Bible Readings for December 4, 2015

Today our passages are Daniel 11:36–12:13; 1 John 4:1-21; Psalm 123:1-4; and Proverbs 29:2-4. The readings are from the Contemporary English Version. If you find these readings helpful, please consider sending an offering directly to Cove Presbyterian Church, 3404 Main Street, Weirton, West Virginia or through PayPal. 

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Daniel 11:36-12:13 (Contemporary English Version)

³⁶This king will do as he pleases. He will proudly claim to be greater than any god and will insult the only true God. Indeed, he will be successful until God is no longer angry with his people. ³⁷This king will reject the gods his ancestors worshiped and the god preferred by women. ^[a] In fact, he will put himself above all gods ³⁸and worship only the so-called god of fortresses, who was unknown to his ancestors. And he will honor it with gold, silver, precious stones, and other costly gifts. ³⁹With the help of this foreign god, he will capture the strongest fortresses. Everyone who worships this god will be put in a position of power and rewarded with wealth and land.

Part Three: The Time of the End

 ⁴⁰ At the time of the end, the king of the south will attack the kingdom of the north. But its king will rush out like a storm with war chariots, cavalry, and many ships. Indeed, his forces will flood one country after another, ⁴¹and when they reach the holy land, ^[b] tens of thousands will be killed. But the countries of Edom and Moab and the ruler of Ammon ^[c] will escape. ⁴²The king of the north will invade many countries, including Egypt, ⁴³and he will take its rich treasures of gold and silver. He will also conquer Libya and Ethiopia. ^{[d] 44}But he will be alarmed by news from the east and the north, and he will become furious and cause great destruction. ⁴⁵After this, he will set up camp between the Mediterranean Sea and Mount Zion. Then he will be destroyed, and no one will be able to save him.

Daniel 12

Part Four: The Dead Will Rise to Life

 ¹ Michael, the chief of the angels, is the protector of your people, and he will come at a time of terrible suffering, the worst in all of history. And your people who have their names written in The Book ^[e] will be protected. ²Many of those who lie dead in the ground will rise from death. Some of them will be given eternal life, and others will receive nothing but eternal shame and disgrace. ³Everyone who has been wise will shine as bright as the sky above, and everyone who has led others to please God will shine like the stars. ⁴Daniel, I now command you to keep the message of this book secret until the end of time, even though many people will go everywhere, searching for the knowledge to be found in it. ^[f]

The End of Time

 ⁵Daniel wrote:    I looked around and saw two other people--one on this side of the river and one on the other side. ⁶The angel who had spoken to me was dressed in linen and was standing upstream from them. ^[g] So one of the two beside the river asked him, " How long before these amazing things happen?" ⁷The angel then raised both hands toward heaven and said, " In the name of the God who lives forever, I solemnly promise that it will be a time, two times, and half a time. ^[h] Everything will be over, when the suffering of God's holy people comes to an end." ⁸I heard what the angel said, but I didn't understand. So I asked, " Sir, how will it all end?"
   The angel in my vision then replied:
    ⁹Daniel, go about your business, because the meaning of this message will remain secret until the end of time. ¹⁰Many people will have their hearts and lives made pure and clean, but those who are evil will keep on being evil and never understand. Only the wise will understand. ¹¹There will be one thousand two hundred ninety days from the time that the daily sacrifices are stopped, until someone sets up the " Horrible Thing" that causes destruction. ¹²God will bless everyone who patiently waits until one thousand three hundred thirty-five days have gone by.
    ¹³So, Daniel, be faithful until the end! You will rest, and at the end of time, you will rise from death to receive your reward.
   

Footnotes:

1. Daniel 11:37 god preferred by women: Perhaps Tammuz or Adonis, which were popular among the women of that time.
2. Daniel 11:41 the holy land: See the note at 8.9.
3. Daniel 11:41 the ruler of Ammon: Or " what is left of Ammon."
4. Daniel 11:43 Ethiopia: The Hebrew text has " Cush," which was a region south of Egypt that included parts of the present countries of Ethiopia and Sudan.
5. Daniel 12:1 The Book: Either the book with the names of God's people in it or the book with the record of the good and evil that people have done.
6. Daniel 12:4 even though. . . in it: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
7. Daniel 12:6 angel. . . upstream from them: See 10.4-6.
8. Daniel 12:7 a time, two times, and half a time: Or " a year, two years, and half a year," that is, about 1260 days.

