Daily Bible CEV January 12 Scroll

Prayer
(Matthew 6.9-13; 7.7-11)

Luke 11 When Jesus had finished praying, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his followers to pray."

²So Jesus told them, "Pray in this way:

'Father, help us to honor your name.

Come and set up your kingdom.

³Give us each day the food we need.

⁴Forgive our sins,

as we forgive everyone who has done wrong to us.

And keep us from being tempted.' "

⁵Then Jesus went on to say:

Suppose one of you goes to a friend in the middle of the night and says, "Let me borrow three loaves of bread. ⁶A friend of mine has dropped in, and I don't have a thing for him to eat." ⁷And suppose your friend answers, "Don't bother me! The door is bolted, and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up to give you something."

⁸He may not get up and give you the bread, just because you are his friend. But he will get up and give you as much as you need, simply because you are not ashamed to keep on asking.

⁹So I tell you to ask and you will receive, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you. ¹⁰Everyone who asks will receive, everyone who searches will find, and the door will be opened for everyone who knocks. ¹¹Which one of you fathers would give your hungry child a snake if the child asked for a fish?¹²Which one of you would give your child a scorpion if the child asked for an egg? ¹³As bad as you are, you still know how to give good gifts to your children. But your heavenly Father is even more ready to give the Holy Spirit to anyone who asks.

Jesus and the Ruler of Demons
(Matthew 12.22-30; Mark 3.20-27)

¹⁴Jesus forced a demon out of a man who could not talk. And after the demon had gone out, the man started speaking, and the crowds were amazed. ¹⁵But some people said, "He forces out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons!"

¹⁶Others wanted to put Jesus to the test. So they asked him to show them a sign from God. ¹⁷Jesus knew what they were thinking, and he said:

A kingdom where people fight each other will end up in ruin. And a family that fights will break up. ¹⁸If Satan fights against himself, how can his kingdom last? Yet you say that I force out demons by the power of Beelzebul. ¹⁹If I use his power to force out demons, whose power do your own followers use to force them out? They are the ones who will judge you. ²⁰But if I use God's power to force out demons, it proves that God's kingdom has already come to you.

²¹When a strong man arms himself and guards his home, everything he owns is safe. ²²But if a stronger man comes and defeats him, he will carry off the weapons in which the strong man trusted. Then he will divide with others what he has taken. ²³If you are not on my side, you are against me. If you don't gather in the crop with me, you scatter it.

Return of an Evil Spirit
(Matthew 12.43-45)

²⁴When an evil spirit leaves a person, it travels through the desert, looking for a place to rest. But when it doesn't find a place, it says, "I will go back to the home I left." ²⁵When it gets there and finds the place clean and fixed up, ²⁶it goes off and finds seven other evil spirits even worse than itself. They all come and make their home there, and that person ends up in worse shape than before.

Being Really Blessed

²⁷While Jesus was still talking, a woman in the crowd spoke up, "The woman who gave birth to you and nursed you is blessed!"

²⁸Jesus replied, "That's true, but the people who are really blessed are the ones who hear and obey God's message!"

The Evil City of Sodom

Genesis 19 That evening the two angels arrived in Sodom, while Lot was sitting near the city gate. When Lot saw them, he got up, bowed down low, ²and said, "Gentlemen, I am your servant. Please come to my home. You can wash your feet, spend the night, and be on your way in the morning."

They told him, "No, we'll spend the night in the city square." ³But Lot kept insisting, until they finally agreed and went home with him. He baked some bread, cooked a meal, and they ate.

⁴Before Lot and his guests could go to bed, every man in Sodom, young and old, came and stood outside his house ⁵and started shouting, "Where are your visitors? Send them out, so we can have sex with them!"

⁶Lot went outside and shut the door behind him. ⁷Then he said, "Friends, please don't do such a terrible thing! ⁸I have two daughters who have never been married. I'll bring them out, and you can do what you want with them. But don't harm these men. They are guests in my home."

