Judges 4

• 1. After Ehud's death, the Israelites again did what was evil in the LORD's sight.
• 2. So the LORD handed them over to King Jabin of Hazor, a Canaanite king. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-haggoyim.
• 3. Sisera, who had nine hundred iron chariots, ruthlessly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years. Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD for help.
• 4. Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet who had become a judge in Israel.
• 5. She would hold court under the Palm of Deborah, which stood between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came to her to settle their disputes.
• 6. One day she sent for Barak son of Abinoam, who lived in Kedesh in the land of Naphtali. She said to him, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, commands you: Assemble ten thousand warriors from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun at Mount Tabor.
• 7. I will lure Sisera, commander of Jabin's army, along with his chariots and warriors, to the Kishon River. There I will give you victory over him."
• 8. Barak told her, "I will go, but only if you go with me!"
• 9. "Very well," she replied, "I will go with you. But since you have made this choice, you will receive no honor. For the LORD's victory over Sisera will be at the hands of a woman." So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh.
• 10. At Kedesh, Barak called together the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, and ten thousand warriors marched up with him. Deborah also marched with them.
• 11. Now Heber the Kenite, a descendant of Moses' brother-in-law Hobab, had moved away from the other members of his tribe and pitched his tent by the Oak of Zaanannim, near Kedesh.
• 12. When Sisera was told that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor,
• 13. he called for all nine hundred of his iron chariots and all of his warriors, and they marched from Harosheth-haggoyim to the Kishon River.
• 14. Then Deborah said to Barak, "Get ready! Today the LORD will give you victory over Sisera, for the LORD is marching ahead of you." So Barak led his ten thousand warriors down the slopes of Mount Tabor into battle.
• 15. When Barak attacked, the LORD threw Sisera and all his charioteers and warriors into a panic. Then Sisera leaped down from his chariot and escaped on foot.
• 16. Barak chased the enemy and their chariots all the way to Harosheth-haggoyim, killing all of Sisera's warriors. Not a single one was left alive.
• 17. Meanwhile, Sisera ran to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because Heber's family was on friendly terms with King Jabin of Hazor.
• 18. Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, "Come into my tent, sir. Come in. Don't be afraid." So he went into her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.
• 19. "Please give me some water," he said. "I'm thirsty." So she gave him some milk to drink and covered him again.
• 20. "Stand at the door of the tent," he told her. "If anybody comes and asks you if there is anyone here, say no."
• 21. But when Sisera fell asleep from exhaustion, Jael quietly crept up to him with a hammer and tent peg. Then she drove the tent peg through his temple and into the ground, and so he died.
• 22. When Barak came looking for Sisera, Jael went out to meet him. She said, "Come, and I will show you the man you are looking for." So he followed her into the tent and found Sisera lying there dead, with the tent peg through his temple.
• 23. So on that day Israel saw God subdue Jabin, the Canaanite king.
• 24. And from that time on Israel became stronger and stronger against King Jabin, until they finally destroyed him.

Acts 8

• 1. Saul was one of the official witnesses at the killing of Stephen. A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem, and all the believers except the apostles fled into Judea and Samaria.
• 2. (Some godly men came and buried Stephen with loud weeping.)
• 3. Saul was going everywhere to devastate the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into jail.
• 4. But the believers who had fled Jerusalem went everywhere preaching the Good News about Jesus.
• 5. Philip, for example, went to the city of Samaria and told the people there about the Messiah.
• 6. Crowds listened intently to what he had to say because of the miracles he did.
• 7. Many evil spirits were cast out, screaming as they left their victims. And many who had been paralyzed or lame were healed.
• 8. So there was great joy in that city.
• 9. A man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years, claiming to be someone great.
• 10. The Samaritan people, from the least to the greatest, often spoke of him as "the Great One--the Power of God."
• 11. He was very influential because of the magic he performed.
• 12. But now the people believed Philip's message of Good News concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. As a result, many men and women were baptized.
• 13. Then Simon himself believed and was baptized. He began following Philip wherever he went, and he was amazed by the great miracles and signs Philip performed.
• 14. When the apostles back in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God's message, they sent Peter and John there.
• 15. As soon as they arrived, they prayed for these new Christians to receive the Holy Spirit.
• 16. The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, for they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
• 17. Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers, and they received the Holy Spirit.
• 18. When Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given when the apostles placed their hands upon people's heads, he offered money to buy this power.
• 19. "Let me have this power, too," he exclaimed, "so that when I lay my hands on people, they will receive the Holy Spirit!"
• 20. But Peter replied, "May your money perish with you for thinking God's gift can be bought!
• 21. You can have no part in this, for your heart is not right before God.
• 22. Turn from your wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive your evil thoughts,
• 23. for I can see that you are full of bitterness and held captive by sin."
• 24. "Pray to the Lord for me," Simon exclaimed, "that these terrible things won't happen to me!"
• 25. After testifying and preaching the word of the Lord in Samaria, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem. And they stopped in many Samaritan villages along the way to preach the Good News to them, too.
• 26. As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, "Go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza."
• 27. So he did, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship,
• 28. and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.
• 29. The Holy Spirit said to Philip, "Go over and walk along beside the carriage."
• 30. Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah; so he asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?"
• 31. The man replied, "How can I, when there is no one to instruct me?" And he begged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.
• 32. The passage of Scripture he had been reading was this: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. And as a lamb is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.
• 33. He was humiliated and received no justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth."
• 34. The eunuch asked Philip, "Was Isaiah talking about himself or someone else?"
• 35. So Philip began with this same Scripture and then used many others to tell him the Good News about Jesus.
• 36. As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "Look! There's some water! Why can't I be baptized?"
• 37. See Footnote
• 38. He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
• 39. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing.
• 40. Meanwhile, Philip found himself farther north at the city of Azotus! He preached the Good News there and in every city along the way until he came to Caesarea.

