2 Kings 4

• 1. One day the widow of one of Elisha's fellow prophets came to Elisha and cried out to him, "My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the LORD. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves."
• 2. "What can I do to help you?" Elisha asked. "Tell me, what do you have in the house?Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil," she replied.
• 3. And Elisha said, "Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors.
• 4. Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting the jars aside as they are filled."
• 5. So she did as she was told. Her sons brought many jars to her, and she filled one after another.
• 6. Soon every container was full to the brim! "Bring me another jar," she said to one of her sons. "There aren't any more!" he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing.
• 7. When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, "Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and there will be enough money left over to support you and your sons."
• 8. One day Elisha went to the town of Shunem. A wealthy woman lived there, and she invited him to eat some food. From then on, whenever he passed that way, he would stop there to eat.
• 9. She said to her husband, "I am sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of God.
• 10. Let's make a little room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp. Then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by."
• 11. One day Elisha returned to Shunem, and he went up to his room to rest.
• 12. He said to his servant Gehazi, "Tell the woman I want to speak to her." When she arrived,
• 13. Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tell her that we appreciate the kind concern she has shown us. Now ask her what we can do for her. Does she want me to put in a good word for her to the king or to the commander of the army?No," she replied, "my family takes good care of me."
• 14. Later Elisha asked Gehazi, "What do you think we can do for her?" He suggested, "She doesn't have a son, and her husband is an old man."
• 15. "Call her back again," Elisha told him. When the woman returned, Elisha said to her as she stood in the doorway,
• 16. "Next year at about this time you will be holding a son in your arms!No, my lord!" she protested. "Please don't lie to me like that, O man of God."
• 17. But sure enough, the woman soon became pregnant. And at that time the following year she had a son, just as Elisha had said.
• 18. One day when her child was older, he went out to visit his father, who was working with the harvesters.
• 19. Suddenly he complained, "My head hurts! My head hurts!" His father said to one of the servants, "Carry him home to his mother."
• 20. So the servant took him home, and his mother held him on her lap. But around noontime he died.
• 21. She carried him up to the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and left him there.
• 22. She sent a message to her husband: "Send one of the servants and a donkey so that I can hurry to the man of God and come right back."
• 23. "Why today?" he asked. "It is neither a new moon festival nor a Sabbath." But she said, "It's all right."
• 24. So she saddled the donkey and said to the servant, "Hurry! Don't slow down on my account unless I tell you to."
• 25. As she approached the man of God at Mount Carmel, Elisha saw her in the distance. He said to Gehazi, "Look, the woman from Shunem is coming.
• 26. Run out to meet her and ask her, `Is everything all right with you, with your husband, and with your child?' Yes," the woman told Gehazi, "everything is fine."
• 27. But when she came to the man of God at the mountain, she fell to the ground before him and caught hold of his feet. Gehazi began to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave her alone. Something is troubling her deeply, and the LORD has not told me what it is."
• 28. Then she said, "It was you, my lord, who said I would have a son. And didn't I tell you not to raise my hopes?"
• 29. Then Elisha said to Gehazi, "Get ready to travel; take my staff and go! Don't talk to anyone along the way. Go quickly and lay the staff on the child's face."
• 30. But the boy's mother said, "As surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, I won't go home unless you go with me." So Elisha returned with her.
• 31. Gehazi hurried on ahead and laid the staff on the child's face, but nothing happened. There was no sign of life. He returned to meet Elisha and told him, "The child is still dead."
• 32. When Elisha arrived, the child was indeed dead, lying there on the prophet's bed.
• 33. He went in alone and shut the door behind him and prayed to the LORD.
• 34. Then he lay down on the child's body, placing his mouth on the child's mouth, his eyes on the child's eyes, and his hands on the child's hands. And the child's body began to grow warm again!
• 35. Elisha got up and walked back and forth in the room a few times. Then he stretched himself out again on the child. This time the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes!
• 36. Then Elisha summoned Gehazi. "Call the child's mother!" he said. And when she came in, Elisha said, "Here, take your son!"
• 37. She fell at his feet, overwhelmed with gratitude. Then she picked up her son and carried him downstairs.
• 38. Elisha now returned to Gilgal, but there was a famine in the land. One day as the group of prophets was seated before him, he said to his servant, "Put on a large kettle and make some stew for these men."
• 39. One of the young men went out into the field to gather vegetables and came back with a pocketful of wild gourds. He shredded them and put them into the kettle without realizing they were poisonous.
• 40. But after the men had eaten a bite or two they cried out, "Man of God, there's poison in this stew!" So they would not eat it.
• 41. Elisha said, "Bring me some flour." Then he threw it into the kettle and said, "Now it's all right; go ahead and eat." And then it did not harm them!
• 42. One day a man from Baal-shalishah brought the man of God a sack of fresh grain and twenty loaves of barley bread made from the first grain of his harvest. Elisha said, "Give it to the group of prophets so they can eat."
• 43. "What?" his servant exclaimed. "Feed one hundred people with only this?" But Elisha repeated, "Give it to the group of prophets so they can eat, for the LORD says there will be plenty for all. There will even be some left over!"
• 44. And sure enough, there was plenty for all and some left over, just as the LORD had promised.

