Exodus 25

• 1. The LORD said to Moses,
• 2. "Tell the people of Israel that everyone who wants to may bring me an offering.
• 3. Here is a list of items you may accept on my behalf: gold, silver, and bronze;
• 4. blue, purple, and scarlet yarn; fine linen; goat hair for cloth;
• 5. tanned ram skins and fine goatskin leather; acacia wood;
• 6. olive oil for the lamps; spices for the anointing oil and the fragrant incense;
• 7. onyx stones, and other stones to be set in the ephod and the chestpiece.
• 8. "I want the people of Israel to build me a sacred residence where I can live among them.
• 9. You must make this Tabernacle and its furnishings exactly according to the plans I will show you.
• 10. "Make an Ark of acacia wood--a sacred chest 3 3/4 feet long, 2 1/4 feet wide, and 2 1/4 feet high.
• 11. Overlay it inside and outside with pure gold, and put a molding of gold all around it.
• 12. Cast four rings of gold for it, and attach them to its four feet, two rings on each side.
• 13. Make poles from acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.
• 14. Fit the poles into the rings at the sides of the Ark to carry it.
• 15. These carrying poles must never be taken from the rings; they are to be left there permanently.
• 16. When the Ark is finished, place inside it the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant, which I will give to you.
• 17. "Then make the Ark's cover--the place of atonement--out of pure gold. It must be 3 3/4 feet long and 2 1/4 feet wide.
• 18. Then use hammered gold to make two cherubim, and place them at the two ends of the atonement cover.
• 19. Attach the cherubim to each end of the atonement cover, making it all one piece.
• 20. The cherubim will face each other, looking down on the atonement cover with their wings spread out above it.
• 21. Place inside the Ark the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant, which I will give to you. Then put the atonement cover on top of the Ark.
• 22. I will meet with you there and talk to you from above the atonement cover between the gold cherubim that hover over the Ark of the Covenant. From there I will give you my commands for the people of Israel.
• 23. "Then make a table of acacia wood, 3 feet long, 1 1/2 feet wide, and 2 1/4 feet high.
• 24. Overlay it with pure gold and run a molding of gold around it.
• 25. Put a rim about three inches wide around the top edge, and put a gold molding all around the rim.
• 26. Make four gold rings, and put the rings at the four corners by the four legs,
• 27. close to the rim around the top. These rings will support the poles used to carry the table.
• 28. Make these poles from acacia wood and overlay them with gold.
• 29. And make gold plates and dishes, as well as pitchers and bowls to be used in pouring out drink offerings.
• 30. You must always keep the special Bread of the Presence on the table before me.
• 31. "Make a lampstand of pure, hammered gold. The entire lampstand and its decorations will be one piece--the base, center stem, lamp cups, buds, and blossoms.
• 32. It will have six branches, three branches going out from each side of the center stem.
• 33. Each of the six branches will hold a cup shaped like an almond blossom, complete with buds and petals.
• 34. The center stem of the lampstand will be decorated with four almond blossoms, complete with buds and petals.
• 35. One blossom will be set beneath each pair of branches where they extend from the center stem.
• 36. The decorations and branches must all be one piece with the stem, and they must be hammered from pure gold.
• 37. Then make the seven lamps for the lampstand, and set them so they reflect their light forward.
• 38. The lamp snuffers and trays must also be made of pure gold.
• 39. You will need seventy-five pounds of pure gold for the lampstand and its accessories.
• 40. "Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.

