Daily Bible GNT November 09 Scroll

Paul's Letter to
TITUS

Titus 1 From Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ.

I was chosen and sent to help the faith of God's chosen people and to lead them to the truth taught by our religion, ²which is based on the hope for eternal life. God, who does not lie, promised us this life before the beginning of time, ³and at the right time he revealed it in his message. This was entrusted to me, and I proclaim it by order of God our Savior.

⁴I write to Titus, my true son in the faith that we have in common.

May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior give you grace and peace.

Titus' Work in Crete

⁵I left you in Crete, so that you could put in order the things that still needed doing and appoint church elders in every town. Remember my instructions: ⁶an elder must be without fault; he must have only one wife, and his children must be believers and not have the reputation of being wild or disobedient. ⁷For since a church leader is in charge of God's work, he should be without fault. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered, or a drunkard or violent or greedy for money. ⁸He must be hospitable and love what is good. He must be self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. ⁹He must hold firmly to the message which can be trusted and which agrees with the doctrine. In this way he will be able to encourage others with the true teaching and also to show the error of those who are opposed to it.

¹⁰For there are many, especially the converts from Judaism, who rebel and deceive others with their nonsense. ¹¹It is necessary to stop their talk, because they are upsetting whole families by teaching what they should not, and all for the shameful purpose of making money. ^12-13It was a Cretan himself, one of their own prophets, who spoke the truth when he said, "Cretans are always liars, wicked beasts, and lazy gluttons." For this reason you must rebuke them sharply, so that they may have a healthy faith ¹⁴and no longer hold on to Jewish legends and to human commandments which come from people who have rejected the truth. ¹⁵Everything is pure to those who are themselves pure; but nothing is pure to those who are defiled and unbelieving, for their minds and consciences have been defiled. ¹⁶They claim that they know God, but their actions deny it. They are hateful and disobedient, not fit to do anything good.

The Linen Shorts

Jeremiah 13 The LORD told me to go and buy myself some linen shorts and to put them on; but he told me not to put them in water. ²So I bought them and put them on. ³Then the LORD spoke to me again and said, ⁴"Go to the Euphrates River and hide the shorts in a hole in the rocks." ⁵So I went and hid them near the Euphrates.

⁶Some time later the LORD told me to go back to the Euphrates and get the shorts. ⁷So I went back, and when I found the place where I had hidden them, I saw that they were ruined and were no longer any good.

⁸Then the LORD spoke to me again. He said, ⁹"This is how I will destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. ¹⁰These evil people have refused to obey me. They have been as stubborn and wicked as ever, and have worshiped and served other gods. So then, they will become like these shorts that are no longer any good. ¹¹Just as shorts fit tightly around the waist, so I intended all the people of Israel and Judah to hold tightly to me. I did this so that they would be my people and would bring praise and honor to my name; but they would not obey me."

The Wine Jar

¹²The LORD God said to me, "Jeremiah, tell the people of Israel that every wine jar should be filled with wine. They will answer that they know every wine jar should be filled with wine. ¹³Then tell them that I, the LORD, am going to fill the people in this land with wine until they are drunk: the kings, who are David's descendants, the priests, the prophets, and all the people of Jerusalem. ¹⁴Then I will smash them like jars against one another, old and young alike. No pity, compassion, or mercy will stop me from killing them."

Jeremiah Warns against Pride

¹⁵People of Israel, the LORD has spoken!

Be humble and listen to him.

¹⁶Honor the LORD, your God,

before he brings darkness,

and you stumble on the mountains;

before he turns into deep darkness

the light you hoped for.

¹⁷If you will not listen,

I will cry in secret because of your pride;

I will cry bitterly, and my tears will flow

because the LORD's people have been taken away as captives.

¹⁸The LORD said to me, "Tell the king and his mother to come down from their thrones, because their beautiful crowns have fallen from their heads. ¹⁹The towns of southern Judah are under siege; no one can get through to them. All the people of Judah have been taken away into exile."

