1 Samuel 3

• 1. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel was serving the LORD by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the LORD were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon.
• 2. One night Eli, who was almost blind by now, had just gone to bed.
• 3. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the Tabernacle near the Ark of God.
• 4. Suddenly, the LORD called out, "Samuel! Samuel!Yes?" Samuel replied. "What is it?"
• 5. He jumped up and ran to Eli. "Here I am. What do you need?I didn't call you," Eli replied. "Go on back to bed." So he did.
• 6. Then the LORD called out again, "Samuel!" Again Samuel jumped up and ran to Eli. "Here I am," he said. "What do you need?I didn't call you, my son," Eli said. "Go on back to bed."
• 7. Samuel did not yet know the LORD because he had never had a message from the LORD before.
• 8. So now the LORD called a third time, and once more Samuel jumped up and ran to Eli. "Here I am," he said. "What do you need?" Then Eli realized it was the LORD who was calling the boy.
• 9. So he said to Samuel, "Go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, `Yes, LORD, your servant is listening.'" So Samuel went back to bed.
• 10. And the LORD came and called as before, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel replied, "Yes, your servant is listening."
• 11. Then the LORD said to Samuel, "I am about to do a shocking thing in Israel.
• 12. I am going to carry out all my threats against Eli and his family.
• 13. I have warned him continually that judgment is coming for his family, because his sons are blaspheming God and he hasn't disciplined them.
• 14. So I have vowed that the sins of Eli and his sons will never be forgiven by sacrifices or offerings."
• 15. Samuel stayed in bed until morning, then got up and opened the doors of the Tabernacle as usual. He was afraid to tell Eli what the LORD had said to him.
• 16. But Eli called out to him, "Samuel, my son.Here I am," Samuel replied.
• 17. "What did the LORD say to you? Tell me everything. And may God punish you if you hide anything from me!"
• 18. So Samuel told Eli everything; he didn't hold anything back. "It is the LORD's will," Eli replied. "Let him do what he thinks best."
• 19. As Samuel grew up, the LORD was with him, and everything Samuel said was wise and helpful.
• 20. All the people of Israel from one end of the land to the other knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the LORD.
• 21. The LORD continued to appear at Shiloh and gave messages to Samuel there at the Tabernacle. 1And Samuel's words went out to all the people of Israel.

Romans 3

• 1. Then what's the advantage of being a Jew? Is there any value in the Jewish ceremony of circumcision?
• 2. Yes, being a Jew has many advantages. First of all, the Jews were entrusted with the whole revelation of God.
• 3. True, some of them were unfaithful; but just because they broke their promises, does that mean God will break his promises?
• 4. Of course not! Though everyone else in the world is a liar, God is true. As the Scriptures say, "He will be proved right in what he says, and he will win his case in court."
• 5. "But," some say, "our sins serve a good purpose, for people will see God's goodness when he declares us sinners to be innocent. Isn't it unfair, then, for God to punish us?" (That is actually the way some people talk.)
• 6. Of course not! If God is not just, how is he qualified to judge the world?
• 7. "But," some might still argue, "how can God judge and condemn me as a sinner if my dishonesty highlights his truthfulness and brings him more glory?"
• 8. If you follow that kind of thinking, however, you might as well say that the more we sin the better it is! Those who say such things deserve to be condemned, yet some slander me by saying this is what I preach!
• 9. Well then, are we Jews better than others? No, not at all, for we have already shown that all people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin.
• 10. As the Scriptures say, "No one is good--not even one.
• 11. No one has real understanding; no one is seeking God.
• 12. All have turned away from God; all have gone wrong. No one does good, not even one."
• 13. "Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave. Their speech is filled with lies.The poison of a deadly snake drips from their lips."
• 14. "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."
• 15. "They are quick to commit murder.
• 16. Wherever they go, destruction and misery follow them.
• 17. They do not know what true peace is."
• 18. "They have no fear of God to restrain them."
• 19. Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses and to bring the entire world into judgment before God.
• 20. For no one can ever be made right in God's sight by doing what his law commands. For the more we know God's law, the clearer it becomes that we aren't obeying it.
• 21. But now God has shown us a different way of being right in his sight--not by obeying the law but by the way promised in the Scriptures long ago.
• 22. We are made right in God's sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done.
• 23. For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard.
• 24. Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins.
• 25. For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God's anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us. God was being entirely fair and just when he did not punish those who sinned in former times.
• 26. And he is entirely fair and just in this present time when he declares sinners to be right in his sight because they believe in Jesus.
• 27. Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on our good deeds. It is based on our faith.
• 28. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.
• 29. After all, God is not the God of the Jews only, is he? Isn't he also the God of the Gentiles? Of course he is.
• 30. There is only one God, and there is only one way of being accepted by him. He makes people right with himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles.
• 31. Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not! In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law.

Jeremiah 41

• 1. But in midautumn, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and grandson of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family, arrived in Mizpah accompanied by ten men. Gedaliah invited them to dinner. While they were eating,
• 2. Ishmael and his ten men suddenly drew their swords and killed Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon had appointed governor.
• 3. Then they went out and slaughtered all the Judean officials and Babylonian soldiers who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah.
• 4. The next day, before anyone had heard about Gedaliah's murder,
• 5. eighty men arrived from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria. They had come to worship at the Temple of the LORD. They had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes, and cut themselves, and had brought along grain offerings and incense.
• 6. Ishmael left Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went. When he reached them, he said, "Oh, come and see what has happened to Gedaliah!"
• 7. But as soon as they were all inside the town, Ishmael and his men killed all but ten of them and threw their bodies into a cistern.
• 8. The other ten had talked Ishmael into letting them go by promising to bring him their stores of wheat, barley, oil, and honey that they had hidden away.
• 9. The cistern where Ishmael dumped the bodies of the men he murdered was the large one made by King Asa when he fortified Mizpah to protect himself against King Baasha of Israel. Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with corpses.
• 10. Ishmael made captives of the king's daughters and the other people who had been left under Gedaliah's care in Mizpah by Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard. Taking them with him, he started back toward the land of Ammon.
• 11. But when Johanan son of Kareah and the rest of the guerrilla leaders heard what Ishmael had done,
• 12. they took all their men and set out to stop him. They caught up with him at the pool near Gibeon.
• 13. The people Ishmael had captured shouted for joy when they saw Johanan and his men.
• 14. And all the captives from Mizpah escaped and began to help Johanan.
• 15. Meanwhile, Ishmael and eight of his men escaped from Johanan into the land of Ammon.
• 16. Then Johanan son of Kareah and his officers led away all the people they had rescued--warriors, women, children, and palace officials.
• 17. They took them all to the village of Geruth-kimham near Bethlehem, where they prepared to leave for Egypt.
• 18. They were afraid of what the Babylonians would do when they heard that Ishmael had killed Gedaliah, the governor appointed by the Babylonian king.

New Living Translation: 225 of 365 days.