THEINC-HIM DAILY BIBLE MEDITATION: THEINC-HIM Daily Bible Meditation - September 18

Monday, September 18, 2017

THEINC-HIM Daily Bible Meditation - September 18 - Full Text!

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

THEINC-HIM Daily Bible Meditation

SEPTEMBER 18

PSALMS: 18, 48, 78, 108, 138

PROVERBS: 18

OLD TESTAMENT: HOSEA 10: - 14:9

NEW TESTAMENT: JUDE 1:25

PSALMS: 18

For the director of music. Of David the servant of the LORD. He sang to the LORD the words of this song when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said:

¹I love you, O LORD, my strength.

²The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;

my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.

He is my shield and the horn ^A of my salvation, my stronghold.

³I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,

and I am saved from my enemies.

⁴The cords of death entangled me;

the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.

⁵The cords of the grave ^B coiled around me;

the snares of death confronted me.

⁶In my distress I called to the LORD;

I cried to my God for help.

From his temple he heard my voice;

my cry came before him, into his ears.

⁷The earth trembled and quaked,

and the foundations of the mountains shook;

they trembled because he was angry.

⁸Smoke rose from his nostrils;

consuming fire came from his mouth,

burning coals blazed out of it.

⁹He parted the heavens and came down;

dark clouds were under his feet.

¹⁰He mounted the cherubim and flew;

he soared on the wings of the wind. ¹

¹¹He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him--

the dark rain clouds of the sky.

¹²Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,

with hailstones and bolts of lightning.

¹³The LORD thundered from heaven;

the voice of the Most High resounded. ^C

¹⁴He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies,

great bolts of lightning and routed them.

¹⁵The valleys of the sea were exposed

and the foundations of the earth laid bare

at your rebuke, O LORD,

at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

¹⁶He reached down from on high and took hold of me;

he drew me out of deep waters.

¹⁷He rescued me from my powerful enemy,

from my foes, who were too strong for me.

¹⁸They confronted me in the day of my disaster,

but the LORD was my support.

¹⁹He brought me out into a spacious place;

he rescued me because he delighted in me.

²⁰The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness;

according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.

²¹For I have kept the ways of the LORD;

I have not done evil by turning from my God.

²²All his laws are before me;

I have not turned away from his decrees.

²³I have been blameless before him

and have kept myself from sin.

²⁴The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,

according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight. ²

²⁵To the faithful you show yourself faithful,

to the blameless you show yourself blameless,

²⁶to the pure you show yourself pure,

but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.

²⁷You save the humble

but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.

²⁸You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning;

my God turns my darkness into light.

²⁹With your help I can advance against a troop ^D;

with my God I can scale a wall.

³⁰As for God, his way is perfect;

the word of the LORD is flawless.

He is a shield

for all who take refuge in him.

³¹For who is God besides the LORD?

And who is the Rock except our God?

³²It is God who arms me with strength

and makes my way perfect.

³³He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;

he enables me to stand on the heights.

³⁴He trains my hands for battle;

my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

³⁵You give me your shield of victory,

and your right hand sustains me;

you stoop down to make me great.

³⁶You broaden the path beneath me,

so that my ankles do not turn.

³⁷I pursued my enemies and overtook them;

I did not turn back till they were destroyed.

³⁸I crushed them so that they could not rise;

they fell beneath my feet. ³

³⁹You armed me with strength for battle;

you made my adversaries bow at my feet.

⁴⁰You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,

and I destroyed my foes.

⁴¹They cried for help, but there was no one to save them--

to the LORD, but he did not answer.

⁴²I beat them as fine as dust borne on the wind;

I poured them out like mud in the streets.

⁴³You have delivered me from the attacks of the people;

you have made me the head of nations;

people I did not know are subject to me.

⁴⁴As soon as they hear me, they obey me;

foreigners cringe before me.

⁴⁵They all lose heart;

they come trembling from their strongholds.

⁴⁶The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock!

