THEINC-HIM DAILY BIBLE MEDITATION: THEINC-HIM Daily Bible Meditation - March 23 - Full Text

Friday, March 23, 2018

THEINC-HIM Daily Bible Meditation - March 23 - Full Text - Shabbat Shalom!

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

THEINC-HIM Daily Bible Meditation

MARCH 23

PSALMS: 23, 53, 83, 113, 143

PROVERBS: 23

OLD TESTAMENT: 1 KINGS 9:1 - 10:27

NEW TESTAMENT: ACTS 8:14 - 40

PSALMS: 24

Of David. A psalm.

¹The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it,

the world, and all who live in it;

²for he founded it upon the seas

and established it upon the waters.

³Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?

Who may stand in his holy place?

⁴He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

who does not lift up his soul to an idol

or swear by what is false. ^A

⁵He will receive blessing from the LORD

and vindication from God his Savior.

⁶Such is the generation of those who seek him,

who seek your face, O God of Jacob. ^B

Selah

⁷Lift up your heads, O you gates;

be lifted up, you ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

⁸Who is this King of glory?

The LORD strong and mighty,

the LORD mighty in battle.

⁹Lift up your heads, O you gates;

lift them up, you ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

¹⁰Who is he, this King of glory?

The LORD Almighty--

he is the King of glory. ^¹

Selah ^²

PSALMS: 54

For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A maskil ^A of David. When the Ziphites had gone to Saul and said, "Is not David hiding among us?"

¹Save me, O God, by your name;

vindicate me by your might.

²Hear my prayer, O God;

listen to the words of my mouth.

³Strangers are attacking me;

ruthless men seek my life--

men without regard for God.

Selah

⁴Surely God is my help;

the Lord is the one who sustains me.

⁵Let evil recoil on those who slander me;

in your faithfulness destroy them.

⁶I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you;

I will praise your name, O LORD,

for it is good.

⁷For he has delivered me from all my troubles,

and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes. ^³

PSALMS: 84

For the director of music. According to gittith. ^A Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.

¹How lovely is your dwelling place,

O LORD Almighty!

²My soul yearns, even faints,

for the courts of the LORD;

my heart and my flesh cry out

for the living God.

³Even the sparrow has found a home,

and the swallow a nest for herself,

where she may have her young--

a place near your altar,

O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.

⁴Blessed are those who dwell in your house;

they are ever praising you.

Selah

⁵Blessed are those whose strength is in you,

who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.

⁶As they pass through the Valley of Baca,

they make it a place of springs;

the autumn rains also cover it with pools. ^B

⁷They go from strength to strength,

till each appears before God in Zion.

⁸Hear my prayer, O LORD God Almighty;

listen to me, O God of Jacob.

Selah

⁹Look upon our shield, ^C O God;

look with favor on your anointed one. ^⁴

¹⁰Better is one day in your courts

than a thousand elsewhere;

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God

than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

¹¹For the LORD God is a sun and shield;

the LORD bestows favor and honor;

no good thing does he withhold

from those whose walk is blameless.

¹²O LORD Almighty,

blessed is the man who trusts in you. ^⁵

PSALMS: 114

¹When Israel came out of Egypt,

the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,

²Judah became God's sanctuary,

Israel his dominion.

³The sea looked and fled,

the Jordan turned back;

⁴the mountains skipped like rams,

the hills like lambs.

⁵Why was it, O sea, that you fled,

O Jordan, that you turned back,

⁶you mountains, that you skipped like rams,

you hills, like lambs?

⁷Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,

at the presence of the God of Jacob,

⁸who turned the rock into a pool,

the hard rock into springs of water. ^⁶

PSALMS: 144

Of David.

¹Praise be to the LORD my Rock,

who trains my hands for war,

my fingers for battle.

²He is my loving God and my fortress,

my stronghold and my deliverer,

my shield, in whom I take refuge,

who subdues peoples ^A under me.

³O LORD, what is man that you care for him,

the son of man that you think of him?

⁴Man is like a breath;

his days are like a fleeting shadow.

⁵Part your heavens, O LORD, and come down;

touch the mountains, so that they smoke.

⁶Send forth lightning and scatter the enemies;

shoot your arrows and rout them.

⁷Reach down your hand from on high;

deliver me and rescue me

from the mighty waters,

from the hands of foreigners

⁸whose mouths are full of lies,

whose right hands are deceitful.

