kid my whole life (6+ decades). I have been a parent for over 40 years. I have helped my wife with our family daycare for over 20 years. I have had young folk come and go through our lives like children and grandchildren in our hearts. 

   With that as part of the backdrop to this scene, I realized today that when Jesus talked about receiving the kingdom of God like a child, I have always put the focus on what children are like. What are the childlike qualities that Jesus had in mind to illustrate what it is like to come into his kingdom like children?

   But when the Holy Spirit turned my attention to “receive… like a child”, I suddenly realized this was God’s gift for today. It isn’t just what children are like that Jesus was referring to, but what they are like when they receive a gift. And THAT made me smile with tears of wonder. I KNOW what children look like when they receive things from us.

   There is a certain joyful anticipation in children the moment they hear that we have something in mind for them. They are giddy with excitement to know what it is. They can’t keep quiet about it. They are full of questions. They are helplessly bound to speaking to each other about it, sharing their thoughts out loud about what it could possibly be. 

   In other words, when children know they are going to receive something, it captivates them. They can’t stop and change to thinking about anything else. Try to get them to sit still, or sit straight, and you will fail. The way children anticipate the thought of us giving them something is a delightful picture of joyful anticipation and eagerness to have whatever we have in mind. 

   And then there is the look of comprehension, the moment when they see what it is and are overwhelmed with the excitement of the gift. Whether it be a present for their birthday, or a surprise gift from our garage saling, or just that it’s a really good day to have ice cream, the “like a child” side of receiving things is distinct and universal. 

   When I replayed that amazing morning in Sandspit around 1965 when I was seven years old and I looked up at the sky with the sudden awareness that God was watching me, I can still recall the way it felt to be a child receiving such a gift. And when I sat in church in the community hall in Sandspit and heard the tubes on that old organ warming up to a hum, and we would start singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy,” and I knew in my heart what that meant even though I could never explain it, I knew what it felt like o be a child receiving a gift from God. 

   I could go on. In fact, I’m sure God will keep me on this path for a while, reconsidering my own heart and how well I receive the gifts of his kingdom like a child. But the whole scene has touched my heart deeply already in that like-a-child kind of way that leaves me in awe and wonder at the colorful threads God is weaving into his tapestry, intentionally including me in the picture. 

   And now I hope you are encouraged to let yourself receive God’s gifts like a child, and then follow him in “the obedience of faith” as you use your gifts to his glory and the good of everyone you meet. 


© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)




Thursday, March 27, 2025

On This Day: How to Forcefully Enter Jesus’ Kingdom

   “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void. (Luke 16:16-17)

   It has been a very long time that I have struggled to really “get it” about what Jesus meant by this. On one side, “forces” sounds like something we do when we’re not invited, or not welcome. On another side, it sounds like we are adding words to grace, something Paul was so clear is not an option. 

   This time, traveling along this section of the trail brought out some new thoughts on the matter. I asked God where I could see people doing this. Where do I see people forcefully entering Jesus’ kingdom? What did it look like for them to do that, and what would it look like for me to follow their example?

   The first person who came to mind was the “sinful” woman going into the Pharisee's house uninvited because Jesus was there. She was quiet. She didn’t interrupt. She didn’t even say anything to Jesus. 

   However, she was unstoppable. If ever someone had a list of reasons to NOT go see Jesus, it was this woman in the scene of a Pharisee’s home. But Jesus was there, and that’s all that mattered to her. She had an insatiable need to know this Savior who had forgiven her sins, and so she quietly, politely, and determinedly forced herself into the scene. 

   The next one that came to mind was this man named Zacchaeus. A despised tax-collector. A thief who had used the political system to his advantage. He heard that Jesus was coming through his town. However, he was short. He had no chance of seeing Jesus with the crowd that was surrounding him. So, he forced himself into the scene by climbing a tree to get a better view. Jesus saw him, invited himself to dinner at Zacchaeus’s house, and welcomed Zacchaeus into the kingdom of God.

   Then there were the blind men who heard a commotion of people heading in their direction and shouted out to someone to tell them what was going on. When they heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth passing by, they began shouting out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us!” They would not stop calling Jesus’ name from their blindness. They were desperate. This would likely be their one opportunity to connect with him and, even when told to be quiet, they could not. They kept forcing their need into the scene until Jesus heard them, stopped, and restored their sight. 

   The main quality of those who force themselves into God’s kingdom is that they have an unstoppable faith. Once they connect to Jesus in repentance and faith, and once they know he has saved them by grace through faith, not of works, they cannot be dissuaded from following the Savior.

   And then I realized I could see myself in the picture. As a young man, I was very quiet. I was respectful. I was a hard-working teenager. I didn’t try to provoke anyone who saw life differently than I did. I simply knew that Jesus Christ was Lord. I knew that what is written about his teaching, his death, his burial, his resurrection, and the building of his church is true. I knew that Jesus was and is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no one can come into God’s kingdom except through faith in him. 

   However, I can look at times when I was told to disobey Jesus in some way, but I couldn’t do it. I didn’t get loud. I didn’t shout and scream. I simply had a forcefulness of faith that was given to me by God and I could not be different than he had made me, or than he was making me. 