²⁰Jerusalem, look! Your enemies are coming down from the north! Where are the people entrusted to your care, your people you were so proud of ? ²¹What will you say when people you thought were your friends conquer you and rule over you? You will be in pain like a woman giving birth. ²²If you ask why all this has happened to you--why your clothes have been torn off and you have been raped--it is because your sin is so terrible. ²³Can people change the color of their skin, or a leopard remove its spots? If they could, then you that do nothing but evil could learn to do what is right. ²⁴The LORD will scatter you like straw that is blown away by the desert wind. ²⁵He has said that this will be your fate. This is what he has decided to do with you, because you have forgotten him and have trusted in false gods. ²⁶The LORD himself will strip off your clothes and expose you to shame. ²⁷He has seen you do the things he hates. He has seen you go after pagan gods on the hills and in the fields, like a man lusting after his neighbor's wife or like a stallion after a mare. People of Jerusalem, you are doomed! When will you ever be pure?

The Terrible Drought

Jeremiah 14 The LORD said to me concerning the drought,

²"Judah is in mourning;

its cities are dying,

its people lie on the ground in sorrow,

and Jerusalem cries out for help.

³The rich people send their servants for water;

they go to the cisterns,

but find no water;

they come back with their jars empty.

Discouraged and confused,

they hide their faces.

⁴Because there is no rain

and the ground is dried up,

the farmers are sick at heart;

they hide their faces.

⁵In the field the mother deer

abandons her newborn fawn

because there is no grass.

⁶The wild donkeys stand on the hilltops

and pant for breath like jackals;

their eyesight fails them

because they have no food.

⁷My people cry out to me,

'Even though our sins accuse us,

help us, LORD, as you have promised.

We have turned away from you many times;

we have sinned against you.

⁸You are Israel's only hope;

you are the one who saves us from disaster.

Why are you like a stranger in our land,

like a traveler who stays for only one night?

⁹Why are you like someone taken by surprise,

like a soldier powerless to help?

Surely, LORD, you are with us!

We are your people;

do not abandon us.'"

¹⁰The LORD says about these people, "They love to run away from me, and they will not control themselves. So I am not pleased with them. I will remember the wrongs they have done and punish them because of their sins."

¹¹The LORD said to me, "Do not ask me to help these people. ¹²Even if they fast, I will not listen to their cry for help; and even if they offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not be pleased with them. Instead, I will kill them in war and by starvation and disease."

¹³Then I said, "Sovereign LORD, you know that the prophets are telling the people that there will be no war or starvation, because you have promised, they say, that there will be only peace in our land."

¹⁴But the LORD replied, "The prophets are telling lies in my name; I did not send them, nor did I give them any orders or speak one word to them. The visions they talk about have not come from me; their predictions are worthless things that they have imagined. ¹⁵I, the LORD, tell you what I am going to do to those prophets whom I did not send but who speak in my name and say war and starvation will not strike this land--I will kill them in war and by starvation. ¹⁶The people to whom they have said these things will be killed in the same way. Their bodies will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem, and there will be no one to bury them. This will happen to all of them--including their wives, their sons, and their daughters. I will make them pay for their wickedness."

¹⁷The LORD commanded me to tell the people about my sorrow and to say:

"May my eyes flow with tears day and night,

may I never stop weeping,

for my people are deeply wounded

and are badly hurt.

¹⁸When I go out in the fields,

I see the bodies of men killed in war;

when I go into the towns,

I see people starving to death.

Prophets and priests carry on their work,

but they don't know what they are doing."

The People Plead with the LORD

¹⁹LORD, have you completely rejected Judah?

Do you hate the people of Zion?

Why have you hurt us so badly

that we cannot be healed?

We looked for peace, but nothing good happened;

we hoped for healing, but terror came instead.

²⁰We have sinned against you, LORD;

we confess our own sins

and the sins of our ancestors.

²¹Remember your promises and do not despise us;

do not bring disgrace on Jerusalem,

the place of your glorious throne.

Do not break the covenant you made with us.

²²None of the idols of the nations can send rain;

the sky by itself cannot make showers fall.

We have put our hope in you, O LORD our God,

because you are the one who does these things.

The Security of God's People

Psalm 125 Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion,

which can never be shaken, never be moved.

²As the mountains surround Jerusalem,

so the LORD surrounds his people,

now and forever.

³The wicked will not always rule over the land of the righteous;

if they did, the righteous themselves might do evil.

⁴LORD, do good to those who are good,

to those who obey your commands.

⁵But when you punish the wicked,

punish also those who abandon your ways.

Peace be with Israel!

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.