1 Samuel 27

• 1. But David kept thinking to himself, "Someday Saul is going to get me. The best thing for me to do is escape to the Philistines. Then Saul will stop hunting for me, and I will finally be safe."
• 2. So David took his six hundred men and their families and went to live at Gath under the protection of King Achish.
• 3. David brought his two wives along with him--Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal's widow.
• 4. Word soon reached Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he stopped hunting for him.
• 5. One day David said to Achish, "If it is all right with you, we would rather live in one of the country towns instead of here in the royal city."
• 6. So Achish gave him the town of Ziklag (which still belongs to the kings of Judah to this day),
• 7. and they lived there among the Philistines for a year and four months.
• 8. David and his men spent their time raiding the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites--people who had lived near Shur, along the road to Egypt, since ancient times.
• 9. David didn't leave one person alive in the villages he attacked. He took the sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, and clothing before returning home to see King Achish.
• 10. "Where did you make your raid today?" Achish would ask. And David would reply, "Against the south of Judah, the Jerahmeelites, and the Kenites."
• 11. No one was left alive to come to Gath and tell where he had really been. This happened again and again while he was living among the Philistines.
• 12. Achish believed David and thought to himself, "By now the people of Israel must hate him bitterly. Now he will have to stay here and serve me forever!"

1 Corinthians 8

• 1. Now let's talk about food that has been sacrificed to idols. You think that everyone should agree with your perfect knowledge. While knowledge may make us feel important, it is love that really builds up the church.
• 2. Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn't really know very much.
• 3. But the person who loves God is the one God knows and cares for.
• 4. So now, what about it? Should we eat meat that has been sacrificed to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God and no other.
• 5. According to some people, there are many so-called gods and many lords, both in heaven and on earth.
• 6. But we know that there is only one God, the Father, who created everything, and we exist for him. And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom God made everything and through whom we have been given life.
• 7. However, not all Christians realize this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated.
• 8. It's true that we can't win God's approval by what we eat. We don't miss out on anything if we don't eat it, and we don't gain anything if we do.
• 9. But you must be careful with this freedom of yours. Do not cause a brother or sister with a weaker conscience to stumble.
• 10. You see, this is what can happen: Weak Christians who think it is wrong to eat this food will see you eating in the temple of an idol. You know there's nothing wrong with it, but they will be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been dedicated to the idol.
• 11. So because of your superior knowledge, a weak Christian, for whom Christ died, will be destroyed.
• 12. And you are sinning against Christ when you sin against other Christians by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong.
• 13. If what I eat is going to make another Christian sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live--for I don't want to make another Christian stumble.

Ezekiel 6

• 1. Again a message came to me from the LORD:
• 2. "Son of man, look over toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.
• 3. Give the mountains of Israel this message from the Sovereign LORD. This is what the Sovereign LORD says to the mountains and hills and to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring war upon you, and I will destroy your pagan shrines.
• 4. All your altars will be demolished, and your incense altars will be smashed. I will kill your people in front of your idols.
• 5. I will lay your corpses in front of your idols and scatter your bones around your altars.
• 6. Wherever you live there will be desolation. I will destroy your pagan shrines, your altars, your idols, your incense altars, and all the other religious objects you have made.
• 7. Then when the place is littered with corpses, you will know that I am the LORD.
• 8. "But I will let a few of my people escape destruction, and they will be scattered among the nations of the world.
• 9. Then when they are exiled among the nations, they will remember me. They will recognize how grieved I am by their unfaithful hearts and lustful eyes that long for other gods. Then at last they will hate themselves for all their wickedness.
• 10. They will know that I alone am the LORD and that I was serious when I predicted that all this would happen to them.
• 11. "This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Clap your hands in horror, and stamp your feet. Cry out, `Alas!' because of all the evil that the people of Israel have done. Now they are going to die from war and famine and disease.
• 12. Disease will strike down those who are far away in exile. War will destroy those who are nearby. And anyone who survives will be killed by famine. So at last I will spend my fury on them.
• 13. When their dead lie scattered among their idols and altars, on every hill and mountain and under every green tree and great oak where they offered incense to their gods, then they will know that I alone am the LORD.
• 14. I will crush them and make their cities desolate from the wilderness in the south to Riblah in the north. Then they will know that I am the LORD."

New Living Translation: 246 of 365 days.