Daily Bible CEV November 06 Scroll

A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus

2 Timothy 2 Timothy, my child, Christ Jesus is kind, and you must let him make you strong. ²You have often heard me teach. Now I want you to tell these same things to followers who can be trusted to tell others.

³As a good soldier of Christ Jesus you must endure your share of suffering. ⁴Soldiers on duty don't work at outside jobs. They try only to please their commanding officer. ⁵No one wins an athletic contest without obeying the rules. ⁶And farmers who work hard are the first to eat what grows in their field. ⁷If you keep in mind what I have told you, the Lord will help you understand completely.

⁸Keep your mind on Jesus Christ! He was from the family of David and was raised from death, just as my good news says. ⁹And because of this message, I am locked up in jail and treated like a criminal. But God's good news isn't locked in jail, ¹⁰and so I am willing to put up with anything. Then God's special people will be saved. They will be given eternal glory because they belong to Christ Jesus. ¹¹Here is a true message:

"If we died with Christ, we will live with him.

¹²If we don't give up, we will rule with him.

If we deny that we know him,

he will deny that he knows us.

¹³If we are not faithful, he will still be faithful.

Christ cannot deny who he is."

An Approved Worker

¹⁴Don't let anyone forget these things. And with God as your witness, you must warn them not to argue about words. These arguments don't help anyone. In fact, they ruin everyone who listens to them. ¹⁵Do your best to win God's approval as a worker who doesn't need to be ashamed and who teaches only the true message.

¹⁶Keep away from worthless and useless talk. It only leads people farther away from God. ¹⁷That sort of talk is like a sore that won't heal. And Hymenaeus and Philetus have been talking this way ¹⁸by teaching that the dead have already been raised to life. This is far from the truth, and it is destroying the faith of some people.

¹⁹But the foundation that God has laid is solid. On it is written, "The Lord knows who his people are. So everyone who worships the Lord must turn away from evil."

²⁰In a large house some dishes are made of gold or silver, while others are made of wood or clay. Some of these are special, and others are not. ²¹That's also how it is with people. The ones who stop doing evil and make themselves pure will become special. Their lives will be holy and pleasing to their Master, and they will be able to do all kinds of good deeds.

²²Run from temptations that capture young people. Always do the right thing. Be faithful, loving, and easy to get along with. Worship with people whose hearts are pure. ²³Stay away from stupid and senseless arguments. These only lead to trouble, ²⁴and God's servants must not be troublemakers. They must be kind to everyone, and they must be good teachers and very patient.

²⁵Be humble when you correct people who oppose you. Maybe God will lead them to turn to him and learn the truth. ²⁶They have been trapped by the devil, and he makes them obey him, but God may help them escape.

Jeremiah Speaks in the Temple
(Jeremiah 26.1-6)

Jeremiah 7 ^1-3The LORD told me to stand by the gate of the temple and to tell the people who were going in that the LORD All-Powerful, the God of Israel, had said:

Pay attention, people of Judah! Change your ways and start living right, then I will let you keep on living in your own country. ⁴Don't fool yourselves! My temple is here in Jerusalem, but that doesn't mean I will protect you. ⁵I will keep you safe only if you change your ways. Be fair and honest with each other. ⁶Stop taking advantage of foreigners, orphans, and widows. Don't kill innocent people. And stop worshiping other gods. ⁷Then I will let you enjoy a long life in this land I gave your ancestors.

⁸But just look at what is happening! You put your trust in worthless lies. ⁹You steal and murder; you lie in court and are unfaithful in marriage. You worship idols and offer incense to Baal, when these gods have never done anything for you. ¹⁰And then you come into my temple and worship me! Do you think I will protect you so that you can go on sinning? ¹¹You are thieves, and you have made my temple your hideout. But I've seen everything you have done.

¹²Go to Shiloh, where my sacred tent once stood. Take a look at what I did there. My people Israel sinned, and so I destroyed Shiloh!

¹³While you have been sinning, I have been trying to talk to you, but you refuse to listen. ¹⁴Don't think this temple will protect you. Long ago I told your ancestors to build it and worship me here, but now I have decided to tear it down, just as I destroyed Shiloh. ¹⁵And as for you, people of Judah, I'm going to send you away from my land, just as I sent away the people of Ephraim and the other northern tribes.

Punishment for Worshiping Other Gods

¹⁶Jeremiah, don't pray for these people! I, the LORD, would refuse to listen. ¹⁷Do you see what the people of Judah are doing in their towns and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸Children gather firewood, their fathers build fires, and their mothers mix dough to bake bread for the goddess they call the Queen of Heaven. They even offer wine sacrifices to other gods, just to insult me. ¹⁹But they are not only insulting me; they are also insulting themselves by doing these shameful things.

²⁰And now, I, the LORD All-Powerful, will flood Judah with my fiery anger until nothing is left--no people or animals, no trees or crops.

It Is Useless To Offer Sacrifices

²¹The LORD told me to say to the people of Judah:

I am the LORD All-Powerful, the God of Israel, but I won't accept sacrifices from you. So don't even bother bringing them to me. You might as well just cook the meat for yourselves.

