11/14/12

Playing God


Cadduceus....plus

I took my wife to the surgeon again today and the news was very good.  She is healing nicely, but will be on medications for some time.  Its strange how life seems to progress into patterns, as just a couple of days ago, I watched a movie called "Splice".  This film was about two geneticists who successfully crossed the genes of a human with that of an animal.  Needless to say, the consequences were NOT GOOD!!!!  When medicine goes from its ancient origins into actually changing the very nature of the species, it has gone too far!!!  Recent advances in Science and the art of medicine hold the possibility for man to "play god" and this is dangerous in the extreme!!!!  Remember what happened when man just disobeyed God????

Genesis, Chapter 3
 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.  7 The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.  8 They heard the voice of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden.

  9 Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”

  10 The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

  11 God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

  12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

  13 Yahweh God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

  14 Yahweh God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
you are cursed above all livestock,
and above every animal of the field.


On your belly you shall go,
and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.


  15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.


He will bruise your head,
and you will bruise his heel.”


  16 To the woman he said,

“I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth.
In pain you will bear children.


Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”


  17 To Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to your wife’s voice,
and have eaten of the tree,
of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground for your sake.


In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
  18 It will yield thorns and thistles to you;
and you will eat the herb of the field.


  19 By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken.


For you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”


  20 The man called his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living.  21 Yahweh God made coats of skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.

  22 Yahweh God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...”  23 Therefore Yahweh God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.  24 So he drove out the man; and he placed Cherubs at the east of the garden of Eden, and the flame of a sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Pain, suffering and separation from God were the result of disobedience of that transgression.  Wanting to take the place of God and writing our own new "Genesis" is tantamount to declaring that we are "god" and maybe even with a capital "G" to boot.  Genetic manipulation could be used for positive things like preventing disease, but it also has the potential to realize Adolph Hitler's dream of a super-race of humans.  And we all know the outcome of that experiment!!!  May God grant mankind the wisdom to use its intelligence wisely and the humility not try to "play god"!!!

Bible Reading, Nov. 14


Nov. 14
Jeremiah 5-9

Jer 5:1 Run you back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places of it, if you can find a man, if there are any who does justly, who seeks truth; and I will pardon her.
Jer 5:2 Though they say, As Yahweh lives; surely they swear falsely.
Jer 5:3 O Yahweh, don't your eyes look on truth? you have stricken them, but they were not grieved; you have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
Jer 5:4 Then I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they don't know the way of Yahweh, nor the law of their God:
Jer 5:5 I will get me to the great men, and will speak to them; for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God. But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
Jer 5:6 Therefore a lion out of the forest shall kill them, a wolf of the evenings shall destroy them, a leopard shall watch against their cities; everyone who goes out there shall be torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many, and their backsliding is increased.
Jer 5:7 How can I pardon you? your children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes' houses.
Jer 5:8 They were as fed horses roaming at large; everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife.
Jer 5:9 Shall I not visit for these things? says Yahweh; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Jer 5:10 Go up on her walls, and destroy; but don't make a full end: take away her branches; for they are not Yahweh's.
Jer 5:11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, says Yahweh.
Jer 5:12 They have denied Yahweh, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come on us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
Jer 5:13 and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done to them.
Jer 5:14 Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Armies, Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
Jer 5:15 Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far, house of Israel, says Yahweh: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don't know, neither understand what they say.
Jer 5:16 Their quiver is an open tomb, they are all mighty men.
Jer 5:17 They shall eat up your harvest, and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat; they shall eat up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees; they shall beat down your fortified cities, in which you trust, with the sword.
Jer 5:18 But even in those days, says Yahweh, I will not make a full end with you.
Jer 5:19 It shall happen, when you shall say, Why has Yahweh our God done all these things to us? then you shall say to them, Like as you have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
Jer 5:20 Declare you this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,
Jer 5:21 Hear now this, foolish people, and without understanding; who have eyes, and don't see; who have ears, and don't hear:
Jer 5:22 Don't you fear me? says Yahweh: won't you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it can't pass it? and though its waves toss themselves, yet they can't prevail; though they roar, yet they can't pass over it.
Jer 5:23 But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.
Jer 5:24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear Yahweh our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season; who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
Jer 5:25 Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good from you.
Jer 5:26 For among my people are found wicked men: they watch, as fowlers lie in wait; they set a trap, they catch men.
Jer 5:27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and grew rich.
Jer 5:28 They are grew fat, they shine: yes, they overpass in deeds of wickedness; they don't plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and the right of the needy they don't judge.
Jer 5:29 Shall I not visit for these things? says Yahweh; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Jer 5:30 A wonderful and horrible thing is happen in the land:
Jer 5:31 the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will you do in the end of it?
 