Exalted be God my Savior!

⁴⁷He is the God who avenges me,

who subdues nations under me,

⁴⁸who saves me from my enemies.

You exalted me above my foes;

from violent men you rescued me.

⁴⁹Therefore I will praise you among the nations, O LORD;

I will sing praises to your name.

⁵⁰He gives his king great victories;

he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed,

to David and his descendants forever. ⁴

PSALMS: 48

A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah.

¹Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise,

in the city of our God, his holy mountain.

²It is beautiful in its loftiness,

the joy of the whole earth.

Like the utmost heights of Zaphon ^A is Mount Zion,

the ^B city of the Great King.

³God is in her citadels;

he has shown himself to be her fortress.

⁴When the kings joined forces,

when they advanced together,

⁵they saw her and were astounded;

they fled in terror.

⁶Trembling seized them there,

pain like that of a woman in labor.

⁷You destroyed them like ships of Tarshish

shattered by an east wind.

⁸As we have heard,

so have we seen

in the city of the LORD Almighty,

in the city of our God:

God makes her secure forever.

Selah

⁹Within your temple, O God,

we meditate on your unfailing love.

¹⁰Like your name, O God,

your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;

your right hand is filled with righteousness. ⁵

¹¹Mount Zion rejoices,

the villages of Judah are glad

because of your judgments.

¹²Walk about Zion, go around her,

count her towers,

¹³consider well her ramparts,

view her citadels,

that you may tell of them to the next generation.

¹⁴For this God is our God for ever and ever;

he will be our guide even to the end. ⁶

PSALMS: 78

A maskil ^A of Asaph.

¹O my people, hear my teaching;

listen to the words of my mouth.

²I will open my mouth in parables,

I will utter hidden things, things from of old--

³what we have heard and known,

what our fathers have told us.

⁴We will not hide them from their children;

we will tell the next generation

the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD,

his power, and the wonders he has done.

⁵He decreed statutes for Jacob

and established the law in Israel,

which he commanded our forefathers

to teach their children,

⁶so the next generation would know them,

even the children yet to be born,

and they in turn would tell their children.

⁷Then they would put their trust in God

and would not forget his deeds

but would keep his commands.

⁸They would not be like their forefathers--

a stubborn and rebellious generation,

whose hearts were not loyal to God,

whose spirits were not faithful to him.

⁹The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,

turned back on the day of battle;

¹⁰they did not keep God's covenant

and refused to live by his law.

¹¹They forgot what he had done,

the wonders he had shown them.

¹²He did miracles in the sight of their fathers

in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

¹³He divided the sea and led them through;

he made the water stand firm like a wall.

¹⁴He guided them with the cloud by day

and with light from the fire all night.

¹⁵He split the rocks in the desert

and gave them water as abundant as the seas;

¹⁶he brought streams out of a rocky crag

and made water flow down like rivers.

¹⁷But they continued to sin against him,

rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

¹⁸They willfully put God to the test

by demanding the food they craved.

¹⁹They spoke against God, saying,

"Can God spread a table in the desert?

²⁰When he struck the rock, water gushed out,

and streams flowed abundantly.

But can he also give us food?

Can he supply meat for his people?"

²¹When the LORD heard them, he was very angry;

his fire broke out against Jacob,

and his wrath rose against Israel,

²²for they did not believe in God

or trust in his deliverance.

²³Yet he gave a command to the skies above

and opened the doors of the heavens;

²⁴he rained down manna for the people to eat, ⁷

he gave them the grain of heaven.

²⁵Men ate the bread of angels;

he sent them all the food they could eat.

²⁶He let loose the east wind from the heavens

and led forth the south wind by his power.

²⁷He rained meat down on them like dust,

flying birds like sand on the seashore.

²⁸He made them come down inside their camp,

all around their tents.

²⁹They ate till they had more than enough,

for he had given them what they craved.

³⁰But before they turned from the food they craved,

even while it was still in their mouths,

³¹God's anger rose against them;

he put to death the sturdiest among them,

cutting down the young men of Israel.

