JEREMIAH 16:16-18:23
1 THESSALONIANS 4:1-5:3
PSALM 81:1-16
PROVERBS 25:6-8
JEREMIAH 16:16-18:23
" But now I am sending for many fishermen who will catch them [the Israelites]," says the LORD. " I am sending for hunters who will search for them in the forests and caves. 17 I am watching them closely, and I see every sin. They cannot hope to hide from me. 18 I will punish them doubly for all their sins, because they have defiled my land with lifeless images of their detestable gods and filled my inheritance with their evil deeds." 19 LORD, you are my strength and fortress, my refuge in the day of trouble! Nations from around the world will come to you and say, " Our ancestors were foolish, for they worshiped worthless idols. 20 Can people make their own god? The gods they make are not real gods at all!" 21 " So now I will show them my power and might," says the LORD. " At last they will know that I am the LORD."17:1 THE LORD says, " My people act as though their evil ways are laws to be obeyed, inscribed with a diamond point on their stony hearts, or with an iron chisel on the corners of their altars. 2 Even their children go to worship at their sacred altars and Asherah poles, beneath every green tree and on every high hill. 3 So I will give all your wealth and treasures--together with your pagan shrines--as plunder to your enemies, for sin runs rampant in your land. 4 The wonderful inheritance I have reserved for you will slip out of your hands, and I will send you away as captives to a foreign land. For you have kindled my anger into a roaring fire that will burn forever." 5 This is what the LORD says: " Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans and turn their hearts away from the LORD. 6 They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, on the salty flats where no one lives.7 " But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence. 8 They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit. 9 " The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? 10 But I know! I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve." 11 Like a bird that hatches eggs she has not laid, so are those who get their wealth by unjust means. Sooner or later they will lose their riches and, at the end of their lives, will become poor old fools. 12 But we worship at your throne--eternal, high, and glorious! 13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who turn away from you will be disgraced and shamed. They will be buried in a dry and dusty grave, for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water. 14 O LORD, you alone can heal me; you alone can save. My praises are for you alone! 15 People scoff at me and say, " What is this ` message from the LORD' you keep talking about? Why don't your predictions come true?" 16 LORD, I have not abandoned my job as a shepherd for your people. I have not urged you to send disaster. It is your message I have given them, not my own. 17 LORD, do not desert me now! You alone are my hope in the day of disaster. 18 Bring shame and terror on all who persecute me, but give me peace. Yes, bring double destruction upon them!19 Then the LORD said to me, " Go and stand in the gates of Jerusalem, first at the gate where the king goes out, and then at each of the other gates. 20 Say to all the people, ` Listen to this message from the LORD, you kings of Judah and all you people of Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem. 21 This is what the LORD says: Listen to my warning and live! Stop carrying on your trade at Jerusalem's gates on the Sabbath day. 22 Do not do your work on the Sabbath, but make it a holy day. I gave this command to your ancestors, 23 but they did not listen or obey. They stubbornly refused to pay attention and would not respond to discipline. 24 " ` But if you obey me, says the LORD, and do not carry on your trade or work on the Sabbath day, and if you keep it holy, 25 then this nation will continue forever. There will always be a descendant of David sitting on the throne here in Jerusalem. Kings and their officials will always ride among the people of Judah in chariots and on horses, and this city will remain forever. 26 And from all around Jerusalem, from the towns of Judah and Benjamin, from the western foothills and the hill country and the Negev, the people will come with their burnt offerings and sacrifices. They will bring their grain offerings, incense, and thanksgiving offerings to the LORD's Temple. 27 " ` But if you do not listen to me and refuse to keep the Sabbath holy, and if on the Sabbath day you bring loads of merchandise through the gates of Jerusalem just as on other days, then I will set fire to these gates. The fire will spread to the palaces, and no one will be able to put out the roaring flames.' "18:1 THE LORD gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 2 " Go down to the shop where clay pots and jars are made. I will speak to you while you are there." 3 So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. 4 But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so the potter squashed the jar into a lump of clay and started again. 5 Then the LORD gave me this message: 6 " O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand. 7 If I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed, 8 but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned. 9 And if I announce that I will build up and plant a certain nation or kingdom, making it strong and great, 10 but then that nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless that nation as I had said I would. 11 " Therefore, Jeremiah, go and warn all Judah and Jerusalem. Say to them, ` This is what the LORD says: I am planning disaster against you instead of good. So turn from your evil ways, each of you, and do what is right.' " 12 But they replied, " Don't waste your breath. We will continue to live as we want to, following our own evil desires." 13 Then the LORD said, " Has anyone ever heard of such a thing, even among the pagan nations? My virgin Israel has done something too terrible to understand! 