Monthly Archives: March 2010

 1 Thessalonians 1: ⁶ You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. ⁷ And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. ⁸ The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, ⁹ for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, ¹⁰ and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. Paul’s Ministry in Thessalonica  1 Thessalonians 2:1     You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure. ² We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition. ³ For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. ⁴ On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. ⁵ You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. ⁶ We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else. As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, ⁷ but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. ⁸ We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. ⁹ Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. ¹⁰ You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. ¹¹ For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, ¹² encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. ¹³ And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe. ¹⁴ For you, brothers, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, ¹⁵ who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men ¹⁶ in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last.

Psalm 119:  ⁶⁸     You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees. ⁶⁹     Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies, I keep your precepts with all my heart. ⁷⁰     Their hearts are callous and unfeeling, but I delight in your law. ⁷¹     It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees. ⁷²     The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold. י Yodh ⁷³     Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands.

  Judgment Against Evil Kings Jeremiah 22:1     This is what the Lord says: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and proclaim this message there: ² ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne—you, your officials and your people who come through these gates. ³ This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. ⁴ For if you are careful to carry out these commands, then kings who sit on David’s throne will come through the gates of this palace, riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by their officials and their people. ⁵ But if you do not obey these commands, declares the Lord, I swear by myself that this palace will become a ruin.’ ” ⁶ For this is what the Lord says about the palace of the king of Judah: “Though you are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon, I will surely make you like a desert, like towns not inhabited. ⁷     I will send destroyers against you, each man with his weapons, and they will cut up your fine cedar beams and throw them into the fire. ⁸ “People from many nations will pass by this city and will ask one another, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this great city?’ ⁹ And the answer will be: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and have worshiped and served other gods.’ ” ¹⁰     Do not weep for the dead king or mourn his loss; rather, weep bitterly for him who is exiled, because he will never return nor see his native land again. ¹¹ For this is what the Lord says about Shallum^a son of Josiah, who succeeded his father as king of Judah but has gone from this place: “He will never return. ¹² He will die in the place where they have led him captive; he will not see this land again.” ¹³     “Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his countrymen work for nothing, not paying them for their labor. ¹⁴     He says, ‘I will build myself a great palace with spacious upper rooms.’ So he makes large windows in it, panels it with cedar and decorates it in red. ¹⁵     “Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. ¹⁶     He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the Lord. ¹⁷     “But your eyes and your heart are set only on dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood and on oppression and extortion.” ¹⁸ Therefore this is what the Lord says about Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: “They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’ They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!’ ¹⁹     He will have the burial of a donkey— dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.” ²⁰     “Go up to Lebanon and cry out, let your voice be heard in Bashan, cry out from Abarim, for all your allies are crushed. ²¹     I warned you when you felt secure, but you said, ‘I will not listen!’ This has been your way from your youth; you have not obeyed me. ²²     The wind will drive all your shepherds away, and your allies will go into exile. Then you will be ashamed and disgraced because of all your wickedness. ²³     You who live in ‘Lebanon,^b’ who are nestled in cedar buildings, how you will groan when pangs come upon you, pain like that of a woman in labor! ²⁴ “As surely as I live,” declares the Lord, “even if you, Jehoiachin^c son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off. ²⁵ I will hand you over to those who seek your life, those you fear—to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to the Babylonians.^d ²⁶ I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another country, where neither of you was born, and there you both will die. ²⁷ You will never come back to the land you long to return to.” ²⁸     Is this man Jehoiachin a despised, broken pot, an object no one wants? Why will he and his children be hurled out, cast into a land they do not know? ²⁹     O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord! ³⁰     This is what the Lord says: “Record this man as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah.” The Righteous Branch Jeremiah 23:1     “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. ² Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares the Lord. ³ “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. ⁴ I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the Lord. ⁵     “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up to David^a a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. ⁶     In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness. ⁷ “So then, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when people will no longer say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ ⁸ but they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ Then they will live in their own land.” Lying Prophets ⁹ Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken within me; all my bones tremble. I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine, because of the Lord and his holy words. ¹⁰     The land is full of adulterers; because of the curse^a the land lies parched^b and the pastures in the desert are withered. The prophets follow an evil course and use their power unjustly. ¹¹     “Both prophet and priest are godless; even in my temple I find their wickedness,” declares the Lord. ¹²     “Therefore their path will become slippery; they will be banished to darkness and there they will fall. I will bring disaster on them in the year they are punished,” declares the Lord. ¹³     “Among the prophets of Samaria I saw this repulsive thing: They prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray. ¹⁴     And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible: They commit adultery and live a lie. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his wickedness. They are all like Sodom to me; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.” ¹⁵ Therefore, this is what the Lord Almighty says concerning the prophets: “I will make them eat bitter food and drink poisoned water, because from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has spread throughout the land.” ¹⁶ This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. ¹⁷     They keep saying to those who despise me, ‘The Lord says: You will have peace.’ And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, ‘No harm will come to you.’ ¹⁸     But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word? ¹⁹     See, the storm of the Lord will burst out in wrath, a whirlwind swirling down on the heads of the wicked. ²⁰     The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he fully accomplishes the purposes of his heart. In days to come you will understand it clearly. ²¹     I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied. ²²     But if they had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds. ²³     “Am I only a God nearby,” declares the Lord, “and not a God far away? ²⁴     Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the Lord. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the Lord. ²⁵ “I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ ²⁶ How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? ²⁷ They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their fathers forgot my name through Baal worship. ²⁸ Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the Lord. ²⁹ “Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? ³⁰ “Therefore,” declares the Lord, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me. ³¹ Yes,” declares the Lord, “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare, ‘The Lord declares.’ ³² Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” declares the Lord. “They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least,” declares the Lord. False Oracles and False Prophets ³³ “When these people, or a prophet or a priest, ask you, ‘What is the oracle^a of the Lord?’ say to them, ‘What oracle?^b I will forsake you, declares the Lord.’ ³⁴ If a prophet or a priest or anyone else claims, ‘This is the oracle of the Lord,’ I will punish that man and his household. ³⁵ This is what each of you keeps on saying to his friend or relative: ‘What is the Lord’s answer?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ ³⁶ But you must not mention ‘the oracle of the Lord’ again, because every man’s own word becomes his oracle and so you distort the words of the living God, the Lord Almighty, our God. ³⁷ This is what you keep saying to a prophet: ‘What is the Lord’s answer to you?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ ³⁸ Although you claim, ‘This is the oracle of the Lord,’ this is what the Lord says: You used the words, ‘This is the oracle of the Lord,’ even though I told you that you must not claim, ‘This is the oracle of the Lord.’ ³⁹ Therefore, I will surely forget you and cast you out of my presence along with the city I gave to you and your fathers. ⁴⁰ I will bring upon you everlasting disgrace—everlasting shame that will not be forgotten.”

