1 Samuel 7

• 1. So the men of Kiriath-jearim came to get the Ark of the LORD. They took it to the hillside home of Abinadab and ordained Eleazar, his son, to be in charge of it.
• 2. The Ark remained in Kiriath-jearim for a long time--twenty years in all. During that time, all Israel mourned because it seemed that the LORD had abandoned them.
• 3. Then Samuel said to all the people of Israel, "If you are really serious about wanting to return to the LORD, get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Ashtoreth. Determine to obey only the LORD; then he will rescue you from the Philistines."
• 4. So the Israelites destroyed their images of Baal and Ashtoreth and worshiped only the LORD.
• 5. Then Samuel told them, "Come to Mizpah, all of you. I will pray to the LORD for you."
• 6. So they gathered there and, in a great ceremony, drew water from a well and poured it out before the LORD. They also went without food all day and confessed that they had sinned against the LORD. So it was at Mizpah that Samuel became Israel's judge.
• 7. When the Philistine rulers heard that all Israel had gathered at Mizpah, they mobilized their army and advanced. The Israelites were badly frightened when they learned that the Philistines were approaching.
• 8. "Plead with the LORD our God to save us from the Philistines!" they begged Samuel.
• 9. So Samuel took a young lamb and offered it to the LORD as a whole burnt offering. He pleaded with the LORD to help Israel, and the LORD answered.
• 10. Just as Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines arrived for battle. But the LORD spoke with a mighty voice of thunder from heaven, and the Philistines were thrown into such confusion that the Israelites defeated them.
• 11. The men of Israel chased them from Mizpah to Beth-car, slaughtering them all along the way.
• 12. Samuel then took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah. He named it Ebenezer--"the stone of help"--for he said, "Up to this point the LORD has helped us!"
• 13. So the Philistines were subdued and didn't invade Israel again for a long time. And throughout Samuel's lifetime, the LORD's powerful hand was raised against the Philistines.
• 14. The Israelite towns near Ekron and Gath that the Philistines had captured were restored to Israel, along with the rest of the territory that the Philistines had taken. And there was also peace between Israel and the Amorites in those days.
• 15. Samuel continued as Israel's judge for the rest of his life.
• 16. Each year he traveled around, setting up his court first at Bethel, then at Gilgal, and then at Mizpah. He judged the people of Israel at each of these places.
• 17. Then he would return to his home at Ramah, and he would hear cases there, too. And Samuel built an altar to the LORD at Ramah.

1 Samuel 8

• 1. As Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons to be judges over Israel.
• 2. Joel and Abijah, his oldest sons, held court in Beersheba.
• 3. But they were not like their father, for they were greedy for money. They accepted bribes and perverted justice.
• 4. Finally, the leaders of Israel met at Ramah to discuss the matter with Samuel.
• 5. "Look," they told him, "you are now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king like all the other nations have."
• 6. Samuel was very upset with their request and went to the LORD for advice.
• 7. "Do as they say," the LORD replied, "for it is me they are rejecting, not you. They don't want me to be their king any longer.
• 8. Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually forsaken me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment.
• 9. Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about how a king will treat them."
• 10. So Samuel passed on the LORD's warning to the people.
• 11. "This is how a king will treat you," Samuel said. "The king will draft your sons into his army and make them run before his chariots.
• 12. Some will be commanders of his troops, while others will be slave laborers. Some will be forced to plow in his fields and harvest his crops, while others will make his weapons and chariot equipment.
• 13. The king will take your daughters from you and force them to cook and bake and make perfumes for him.
• 14. He will take away the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his own servants.
• 15. He will take a tenth of your harvest and distribute it among his officers and attendants.
• 16. He will want your male and female slaves and demand the finest of your cattle and donkeys for his own use.
• 17. He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you will be his slaves.
• 18. When that day comes, you will beg for relief from this king you are demanding, but the LORD will not help you."
• 19. But the people refused to listen to Samuel's warning. "Even so, we still want a king," they said.
• 20. "We want to be like the nations around us. Our king will govern us and lead us into battle."
• 21. So Samuel told the LORD what the people had said,
• 22. and the LORD replied, "Do as they say, and give them a king." Then Samuel agreed and sent the people home.