⁹I will sing a new song to you, O God;

on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you,

¹⁰to the One who gives victory to kings,

who delivers his servant David from the deadly sword. ^⁷

¹¹Deliver me and rescue me

from the hands of foreigners

whose mouths are full of lies,

whose right hands are deceitful.

¹²Then our sons in their youth

will be like well-nurtured plants,

and our daughters will be like pillars

carved to adorn a palace.

¹³Our barns will be filled

with every kind of provision.

Our sheep will increase by thousands,

by tens of thousands in our fields;

¹⁴our oxen will draw heavy loads. ^B

There will be no breaching of walls,

no going into captivity,

no cry of distress in our streets.

¹⁵Blessed are the people of whom this is true;

blessed are the people whose God is the LORD. ^⁸

PROVERBS: 24

24 ¹ Do not envy wicked men,

do not desire their company;

²for their hearts plot violence,

and their lips talk about making trouble.

³By wisdom a house is built,

and through understanding it is established;

⁴through knowledge its rooms are filled

with rare and beautiful treasures.

⁵A wise man has great power,

and a man of knowledge increases strength;

⁶for waging war you need guidance,

and for victory many advisers.

⁷Wisdom is too high for a fool;

in the assembly at the gate he has nothing to say.

⁸He who plots evil

will be known as a schemer.

⁹The schemes of folly are sin,

and men detest a mocker.

¹⁰If you falter in times of trouble,

how small is your strength!

¹¹Rescue those being led away to death;

hold back those staggering toward slaughter.

¹²If you say, "But we knew nothing about this,"

does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?

Does not he who guards your life know it?

Will he not repay each person according to what he has done? ^⁹

¹³Eat honey, my son, for it is good;

honey from the comb is sweet to your taste.

¹⁴Know also that wisdom is sweet to your soul;

if you find it, there is a future hope for you,

and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁵Do not lie in wait like an outlaw against a righteous man's house,

do not raid his dwelling place;

¹⁶for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again,

but the wicked are brought down by calamity.

¹⁷Do not gloat when your enemy falls;

when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice,

¹⁸or the LORD will see and disapprove

and turn his wrath away from him.

¹⁹Do not fret because of evil men

or be envious of the wicked,

²⁰for the evil man has no future hope,

and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out.

²¹Fear the LORD and the king, my son,

and do not join with the rebellious,

²²for those two will send sudden destruction upon them,

and who knows what calamities they can bring?

²³These also are sayings of the wise:

To show partiality in judging is not good:

²⁴Whoever says to the guilty, "You are innocent"--

peoples will curse him and nations denounce him.

²⁵But it will go well with those who convict the guilty,

and rich blessing will come upon them. ^¹⁰

²⁶An honest answer

is like a kiss on the lips.

²⁷Finish your outdoor work

and get your fields ready;

after that, build your house.

²⁸Do not testify against your neighbor without cause,

or use your lips to deceive.

²⁹Do not say, "I'll do to him as he has done to me;

I'll pay that man back for what he did."

³⁰I went past the field of the sluggard,

past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment;

³¹thorns had come up everywhere,

the ground was covered with weeds,

and the stone wall was in ruins.

³²I applied my heart to what I observed

and learned a lesson from what I saw:

³³A little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the hands to rest--

³⁴and poverty will come on you like a bandit

and scarcity like an armed man. ^A ^¹¹

OLD TESTAMENT: 1 KINGS 9:1 - 10:27

9 ¹When Solomon had finished building the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do, ²the LORD appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. ³The LORD said to him:

"I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

⁴"As for you, if you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, ⁵ I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, `You shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.'

⁶"But if you ^A or your sons turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you ^B and go off to serve other gods and worship them, ⁷ then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. ⁸ And though this temple is now imposing, all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, `Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?' ⁹ People will answer, `Because they have forsaken the LORD their God, who brought their fathers out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them--that is why the LORD brought all this disaster on them.'" ^¹²

¹⁰At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built these two buildings--the temple of the LORD and the royal palace—¹¹King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had supplied him with all the cedar and pine and gold he wanted. ¹²But when Hiram went from Tyre to see the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them. ¹³"What kind of towns are these you have given me, my brother?" he asked. And he called them the Land of Cabul, ^C a name they have to this day. ¹⁴Now Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents ^D of gold.