1 Timothy 1

• 1. This letter is from Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, appointed by the command of God our Savior and by Christ Jesus our hope.
• 2. It is written to Timothy, my true child in the faith. May God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace.
• 3. When I left for Macedonia, I urged you to stay there in Ephesus and stop those who are teaching wrong doctrine.
• 4. Don't let people waste time in endless speculation over myths and spiritual pedigrees. For these things only cause arguments; they don't help people live a life of faith in God.
• 5. The purpose of my instruction is that all the Christians there would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and sincere faith.
• 6. But some teachers have missed this whole point. They have turned away from these things and spend their time arguing and talking foolishness.
• 7. They want to be known as teachers of the law of Moses, but they don't know what they are talking about, even though they seem so confident.
• 8. We know these laws are good when they are used as God intended.
• 9. But they were not made for people who do what is right. They are for people who are disobedient and rebellious, who are ungodly and sinful, who consider nothing sacred and defile what is holy, who murder their father or mother or other people.
• 10. These laws are for people who are sexually immoral, for homosexuals and slave traders, for liars and oath breakers, and for those who do anything else that contradicts the right teaching
• 11. that comes from the glorious Good News entrusted to me by our blessed God.
• 12. How thankful I am to Christ Jesus our Lord for considering me trustworthy and appointing me to serve him,
• 13. even though I used to scoff at the name of Christ. I hunted down his people, harming them in every way I could. But God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance and unbelief.
• 14. Oh, how kind and gracious the Lord was! He filled me completely with faith and the love of Christ Jesus.
• 15. This is a true saying, and everyone should believe it: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--and I was the worst of them all.
• 16. But that is why God had mercy on me, so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life.
• 17. Glory and honor to God forever and ever. He is the eternal King, the unseen one who never dies; he alone is God. Amen.
• 18. Timothy, my son, here are my instructions for you, based on the prophetic words spoken about you earlier. May they give you the confidence to fight well in the Lord's battles.
• 19. Cling tightly to your faith in Christ, and always keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.
• 20. Hymenaeus and Alexander are two examples of this. I turned them over to Satan so they would learn not to blaspheme God.

Daniel 8

• 1. During the third year of King Belshazzar's reign, I, Daniel, saw another vision, following the one that had already appeared to me.
• 2. This time I was at the fortress of Susa, in the province of Elam, standing beside the Ulai River.
• 3. As I looked up, I saw in front of me a ram with two long horns standing beside the river. One of the horns was longer than the other, even though it had begun to grow later than the shorter one.
• 4. The ram butted everything out of its way to the west, to the north, and to the south, and no one could stand against it or help its victims. It did as it pleased and became very great.
• 5. While I was watching, suddenly a male goat appeared from the west, crossing the land so swiftly that it didn't even touch the ground. This goat, which had one very large horn between its eyes,
• 6. headed toward the two-horned ram that I had seen standing beside the river.
• 7. The goat charged furiously at the ram and struck it, breaking off both its horns. Now the ram was helpless, and the goat knocked it down and trampled it. There was no one who could rescue the ram from the goat's power.
• 8. The goat became very powerful. But at the height of its power, its large horn was broken off. In the large horn's place grew four prominent horns pointing in the four directions of the earth.
• 9. From one of the prominent horns came a small horn whose power grew very great. It extended toward the south and the east and toward the glorious land of Israel.
• 10. His power reached to the heavens where it attacked the heavenly armies, throwing some of the heavenly beings and stars to the ground and trampling them.
• 11. He even challenged the Commander of heaven's armies by canceling the daily sacrifices offered to him and by destroying his Temple.
• 12. But the army of heaven was restrained from destroying him for this sin. As a result, sacrilege was committed against the Temple ceremonies, and truth was overthrown. The horn succeeded in everything it did.
• 13. Then I heard two of the holy ones talking to each other. One of them said, "How long will the events of this vision last? How long will the rebellion that causes desecration stop the daily sacrifices? How long will the Temple and heaven's armies be trampled on?"
• 14. The other replied, "It will take twenty-three hundred evenings and mornings; then the Temple will be restored."
• 15. As I, Daniel, was trying to understand the meaning of this vision, someone who looked like a man suddenly stood in front of me.
• 16. And I heard a human voice calling out from the Ulai River, "Gabriel, tell this man the meaning of his vision."
• 17. As Gabriel approached the place where I was standing, I became so terrified that I fell to the ground. "Son of man," he said, "you must understand that the events you have seen in your vision relate to the time of the end."
• 18. While he was speaking, I fainted and lay there with my face to the ground. But Gabriel roused me with a touch and helped me to my feet.
• 19. Then he said, "I am here to tell you what will happen later in the time of wrath. What you have seen pertains to the very end of time.
• 20. The two-horned ram represents the kings of Media and Persia.
• 21. The shaggy male goat represents the king of Greece, and the large horn between its eyes represents the first king of the Greek Empire.
• 22. The four prominent horns that replaced the one large horn show that the Greek Empire will break into four sections with four kings, none of them as great as the first.
• 23. "At the end of their rule, when their sin is at its height, a fierce king, a master of intrigue, will rise to power.
• 24. He will become very strong, but not by his own power. He will cause a shocking amount of destruction and succeed in everything he does. He will destroy powerful leaders and devastate the holy people.
• 25. He will be a master of deception, defeating many by catching them off guard. Without warning he will destroy them. He will even take on the Prince of princes in battle, but he will be broken, though not by human power.
• 26. "This vision about the twenty-three hundred evenings and mornings is true. But none of these things will happen for a long time, so do not tell anyone about them yet."
• 27. Then I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for several days. Afterward I got up and performed my duties for the king, but I was greatly troubled by the vision and could not understand it.

New Living Translation: 296 of 365 days.