³²In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;

in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.

³³So he ended their days in futility

and their years in terror.

³⁴Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;

they eagerly turned to him again.

³⁵They remembered that God was their Rock,

that God Most High was their Redeemer.

³⁶But then they would flatter him with their mouths,

lying to him with their tongues;

³⁷their hearts were not loyal to him,

they were not faithful to his covenant.

³⁸Yet he was merciful;

he forgave their iniquities

and did not destroy them.

Time after time he restrained his anger

and did not stir up his full wrath. ⁸

³⁹He remembered that they were but flesh,

a passing breeze that does not return.

⁴⁰How often they rebelled against him in the desert

and grieved him in the wasteland!

⁴¹Again and again they put God to the test;

they vexed the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They did not remember his power--

the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,

⁴³the day he displayed his miraculous signs in Egypt,

his wonders in the region of Zoan.

⁴⁴He turned their rivers to blood;

they could not drink from their streams.

⁴⁵He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,

and frogs that devastated them.

⁴⁶He gave their crops to the grasshopper,

their produce to the locust.

⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail

and their sycamore-figs with sleet.

⁴⁸He gave over their cattle to the hail,

their livestock to bolts of lightning.

⁴⁹He unleashed against them his hot anger,

his wrath, indignation and hostility--

a band of destroying angels.

⁵⁰He prepared a path for his anger;

he did not spare them from death

but gave them over to the plague.

⁵¹He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,

the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.

⁵²But he brought his people out like a flock;

he led them like sheep through the desert.

⁵³He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;

but the sea engulfed their enemies.

⁵⁴Thus he brought them to the border of his holy land, ⁹

to the hill country his right hand had taken.

⁵⁵He drove out nations before them

and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;

he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

⁵⁶But they put God to the test

and rebelled against the Most High;

they did not keep his statutes.

⁵⁷Like their fathers they were disloyal and faithless,

as unreliable as a faulty bow.

⁵⁸They angered him with their high places;

they aroused his jealousy with their idols.

⁵⁹When God heard them, he was very angry;

he rejected Israel completely.

⁶⁰He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,

the tent he had set up among men.

⁶¹He sent the ark of his might into captivity,

his splendor into the hands of the enemy.

⁶²He gave his people over to the sword;

he was very angry with his inheritance.

⁶³Fire consumed their young men,

and their maidens had no wedding songs;

⁶⁴their priests were put to the sword,

and their widows could not weep.

⁶⁵Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,

as a man wakes from the stupor of wine.

⁶⁶He beat back his enemies;

he put them to everlasting shame.

⁶⁷Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,

he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;

⁶⁸but he chose the tribe of Judah, ¹⁰

Mount Zion, which he loved.

⁶⁹He built his sanctuary like the heights,

like the earth that he established forever.

⁷⁰He chose David his servant

and took him from the sheep pens;

⁷¹from tending the sheep he brought him

to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,

of Israel his inheritance.

⁷²And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;

with skillful hands he led them. ¹¹

PSALMS: 108

A song. A psalm of David.

¹My heart is steadfast, O God;

I will sing and make music with all my soul.

²Awake, harp and lyre!

I will awaken the dawn.

³I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations;

I will sing of you among the peoples.

⁴For great is your love, higher than the heavens;

your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

⁵Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,

and let your glory be over all the earth.

⁶Save us and help us with your right hand,

that those you love may be delivered.

⁷God has spoken from his sanctuary:

"In triumph I will parcel out Shechem

and measure off the Valley of Succoth.

⁸Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine;

Ephraim is my helmet,

Judah my scepter.

⁹Moab is my washbasin,

upon Edom I toss my sandal;

over Philistia I shout in triumph."

¹⁰Who will bring me to the fortified city?

Who will lead me to Edom?

¹¹Is it not you, O God, you who have rejected us

and no longer go out with our armies?

¹²Give us aid against the enemy,

for the help of man is worthless.