Romans 6

• 1. Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more kindness and forgiveness?
• 2. Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?
• 3. Or have you forgotten that when we became Christians and were baptized to become one with Christ Jesus, we died with him?
• 4. For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
• 5. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised as he was.
• 6. Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.
• 7. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.
• 8. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also share his new life.
• 9. We are sure of this because Christ rose from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him.
• 10. He died once to defeat sin, and now he lives for the glory of God.
• 11. So you should consider yourselves dead to sin and able to live for the glory of God through Christ Jesus.
• 12. Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to its lustful desires.
• 13. Do not let any part of your body become a tool of wickedness, to be used for sinning. Instead, give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life. And use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God.
• 14. Sin is no longer your master, for you are no longer subject to the law, which enslaves you to sin. Instead, you are free by God's grace.
• 15. So since God's grace has set us free from the law, does this mean we can go on sinning? Of course not!
• 16. Don't you realize that whatever you choose to obey becomes your master? You can choose sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God and receive his approval.
• 17. Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you have obeyed with all your heart the new teaching God has given you.
• 18. Now you are free from sin, your old master, and you have become slaves to your new master, righteousness.
• 19. I speak this way, using the illustration of slaves and masters, because it is easy to understand. Before, you let yourselves be slaves of impurity and lawlessness. Now you must choose to be slaves of righteousness so that you will become holy.
• 20. In those days, when you were slaves of sin, you weren't concerned with doing what was right.
• 21. And what was the result? It was not good, since now you are ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom.
• 22. But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.
• 23. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jeremiah 44

• 1. This is the message Jeremiah received concerning the Judeans living in northern Egypt in the cities of Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis, and throughout southern Egypt as well:
• 2. "This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You saw what I did to Jerusalem and to all the towns of Judah. They now lie in ruins, and no one lives in them.
• 3. Because of all their wickedness, my anger rose high against them. They burned incense and worshiped other gods--gods that neither they nor you nor any of your ancestors have ever known.
• 4. "Again and again I sent my servants, the prophets, to plead with them, `Don't do these horrible things that I hate so much.'
• 5. But my people would not listen or turn back from their wicked ways. They kept right on burning incense to these gods.
• 6. And so my fury boiled over and fell like fire on the towns of Judah and into the streets of Jerusalem, and now they are a desolate ruin.
• 7. "And now the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, asks you: Why are you destroying yourselves? For not one of you will survive--not a man, woman, or child among you who has come here from Judah, not even the babies in your arms.
• 8. Why arouse my anger by burning incense to the idols you have made here in Egypt? You will only destroy yourselves and make yourselves an object of cursing and mockery for all the nations of the earth.
• 9. Have you forgotten the sins of your ancestors, the sins of the kings and queens of Judah, and the sins you and your wives committed in Judah and Jerusalem?
• 10. To this very hour you have shown no remorse or reverence. No one has chosen to follow my law and the decrees I gave to you and your ancestors before you.
• 11. "Therefore, the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I have made up my mind to destroy every one of you!
• 12. I will take this remnant of Judah that insisted on coming here to Egypt, and I will consume them. They will fall here in Egypt, killed by war and famine. All will die, from the least to the greatest. They will be an object of damnation, horror, cursing, and mockery.
• 13. I will punish them in Egypt just as I punished them in Jerusalem, by war, famine, and disease.
• 14. Of those who fled to Egypt with dreams of returning home to Judah, only a handful will escape."
• 15. Then all the women present and all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to idols--a great crowd of all the Judeans living in Pathros, the southern region of Egypt--answered Jeremiah,
• 16. "We will not listen to your messages from the LORD!
• 17. We will do whatever we want. We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and sacrifice to her just as much as we like--just as we and our ancestors did before us, and as our kings and princes have always done in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For in those days we had plenty to eat, and we were well off and had no troubles!
• 18. But ever since we quit burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and stopped worshiping her, we have been in great trouble and have suffered the effects of war and famine."
• 19. "And," the women added, "do you suppose that we were worshiping the Queen of Heaven, pouring out drink offerings to her, and making cakes marked with her image, without our husbands knowing it and helping us? Of course not!"
• 20. Then Jeremiah said to all of them, men and women alike, who had given him that answer,
• 21. "Do you think the LORD did not know that you and your ancestors, your kings and officials, and all the people were burning incense to idols in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
• 22. It was because the LORD could no longer bear all the evil things you were doing that he made your land an object of cursing--a desolate ruin without a single inhabitant--as it is today.
• 23. The very reason all these terrible things have happened to you is because you have burned incense to idols and sinned against the LORD, refusing to obey him and follow his instructions, laws, and stipulations."
• 24. Then Jeremiah said to them all, including the women, "Listen to this message from the LORD, all you citizens of Judah who live in Egypt.
• 25. The LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You and your wives have said that you will never give up your devotion and sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven, and you have proved it by your actions. Then go ahead and carry out your promises and vows to her!
• 26. "But listen to this message from the LORD, all you Judeans now living in Egypt: I have sworn by my great name, says the LORD, that my name will no longer be spoken by any of the Judeans in the land of Egypt. None of you may invoke my name or use this oath: `As surely as the Sovereign LORD lives!'
• 27. For I will watch over you to bring you disaster and not good. You will suffer war and famine until all of you are dead.
• 28. "Only a small number will escape death and return to Judah from Egypt. Then all those who came to Egypt will find out whose words are true, mine or theirs!
• 29. And this is the proof I give you, says the LORD, that all I have threatened will happen to you and that I will punish you here:
• 30. I will turn Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, over to his enemies who want to kill him, just as I turned King Zedekiah of Judah over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I, the LORD, have spoken!"

New Living Translation: 228 of 365 days.