The LORD asked, "Why should I forgive the sins of my people? They have abandoned me and have worshiped gods that are not real. I fed my people until they were full, but they committed adultery and spent their time with prostitutes.

"How can I give you up, Israel? How can I abandon you? Could I ever destroy you as I did Admah, or treat you as I did Zeboiim? My heart will not let me do it! My love for you is too strong.

"And now you say to me, 'You are my father, and you have loved me ever since I was a child.

My people will return weeping, praying as I lead them back. I will guide them to streams of water, on a smooth road where they will not stumble. I am like a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my oldest son."

"Israel, you are my dearest child, the one I love best. Whenever I mention your name, I think of you with love. My heart goes out to you; I will be merciful.

He came to his own country, but his own people did not receive him.

They did not become God's children by natural means, that is, by being born as the children of a human father; God himself was their Father.

And so the Lord says, "You must leave them and separate yourselves from them. Have nothing to do with what is unclean, and I will accept you.

I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."

It is through faith that all of you are God's children in union with Christ Jesus.

to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might become God's children.

So then, you are no longer a slave but a child. And since you are his child, God will give you all that he has for his children.

God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his children---this was his pleasure and purpose.

See how much the Father has loved us! His love is so great that we are called God's children---and so, in fact, we are. This is why the world does not know us: it has not known God.

Everyone who has this hope in Christ keeps himself pure, just as Christ is pure.

Many foreign rulers have destroyed my vineyard; they have trampled down my fields; they have turned my lovely land into a desert.

Then they rejected the pleasant land, because they did not believe God's promise.

It was then that I promised to take them out of Egypt and lead them to a land I had chosen for them, a rich and fertile land, the finest land of all.

Out of one of these four horns grew a little horn, whose power extended toward the south and the east and toward the Promised Land.

The Syrian invader will do with them as he pleases, without opposition. He will stand in the Promised Land and have it completely in his power.

He will even invade the Promised Land and kill tens of thousands, but the countries of Edom, Moab, and what is left of Ammon will escape.

He will even set up his huge royal tents between the sea and the mountain on which the Temple stands. But he will die, with no one there to help him."

Wise people will gain an honorable reputation, but stupid people will only add to their own disgrace.

Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of his great mercy he gave us new life by raising Jesus Christ from death. This fills us with a living hope,

and so we look forward to possessing the rich blessings that God keeps for his people. He keeps them for you in heaven, where they cannot decay or spoil or fade away.

"And now you say to me, 'You are my father, and you have loved me ever since I was a child.

You are our father. Our ancestors Abraham and Jacob do not acknowledge us, but you, LORD, are our father, the one who has always rescued us.

But you are our father, LORD. We are like clay, and you are like the potter. You created us,

Do not be like them. Your Father already knows what you need before you ask him.

This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven: May your holy name be honored;

For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry out to God, "Father! my Father!"

Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him; for if we share Christ's suffering, we will also share his glory.

to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might become God's children.

I will give them a single purpose in life: to honor me for all time, for their own good and the good of their descendants.

I will make an eternal covenant with them. I will never stop doing good things for them, and I will make them fear me with all their heart, so that they will never turn away from me.

We are not people who turn back and are lost. Instead, we have faith and are saved.