Daily Bible CEV April 17 Scroll

Seven Leaders for the Church

Acts 6 A lot of people were now becoming followers of the Lord. But some of the ones who spoke Greek started complaining about the ones who spoke Aramaic. They complained that the Greek-speaking widows were not given their share when the food supplies were handed out each day.

²The twelve apostles called the whole group of followers together and said, "We should not give up preaching God's message in order to serve at tables. ³My friends, choose seven men who are respected and wise and filled with God's Spirit. We will put them in charge of these things. ⁴We can spend our time praying and serving God by preaching."

⁵This suggestion pleased everyone, and they began by choosing Stephen. He had great faith and was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they chose Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and also Nicolaus, who worshiped with the Jewish people in Antioch. ⁶These men were brought to the apostles. Then the apostles prayed and placed their hands on the men to show that they had been chosen to do this work. ⁷God's message spread, and many more people in Jerusalem became followers. Even a large number of priests put their faith in the Lord.

Stephen Is Arrested

⁸God gave Stephen the power to work great miracles and wonders among the people. ⁹But some men from Cyrene and Alexandria were members of a group who called themselves "Free Men." They started arguing with Stephen. Some others from Cilicia and Asia also argued with him. ¹⁰But they were no match for Stephen, who spoke with the great wisdom that the Spirit gave him. ¹¹So they talked some men into saying, "We heard Stephen say terrible things against Moses and God!"

¹²They turned the people and their leaders and the teachers of the Law of Moses against Stephen. Then they all grabbed Stephen and dragged him in front of the council.

¹³Some men agreed to tell lies about Stephen, and they said, "This man keeps on saying terrible things about this holy temple and the Law of Moses. ¹⁴We have heard him claim that Jesus from Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses gave us." ¹⁵Then all the council members stared at Stephen. They saw that his face looked like the face of an angel.

The LORD Will Bless You if You Obey

Moses said to Israel:
Deuteronomy 28 ^1-2Today I am giving you the laws and teachings of the LORD your God. Always obey them, and the LORD will make Israel the most famous and important nation on earth, and he will bless you in many ways.

³The LORD will make your businesses and your farms successful.

⁴You will have many children. You will harvest large crops, and your herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats will produce many young.

⁵You will have plenty of bread to eat.

⁶The LORD will make you successful in your daily work.

⁷The LORD will help you defeat your enemies and make them scatter in all directions.

⁸The LORD your God is giving you the land, and he will make sure you are successful in everything you do. Your harvests will be so large that your storehouses will be full.

⁹If you follow and obey the LORD, he will make you his own special people, just as he promised. ¹⁰Then everyone on earth will know that you belong to the LORD, and they will be afraid of you.

¹¹The LORD will give you a lot of children and make sure that your animals give birth to many young. The LORD promised your ancestors that this land would be yours, and he will make it produce large crops for you.

¹²The LORD will open the storehouses of the skies where he keeps the rain, and he will send rain on your land at just the right times. He will make you successful in everything you do. You will have plenty of money to lend to other nations, but you won't need to borrow any yourself.

¹³Obey the laws and teachings that I'm giving you today, and the LORD your God will make Israel a leader among the nations, and not a follower. Israel will be wealthy and powerful, not poor and weak. ¹⁴But you must not reject any of his laws and teachings or worship other gods.

The LORD Will Put Curses on You if You Disobey
(Leviticus 26.14-46)

Moses said:

¹⁵Israel, today I am giving you the laws and teachings of the LORD your God. And if you don't obey them all, he will put many curses on you.

¹⁶Your businesses and farms will fail.

¹⁷You won't have enough bread to eat.

¹⁸You'll have only a few children, your crops will be small, and your herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats won't produce many young.

¹⁹The LORD will make you fail in everything you do.

²⁰No matter what you try to accomplish, the LORD will confuse you, and you will feel his anger. You won't last long, and you may even meet with disaster, all because you rejected the LORD.

^21-23The LORD will send terrible diseases to attack you, and you will never be well again. You will suffer with burning fever and swelling and pain until you die somewhere in the land that you captured.

The LORD will make the sky overhead seem like a bronze roof that keeps out the rain, and the ground under your feet will become as hard as iron. Your crops will be scorched by the hot east wind or ruined by mildew. ²⁴He will send dust and sandstorms instead of rain, and you will be wiped out.

²⁵The LORD will let you be defeated by your enemies, and you will scatter in all directions. You will be a horrible sight for the other nations to see, ²⁶and no one will disturb the birds and wild animals while they eat your dead bodies.

²⁷The LORD will make you suffer with diseases that will cause oozing sores or crusty itchy patches on your skin or boils like the ones that are common in Egypt. And there will be no cure for you! ²⁸You will become insane and go blind. The LORD will make you so confused, ²⁹that even in bright sunshine you will have to feel your way around like a blind person, who cannot tell day from night. For the rest of your life, people will beat and rob you, and no one will be able to stop them.

