Daily Bible CEV November 07 Scroll

What People Will Be Like in the Last Days

2 Timothy 3 You can be certain that in the last days there will be some very hard times. ²People will love only themselves and money. They will be proud, stuck-up, rude, and disobedient to their parents. They will also be ungrateful, godless, ³heartless, and hateful. Their words will be cruel, and they will have no self-control or pity. These people will hate everything that is good. ⁴They will be sneaky, reckless, and puffed up with pride. Instead of loving God, they will love pleasure. ⁵Even though they will make a show of being religious, their religion won't be real. Don't have anything to do with such people.

⁶Some men fool whole families, just to get power over those women who are slaves of sin and are controlled by all sorts of desires. ⁷These women always want to learn something new, but they never can discover the truth. ⁸Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, these people are enemies of the truth. Their minds are sick, and their faith isn't real. ⁹But they won't get very far with their foolishness. Soon everyone will know the truth about them, just as Jannes and Jambres were found out.

Paul's Last Instructions to Timothy

¹⁰Timothy, you know what I teach and how I live. You know what I want to do and what I believe. You have seen how patient and loving I am, and how in the past I put up with ¹¹trouble and suffering in the cities of Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. Yet the Lord rescued me from all those terrible troubles. ¹²Anyone who belongs to Christ Jesus and wants to live right will have trouble from others. ¹³But evil people who pretend to be what they are not will become worse than ever, as they fool others and are fooled themselves.

¹⁴Keep on being faithful to what you were taught and to what you believed. After all, you know who taught you these things. ¹⁵Since childhood, you have known the Holy Scriptures that are able to make you wise enough to have faith in Christ Jesus and be saved. ¹⁶Everything in the Scriptures is God's Word. All of it is useful for teaching and helping people and for correcting them and showing them how to live. ¹⁷The Scriptures train God's servants to do all kinds of good deeds.

Jeremiah 9 I wish that my eyes were fountains of tears,

so I could cry day and night for my people

who were killed.

²I wish I could go into the desert and find a hiding place

from all who are treacherous and unfaithful to God.

The LORD Answers Jeremiah

³The LORD replied:

Lies come from the mouths of my people,

like arrows from a bow.

With each dishonest deed their power increases,

and not one of them will admit that I am God.

⁴Jeremiah, all your friends and relatives tell lies about you,

so don't trust them.

⁵They wear themselves out, always looking for a new way

to cheat their friends.

⁶Everyone takes advantage of everyone else,

and no one will admit that I am God.

⁷And so I will purify the hearts of my people

just as gold is purified in a furnace.

I have no other choice.

⁸They say they want peace, but this lie is deadly,

like an arrow that strikes when you least expect it.

⁹Give me one good reason

not to punish them as they deserve.

I, the LORD All-Powerful, have spoken.

Jeremiah Weeps for His People

¹⁰I weep for the pastureland in the hill country.

It's so barren and scorched that no one travels there.

No cattle can be found there, and birds and wild animals

have all disappeared.

¹¹I heard the LORD reply, "When I am finished,

Jerusalem and the towns of Judah will be piles of ruins

where only jackals live."

Why the Land Was Destroyed

¹²I said to the LORD, "None of us can understand why the land has become like an uncrossable desert. Won't you explain why?"

¹³The LORD said:

I destroyed the land because the people disobeyed me and rejected my laws and teachings. ¹⁴They were stubborn and worshiped Baal, just as their ancestors did. ¹⁵So I, the LORD All-Powerful, the God of Israel, promise them poison to eat and drink. ¹⁶I'll scatter them in foreign countries that they and their ancestors have never even heard of. Finally, I will send enemy soldiers to kill every last one of them.

The Women Who Are Paid To Weep

¹⁷The LORD All-Powerful said,

"Send for the women who are paid to weep at funerals,

especially the women who can cry the loudest."

¹⁸The people answered,

"Let them come quickly and cry for us,

until our own eyes are flooded with tears.

¹⁹Now those of us on Zion cry, 'We are ruined!