  Sayings of King Lemuel Proverbs 31:1     The sayings of King Lemuel—an oracle^a his mother taught him: ²     “O my son, O son of my womb, O son of my vows,^b ³     do not spend your strength on women, your vigor on those who ruin kings. ⁴     “It is not for kings, O Lemuel— not for kings to drink wine, not for rulers to crave beer, ⁵     lest they drink and forget what the law decrees, and deprive all the oppressed of their rights. ⁶     Give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish; ⁷     let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more. ⁸     “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. ⁹     Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” Epilogue: The Wife of Noble Character ¹⁰     ^a A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. ¹¹     Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. ¹²     She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. ¹³     She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. ¹⁴     She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. ¹⁵     She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls. ¹⁶     She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. ¹⁷     She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. ¹⁸     She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night. ¹⁹     In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. ²⁰     She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. ²¹     When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet. ²²     She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple. ²³     Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land. ²⁴     She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes. ²⁵     She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. ²⁶     She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. ²⁷     She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. ²⁸     Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ²⁹     “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.” ³⁰     Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. ³¹     Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Colossians 4:1     Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven. Further Instructions ² Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. ³ And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. ⁴ Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. ⁵ Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. ⁶ Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Final Greetings ⁷ Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. ⁸ I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our^a circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. ⁹ He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here. ¹⁰ My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.) ¹¹ Jesus, who is called Justus, also sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me. ¹² Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. ¹³ I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis. ¹⁴ Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings. ¹⁵ Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. ¹⁶ After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea. ¹⁷ Tell Archippus: “See to it that you complete the work you have received in the Lord.” ¹⁸ I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you. 1 Thessalonians 1     Paul, Silas^a and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you.^b Thanksgiving for the Thessalonians’ Faith ² We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. ³ We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁴ For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, ⁵ because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.

Psalm 119 ⁶¹     Though the wicked bind me with ropes, I will not forget your law. ⁶²     At midnight I rise to give you thanks for your righteous laws. ⁶³     I am a friend to all who fear you, to all who follow your precepts. ⁶⁴     The earth is filled with your love, O Lord; teach me your decrees. ט Teth ⁶⁵     Do good to your servant according to your word, O Lord. ⁶⁶     Teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I believe in your commands. ⁶⁷     Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.