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Old/New Testament

Each day includes a passage from both the Old Testament and New Testament.
Duration: 365 days
Living Bible (TLB)
Version
Proverbs 30-31

30 These are the messages of Agur, son of Jakeh, addressed to Ithiel and Ucal:

I am tired out, O God, and ready to die. I am too stupid even to call myself a human being! I cannot understand man,[a] let alone God. Who else but God goes back and forth to heaven? Who else holds the wind in his fists and wraps up the oceans in his cloak? Who but God has created the world? If there is any other, what is his name—and his Son’s name—if you know it?

Every word of God proves true. He defends all who come to him for protection. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you, and you be found a liar.

O God, I beg two favors from you before I die: First, help me never to tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs! For if I grow rich, I may become content without God. And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.

10 Never falsely accuse a man to his employer, lest he curse you for your sin.

11-12 There are those who curse their father and mother and feel themselves faultless despite their many sins. 13-14 They are proud beyond description, arrogant, disdainful. They devour the poor with teeth as sharp as knives!

15-16 There are two things never satisfied, like a leech forever craving more: no, three things! no, four! Hell, the barren womb, a barren desert, fire.

17 A man who mocks his father and despises his mother shall have his eye plucked out by ravens and eaten by vultures.

18-19 There are three things too wonderful for me to understand—no, four!

How an eagle glides through the sky.

How a serpent crawls upon a rock.

How a ship finds its way across the heaving ocean.

The growth of love between a man and a girl.[b]

20 There is another thing too: how a prostitute can sin and then say, “What’s wrong with that?”

21-23 There are three things that make the earth tremble—no, four it cannot stand:

A slave who becomes a king.

A rebel who prospers.

A bitter woman when she finally marries.

A servant girl who marries the husband of her mistress.[c]

24-28 There are four things that are small but unusually wise:

Ants: they aren’t strong, but store up food for the winter.

Cliff badgers: delicate little animals who protect themselves by living among the rocks.

The locusts: though they have no leader, they stay together in swarms.

The lizards: they are easy to catch and kill, yet are found even in king’s palaces!

29-31 There are three stately monarchs in the earth—no, four:

The lion, king of the animals. He won’t turn aside for anyone.

The peacock.

The male goat.

A king as he leads his army.

32 If you have been a fool by being proud or plotting evil, don’t brag about it—cover your mouth with your hand in shame.

33 As the churning of cream yields butter, and a blow to the nose causes bleeding, so anger causes quarrels.

31 These are the wise sayings of King Lemuel of Massa,[d] taught to him at his mother’s knee:

O my son, whom I have dedicated to the Lord, do not spend your time with women—the royal pathway to destruction.

And it is not for kings, O Lemuel, to drink wine and whiskey. For if they drink, they may forget their duties and be unable to give justice to those who are oppressed. 6-7 Hard liquor is for sick men at the brink of death, and wine for those in deep depression. Let them drink to forget their poverty and misery.

You should defend those who cannot help themselves. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice.

10 If you can find a truly good wife, she is worth more than precious gems! 11 Her husband can trust her, and she will richly satisfy his needs. 12 She will not hinder him but help him all her life. 13 She finds wool and flax and busily spins it. 14 She buys imported foods brought by ship from distant ports. 15 She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her household and plans the day’s work for her servant girls. 16 She goes out to inspect a field and buys it; with her own hands she plants a vineyard. 17 She is energetic, a hard worker, 18 and watches for bargains. She works far into the night!

19-20 She sews for the poor and generously helps those in need. 21 She has no fear of winter for her household, for she has made warm clothes for all of them. 22 She also upholsters with finest tapestry; her own clothing is beautifully made—a purple gown of pure linen. 23 Her husband is well known, for he sits in the council chamber with the other civic leaders. 24 She makes belted linen garments to sell to the merchants.

25 She is a woman of strength and dignity and has no fear of old age. 26 When she speaks, her words are wise, and kindness is the rule for everything she says. 27 She watches carefully all that goes on throughout her household and is never lazy. 28 Her children stand and bless her; so does her husband. He praises her with these words: 29 “There are many fine women in the world, but you are the best of them all!”

30 Charm can be deceptive and beauty doesn’t last, but a woman who fears and reverences God shall be greatly praised. 31 Praise her for the many fine things she does. These good deeds of hers shall bring her honor and recognition from people of importance.[e]

2 Corinthians 11:1-15

11 I hope you will be patient with me as I keep on talking like a fool. Do bear with me and let me say what is on my heart. I am anxious for you with the deep concern of God himself—anxious that your love should be for Christ alone, just as a pure maiden saves her love for one man only, for the one who will be her husband. But I am frightened, fearing that in some way you will be led away from your pure and simple devotion to our Lord, just as Eve was deceived by Satan in the Garden of Eden. You seem so gullible: you believe whatever anyone tells you even if he is preaching about another Jesus than the one we preach, or a different spirit than the Holy Spirit you received, or shows you a different way to be saved. You swallow it all.

Yet I don’t feel that these marvelous “messengers from God,” as they call themselves, are any better than I am. If I am a poor speaker, at least I know what I am talking about, as I think you realize by now, for we have proved it again and again.

Did I do wrong and cheapen myself and make you look down on me because I preached God’s Good News to you without charging you anything? 8-9 Instead I “robbed” other churches by taking what they sent me and using it up while I was with you so that I could serve you without cost. And when that was gone[a] and I was getting hungry, I still didn’t ask you for anything, for the Christians from Macedonia brought me another gift. I have never yet asked you for one cent, and I never will. 10 I promise this with every ounce of truth I possess—that I will tell everyone in Greece about it! 11 Why? Because I don’t love you? God knows I do. 12 But I will do it to cut out the ground from under the feet of those who boast that they are doing God’s work in just the same way we are.

13 God never sent those men at all; they are “phonies” who have fooled you into thinking they are Christ’s apostles. 14 Yet I am not surprised! Satan can change himself into an angel of light, 15 so it is no wonder his servants can do it too, and seem like godly ministers. In the end they will get every bit of punishment their wicked deeds deserve.

Living Bible (TLB)

The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.