Bible Readings for July 22, 2015

Today our passages are 2 Chronicles 6:12–8:10; Romans 7:14–8:8; Psalm 18:1-15; and Proverbs 19:24-25. The readings are from the Contemporary English Version. 

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2 Chronicles 6:12-8:10 (Contemporary English Version)

Solomon Prays at the Temple

(1 Kings 8.22-53)

 ^12-13Earlier, Solomon had a bronze platform made that was about eight feet square and five feet high, and he put it in the center of the outer courtyard near the altar. Solomon stood on the platform facing the altar with everyone standing behind him. Then he lifted his arms toward heaven; he knelt down    ¹⁴and prayed:
   LORD God of Israel, no other god in heaven or on earth is like you!
   You never forget the agreement you made with your people, and you are loyal to anyone who faithfully obeys your teachings.
   ¹⁵My father David was your servant, and today you have kept every promise you made to him.
   ¹⁶You promised that someone from his family would always be king of Israel, if they do their best to obey you, just as he did.
   ¹⁷Please keep this promise you made to your servant David.
   ¹⁸There's not enough room in all of heaven for you, LORD God. How could you possibly live on earth in this temple I have built?
   ¹⁹But I ask you to answer my prayer.
   ²⁰This is the temple where you have chosen to be worshiped. Please watch over it day and night and listen when I turn toward it and pray.
   ²¹I am your servant, and the people of Israel belong to you, and so whenever any of us look toward this temple and pray, answer from your home in heaven and forgive our sins.
   ²²Suppose someone accuses a person of a crime, and the accused has to stand in front of the altar in your temple and say, "I swear I am innocent!"
   ²³Listen from heaven and decide who is right. Then punish the guilty person and let the innocent one go free.
   ²⁴Suppose your people Israel sin against you, and then an enemy defeats them. If they come to this temple and beg for forgiveness,
   ²⁵listen from your home in heaven. Forgive them and bring them back to the land you gave their ancestors.
   ²⁶Suppose your people sin against you, and you punish them by holding back the rain. If they stop sinning and turn toward this temple to pray in your name,
   ²⁷listen from your home in heaven and forgive them. The people of Israel are your servants, so teach them to live right. And send rain on the land you promised them forever.
   ²⁸Sometimes the crops may dry up or rot or be eaten by locusts ^[a] or grasshoppers, and your people will be starving. Sometimes enemies may surround their towns, or your people will become sick with deadly diseases.
   ²⁹Please listen when anyone in Israel truly feels sorry and sincerely prays with arms lifted toward your temple.
   ³⁰You know what is in everyone's heart. So from your home in heaven answer their prayers, according to what they do and what is in their hearts.
   ³¹Then your people will worship you and obey you for as long as they live in the land you gave their ancestors.
   ³²Foreigners will hear about you and your mighty power, and some of them will come to live among your people Israel. If any of them pray toward this temple,
   ³³listen from your home in heaven and answer their prayers. Then everyone on earth will worship you, just as your own people Israel do, and they will know that I have built this temple in your honor.
   ³⁴Sometimes you will order your people to attack their enemies. Then your people will turn toward this temple I have built for you in your chosen city, and they will pray to you.
   ³⁵Answer their prayers from heaven and give them victory.
   ³⁶Everyone sins. But when your people sin against you, suppose you get angry enough to let their enemies drag them away to foreign countries.
   ^37-39Later, they may feel sorry for what they did and ask your forgiveness. Answer them when they pray toward this temple I have built for you in your chosen city, here in this land you gave their ancestors. From your home in heaven, listen to their sincere prayers and forgive your people who have sinned against you.
   ⁴⁰LORD God, hear us when we pray in this temple.
   ⁴¹Come to your new home, where we have already placed the sacred chest, which is the symbol of your strength. I pray that when the priests announce your power to save people, those who are faithful to you will celebrate what you've done for them.
   ⁴²Always remember the love you had for your servant David, ^[b] so that you will not reject your chosen kings.
   

