THEINC-HIM Daily Bible Meditation - August 13 - Full Text!

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

THEINC-HIM Daily Bible Meditation

AUGUST 13

PSALMS: 13, 43, 73, 103, 133

PROVERBS: 13

OLD TESTAMENT: EZEKIEL 3:16 - 6:14

NEW TESTAMENT: HEBREWS 4:1 - 16

PSALMS: 13

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

¹ How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

² How long must I wrestle with my thoughts

and every day have sorrow in my heart?

How long will my enemy triumph over me?

³ Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.

Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;

⁴ my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"

and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

⁵ But I trust in your unfailing love;

my heart rejoices in your salvation.

⁶ I will sing to the LORD,

for he has been good to me. ¹

PSALMS: 43

¹ Vindicate ^A me, O God,

and plead my cause against an ungodly nation;

rescue me from deceitful and wicked men.

² You are God my stronghold.

Why have you rejected me?

Why must I go about mourning,

oppressed by the enemy?

³ Send forth your light and your truth,

let them guide me;

let them bring me to your holy mountain,

to the place where you dwell.

⁴ Then will I go to the altar of God,

to God, my joy and my delight.

I will praise you with the harp,

O God, my God.

⁵ Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God. ²

PSALMS: 73

A psalm of Asaph.

¹ Surely God is good to Israel,

to those who are pure in heart.

² But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;

I had nearly lost my foothold.

³ For I envied the arrogant

when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴ They have no struggles;

their bodies are healthy and strong. ^A

⁵ They are free from the burdens common to man;

they are not plagued by human ills.

⁶ Therefore pride is their necklace;

they clothe themselves with violence.

⁷ From their callous hearts comes iniquity ^B;

the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.

⁸ They scoff, and speak with malice;

in their arrogance they threaten oppression.

⁹ Their mouths lay claim to heaven,

and their tongues take possession of the earth.

¹⁰ Therefore their people turn to them

and drink up waters in abundance. ^C

¹¹ They say, "How can God know?

Does the Most High have knowledge?"

¹² This is what the wicked are like--

always carefree, they increase in wealth. ³

A psalm of Asaph.

¹³ Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure;

in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.

¹⁴ All day long I have been plagued;

I have been punished every morning.

¹⁵ If I had said, "I will speak thus,"

I would have betrayed your children.

¹⁶ When I tried to understand all this,

it was oppressive to me

¹⁷ till I entered the sanctuary of God;

then I understood their final destiny.

¹⁸ Surely you place them on slippery ground;

you cast them down to ruin.

¹⁹ How suddenly are they destroyed,

completely swept away by terrors!

²⁰ As a dream when one awakes,

so when you arise, O Lord,

you will despise them as fantasies.

²¹ When my heart was grieved

and my spirit embittered,

²² I was senseless and ignorant;

I was a brute beast before you.

²³ Yet I am always with you;

you hold me by my right hand.

²⁴ You guide me with your counsel,

and afterward you will take me into glory.

²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you?

And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart

and my portion forever. ⁴

²⁷ Those who are far from you will perish;

you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.

²⁸ But as for me, it is good to be near God.

I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;

I will tell of all your deeds. ⁵

PSALMS: 103

Of David.

¹ Praise the LORD, O my soul;

all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

² Praise the LORD, O my soul,

and forget not all his benefits--

³ who forgives all your sins

and heals all your diseases,

⁴ who redeems your life from the pit

and crowns you with love and compassion,

⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things

so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

⁶ The LORD works righteousness

and justice for all the oppressed.

⁷ He made known his ways to Moses,

his deeds to the people of Israel:

⁸ The LORD is compassionate and gracious,

slow to anger, abounding in love.

⁹ He will not always accuse,

nor will he harbor his anger forever;

¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve

or repay us according to our iniquities.

¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

so great is his love for those who fear him;

¹² as far as the east is from the west,

so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

¹³ As a father has compassion on his children,

so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

¹⁴ for he knows how we are formed, ⁶

he remembers that we are dust.

¹⁵ As for man, his days are like grass,

he flourishes like a flower of the field;

¹⁶ the wind blows over it and it is gone,

and its place remembers it no more.

¹⁷ But from everlasting to everlasting

the LORD's love is with those who fear him,

and his righteousness with their children's children--

¹⁸ with those who keep his covenant

and remember to obey his precepts.

¹⁹ The LORD has established his throne in heaven,

and his kingdom rules over all.

²⁰ Praise the LORD, you his angels,

you mighty ones who do his bidding,

who obey his word.

