Daily Bible CEV November 14 Scroll

Warning against Having Favorites

James 2 My friends, if you have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, you won't treat some people better than others. ²Suppose a rich person wearing fancy clothes and a gold ring comes to one of your meetings. And suppose a poor person dressed in worn-out clothes also comes. ³You must not give the best seat to the one in fancy clothes and tell the one who is poor to stand at the side or sit on the floor. ⁴That is the same as saying that some people are better than others, and you would be acting like a crooked judge.

⁵My dear friends, pay attention. God has given a lot of faith to the poor people in this world. He has also promised them a share in his kingdom that he will give to everyone who loves him. ⁶You mistreat the poor. But isn't it the rich who boss you around and drag you off to court? ⁷Aren't they the ones who make fun of your Lord?

⁸You will do all right, if you obey the most important law in the Scriptures. It is the law that commands us to love others as much as we love ourselves. ⁹But if you treat some people better than others, you have done wrong, and the Scriptures teach that you have sinned.

¹⁰If you obey every law except one, you are still guilty of breaking them all. ¹¹The same God who told us to be faithful in marriage also told us not to murder. So even if you are faithful in marriage, but murder someone, you still have broken God's Law.

¹²Speak and act like people who will be judged by the law that sets us free. ¹³Do this, because on the day of judgment there will be no pity for those who have not had pity on others. But even in judgment, God is merciful!

Faith and Works

¹⁴My friends, what good is it to say you have faith, when you don't do anything to show that you really do have faith? Can that kind of faith save you? ¹⁵If you know someone who doesn't have any clothes or food, ¹⁶you shouldn't just say, "I hope all goes well for you. I hope you will be warm and have plenty to eat." What good is it to say this, unless you do something to help? ¹⁷Faith that doesn't lead us to do good deeds is all alone and dead!

¹⁸Suppose someone disagrees and says, "It is possible to have faith without doing kind deeds."

I would answer, "Prove that you have faith without doing kind deeds, and I will prove that I have faith by doing them." ¹⁹You surely believe there is only one God. That's fine. Even demons believe this, and it makes them shake with fear.

²⁰Does some stupid person want proof that faith without deeds is useless? ²¹Well, our ancestor Abraham pleased God by putting his son Isaac on the altar to sacrifice him. ²²Now you see how Abraham's faith and deeds worked together. He proved that his faith was real by what he did. ²³This is what the Scriptures mean by saying, "Abraham had faith in God, and God was pleased with him." That's how Abraham became God's friend.

²⁴You can now see that we please God by what we do and not only by what we believe. ²⁵For example, Rahab had been a prostitute. But she pleased God when she welcomed the spies and sent them home by another way.

²⁶Anyone who doesn't breathe is dead, and faith that doesn't do anything is just as dead!

A Message of Hope

The LORD said:
Jeremiah 23 You leaders of my people are like shepherds that kill and scatter the sheep. ²You were supposed to take care of my people, but instead you chased them away. So now I'll really take care of you, and believe me, you will pay for your crimes!

³I will bring the rest of my people home from the lands where I have scattered them, and they will grow into a mighty nation. ⁴I promise to choose leaders who will care for them like real shepherds. All of my people will be there, and they will never again be frightened.

⁵Someday I will appoint an honest king

from the family of David,

a king who will be wise and rule with justice.

⁶As long as he is king, Israel will have peace,

and Judah will be safe.

The name of this king will be "The LORD Gives Justice."

⁷A time will come when you will again worship me. But you will no longer call me the Living God who rescued Israel from Egypt. ⁸Instead, you will call me the Living God who rescued you from the land in the north and from all the other countries where I had forced you to go. And you will once again live in your own land.

Jeremiah Thinks about Unfaithful Prophets

⁹When I think of the prophets, I am shocked,

and I tremble like someone drunk,

because of the LORD and his sacred words.

¹⁰Those unfaithful prophets misuse their power

all over the country.

So God turned the pasturelands into scorching deserts.

The LORD Will Punish Unfaithful Prophets

¹¹The LORD told me to say:

You prophets and priests think so little of me, the LORD,

that you even sin in my own temple!

¹²Now I will punish you with disaster,

and you will slip and fall in the darkness.

I, the LORD, have spoken.

¹³The prophets in Samaria were disgusting to me,

because they preached in the name of Baal

and led my people astray.

¹⁴And you prophets in Jerusalem are even worse.

You're unfaithful in marriage and never tell the truth.

You even lead others to sin

instead of helping them turn back to me.

You and the people of Jerusalem are evil

like Sodom and Gomorrah.

¹⁵You prophets in Jerusalem have spread evil everywhere.

That's why I, the LORD, promise to give you bitter poison

to eat and drink.