¹³With God we will gain the victory, ¹²

and he will trample down our enemies. ¹³

PSALMS: 138

Of David.

¹I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart;

before the "gods" I will sing your praise.

²I will bow down toward your holy temple

and will praise your name

for your love and your faithfulness,

for you have exalted above all things

your name and your word.

³When I called, you answered me;

you made me bold and stouthearted.

⁴May all the kings of the earth praise you, O LORD,

when they hear the words of your mouth.

⁵May they sing of the ways of the LORD,

⁶Though the LORD is on high, he looks upon the lowly,

but the proud he knows from afar.

⁷Though I walk in the midst of trouble,

you preserve my life;

you stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes,

with your right hand you save me.

⁸The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;

your love, O LORD, endures forever--

do not abandon the works of your hands. ¹⁴

PROVERBS: 18

18 ¹ An unfriendly man pursues selfish ends;

he defies all sound judgment.

²A fool finds no pleasure in understanding

but delights in airing his own opinions.

³When wickedness comes, so does contempt,

and with shame comes disgrace.

⁴The words of a man's mouth are deep waters,

but the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.

⁵It is not good to be partial to the wicked

or to deprive the innocent of justice.

⁶A fool's lips bring him strife,

and his mouth invites a beating.

⁷A fool's mouth is his undoing,

and his lips are a snare to his soul.

⁸The words of a gossip are like choice morsels;

they go down to a man's inmost parts.

⁹One who is slack in his work

is brother to one who destroys.

¹⁰The name of the LORD is a strong tower;

the righteous run to it and are safe.

¹¹The wealth of the rich is their fortified city;

they imagine it an unscalable wall. ¹⁵

¹²Before his downfall a man's heart is proud,

but humility comes before honor.

¹³He who answers before listening--

that is his folly and his shame.

¹⁴A man's spirit sustains him in sickness,

but a crushed spirit who can bear?

¹⁵The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge;

the ears of the wise seek it out.

¹⁶A gift opens the way for the giver

and ushers him into the presence of the great.

¹⁷The first to present his case seems right,

till another comes forward and questions him.

¹⁸Casting the lot settles disputes

and keeps strong opponents apart.

¹⁹An offended brother is more unyielding than a fortified city,

and disputes are like the barred gates of a citadel.

²⁰From the fruit of his mouth a man's stomach is filled;

with the harvest from his lips he is satisfied.

²¹The tongue has the power of life and death,

and those who love it will eat its fruit.

²²He who finds a wife finds what is good

and receives favor from the LORD. ¹⁶

²³A poor man pleads for mercy,

but a rich man answers harshly.

²⁴A man of many companions may come to ruin,

but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. ¹⁷

OLD TESTAMENT: HOSEA 10:1 - 14:9

10 ¹ Israel was a spreading vine;

he brought forth fruit for himself.

As his fruit increased,

he built more altars;

as his land prospered,

he adorned his sacred stones.

²Their heart is deceitful,

and now they must bear their guilt.

The LORD will demolish their altars

and destroy their sacred stones.

³Then they will say, "We have no king

because we did not revere the LORD.

But even if we had a king,

what could he do for us?"

⁴They make many promises,

take false oaths

and make agreements;

therefore lawsuits spring up

like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.

⁵The people who live in Samaria fear

for the calf-idol of Beth Aven. ^A

Its people will mourn over it,

and so will its idolatrous priests,

those who had rejoiced over its splendor, ¹⁸

because it is taken from them into exile.

⁶It will be carried to Assyria

as tribute for the great king.

Ephraim will be disgraced;

Israel will be ashamed of its wooden idols. ^B

⁷Samaria and its king will float away

like a twig on the surface of the waters.

⁸The high places of wickedness ^C will be destroyed--

it is the sin of Israel.

Thorns and thistles will grow up

and cover their altars.

Then they will say to the mountains, "Cover us!"

and to the hills, "Fall on us!"