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1 John 4:1-21 (Contemporary English Version)

1 John 4

God Is Love

 ¹Dear friends, don't believe everyone who claims to have the Spirit of God. Test them all to find out if they really do come from God. Many false prophets have already gone out into the world, ²and you can know which ones come from God. His Spirit says that Jesus Christ had a truly human body. ³But when someone doesn't say this about Jesus, you know that person has a spirit that doesn't come from God and is the enemy of Christ. You knew that this enemy was coming into the world and now is already here.     ⁴Children, you belong to God, and you have defeated these enemies. God's Spirit ^[a] is in you and is more powerful than the one that is in the world. ⁵These enemies belong to this world, and the world listens to them, because they speak its language. ⁶We belong to God, and everyone who knows God will listen to us. But the people who don't know God won't listen to us. That is how we can tell the Spirit that speaks the truth from the one that tells lies. ⁷My dear friends, we must love each other. Love comes from God, and when we love each other, it shows that we have been given new life. We are now God's children, and we know him. ⁸God is love, and anyone who doesn't love others has never known him. ⁹God showed his love for us when he sent his only Son into the world to give us life. ¹⁰Real love isn't our love for God, but his love for us. God sent his Son to be the sacrifice by which our sins are forgiven. ¹¹Dear friends, since God loved us this much, we must love each other.
    ¹²No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is truly in our hearts.
    ¹³God has given us his Spirit. That is how we know that we are one with him, just as he is one with us. ¹⁴God sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. We saw his Son and are now telling others about him. ¹⁵God stays one with everyone who openly says that Jesus is the Son of God. That's how we stay one with God ¹⁶and are sure that God loves us.
   God is love. If we keep on loving others, we will stay one in our hearts with God, and he will stay one with us. ¹⁷If we truly love others and live as Christ did in this world, we won't be worried about the day of judgment. ¹⁸A real love for others will chase those worries away. The thought of being punished is what makes us afraid. It shows that we have not really learned to love.
    ¹⁹We love because God loved us first. ²⁰But if we say we love God and don't love each other, we are liars. We cannot see God. So how can we love God, if we don't love the people we can see? ²¹The commandment that God has given us is: "Love God and love each other!"
   

Footnotes:

1. 1 John 4:4 God's Spirit: The Greek text has "he" and may refer to the Spirit or to God or to Jesus.

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Psalm 123:1-4 (Contemporary English Version)

Psalm 123

(A song for worship.)

A Prayer for Mercy

 ¹Our LORD and our God,    I turn my eyes to you,
   on your throne in heaven.
    ²Servants look to their master,
   but we will look to you,
   until you have mercy on us.
    ³Please have mercy, LORD!
   We have been insulted
   more than we can stand,
    ⁴and we can't take more abuse
   from those proud,
   conceited people.

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Proverbs 29:2-4 (Contemporary English Version)

²When justice rules a nation,
   everyone is glad;
   when injustice rules,
   everyone groans.
    ³If you love wisdom
   your parents will be glad,
   but chasing after bad women
   will cost you everything.
    ⁴An honest ruler
   makes the nation strong;
   a ruler who takes bribes
   will bring it to ruin.

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Verse of the Day

“[Jesus Is the Light for the World]Once again Jesus spoke to the people. This time he said, "I am the light for the world! Follow me, and you won't be walking in the dark. You will have the light that gives life.” - John 8:12

Today's passage is from the Contemporary English Version.

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Thought for the Day

American fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery fiction author, Ray Bradbury wrote, “Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.”

Bible Readings for August 22, 2014

Today our passages are Job 4:1–7:21; 1 Corinthians 14:18-40; Psalm 37:30-40; and Proverbs 21:27. The readings are from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson. If you missed a day, you can find all the readings at our blog, The Bible in a Year.

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Job 4-7:21 (The Message)

Job 4

Eliphaz Speaks Out

Now You're the One in Trouble

 ^1-6Then Eliphaz from Teman spoke up:
"Would you mind if I said something to you? Under the circumstances it's hard to keep quiet.
You yourself have done this plenty of times, spoken words
   that clarify, encouraged those who were about to quit.
Your words have put stumbling people on their feet,
   put fresh hope in people about to collapse.
But now you're the one in trouble—you're hurting!
   You've been hit hard and you're reeling from the blow.
But shouldn't your devout life give you confidence now?
   Shouldn't your exemplary life give you hope?