We can't stand the shame.

Our homes have been destroyed,

and we must leave our land.'

²⁰"We ask you women to pay attention

to what the LORD says.

We will teach you a funeral song

that you can teach your daughters and friends:

²¹'We were in our fortress,

but death sneaked in through our windows.

It even struck down children at play

and our strongest young men.'

²²"The LORD has told us

the ground will be covered with dead bodies,

like stalks of ungathered grain

or like manure."

What the LORD Likes Best

²³The LORD says:

Don't brag about your wisdom or strength or wealth.

²⁴If you feel you must brag, then have enough sense

to brag about worshiping me, the LORD.

What I like best is showing kindness, justice, and mercy

to everyone on earth.

^25-26Someday I will punish the nations of Egypt, Edom, Ammon, and Moab, and the tribes of the desert. The men of these nations are circumcised, but they don't worship me. And it's the same with you people of Judah. Your bodies are circumcised, but your hearts are unchanged.

The LORD Talks about Idols

Jeremiah 10 ^*1The LORD said:

Listen to me, you people of Israel.

²Don't follow the customs of those nations

who become frightened when they see

something strange happen in the sky.

³Their religion is worthless!

They chop down a tree, carve the wood into an idol,

⁴

cover it with silver and gold,

and then nail it down so it won't fall over.

⁵An idol is no better than a scarecrow. It can't speak,

and it has to be carried, because it can't walk.

Why worship an idol that can't help or harm you?

Jeremiah Praises the LORD

⁶Our LORD, great and powerful, you alone are God.

⁷You are King of the nations. Everyone should worship you.

No human anywhere on earth is wiser than you.

⁸Idols are worthless, and anyone who worships them

is a fool!

⁹Idols are made by humans. A carver shapes the wood.

A metalworker hammers out a covering

of gold from Uphaz or of silver from Tarshish.

Then the idol is dressed in blue and purple clothes.

¹⁰You, LORD, are the only true and living God.

You will rule for all time.

When you are angry the earth shakes,

and nations are destroyed.

¹¹You told me to say that idols did not create

the heavens and the earth,

and that you, the LORD, will destroy every idol.

¹²With your wisdom and power you created the earth

and spread out the heavens.

¹³The waters in the heavens roar at your command.

You make clouds appear--

you send the winds from your storehouse

and make lightning flash in the rain.

¹⁴People who make idols are so stupid!

They will be disappointed,

because their false gods are not alive.

¹⁵Idols are merely a joke, and when the time is right,

they will be destroyed.

¹⁶But you, Israel's God, created all things,

and you chose Israel to be your very own.

Your name is the LORD All-Powerful.

Judah Will Be Thrown from Its Land

¹⁷I said to the people of Judah,

"Gather your things; you are surrounded.

¹⁸The LORD said these troubles will lead to your capture,

and he will throw you from this land

like a rock from a sling."

¹⁹The people answered, "We are wounded and doomed to die.

Why did we say we could stand the pain?

²⁰Our homes are destroyed; our children are dead.

No one is left to help us find shelter."

²¹But I told them, "Our leaders were stupid failures,

because they refused to listen to the LORD.

And so we've been scattered like sheep.

²²"Sounds of destruction rumble from the north

like distant thunder.

Soon our towns will be ruins where jackals live."

Jeremiah Prays

²³I know, LORD, that we humans are not in control

of our own lives.

²⁴Correct me, as I deserve,

but not in your anger, or I will be dead.

²⁵Our enemies refuse to admit that you are God

or to worship you.

They have wiped out our people

and left our nation lying in ruins.

So get angry and sweep them away!

Psalm 123
[A song for worship.]
A Prayer for Mercy

¹Our LORD and our God,

I turn my eyes to you, on your throne in heaven.

²Servants look to their master, but we will look to you,

until you have mercy on us.

³Please have mercy, LORD!

We have been insulted more than we can stand,

⁴and we can't take more abuse

from those proud, conceited people.

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