Daily Bible GNT January 19 Scroll

The Cost of Being a Disciple
(Matthew 10.37, 38)

Luke 14 ²⁵Once when large crowds of people were going along with Jesus, he turned and said to them, ²⁶"Those who come to me cannot be my disciples unless they love me more than they love father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and themselves as well. ²⁷Those who do not carry their own cross and come after me cannot be my disciples. ²⁸If one of you is planning to build a tower, you sit down first and figure out what it will cost, to see if you have enough money to finish the job. ²⁹If you don't, you will not be able to finish the tower after laying the foundation; and all who see what happened will make fun of you. ³⁰'You began to build but can't finish the job!' they will say. ³¹If a king goes out with ten thousand men to fight another king who comes against him with twenty thousand men, he will sit down first and decide if he is strong enough to face that other king. ³²If he isn't, he will send messengers to meet the other king to ask for terms of peace while he is still a long way off. ³³In the same way," concluded Jesus, "none of you can be my disciple unless you give up everything you have.

Worthless Salt
(Matthew 5.13; Mark 9.50)

³⁴"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, there is no way to make it salty again. ³⁵It is no good for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown away. Listen, then, if you have ears!"

Isaac Lives at Gerar

Genesis 26 There was another famine in the land besides the earlier one during the time of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar. ²The LORD had appeared to Isaac and had said, "Do not go to Egypt; stay in this land, where I tell you to stay. ³Live here, and I will be with you and bless you. I am going to give all this territory to you and to your descendants. I will keep the promise I made to your father Abraham. ⁴I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky, and I will give them all this territory. All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants. ⁵I will bless you, because Abraham obeyed me and kept all my laws and commands."

⁶So Isaac lived at Gerar. ⁷When the men there asked about his wife, he said that she was his sister. He would not admit that she was his wife, because he was afraid that the men there would kill him to get Rebecca, who was very beautiful. ⁸When Isaac had been there for some time, King Abimelech looked down from his window and saw Isaac and Rebecca making love. ⁹Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, "So she is your wife! Why did you say she was your sister?"

He answered, "I thought I would be killed if I said she was my wife."

¹⁰"What have you done to us?" Abimelech said. "One of my men might easily have slept with your wife, and you would have been responsible for our guilt." ¹¹Abimelech warned all the people: "Anyone who mistreats this man or his wife will be put to death."

¹²Isaac sowed crops in that land, and that year he harvested a hundred times as much as he had sown, because the LORD blessed him. ¹³He continued to prosper and became a very rich man. ¹⁴Because he had many herds of sheep and cattle and many servants, the Philistines were jealous of him. ¹⁵So they filled in all the wells which the servants of his father Abraham had dug while Abraham was alive.

¹⁶Then Abimelech said to Isaac, "Leave our country. You have become more powerful than we are." ¹⁷So Isaac left and set up his camp in Gerar Valley, where he stayed for some time. ¹⁸He dug once again the wells which had been dug during the time of Abraham and which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham's death. Isaac gave the wells the same names that his father had given them.

¹⁹Isaac's servants dug a well in the valley and found water. ²⁰The shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's shepherds and said, "This water belongs to us." So Isaac named the well "Quarrel."

²¹Isaac's servants dug another well, and there was a quarrel about that one also, so he named it "Enmity." ²²He moved away from there and dug another well. There was no dispute about this one, so he named it "Freedom." He said, "Now the LORD has given us freedom to live in the land, and we will be prosperous here."

²³Isaac left and went to Beersheba. ²⁴That night the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid; I am with you. I will bless you and give you many descendants because of my promise to my servant Abraham." ²⁵Isaac built an altar there and worshiped the LORD. Then he set up his camp there, and his servants dug another well.

The Agreement between Isaac and Abimelech

²⁶Abimelech came from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army to see Isaac. ²⁷So Isaac asked, "Why have you now come to see me, when you were so unfriendly to me before and made me leave your country?"

²⁸They answered, "Now we know that the LORD is with you, and we think that there should be a solemn agreement between us. We want you to promise ²⁹that you will not harm us, just as we did not harm you. We were kind to you and let you go peacefully. Now it is clear that the LORD has blessed you." ³⁰Isaac prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank. ³¹Early next morning each man made his promise and sealed it with a vow. Isaac said good-bye to them, and they parted as friends.

³²On that day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well which they had dug. They said, "We have found water." ³³He named the well "Vow." That is how the city of Beersheba got its name.

Esau's Foreign Wives

³⁴When Esau was forty years old, he married two Hittites, Judith the daughter of Beeri, and Basemath the daughter of Elon. ³⁵They made life miserable for Isaac and Rebecca.

God's Glory in Creation

Psalm 19 How clearly the sky reveals God's glory!

How plainly it shows what he has done!

²Each day announces it to the following day;

each night repeats it to the next.

³No speech or words are used,

no sound is heard;

⁴yet their message goes out to all the world

and is heard to the ends of the earth.

God made a home in the sky for the sun;

⁵

it comes out in the morning like a happy bridegroom,

like an athlete eager to run a race.

⁶It starts at one end of the sky

and goes across to the other.

Nothing can hide from its heat.

The Law of the LORD

⁷The law of the LORD is perfect;

it gives new strength.

The commands of the LORD are trustworthy,

giving wisdom to those who lack it.

⁸The laws of the LORD are right,

and those who obey them are happy.

The commands of the LORD are just

and give understanding to the mind.

⁹Reverence for the LORD is good;

it will continue forever.

The judgments of the LORD are just;

they are always fair.

¹⁰They are more desirable than the finest gold;

they are sweeter than the purest honey.

¹¹They give knowledge to me, your servant;

I am rewarded for obeying them.

¹²None of us can see our own errors;

deliver me, LORD, from hidden faults!

¹³Keep me safe, also, from willful sins;

don't let them rule over me.

Then I shall be perfect

and free from the evil of sin.

¹⁴May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you,

O LORD, my refuge and my redeemer!

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.