Jeremiah 17

• 1. The LORD says, "My people act as though their evil ways are laws to be obeyed, inscribed with a diamond point on their stony hearts, or with an iron chisel on the corners of their altars.
• 2. Even their children go to worship at their sacred altars and Asherah poles, beneath every green tree and on every high hill.
• 3. So I will give all your wealth and treasures--together with your pagan shrines--as plunder to your enemies, for sin runs rampant in your land.
• 4. The wonderful inheritance I have reserved for you will slip out of your hands, and I will send you away as captives to a foreign land. For you have kindled my anger into a roaring fire that will burn forever."
• 5. This is what the LORD says: "Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans and turn their hearts away from the LORD.
• 6. They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, on the salty flats where no one lives.
• 7. "But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence.
• 8. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit.
• 9. "The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?
• 10. But I know! I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve."
• 11. Like a bird that hatches eggs she has not laid, so are those who get their wealth by unjust means. Sooner or later they will lose their riches and, at the end of their lives, will become poor old fools.
• 12. But we worship at your throne--eternal, high, and glorious!
• 13. O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who turn away from you will be disgraced and shamed. They will be buried in a dry and dusty grave, for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water.
• 14. O LORD, you alone can heal me; you alone can save. My praises are for you alone!
• 15. People scoff at me and say, "What is this `message from the LORD' you keep talking about? Why don't your predictions come true?"
• 16. LORD, I have not abandoned my job as a shepherd for your people. I have not urged you to send disaster. It is your message I have given them, not my own.
• 17. LORD, do not desert me now! You alone are my hope in the day of disaster.
• 18. Bring shame and terror on all who persecute me, but give me peace. Yes, bring double destruction upon them!
• 19. Then the LORD said to me, "Go and stand in the gates of Jerusalem, first at the gate where the king goes out, and then at each of the other gates.
• 20. Say to all the people, `Listen to this message from the LORD, you kings of Judah and all you people of Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem.
• 21. This is what the LORD says: Listen to my warning and live! Stop carrying on your trade at Jerusalem's gates on the Sabbath day.
• 22. Do not do your work on the Sabbath, but make it a holy day. I gave this command to your ancestors,
• 23. but they did not listen or obey. They stubbornly refused to pay attention and would not respond to discipline.
• 24. " `But if you obey me, says the LORD, and do not carry on your trade or work on the Sabbath day, and if you keep it holy,
• 25. then this nation will continue forever. There will always be a descendant of David sitting on the throne here in Jerusalem. Kings and their officials will always ride among the people of Judah in chariots and on horses, and this city will remain forever.
• 26. And from all around Jerusalem, from the towns of Judah and Benjamin, from the western foothills and the hill country and the Negev, the people will come with their burnt offerings and sacrifices. They will bring their grain offerings, incense, and thanksgiving offerings to the LORD's Temple.
• 27. " `But if you do not listen to me and refuse to keep the Sabbath holy, and if on the Sabbath day you bring loads of merchandise through the gates of Jerusalem just as on other days, then I will set fire to these gates. The fire will spread to the palaces, and no one will be able to put out the roaring flames.'"

New Living Translation: 202 of 365 days.