   While I bemoan how my body is deteriorating with age no matter how much I exercise, my faith in Jesus Christ as Creator, Savior, and Lord, is as strong as ever. I am alive to the one who found me; he has set me free indeed, and I take hold of my identity and standing in Jesus Christ the Lord in the “obedience of faith” to the glory of God and the good of those who need this encouragement. 


© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)




Wednesday, March 26, 2025

On This Day: The Words That Comfort Richly

   “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. (Luke 16:13-15)

   While my first interest in seeking God in his word is always what he is teaching me (because however I put his words to me into practice affects everything I do in seeking to love and bless others), there are times when God’s ministry to me comes in the way of him telling me how he thinks of others. 

   Often this is positive, as in helping me see how to apply his word to me because he shows me his love for others, his forgiveness of others, his gifting of others, and he wants me to share that with him.

   Other times it is negative, as in identifying his view of what people have done to me by showing how he related to the same things himself, through his messengers, or especially through his Son. 

   All that to say that every word of today’s Scripture told me God’s view of people who were relating to Jesus a particular way. And by showing me God’s view, it comforted me so much about my experiences with similar people since God is good and will bring every wrong to justice one way or another.

   A Scripture that often guides me in how personally I interact with God’s word is this: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16). When I picture what God has in mind for me to let his word dwell in me richly, I see a heart that treasures God above all others, that treasures God’s word above all words, and that treasures living by God’s words above any thoughts or opinions of men, me included! 

   When I come to a Scripture like this one in Luke, every phrase speaks comfort into my heart because it gives God’s view of real-life heartaches. To let those words dwell in me richly involves attaching to how personal God is with me. He sets a stage so familiar to my own. He reveals the hearts of people so I can see them in his own words. He presents them as they really are and answers them as he really is. It’s all so plain and clear that it comforts me as much as I will let it dwell in me richly.

   I hope that my sharing of this helps to do the “teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom” part. 

   I can’t think of any songs that capture this particular passage about Jesus rebuking the Pharisees that would fit “singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God”, but I know we have songs that glorify God for his justice, mercy, and faithfulness in handling everything according to his sovereign goodness and working all things in our lives together for good. 

   Today, I already feel the richness of God’s comfort in telling me both sides of the story. Hypocritical narcissists are nothing new. They often look like they are winning, just as the Pharisees appeared to be victorious when they succeeded at putting Jesus to death. 

   But those who love God instead of money are the ones who live as “more than conquerors through him who loved us,” knowing that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39). 

   And so, we set our hearts on God as our supreme treasure, we set out into the day to use our money, our time, our spiritual gifts, to serve others in love, and we do so in the hope that someone out there will be encouraged to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love their neighbor as themselves, including using our money for God’s glory and their good.



© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)




Wednesday, March 19, 2025

On This Day: When Friends and Enemies Praise Jesus

   “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (Luke 13:34-35)

   Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem has been a long-standing grief for me. It is a thread of heartache woven into the tapestry of God’s work of redemption. It pictures the wonder of God’s longing for his people, and the tragedy of his people’s preference for the world, the flesh, and the devil.

   One of the most beautiful invitations of God to his people is this from Isaiah 30:15, “For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.’”

   When Jesus made his lament over Jerusalem, he associated himself with what God had already communicated about his desire for his people to return to him. If they would return and rest in him, he could save them. If they would quiet their lustful idolatrous hearts and trust in him, he would be their strength.

   However, the sad conclusion back then was a prelude to what the Messiah would face when he came, “But you were unwilling”. And the fact that God would put his heart on such glorious display and the people would be unwilling to attach to him breaks my heart. 

  Which brings us to Jesus’ return. There is coming a time when everyone will declare “‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” The prophets said this would happen; Jesus amened that this would happen; Luke recorded Jesus’ words that this would happen, and Paul explains it even further: 

   Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

   This is what Jesus meant. At his return, EVERY knee will bow before him in acknowledgement that he is “King of kings and Lord of lords”. No one will stand in pride against him any longer. All will bow in submission.

   At the same time, EVERY tongue will “confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” No more Youtubers declaring their arrogant atheism, no more science deceivers promoting the evolutionary religion, no more comedians mocking Jesus and his redemptive work. EVERY tongue will confess out loud that there is absolutely no doubt that Jesus Christ is Lord after all. 

   But just as Jesus warned Israel about the judgment coming on Jerusalem, God warns us in his word of what it will be like when Jesus returns to finalize his judgment on the world:

   Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:15-17)

   Jesus is “patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (II Peter 3:9). However, everyone in this lifetime shows their willingness or unwillingness to receive him. Those who refuse him will receive God’s justice against their sin. It is coming as surely as Jerusalem was destroyed in 70AD. 

   As to those who receive Jesus during this lifetime, here is how they will feel when Jesus returns and takes us home:

   After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” (Revelation 7:9-12)

   We will all praise and glorify Jesus Christ as Lord when he returns. Some will be his enemies who denied and dishonored him their whole lives. Others will be his friends who called on his name and received his gift of eternal life. 

   And God’s gift is in his word that calls us all to know and love Jesus Christ now so we can live with him in love forever. 


© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)