Daily Bible CEV November 10 Scroll

Instructions for Different Groups of People

Titus 2 Titus, you must teach only what is correct. ²Tell the older men to have self-control and to be serious and sensible. Their faith, love, and patience must never fail.

³Tell the older women to behave as those who love the Lord should. They must not gossip about others or be slaves of wine. They must teach what is proper, ⁴so the younger women will be loving wives and mothers. ⁵Each of the younger women must be sensible and kind, as well as a good homemaker, who puts her own husband first. Then no one can say insulting things about God's message.

⁶Tell the young men to have self-control in everything.

⁷Always set a good example for others. Be sincere and serious when you teach. ⁸Use clean language that no one can criticize. Do this, and your enemies will be too ashamed to say anything against you.

⁹Tell slaves always to please their owners by obeying them in everything. Slaves must not talk back to their owners ¹⁰or steal from them. They must be completely honest and trustworthy. Then everyone will show great respect for what is taught about God our Savior.

God's Kindness and the New Life

¹¹God has shown us how kind he is by coming to save all people. ¹²He taught us to give up our wicked ways and our worldly desires and to live decent and honest lives in this world. ¹³We are filled with hope, as we wait for the glorious return of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. ¹⁴He gave himself to rescue us from everything that is evil and to make our hearts pure. He wanted us to be his own people and to be eager to do right.

¹⁵Teach these things, as you use your full authority to encourage and correct people. Make sure you earn everyone's respect.

The People of Judah Will Die

Jeremiah 15 The LORD said to me:

Even if Moses and Samuel were here, praying with you, I wouldn't change my mind. So send the people of Judah away. ²And when they ask where they are going, tell them that I, the LORD, have said:

Some of you are going to die of horrible diseases.

Others are going to die in war or from starvation.

The rest will be led away to a foreign country.

³I will punish you in four different ways:

You will be killed in war

and your bodies dragged off by dogs,

your flesh will be eaten by birds,

and your bones will be chewed on by wild animals.

⁴This punishment will happen because of the horrible things

your King Manasseh did.

And you will be disgusting to all nations on earth.

⁵People of Jerusalem, who will feel sorry for you?

Will anyone bother to ask if you are well?

⁶My people, you abandoned me and walked away.

I am tired of showing mercy; that's why I'll destroy you

⁷

by scattering you like straw blown by the wind.

I will punish you with sorrow and death,

because you refuse to change your ways.

⁸There will be more widows in Judah

than grains of sand on a beach.

A surprise attack at noon!

And the mothers in Jerusalem mourn for their children.

⁹A mother is in deep despair and struggles for breath.

Her daylight has turned to darkness--

she has suffered the loss of her seven sons.

I will kill anyone who survives.

I, the LORD, have spoken.

Jeremiah Complains

¹⁰I wish I had never been born!

I'm always in trouble with everyone in Judah.

I never lend or borrow money,

but everyone curses me just the same.

¹¹Then the LORD replied,

"I promise to protect you, and when disaster comes,

even your enemies will beg you for help."

The Enemy Cannot Be Defeated

The LORD told me to say:

¹²People of Judah,

just as you can't break iron mixed with bronze,

you can't defeat the enemies

that will attack from the north.

¹³I will give them everything you own,

because you have sinned everywhere in your country.

¹⁴My anger is a fire that cannot be put out,

so I will make you slaves of your enemies

in a foreign land.

Jeremiah Complains Again

¹⁵You can see how I suffer insult after insult,

all because of you, LORD.

Don't be so patient with my enemies;

take revenge on them before they kill me.

¹⁶When you spoke to me, I was glad to obey,

because I belong to you, the LORD All-Powerful.

¹⁷I don't go to parties and have a good time.

Instead, I keep to myself,

because you have filled me with your anger.

¹⁸I am badly injured and in constant pain.

Are you going to disappoint me,

like a stream that goes dry in the heat of summer?

The LORD Replies

¹⁹Then the LORD told me: Stop talking like a fool!

If you turn back to me and speak my message,

I will let you be my prophet once again.

I hope the people of Judah will accept what you say.

But you can ignore their threats,

^*20because I am making you strong, like a bronze wall.

They are evil and violent, but when they attack,

²¹

I will be there to rescue you.

I, the LORD, have spoken.

Jeremiah Must Live His Message

Jeremiah 16 The LORD said to me:

²Jeremiah, don't get married and have children--Judah is no place to raise a family. ³I'll tell you what's going to happen to children and their parents here. ⁴They will die of horrible diseases and of war and starvation. No one will give them a funeral or bury them, and their bodies will be food for the birds and wild animals. And what's left will lie on the ground like manure.

⁵When someone dies, don't visit the family or show any sorrow. I will no longer love or bless or have any pity on the people of Judah. ⁶Rich and poor alike will die and be left unburied. No one will mourn and show their sorrow by cutting themselves or shaving their heads. ⁷No one will bring food and wine to help comfort those who are mourning the death of their father or mother.

⁸Don't even set foot in a house where there is eating and drinking and celebrating. ⁹Warn the people of Judah that I, the LORD All-Powerful, will put an end to all their parties and wedding celebrations. ¹⁰They will ask, "Why has the LORD our God threatened us with so many disasters? Have we done something wrong or sinned against him?"

¹¹Then tell them I have said:

People of Judah, your ancestors turned away from me; they rejected my laws and teachings and started worshiping other gods. ¹²And you have done even worse! You are stubborn, and instead of obeying me, you do whatever evil comes to your mind. ¹³So I will throw you into a land that you and your ancestors know nothing about, a place where you will have to worship other gods both day and night. And I won't feel the least bit sorry for you.

¹⁴A time will come when you will again worship me. But you will no longer call me the Living God who rescued Israel from Egypt. ¹⁵Instead, you will call me the Living God who rescued you from that country in the north and from the other countries where I had forced you to go.

Someday I will bring you back to this land that I gave your ancestors. ¹⁶But for now, I am sending enemies who will catch you like fish and hunt you down like wild animals in the hills and the caves.

¹⁷I can see everything you are doing, even if you try to hide your sins from me. ¹⁸I will punish you double for your sins, because you have made my own land disgusting. You have filled it with lifeless idols that remind me of dead bodies.

The LORD Gives Strength

I prayed to the LORD:

¹⁹Our LORD, you are the one who gives me strength

and protects me like a fortress when I am in trouble.

People will come to you from distant nations and say,

"Our ancestors worshiped false and useless gods,

²⁰

worthless idols made by human hands."

²¹Then the LORD replied,

"That's why I will teach them about my power,

and they will know that I am the true God."

Psalm 126
[A song for worship.]
Celebrating the Harvest

¹It seemed like a dream when the LORD brought us back

to the city of Zion.

²We celebrated with laughter and joyful songs.

In foreign nations it was said,

"The LORD has worked miracles for his people."

³And so we celebrated

because the LORD had indeed worked miracles for us.

⁴Our LORD, we ask you to bless our people again,

and let us be like streams in the Southern Desert.

⁵We cried as we went out to plant our seeds.

Now let us celebrate as we bring in the crops.

⁶We cried on the way to plant our seeds,

but we will celebrate and shout as we bring in the crops.

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.