1 Samuel 19

• 1. Saul now urged his servants and his son Jonathan to assassinate David. But Jonathan, because of his close friendship with David,
• 2. told him what his father was planning. "Tomorrow morning," he warned him, "you must find a hiding place out in the fields.
• 3. I'll ask my father to go out there with me, and I'll talk to him about you. Then I'll tell you everything I can find out."
• 4. The next morning Jonathan spoke with his father about David, saying many good things about him. "Please don't sin against David," Jonathan pleaded. "He's never done anything to harm you. He has always helped you in any way he could.
• 5. Have you forgotten about the time he risked his life to kill the Philistine giant and how the LORD brought a great victory to Israel as a result? You were certainly happy about it then. Why should you murder an innocent man like David? There is no reason for it at all!"
• 6. So Saul listened to Jonathan and vowed, "As surely as the LORD lives, David will not be killed."
• 7. Afterward Jonathan called David and told him what had happened. Then he took David to see Saul, and everything was as it had been before.
• 8. War broke out shortly after that, and David led his troops against the Philistines. He attacked them with such fury that they all ran away.
• 9. But one day as Saul was sitting at home, the tormenting spirit from the LORD suddenly came upon him again. As David played his harp for the king,
• 10. Saul hurled his spear at David in an attempt to kill him. But David dodged out of the way and escaped into the night, leaving the spear stuck in the wall.
• 11. Then Saul sent troops to watch David's house. They were told to kill David when he came out the next morning. But Michal, David's wife, warned him, "If you don't get away tonight, you will be dead by morning."
• 12. So she helped him climb out through a window, and he escaped.
• 13. Then she took an idol and put it in his bed, covered it with blankets, and put a cushion of goat's hair at its head.
• 14. When the troops came to arrest David, she told them he was sick and couldn't get out of bed.
• 15. "Then bring him to me in his bed," Saul ordered, "so I can kill him as he lies there!" And he sent them back to David's house.
• 16. But when they came to carry David out, they discovered that it was only an idol in the bed with a cushion of goat's hair at its head.
• 17. "Why have you tricked me and let my enemy escape?" Saul demanded of Michal. "I had to," Michal replied. "He threatened to kill me if I didn't help him."
• 18. So David got away and went to Ramah to see Samuel, and he told him all that Saul had done to him. Then Samuel took David with him to live at Naioth.
• 19. When the report reached Saul that David was at Naioth in Ramah,
• 20. he sent troops to capture him. But when they arrived and saw Samuel and the other prophets prophesying, the Spirit of God came upon Saul's men, and they also began to prophesy.
• 21. When Saul heard what had happened, he sent other troops, but they, too, prophesied! The same thing happened a third time!
• 22. Finally, Saul himself went to Ramah and arrived at the great well in Secu. "Where are Samuel and David?" he demanded. "They are at Naioth in Ramah," someone told him.
• 23. But on the way to Naioth the Spirit of God came upon Saul, and he, too, began to prophesy!
• 24. He tore off his clothes and lay on the ground all day and all night, prophesying in the presence of Samuel. The people who were watching exclaimed, "What? Is Saul a prophet, too?"

