In The Word Read Psalm 15-16 Description of a Citizen of Zion. A Psalm of David. 15 O Lord, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? 2 He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, And speaks truth in his heart. 3 He does not slander with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor takes up a reproach against his […]
Month: August 2016
JUST BEFORE THE DAWN
In The Word Read Psalm 13-14 Prayer for Help in Trouble. For the choir director. A Psalm of David. 13 How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? 2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be […]
BLESSINGS OF COMING BACK
In The Word Read Hosea 13-14 Ephraim’s Idolatry 13 When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling. He exalted himself in Israel, But through Baal he did wrong and died. 2 And now they sin more and more, And make for themselves molten images, Idols skillfully made from their silver, All of them the work of craftsmen. They say of them, “Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves!” 3 Therefore […]
DON’T YOU REMEMBER?
In The Word Read Hosea 11-12 God Yearns over His People 11 When Israel was a youth I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son. 2 The more they called them, The more they went from them; They kept sacrificing to the Baals And burning incense to idols. 3 Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in My arms; […]
CONSEQUENCES
In The Word Read Hosea 9-10 Ephraim Punished 9 Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations! For you have played the harlot, forsaking your God. You have loved harlots’ earnings on every threshing floor. 2 Threshing floor and wine press will not feed them, And the new wine will fail them. 3 They will not remain in the Lord’s land, But Ephraim will return to Egypt, And […]
TRUE REPENTANCE
In The Word Read Hosea 5:15–8:14 15 I will go away and return to My place Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me. The Response to God’s Rebuke 6 “Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. 2 “He will revive us […]
WHOSE WORDS ARE YOU LISTENING TO?
In The Word Read Hosea 4:1–5:14 God’s Controversy with Israel 4 Listen to the word of the Lord, O sons of Israel, For the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land, Because there is no faithfulness or kindness Or knowledge of God in the land. 2 There is swearing, deception, murder, stealing and adultery. They employ violence, so that bloodshed follows bloodshed. 3 Therefore the land mourns, And everyone who lives […]
SECOND CHANCE
In The Word Read Hosea 3 Hosea’s Second Symbolic Marriage 3 Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.” 2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley. 3 Then I said […]
SEEKING AND FINDING
In The Word Read Amos 8:4–9:15 4 Hear this, you who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land,5 saying, “When will the new moon be over, So that we may sell grain, And the sabbath, that we may open the wheat market, To make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, And to cheat with dishonest scales, 6 So as to buy […]
THE PLUMB LINE
In The Word Read Amos 7:1–8:3 Warning Through Visions 7 Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold, He was forming a locust-swarm when the spring crop began to sprout. And behold, the spring crop was after the king’s mowing. 2 And it came about, when it had finished eating the vegetation of the land, that I said, “Lord God, please pardon! How can Jacob stand, For he […]