Friday, January 30, 2015

Mark 1: 14-20

Mark 1:14-20Common English Bible (CEB)

Jesus’ message

14 After John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee announcing God’s good news, 15 saying, “Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!”

Jesus calls disciples

16 As Jesus passed alongside the Galilee Sea, he saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, throwing fishing nets into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” he said, “and I’ll show you how to fish for people.” 18 Right away, they left their nets and followed him. 19 After going a little farther, he saw James and John, Zebedee’s sons, in their boat repairing the fishing nets. 20 At that very moment he called them. They followed him, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired workers.

Common English Bible (CEB), used with permission

Thursday, January 29, 2015

1 Corinthians 7: 29-31

1 Corinthians 7:29-31Common English Bible (CEB)

29 This is what I’m saying, brothers and sisters: The time has drawn short. From now on, those who have wives should be like people who don’t have them. 30 Those who are sad should be like people who aren’t crying. Those who are happy should be like people who aren’t happy. Those who buy something should be like people who don’t have possessions. 31 Those who use the world should be like people who aren’t preoccupied with it, because this world in its present form is passing away.

Common English Bible (CEB), used with permission

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Psalm 62: 5-12

Psalm 62:5-12Common English Bible (CEB)

⁵Oh, I^[a] must find rest in God only,
    because my hope comes from him!
⁶Only God is my rock and my salvation—
    my stronghold!—I will not be shaken.
⁷My deliverance and glory depend on God.
    God is my strong rock.
    My refuge is in God.
⁸All you people: Trust in him at all times!
    Pour out your hearts before him!
    God is our refuge! Selah

⁹Human beings are nothing but a breath.
    Human beings are nothing but lies.
    They don’t even register on a scale;
    taken all together they are lighter than a breath!
¹⁰Don’t trust in violence;
    don’t set false hopes in robbery.
When wealth bears fruit,
    don’t set your heart on it.
¹¹God has spoken one thing—
    make it two things—
    that I myself have heard:
    that strength belongs to God,
¹²    and faithful love comes from you, my Lord—
    and that you will repay
    everyone according to their deeds.

Footnotes:

Psalm 62:5 Or my soul

Common English Bible (CEB), used with permission

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Mark 1: 21-28

Mark 1:21-28Common English Bible (CEB)

Jesus throws a demon out

21 Jesus and his followers went into Capernaum. Immediately on the Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and started teaching. 22 The people were amazed by his teaching, for he was teaching them with authority, not like the legal experts. 23 Suddenly, there in the synagogue, a person with an evil spirit screamed,24 “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are. You are the holy one from God.”

25 “Silence!” Jesus said, speaking harshly to the demon. “Come out of him!” 26 The unclean spirit shook him and screamed, then it came out.

27 Everyone was shaken and questioned among themselves, “What’s this? A new teaching with authority! He even commands unclean spirits and they obey him!” 28 Right away the news about him spread throughout the entire region of Galilee.

Common English Bible (CEB), used with permission

Monday, January 26, 2015

Mark 1: 21-28

Mark 1:21-28Common English Bible (CEB)

Jesus throws a demon out

25 “Silence!” Jesus said, speaking harshly to the demon. “Come out of him!” 26 The unclean spirit shook him and screamed, then it came out.

Common English Bible (CEB), used with permission

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Jonah 3: 1-5, 10

Jonah 3:10Common English Bible (CEB)

10 God saw what they were doing—that they had ceased their evil behavior. So God stopped planning to destroy them, and he didn’t do it.

Common English Bible (CEB)

Jonah 3:10Common English Bible (CEB)

10 God saw what they were doing—that they had ceased their evil behavior. So God stopped planning to destroy them, and he didn’t do it.

Common English Bible (CEB), used with permission

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Jonah 3: 1-5, 10

Jonah 3:1-5Common English Bible (CEB)

Nineveh hears God’s word

3 The Lord’s word came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city, and declare against it the proclamation that I am commanding you.” 3 And Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, according to the Lord’s word. (Now Nineveh was indeed an enormous city, a three days’ walk across.)

4 Jonah started into the city, walking one day, and he cried out, “Just forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and put on mourning clothes, from the greatest of them to the least significant.

Common English Bible (CEB), used with permission

Friday, January 23, 2015

John 1: 43-51

John 1:43-51Common English Bible (CEB)

43 The next day Jesus wanted to go into Galilee, and he found Philip. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter.

45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law and the Prophets: Jesus, Joseph’s son, from Nazareth.”

46 Nathanael responded, “Can anything from Nazareth be good?”

Philip said, “Come and see.”

47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said about him, “Here is a genuine Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”

48 Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?”