Jer 6:1 Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise up a signal on Beth Haccherem; for evil looks forth from the north, and a great destruction.
Jer 6:2 The comely and delicate one, the daughter of Zion, will I cut off.
Jer 6:3 Shepherds with their flocks shall come to her; they shall pitch their tents against her all around; they shall feed everyone in his place.
Jer 6:4 Prepare you war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to us! for the day declines, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.
Jer 6:5 Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us destroy her palaces.
Jer 6:6 For thus has Yahweh of Armies said, Cut down trees, and cast up a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.
Jer 6:7 As a well casts forth its waters, so she casts forth her wickedness: violence and destruction is heard in her; before me continually is sickness and wounds.
Jer 6:8 Be instructed, Jerusalem, lest my soul be alienated from you; lest I make you a desolation, a land not inhabited.
Jer 6:9 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn again your hand as a grape gatherer into the baskets.
Jer 6:10 To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can't listen: behold, the word of Yahweh is become to them a reproach; they have no delight in it.
Jer 6:11 Therefore I am full of the wrath of Yahweh; I am weary with holding in: pour it out on the children in the street, and on the assembly of young men together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him who is full of days.
Jer 6:12 Their houses shall be turned to others, their fields and their wives together; for I will stretch out my hand on the inhabitants of the land, says Yahweh.
Jer 6:13 For from the least of them even to the greatest of them everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely.
Jer 6:14 They have healed also the hurt of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
Jer 6:15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, says Yahweh.
Jer 6:16 Thus says Yahweh, Stand you in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls: but they said, We will not walk therein.
Jer 6:17 I set watchmen over you, saying, Listen to the sound of the trumpet; but they said, We will not listen.
Jer 6:18 Therefore hear, you nations, and know, congregation, what is among them.
Jer 6:19 Hear, earth: behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.
Jer 6:20 To what purpose comes there to me frankincense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.
Jer 6:21 Therefore thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people; and the fathers and the sons together shall stumble against them; the neighbor and his friend shall perish.
Jer 6:22 Thus says Yahweh, Behold, a people comes from the north country; and a great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.
Jer 6:23 They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Zion.
Jer 6:24 We have heard its report; our hands wax feeble: anguish has taken hold of us, and pangs as of a woman in travail.
Jer 6:25 Don't go forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy, and terror, are on every side.
Jer 6:26 Daughter of my people, gird you with sackcloth, and wallow yourself in ashes: make you mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for the destroyer shall suddenly come on us.
Jer 6:27 I have made you a tester of metals and a fortress among my people; that you may know and try their way.
Jer 6:28 They are all grievous rebels, going about with slanders; they are brass and iron: they all of them deal corruptly.
Jer 6:29 The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire: in vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away.
Jer 6:30 Men will call them rejected silver, because Yahweh has rejected them.
 

Jer 7:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,
Jer 7:2 Stand in the gate of Yahweh's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of Yahweh, all you of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship Yahweh.
Jer 7:3 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
Jer 7:4 Don't you trust in lying words, saying, The temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, are these.
Jer 7:5 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor;
Jer 7:6 if you don't oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don't shed innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt:
Jer 7:7 then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even forevermore.
Jer 7:8 Behold, you trust in lying words, that can't profit.
Jer 7:9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known,
Jer 7:10 and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered; that you may do all these abominations?
Jer 7:11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, says Yahweh.
Jer 7:12 But go you now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.
Jer 7:13 Now, because you have done all these works, says Yahweh, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you didn't hear; and I called you, but you didn't answer:
Jer 7:14 therefore will I do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.
Jer 7:15 I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
Jer 7:16 Therefore don't you pray for this people, neither lift up a cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear you.
Jer 7:17 Don't you see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
Jer 7:18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
Jer 7:19 Do they provoke me to anger? says Yahweh; do they not provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?
Jer 7:20 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, my anger and my wrath shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on animal, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
Jer 7:21 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat meat.
Jer 7:22 For I didn't speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:
Jer 7:23 but this thing I commanded them, saying, Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk you in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.
Jer 7:24 But they didn't listen nor turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.
Jer 7:25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:
Jer 7:26 yet they didn't listen to me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers.
Jer 7:27 You shall speak all these words to them; but they will not listen to you: you shall also call to them; but they will not answer you.
Jer 7:28 You shall tell them, This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of Yahweh their God, nor received instruction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
Jer 7:29 Cut off your hair, Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
Jer 7:30 For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight, says Yahweh: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.
Jer 7:31 They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I didn't command, nor did it come into my mind.
Jer 7:32 Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, until there be no place to bury.
Jer 7:33 The dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth; and none shall frighten them away.
Jer 7:34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste.
 

