October 8, 2027

13Cry Out to the Lord - Gird yourselves and lament, you priests! wail, ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, ministers of my God! For the grain offering and the libation are withheld from the house of your God. 14Proclaim a holy fast! Call an assembly! Gather the elders, all who dwell in the land, To the house of the LORD, your God, and cry out to the LORD! 15O! The day! For near is the day of the LORD, like destruction from the Almighty it is coming! 1Blow the horn in Zion, sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming! Yes, it approaches, 2a day of darkness and gloom, a day of thick clouds! Like dawn spreading over the mountains, a vast and mighty army! Nothing like it has ever happened in ages past, nor will the future hold anything like it, even to the most distant generations.

2I - I will praise you, LORD, with all my heart; I will declare all your wondrous deeds. 3I will delight and rejoice in you; I will sing hymns to your name, Most High. 6You rebuked the nations, you destroyed the wicked; their name you blotted out for all time. 16VI - The nations fall into the pit they dig; in the snare they hide, their own foot is caught. 8III - The LORD rules forever, has set up his throne for judgment. 9It is he who judges the world with justice, who judges the peoples with fairness.

31Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”

15Some of them said, “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons.” 16Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven. 17But he knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house. 18And if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons. 19If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 20But if it is by the finger of God that [I] drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 21When a strong man fully armed guards his palace, his possessions are safe. 22But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him, he takes away the armor on which he relied and distributes the spoils. 23Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. The Return of the Unclean Spirit. 24“When an unclean spirit goes out of someone, it roams through arid regions searching for rest but, finding none, it says, ‘I shall return to my home from which I came.’ 25But upon returning, it finds it swept clean and put in order. 26Then it goes and brings back seven other spirits more wicked than itself who move in and dwell there, and the last condition of that person is worse than the first.” True Blessedness.