One Year Bible.

The Prophecy of Azariah

¹Now the Spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded. ²So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. ³For many years Israel has been without the true God, without a priest to instruct them, and without the law. ⁴But in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought Him, and He was found by them. ⁵In those days there was no safety for travelers, because the residents of the lands had many conflicts. ⁶Nation was crushed by nation, and city by city, for God afflicted them with all kinds of adversity. ⁷But as for you, be strong; do not be discouraged, for your work will be rewarded.”

Asa’s Reforms

⁸When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He then restored the altar of the LORD that was in front of the portico of the LORD’s temple. ⁹And he assembled all Judah and Benjamin, along with those from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who had settled among them, for great numbers had come over to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.

¹⁰So they gathered together in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign. ¹¹At that time they sacrificed to the LORD seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep from all the plunder they had brought back. ¹²Then they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul. ¹³And whoever would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, would be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman. ¹⁴They took an oath to the LORD with a loud voice, with shouting, trumpets, and rams’ horns. ¹⁵And all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn it with all their heart. They had sought Him earnestly, and He was found by them. So the LORD gave them rest on every side.

¹⁶King Asa also removed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother because she had made a detestable Asherah pole. Asa chopped down the pole, crushed it, and burned it in the Kidron Valley. ¹⁷The high places were not removed from Israel, but Asa’s heart was fully devoted all his days. ¹⁸And he brought into the house of God the silver and gold and the articles that he and his father had dedicated.

¹⁹And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.

War between Asa and Baasha

¹In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Judah. ²So Asa withdrew the silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the LORD and the royal palace, and he sent it with this message to Ben-hadad king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus: ³“Let there be a treaty between me and you as there was between my father and your father. See, I have sent you silver and gold. Now go and break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.”

⁴And Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, conquering Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim, and all the store cities of Naphtali.

⁵When Baasha learned of this, he stopped fortifying Ramah and abandoned his work. ⁶Then King Asa brought all the men of Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timbers Baasha had used for building. And with these materials he built up Geba and Mizpah.

Hanani’s Message to Asa

⁷At that time Hanani the seer came to King Asa of Judah and told him, “Because you have relied on the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. ⁸Were not the Cushites and Libyans a vast army with many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the LORD, He delivered them into your hand. ⁹For the eyes of the LORD roam to and fro over all the earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him. You have acted foolishly in this matter. From now on, therefore, you will be at war.”

¹⁰Asa was angry with the seer and became so enraged over this matter that he put the man in prison. And at the same time Asa oppressed some of the people.

The Death and Burial of Asa

¹¹Now the acts of Asa, from beginning to end, are indeed written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ¹²In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his disease became increasingly severe. Yet even in his illness he did not seek the LORD, but only the physicians.

¹³So in the forty-first year of his reign, Asa died and rested with his fathers. ¹⁴And he was buried in the tomb that he had cut out for himself in the City of David. They laid him on a bier that was full of spices and various blended perfumes; then they made a great fire in his honor.

Jesus the True Vine

¹“I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard. ²He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful. ³You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me.

⁵I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing. ⁶If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, proving yourselves to be My disciples.

No Greater Love

⁹As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Remain in My love. ¹⁰If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. ¹¹I have told you these things so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

¹²This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

¹⁴You are My friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶You did not choose Me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit — fruit that will remain — so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. ¹⁷This is My command to you: Love one another.

The Hatred of the World

¹⁸If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first. ¹⁹If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.

²⁰Remember the word that I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they kept My word, they will keep yours as well. ²¹But they will treat you like this because of My name, since they do not know the One who sent Me. ²²If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.

²³Whoever hates Me hates My Father as well. ²⁴If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father. ²⁵But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’

²⁶When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father — the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father — He will testify about Me. ²⁷And you also must testify, because you have been with Me from the beginning.[’’]

Persecution Foretold

¹“I have told you these things so that you will not fall away. ²They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. ³They will do these things because they have not known the Father or Me. ⁴But I have told you these things so that when their hour comes, you will remember that I told you about them. I did not tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you.

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

⁵Now, however, I am going to Him who sent Me; yet none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ ⁶Instead, your hearts are filled with sorrow because I have told you these things. ⁷But I tell you the truth, it is for your benefit that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.

⁸And when He comes, He will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹in regard to sin, because they do not believe in Me; ¹⁰in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see Me; ¹¹and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world has been condemned.

¹²I still have much to tell you, but you cannot yet bear to hear it. ¹³However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. ¹⁴He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you. ¹⁵Everything that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said that the Spirit will take from what is Mine and disclose it to you.

¹⁶In a little while you will see Me no more, and then after a little while you will see Me.”

Grief Will Turn to Joy

¹⁷Then some of His disciples asked one another, “Why is He telling us, ‘In a little while you will not see Me, and then after a little while you will see Me’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” ¹⁸They kept asking, “Why is He saying, ‘a little while’? We do not understand what He is saying.”

¹⁹Aware that they wanted to question Him, Jesus said to them, “Are you asking one another why I said, ‘In a little while you will not see Me, and then after a little while you will see Me’? ²⁰Truly, truly, I tell you, you will weep and wail while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. ²¹A woman has pain in childbirth because her time has come; but when she brings forth her child, she forgets her anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. ²²So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

Ask in My Name

²³In that day you will no longer ask Me anything. Truly, truly, I tell you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. ²⁴Until now you have not asked for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

²⁵I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. An hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you this way, but will tell you plainly about the Father. ²⁶In that day you will ask in My name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. ²⁷For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God. ²⁸I came from the Father and entered the world. In turn, I will leave the world and go to the Father.”

²⁹His disciples said, “See, now You are speaking plainly and without figures of speech. ³⁰Now we understand that You know all things and that You have no need for anyone to question You. Because of this, we believe that You came from God.”

³¹“Do you finally believe?” Jesus replied. ³²“Look, an hour is coming and has already come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you will leave Me all alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. ³³I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!”