Joshua 23

• 1. The years passed, and the LORD had given the people of Israel rest from all their enemies. Joshua, who was now very old,
• 2. called together all the elders, leaders, judges, and officers of Israel. He said to them, "I am an old man now.
• 3. You have seen everything the LORD your God has done for you during my lifetime. The LORD your God has fought for you against your enemies.
• 4. I have allotted to you as an inheritance all the land of the nations yet unconquered, as well as the land of those we have already conquered--from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.
• 5. This land will be yours, for the LORD your God will drive out all the people living there now. You will live there instead of them, just as the LORD your God promised you.
• 6. "So be strong! Be very careful to follow all the instructions written in the Book of the Law of Moses. Do not deviate from them in any way.
• 7. Make sure you do not associate with the other people still remaining in the land. Do not even mention the names of their gods, much less swear by them or worship them.
• 8. But be faithful to the LORD your God as you have done until now.
• 9. "For the LORD has driven out great and powerful nations for you, and no one has yet been able to defeat you.
• 10. Each one of you will put to flight a thousand of the enemy, for the LORD your God fights for you, just as he has promised.
• 11. So be very careful to love the LORD your God.
• 12. "But if you turn away from him and intermarry with the survivors of these nations remaining among you,
• 13. then know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive them out from your land. Instead, they will be a snare and a trap to you, a pain in your side and a thorn in your eyes, and you will be wiped out from this good land the LORD your God has given you.
• 14. "Soon I will die, going the way of all the earth. Deep in your hearts you know that every promise of the LORD your God has come true. Not a single one has failed!
• 15. But as surely as the LORD your God has given you the good things he promised, he will also bring disaster on you if you disobey him. He will completely wipe you out from this good land he has given you.
• 16. If you break the covenant of the LORD your God by worshiping and serving other gods, his anger will burn against you, and you will quickly be wiped out from the good land he has given you."

Acts 3

• 1. Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o'clock prayer service.
• 2. As they approached the Temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in. Each day he was put beside the Temple gate, the one called the Beautiful Gate, so he could beg from the people going into the Temple.
• 3. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money.
• 4. Peter and John looked at him intently, and Peter said, "Look at us!"
• 5. The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting a gift.
• 6. But Peter said, "I don't have any money for you. But I'll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!"
• 7. Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man's feet and anklebones were healed and strengthened.
• 8. He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them.
• 9. All the people saw him walking and heard him praising God.
• 10. When they realized he was the lame beggar they had seen so often at the Beautiful Gate, they were absolutely astounded!
• 11. They all rushed out to Solomon's Colonnade, where he was holding tightly to Peter and John. Everyone stood there in awe of the wonderful thing that had happened.
• 12. Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd. "People of Israel," he said, "what is so astounding about this? And why look at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power and godliness?
• 13. For it is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of all our ancestors who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. This is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate's decision to release him.
• 14. You rejected this holy, righteous one and instead demanded the release of a murderer.
• 15. You killed the author of life, but God raised him to life. And we are witnesses of this fact!
• 16. "The name of Jesus has healed this man--and you know how lame he was before. Faith in Jesus' name has caused this healing before your very eyes.
• 17. "Friends, I realize that what you did to Jesus was done in ignorance; and the same can be said of your leaders.
• 18. But God was fulfilling what all the prophets had declared about the Messiah beforehand--that he must suffer all these things.
• 19. Now turn from your sins and turn to God, so you can be cleansed of your sins.
• 20. Then wonderful times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will send Jesus your Messiah to you again.
• 21. For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his prophets.
• 22. Moses said, 'The Lord your God will raise up a Prophet like me from among your own people. Listen carefully to everything he tells you.'
• 23. Then Moses said, 'Anyone who will not listen to that Prophet will be cut off from God's people and utterly destroyed.'
• 24. "Starting with Samuel, every prophet spoke about what is happening today.
• 25. You are the children of those prophets, and you are included in the covenant God promised to your ancestors. For God said to Abraham, 'Through your descendants all the families on earth will be blessed.'
• 26. When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you people of Israel, to bless you by turning each of you back from your sinful ways."

Jeremiah 12

• 1. LORD, you always give me justice when I bring a case before you. Now let me bring you this complaint: Why are the wicked so prosperous? Why are evil people so happy?
• 2. You have planted them, and they have taken root and prospered. Your name is on their lips, but in their hearts they give you no credit at all.
• 3. But as for me, LORD, you know my heart. You see me and test my thoughts. Drag these people away like helpless sheep to be butchered! Set them aside to be slaughtered!
• 4. How long must this land weep? Even the grass in the fields has withered. The wild animals and birds have disappeared because of the evil in the land. Yet the people say, "The LORD won't do anything!"
• 5. Then the LORD replied to me, "If racing against mere men makes you tired, how will you race against horses? If you stumble and fall on open ground, what will you do in the thickets near the Jordan?
• 6. Even your own brothers, members of your own family, have turned on you. They have plotted, raising a cry against you. Do not trust them, no matter how pleasantly they speak.
• 7. "I have abandoned my people, my special possession. I have surrendered my dearest ones to their enemies.
• 8. My chosen people have roared at me like a lion of the forest, so I have treated them as though I hated them.
• 9. My chosen people have become as disgusting to me as a vulture. And indeed, they are surrounded by vultures. Bring on the wild beasts to pick their corpses clean!
• 10. "Many rulers have ravaged my vineyard, trampling down the vines and turning all its beauty into a barren wilderness.
• 11. They have made it an empty wasteland; I hear its mournful cry. The whole land is desolate, and no one even cares.
• 12. Destroying armies plunder the land. The sword of the LORD kills people from one end of the nation to the other. No one will escape!
• 13. My people have planted wheat but are harvesting thorns. They have worked hard, but it has done them no good. They will harvest a crop of shame, for the fierce anger of the LORD is upon them."
• 14. Now this is what the LORD says: "As for all the evil nations reaching out for the inheritance I gave my people Israel, I will uproot them from their lands just as Judah will be uprooted from hers.
• 15. But afterward I will return and have compassion on all of them. I will bring them home to their own lands again, each nation to its own inheritance.
• 16. And if these nations quickly learn the ways of my people, and if they learn to swear by my name, saying, `As surely as the LORD lives' (just as they taught my people to swear by the name of Baal), then they will be given a place among my people.
• 17. But any nation who refuses to obey me will be uprooted and destroyed. I, the LORD, have spoken!"

New Living Translation: 197 of 365 days.