²¹ Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts,

you his servants who do his will.

²² Praise the LORD, all his works

everywhere in his dominion.

Praise the LORD, O my soul. ⁷

PSALMS: 133

A song of ascents. Of David.

¹ How good and pleasant it is

when brothers live together in unity!

² It is like precious oil poured on the head,

running down on the beard,

running down on Aaron's beard,

down upon the collar of his robes.

³ It is as if the dew of Hermon

were falling on Mount Zion.

For there the LORD bestows his blessing,

even life forevermore. ⁸

PROVERBS: 13

13 ¹ A wise son heeds his father's instruction,

but a mocker does not listen to rebuke.

² From the fruit of his lips a man enjoys good things,

but the unfaithful have a craving for violence.

³ He who guards his lips guards his life,

but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin.

⁴ The sluggard craves and gets nothing,

but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.

⁵ The righteous hate what is false,

but the wicked bring shame and disgrace.

⁶ Righteousness guards the man of integrity,

but wickedness overthrows the sinner.

⁷ One man pretends to be rich, yet has nothing;

another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.

⁸ A man's riches may ransom his life,

but a poor man hears no threat.

⁹ The light of the righteous shines brightly,

but the lamp of the wicked is snuffed out.

¹⁰ Pride only breeds quarrels,

but wisdom is found in those who take advice.

¹¹ Dishonest money dwindles away,

but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow. ⁹

¹² Hope deferred makes the heart sick,

but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

¹³ He who scorns instruction will pay for it,

but he who respects a command is rewarded.

¹⁴ The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life,

turning a man from the snares of death.

¹⁵ Good understanding wins favor,

but the way of the unfaithful is hard. ^A

¹⁶ Every prudent man acts out of knowledge,

but a fool exposes his folly.

¹⁷ A wicked messenger falls into trouble,

but a trustworthy envoy brings healing.

¹⁸ He who ignores discipline comes to poverty and shame,

but whoever heeds correction is honored.

¹⁹ A longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul,

but fools detest turning from evil.

²⁰ He who walks with the wise grows wise,

but a companion of fools suffers harm.

²¹ Misfortune pursues the sinner,

but prosperity is the reward of the righteous.

²² A good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children,

but a sinner's wealth is stored up for the righteous. ¹⁰

²³ A poor man's field may produce abundant food,

but injustice sweeps it away.

²⁴ He who spares the rod hates his son,

but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.

²⁵ The righteous eat to their hearts' content,

but the stomach of the wicked goes hungry. ¹¹

OLD TESTAMENT: EZEKIEL 3:16 - 6:14

¹⁶ At the end of seven days the word of the LORD came to me: ¹⁷ "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. ¹⁸ When I say to a wicked man, `You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for ^A his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. ¹⁹ But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself.

²⁰ "Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. Since you did not warn him, he will die for his sin. The righteous things he did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. ²¹ But if you do warn the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning, and you will have saved yourself."

²² The hand of the LORD was upon me there, and he said to me, "Get up and go out to the plain, and there I will speak to you." ²³ So I got up and went out to the plain. And the glory of the LORD was standing there, like the glory I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell facedown.

²⁴ Then the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet. He spoke to me and said: "Go, shut yourself inside your house. ²⁵ And you, son of man, they will tie with ropes; you will be bound so that you cannot go out among the people. ²⁶ I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, though they are a rebellious house. ²⁷ But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth and you shall say to them, `This is what the Sovereign LORD says.' Whoever will listen let him listen, and whoever will refuse let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.

4 ¹ "Now, son of man, take a clay tablet, put it in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. ² Then lay siege to it: Erect siege works against it, build a ramp up to it, set up camps against it and put battering rams around it. ³ Then take an iron pan, place it as an iron wall between you and the city and turn your face toward it. It will be under siege, and you shall besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

⁴ "Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the house of Israel upon yourself. ^A You are to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your side. ⁵ I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the house of Israel.

⁶ "After you have finished this, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the sin of the house of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year. ⁷ Turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem and with bared arm prophesy against her. ⁸ I will tie you up with ropes so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have finished the days of your siege.

⁹ "Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself. You are to ¹² eat it during the 390 days you lie on your side. ¹⁰ Weigh out twenty shekels ^B of food to eat each day and eat it at set times. ¹¹ Also measure out a sixth of a hin ^C of water and drink it at set times. ¹² Eat the food as you would a barley cake; bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement for fuel." ¹³ The LORD said, "In this way the people of Israel will eat defiled food among the nations where I will drive them."

