Genesis 8

• 1. But God remembered Noah and all the animals in the boat. He sent a wind to blow across the waters, and the floods began to disappear.
• 2. The underground water sources ceased their gushing, and the torrential rains stopped.
• 3. So the flood gradually began to recede. After 150 days,
• 4. exactly five months from the time the flood began, the boat came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
• 5. Two and a half months later, as the waters continued to go down, other mountain peaks began to appear.
• 6. After another forty days, Noah opened the window he had made in the boat
• 7. and released a raven that flew back and forth until the earth was dry.
• 8. Then he sent out a dove to see if it could find dry ground.
• 9. But the dove found no place to land because the water was still too high. So it returned to the boat, and Noah held out his hand and drew the dove back inside.
• 10. Seven days later, Noah released the dove again.
• 11. This time, toward evening, the bird returned to him with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. Noah now knew that the water was almost gone.
• 12. A week later, he released the dove again, and this time it did not come back.
• 13. Finally, when Noah was 601 years old, ten and a half months after the flood began, Noah lifted back the cover to look. The water was drying up.
• 14. Two more months went by, and at last the earth was dry!
• 15. Then God said to Noah,
• 16. "Leave the boat, all of you.
• 17. Release all the animals and birds so they can breed and reproduce in great numbers."
• 18. So Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives left the boat.
• 19. And all the various kinds of animals and birds came out, pair by pair.
• 20. Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and sacrificed on it the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose.
• 21. And the LORD was pleased with the sacrifice and said to himself, "I will never again curse the earth, destroying all living things, even though people's thoughts and actions are bent toward evil from childhood.
• 22. As long as the earth remains, there will be springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night."

Matthew 7

• 1. "Stop judging others, and you will not be judged.
• 2. For others will treat you as you treat them. Whatever measure you use in judging others, it will be used to measure how you are judged.
• 3. And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own?
• 4. How can you think of saying, 'Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,' when you can't see past the log in your own eye?
• 5. Hypocrite! First get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye.
• 6. "Don't give what is holy to unholy people. Don't give pearls to swine! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.
• 7. "Keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened.
• 8. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And the door is opened to everyone who knocks.
• 9. You parents--if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead?
• 10. Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not!
• 11. If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.
• 12. "Do for others what you would like them to do for you. This is a summary of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.
• 13. "You can enter God's Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way.
• 14. But the gateway to life is small, and the road is narrow, and only a few ever find it.
• 15. "Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are really wolves that will tear you apart.
• 16. You can detect them by the way they act, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit. You don't pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles.
• 17. A healthy tree produces good fruit, and an unhealthy tree produces bad fruit.
• 18. A good tree can't produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can't produce good fruit.
• 19. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire.
• 20. Yes, the way to identify a tree or a person is by the kind of fruit that is produced.
• 21. "Not all people who sound religious are really godly. They may refer to me as 'Lord,' but they still won't enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The decisive issue is whether they obey my Father in heaven.
• 22. On judgment day many will tell me, 'Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.'
• 23. But I will reply, 'I never knew you. Go away; the things you did were unauthorized. '
• 24. "Anyone who listens to my teaching and obeys me is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.
• 25. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse, because it is built on rock.
• 26. But anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand.
• 27. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will fall with a mighty crash."
• 28. After Jesus finished speaking, the crowds were amazed at his teaching,
• 29. for he taught as one who had real authority--quite unlike the teachers of religious law.

Ezra 7

• 1. Many years later, during the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia, there was a man named Ezra. He was the son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah,
• 2. son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub,
• 3. son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth,
• 4. son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki,
• 5. son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the high priest.
• 6. This Ezra was a scribe, well versed in the law of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given to the people of Israel. He came up to Jerusalem from Babylon, and the king gave him everything he asked for, because the gracious hand of the LORD his God was on him.
• 7. Some of the people of Israel, as well as some of the priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, and Temple servants, traveled up to Jerusalem with him in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes' reign.
• 8. Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in August of that year.
• 9. He had left Babylon on April 8 and came to Jerusalem on August 4, for the gracious hand of his God was on him.
• 10. This was because Ezra had determined to study and obey the law of the LORD and to teach those laws and regulations to the people of Israel.
• 11. King Artaxerxes had given a copy of the following letter to Ezra, the priest and scribe who studied and taught the commands and laws of the LORD to Israel:
• 12. "Greetings from Artaxerxes, the king of kings, to Ezra the priest, the teacher of the law of the God of heaven.
• 13. "I decree that any of the people of Israel in my kingdom, including the priests and Levites, may volunteer to return to Jerusalem with you.
• 14. I and my Council of Seven hereby instruct you to conduct an inquiry into the situation in Judah and Jerusalem, based on your God's law, which is in your hand.
• 15. We also commission you to take with you some silver and gold, which we are freely presenting as an offering to the God of Israel who lives in Jerusalem.
• 16. "Moreover you are to take any silver and gold which you may obtain from the province of Babylon, as well as the freewill offerings of the people and the priests that are presented for the Temple of their God in Jerusalem.
• 17. These donations are to be used specifically for the purchase of bulls, rams, lambs, and the appropriate grain offerings and drink offerings, all of which will be offered on the altar of the Temple of your God in Jerusalem.
• 18. Any money that is left over may be used in whatever way you and your colleagues feel is the will of your God.
• 19. But as for the utensils we are entrusting to you for the service of the Temple of your God, deliver them in full to the God of Jerusalem.
• 20. If you run short of money for anything necessary for your God's Temple or for any similar needs, you may requisition funds from the royal treasury.
• 21. "I, Artaxerxes the king, hereby send this decree to all the treasurers in the province west of the Euphrates River: `You are to give Ezra whatever he requests of you, for he is a priest and teacher of the law of the God of heaven.
• 22. You are to give him up to 7,500 pounds of silver, 500 bushels of wheat, 550 gallons of wine, 550 gallons of olive oil, and an unlimited supply of salt.
• 23. Be careful to provide whatever the God of heaven demands for his Temple, for why should we risk bringing God's anger against the realm of the king and his sons?
• 24. I also decree that no priest, Levite, singer, gatekeeper, Temple servant, or other worker in this Temple of God will be required to pay taxes of any kind.'
• 25. "And you, Ezra, are to use the wisdom God has given you to appoint magistrates and judges who know your God's laws to govern all the people in the province west of the Euphrates River. If the people are not familiar with those laws, you must teach them.
• 26. Anyone who refuses to obey the law of your God and the law of the king will be punished immediately by death, banishment, confiscation of goods, or imprisonment."
• 27. Praise the LORD, the God of our ancestors, who made the king want to beautify the Temple of the LORD in Jerusalem!
• 28. And praise him for demonstrating such unfailing love to me by honoring me before the king, his council, and all his mighty princes! I felt encouraged because the gracious hand of the LORD my God was on me. And I gathered some of the leaders of Israel to return with me to Jerusalem.

New Living Translation: 7 of 365 days.