 ^7-11 "Think! Has a truly innocent person ever ended up on the scrap heap?
   Do genuinely upright people ever lose out in the end?
It's my observation that those who plow evil
   and sow trouble reap evil and trouble.
One breath from God and they fall apart,
   one blast of his anger and there's nothing left of them.
The mighty lion, king of the beasts, roars mightily,
   but when he's toothless he's useless—
No teeth, no prey—and the cubs
   wander off to fend for themselves.

 ^12-16 "A word came to me in secret—
   a mere whisper of a word, but I heard it clearly.
It came in a scary dream one night,
   after I had fallen into a deep, deep sleep.
Dread stared me in the face, and Terror.
   I was scared to death—I shook from head to foot.
A spirit glided right in front of me—
   the hair on my head stood on end.
I couldn't tell what it was that appeared there—
   a blur...and then I heard a muffled voice:

 ^17-21 "'How can mere mortals be more righteous than God?
   How can humans be purer than their Creator?
Why, God doesn't even trust his own servants,
   doesn't even cheer his angels,
So how much less these bodies composed of mud,
   fragile as moths?
These bodies of ours are here today and gone tomorrow,
   and no one even notices—gone without a trace.
When the tent stakes are ripped up, the tent collapses—
   we die and are never the wiser for having lived.'"

Job 5

Don't Blame Fate When Things Go Wrong

 ^1-7 "Call for help, Job, if you think anyone will answer! To which of the holy angels will you turn?
The hot temper of a fool eventually kills him,
   the jealous anger of a simpleton does her in.
I've seen it myself—seen fools putting down roots,
   and then, suddenly, their houses are cursed.
Their children out in the cold, abused and exploited,
   with no one to stick up for them.
Hungry people off the street plunder their harvests,
   cleaning them out completely, taking thorns and all,
   insatiable for everything they have.
Don't blame fate when things go wrong—
   trouble doesn't come from nowhere.
It's human! Mortals are born and bred for trouble,
   as certainly as sparks fly upward.

What a Blessing When God Corrects You!

 ^8-16 "If I were in your shoes, I'd go straight to God,
   I'd throw myself on the mercy of God.
After all, he's famous for great and unexpected acts;
   there's no end to his surprises.
He gives rain, for instance, across the wide earth,
   sends water to irrigate the fields.
He raises up the down-and-out,
   gives firm footing to those sinking in grief.
He aborts the schemes of conniving crooks,
   so that none of their plots come to term.
He catches the know-it-alls in their conspiracies—
   all that intricate intrigue swept out with the trash!
Suddenly they're disoriented, plunged into darkness;
   they can't see to put one foot in front of the other.
But the downtrodden are saved by God,
   saved from the murderous plots, saved from the iron fist.
And so the poor continue to hope,
   while injustice is bound and gagged.

 ^17-19 "So, what a blessing when God steps in and corrects you!
   Mind you, don't despise the discipline of Almighty God!
True, he wounds, but he also dresses the wound;
   the same hand that hurts you, heals you.
From one disaster after another he delivers you;
   no matter what the calamity, the evil can't touch you—

 ^20-26 "In famine, he'll keep you from starving,
   in war, from being gutted by the sword.
You'll be protected from vicious gossip
   and live fearless through any catastrophe.
You'll shrug off disaster and famine,
   and stroll fearlessly among wild animals.
You'll be on good terms with rocks and mountains;
   wild animals will become your good friends.
You'll know that your place on earth is safe,
   you'll look over your goods and find nothing amiss.
You'll see your children grow up,
   your family lovely and lissome as orchard grass.
You'll arrive at your grave ripe with many good years,
   like sheaves of golden grain at harvest.

 ²⁷ "Yes, this is the way things are—my word of honor!
   Take it to heart and you won't go wrong."

Job 6

Job Replies to Eliphaz

God Has Dumped the Works on Me

 ^1-7 Job answered:    "If my misery could be weighed,
   if you could pile the whole bitter load on the scales,
It would be heavier than all the sand of the sea!
   Is it any wonder that I'm screaming like a caged cat?
The arrows of God Almighty are in me,
   poison arrows—and I'm poisoned all through!
   God has dumped the whole works on me.
Donkeys bray and cows moo when they run out of pasture—
   so don't expect me to keep quiet in this.
Do you see what God has dished out for me?
   It's enough to turn anyone's stomach!
Everything in me is repulsed by it—
   it makes me sick.

