Matthew 8:19

However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ.

For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I married you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

Nevertheless you have a few names in Sardis that didn’t defile their garments. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world that he might put to shame the things that are strong.

Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, and to all the elders of Israel.

But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they didn’t make them cease, until the matter should come to Darius, and an answer should be returned by letter concerning it.

“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in the field, which a man found, and hid. In his joy, he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field.

He left everything, and rose up and followed him.

For you see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble;

May Yahweh repay your work, and a full reward be given to you from Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

When those who bore Yahweh’s ark had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened calf.

and has extended loving kindness to me before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty princes. I was strengthened according to Yahweh my God’s hand on me, and I gathered together chief men out of Israel to go up with me.

For I was ashamed to ask of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the way, because we had spoken to the king, saying, “The hand of our God is on all those who seek him, for good; but his power and his wrath is against all those who forsake him.”

He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools.

For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land. The foreigner will join himself with them, and they will unite with the house of Jacob.

Israel was holiness to Yahweh, the first fruits of his increase. All who devour him will be held guilty. Evil will come on them,” ’ says Yahweh.”

Peter began to tell him, “Behold, we have left all, and have followed you.”

When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything, and followed him.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

If anyone serves me, let him follow me. Where I am, there my servant will also be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:

They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood out of every tribe, language, people, and nation,

These will war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings, and those who are with him are called chosen and faithful.”

“ ‘If you offer a meal offering of first fruits to Yahweh, you shall offer for the meal offering of your first fruits fresh heads of grain parched with fire and crushed.

They set forward from the Mount of Yahweh three days’ journey. The ark of Yahweh’s covenant went before them three days’ journey, to seek out a resting place for them.

Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, saying,

You shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying, ‘When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’ ”

All Israel, with their elders, officers, and judges, stood on both sides of the ark before the Levitical priests, who carried the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, the foreigner as well as the native; half of them in front of Mount Gerizim, and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Yahweh had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel.

Yahweh drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve Yahweh; for he is our God.”

Ruth said, “Don’t urge me to leave you, and to return from following you, for where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.

Ittai answered the king, and said, “As Yahweh lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely in what place my lord the king is, whether for death or for life, your servant will be there also.”

Someone told David, saying, “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” David said, “Yahweh, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.”

All the elders of Israel came, and the priests picked up the ark.

Zadok the son of Ahitub, and Abimelech the son of Abiathar, were priests; Shavsha was scribe;

For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylon; and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God on him.

I, even I Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers who are beyond the River, that whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, requires of you, it shall be done with all diligence,

According to the good hand of our God on us they brought us a man of discretion, of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel; and Sherebiah, with his sons and his brothers, eighteen;

Then we departed from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and the bandit by the way.

and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple, for the wall of the city, and for the house that I will occupy.” The king granted my requests, because of the good hand of my God on me.

I told them of the hand of my God which was good on me, as also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me. They said, “Let’s rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work.

and his brothers, Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God; and Ezra the scribe was before them.

My heart overflows with a noble theme. I recite my verses for the king. My tongue is like the pen of a skillful writer.

A friend loves at all times; and a brother is born for adversity.

All this I have proved in wisdom. I said, “I will be wise;” but it was far from me.

Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you now; and let them know what Yahweh of Armies has purposed concerning Egypt.

Your heart will meditate on the terror. Where is he who counted? Where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers?

who frustrates the signs of the liars, and makes diviners mad; who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish;

Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sat on Moses’ seat.

“Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went out to meet the bridegroom.

How he entered into God’s house at the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the show bread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and gave also to those who were with him?”

“If anyone comes to me, and doesn’t disregard his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he can’t be my disciple.

The next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which is to say, being interpreted, Teacher), “where are you staying?”

Have any of the rulers believed in him, or of the Pharisees?

Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Peter said to him, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus. He was mighty in the Scriptures.

For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God,

“When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furniture of the sanctuary, as the camp moves forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to carry it; but they shall not touch the sanctuary, lest they die. The sons of Kohath shall carry these things belonging to the Tent of Meeting.

and they commanded the people, saying, “When you see the ark of Yahweh your God’s covenant, and the Levitical priests bearing it, then leave your place and follow it.

The servant who was set over the reapers answered, “It is the Moabite lady who came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab.

Boaz answered her, “I have been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father, your mother, and the land of your birth, and have come to a people that you didn’t know before.

The Levites took down Yahweh’s ark and the box that was with it, in which the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone; and the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day to Yahweh.

They set God’s ark on a new cart, and brought it out of Abinadab’s house that was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart.

“Moreover concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, when he comes out of a far country for your name’s sake

and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions in which they have transgressed against you; and give them compassion before those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them

The families of scribes who lived at Jabez: the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and the Sucathites. These are the Kenites who came from Hammath, the father of the house of Rechab.

Then the Spirit came on Amasai, who was chief of the thirty, and he said, “We are yours, David, and on your side, you son of Jesse. Peace, peace be to you, and peace be to your helpers; for your God helps you.” Then David received them, and made them captains of the band.

These were the sons of Levi after their fathers’ houses, even the heads of the fathers’ houses of those who were counted individually, in the number of names by their polls, who did the work for the service of Yahweh’s house, from twenty years old and upward.

Shemaiah the son of Nethanel the scribe, who was of the Levites, wrote them in the presence of the king, the princes, Zadok the priest, Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and the heads of the fathers’ households of the priests and of the Levites; one fathers’ house being taken for Eleazar, and one taken for Ithamar.

Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and directed all who did the work in every kind of service. Of the Levites, there were scribes, officials, and gatekeepers.

this Ezra went up from Babylon. He was a skilled scribe in the law of Moses, which Yahweh, the God of Israel, had given; and the king granted him all his request, according to Yahweh his God’s hand on him.

For Ezra had set his heart to seek Yahweh’s law, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.

Now this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, even the scribe of the words of Yahweh’s commandments, and of his statutes to Israel:

All the people gathered themselves together as one man into the wide place that was in front of the water gate; and they spoke to Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which Yahweh had commanded to Israel.

These were in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor, and of Ezra the priest and scribe.

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Behold, Yahweh’s hand is not shortened, that it can’t save; nor his ear dull, that it can’t hear.

The king answered to Daniel, and said, “Of a truth your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you have been able to reveal this secret.”

Therefore I make a decree, that every people, nation, and language, which speak anything evil against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill; because there is no other god who is able to deliver like this.”

“Yet I am Yahweh your God from the land of Egypt; and you shall acknowledge no god but me, and besides me there is no savior.

Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he asked them where the Christ would be born.

They immediately left the boat and their father, and followed him.

He said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been made a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder, who brings out of his treasure new and old things.”

Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the lawyer of this world? Hasn’t God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

These are those who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are those who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed by Jesus from among men, the first fruits to God and to the Lamb.

So therefore whoever of you who doesn’t renounce all that he has, he can’t be my disciple.