Daily Bible GNT January 14 Scroll

A Warning against Hypocrisy
(Matthew 10.26, 27)

Luke 12 As thousands of people crowded together, so that they were stepping on each other, Jesus said first to his disciples, "Be on guard against the yeast of the Pharisees--I mean their hypocrisy. ²Whatever is covered up will be uncovered, and every secret will be made known. ³So then, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in broad daylight, and whatever you have whispered in private in a closed room will be shouted from the housetops.

Whom to Fear
(Matthew 10.28-31)

⁴"I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot afterward do anything worse. ⁵I will show you whom to fear: fear God, who, after killing, has the authority to throw into hell. Believe me, he is the one you must fear!

⁶"Aren't five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one sparrow is forgotten by God. ⁷Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth much more than many sparrows!

Confessing and Rejecting Christ
(Matthew 10.32, 33; 12.32; 10.19, 20)

⁸"I assure you that those who declare publicly that they belong to me, the Son of Man will do the same for them before the angels of God. ⁹But those who reject me publicly, the Son of Man will also reject them before the angels of God.

¹⁰"Whoever says a word against the Son of Man can be forgiven; but whoever says evil things against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

¹¹"When they bring you to be tried in the synagogues or before governors or rulers, do not be worried about how you will defend yourself or what you will say. ¹²For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say."

The Parable of the Rich Fool

¹³A man in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide with me the property our father left us."

¹⁴Jesus answered him, "Friend, who gave me the right to judge or to divide the property between you two?" ¹⁵And he went on to say to them all, "Watch out and guard yourselves from every kind of greed; because your true life is not made up of the things you own, no matter how rich you may be."

¹⁶Then Jesus told them this parable: "There was once a rich man who had land which bore good crops. ¹⁷He began to think to himself, 'I don't have a place to keep all my crops. What can I do? ¹⁸This is what I will do,' he told himself; 'I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, where I will store the grain and all my other goods. ¹⁹Then I will say to myself, Lucky man! You have all the good things you need for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself !' ²⁰But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night you will have to give up your life; then who will get all these things you have kept for yourself ? '"

²¹And Jesus concluded, "This is how it is with those who pile up riches for themselves but are not rich in God's sight."

Trust in God
(Matthew 6.25-34)

²²Then Jesus said to the disciples, "And so I tell you not to worry about the food you need to stay alive or about the clothes you need for your body. ²³Life is much more important than food, and the body much more important than clothes. ²⁴Look at the crows: they don't plant seeds or gather a harvest; they don't have storage rooms or barns; God feeds them! You are worth so much more than birds! ²⁵Can any of you live a bit longer by worrying about it? ²⁶If you can't manage even such a small thing, why worry about the other things? ²⁷Look how the wild flowers grow: they don't work or make clothes for themselves. But I tell you that not even King Solomon with all his wealth had clothes as beautiful as one of these flowers. ²⁸It is God who clothes the wild grass--grass that is here today and gone tomorrow, burned up in the oven. Won't he be all the more sure to clothe you? What little faith you have!

²⁹"So don't be all upset, always concerned about what you will eat and drink. ³⁰(For the pagans of this world are always concerned about all these things.) Your Father knows that you need these things. ³¹Instead, be concerned with his Kingdom, and he will provide you with these things.

The Birth of Isaac

Genesis 21 The LORD blessed Sarah, as he had promised, ²and she became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham when he was old. The boy was born at the time God had said he would be born. ³Abraham named him Isaac, ⁴and when Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded. ⁵Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born. ⁶Sarah said, "God has brought me joy and laughter. Everyone who hears about it will laugh with me." ⁷Then she added, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age."

⁸The child grew, and on the day that he was weaned, Abraham gave a great feast.

Hagar and Ishmael Are Sent Away

⁹One day Ishmael, whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham, was playing with Sarah's son Isaac. ¹⁰Sarah saw them and said to Abraham, "Send this slave and her son away. The son of this woman must not get any part of your wealth, which my son Isaac should inherit." ¹¹This troubled Abraham very much, because Ishmael also was his son. ¹²But God said to Abraham, "Don't be worried about the boy and your slave Hagar. Do whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that you will have the descendants I have promised. ¹³I will also give many children to the son of the slave woman, so that they will become a nation. He too is your son."

¹⁴Early the next morning Abraham gave Hagar some food and a leather bag full of water. He put the child on her back and sent her away. She left and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba. ¹⁵When the water was all gone, she left the child under a bush ¹⁶and sat down about a hundred yards away. She said to herself, "I can't bear to see my child die." While she was sitting there, she began to cry.

¹⁷God heard the boy crying, and from heaven the angel of God spoke to Hagar, "What are you troubled about, Hagar? Don't be afraid. God has heard the boy crying. ¹⁸Get up, go and pick him up, and comfort him. I will make a great nation out of his descendants." ¹⁹Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well. She went and filled the leather bag with water and gave some to the boy. ²⁰God was with the boy as he grew up; he lived in the wilderness of Paran and became a skillful hunter. ²¹His mother got an Egyptian wife for him.

The Agreement between Abraham and Abimelech

²²At that time Abimelech went with Phicol, the commander of his army, and said to Abraham, "God is with you in everything you do. ²³So make a vow here in the presence of God that you will not deceive me, my children, or my descendants. I have been loyal to you, so promise that you will also be loyal to me and to this country in which you are living."

²⁴Abraham said, "I promise."

²⁵Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well which the servants of Abimelech had seized. ²⁶Abimelech said, "I don't know who did this. You didn't tell me about it, and this is the first I have heard of it." ²⁷Then Abraham gave some sheep and cattle to Abimelech, and the two of them made an agreement. ²⁸Abraham separated seven lambs from his flock, ²⁹and Abimelech asked him, "Why did you do that?"

³⁰Abraham answered, "Accept these seven lambs. By doing this, you admit that I am the one who dug this well." ³¹And so the place was called Beersheba, because it was there that the two of them made a vow.

³²After they had made this agreement at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phicol went back to Philistia. ³³Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and worshiped the LORD, the Everlasting God. ³⁴Abraham lived in Philistia for a long time.

Human Wickedness
(Psalm 53)

Psalm 14 Fools say to themselves,

"There is no God!"

They are all corrupt,

and they have done terrible things;

there is no one who does what is right.

²The LORD looks down from heaven at us humans

to see if there are any who are wise,

any who worship him.

³But they have all gone wrong;

they are all equally bad.

Not one of them does what is right,

not a single one.

⁴"Don't they know?" asks the LORD.

"Are all these evildoers ignorant?

They live by robbing my people,

and they never pray to me."

⁵But then they will be terrified,

for God is with those who obey him.

⁶Evildoers frustrate the plans of the humble,

but the LORD is their protection.

⁷How I pray that victory

will come to Israel from Zion.

How happy the people of Israel will be

when the LORD makes them prosperous again!

This reading is from The Holy Bible, Today's English Version, Second Edition copyright © American Bible Society, 1992;
Old Testament copyright © American Bible Society, 1976, 1992; New Testament © American Bible Society, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992.

These daily Bible readings from the Good News Translation (GNT), formerly the Today's English Version (TEV), are published by BibleNetUSA. The web site and BibleCard® designs are by iCreative. All BibleCard® images are copyrighted by iCreative. All rights reserved.