Daily Bible CEV January 15 Scroll

Treasures in Heaven
(Matthew 6.19-21)

Luke 12 ³²My little group of disciples, don't be afraid! Your Father wants to give you the kingdom. ³³Sell what you have and give the money to the poor. Make yourselves moneybags that never wear out. Make sure your treasure is safe in heaven, where thieves cannot steal it and moths cannot destroy it. ³⁴Your heart will always be where your treasure is.

Faithful and Unfaithful Servants
(Matthew 24.45-51)

³⁵Be ready and keep your lamps burning ³⁶just like those servants who wait up for their master to return from a wedding feast. As soon as he comes and knocks, they open the door for him. ³⁷Servants are fortunate if their master finds them awake and ready when he comes! I promise you that he will get ready and have his servants sit down so he can serve them. ³⁸Those servants are really fortunate if their master finds them ready, even though he comes late at night or early in the morning.³⁹You would surely not let a thief break into your home, if you knew when the thief was coming. ⁴⁰So always be ready! You don't know when the Son of Man will come.

⁴¹Peter asked Jesus, "Did you say this just for us or for everyone?"

⁴²The Lord answered:

Who are faithful and wise servants? Who are the ones the master will put in charge of giving the other servants their food supplies at the proper time? ⁴³Servants are fortunate if their master comes and finds them doing their job. ⁴⁴A servant who is always faithful will surely be put in charge of everything the master owns.

⁴⁵But suppose one of the servants thinks that the master won't return until late. Suppose that servant starts beating all the other servants and eats and drinks and gets drunk. ⁴⁶If that happens, the master will come on a day and at a time when the servant least expects him. That servant will then be punished and thrown out with the servants who cannot be trusted.

⁴⁷If servants are not ready or willing to do what their master wants them to do, they will be beaten hard. ⁴⁸But servants who don't know what their master wants them to do will not be beaten so hard for doing wrong. If God has been generous with you, he will expect you to serve him well. But if he has been more than generous, he will expect you to serve him even better.

Not Peace, but Trouble
(Matthew 10.34-36)

⁴⁹I came to set fire to the earth, and I wish it were already on fire! ⁵⁰I am going to be put to a hard test. And I will have to suffer a lot of pain until it is over. ⁵¹Do you think that I came to bring peace to earth? No indeed! I came to make people choose sides. ⁵²A family of five will be divided, with two of them against the other three. ⁵³Fathers and sons will turn against one another, and mothers and daughters will do the same. Mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law will also turn against each other.

Knowing What To Do
(Matthew 16.2, 3; 5.25, 26)

⁵⁴Jesus said to all the people:

As soon as you see a cloud coming up in the west, you say, "It's going to rain," and it does. ⁵⁵When the south wind blows, you say, "It's going to get hot," and it does. ⁵⁶Are you trying to fool someone? You can predict the weather by looking at the earth and sky, but you don't really know what's going on right now. ⁵⁷Why don't you understand the right thing to do? ⁵⁸When someone accuses you of something, try to settle things before you are taken to court. If you don't, you will be dragged before the judge. Then the judge will hand you over to the jailer, and you will be locked up. ⁵⁹You won't get out until you have paid the last cent you owe.

The LORD Tells Abraham To Offer Isaac as a Sacrifice

Genesis 22 Some years later God decided to test Abraham, so he spoke to him.

Abraham answered, "Here I am, LORD."

²The LORD said, "Go get Isaac, your only son, the one you dearly love! Take him to the land of Moriah, and I will show you a mountain where you must sacrifice him to me on the fires of an altar." ³So Abraham got up early the next morning and chopped wood for the fire. He put a saddle on his donkey and left with Isaac and two servants for the place where God had told him to go.

⁴Three days later Abraham looked off in the distance and saw the place. ⁵He told his servants, "Stay here with the donkey, while my son and I go over there to worship. We will come back."

⁶Abraham put the wood on Isaac's shoulder, but he carried the hot coals and the knife. As the two of them walked along, ^7-8Isaac said, "Father, we have the coals and the wood, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?"

"My son," Abraham answered, "God will provide the lamb."

The two of them walked on, and ⁹when they reached the place that God had told him about, Abraham built an altar and placed the wood on it. Next, he tied up his son and put him on the wood. ¹⁰He then took the knife and got ready to kill his son. ¹¹But the LORD's angel shouted from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"

"Here I am!" he answered.

¹²"Don't hurt the boy or harm him in any way!" the angel said. "Now I know that you truly obey God, because you were willing to offer him your only son."

¹³Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in the bushes. So he took the ram and sacrificed it in place of his son.

¹⁴Abraham named that place "The LORD Will Provide." And even now people say, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."

¹⁵The LORD's angel called out from heaven a second time:

¹⁶You were willing to offer the LORD your only son, and so he makes you this solemn promise, ¹⁷"I will bless you and give you such a large family, that someday your descendants will be more numerous than the stars in the sky or the grains of sand along the beach. They will defeat their enemies and take over the cities where their enemies live. ¹⁸You have obeyed me, and so you and your descendants will be a blessing to all nations on earth."

¹⁹Abraham and Isaac went back to the servants who had come with him, and they returned to Abraham's home in Beersheba.

The Children of Nahor

^20-23Abraham's brother Nahor had married Milcah, and Abraham was later told that they had eight sons. Uz was their first-born; Buz was next, and then there was Kemuel who became the father of Aram; their other five sons were: Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel, who became the father of Rebekah. ²⁴Nahor also had another wife. Her name was Reumah, and she had four sons: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

Psalm 15
[A psalm by David.]
Who May Worship the LORD?

¹Who may stay in God's temple

or live on the holy mountain of the LORD?

²Only those who obey God and do as they should.

They speak the truth ³and don't spread gossip;

they treat others fairly and don't say cruel things.

⁴They hate worthless people,

but show respect for all who worship the LORD.

And they keep their promises, no matter what the cost.

⁵They lend their money without charging interest,

and they don't take bribes to hurt the innocent.

Those who do these things will always stand firm.

These daily Bible readings from the Contemporary English Version (CEV) are published by BibleNetUSA. The web site and BibleCard® designs are by iCreative. BibleCard® images copyright iCreative. All rights reserved.