The LORD Gives a Warning

The LORD said:

¹⁶Don't listen to the lies of these false prophets,

you people of Judah!

The message they preach is something they imagined;

it did not come from me, the LORD All-Powerful.

¹⁷These prophets go to people who refuse to respect me

and who are stubborn and do whatever they want.

The prophets tell them, "The LORD has promised

everything will be fine."

¹⁸But I, the LORD, tell you that these prophets

have never attended a meeting of my council in heaven

or heard me speak.

¹⁹They are evil! So in my anger I will strike them

like a violent storm.

²⁰I won't calm down, until I have finished

what I have decided to do.

Someday you will understand exactly what I mean.

²¹I did not send these prophets or speak to them,

but they ran to find you and to preach their message.

²²If they had been in a meeting of my council in heaven,

they would have told you people of Judah

to give up your sins and come back to me.

²³I am everywhere-- both near and far,

²⁴

in heaven and on earth.

There are no secret places where you can hide from me.

²⁵These unfaithful prophets claim that I have given them a dream or a vision, and then they tell lies in my name. ²⁶But everything they say comes from their own twisted minds. How long can this go on? ²⁷They tell each other their dreams and try to get my people to reject me, just as their ancestors left me and worshiped Baal. ²⁸Their dreams and my truth are as different as straw and wheat. But when prophets speak for me, they must say only what I have told them. ²⁹My words are a powerful fire; they are a hammer that shatters rocks.

^30-32These unfaithful prophets claim I give them their dreams, but it isn't true. I didn't choose them to be my prophets, and yet they babble on and on, speaking in my name, while stealing words from each other. And when my people hear these liars, they are led astray instead of being helped. So I warn you that I am now the enemy of these prophets. I, the LORD, have spoken.

News and Nuisance

The LORD said to me:

³³Jeremiah, when a prophet or a priest or anyone else comes to you and asks, "Does the LORD have news for us?" tell them, "You people are a nuisance to the LORD, and he will get rid of you."

³⁴If any of you say, "Here is news from the LORD," I will punish you and your families, even if you are a prophet or a priest. ³⁵Instead, you must ask your friends and relatives, "What answer did the LORD give?" or "What has the LORD said?" ³⁶It seems that you each have your own news! So if you say, "Here is news from the LORD," you are twisting my words into a lie. Remember that I am your God, the LORD All-Powerful.

³⁷If you go to a prophet, it's all right to ask, "What answer did the LORD give to my question?" or "What has the LORD said?" ³⁸But if you disobey me and say, "Here is news from the LORD," ³⁹I will pick you up and throw you far away. And I will abandon this city of Jerusalem that I gave to your ancestors. ⁴⁰You will never be free from your shame and disgrace.

Jeremiah Has a Vision of Two Baskets of Figs

Jeremiah 24 The LORD spoke to me in a vision after King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia had come to Judah and taken King Jehoiachin, his officials, and all the skilled workers back to Babylonia. In this vision I saw two baskets of figs in front of the LORD's temple. ²One basket was full of very good figs that ripened early, and the other was full of rotten figs that were not fit to eat.

³"Jeremiah," the LORD asked, "what do you see?"

"Figs," I said. "Some are very good, but the others are too rotten to eat."

⁴Then the LORD told me to say:

⁵People of Judah, the good figs stand for those of you I sent away as exiles to Babylonia, ⁶where I am watching over them. Then someday I will bring them back to this land. I will plant them, instead of uprooting them, and I will build them up, rather than tearing them down. ⁷I will give them a desire to know me and to be my people. They will want me to be their God, and they will turn back to me with all their heart.

⁸The rotten figs stand for King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and all the others who were not taken away to Babylonia, whether they stayed here in Judah or went to live in Egypt. ⁹I will punish them with a terrible disaster, and everyone on earth will tremble when they hear about it. I will force the people of Judah to go to foreign countries, where they will be cursed and insulted. ¹⁰War and hunger and disease will strike them, until they finally disappear from the land that I gave them and their ancestors.

Psalm 130
[A song for worship.]
Trusting the LORD in Times of Trouble

¹From a sea of troubles I call out to you, LORD.

Won't you please listen as I beg for mercy?

³If you kept record of our sins, no one could last long.

⁴

But you forgive us, and so we will worship you.

⁵With all my heart, I am waiting, LORD, for you!

I trust your promises.

⁶I wait for you more eagerly

than a soldier on guard duty waits for the dawn.

Yes, I wait more eagerly

than a soldier on guard duty waits for the dawn.

⁷Israel, trust the LORD! He is always merciful,

and he has the power to save you.

⁸Israel, the LORD will save you from all of your sins.

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.