THEINC-HIM DAILY BIBLE MEDITATION: March 21

Saturday, October 24, 2009

March 21

Genesis 1:1 1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

MARCH 21

PSALMS: 21

PROVERBS: 21

OLD TESTAMENT

1 KINGS 7:1 - 51

NEW TESTAMENT

ACTS 7:30 - 50

PSALMS: 21

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

1O LORD, the king rejoices in your strength.

How great is his joy in the victories you give!

2You have granted him the desire of his heart

and have not withheld the request of his lips.

Selah

3You welcomed him with rich blessings

and placed a crown of pure gold on his head.

4He asked you for life, and you gave it to him--

length of days, for ever and ever.

5Through the victories you gave, his glory is great;

you have bestowed on him splendor and majesty.

6Surely you have granted him eternal blessings

and made him glad with the joy of your presence.

7For the king trusts in the LORD;

through the unfailing love of the Most High

he will not be shaken.

8Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies;

your right hand will seize your foes.

9At the time of your appearing

you will make them like a fiery furnace.

In his wrath the LORD will swallow them up,

and his fire will consume them.

10You will destroy their descendants from the earth,

their posterity from mankind.

11Though they plot evil against you

and devise wicked schemes, they cannot succeed;

12for you will make them turn their backs

when you aim at them with drawn bow.[1]

13Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength;

we will sing and praise your might. [2]

PSALMS: 51

For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

1Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your unfailing love;

according to your great compassion

blot out my transgressions.

2Wash away all my iniquity

and cleanse me from my sin.

3For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is always before me.

4Against you, you only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in your sight,

so that you are proved right when you speak

and justified when you judge.

5Surely I was sinful at birth,

sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

6Surely you desire truth in the inner partsA;

you teachB me wisdom in the inmost place.

7Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;

wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

8Let me hear joy and gladness;

let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

9Hide your face from my sins

and blot out all my iniquity. [3]

10Create in me a pure heart, O God,

and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

11Do not cast me from your presence

or take your Holy Spirit from me.

12Restore to me the joy of your salvation

and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

13Then I will teach transgressors your ways,

and sinners will turn back to you.

14Save me from bloodguilt, O God,

the God who saves me,

and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

15O Lord, open my lips,

and my mouth will declare your praise.

16You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;

you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

17The sacrifices of God areC a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart,

O God, you will not despise.

18In your good pleasure make Zion prosper;

build up the walls of Jerusalem.

19Then there will be righteous sacrifices,

whole burnt offerings to delight you;

then bulls will be offered on your altar. [4]

PSALMS: 81

For the director of music. According to gittith.A Of Asaph.

1Sing for joy to God our strength;

shout aloud to the God of Jacob!

2Begin the music, strike the tambourine,

play the melodious harp and lyre.

3Sound the ram's horn at the New Moon,

and when the moon is full, on the day of our Feast;

4this is a decree for Israel,

an ordinance of the God of Jacob.

5He established it as a statute for Joseph

when he went out against Egypt,

where we heard a language we did not understand.B

6He says, "I removed the burden from their shoulders;

their hands were set free from the basket.

7In your distress you called and I rescued you,

I answered you out of a thundercloud;

I tested you at the waters of Meribah.

Selah

8"Hear, O my people, and I will warn you--

if you would but listen to me, O Israel!

9You shall have no foreign god among you;

you shall not bow down to an alien god.

10I am the LORD your God,

who brought you up out of Egypt.

Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. [5]

11"But my people would not listen to me;

Israel would not submit to me.

12So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts

to follow their own devices.

13"If my people would but listen to me,

if Israel would follow my ways,

14how quickly would I subdue their enemies

and turn my hand against their foes!

15Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him,

and their punishment would last forever.

16But you would be fed with the finest of wheat;

with honey from the rock I would satisfy you." [6]

PSALMS: 111

1PraiseA the LORD.B

I will extol the LORD with all my heart

in the council of the upright and in the assembly.

2Great are the works of the LORD;

they are pondered by all who delight in them.

3Glorious and majestic are his deeds,

and his righteousness endures forever.

4He has caused his wonders to be remembered;

the LORD is gracious and compassionate.

5He provides food for those who fear him;

he remembers his covenant forever.

6He has shown his people the power of his works,

giving them the lands of other nations.

7The works of his hands are faithful and just;

all his precepts are trustworthy.

8They are steadfast for ever and ever,

done in faithfulness and uprightness.

9He provided redemption for his people;

he ordained his covenant forever--

holy and awesome is his name.

10The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;

all who follow his precepts have good understanding.

To him belongs eternal praise. [7]

PSALMS: 141

A psalm of David.

1O LORD, I call to you; come quickly to me.

Hear my voice when I call to you.

2May my prayer be set before you like incense;

may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.

3Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD;

keep watch over the door of my lips.

4Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil,

to take part in wicked deeds

with men who are evildoers;

let me not eat of their delicacies.

5Let a righteous manA strike me--it is a kindness;

let him rebuke me--it is oil on my head.

My head will not refuse it.

Yet my prayer is ever against the deeds of evildoers;

6their rulers will be thrown down from the cliffs,

and the wicked will learn that my words were well spoken.

7They will say, "As one plows and breaks up the earth,

so our bones have been scattered at the mouth of the grave.B"

8But my eyes are fixed on you, O Sovereign LORD;

in you I take refuge--do not give me over to death.

9Keep me from the snares they have laid for me,

from the traps set by evildoers.

10Let the wicked fall into their own nets,

while I pass by in safety. [8]

PROVERBS: 21

211 The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD;

he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.

2All a man's ways seem right to him,

but the LORD weighs the heart.

3To do what is right and just

is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.

4Haughty eyes and a proud heart,

the lamp of the wicked, are sin!

5The plans of the diligent lead to profit

as surely as haste leads to poverty.

6A fortune made by a lying tongue

is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare.A

7The violence of the wicked will drag them away,

for they refuse to do what is right.

8The way of the guilty is devious,

but the conduct of the innocent is upright.

9Better to live on a corner of the roof

than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.

10The wicked man craves evil;

his neighbor gets no mercy from him. [9]

11When a mocker is punished, the simple gain wisdom;

when a wise man is instructed, he gets knowledge.

12The Righteous OneB takes note of the house of the wicked

and brings the wicked to ruin.

13If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor,

he too will cry out and not be answered.

14A gift given in secret soothes anger,

and a bribe concealed in the cloak pacifies great wrath.

15When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous

but terror to evildoers.

16A man who strays from the path of understanding

comes to rest in the company of the dead.

17He who loves pleasure will become poor;

whoever loves wine and oil will never be rich.

18The wicked become a ransom for the righteous,

and the unfaithful for the upright.

19Better to live in a desert

than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife.

20In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil,

but a foolish man devours all he has.

21He who pursues righteousness and love

finds life, prosperityC and honor. [10]

22A wise man attacks the city of the mighty

and pulls down the stronghold in which they trust.

23He who guards his mouth and his tongue

keeps himself from calamity.

24The proud and arrogant man--"Mocker" is his name;

he behaves with overweening pride.

25The sluggard's craving will be the death of him,

because his hands refuse to work.

26All day long he craves for more,

but the righteous give without sparing.

27The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable--

how much more so when brought with evil intent!

28A false witness will perish,

and whoever listens to him will be destroyed forever.D

29A wicked man puts up a bold front,

but an upright man gives thought to his ways.

30There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan

that can succeed against the LORD.

31The horse is made ready for the day of battle,

but victory rests with the LORD.[11]

OLD TESTAMENT

1 KINGS 7:1 - 51

71It took Solomon thirteen years, however, to complete the construction of his palace. 2He built the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon a hundred cubits long, fifty wide and thirty high,A with four rows of cedar columns supporting trimmed cedar beams. 3It was roofed with cedar above the beams that rested on the columns--forty-five beams, fifteen to a row. 4Its windows were placed high in sets of three, facing each other. 5All the doorways had rectangular frames; they were in the front part in sets of three, facing each other.B

6He made a colonnade fifty cubits long and thirty wide.C In front of it was a portico, and in front of that were pillars and an overhanging roof.

7He built the throne hall, the Hall of Justice, where he was to judge, and he covered it with cedar from floor to ceiling.D 8And the palace in which he was to live, set farther back, was similar in design. Solomon also made a palace like this hall for Pharaoh's daughter, whom he had married.

9All these structures, from the outside to the great courtyard and from foundation to eaves, were made of blocks of high-grade stone cut to size and trimmed with a saw on their inner and outer faces. 10The foundations were laid with large stones of good quality, some measuring ten cubitsE and some eight.F 11Above were high-grade stones, cut to size, and cedar beams. 12The great courtyard was surrounded by a wall of three courses of dressed stone and one course of trimmed cedar beams, as was the inner courtyard of the temple of the LORD with its portico.

13King Solomon sent to Tyre and brought Huram,G 14whose [12]mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali and whose father was a man of Tyre and a craftsman in bronze. Huram was highly skilled and experienced in all kinds of bronze work. He came to King Solomon and did all the work assigned to him.