2 Chronicles 7

Solomon Dedicates the Temple

(1 Kings 8.62-66)

 ¹As soon as Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and burned up the offerings. The LORD's dazzling glory then filled the temple,    ²and the priests could not go in.
   ³When the crowd of people saw the fire and the LORD's glory, they knelt down and worshiped the LORD. They prayed:
   "The LORD is good,
   and his love never ends."
   ^4-5Solomon and the people dedicated the temple to the LORD by sacrificing twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep.
   ⁶Everybody stood up during the ceremony. The priests were in their assigned places, blowing their trumpets. And the Levites faced them, playing the musical instruments that David had made for them to use when they praised the LORD for his never-ending love.
   ⁷On that same day, Solomon dedicated the courtyard in front of the temple and got it ready to be used for worship. The bronze altar he had made was too small, so he used the courtyard to offer sacrifices to please the LORD ^[c] and grain sacrifices, and also to send up in smoke the fat from the other offerings.
   ⁸For seven days, Solomon and the crowd celebrated the Festival of Shelters, and people came from as far away as the Egyptian Gorge in the south and Lebo-Hamath in the north.
   ⁹Then on the next day, everyone came together for worship. They had celebrated a total of fourteen days, seven days for the dedication of the altar and seven more days for the festival.
   ¹⁰Then on the twenty-third day of the seventh month, ^[d] Solomon sent everyone home. They left very happy because of all the good things the LORD had done for David and Solomon, and for his people Israel.
   

The LORD Appears to Solomon Again

(1 Kings 9.1-9)

 ¹¹The LORD's temple and Solomon's palace were now finished. In fact, everything Solomon had planned to do was completed.    ¹²Some time later, the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream and said:
   I heard your prayer, and I have chosen this temple as the place where sacrifices will be offered to me.
   ¹³Suppose I hold back the rain or send locusts ^[e] to eat the crops or make my people suffer with deadly diseases.
   ¹⁴If my own people will humbly pray and turn back to me and stop sinning, then I will answer them from heaven. I will forgive them and make their land fertile once again.
   ¹⁵I will hear the prayers made in this temple,
   ¹⁶because it belongs to me, and this is where I will be worshiped forever. I will never stop watching over it.
   ¹⁷Your father David obeyed me, and now, Solomon, you must do the same. Obey my laws and teachings,
   ¹⁸and I will keep my solemn promise to him that someone from your family will always be king of Israel.
   ¹⁹But if you or any of the people of Israel disobey my laws or start worshiping foreign gods,
   ²⁰I will pull you out of this land I gave you. I will desert this temple where I said I would be worshiped, so that people everywhere will think it is only a joke and will make fun of it.
   ²¹This temple is now magnificent. But when these things happen, everyone who walks by it will be shocked and will ask, "Why did the LORD do such a terrible thing to his people and to this temple?"
   ²²Then they will answer, "It was because the people of Israel rejected the LORD their God, who rescued their ancestors from Egypt, and they started worshiping other gods."
   

2 Chronicles 8

Other Things Solomon Did

(1 Kings 9.10-28)

 ¹It took twenty years for the LORD's temple and Solomon's palace to be built.    ²After that, Solomon had his workers rebuild the towns that Hiram had given him. Then Solomon sent Israelites to live in those towns.
   ³Solomon attacked and captured the town of Hamath-Zobah.
   ⁴He had his workers build the town of Tadmor in the desert and some towns in Hamath where he could keep his supplies.
   ⁵He strengthened Upper Beth-Horon and Lower Beth-Horon by adding walls and gates that could be locked.
   ⁶He did the same thing to the town of Baalath and to the cities where he kept supplies, chariots, and horses. Solomon had his workers build whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and anywhere else in his kingdom.
   ^7-9Solomon did not force the Israelites to do his work. Instead, they were his soldiers, officers, army commanders, and cavalry troops. But he did make slaves of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites who were living in Israel. These were the descendants of those foreigners the Israelites did not destroy, and they remained Israel's slaves.
   ¹⁰Solomon appointed two hundred fifty officers to be in charge of his workers.
   

Footnotes:

1. 2 Chronicles 6:28 locusts: A type of grasshopper that comes in swarms and causes great damage to crops.
2. 2 Chronicles 6:42 the love you had for your servant David: Or "how loyal your servant David was to you."
3. 2 Chronicles 7:7 sacrifices to please the LORD: See the note at 1.6.
4. 2 Chronicles 7:10 seventh month: See the note at 5.2,3.
5. 2 Chronicles 7:13 locusts: See the note at 6.28.