³⁰A man will be engaged to a woman, but before they can get married, she will be raped by enemy soldiers. Some of you will build houses, but never get to live in them. If you plant a vineyard, you won't be around long enough to enjoy the first harvest. ³¹Your cattle will be killed while you watch, but you won't get to eat any of the meat. Your donkeys and sheep will be stolen from you, and no one will be around to force your enemies to give them back. ³²Your sons and daughters will be dragged off to a foreign country, while you stand there helpless. And even if you watch for them until you go blind, you will never see them again.

³³You will work hard on your farms, but everything you harvest will be eaten by foreigners, who will mistreat you and abuse you for the rest of your life.

³⁴What you see will be so horrible that you will go insane, ³⁵and the LORD will punish you from head to toe with boils that never heal.

³⁶The LORD will let you and your king be taken captive to a country that you and your ancestors have never even heard of, and there you will have to worship idols made of wood and stone. ³⁷People of nearby countries will shudder when they see your terrible troubles, but they will still make fun of you.

³⁸You will plant a lot of seed, but gather a small harvest, because locusts will eat your crops. ³⁹You will plant vineyards and work hard at taking care of them, but you won't gather any grapes, much less get any wine, and the vines themselves will be eaten by worms. ⁴⁰Even if your olive trees grow everywhere in your country, the olives will fall off before they are ready, and there won't be enough olive oil for combing your hair.

⁴¹Even your infant sons and daughters will be taken as prisoners of war.

⁴²Locusts will eat your crops and strip your trees of leaves and fruit.

⁴³Foreigners in your towns will become wealthy and powerful, while you become poor and powerless. ⁴⁴You will be so short of money that you will have to borrow from those foreigners. They will be the leaders in the community, and you will be the followers.

More Curses for Disobedience

Moses said:

⁴⁵Israel, if you don't obey the laws and teachings that the LORD your God is giving you, he will send these curses to chase, attack, and destroy you. ⁴⁶Then everyone will look at you and your descendants and realize that the LORD has placed you under a curse.

⁴⁷If the LORD makes you wealthy, but you don't joyfully worship and honor him, ⁴⁸he will send enemies to attack you and make you their slaves. Then you will live in poverty with nothing to eat, drink, or wear, and your owners will work you to death.

⁴⁹Foreigners who speak a strange language will be sent to attack you without warning, just like an eagle swooping down. ⁵⁰They won't show any mercy, and they will have no respect for old people or pity for children. ⁵¹They will take your cattle, sheep, goats, grain, wine, and olive oil, then leave you to starve.

⁵²All over the land that the LORD your God gave you, the enemy army will surround your towns. You may feel safe inside your town walls, but the enemy will tear them down, ⁵³while you wait in horror. Finally, you will get so hungry that you will eat the sons and daughters that the LORD gave you. ^54-55Because of hunger, a man who had been gentle and kind will eat his own children and refuse to share the meal with his brother or wife or with his other children. ^56-57A woman may have grown up in such luxury that she never had to put a foot on the ground. But times will be so bad that she will secretly eat both her newborn baby and the afterbirth, without sharing any with her husband or her other children.

Disobedience Brings Destruction

Moses said to Israel:

⁵⁸You must obey everything in The Book of God's Law. Because if you don't respect the LORD, ⁵⁹he will punish you and your descendants with incurable diseases, ⁶⁰like those you were so afraid of in Egypt. ⁶¹Remember! If the LORD decides to destroy your nation, he can use any disease or disaster, not just the ones written in The Book of God's Law.

⁶²There are as many of you now as the stars in the sky, but if you disobey the LORD your God, only a few of you will be left. ⁶³The LORD is happy to make you successful and to help your nation grow while you conquer the land. But if you disobey him, he will be just as happy to pull you up by your roots.

⁶⁴Those of you that survive will be scattered to every nation on earth, and you will have to worship stone and wood idols that never helped you or your ancestors. ⁶⁵You will be restless--always longing for home, but never able to return. ⁶⁶You will live in constant fear of death. ⁶⁷Each morning you will wake up to such terrible sights that you will say, "I wish it were night!" But at night you will be terrified and say, "I wish it were day!"

⁶⁸I told you never to go back to Egypt. But now the LORD himself will load you on ships and send you back. Then you will even try to sell yourselves as slaves, but no one will be interested.

Job Complains to God

My Hopes Have Died

Job 17 My hopes have died, my time is up,

and the grave is ready.

²All I can see are angry crowds, making fun of me.

³If you, LORD, don't help,

who will pay the price for my release?

⁴My friends won't really listen, all because of you,

and so you must be the one to prove them wrong.

⁵They have condemned me, just to benefit themselves;

now blind their children.

⁶You, God, are the reason I am insulted and spit on.

⁷I am almost blind with grief;

my body is a mere shadow.

⁸People who are truly good would feel so alarmed,

that they would become angry at my worthless friends.

⁹They would do the right thing and because they did,

they would grow stronger.

¹⁰But none of my friends show any sense.

¹¹My life is drawing to an end; hope has disappeared.

¹²

But all my friends can do is offer empty hopes.

¹³I could tell the world below to prepare me a bed.

¹⁴Then I could greet the grave as my father

and say to the worms, "Hello, mother and sisters!"

¹⁵But what kind of hope is that?

¹⁶

Will it keep me company in the world of the dead?

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.