Deuteronomy 15

• 1. "At the end of every seventh year you must cancel your debts.
• 2. This is how it must be done. Creditors must cancel the loans they have made to their fellow Israelites. They must not demand payment from their neighbors or relatives, for the LORD's time of release has arrived.
• 3. This release from debt, however, applies only to your fellow Israelites--not to the foreigners living among you.
• 4. There should be no poor among you, for the LORD your God will greatly bless you in the land he is giving you as a special possession.
• 5. You will receive this blessing if you carefully obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today.
• 6. The LORD your God will bless you as he has promised. You will lend money to many nations but will never need to borrow! You will rule many nations, but they will not rule over you!
• 7. "But if there are any poor people in your towns when you arrive in the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tightfisted toward them.
• 8. Instead, be generous and lend them whatever they need.
• 9. Do not be mean-spirited and refuse someone a loan because the year of release is close at hand. If you refuse to make the loan and the needy person cries out to the LORD, you will be considered guilty of sin.
• 10. Give freely without begrudging it, and the LORD your God will bless you in everything you do.
• 11. There will always be some among you who are poor. That is why I am commanding you to share your resources freely with the poor and with other Israelites in need.
• 12. "If an Israelite man or woman voluntarily becomes your servant and serves you for six years, in the seventh year you must set that servant free.
• 13. "When you release a male servant, do not send him away empty-handed.
• 14. Give him a generous farewell gift from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress. Share with him some of the bounty with which the LORD your God has blessed you.
• 15. Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you! That is why I am giving you this command.
• 16. But suppose your servant says, `I will not leave you,' because he loves you and your family, and he is well off with you.
• 17. In that case, take an awl and push it through his earlobe into the door. After that, he will be your servant for life. "You must do the same for your female servants.
• 18. "Do not consider it a hardship when you release your servants. Remember that for six years they have given you the services worth double the wages of hired workers, and the LORD your God will bless you in all you do.
• 19. "You must set aside for the LORD your God all the firstborn males from your flocks and herds. Do not use the firstborn of your herds to work your fields, and do not shear the firstborn of your flocks.
• 20. Instead, you and your family must eat these animals in the presence of the LORD your God each year at the place he chooses.
• 21. But if this firstborn animal has any defect, such as being lame or blind, or if anything else is wrong with it, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.
• 22. Instead, use it for food for your family at home. Anyone may eat it, whether ceremonially clean or unclean, just as anyone may eat a gazelle or deer.
• 23. But do not eat the blood. You must pour it out on the ground like water.

Psalms 101

• 1. I will sing of your love and justice. I will praise you, LORD, with songs.
• 2. I will be careful to live a blameless life--when will you come to my aid? I will lead a life of integrity in my own home.
• 3. I will refuse to look at anything vile and vulgar. I hate all crooked dealings; I will have nothing to do with them.
• 4. I will reject perverse ideas and stay away from every evil.
• 5. I will not tolerate people who slander their neighbors. I will not endure conceit and pride.
• 6. I will keep a protective eye on the godly, so they may dwell with me in safety. Only those who are above reproach will be allowed to serve me.
• 7. I will not allow deceivers to serve me, and liars will not be allowed to enter my presence.
• 8. My daily task will be to ferret out criminals and free the city of the LORD from their grip.