Pressed Past the Limits

 ^8-13 "All I want is an answer to one prayer,
   a last request to be honored:
Let God step on me—squash me like a bug,
   and be done with me for good.
I'd at least have the satisfaction
   of not having blasphemed the Holy God,
   before being pressed past the limits.
Where's the strength to keep my hopes up?
   What future do I have to keep me going?
Do you think I have nerves of steel?
   Do you think I'm made of iron?
Do you think I can pull myself up by my bootstraps?
   Why, I don't even have any boots!

My So-Called Friends

 ^14-23 "When desperate people give up on God Almighty,
   their friends, at least, should stick with them.
But my brothers are fickle as a gulch in the desert—
   one day they're gushing with water
From melting ice and snow
   cascading out of the mountains,
But by midsummer they're dry,
   gullies baked dry in the sun.
Travelers who spot them and go out of their way for a drink
   end up in a waterless gulch and die of thirst.
Merchant caravans from Tema see them and expect water,
   tourists from Sheba hope for a cool drink.
They arrive so confident—but what a disappointment!
   They get there, and their faces fall!
And you, my so-called friends, are no better—
      there's nothing to you!
   One look at a hard scene and you shrink in fear.
It's not as though I asked you for anything—
   I didn't ask you for one red cent—
Nor did I beg you to go out on a limb for me.
   So why all this dodging and shuffling?
^24-27 "Confront me with the truth and I'll shut up,
   show me where I've gone off the track.
Honest words never hurt anyone,
   but what's the point of all this pious bluster?
You pretend to tell me what's wrong with my life,
   but treat my words of anguish as so much hot air.
Are people mere things to you?
   Are friends just items of profit and loss?
^28-30 "Look me in the eyes!
   Do you think I'd lie to your face?
Think it over—no double-talk!
   Think carefully—my integrity is on the line!
Can you detect anything false in what I say?
   Don't you trust me to discern good from evil?"

Job 7

There's Nothing to My Life

 ^1-6 "Human life is a struggle, isn't it? It's a life sentence to hard labor.
Like field hands longing for quitting time
   and working stiffs with nothing to hope for but payday,
I'm given a life that meanders and goes nowhere—
   months of aimlessness, nights of misery!
I go to bed and think, 'How long till I can get up?'
   I toss and turn as the night drags on—and I'm fed up!
I'm covered with maggots and scabs.
   My skin gets scaly and hard, then oozes with pus.
My days come and go swifter than the click of knitting needles,
   and then the yarn runs out—an unfinished life!

 ^7-10 "God, don't forget that I'm only a puff of air!
   These eyes have had their last look at goodness.
And your eyes have seen the last of me;
   even while you're looking, there'll be nothing left to look at.
When a cloud evaporates, it's gone for good;
   those who go to the grave never come back.
They don't return to visit their families;
   never again will friends drop in for coffee.

 ^11-16 "And so I'm not keeping one bit of this quiet,
   I'm laying it all out on the table;
   my complaining to high heaven is bitter, but honest.
Are you going to put a muzzle on me,
   the way you quiet the sea and still the storm?
If I say, 'I'm going to bed, then I'll feel better.
   A little nap will lift my spirits,'
You come and so scare me with nightmares
   and frighten me with ghosts
That I'd rather strangle in the bedclothes
   than face this kind of life any longer.
I hate this life! Who needs any more of this?
   Let me alone! There's nothing to my life—it's nothing
      but smoke.

 ^17-21 "What are mortals anyway, that you bother with them,
   that you even give them the time of day?
That you check up on them every morning,
   looking in on them to see how they're doing?
Let up on me, will you?
   Can't you even let me spit in peace?
Even suppose I'd sinned—how would that hurt you?
   You're responsible for every human being.
Don't you have better things to do than pick on me?
   Why make a federal case out of me?
Why don't you just forgive my sins
   and start me off with a clean slate?
The way things are going, I'll soon be dead.
   You'll look high and low, but I won't be around."

