Proverbs 17:3; Isaiah 48:1-11; Jeremiah 6:24-30; Jeremiah 9:1-9; Ezekiel 22:1-22; Zechariah 13; Malachi 3:1-5; Mark 9:38-50; 1 Peter 1:1-9; Revelation 3:13-22

Proverbs 17:3

3 The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tries hearts.

Isaiah 48:1-11

1 Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came forth from the loins of Judah; who swear by the name of the LORD, and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right.

2 For they call themselves after the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; the LORD of hosts is his name.

3 "The former things I declared of old, they went forth from my mouth and I made them known; then suddenly I did them and they came to pass.

4 Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass,

5 I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, 'My idol did them, my graven image and my molten image commanded them.'

6 "You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forth I make you hear new things, hidden things which you have not known.

7 They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say, 'Behold, I knew them.'

8 You have never heard, you have never known, from of old your ear has not been opened. For I knew that you would deal very treacherously, and that from birth you were called a rebel.

9 "For my name's sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off.

10 Behold, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.

11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.

Jeremiah 6:24-30

24 We have heard the report of it, our hands fall helpless; anguish has taken hold of us, pain as of a woman in travail.

25 Go not forth into the field, nor walk on the road; for the enemy has a sword, terror is on every side.

26 O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, and roll in ashes; make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.

27 "I have made you an assayer and tester among my people, that you may know and assay their ways.

28 They are all stubbornly rebellious, going about with slanders; they are bronze and iron, all of them act corruptly.

29 The bellows blow fiercely, the lead is consumed by the fire; in vain the refining goes on, for the wicked are not removed.

30 Refuse silver they are called, for the LORD has rejected them."

Jeremiah 9:1-9

1 O that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

2 O that I had in the desert a wayfarers' lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men.

3 They bend their tongue like a bow; falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says the LORD.

4 Let every one beware of his neighbor, and put no trust in any brother; for every brother is a supplanter, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

5 Every one deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they commit iniquity and are too weary to repent.

6 Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit, they refuse to know me, says the LORD.

7 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: "Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do, because of my people?

8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully; with his mouth each speaks peaceably to his neighbor, but in his heart he plans an ambush for him.

9 Shall I not punish them for these things? says the LORD; and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?

Ezekiel 22:1-22

1 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

2 "And you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then declare to her all her abominable deeds.

3 You shall say, Thus says the Lord GOD: A city that sheds blood in the midst of her, that her time may come, and that makes idols to defile herself!

4 You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed, and defiled by the idols which you have made; and you have brought your day near, the appointed time of your years has come. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mocking to all the countries.

5 Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you, you infamous one, full of tumult.

6 "Behold, the princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood.

7 Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the sojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow are wronged in you.

8 You have despised my holy things, and profaned my sabbaths.

9 There are men in you who slander to shed blood, and men in you who eat upon the mountains; men commit lewdness in your midst.

10 In you men uncover their fathers' nakedness; in you they humble women who are unclean in their impurity.

11 One commits abomination with his neighbor's wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you defiles his sister, his father's daughter.

12 In you men take bribes to shed blood; you take interest and increase and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; and you have forgotten me, says the Lord GOD.

13 "Behold, therefore, I strike my hands together at the dishonest gain which you have made, and at the blood which has been in the midst of you.

14 Can your courage endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.

15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will consume your filthiness out of you.

16 And I shall be profaned through you in the sight of the nations; and you shall know that I am the LORD."

17 And the word of the LORD came to me:

18 "Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me; all of them, silver and bronze and tin and iron and lead in the furnace, have become dross.

19 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.

20 As men gather silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into a furnace, to blow the fire upon it in order to melt it; so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you.

21 I will gather you and blow upon you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it.

22 As silver is melted in a furnace, so you shall be melted in the midst of it; and you shall know that I the LORD have poured out my wrath upon you."

Zechariah 13

1 "On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.

2 "And on that day, says the LORD of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more; and also I will remove from the land the prophets and the unclean spirit.

3 And if any one again appears as a prophet, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, 'You shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the LORD'; and his father and mother who bore him shall pierce him through when he prophesies.

4 On that day every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies; he will not put on a hairy mantle in order to deceive,

5 but he will say, 'I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the soil; for the land has been my possession since my youth.'

6 And if one asks him, 'What are these wounds on your back?' he will say, 'The wounds I received in the house of my friends.'"

7 "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me," says the LORD of hosts. "Strike the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones.

8 In the whole land, says the LORD, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive.

9 And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The LORD is my God.'"

Malachi 3:1-5

1 "Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.

2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? "For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap;

3 he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, till they present right offerings to the LORD.

4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years.

5 "Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts.

Mark 9:38-50

38 John said to him, "Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he was not following us."

39 But Jesus said, "Do not forbid him; for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon after to speak evil of me.

40 For he that is not against us is for us.

41 For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ, will by no means lose his reward.

42 "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.

44 * [No text]

45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.

46 * [No text]

47 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell,

48 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

49 For every one will be salted with fire.

50 Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its saltness, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."

1 Peter 1:1-9

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappado'cia, Asia, and Bithyn'ia,

2 chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4 and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

5 who by God's power are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials,

7 so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

8 Without having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy.

9 As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls.

Revelation 3:13-22

13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'

14 "And to the angel of the church in La-odice'a write: 'The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.

15 "'I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot!

16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.

17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

18 Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.

19 Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten; so be zealous and repent.

20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

21 He who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.

22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'"