October 8

John 3:1-15

You Must Be Born Again

[1] Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. [2] This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” [3] Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” [4] Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” [5] Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. [6] That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. [7] Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ [8] The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

[9] Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” [10] Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? [11] Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. [12] If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? [13] No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. [14] And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, [15] that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

James 4:1-10

Warning Against Worldliness

[1] What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? [2] You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. [3] You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. [4] You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. [5] Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? [6] But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” [7] Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. [8] Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. [9] Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. [10] Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Ecclesiastes 6

[1] There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: [2] a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil. [3] If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life’s good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. [4] For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. [5] Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. [6] Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good—do not all go to the one place?

[7] All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. [8] For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? [9] Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.

[10] Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. [11] The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? [12] For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?

Jeremiah 16

Famine, Sword, and Death

[1] The word of the LORD came to me: [2] “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. [3] For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land: [4] They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.

[5] “For thus says the LORD: Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and mercy, declares the LORD. [6] Both great and small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or cut himself or make himself bald for them. [7] No one shall break bread for the mourner, to comfort him for the dead, nor shall anyone give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father or his mother. [8] You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. [9] For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will silence in this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

[10] “And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’ [11] then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the LORD, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, [12] and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. [13] Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

The LORD Will Restore Israel

[14] “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ [15] but ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.

[16] “Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the LORD, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. [17] For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. [18] But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”

    [19] O LORD, my strength and my stronghold,

        my refuge in the day of trouble,

    to you shall the nations come

        from the ends of the earth and say:

    “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies,

        worthless things in which there is no profit. 

    [20] Can man make for himself gods?

        Such are not gods!”

    [21] “Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the LORD.”

Jeremiah 17

The Sin of Judah

[1] “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars, [2] while their children remember their altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills, [3] on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory. [4] You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.”

    [5] Thus says the LORD:

    “Cursed is the man who trusts in man

        and makes flesh his strength,

        whose heart turns away from the LORD. 

    [6] He is like a shrub in the desert,

        and shall not see any good come.

    He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,

        in an uninhabited salt land.

    [7] “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,

        whose trust is the LORD. 

    [8] He is like a tree planted by water,

        that sends out its roots by the stream,

    and does not fear when heat comes,

        for its leaves remain green,

    and is not anxious in the year of drought,

        for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

    [9] The heart is deceitful above all things,

        and desperately sick;

        who can understand it? 

    [10] “I the LORD search the heart

        and test the mind,

    to give every man according to his ways,

        according to the fruit of his deeds.”

    [11] Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch,

        so is he who gets riches but not by justice;

    in the midst of his days they will leave him,

        and at his end he will be a fool.

    [12] A glorious throne set on high from the beginning

        is the place of our sanctuary. 

    [13] O LORD, the hope of Israel,

        all who forsake you shall be put to shame;

    those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth,

        for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water.

    Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance

    [14] Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed;

        save me, and I shall be saved,

        for you are my praise. 

    [15] Behold, they say to me,

        “Where is the word of the LORD?

        Let it come!” 

    [16] I have not run away from being your shepherd,

        nor have I desired the day of sickness.

    You know what came out of my lips;

        it was before your face. 

    [17] Be not a terror to me;

        you are my refuge in the day of disaster. 

    [18] Let those be put to shame who persecute me,

        but let me not be put to shame;

    let them be dismayed,

        but let me not be dismayed;

    bring upon them the day of disaster;

        destroy them with double destruction!

    Keep the Sabbath Holy

[19] Thus said the LORD to me: “Go and stand in the People’s Gate, by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, [20] and say: ‘Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. [21] Thus says the LORD: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. [22] And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. [23] Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, that they might not hear and receive instruction.

[24] “‘But if you listen to me, declares the LORD, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, [25] then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited forever. [26] And people shall come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the Shephelah, from the hill country, and from the Negeb, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the LORD. [27] But if you do not listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.’”

Jeremiah 18

The Potter and the Clay

[1] The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: [2] “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” [3] So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. [4] And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

[5] Then the word of the LORD came to me: [6] “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. [7] If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, [8] and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. [9] And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, [10] and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. [11] Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the LORD, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.’

[12] “But they say, ‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’

    [13] “Therefore thus says the LORD:

    Ask among the nations,

        Who has heard the like of this?

    The virgin Israel

        has done a very horrible thing. 

    [14] Does the snow of Lebanon leave

        the crags of Sirion?

    Do the mountain waters run dry,

        the cold flowing streams? 

    [15] But my people have forgotten me;

        they make offerings to false gods;

    they made them stumble in their ways,

        in the ancient roads,

    and to walk into side roads,

        not the highway, 

    [16] making their land a horror,

        a thing to be hissed at forever.

    Everyone who passes by it is horrified

        and shakes his head. 

    [17] Like the east wind I will scatter them

        before the enemy.

    I will show them my back, not my face,

        in the day of their calamity.”

    [18] Then they said, “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

    [19] Hear me, O LORD,

        and listen to the voice of my adversaries. 

    [20] Should good be repaid with evil?

        Yet they have dug a pit for my life.

    Remember how I stood before you

        to speak good for them,

        to turn away your wrath from them. 

    [21] Therefore deliver up their children to famine;

        give them over to the power of the sword;

    let their wives become childless and widowed.

        May their men meet death by pestilence,

        their youths be struck down by the sword in battle. 

    [22] May a cry be heard from their houses,

        when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!

    For they have dug a pit to take me

        and laid snares for my feet. 

    [23] Yet you, O LORD, know

        all their plotting to kill me.

    Forgive not their iniquity,

        nor blot out their sin from your sight.

    Let them be overthrown before you;

        deal with them in the time of your anger.