Psalms 102

• 1. LORD, hear my prayer! Listen to my plea!
• 2. Don't turn away from me in my time of distress. Bend down your ear and answer me quickly when I call to you,
• 3. for my days disappear like smoke, and my bones burn like red-hot coals.
• 4. My heart is sick, withered like grass, and I have lost my appetite.
• 5. Because of my groaning, I am reduced to skin and bones.
• 6. I am like an owl in the desert, like a lonely owl in a far-off wilderness.
• 7. I lie awake, lonely as a solitary bird on the roof.
• 8. My enemies taunt me day after day. They mock and curse me.
• 9. I eat ashes instead of my food. My tears run down into my drink
• 10. because of your anger and wrath. For you have picked me up and thrown me out.
• 11. My life passes as swiftly as the evening shadows. I am withering like grass.
• 12. But you, O LORD, will rule forever. Your fame will endure to every generation.
• 13. You will arise and have mercy on Jerusalem--and now is the time to pity her, now is the time you promised to help.
• 14. For your people love every stone in her walls and show favor even to the dust in her streets.
• 15. And the nations will tremble before the LORD. The kings of the earth will tremble before his glory.
• 16. For the LORD will rebuild Jerusalem. He will appear in his glory.
• 17. He will listen to the prayers of the destitute. He will not reject their pleas.
• 18. Let this be recorded for future generations, so that a nation yet to be created will praise the LORD.
• 19. Tell them the LORD looked down from his heavenly sanctuary. He looked to the earth from heaven
• 20. to hear the groans of the prisoners, to release those condemned to die.
• 21. And so the LORD's fame will be celebrated in Zion, his praises in Jerusalem,
• 22. when multitudes gather together and kingdoms come to worship the LORD.
• 23. He has cut me down in midlife, shortening my days.
• 24. But I cried to him, "My God, who lives forever, don't take my life while I am still so young!
• 25. In ages past you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
• 26. Even they will perish, but you remain forever; they will wear out like old clothing. You will change them like a garment, and they will fade away.
• 27. But you are always the same; your years never end.
• 28. The children of your people will live in security. Their children's children will thrive in your presence."

Isaiah 42

• 1. "Look at my servant, whom I strengthen. He is my chosen one, and I am pleased with him. I have put my Spirit upon him. He will reveal justice to the nations.
• 2. He will be gentle--he will not shout or raise his voice in public.
• 3. He will not crush those who are weak or quench the smallest hope. He will bring full justice to all who have been wronged.
• 4. He will not stop until truth and righteousness prevail throughout the earth. Even distant lands beyond the sea will wait for his instruction."
• 5. God, the LORD, created the heavens and stretched them out. He created the earth and everything in it. He gives breath and life to everyone in all the world. And it is he who says,
• 6. "I, the LORD, have called you to demonstrate my righteousness. I will guard and support you, for I have given you to my people as the personal confirmation of my covenant with them. And you will be a light to guide all nations to me.
• 7. You will open the eyes of the blind and free the captives from prison. You will release those who sit in dark dungeons.
• 8. "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to anyone else. I will not share my praise with carved idols.
• 9. Everything I prophesied has come true, and now I will prophesy again. I will tell you the future before it happens."
• 10. Sing a new song to the LORD! Sing his praises from the ends of the earth! Sing, all you who sail the seas, all you who live in distant coastlands.
• 11. Join in the chorus, you desert towns; let the villages of Kedar rejoice! Let the people of Sela sing for joy; shout praises from the mountaintops!
• 12. Let the coastlands glorify the LORD; let them sing his praise.
• 13. The LORD will march forth like a mighty man; he will come out like a warrior, full of fury. He will shout his thundering battle cry, and he will crush all his enemies.
• 14. He will say, "I have long been silent; yes, I have restrained myself. But now I will give full vent to my fury; I will gasp and pant like a woman giving birth.
• 15. I will level the mountains and hills and bring a blight on all their greenery. I will turn the rivers into dry land and will dry up all the pools.
• 16. I will lead blind Israel down a new path, guiding them along an unfamiliar way. I will make the darkness bright before them and smooth out the road ahead of them. Yes, I will indeed do these things; I will not forsake them.
• 17. But those who trust in idols, calling them their gods--they will be turned away in shame.
• 18. "Oh, how deaf and blind you are toward me! Why won't you listen? Why do you refuse to see?
• 19. Who in all the world is as blind as my own people, my servant? Who is as deaf as my messengers? Who is as blind as my chosen people, the servant of the LORD?
• 20. You see and understand what is right but refuse to act on it. You hear, but you don't really listen."
• 21. The LORD has magnified his law and made it truly glorious. Through it he had planned to show the world that he is righteous.
• 22. But what a sight his people are, for they have been robbed, enslaved, imprisoned, and trapped. They are fair game for all and have no one to protect them.
• 23. Will not even one of you apply these lessons from the past and see the ruin that awaits you?
• 24. Who allowed Israel to be robbed and hurt? Was it not the LORD? It was the LORD whom we sinned against, for the people would not go where he sent them, nor would they obey his law.
• 25. That is why he poured out such fury on them and destroyed them in battle. They were set on fire and burned, but they still refused to understand.

New Living Translation: 161 of 365 days.