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Romans 7:14-8:8 (Contemporary English Version)

¹⁴We know that the Law is spiritual. But I am merely a human, and I have been sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵In fact, I don't understand why I act the way I do. I don't do what I know is right. I do the things I hate. ¹⁶Although I don't do what I know is right, I agree that the Law is good. ¹⁷So I am not the one doing these evil things. The sin that lives in me is what does them.
    ¹⁸I know that my selfish desires won't let me do anything that is good. Even when I want to do right, I cannot. ¹⁹Instead of doing what I know is right, I do wrong. ²⁰And so, if I don't do what I know is right, I am no longer the one doing these evil things. The sin that lives in me is what does them.
    ²¹The Law has shown me that something in me keeps me from doing what I know is right. ²²With my whole heart I agree with the Law of God. ²³But in every part of me I discover something fighting against my mind, and it makes me a prisoner of sin that controls everything I do. ²⁴What a miserable person I am. Who will rescue me from this body that is doomed to die? ²⁵Thank God! Jesus Christ will rescue me.
   So with my mind I serve the Law of God, although my selfish desires make me serve the law of sin.
   

Romans 8

Living by the Power of God's Spirit

 ¹If you belong to Christ Jesus, you won't be punished. ²The Holy Spirit will give you life that comes from Christ Jesus and will set you ^[a] free from sin and death. ³The Law of Moses cannot do this, because our selfish desires make the Law weak. But God set you free when he sent his own Son to be like us sinners and to be a sacrifice for our sin. God used Christ's body to condemn sin. ⁴He did this, so that we would do what the Law commands by obeying the Spirit instead of our own desires. ⁵People who are ruled by their desires think only of themselves. Everyone who is ruled by the Holy Spirit thinks about spiritual things. ⁶If our minds are ruled by our desires, we will die. But if our minds are ruled by the Spirit, we will have life and peace. ⁷Our desires fight against God, because they do not and cannot obey God's laws. ⁸If we follow our desires, we cannot please God.    

Footnotes:

1. Romans 8:2 you: Some manuscripts have " me."

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Psalm 18:1-15 (Contemporary English Version)

Psalm 18

(For the music leader. A psalm by David, the LORD's servant. David sang this to the LORD after the LORD had rescued him from his enemies, but especially from Saul.)

David's Song of Thanks

 ¹I love you, LORD God,    and you make me strong.
    ²You are my mighty rock, ^[a] my fortress, my protector,
   the rock where I am safe,
   my shield,
   my powerful weapon, ^[b] and my place of shelter.
    ³I praise you, LORD!
   I prayed, and you rescued me
   from my enemies.
    ⁴Death had wrapped
   its ropes around me,
   and I was almost swallowed
   by its flooding waters.
    ⁵Ropes from the world
   of the dead
   had coiled around me,
   and death had set a trap
   in my path.
    ⁶I was in terrible trouble
   when I called out to you,
   but from your temple
   you heard me
   and answered my prayer.
    ⁷The earth shook and shivered,
   and the mountains trembled
   down to their roots.
   You were angry
    ⁸and breathed out smoke.
   Scorching heat and fiery flames
   spewed from your mouth.
    ⁹You opened the heavens
   like curtains,
   and you came down
   with storm clouds
   under your feet.
    ¹⁰You rode on the backs
   of flying creatures
   and swooped down
   with the wind as wings.
    ¹¹Darkness was your robe;
   thunderclouds filled the sky,
   hiding you from sight.
    ¹²Hailstones and fiery coals
   lit up the sky
   in front of you.
    ¹³LORD Most High, your voice
   thundered from the heavens,
   as hailstones and fiery coals
   poured down like rain.
    ¹⁴You scattered your enemies
   with arrows of lightning.
    ¹⁵You roared at the sea,
   and its deepest channels
   could be seen.
   You snorted,
   and the earth shook
   to its foundations.
   

Footnotes:

1. Psalm 18:2 mighty rock: The Hebrew text has " rock," which is sometimes used in poetry to compare the Lord to a mountain where his people can run for protection from their enemies.
2. Psalm 18:2 my powerful weapon: The Hebrew text has " the horn," which refers to the horn of a bull, one of the most powerful animals in ancient Palestine.

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Proverbs 19:24-25 (Contemporary English Version)

²⁴Some people are too lazy
   to lift a hand
   to feed themselves.
    ²⁵Stupid fools learn good sense
   by seeing others punished;
   a sensible person learns
   by being corrected.

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Verse of the Day

“Then Jesus asked them, "But who do you say I am?" Simon Peter spoke up, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” - Matthew 16:15-16

Today's passage is from the Contemporary English Version.

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Thought for the Day

American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion, Joseph Campbell wrote, “Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.”