⁹"Don't get in our way," the crowd answered. "You're an outsider. What right do you have to order us around? We'll do worse things to you than we're going to do to them."

The crowd kept arguing with Lot. Finally, they rushed toward the door to break it down. ¹⁰But the two angels in the house reached out and pulled Lot safely inside. ¹¹Then they struck everyone in the crowd blind, and none of them could even find the door.

^12-13The two angels said to Lot, "The LORD has heard many terrible things about the people of Sodom, and he has sent us here to destroy the city. Take your family and leave. Take every relative you have in the city, as well as the men your daughters are going to marry."

¹⁴Lot went to the men who were engaged to his daughters and said, "Hurry and get out of here! The LORD is going to destroy this city." But they thought he was joking, and they laughed at him.

¹⁵Early the next morning the two angels tried to make Lot hurry and leave. They said, "Take your wife and your two daughters and get out of here as fast as you can! If you don't, every one of you will be killed when the LORD destroys the city." ¹⁶At first, Lot just stood there. But the LORD wanted to save him. So the angels took Lot, his wife, and his two daughters by the hand and led them out of the city. ¹⁷When they were outside, one of the angels said, "Run for your lives! Don't even look back. And don't stop in the valley. Run to the hills, where you will be safe."

^18-19Lot answered, "You have done us a great favor, sir. You have saved our lives, but please don't make us go to the hills. That's too far away. The city will be destroyed before we can get there, and we will be killed when it happens. ²⁰There's a town near here. It's only a small place, but my family and I will be safe, if you let us go there."

²¹"All right, go there," he answered. "I won't destroy that town. ²²Hurry! Run! I can't do anything until you are safely there."

The town was later called Zoar because Lot had said it was small.

Sodom and Gomorrah Are Destroyed

²³The sun was coming up as Lot reached the town of Zoar, ²⁴and the LORD sent burning sulfur down like rain on Sodom and Gomorrah. ²⁵He destroyed those cities and everyone who lived in them, as well as their land and the trees and grass that grew there.

²⁶On the way, Lot's wife looked back and was turned into a block of salt.

²⁷That same morning Abraham got up and went to the place where he had stood and spoken with the LORD. ²⁸He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and saw smoke rising from all over the land--it was like a flaming furnace.

²⁹When God destroyed the cities of the valley where Lot lived, he remembered his promise to Abraham and saved Lot from the terrible destruction.

Moab and Ammon

³⁰Lot was afraid to stay on in Zoar. So he took his two daughters and moved to a cave in the hill country. ³¹One day his older daughter said to her sister, "Our father is old, and there are no men anywhere for us to marry. ³²Let's get our father drunk! Then we can sleep with him and have children." ³³That night they got their father drunk, and the older daughter got in bed with him, but he was too drunk even to know she was there.

³⁴The next day the older daughter said to her sister, "I slept with my father last night. We'll get him drunk again tonight, so you can go to bed with him, and we can each have a child." ³⁵That night they got their father drunk, and this time the younger sister slept with him. But once again he was too drunk even to know she was there.

³⁶That's how Lot's two daughters had their children. ³⁷The older daughter named her son Moab, and he is the ancestor of the Moabites. ³⁸The younger daughter named her son Benammi, and he is the ancestor of the Ammonites.

Psalm 12
[A psalm by David for the music leader. ]
A Prayer for Help

¹Please help me, LORD! All who were faithful

and all who were loyal have disappeared.

²Everyone tells lies, and no one is sincere.

³Won't you chop off all flattering tongues

that brag so loudly?

⁴They say to themselves, "We are great speakers.

No one else has a chance."

⁵But you, LORD, tell them, "I will do something!

The poor are mistreated and helpless people moan.

I'll rescue all who suffer."

⁶Our LORD, you are true to your promises,

and your word is like silver

heated seven times in a fiery furnace.

⁷You will protect us

and always keep us safe from those people.

⁸But all who are wicked will keep on strutting,

while everyone praises their shameless deeds.

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.