⁹"Since the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel,

and there you have remained. ^D

Did not war overtake

the evildoers in Gibeah?

¹⁰When I please, I will punish them;

nations will be gathered against them

to put them in bonds for their double sin.

¹¹Ephraim is a trained heifer

that loves to thresh;

so I will put a yoke

on her fair neck.

I will drive Ephraim, ¹⁹

Judah must plow,

and Jacob must break up the ground.

¹²Sow for yourselves righteousness,

reap the fruit of unfailing love,

and break up your unplowed ground;

for it is time to seek the LORD,

until he comes

and showers righteousness on you.

¹³But you have planted wickedness,

you have reaped evil,

you have eaten the fruit of deception.

Because you have depended on your own strength

and on your many warriors,

¹⁴the roar of battle will rise against your people,

so that all your fortresses will be devastated--

as Shalman devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle,

when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.

¹⁵Thus will it happen to you, O Bethel,

because your wickedness is great.

When that day dawns,

the king of Israel will be completely destroyed. ²⁰

11 ¹ "When Israel was a child, I loved him,

and out of Egypt I called my son.

²But the more I ^A called Israel,

the further they went from me. ^B

They sacrificed to the Baals

and they burned incense to images.

³It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,

taking them by the arms;

but they did not realize

it was I who healed them.

⁴I led them with cords of human kindness,

with ties of love;

I lifted the yoke from their neck

and bent down to feed them.

⁵"Will they not return to Egypt

and will not Assyria rule over them

because they refuse to repent?

⁶Swords will flash in their cities,

will destroy the bars of their gates

and put an end to their plans.

⁷My people are determined to turn from me.

Even if they call to the Most High,

he will by no means exalt them.

⁸"How can I give you up, Ephraim?

How can I hand you over, Israel? ²¹

How can I treat you like Admah?

How can I make you like Zeboiim?

My heart is changed within me;

all my compassion is aroused.

⁹I will not carry out my fierce anger,

nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim.

For I am God, and not man--

the Holy One among you.

I will not come in wrath. ^C

¹⁰They will follow the LORD;

he will roar like a lion.

When he roars,

his children will come trembling from the west.

¹¹They will come trembling

like birds from Egypt,

like doves from Assyria.

I will settle them in their homes,"

declares the LORD.

¹²Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,

the house of Israel with deceit.

And Judah is unruly against God,

even against the faithful Holy One. ²²

12 ¹ Ephraim feeds on the wind;

he pursues the east wind all day

and multiplies lies and violence.

He makes a treaty with Assyria

and sends olive oil to Egypt.

²The LORD has a charge to bring against Judah;

he will punish Jacob ^A according to his ways

and repay him according to his deeds.

³In the womb he grasped his brother's heel;

as a man he struggled with God.

⁴He struggled with the angel and overcame him;

he wept and begged for his favor.

He found him at Bethel

and talked with him there--

⁵the LORD God Almighty,

the LORD is his name of renown!

⁶But you must return to your God;

maintain love and justice,

and wait for your God always.

⁷The merchant uses dishonest scales;

he loves to defraud.

⁸Ephraim boasts,

"I am very rich; I have become wealthy.

With all my wealth they will not find in me ²³

any iniquity or sin."

⁹"I am the LORD your God,

who brought you out of ^B Egypt;

I will make you live in tents again,

as in the days of your appointed feasts.

¹⁰I spoke to the prophets,

gave them many visions

and told parables through them."

¹¹Is Gilead wicked?

Its people are worthless!

Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal?

Their altars will be like piles of stones

on a plowed field.

¹²Jacob fled to the country of Aram ^C;

Israel served to get a wife,

and to pay for her he tended sheep.

¹³The LORD used a prophet to bring Israel up from Egypt,

by a prophet he cared for him.

¹⁴But Ephraim has bitterly provoked him to anger;

his Lord will leave upon him the guilt of his bloodshed

and will repay him for his contempt. ²⁴

13 ¹ When Ephraim spoke, men trembled;

he was exalted in Israel.

