SCC Self Checking Religion

I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging for bread.

Now therefore listen to the word of Yahweh: 'You say, Don't prophesy against Israel, and don't preach against the house of Isaac.'

leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

He said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to kill?" But they were silent.

When he had looked around at them with anger, being grieved at the hardening of their hearts, he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored as healthy as the other.

He declared, and didn't deny, but he declared, "I am not the Christ."

They asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the prophet?" He answered, "No."

John answered them, "I baptize in water, but among you stands one whom you don't know.

Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."

But Jesus answered them, "My Father is still working, so I am working, too."

"Don't think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, even Moses, on whom you have set your hope.

On the next day, the multitude that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except the one in which his disciples had embarked, and that Jesus hadn't entered with his disciples into the boat, but his disciples had gone away alone.

Nicodemus (he who came to him by night, being one of them) said to them,

"Does our law judge a man, unless it first hears from him personally and knows what he does?"

He therefore answered, "I don't know if he is a sinner. One thing I do know: that though I was blind, now I see."

He answered them, "I told you already, and you didn't listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don't also want to become his disciples, do you?"

The man answered them, "How amazing! You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.

We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshipper of God, and does his will, he listens to him.

If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."

But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all,

After these things, Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take away Jesus' body. Pilate gave him permission. He came therefore and took away his body.

The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."

This saying therefore went out among the brothers, that this disciple wouldn't die. Yet Jesus didn't say to him that he wouldn't die, but, "If I desire that he stay until I come, what is that to you?"

But he, beckoning to them with his hand to be silent, declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. He said, "Tell these things to James, and to the brothers." Then he departed, and went to another place.

As John was fulfilling his course, he said, 'What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. But behold, one comes after me the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.'

Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols.

When they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his clothing and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles!"

When they asked him to stay with them a longer time, he declined;

Paul said, "John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe in the one who would come after him, that is, in Jesus."

But when some were hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.

Therefore watch, remembering that for a period of three years I didn't cease to admonish everyone night and day with tears.

Then Paul answered, "What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."

When he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, "The Lord's will be done."

Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit to judge me according to the law, and command me to be struck contrary to the law?"

As he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was terrified, and answered, "Go your way for this time, and when it is convenient for me, I will summon you."

while he said in his defense, "Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar, have I sinned at all."

But Paul said, "I am standing before Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you also know very well.

but had certain questions against him about their own religion, and about one Jesus, who was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.

"I think myself happy, King Agrippa, that I am to make my defense before you this day concerning all the things that I am accused by the Jews,

Now I stand here to be judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers,

But I say, didn't they hear? Yes, most certainly, "Their sound went out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world."

But as to Israel he says, "All day long I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people."

I have become foolish in boasting. You compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you, for in nothing was I inferior to the very best apostles, though I am nothing.

For what is there in which you were made inferior to the rest of the assemblies, unless it is that I myself was not a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong.

I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less?

But be it so, I did not myself burden you. But, being crafty, I caught you with deception.

Did I take advantage of you by anyone of them whom I have sent to you?

I exhorted Titus, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus take any advantage of you? Didn't we walk in the same spirit? Didn't we walk in the same steps?

Again, do you think that we are excusing ourselves to you? In the sight of God we speak in Christ. But all things, beloved, are for your edifying.

But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental principles, to which you desire to be in bondage all over again?

I am afraid for you, that I might have wasted my labor for you.

I beg you, brothers, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong,

So then, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?

But it is always good to be zealous in a good cause, and not only when I am present with you.

but I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, don't you listen to the law?