Deuteronomy 30

• 1. "Suppose all these things happen to you--the blessings and the curses I have listed--and you meditate on them as you are living among the nations to which the LORD your God has exiled you.
• 2. If at that time you return to the LORD your God, and you and your children begin wholeheartedly to obey all the commands I have given you today,
• 3. then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes. He will have mercy on you and gather you back from all the nations where he has scattered you.
• 4. Though you are at the ends of the earth, the LORD your God will go and find you and bring you back again.
• 5. He will return you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will possess that land again. He will make you even more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors!
• 6. "The LORD your God will cleanse your heart and the hearts of all your descendants so that you will love him with all your heart and soul, and so you may live!
• 7. The LORD your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and persecutors.
• 8. Then you will again obey the LORD and keep all the commands I am giving you today.
• 9. The LORD your God will make you successful in everything you do. He will give you many children and numerous livestock, and your fields will produce abundant harvests, for the LORD will delight in being good to you as he was to your ancestors.
• 10. The LORD your God will delight in you if you obey his voice and keep the commands and laws written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and soul.
• 11. "This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you to understand or perform.
• 12. It is not up in heaven, so distant that you must ask, `Who will go to heaven and bring it down so we can hear and obey it?'
• 13. It is not beyond the sea, so far away that you must ask, `Who will cross the sea to bring it to us so we can hear and obey it?'
• 14. The message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it.
• 15. "Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between prosperity and disaster, between life and death.
• 16. I have commanded you today to love the LORD your God and to keep his commands, laws, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and become a great nation, and the LORD your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy.
• 17. But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods,
• 18. then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.
• 19. "Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, that you and your descendants might live!
• 20. Choose to love the LORD your God and to obey him and commit yourself to him, for he is your life. Then you will live long in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

Psalms 122

• 1. I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD."
• 2. And now we are standing here inside your gates, O Jerusalem.
• 3. Jerusalem is a well-built city, knit together as a single unit.
• 4. All the people of Israel--the LORD's people--make their pilgrimage here. They come to give thanks to the name of the LORD as the law requires.
• 5. Here stand the thrones where judgment is given, the thrones of the dynasty of David.
• 6. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May all who love this city prosper.
• 7. O Jerusalem, may there be peace within your walls and prosperity in your palaces.
• 8. For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, "Peace be with you."
• 9. For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek what is best for you, O Jerusalem.

Isaiah 57

• 1. The righteous pass away; the godly often die before their time. And no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come.
• 2. For the godly who die will rest in peace.
• 3. "But you--come here, you witches' children, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes!
• 4. Whom do you mock, making faces and sticking out your tongues? You children of sinners and liars!
• 5. You worship your idols with great passion beneath every green tree. You slaughter your children as human sacrifices down in the valleys, under overhanging rocks.
• 6. Your gods are the smooth stones in the valleys. You worship them with drink offerings and grain offerings. They, not I, are your inheritance. Does all this make me happy?
• 7. You have committed adultery on the mountaintops by worshiping idols there, and so you have been unfaithful to me.
• 8. Behind closed doors, you have set up your idols and worship them instead of me. This is adultery, for you are loving these idols instead of loving me. You have climbed right into bed with these detestable gods.
• 9. You have given olive oil and perfume to Molech as your gift. You have traveled far, even into the world of the dead, to find new gods to love.
• 10. You grew weary in your search, but you never gave up. You strengthened yourself and went on.
• 11. Why were you more afraid of them than of me? How is it that you don't even remember me or think about me? Is it because I have not corrected you that you have no fear of me?
• 12. "Now I will expose your so-called good deeds that you consider so righteous. None of them will benefit or save you.
• 13. Let's see if your idols can do anything for you when you cry to them for help. They are so helpless that a breath of wind can knock them down! But whoever trusts in me will possess the land and inherit my holy mountain.
• 14. I will say, `Rebuild the road! Clear away the rocks and stones so my people can return from captivity.'"
• 15. The high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, the Holy One, says this: "I live in that high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I refresh the humble and give new courage to those with repentant hearts.
• 16. For I will not fight against you forever; I will not always show my anger. If I did, all people would pass away--all the souls I have made.
• 17. I was angry and punished these greedy people. I withdrew myself from them, but they went right on sinning.
• 18. I have seen what they do, but I will heal them anyway! I will lead them and comfort those who mourn.
• 19. Then words of praise will be on their lips. May they have peace, both near and far, for I will heal them all," says the LORD.
• 20. "But those who still reject me are like the restless sea. It is never still but continually churns up mire and dirt.
• 21. There is no peace for the wicked," says my God.

New Living Translation: 176 of 365 days.