Jer 8:1 At that time, says Yahweh, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves;
Jer 8:2 and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the army of the sky, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung on the surface of the earth.
Jer 8:3 Death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven them, says Yahweh of Armies.
Jer 8:4 Moreover you shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh: Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return?
Jer 8:5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.
Jer 8:6 I listened and heard, but they didn't speak aright: no man repents him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? everyone turns to his course, as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle.
Jer 8:7 Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times; and the turtledove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people don't know Yahweh's law.
Jer 8:8 How do you say, We are wise, and the law of Yahweh is with us? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has worked falsely.
Jer 8:9 The wise men are disappointed, they are dismayed and taken: behold, they have rejected the word of Yahweh; and what manner of wisdom is in them?
Jer 8:10 Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields to those who shall possess them: for everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even to the priest every one deals falsely.
Jer 8:11 They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
Jer 8:12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among those who fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says Yahweh.
Jer 8:13 I will utterly consume them, says Yahweh: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.
Jer 8:14 Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there; for Yahweh our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against Yahweh.
Jer 8:15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!
Jer 8:16 The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles; for they are come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it; the city and those who dwell therein.
Jer 8:17 For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, says Yahweh.
Jer 8:18 Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! My heart is faint within me.
Jer 8:19 Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: isn't Yahweh in Zion? Isn't her King in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images, and with foreign vanities?
Jer 8:20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
Jer 8:21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I mourn; dismay has taken hold on me.
Jer 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then isn't the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
 

Jer 9:1 Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
Jer 9:2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
Jer 9:3 They bend their tongue, as it were their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don't know me, says Yahweh.
Jer 9:4 Take you heed everyone of his neighbor, and don't you trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders.
Jer 9:5 They will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity.
Jer 9:6 Your habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, says Yahweh.
Jer 9:7 Therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how else should I do, because of the daughter of my people?
Jer 9:8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he lays wait for him.
Jer 9:9 Shall I not visit them for these things? says Yahweh; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Jer 9:10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passes through; neither can men hear the voice of the livestock; both the birds of the sky and the animals are fled, they are gone.
Jer 9:11 I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling place of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.
Jer 9:12 Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of Yahweh has spoken, that he may declare it? why is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passes through?
Jer 9:13 Yahweh says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein,
Jer 9:14 but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them;
Jer 9:15 therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.
Jer 9:16 I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.
Jer 9:17 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, Consider you, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come:
Jer 9:18 and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.
Jer 9:19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we ruined! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.
Jer 9:20 Yet hear the word of Yahweh, you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing, and everyone her neighbor lamentation.
Jer 9:21 For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from outside, and the young men from the streets.
Jer 9:22 Speak, Thus says Yahweh, The dead bodies of men shall fall as dung on the open field, and as the handful after the harvester; and none shall gather them.
Jer 9:23 Thus says Yahweh, Don't let the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, don't let the rich man glory in his riches;
Jer 9:24 but let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says Yahweh.
Jer 9:25 Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will punish all those who are circumcised in their uncircumcision:
Jer 9:26 Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners of their hair cut off, who dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.



Nov. 14
Philemon

Phm 1:1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon, our beloved fellow worker,
Phm 1:2 to the beloved Apphia, to Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the assembly in your house:
Phm 1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Phm 1:4 I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers,
Phm 1:5 hearing of your love, and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all the saints;
Phm 1:6 that the fellowship of your faith may become effective, in the knowledge of every good thing which is in us in Christ Jesus.
Phm 1:7 For we have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.
Phm 1:8 Therefore, though I have all boldness in Christ to command you that which is appropriate,
Phm 1:9 yet for love's sake I rather beg, being such a one as Paul, the aged, but also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
Phm 1:10 I beg you for my child, whom I have become the father of in my chains, Onesimus,
Phm 1:11 who once was useless to you, but now is useful to you and to me.
Phm 1:12 I am sending him back. Therefore receive him, that is, my own heart,
Phm 1:13 whom I desired to keep with me, that on your behalf he might serve me in my chains for the Good News.
Phm 1:14 But I was willing to do nothing without your consent, that your goodness would not be as of necessity, but of free will.
Phm 1:15 For perhaps he was therefore separated from you for a while, that you would have him forever,
Phm 1:16 no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much rather to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
Phm 1:17 If then you count me a partner, receive him as you would receive me.
Phm 1:18 But if he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, put that to my account.
Phm 1:19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it (not to mention to you that you owe to me even your own self besides).
Phm 1:20 Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord.
Phm 1:21 Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even beyond what I say.
Phm 1:22 Also, prepare a guest room for me, for I hope that through your prayers I will be restored to you.
Phm 1:23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you,
Phm 1:24 as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.
Phm 1:25 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.