Daily Bible CEV June 02 Scroll

Living by the Power of God's Spirit

Romans 8 If 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 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.

⁹You are no longer ruled by your desires, but by God's Spirit, who lives in you. People who don't have the Spirit of Christ in them don't belong to him. ¹⁰But Christ lives in you. So you are alive because God has accepted you, even though your bodies must die because of your sins. ¹¹Yet God raised Jesus to life! God's Spirit now lives in you, and he will raise you to life by his Spirit.

¹²My dear friends, we must not live to satisfy our desires. ¹³If you do, you will die. But you will live, if by the help of God's Spirit you say "No" to your desires. ¹⁴Only those people who are led by God's Spirit are his children. ¹⁵God's Spirit doesn't make us slaves who are afraid of him. Instead, we become his children and call him our Father. ¹⁶God's Spirit makes us sure that we are his children. ¹⁷His Spirit lets us know that together with Christ we will be given what God has promised. We will also share in the glory of Christ, because we have suffered with him.

A Wonderful Future for God's People

¹⁸I am sure that what we are suffering now cannot compare with the glory that will be shown to us. ¹⁹In fact, all creation is eagerly waiting for God to show who his children are. ²⁰Meanwhile, creation is confused, but not because it wants to be confused. God made it this way in the hope ²¹that creation would be set free from decay and would share in the glorious freedom of his children. ²²We know that all creation is still groaning and is in pain, like a woman about to give birth.

²³The Spirit makes us sure about what we will be in the future. But now we groan silently, while we wait for God to show that we are his children. This means that our bodies will also be set free. ²⁴And this hope is what saves us. But if we already have what we hope for, there is no need to keep on hoping. ²⁵However, we hope for something we have not yet seen, and we patiently wait for it.

²⁶In certain ways we are weak, but the Spirit is here to help us. For example, when we don't know what to pray for, the Spirit prays for us in ways that cannot be put into words. ²⁷All of our thoughts are known to God. He can understand what is in the mind of the Spirit, as the Spirit prays for God's people. ²⁸We know that God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves him. They are the ones God has chosen for his purpose, ²⁹and he has always known who his chosen ones would be. He had decided to let them become like his own Son, so that his Son would be the first of many children. ³⁰God then accepted the people he had already decided to choose, and he has shared his glory with them.

God's Love

³¹What can we say about all this? If God is on our side, can anyone be against us? ³²God 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? ³³If God says his chosen ones are acceptable to him, can anyone bring charges against them? ³⁴Or can anyone condemn them? No indeed! Christ died and was raised to life, and now he is at God's right side, speaking to him for us. ³⁵Can anything separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble, suffering, and hard times, or hunger and nakedness, or danger and death? ³⁶It is exactly as the Scriptures say,

"For you we face death all day long.

We are like sheep on their way to be butchered."
³⁷In everything we have won more than a victory because of Christ who loves us. ³⁸I am sure that nothing can separate us from God's love--not life or death, not angels or spirits, not the present or the future, ³⁹and not powers above or powers below. Nothing in all creation can separate us from God's love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Goliath Challenges Israel's Army

1 Samuel 17 The Philistines got ready for war and brought their troops together to attack the town of Socoh in Judah. They set up camp at Ephes-Dammim, between Socoh and Azekah. ^2-3King Saul and the Israelite army set up camp on a hill overlooking Elah Valley, and they got ready to fight the Philistine army that was on a hill on the other side of the valley.

⁴The Philistine army had a hero named Goliath who was from the town of Gath and was over nine feet tall. ^5-6He wore a bronze helmet and had bronze armor to protect his chest and legs. The chest armor alone weighed about one hundred twenty-five pounds. He carried a bronze sword strapped on his back, ⁷and his spear was so big that the iron spearhead alone weighed more than fifteen pounds. A soldier always walked in front of Goliath to carry his shield.

⁸Goliath went out and shouted to the army of Israel:

Why are you lining up for battle? I'm the best soldier in our army, and all of you are in Saul's army. Choose your best soldier to come out and fight me! ⁹If he can kill me, our people will be your slaves. But if I kill him, your people will be our slaves. ¹⁰Here and now I challenge Israel's whole army! Choose someone to fight me!

¹¹Saul and his men heard what Goliath said, but they were so frightened of Goliath that they couldn't do a thing.

David Meets King Saul

¹²David's father Jesse was an old man, who belonged to the Ephrath clan and lived in Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons: ^13-14the oldest was Eliab, the next was Abinadab, and Shammah was the third. The three of them had gone off to fight in Saul's army.

David was Jesse's youngest son. ¹⁵He took care of his father's sheep, and he went back and forth between Bethlehem and Saul's camp.

¹⁶Goliath came out and gave his challenge every morning and every evening for forty days.

¹⁷One day, Jesse told David, "Hurry and take this sack of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread to your brothers at the army camp. ¹⁸And here are ten large chunks of cheese to take to their commanding officer. Find out how your brothers are doing and bring back something that shows that they're all right. ¹⁹They're with Saul's army, fighting the Philistines in Elah Valley."

²⁰David obeyed his father. He got up early the next morning and left someone else in charge of the sheep; then he loaded the supplies and started off. He reached the army camp just as the soldiers were taking their places and shouting the battle cry. ²¹The army of Israel and the Philistine army stood there facing each other.

