1 Samuel 24

• 1. After Saul returned from fighting the Philistines, he was told that David had gone into the wilderness of En-gedi.
• 2. So Saul chose three thousand special troops from throughout Israel and went to search for David and his men near the rocks of the wild goats.
• 3. At the place where the road passes some sheepfolds, Saul went into a cave to relieve himself. But as it happened, David and his men were hiding in that very cave!
• 4. "Now's your opportunity!" David's men whispered to him. "Today is the day the LORD was talking about when he said, `I will certainly put Saul into your power, to do with as you wish.'" Then David crept forward and cut off a piece of Saul's robe.
• 5. But then David's conscience began bothering him because he had cut Saul's robe.
• 6. "The LORD knows I shouldn't have done it," he said to his men. "It is a serious thing to attack the LORD's anointed one, for the LORD himself has chosen him."
• 7. So David sharply rebuked his men and did not let them kill Saul. After Saul had left the cave and gone on his way,
• 8. David came out and shouted after him, "My lord the king!" And when Saul looked around, David bowed low before him.
• 9. Then he shouted to Saul, "Why do you listen to the people who say I am trying to harm you?
• 10. This very day you can see with your own eyes it isn't true. For the LORD placed you at my mercy back there in the cave, and some of my men told me to kill you, but I spared you. For I said, `I will never harm him--he is the LORD's anointed one.'
• 11. Look, my father, at what I have in my hand. It is a piece of your robe! I cut it off, but I didn't kill you. This proves that I am not trying to harm you and that I have not sinned against you, even though you have been hunting for me to kill me.
• 12. The LORD will decide between us. Perhaps the LORD will punish you for what you are trying to do to me, but I will never harm you.
• 13. As that old proverb says, `From evil people come evil deeds.' So you can be sure I will never harm you.
• 14. Who is the king of Israel trying to catch anyway? Should he spend his time chasing one who is as worthless as a dead dog or a flea?
• 15. May the LORD judge which of us is right and punish the guilty one. He is my advocate, and he will rescue me from your power!"
• 16. Saul called back, "Is that really you, my son David?" Then he began to cry.
• 17. And he said to David, "You are a better man than I am, for you have repaid me good for evil.
• 18. Yes, you have been wonderfully kind to me today, for when the LORD put me in a place where you could have killed me, you didn't do it.
• 19. Who else would let his enemy get away when he had him in his power? May the LORD reward you well for the kindness you have shown me today.
• 20. And now I realize that you are surely going to be king, and Israel will flourish under your rule.
• 21. Now, swear to me by the LORD that when that happens you will not kill my family and destroy my line of descendants!"
• 22. So David promised, and Saul went home. But David and his men went back to their stronghold.

1 Corinthians 5

• 1. I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you, something so evil that even the pagans don't do it. I am told that you have a man in your church who is living in sin with his father's wife.
• 2. And you are so proud of yourselves! Why aren't you mourning in sorrow and shame? And why haven't you removed this man from your fellowship?
• 3. Even though I am not there with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit. Concerning the one who has done this, I have already passed judgment
• 4. in the name of the Lord Jesus. You are to call a meeting of the church, and I will be there in spirit, and the power of the Lord Jesus will be with you as you meet.
• 5. Then you must cast this man out of the church and into Satan's hands, so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved when the Lord returns.
• 6. How terrible that you should boast about your spirituality, and yet you let this sort of thing go on. Don't you realize that if even one person is allowed to go on sinning, soon all will be affected?
• 7. Remove this wicked person from among you so that you can stay pure. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.
• 8. So let us celebrate the festival, not by eating the old bread of wickedness and evil, but by eating the new bread of purity and truth.
• 9. When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin.
• 10. But I wasn't talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or who are greedy or are swindlers or idol worshipers. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that.
• 11. What I meant was that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a Christian yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or a drunkard, or a swindler. Don't even eat with such people.
• 12. It isn't my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your job to judge those inside the church who are sinning in these ways.
• 13. God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, "You must remove the evil person from among you."

Ezekiel 3

• 1. The voice said to me, "Son of man, eat what I am giving you--eat this scroll! Then go and give its message to the people of Israel."
• 2. So I opened my mouth, and he fed me the scroll.
• 3. "Eat it all," he said. And when I ate it, it tasted as sweet as honey.
• 4. Then he said, "Son of man, go to the people of Israel with my messages.
• 5. I am not sending you to some foreign people whose language you cannot understand.
• 6. No, I am not sending you to people with strange and difficult speech. If I did, they would listen!
• 7. I am sending you to the people of Israel, but they won't listen to you any more than they listen to me! For the whole lot of them are hard-hearted and stubborn.
• 8. But look, I have made you as hard and stubborn as they are.
• 9. I have made you as hard as rock! So don't be afraid of them or fear their angry looks, even though they are such rebels."
• 10. Then he added, "Son of man, let all my words sink deep into your own heart first. Listen to them carefully for yourself.
• 11. Then go to your people in exile and say to them, `This is what the Sovereign LORD says!' Do this whether they listen to you or not."
• 12. Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard a loud rumbling sound behind me. (May the glory of the LORD be praised in his place!)
• 13. It was the sound of the wings of the living beings as they brushed against each other and the rumbling of their wheels beneath them.
• 14. The Spirit lifted me up and took me away. I went in bitterness and turmoil, but the LORD's hold on me was strong.
• 15. Then I came to the colony of Judean exiles in Tel-abib, beside the Kebar River. I sat there among them for seven days, overwhelmed.
• 16. At the end of the seven days, the LORD gave me a message. He said,
• 17. "Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for Israel. Whenever you receive a message from me, pass it on to the people immediately.
• 18. If I warn the wicked, saying, `You are under the penalty of death,' but you fail to deliver the warning, they will die in their sins. And I will hold you responsible, demanding your blood for theirs.
• 19. If you warn them and they keep on sinning and refuse to repent, they will die in their sins. But you will have saved your life because you did what you were told to do.
• 20. If good people turn bad and don't listen to my warning, they will die. If you did not warn them of the consequences, then they will die in their sins. Their previous good deeds won't help them, and I will hold you responsible, demanding your blood for theirs.
• 21. But if you warn them and they repent, they will live, and you will have saved your own life, too."
• 22. Then the LORD took hold of me, and he said to me, "Go out into the valley, and I will talk to you there."
• 23. So I got up and went, and there I saw the glory of the LORD, just as I had seen it in my first vision by the Kebar River. And I fell face down in the dust.
• 24. Then the Spirit came into me and set me on my feet. He talked to me and said, "Go, shut yourself up in your house.
• 25. There you will be bound with ropes so you cannot go out among the people.
• 26. And I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so you won't be able to pray for them, for they are rebellious.
• 27. But whenever I give you a message, I will loosen your tongue and let you speak. Then you will say to them, `This is what the Sovereign LORD says!' Some of them will listen, but some will ignore you, for they are rebels.

New Living Translation: 243 of 365 days.