¹⁵Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscripted to build the LORD's temple, his own palace, the supporting terraces, ^E the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer. ¹⁶(Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire. He killed its Canaanite inhabitants and then gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon's wife. ¹⁷And Solomon rebuilt Gezer.) He built up Lower Beth Horon, ¹⁸Baalath, and Tadmor ^F in the desert, within his land, ¹⁹as well as all his store cities and the towns for his chariots and for his horses ^G--whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and throughout all the territory he ruled.

²⁰All the people left from the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites (these peoples were not Israelites), ²¹that is, their descendants remaining in the land, whom the Israelites could ^¹³ not exterminate ^H--these Solomon conscripted for his slave labor force, as it is to this day. ²²But Solomon did not make slaves of any of the Israelites; they were his fighting men, his government officials, his officers, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and charioteers. ²³They were also the chief officials in charge of Solomon's projects— 550 officials supervising the men who did the work.

²⁴After Pharaoh's daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace Solomon had built for her, he constructed the supporting terraces.

²⁵Three times a year Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings ^I on the altar he had built for the LORD, burning incense before the LORD along with them, and so fulfilled the temple obligations.

²⁶King Solomon also built ships at Ezion Geber, which is near Elath in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea. ^J ²⁷And Hiram sent his men--sailors who knew the sea--to serve in the fleet with Solomon's men. ²⁸They sailed to Ophir and brought back 420 talents ^K of gold, which they delivered to King Solomon. ^¹⁴

10 ¹When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relation to the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions. ²Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan--with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones--she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. ³Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. ⁴When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, ⁵the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at ^A the temple of the LORD, she was overwhelmed.

⁶She said to the king, "The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. ⁷But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. ⁸How happy your men must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! ⁹Praise be to the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the LORD's eternal love for Israel, he has made you king, to maintain justice and righteousness."

¹⁰And she gave the king 120 talents ^B of gold, large quantities of spices, and precious stones. Never again were so many spices brought in as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹¹(Hiram's ships brought gold from Ophir; and from there they brought great cargoes of ^almugwood
C and precious stones. ¹²The king used the almugwood C to make supports for the temple of the ^¹⁵ LORD and for the royal palace, and to make harps and lyres for the musicians. So much almugwood C has never been imported or seen since that day.)

¹³King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired and asked for, besides what he had given her out of his royal bounty. Then she left and returned with her retinue to her own country.

¹⁴The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents, ^D

¹⁵not including the revenues from merchants and traders and from all the Arabian kings and the governors of the land.

¹⁶King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred bekas ^E of gold went into each shield. ¹⁷He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold, with three minas ^F of gold in each shield. The king put them in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁸Then the king made a great throne inlaid with ivory and overlaid with fine gold.

¹⁹The throne had six steps, and its back had a rounded top. On both sides of the seat were armrests, with a lion standing beside each of them. ²⁰Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like it had ever been made for any other kingdom. ²¹All King Solomon's goblets were gold, and all the household articles in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Nothing was made of silver, because silver was considered of little value in Solomon's days. ²²The king had a fleet of trading ships ^G at sea along with the ships of Hiram. Once every ^¹⁶ three years it returned, carrying gold, silver and ivory, and apes and baboons.

²³King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. ²⁴The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. ²⁵Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift--articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules.

²⁶Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, ^H which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. ²⁷The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills. ²⁸Solomon's horses were imported from Egypt ^I and from Kue ^J--the royal merchants purchased them from Kue.

²⁹They imported a chariot from Egypt for six hundred shekels ^K of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty. ^L They also exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and of the Arameans. ^¹⁷

NEW TESTAMENT: ACTS 8:14 - 40

¹⁴When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. ¹⁵When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, ¹⁶because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into ^C the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money ¹⁹and said, "Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit."

²⁰Peter answered: "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! ²¹You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. ²²Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. ²³For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin."

²⁴Then Simon answered, "Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me."

²⁵When they had testified and proclaimed the word of the Lord, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.

²⁶Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road--the desert road--that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." ²⁷So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian ^D eunuch, an ^¹⁸ important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. ²⁹The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it."

³⁰Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked.

³¹"How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

³²The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture:

"He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,

and as a lamb before the shearer is silent,

so he did not open his mouth.

³³In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.

Who can speak of his descendants?

For his life was taken from the earth." ^E

³⁴The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?" ³⁵Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

³⁶As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?" ^F ³⁸And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both ^¹⁹ Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. ³⁹When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.

⁴⁰Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea. ^²⁰

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

Friday, March 23, 2018

THEINC-HIM Daily Bible Meditation - March 23 - Full Text - Shabbat Shalom!

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John 3:16-21