1 Corinthians 1

• 1. This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes.
• 2. We are writing to the church of God in Corinth, you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did all Christians everywhere--whoever calls upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and theirs.
• 3. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you his grace and peace.
• 4. I can never stop thanking God for all the generous gifts he has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus.
• 5. He has enriched your church with the gifts of eloquence and every kind of knowledge.
• 6. This shows that what I told you about Christ is true.
• 7. Now you have every spiritual gift you need as you eagerly wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• 8. He will keep you strong right up to the end, and he will keep you free from all blame on the great day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns.
• 9. God will surely do this for you, for he always does just what he says, and he is the one who invited you into this wonderful friendship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
• 10. Now, dear brothers and sisters, I appeal to you by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ to stop arguing among yourselves. Let there be real harmony so there won't be divisions in the church. I plead with you to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.
• 11. For some members of Chloe's household have told me about your arguments, dear brothers and sisters.
• 12. Some of you are saying, "I am a follower of Paul." Others are saying, "I follow Apollos," or "I follow Peter, "or "I follow only Christ."
• 13. Can Christ be divided into pieces? Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you baptized in the name of Paul?
• 14. I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,
• 15. for now no one can say they were baptized in my name.
• 16. (Oh yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. I don't remember baptizing anyone else.)
• 17. For Christ didn't send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News--and not with clever speeches and high-sounding ideas, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power.
• 18. I know very well how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction. But we who are being saved recognize this message as the very power of God.
• 19. As the Scriptures say, "I will destroy human wisdom and discard their most brilliant ideas."
• 20. So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world's brilliant debaters? God has made them all look foolish and has shown their wisdom to be useless nonsense.
• 21. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never find him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save all who believe.
• 22. God's way seems foolish to the Jews because they want a sign from heaven to prove it is true. And it is foolish to the Greeks because they believe only what agrees with their own wisdom.
• 23. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended, and the Gentiles say it's all nonsense.
• 24. But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the mighty power of God and the wonderful wisdom of God.
• 25. This "foolish" plan of God is far wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God's weakness is far stronger than the greatest of human strength.
• 26. Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world's eyes, or powerful, or wealthy when God called you.
• 27. Instead, God deliberately chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose those who are powerless to shame those who are powerful.
• 28. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important,
• 29. so that no one can ever boast in the presence of God.
• 30. God alone made it possible for you to be in Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Christ to be wisdom itself. He is the one who made us acceptable to God. He made us pure and holy, and he gave himself to purchase our freedom.
• 31. As the Scriptures say, "The person who wishes to boast should boast only of what the Lord has done."

Lamentations 4

• 1. How the gold has lost its luster! Even the finest gold has become dull. The sacred gemstones lie scattered in the streets!
• 2. See how the precious children of Jerusalem, worth their weight in gold, are now treated like pots of clay.
• 3. Even the jackals feed their young, but not my people Israel. They ignore their children's cries, like the ostriches of the desert.
• 4. The parched tongues of their little ones stick with thirst to the roofs of their mouths. The children cry for bread, but no one has any to give them.
• 5. The people who once ate only the richest foods now beg in the streets for anything they can get. Those who once lived in palaces now search the garbage pits for food.
• 6. The guilt of my people is greater than that of Sodom, where utter disaster struck in a moment with no one to help them.
• 7. Our princes were once glowing with health; they were as clean as snow and as elegant as jewels.
• 8. But now their faces are blacker than soot. No one even recognizes them. Their skin sticks to their bones; it is as dry and hard as wood.
• 9. Those killed by the sword are far better off than those who die of hunger, wasting away for want of food.
• 10. Tenderhearted women have cooked their own children and eaten them in order to survive the siege.
• 11. But now the anger of the LORD is satisfied. His fiercest anger has now been poured out. He started a fire in Jerusalem that burned the city to its foundations.
• 12. Not a king in all the earth--no one in all the world--would have believed an enemy could march through the gates of Jerusalem.
• 13. Yet it happened because of the sins of her prophets and priests, who defiled the city by shedding innocent blood.
• 14. They wandered blindly through the streets, so defiled by blood that no one dared to touch them.
• 15. "Get away!" the people shouted at them. "You are defiled! Don't touch us!" So they fled to distant lands and wandered there among foreign nations, but none would let them stay.
• 16. The LORD himself has scattered them, and he no longer helps them. The priests and leaders are no longer honored and respected.
• 17. We looked in vain for our allies to come and save us, but we were looking to nations that could offer no help at all.
• 18. We couldn't go into the streets without danger to our lives. Our end was near; our days were numbered. We were doomed!
• 19. Our enemies were swifter than the eagles. If we fled to the mountains, they found us. If we hid in the wilderness, they were waiting for us there.
• 20. Our king, the LORD's anointed, the very life of our nation, was caught in their snares. We had foolishly boasted that under his protection we could hold our own against any nation on earth!
• 21. Are you rejoicing in the land of Uz, O people of Edom? But you, too, must drink from the cup of the LORD's anger. You, too, will be stripped naked in your drunkenness.
• 22. O Jerusalem, your punishment will end; you will soon return from exile. But Edom, your punishment is just beginning; soon your many sins will be revealed.

New Living Translation: 239 of 365 days.