²²At the time I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I didn't command them to offer sacrifices to me. ²³Instead, I told them, "If you listen to me and do what I tell you, I will be your God, you will be my people, and all will go well for you." ²⁴But your ancestors refused to listen. They were stubborn, and whenever I wanted them to go one way, they always went the other. ²⁵Ever since your ancestors left Egypt, I have been sending my servants the prophets to speak for me. ²⁶But you have ignored me and become even more stubborn and sinful than your ancestors ever were!

Slaughter Valley

The LORD said:

²⁷Jeremiah, no matter what you do, the people won't listen. ²⁸So you must say to them:

People of Judah, I am the LORD your God, but you have refused to obey me, and you didn't change when I punished you. And now, you no longer even pretend to be faithful to me.

²⁹Shave your head bald and throw away the hair.

Sing a funeral song on top of a barren hill.

You people have made me angry,

and I have abandoned you.

³⁰You have disobeyed me by putting your disgusting idols in my temple, and now the temple itself is disgusting to me. ³¹At Topheth in Hinnom Valley you have built altars where you kill your children and burn them as sacrifices to other gods. I would never think of telling you to do this. ³²So watch out! Someday that place will no longer be called Topheth or Hinnom Valley. It will be called Slaughter Valley, because you will bury your dead there until you run out of room, ³³and then bodies will lie scattered on the ground. Birds and wild animals will come and eat, and no one will be around to scare them off. ³⁴When I am finished with your land, there will be deathly silence in the empty ruins of Jerusalem and the towns of Judah--no happy voices, no sounds of parties or wedding celebrations.
Jeremiah 8 Then the bones of the dead kings of Judah and their officials will be dug up, along with the bones of the priests, the prophets, and everyone else in Jerusalem ²who loved and worshiped the sun, moon, and stars. These bones will be scattered and left lying on the ground like trash, where the sun and moon and stars can shine on them.

³Some of you people of Judah will be left alive, but I will force you to go to foreign countries, and you will wish you were dead. I, the LORD God All-Powerful, have spoken.

The People Took the Wrong Road

⁴The LORD said:

People of Jerusalem, when you stumble and fall,

you get back up,

and if you take a wrong road,

you turn around and go back.

⁵So why do you refuse to come back to me?

Why do you hold so tightly to your false gods?

⁶I listen carefully,

but none of you admit that you've done wrong.

Without a second thought, you run down the wrong road

like cavalry troops charging into battle.

⁷Storks, doves, swallows, and thrushes

all know when it's time to fly away for the winter

and when to come back.

But you, my people, don't know what I demand.

⁸You say, "We are wise because we have the teachings

and laws of the LORD."

But I say that your teachers have turned my words into lies!

⁹Your wise men have rejected what I say,

and so they have no wisdom.

Now they will be trapped and put to shame;

they won't know what to do.

¹⁰I'll give their wives and fields to strangers.

Everyone is greedy and dishonest, whether poor or rich.

Even the prophets and priests cannot be trusted.

¹¹All they ever offer to my deeply wounded people

are empty hopes for peace.

¹²They should be ashamed of their disgusting sins,

but they don't even blush.

And so, when I punish Judah,

they will end up on the ground,

dead like everyone else.

¹³I will wipe them out. They are vines without grapes;

fig trees without figs or leaves.

They have not done a thing that I told them!

I, the LORD, have spoken.

The People and Their Punishment

¹⁴The people of Judah say to each other,

"What are we waiting for? Let's run to a town with walls

and die there.

We rebelled against the LORD,

and we were sentenced to die by drinking poison.

¹⁵We had hoped for peace and a time of healing,

but all we got was terror.

¹⁶Our enemies have reached the town of Dan in the north,

and the snorting of their horses

makes us tremble with fear.

The enemy will destroy Jerusalem and our entire nation.

No one will survive."

¹⁷"Watch out!" the LORD says.

"I'm sending poisonous snakes to attack you,

and no one can stop them."

Jeremiah Mourns for His People

¹⁸I'm burdened with sorrow and feel like giving up.

¹⁹

In a foreign land my people are crying.

Listen! You'll hear them say,

"Has the LORD deserted Zion?

Is he no longer its king?"

I hear the LORD reply, "Why did you make me angry

by worshiping useless idols?"

²⁰The people complain,

"Spring and summer have come and gone,

but still the LORD hasn't rescued us."

²¹My people are crushed, and so is my heart.

I am horrified and mourn.

²²If medicine and doctors may be found in Gilead,

why aren't my people healed?

Psalm 122
[A song by David for worship.]
A Song of Praise

¹It made me glad to hear them say,

"Let's go to the house of the LORD!"

Jerusalem, we are standing inside your gates.

³Jerusalem, what a strong and beautiful city you are!

⁴Every tribe of the LORD obeys him

and comes to you to praise his name.

⁵David's royal throne is here where justice rules.

⁶Jerusalem, we pray that you will have peace,

and that all will go well for those who love you.

⁷May there be peace inside your city walls

and in your palaces.

⁸Because of my friends and my relatives,

I will pray for peace.

⁹And because of the house of the LORD our God,

I will work for your good.

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.