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

Sunday, March 18, 2018

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

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

THEINC-HIM Daily Bible Meditation

MARCH 18

PSALMS: 18, 48, 78, 108, 138

PROVERBS: 18

OLD TESTAMENT: 1 KINGS 2:1 - 3:2

NEW TESTAMENT: ACTS 5:1 - 42

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: 1 KINGS 2:1 - 3:2

2 ¹When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son.

²"I am about to go the way of all the earth," he said. "So be strong, show yourself a man, ³and observe what the LORD your God requires: Walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go, ⁴and that the LORD may keep his promise to me: `If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.'

⁵"Now you yourself know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me--what he did to the two commanders of Israel's armies, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. He killed them, shedding their blood in peacetime as if in battle, and with that blood stained the belt around his waist and the sandals on his feet. ⁶Deal with him according to your wisdom, but do not let his gray head go down to the grave ^A in peace.

⁷"But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai of Gilead and let them be among those who eat at your table. They stood by me when I fled from your brother Absalom.

⁸"And remember, you have with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjamite from Bahurim, who called down bitter curses on me the day I went to Mahanaim. When he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the LORD: `I will not put you to death by the sword.' ⁹But now, do not consider him innocent. You are a man ^¹⁸ of wisdom; you will know what to do to him. Bring his gray head down to the grave in blood."

¹⁰Then David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. ¹¹He had reigned forty years over Israel--seven years in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem.

¹²So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his rule was firmly established.

¹³Now Adonijah, the son of Haggith, went to Bathsheba, Solomon's mother. Bathsheba asked him, "Do you come peacefully?"

He answered, "Yes, peacefully." ¹⁴Then he added, "I have something to say to you."

"You may say it," she replied.

¹⁵"As you know," he said, "the kingdom was mine. All Israel looked to me as their king. But things changed, and the kingdom has gone to my brother; for it has come to him from the LORD. ¹⁶Now I have one request to make of you. Do not refuse me."

"You may make it," she said.

¹⁷So he continued, "Please ask King Solomon--he will not refuse you--to give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife."

¹⁸"Very well," Bathsheba replied, "I will speak to the king for you."

¹⁹When Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, the king stood up to meet her, bowed down to her and sat down on his throne. He had a throne brought for the king's mother, ^¹⁹ and she sat down at his right hand.

²⁰"I have one small request to make of you," she said. "Do not refuse me."

The king replied, "Make it, my mother; I will not refuse you."

²¹So she said, "Let Abishag the Shunammite be given in marriage to your brother Adonijah."

²²King Solomon answered his mother, "Why do you request Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? You might as well request the kingdom for him--after all, he is my older brother--yes, for him and for Abiathar the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah!"

²³Then King Solomon swore by the LORD: "May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if Adonijah does not pay with his life for this request! ²⁴And now, as surely as the LORD lives--he who has established me securely on the throne of my father David and has founded a dynasty for me as he promised--Adonijah shall be put to death today!" ²⁵So King Solomon gave orders to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he struck down Adonijah and he died.

²⁶To Abiathar the priest the king said, "Go back to your fields in Anathoth. You deserve to die, but I will not put you to death now, because you carried the ark of the Sovereign LORD before my father David and shared all my father's hardships." ²⁷So Solomon removed Abiathar from the priesthood of the LORD, fulfilling the word the LORD had spoken at Shiloh about the house of Eli.

²⁸When the news reached Joab, who had conspired with Adonijah though not with Absalom, he fled to the tent of the LORD and took hold of the horns of the altar.

²⁹King Solomon was told that ^²⁰Joab had fled to the tent of the LORD and was beside the altar. Then Solomon ordered Benaiah son of Jehoiada, "Go, strike him down!"

³⁰So Benaiah entered the tent of the LORD and said to Joab, "The king says, `Come out!' "

But he answered, "No, I will die here."

Benaiah reported to the king, "This is how Joab answered me."

³¹Then the king commanded Benaiah, "Do as he says. Strike him down and bury him, and so clear me and my father's house of the guilt of the innocent blood that Joab shed.

³²The LORD will repay him for the blood he shed, because without the knowledge of my father David he attacked two men and killed them with the sword. Both of them--Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel's army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah's army--were better men and more upright than he. ³³May the guilt of their blood rest on the head of Joab and his descendants forever. But on David and his descendants, his house and his throne, may there be the LORD's peace forever."

³⁴So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up and struck down Joab and killed him, and he was buried on his own land ^B in the desert. ³⁵The king put Benaiah son of Jehoiada over the army in Joab's position and replaced Abiathar with Zadok the priest.

³⁶Then the king sent for Shimei and said to him, "Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there, but do not go anywhere else. ³⁷The day you leave and cross the Kidron Valley, you can be sure you will die; your blood will be on your own head."

³⁸Shimei answered the king, "What you say is good. Your ^²¹ servant will do as my lord the king has said." And Shimei stayed in Jerusalem for a long time.

³⁹But three years later, two of Shimei's slaves ran off to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath, and Shimei was told, "Your slaves are in Gath." ⁴⁰At this, he saddled his donkey and went to Achish at Gath in search of his slaves. So Shimei went away and brought the slaves back from Gath.

⁴¹When Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had returned, ⁴²the king summoned Shimei and said to him, "Did I not make you swear by the LORD and warn you, `On the day you leave to go anywhere else, you can be sure you will die'? At that time you said to me, `What you say is good. I will obey.' ⁴³Why then did you not keep your oath to the LORD and obey the command I gave you?"

⁴⁴The king also said to Shimei, "You know in your heart all the wrong you did to my father David. Now the LORD will repay you for your wrongdoing. ⁴⁵But King Solomon will be blessed, and David's throne will remain secure before the LORD forever."

⁴⁶Then the king gave the order to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he went out and struck Shimei down and killed him.

The kingdom was now firmly established in Solomon's hands. ^²²

3 ¹Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt and married his daughter. He brought her to the City of David until he finished building his palace and the temple of the LORD, and the wall around Jerusalem. ²The people, however, were still sacrificing at the high places, because a temple had not yet been built for the Name of the LORD. ^²³

NEW TESTAMENT: ACTS 5:1 - 42

5 ¹Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. ²With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet.

³Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? ⁴Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God."

⁵When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. ⁶Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.

⁷About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.

⁸Peter asked her, "Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?"

"Yes," she said, "that is the price."

⁹Peter said to her, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also."

¹⁰At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. ¹¹Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events. ^²⁴ ¹²The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade. ¹³No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. ¹⁴Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. ¹⁵As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. ¹⁶Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil ^A spirits, and all of them were healed.

¹⁷Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. ¹⁸They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. ¹⁹But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. ²⁰"Go, stand in the temple courts," he said, "and tell the people the full message of this new life."

²¹At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people.

When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin--the full assembly of the elders of Israel--and sent to the jail for the apostles. ²²But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported,

²³"We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside." ²⁴On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were puzzled, wondering what would come of this. ^²⁵ ²⁵Then someone came and said, "Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people." ²⁶At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them.

²⁷Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. ²⁸"We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name," he said. "Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood."

²⁹Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men!

³⁰The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead--whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. ³¹God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. ³²We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him."

³³When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. ³⁴But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. ³⁵Then he addressed them: "Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. ³⁶Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. ^²⁶ ³⁷After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. ³⁸Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. ³⁹But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God."

⁴⁰His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

⁴¹The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. ⁴²Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. ^B^²⁷

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

Sunday, March 18, 2018

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

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John 3:16-21