Jesus answered, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”

49 Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are God’s Son. You are the king of Israel.”

50 Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these! 51 I assure you that you will see heaven open and God’s angels going up to heaven and down to earth on the Human One.”[a]

Footnotes:

John 1:51 Or Son of Man

Common English Bible (CEB), used with permission

Thursday, January 22, 2015

1 Corinthians 6: 12-20

1 Corinthians 6:12-20Common English Bible (CEB)

Avoid sexual immorality

12 I have the freedom to do anything, but not everything is helpful. I have the freedom to do anything, but I won’t be controlled by anything. 13 Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, and yet God will do away with both. The body isn’t for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14 God has raised the Lord and will raise us through his power. 15 Don’t you know that your bodies are parts of Christ? So then, should I take parts of Christ and make them a part of someone who is sleeping around?[a] No way!16 Don’t you know that anyone who is joined to someone who is sleeping around is one body with that person? The scripture says, The two will become one flesh.[b] 17 The one who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. 18 Avoid sexual immorality! Every sin that a person can do is committed outside the body, except those who engage in sexual immorality commit sin against their own bodies. 19 Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? Don’t you know that you have the Holy Spirit from God, and you don’t belong to yourselves? 20 You have been bought and paid for, so honor God with your body.

Footnotes:

1 Corinthians 6:15 Or a prostitute; commonly, women who sell their bodies to multiple sex partners but includes those who are sexually immoral
1 Corinthians 6:16 Gen 2:24

Common English Bible (CEB), used with permission

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Jonah 3: 1-5,10

Jonah 3:1-5Common English Bible (CEB)

Nineveh hears God’s word

Jonah 3:10Common English Bible (CEB)

10 God saw what they were doing—that they had ceased their evil behavior. So God stopped planning to destroy them, and he didn’t do it.

Common English Bible (CEB), used with permission

Psalm 139: 106, 13-18

Psalm 139:1-6Common English Bible (CEB)

Psalm 139

For the music leader. Of David. A song.

139 Lord, you have examined me.
    You know me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I stand up.
    Even from far away, you comprehend my plans.
3 You study my traveling and resting.
    You are thoroughly familiar with all my ways.
4 There isn’t a word on my tongue, Lord,
    that you don’t already know completely.
5 You surround me—front and back.
    You put your hand on me.
6 That kind of knowledge is too much for me;
    it’s so high above me that I can’t fathom it.

Common English Bible (CEB)

Psalm 139:13-18Common English Bible (CEB)

13 You are the one who created my innermost parts;
    you knit me together while I was still in my mother’s womb.
14 I give thanks to you that I was marvelously set apart.
    Your works are wonderful—I know that very well.
15 My bones weren’t hidden from you
    when I was being put together in a secret place,
    when I was being woven together in the deep parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my embryo,
    and on your scroll every day was written that was being formed for me,[a]
    before any one of them had yet happened.[b]
17 God, your plans are incomprehensible to me!
    Their total number is countless!
18 If I tried to count them—they outnumber grains of sand!
    If I came to the very end—I’d still be with you.[c]

Footnotes:

Psalm 139:16 Correction; Heb lacks for me.
Psalm 139:16 Heb uncertain
Psalm 139:18 Correction

Common English Bible (CEB), used with permission

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

1 Samuel 3: 1-10 (11-20)

1 Samuel 3:1-10Common English Bible (CEB)

Samuel’s call

3 Now the boy Samuel was serving the Lord under Eli. The Lord’s word was rare at that time, and visions weren’t widely known. 2 One day Eli, whose eyes had grown so weak he was unable to see, was lying down in his room. 3 God’s lamp hadn’t gone out yet, and Samuel was lying down in the Lord’s temple, where God’s chest[a] was.

4 The Lord called to Samuel. “I’m here,” he said.

5 Samuel hurried to Eli and said, “I’m here. You called me?”

“I didn’t call you,” Eli replied. “Go lie down.” So he did.

6 Again the Lord called Samuel, so Samuel got up, went to Eli, and said, “I’m here. You called me?”

“I didn’t call, my son,” Eli replied. “Go and lie down.”

(7 Now Samuel didn’t yet know the Lord, and the Lord’s word hadn’t yet been revealed to him.)

8 A third time the Lord called Samuel. He got up, went to Eli, and said, “I’m here. You called me?”

Then Eli realized that it was the Lord who was calling the boy. 9 So Eli said to Samuel, “Go and lie down. If he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord. Your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down where he’d been.

10 Then the Lord came and stood there, calling just as before, “Samuel, Samuel!”

Samuel said, “Speak. Your servant is listening.”

Footnotes:

1 Samuel 3:3 Traditionally ark

Common English Bible (CEB)