John 5

• 1. Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days.
• 2. Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches.
• 3. Crowds of sick people--blind, lame, or paralyzed--lay on the porches.
• 4. See Footnote
• 5. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years.
• 6. When Jesus saw him and knew how long he had been ill, he asked him, "Would you like to get well?"
• 7. "I can't, sir," the sick man said, "for I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get there, someone else always gets in ahead of me."
• 8. Jesus told him, "Stand up, pick up your sleeping mat, and walk!"
• 9. Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up the mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath day.
• 10. So the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, "You can't work on the Sabbath! It's illegal to carry that sleeping mat!"
• 11. He replied, "The man who healed me said to me, 'Pick up your sleeping mat and walk.'"
• 12. "Who said such a thing as that?" they demanded.
• 13. The man didn't know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd.
• 14. But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, "Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you."
• 15. Then the man went to find the Jewish leaders and told them it was Jesus who had healed him.
• 16. So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules.
• 17. But Jesus replied, "My Father never stops working, so why should I?"
• 18. So the Jewish leaders tried all the more to kill him. In addition to disobeying the Sabbath rules, he had spoken of God as his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.
• 19. Jesus replied, "I assure you, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.
• 20. For the Father loves the Son and tells him everything he is doing, and the Son will do far greater things than healing this man. You will be astonished at what he does.
• 21. He will even raise from the dead anyone he wants to, just as the Father does.
• 22. And the Father leaves all judgment to his Son,
• 23. so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. But if you refuse to honor the Son, then you are certainly not honoring the Father who sent him.
• 24. "I assure you, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.
• 25. "And I assure you that the time is coming, in fact it is here, when the dead will hear my voice--the voice of the Son of God. And those who listen will live.
• 26. The Father has life in himself, and he has granted his Son to have life in himself.
• 27. And he has given him authority to judge all mankind because he is the Son of Man.
• 28. Don't be so surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God's Son,
• 29. and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to judgment.
• 30. But I do nothing without consulting the Father. I judge as I am told. And my judgment is absolutely just, because it is according to the will of God who sent me; it is not merely my own.
• 31. "If I were to testify on my own behalf, my testimony would not be valid.
• 32. But someone else is also testifying about me, and I can assure you that everything he says about me is true.
• 33. In fact, you sent messengers to listen to John the Baptist, and he preached the truth.
• 34. But the best testimony about me is not from a man, though I have reminded you about John's testimony so you might be saved.
• 35. John shone brightly for a while, and you benefited and rejoiced.
• 36. But I have a greater witness than John--my teachings and my miracles. They have been assigned to me by the Father, and they testify that the Father has sent me.
• 37. And the Father himself has also testified about me. You have never heard his voice or seen him face to face,
• 38. and you do not have his message in your hearts, because you do not believe me--the one he sent to you.
• 39. "You search the Scriptures because you believe they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!
• 40. Yet you refuse to come to me so that I can give you this eternal life.
• 41. "Your approval or disapproval means nothing to me,
• 42. because I know you don't have God's love within you.
• 43. For I have come to you representing my Father, and you refuse to welcome me, even though you readily accept others who represent only themselves.
• 44. No wonder you can't believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don't care about the honor that comes from God alone.
• 45. "Yet it is not I who will accuse you of this before the Father. Moses will accuse you! Yes, Moses, on whom you set your hopes.
• 46. But if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me because he wrote about me.
• 47. And since you don't believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?"

Proverbs 2

• 1. My child, listen to me and treasure my instructions.
• 2. Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding.
• 3. Cry out for insight and understanding.
• 4. Search for them as you would for lost money or hidden treasure.
• 5. Then you will understand what it means to fear the LORD, and you will gain knowledge of God.
• 6. For the LORD grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
• 7. He grants a treasure of good sense to the godly. He is their shield, protecting those who walk with integrity.
• 8. He guards the paths of justice and protects those who are faithful to him.
• 9. Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair, and you will know how to find the right course of action every time.
• 10. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with joy.
• 11. Wise planning will watch over you. Understanding will keep you safe.
• 12. Wisdom will save you from evil people, from those whose speech is corrupt.
• 13. These people turn from right ways to walk down dark and evil paths.
• 14. They rejoice in doing wrong, and they enjoy evil as it turns things upside down.
• 15. What they do is crooked, and their ways are wrong.
• 16. Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman, from the flattery of the adulterous woman.
• 17. She has abandoned her husband and ignores the covenant she made before God.
• 18. Entering her house leads to death; it is the road to hell.
• 19. The man who visits her is doomed. He will never reach the paths of life.
• 20. Follow the steps of good men instead, and stay on the paths of the righteous.
• 21. For only the upright will live in the land, and those who have integrity will remain in it.
• 22. But the wicked will be removed from the land, and the treacherous will be destroyed.

New Living Translation: 74 of 365 days.