14 Does the snow ever melt high up in the mountains of Lebanon? Do the cold, flowing streams from the crags of Mount Hermon ever run dry? 15 These can be counted on, but not my people! For they have deserted me and turned to worthless idols. They have stumbled off the ancient highways of good, and they walk the muddy paths of sin. 16 Therefore, their land will become desolate, a monument to their stupidity. All who pass by will be astonished and shake their heads in amazement at its utter desolation. 17 I will scatter my people before their enemies as the east wind scatters dust. And in all their trouble I will turn my back on them and refuse to notice their distress." 18 Then the people said, " Come on, let's find a way to stop Jeremiah. We have our own priests and wise men and prophets. We don't need him to teach the law and give us advice and prophecies. Let's spread rumors about him and ignore what he says." 19 LORD, help me! Listen to what they are planning to do to me! 20 Should they repay evil for good? They have set a trap to kill me, though I pleaded for them and tried to protect them from your anger. 21 So let their children starve! Let the sword pour out their blood! Let their wives become widows without any children! Let their old men die in a plague, and let their young men be killed in battle! 22 Let screaming be heard from their homes as warriors come suddenly upon them. For they have dug a pit for me, and they have hidden traps along my path. 23 LORD, you know all about their murderous plots against me. Don't forgive their crimes and blot out their sins. Let them die before you. Deal with them in your anger.
1 THESSALONIANS 4:1-5:3
Finally, dear brothers and sisters,* we [Paul and his coworkers] urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that pleases God, as we have taught you. You are doing this already, and we encourage you to do so more and more. 2 For you remember what we taught you in the name of the Lord Jesus. 3 God wants you to be holy, so you should keep clear of all sexual sin. 4 Then each of you will control your body and live in holiness and honor--5 not in lustful passion as the pagans do, in their ignorance of God and his ways. 6 Never cheat a Christian brother in this matter by taking his wife, for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before. 7 God has called us to be holy, not to live impure lives. 8 Anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human rules but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.9 But I don't need to write to you about the Christian love* that should be shown among God's people. For God himself has taught you to love one another. 10 Indeed, your love is already strong toward all the Christians in all of Macedonia. Even so, dear brothers and sisters, we beg you to love them more and more. 11 This should be your ambition: to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we commanded you before. 12 As a result, people who are not Christians will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others to meet your financial needs. 13 And now, brothers and sisters, I want you to know what will happen to the Christians who have died so you will not be full of sorrow like people who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus comes, God will bring back with Jesus all the Christians who have died. 15 I can tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not rise to meet him ahead of those who are in their graves. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the call of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, all the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. 17 Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever. 18 So comfort and encourage each other with these words.5:1 I REALLY don't need to write to you about how and when all this will happen, dear brothers and sisters.* 2 For you know quite well that the day of the Lord will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. 3 When people are saying, " All is well; everything is peaceful and secure," then disaster will fall upon them as suddenly as a woman's birth pains begin when her child is about to be born. And there will be no escape.
PSALM 81:1-16
For the choir director: A psalm of Asaph, to be accompanied by a stringed instrument.
1 Sing praises to God, our strength.
Sing to the God of Israel.
2 Sing! Beat the tambourine.
Play the sweet lyre and the harp.
3 Sound the trumpet for a sacred feast
when the moon is new,
when the moon is full.
4 For this is required by the laws of Israel;
it is a law of the God of Jacob.
5 He made it a decree for Israel
when he attacked Egypt to set us free.
I heard an unknown voice that said,
6 " Now I will relieve your shoulder of its burden;
I will free your hands from their heavy tasks.
7 You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you;
I answered out of the thundercloud.
I tested your faith at Meribah,
when you complained that there was no water.
Interlude8 " Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings.
O Israel, if you would only listen!
9 You must never have a foreign god;
you must not bow down before a false god.
10 For it was I, the LORD your God,
who rescued you from the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things.
11 " But no, my people wouldn't listen.
Israel did not want me around.
12 So I let them follow their blind and stubborn way,
living according to their own desires.
13 But oh, that my people would listen to me!
Oh, that Israel would follow me, walking in my paths!
14 How quickly I would then subdue their enemies!
How soon my hands would be upon their foes!
15 Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him;
their desolation would last forever.
16 But I would feed you with the best of foods.
I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock."
PROVERBS 25:6-8
Don't demand an audience with the king or push for a place among the great. It is better to wait for an invitation than to be sent to the end of the line, publicly disgraced! Just because you see something, don't be in a hurry to go to court. You might go down before your neighbors in shameful defeat.
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