 

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1 Corinthians 14:18-40 (The Message)

 ^18-19I'm grateful to God for the gift of praying in tongues that he gives us for praising him, which leads to wonderful intimacies we enjoy with him. I enter into this as much or more than any of you. But when I'm in a church assembled for worship, I'd rather say five words that everyone can understand and learn from than say ten thousand that sound to others like gibberish.
 ^20-25To be perfectly frank, I'm getting exasperated with your infantile thinking. How long before you grow up and use your head—your adult head? It's all right to have a childlike unfamiliarity with evil; a simple no is all that's needed there. But there's far more to saying yes to something. Only mature and well-exercised intelligence can save you from falling into gullibility. It's written in Scripture that God said,

   In strange tongues
      and from the mouths of strangers
   I will preach to this people,
      but they'll neither listen nor believe.
So where does it get you, all this speaking in tongues no one understands? It doesn't help believers, and it only gives unbelievers something to gawk at. Plain truth-speaking, on the other hand, goes straight to the heart of believers and doesn't get in the way of unbelievers. If you come together as a congregation and some unbelieving outsiders walk in on you as you're all praying in tongues, unintelligible to each other and to them, won't they assume you've taken leave of your senses and get out of there as fast as they can? But if some unbelieving outsiders walk in on a service where people are speaking out God's truth, the plain words will bring them up against the truth and probe their hearts. Before you know it, they're going to be on their faces before God, recognizing that God is among you.
 ^26-33So here's what I want you to do. When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight. If prayers are offered in tongues, two or three's the limit, and then only if someone is present who can interpret what you're saying. Otherwise, keep it between God and yourself. And no more than two or three speakers at a meeting, with the rest of you listening and taking it to heart. Take your turn, no one person taking over. Then each speaker gets a chance to say something special from God, and you all learn from each other. If you choose to speak, you're also responsible for how and when you speak. When we worship the right way, God doesn't stir us up into confusion; he brings us into harmony. This goes for all the churches—no exceptions.
 ^34-36Wives must not disrupt worship, talking when they should be listening, asking questions that could more appropriately be asked of their husbands at home. God's Book of the law guides our manners and customs here. Wives have no license to use the time of worship for unwarranted speaking. Do you—both women and men—imagine that you're a sacred oracle determining what's right and wrong? Do you think everything revolves around you?
 ^37-38If any one of you thinks God has something for you to say or has inspired you to do something, pay close attention to what I have written. This is the way the Master wants it. If you won't play by these rules, God can't use you. Sorry.
 ^39-40Three things, then, to sum this up: When you speak forth God's truth, speak your heart out. Don't tell people how they should or shouldn't pray when they're praying in tongues that you don't understand. Be courteous and considerate in everything.

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Psalm 37:30-40 (The Message)

 ^30-31 Righteous chews on wisdom like a dog on a bone,
      rolls virtue around on his tongue.
   His heart pumps God's Word like blood through his veins;
      his feet are as sure as a cat's.

 ^32-33 Wicked sets a watch for Righteous,
      he's out for the kill.
   God, alert, is also on watch—
      Wicked won't hurt a hair of his head.

 ³⁴ Wait passionately for God,
      don't leave the path.
   He'll give you your place in the sun
      while you watch the wicked lose it.

 ^35-36 I saw Wicked bloated like a toad,
      croaking pretentious nonsense.
   The next time I looked there was nothing—
      a punctured bladder, vapid and limp.

 ^37-38 Keep your eye on the healthy soul,
      scrutinize the straight life;
   There's a future
      in strenuous wholeness.
   But the willful will soon be discarded;
      insolent souls are on a dead-end street.

 ^39-40 The spacious, free life is from God,
      it's also protected and safe.
   God-strengthened, we're delivered from evil—
      when we run to him, he saves us.

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Proverbs 21:27 (The Message)

 ²⁷ Religious performance by the wicked stinks;
   it's even worse when they use it to get ahead.

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Verse of the Day

“God did not keep back his own Son, but he gave him for us. If God did this, won't he freely give us everything else?” - Romans 8:32

Today's passage is from the Contemporary English Version.

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Thought for the Day

 

American fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery fiction writer, Ray Bradbury wrote, “At the center of religion is love. I love you and I forgive you. I am like you and you are like me. I love all people. I love the world. I love creating. Everything in our life should be based on love.”