²²David left his things with the man in charge of supplies and ran up to the battle line to ask his brothers if they were well. ²³While David was talking with them, Goliath came out from the line of Philistines and started boasting as usual. David heard him.

²⁴When the Israelite soldiers saw Goliath, they were scared and ran off. ²⁵They said to each other, "Look how he keeps coming out to insult us. The king is offering a big reward to the man who kills Goliath. That man will even get to marry the king's daughter, and no one in his family will ever have to pay taxes again."

²⁶David asked some soldiers standing nearby, "What will a man get for killing this Philistine and stopping him from insulting our people? Who does that worthless Philistine think he is? He's making fun of the army of the living God!"

²⁷The soldiers told David what the king would give the man who killed Goliath.

²⁸David's oldest brother Eliab heard him talking with the soldiers. Eliab was angry at him and said, "What are you doing here, anyway? Who's taking care of that little flock of sheep out in the desert? You spoiled brat! You came here just to watch the fighting, didn't you?"

²⁹"Now what have I done?" David answered. "Can't I even ask a question?" ³⁰Then he turned and asked another soldier the same thing he had asked the others, and he got the same answer.

³¹Some soldiers overheard David talking, so they told Saul what David had said. Saul sent for David, and David came. ³²"Your Majesty," he said, "this Philistine shouldn't turn us into cowards. I'll go out and fight him myself!"

³³"You don't have a chance against him," Saul replied. "You're only a boy, and he's been a soldier all his life."

³⁴But David told him:

Your Majesty, I take care of my father's sheep. And when one of them is dragged off by a lion or a bear, ³⁵I go after it and beat the wild animal until it lets the sheep go. If the wild animal turns and attacks me, I grab it by the throat and kill it.

³⁶Sir, I have killed lions and bears that way, and I can kill this worthless Philistine. He shouldn't have made fun of the army of the living God! ³⁷The LORD has rescued me from the claws of lions and bears, and he will keep me safe from the hands of this Philistine.

"All right," Saul answered, "go ahead and fight him. And I hope the LORD will help you."

³⁸Saul had his own military clothes and armor put on David, and he gave David a bronze helmet to wear. ³⁹David strapped on a sword and tried to walk around, but he was not used to wearing those things.

"I can't move with all this stuff on," David said. "I'm just not used to it."

David took off the armor ⁴⁰and picked up his shepherd's stick. He went out to a stream and picked up five smooth rocks and put them in his leather bag. Then with his sling in his hand, he went straight toward Goliath.

David Kills Goliath

⁴¹Goliath came toward David, walking behind the soldier who was carrying his shield. ⁴²When Goliath saw that David was just a healthy, good-looking boy, he made fun of him. ⁴³"Do you think I'm a dog?" Goliath asked. "Is that why you've come after me with a stick?" He cursed David in the name of the Philistine gods ⁴⁴and shouted, "Come on! When I'm finished with you, I'll feed you to the birds and wild animals!"

⁴⁵David answered:

You've come out to fight me with a sword and a spear and a dagger. But I've come out to fight you in the name of the LORD All-Powerful. He is the God of Israel's army, and you have insulted him too!

⁴⁶Today the LORD will help me defeat you. I'll knock you down and cut off your head, and I'll feed the bodies of the other Philistine soldiers to the birds and wild animals. Then the whole world will know that Israel has a real God. ⁴⁷Everybody here will see that the LORD doesn't need swords or spears to save his people. The LORD always wins his battles, and he will help us defeat you.

⁴⁸When Goliath started forward, David ran toward him. ⁴⁹He put a rock in his sling and swung the sling around by its straps. When he let go of one strap, the rock flew out and hit Goliath on the forehead. It cracked his skull, and he fell facedown on the ground. ⁵⁰David defeated Goliath with a sling and a rock. He killed him without even using a sword.

⁵¹David ran over and pulled out Goliath's sword. Then he used it to cut off Goliath's head.

When the Philistines saw what had happened to their hero, they started running away. ⁵²But the soldiers of Israel and Judah let out a battle cry and went after them as far as Gath and Ekron. The bodies of the Philistines were scattered all along the road from Shaaraim to Gath and Ekron.

⁵³When the Israelite army returned from chasing the Philistines, they took what they wanted from the enemy camp. ⁵⁴David took Goliath's head to Jerusalem, but he kept Goliath's weapons in his own tent.

Psalm 62
[A psalm by David for Jeduthun, the music leader.]
God Is Powerful and Kind

¹Only God can save me, and I calmly wait for him.

²God alone is the mighty rock that keeps me safe

and the fortress where I am secure.

³I feel like a shaky fence or a sagging wall.

How long will all of you attack and assault me?

⁴You want to bring me down from my place of honor.

You love to tell lies, and when your words are kind,

hatred hides in your heart.

⁵Only God gives inward peace, and I depend on him.

⁶God alone is the mighty rock that keeps me safe,

and he is the fortress where I feel secure.

⁷God saves me and honors me.

He is that mighty rock where I find safety.

⁸Trust God, my friends,

and always tell him each one of your concerns.

God is our place of safety.

⁹We humans are only a breath;

none of us are truly great.

All of us together weigh less than a puff of air.

¹⁰Don't trust in violence or depend on dishonesty

or rely on great wealth.

¹¹I heard God say two things:

"I am powerful, ¹²and I am very kind."

The Lord rewards each of us according to what we do.

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.