But he became guilty of Baal worship and died.

²Now they sin more and more;

they make idols for themselves from their silver,

cleverly fashioned images,

all of them the work of craftsmen.

It is said of these people,

"They offer human sacrifice

and kiss ^A the calf-idols."

³Therefore they will be like the morning mist,

like the early dew that disappears,

like chaff swirling from a threshing floor,

like smoke escaping through a window.

⁴"But I am the LORD your God,

who brought you out of ^B Egypt.

You shall acknowledge no God but me,

no Savior except me.

⁵I cared for you in the desert,

in the land of burning heat.

⁶When I fed them, they were satisfied;

when they were satisfied, they became proud;

then they forgot me.

⁷So I will come upon them like a lion, ²⁵

like a leopard I will lurk by the path.

⁸Like a bear robbed of her cubs,

I will attack them and rip them open.

Like a lion I will devour them;

a wild animal will tear them apart.

⁹"You are destroyed, O Israel,

because you are against me, against your helper.

¹⁰Where is your king, that he may save you?

Where are your rulers in all your towns,

of whom you said,

`Give me a king and princes'?

¹¹So in my anger I gave you a king,

and in my wrath I took him away.

¹²The guilt of Ephraim is stored up,

his sins are kept on record.

¹³Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him,

but he is a child without wisdom;

when the time arrives,

he does not come to the opening of the womb.

¹⁴"I will ransom them from the power of the grave ^C;

I will redeem them from death.

Where, O death, are your plagues?

Where, O grave, ^D is your destruction? ²⁶

"I will have no compassion,

¹⁵ even though he thrives among his brothers.

An east wind from the LORD will come,

blowing in from the desert;

his spring will fail

and his well dry up.

His storehouse will be plundered

of all its treasures.

¹⁶The people of Samaria must bear their guilt,

because they have rebelled against their God.

They will fall by the sword;

their little ones will be dashed to the ground,

their pregnant women ripped open."

14 ¹ Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God.

Your sins have been your downfall!

²Take words with you

and return to the LORD.

Say to him:

"Forgive all our sins

and receive us graciously,

that we may offer the fruit of our lips. ^A

³Assyria cannot save us;

we will not mount war-horses.

We will never again say `Our gods'

to what our own hands have made,

for in you the fatherless find compassion."

⁴"I will heal their waywardness

and love them freely,

for my anger has turned away from them.

⁵I will be like the dew to Israel;

he will blossom like a lily.

Like a cedar of Lebanon

he will send down his roots;

⁶ his young shoots will grow.

His splendor will be like an olive tree,

his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.

⁷Men will dwell again in his shade.

He will flourish like the grain.

He will blossom like a vine,

and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.

⁸O Ephraim, what more have I ^B to do with idols?

I will answer him and care for him.

I am like a green pine tree;

your fruitfulness comes from me."

⁹Who is wise? He will realize these things.

Who is discerning? He will understand them. ²⁷

The ways of the LORD are right;

the righteous walk in them,

but the rebellious stumble in them. ²⁸

NEW TESTAMENT: JUDE 1:25

1 ¹Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,

To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by ^A Jesus Christ:

²Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

³Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. ⁴For certain men whose condemnation was written about ^B long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

⁵Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord ^C delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home--these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. ⁷In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

⁸In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. ⁹But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" ¹⁰Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals--these are the very things that destroy them.

¹¹Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion.

¹²These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm--shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted--twice dead. ¹³They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

¹⁴Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones ¹⁵to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly ²⁹ sinners have spoken against him." ¹⁶These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

¹⁷But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold.

¹⁸They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." ¹⁹These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

²⁰But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. ²¹Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

²²Be merciful to those who doubt; ²³snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear--hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

²⁴To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—²⁵to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. ³⁰

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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever 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 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But 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

Monday, September 18, 2017

THEINC-HIM Daily Bible Meditation - September 18 - Full Text!

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John 3:16-21