Joshua 23

• 1. After a long time had passed and the LORD had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them, Joshua, by then old and well advanced in years,
• 2. summoned all Israel-their elders, leaders, judges and officials-and said to them: "I am old and well advanced in years.
• 3. You yourselves have seen everything the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the LORD your God who fought for you.
• 4. Remember how I have allotted as an inheritance for your tribes all the land of the nations that remain-the nations I conquered-between the Jordan and the Great Sea in the west.
• 5. The LORD your God himself will drive them out of your way. He will push them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, as the LORD your God promised you.
• 6. "Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left.
• 7. Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them.
• 8. But you are to hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have until now.
• 9. "The LORD has driven out before you great and powerful nations; to this day no one has been able to withstand you.
• 10. One of you routs a thousand, because the LORD your God fights for you, just as he promised.
• 11. So be very careful to love the LORD your God.
• 12. "But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them,
• 13. then you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the LORD your God has given you.
• 14. "Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.
• 15. But just as every good promise of the LORD your God has come true, so the LORD will bring on you all the evil he has threatened, until he has destroyed you from this good land he has given you.
• 16. If you violate the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the LORD's anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you."

Acts 3

• 1. One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer--at three in the afternoon.
• 2. Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.
• 3. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money.
• 4. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, "Look at us!"
• 5. So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.
• 6. Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk."
• 7. Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong.
• 8. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.
• 9. When all the people saw him walking and praising God,
• 10. they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
• 11. While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade.
• 12. When Peter saw this, he said to them: "Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?
• 13. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go.
• 14. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you.
• 15. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.
• 16. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.
• 17. "Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders.
• 18. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer.
• 19. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,
• 20. and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you--even Jesus.
• 21. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.
• 22. For Moses said, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you.
• 23. Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.'
• 24. "Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have foretold these days.
• 25. And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, 'Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.'
• 26. When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways."

Jeremiah 12

• 1. You are always righteous, O LORD, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?
• 2. You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit. You are always on their lips but far from their hearts.
• 3. Yet you know me, O LORD; you see me and test my thoughts about you. Drag them off like sheep to be butchered! Set them apart for the day of slaughter!
• 4. How long will the land lie parched and the grass in every field be withered? Because those who live in it are wicked, the animals and birds have perished. Moreover, the people are saying, "He will not see what happens to us."
• 5. "If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?
• 6. Your brothers, your own family- even they have betrayed you; they have raised a loud cry against you. Do not trust them, though they speak well of you.
• 7. "I will forsake my house, abandon my inheritance; I will give the one I love into the hands of her enemies.
• 8. My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. She roars at me; therefore I hate her.
• 9. Has not my inheritance become to me like a speckled bird of prey that other birds of prey surround and attack? Go and gather all the wild beasts; bring them to devour.
• 10. Many shepherds will ruin my vineyard and trample down my field; they will turn my pleasant field into a desolate wasteland.
• 11. It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares.
• 12. Over all the barren heights in the desert destroyers will swarm, for the sword of the LORD will devour from one end of the land to the other; no one will be safe.
• 13. They will sow wheat but reap thorns; they will wear themselves out but gain nothing. So bear the shame of your harvest because of the LORD's fierce anger."
• 14. This is what the LORD says: "As for all my wicked neighbors who seize the inheritance I gave my people Israel, I will uproot them from their lands and I will uproot the house of Judah from among them.
• 15. But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bring each of them back to his own inheritance and his own country.
• 16. And if they learn well the ways of my people and swear by my name, saying, 'As surely as the LORD lives'-even as they once taught my people to swear by Baal-then they will be established among my people.
• 17. But if any nation does not listen, I will completely uproot and destroy it," declares the LORD.

New International Version

192 | 193 | 194 | 195 | 196 | Day 197 | 198 | 199 | 200 | 201 | 202 |