15He cast two bronze pillars, each eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits around,H by line. 16He also made two capitals of cast bronze to set on the tops of the pillars; each capital was five cubitsI high. 17A network of interwoven chains festooned the capitals on top of the pillars, seven for each capital. 18He made pomegranates in two rowsJ encircling each network to decorate the capitals on top of the pillars.K He did the same for each capital. 19The capitals on top of the pillars in the portico were in the shape of lilies, four cubitsL high. 20On the capitals of both pillars, above the bowl-shaped part next to the network, were the two hundred pomegranates in rows all around. 21He erected the pillars at the portico of the temple. The pillar to the south he named JakinM and the one to the north Boaz.N 22The capitals on top were in the shape of lilies. And so the work on the pillars was completed.

23He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubitsO from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubitsP to measure around it. 24Below the rim, gourds encircled it--ten to a cubit. The gourds were cast in two rows in one piece with the Sea.

25The Sea stood on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south and three facing east. The Sea rested on top of them, and their hindquarters were toward the center. 26It was a [13]handbreadthQ in thickness, and its rim was like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held two thousand baths.R

27He also made ten movable stands of bronze; each was four cubits long, four wide and three high.S 28This is how the stands were made: They had side panels attached to uprights. 29On the panels between the uprights were lions, bulls and cherubim--and on the uprights as well. Above and below the lions and bulls were wreaths of hammered work. 30Each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles, and each had a basin resting on four supports, cast with wreaths on each side. 31On the inside of the stand there was an opening that had a circular frame one cubitT deep. This opening was round, and with its basework it measured a cubit and a half.U Around its opening there was engraving. The panels of the stands were square, not round. 32The four wheels were under the panels, and the axles of the wheels were attached to the stand. The diameter of each wheel was a cubit and a half. 33The wheels were made like chariot wheels; the axles, rims, spokes and hubs were all of cast metal.

34Each stand had four handles, one on each corner, projecting from the stand. 35At the top of the stand there was a circular band half a cubitV deep. The supports and panels were attached to the top of the stand. 36He engraved cherubim, lions and palm trees on the surfaces of the supports and on the panels, in every available space, with wreaths all around. 37This is the way he made the ten stands. They were all cast in the same molds and were identical in size and shape. [14]38He then made ten bronze basins, each holding forty bathsW and measuring four cubits across, one basin to go on each of the ten stands. 39He placed five of the stands on the south side of the temple and five on the north. He placed the Sea on the south side, at the southeast corner of the temple. 40He also made the basins and shovels and sprinkling bowls.

So Huram finished all the work he had undertaken for King Solomon in the temple of the LORD:

41the two pillars;

the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars;

the two sets of network decorating the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars;

42the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of network (two rows of pomegranates for each network, decorating the bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars);

43the ten stands with their ten basins;

44the Sea and the twelve bulls under it;

45the pots, shovels and sprinkling bowls.

All these objects that Huram made for King Solomon for the temple of the LORD were of burnished bronze. 46The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zarethan. 47Solomon left all these things unweighed, because there were so many; the weight of the bronze was not determined.

48Solomon also made all the furnishings that were in the LORD's [15]temple:

the golden altar;

the golden table on which was the bread of the Presence;

49the lampstands of pure gold (five on the right and five on the left, in front of the inner sanctuary);

the gold floral work and lamps and tongs;

50the pure gold basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes and censers;

and the gold sockets for the doors of the innermost room, the Most Holy Place, and also for the doors of the main hall of the temple.

51When all the work King Solomon had done for the temple of the LORD was finished, he brought in the things his father David had dedicated--the silver and gold and the furnishings--and he placed them in the treasuries of the LORD's temple.[16]

NEW TESTAMENT

ACTS 7:30 - 50

30"After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to look more closely, he heard the Lord's voice: 32`I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.'E Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.

33"Then the Lord said to him, `Take off your sandals; the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.'F

35"This is the same Moses whom they had rejected with the words, `Who made you ruler and judge?' He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36He led them out of Egypt and did wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt, at the Red SeaG and for forty years in the desert.

37"This is that Moses who told the Israelites, `God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.'H 38He was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to us.

39"But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. 40They told Aaron, [17]`Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt--we don't know what has happened to him!'I 41That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and held a celebration in honor of what their hands had made. 42But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:

" `Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings

forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?

43You have lifted up the shrine of Molech

and the star of your god Rephan,

the idols you made to worship.

Therefore I will send you into exile'J beyond Babylon.

44"Our forefathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the desert. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. 45Having received the tabernacle, our fathers under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, 46who enjoyed God's favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.K

47But it was Solomon who built the house for him.

48"However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says: [18]

49" `Heaven is my throne,

and the earth is my footstool.

What kind of house will you build for me?

says the Lord.

Or where will my resting place be?

50Has not my hand made all these things?'L [19]

^{John 3:16-21 16}"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,^F that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.^G ¹⁹This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. ²¹But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."^H

THEINC-HIM DAILY BIBLE MEDITATION

Saturday, October 24, 2009

March 21

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John 3:16-21