Matthew 6:16-24 Acts 9:1-19 Psalms 15 Genesis 34-35

Matthew 6:16-24
Fasting
Mt 6:16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
Mt 6:17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,
Mt 6:18 so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Treasures in Heaven
Mt 6:19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
Mt 6:20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
Mt 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Mt 6:22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.
Mt 6:23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Mt 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money.

Acts 9:1-19
Saul’s Conversion
Ac 9:1 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest
Ac 9:2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
Ac 9:3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.
Ac 9:4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
Ac 9:5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.
Ac 9:6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
Ac 9:7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone.
Ac 9:8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus.
Ac 9:9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
Ac 9:10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision,“Ananias!” “Yes, Lord,” he answered.
Ac 9:11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.
Ac 9:12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”
Ac 9:13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.
Ac 9:14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”
Ac 9:15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.
Ac 9:16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
Ac 9:17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Ac 9:18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized,
Ac 9:19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

Psalms 15
Psalm 15
Ps 15:1 LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?
Ps 15:2 He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart
Ps 15:3 and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman,
Ps 15:4 who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the LORD, who keeps his oath even when it hurts,
Ps 15:5 who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things will never be shaken.

Genesis 34-35
Dinah and the Shechemites
Ge 34:1 Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land.
Ge 34:2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and violated her.
Ge 34:3 His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to her.
Ge 34:4 And Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as my wife.”
Ge 34:5 When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so he kept quiet about it until they came home.
Ge 34:6 Then Shechem’s father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob.
Ge 34:7 Now Jacob’s sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done.
Ge 34:8 But Hamor said to them, “My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife.
Ge 34:9 Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves.
Ge 34:10 You can settle among us; the land is open to you. Live in it, trade in it, and acquire property in it.”
Ge 34:11 Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and I will give you whatever you ask.
Ge 34:12 Make the price for the bride and the gift I am to bring as great as you like, and I’ll pay whatever you ask me. Only give me the girl as my wife.”
Ge 34:13 Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob’s sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor.
Ge 34:14 They said to them, “We can’t do such a thing; we can’t give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us.
Ge 34:15 We will give our consent to you on one condition only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males.
Ge 34:16 Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We’ll settle among you and become one people with you.
Ge 34:17 But if you will not agree to be circumcised, we’ll take our sister and go.”
Ge 34:18 Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.
Ge 34:19 The young man, who was the most honored of all his father’s household, lost no time in doing what they said, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter.
Ge 34:20 So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to their fellow townsmen.
Ge 34:21 “These men are friendly toward us,” they said. “Let them live in our land and trade in it; the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours.
Ge 34:22 But the men will consent to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are.
Ge 34:23 Won’t their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours? So let us give our consent to them, and they will settle among us.”
Ge 34:24 All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised.
Ge 34:25 Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male.
Ge 34:26 They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left.
Ge 34:27 The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled.
Ge 34:28 They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields.
Ge 34:29 They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses.
Ge 34:30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”
Ge 34:31 But they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute? ”
Jacob Returns to Bethel
Ge 35:1 Then God said to Jacob, “Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.”
Ge 35:2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.
Ge 35:3 Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.”
Ge 35:4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem.
Ge 35:5 Then they set out, and the terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued them.
Ge 35:6 Jacob and all the people with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan.
Ge 35:7 There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.
Ge 35:8 Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So it was named Allon Bacuth.
Ge 35:9 After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him.
Ge 35:10 God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel. ’” So he named him Israel.
Ge 35:11 And God said to him, “I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body.
Ge 35:12 The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.”
Ge 35:13 Then God went up from him at the place where he had talked with him.
Ge 35:14 Jacob set up a stone pillar at the place where God had talked with him, and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it.
Ge 35:15 Jacob called the place where God had talked with him Bethel.
The Deaths of Rachel and Isaac
Ge 35:16 Then they moved on from Bethel. While they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty.
Ge 35:17 And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you have another son.”
Ge 35:18 As she breathed her last—for she was dying—she named her son Ben-Oni. But his father named him Benjamin.
Ge 35:19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem ).
Ge 35:20 Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel’s tomb.
Ge 35:21 Israel moved on again and pitched his tent beyond Migdal Eder.
Ge 35:22 While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard of it.
Jacob had twelve sons:
Ge 35:23 The sons of Leah: Reuben the firstborn of Jacob, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun.
Ge 35:24 The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.
Ge 35:25 The sons of Rachel’s maidservant Bilhah: Dan and Naphtali.
Ge 35:26 The sons of Leah’s maidservant Zilpah: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram.
Ge 35:27 Jacob came home to his father Isaac in Mamre, near Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.
Ge 35:28 Isaac lived a hundred and eighty years.
Ge 35:29 Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.