Acts 8:23

Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.

Angels who didn’t keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels;

Turn to me, and have mercy on me! Give your strength to your servant. Save the son of your servant.

You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.

Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there might be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;

Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?

“Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backsliding will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing, that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, and that my fear is not in you,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.

Working together, we entreat also that you do not receive the grace of God in vain,

Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know about your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.

We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poison grapes. Their clusters are bitter.

I will walk in liberty, for I have sought your precepts.

I am your servant. Give me understanding, that I may know your testimonies.

In your loving kindness, cut off my enemies, and destroy all those who afflict my soul, For I am your servant.

“Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves! Let’s enter into the fortified cities, and let’s be silent there; for Yahweh our God has put us to silence, and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against Yahweh.

Don’t be deceived! “Evil companionships corrupt good morals.”

For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

You also once walked in those, when you lived in them;

having been reminded of the sincere faith that is in you, which lived first in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and, I am persuaded, in you also.

The name of the star is called “Wormwood.” One third of the waters became wormwood. Many people died from the waters, because they were made bitter.

I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.

He seized the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited earth, and bound him for a thousand years,

He said, “Canaan is cursed. He will be a servant of servants to his brothers.”

You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in large measure.

He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke away their chains.

Fools are afflicted because of their disobedience, and because of their iniquities.

The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.

The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way, but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.

How you have fallen from heaven, shining one, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low!

Therefore hear Yahweh’s word, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem:

Yahweh says, “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, with which I have put her away? Or to which of my creditors have I sold you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and your mother was put away for your transgressions.

“Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?

“Haven’t you brought this on yourself, in that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, when he led you by the way?

Therefore Yahweh of Armies says concerning the prophets: “Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink poisoned water; for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land.”

Yahweh of Armies says: “The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together. All who took them captive hold them fast. They refuse to let them go.

He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood.

There is cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break boundaries, and bloodshed causes bloodshed.

You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth:

Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness;

But I will warn you whom you should fear. Fear him who after he has killed, has power to cast into Gehenna. Yes, I tell you, fear him.

For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good.

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump?

For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another.

Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness,

that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit,

You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds,

I command you in the sight of God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the chosen angels, that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing by partiality.

For some of these are people who creep into houses and take captive gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,

But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Let’s therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.

He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil.

He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths.

The nations have sunk down in the pit that they made. In the net which they hid, their own foot is taken.

Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away from among you the yoke, finger pointing, and speaking wickedly;

Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a pure and faithful seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?

Therefore as I live,’ says the Lord Yahweh, ‘surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you. My eye won’t spare, and I will have no pity.

My eye will not spare you, neither will I have pity; but I will bring your ways on you, and your abominations will be among you. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.’

Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is the bondservant of sin.

knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.

Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

Let’s fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into his rest.

looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and many be defiled by it,

whereas angels, though greater in might and power, don’t bring a railing judgment against them before the Lord.

Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in peace, without defect and blameless in his sight.

Watch yourselves, that we don’t lose the things which we have accomplished, but that we receive a full reward.

The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are also. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

lest there should be among you man, woman, family, or tribe whose heart turns away today from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that produces bitter poison;

yet his food in his bowels is turned. It is cobra venom within him.

Yahweh, truly I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your servant girl. You have freed me from my chains.

Now therefore don’t be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, on the whole earth.

“Your way and your doings have brought these things to you. This is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart.”

Therefore Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says, “Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.

He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness.

They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants. Therefore judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.

For if God didn’t spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved for judgment;

promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for a man is brought into bondage by whoever overcomes him.