¹⁴ Then I said, "Not so, Sovereign LORD! I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have never eaten anything found dead or torn by wild animals. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth."

¹⁵ "Very well," he said, "I will let you bake your bread over cow manure instead of human excrement."

¹⁶ He then said to me: "Son of man, I will cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. The people will eat rationed food in anxiety and drink rationed water in despair, ¹⁷ for food and water will be scarce. They will be appalled at the sight of each other and will waste away because of ^D their sin.

5 ¹ "Now, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber's razor to shave your head and your beard. Then take a set of scales and divide up the hair. ² When the days of your siege come to an end, burn a third of the hair with fire inside the city. Take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city. And scatter a third to the wind. For I will pursue them with drawn sword. ³ But take a few strands of hair and tuck them away in the folds of your garment. ⁴ Again, take a few of these and throw them into the fire and burn them up. A fire will spread from there to the whole house of Israel.

⁵ "This is what the Sovereign LORD says: This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. ⁶ Yet in her wickedness she has rebelled against my laws and decrees more than the nations and countries around her. She has rejected my laws and has not followed my decrees.

⁷ "Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even ^A conformed to the standards of the nations around you.

⁸ "Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will inflict punishment on you in the sight of the nations. ⁹ Because of all your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again. ¹⁰ Therefore in your midst fathers will eat their children, and children will eat their fathers. I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds. ¹¹ Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your vile images and ¹³ detestable practices, I myself will withdraw my favor; I will not look on you with pity or spare you. ¹² A third of your people will die of the plague or perish by famine inside you; a third will fall by the sword outside your walls; and a third I will scatter to the winds and pursue with drawn sword.

¹³ "Then my anger will cease and my wrath against them will subside, and I will be avenged. And when I have spent my wrath upon them, they will know that I the LORD have spoken in my zeal.

¹⁴ "I will make you a ruin and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by.

¹⁵ You will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and an object of horror to the nations around you when I inflict punishment on you in anger and in wrath and with stinging rebuke. I the LORD have spoken.

¹⁶ When I shoot at you with my deadly and destructive arrows of famine, I will shoot to destroy you. I will bring more and more famine upon you and cut off your supply of food. ¹⁷ I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I the LORD have spoken."

6 ¹ The word of the LORD came to me: ² "Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel; prophesy against them ³ and say: `O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Sovereign LORD. This is what the Sovereign LORD says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places. ⁴ Your altars will be demolished and your incense altars will be smashed; and I will slay your people in front of your idols. ⁵ I will lay the dead bodies of the Israelites in front of their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars.

⁶ Wherever you live, the towns will be laid waste and the high places demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and devastated, your idols smashed and ruined, your incense altars broken down, and what you have made wiped out. ⁷ Your people will fall slain among you, and you will know that I am the LORD.

⁸ "`But I will spare some, for some of you will escape the sword when you are scattered among the lands and nations. ⁹ Then in the nations where they have been carried captive, those who escape will remember me--how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their detestable practices. ¹⁰ And they will know that I am the LORD; I did not threaten in vain to bring this calamity on them. ¹⁴

¹¹ "`This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Strike your hands together and stamp your feet and cry out "Alas!" because of all the wicked and detestable practices of the house of Israel, for they will fall by the sword, famine and plague. ¹² He that is far away will die of the plague, and he that is near will fall by the sword, and he that survives and is spared will die of famine. So will I spend my wrath upon them. ¹³ And they will know that I am the LORD, when their people lie slain among their idols around their altars, on every high hill and on all the mountaintops, under every spreading tree and every leafy oak--places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols. ¹⁴ And I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land a desolate waste from the desert to Diblah ^A--wherever they live. Then they will know that I am the LORD.'" ¹⁵

NEW TESTAMENT: HEBREWS 4:1 - 16

4 ¹ Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. ² For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. ^A

³ Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,

"So I declared on oath in my anger,

`They shall never enter my rest.'" ^B

And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. ^{16 4} For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work." ^{C 5} And again in the passage above he says, "They shall never enter my rest."

⁶ It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. ⁷ Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before:

"Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts." ^D

⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. ⁹ There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; ¹⁰ for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. ¹¹ Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

¹² For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. ¹³ Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

¹⁴ Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, ^E Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. ¹⁶ Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. ¹⁷

1 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

2 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

3 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

4 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

5 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

6 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

7 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

8 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

9 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

10 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

11 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

12 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

13 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

14 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

15 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

16 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

17 Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

 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