the Fifth Week after Easter
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Bible Reading Plan
Daily Bible Reading
October 7 - Old & New Testament
niv
Hosea 1,2,3,4
1 The word of the Lord that came(a) to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah,(b) Jotham,(c) Ahaz(d) and Hezekiah,(e) kings of Judah,(f) and during the reign of Jeroboam(g) son of Jehoash[a] king of Israel:(h)
Hosea's Wife and Children
2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, "Go, marry a promiscuous(i) woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness(j) to the Lord ." 3 So he married Gomer(k) daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
4 Then the Lord said to Hosea, "Call him Jezreel,(l) because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. 5 In that day I will break Israel's bow in the Valley of Jezreel.(m)"
6 Gomer(n) conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, "Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means "not loved"),(o) for I will no longer show love to Israel,(p) that I should at all forgive them. 7 Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow,(q) sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the Lord their God,(r) will save them."
8 After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah,(s) Gomer had another son. 9 Then the Lord said, "Call him Lo-Ammi (which means "not my people"), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.[b](t)
10 "Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted.(u) In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,' they will be called ‘children of the living God.'(v) 11 The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together;(w) they will appoint one leader(x) and will come up out of the land,(y) for great will be the day of Jezreel.[c](z)
1 [a]"Say of your brothers, ‘My people,' and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.'(a)
Israel Punished and Restored
2 "Rebuke your mother,(b) rebuke her,
for she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband.
Let her remove the adulterous(c) look from her face
and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
3 Otherwise I will strip(d) her naked
and make her as bare as on the day she was born;(e)
I will make her like a desert,(f)
turn her into a parched land,
and slay her with thirst.
4 I will not show my love to her children,(g)
because they are the children of adultery.(h)
5 Their mother has been unfaithful
and has conceived them in disgrace.
She said, ‘I will go after my lovers,(i)
who give me my food and my water,
my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.'(j)
6 Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes;
I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.(k)
7 She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;
she will look for them but not find them.(l)
Then she will say,
‘I will go back to my husband(m) as at first,(n)
for then I was better off(o) than now.'
8 She has not acknowledged(p) that I was the one
who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,(q)
who lavished on her the silver and gold(r)—
which they used for Baal.(s)
9 "Therefore I will take away my grain(t) when it ripens,
and my new wine(u) when it is ready.
I will take back my wool and my linen,
intended to cover her naked body.
10 So now I will expose(v) her lewdness
before the eyes of her lovers;(w)
no one will take her out of my hands.(x)
11 I will stop(y) all her celebrations:(z)
her yearly festivals, her New Moons,
her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals.(aa)
12 I will ruin her vines(ab) and her fig trees,(ac)
which she said were her pay from her lovers;(ad)
I will make them a thicket,(ae)
and wild animals will devour them.(af)
13 I will punish her for the days
she burned incense(ag) to the Baals;(ah)
she decked herself with rings and jewelry,(ai)
and went after her lovers,(aj)
but me she forgot,(ak)"
declares the
Lord
.(al)
14 "Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the wilderness(am)
and speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor[b](an) a door of hope.
There she will respond[c](ao) as in the days of her youth,(ap)
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.(aq)
16 "In that day," declares the
Lord
,
"you will call me ‘my husband';(ar)
you will no longer call me ‘my master.[d]'
17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;(as)
no longer will their names be invoked.(at)
18 In that day I will make a covenant for them
with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky
and the creatures that move along the ground.(au)
Bow and sword and battle
I will abolish(av) from the land,
so that all may lie down in safety.(aw)
19 I will betroth(ax) you to me forever;
I will betroth you in[e] righteousness and justice,(ay)
in[f] love and compassion.(az)
20 I will betroth you in[g] faithfulness,
and you will acknowledge(ba) the
Lord
.(bb)
21 "In that day I will respond,"
declares the
Lord
—
"I will respond(bc) to the skies,
and they will respond to the earth;
22 and the earth will respond to the grain,
the new wine and the olive oil,(bd)
and they will respond to Jezreel.[h](be)
23 I will plant(bf) her for myself in the land;
I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.[i](bg)'
I will say to those called ‘Not my people,[j]' ‘You are my people';(bh)
and they will say, ‘You are my God.(bi)'"
Hosea's Reconciliation With His Wife
1 The Lord said to me, "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress.(a) Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.(b)"
2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels[a] of silver and about a homer and a lethek[b] of barley. 3 Then I told her, "You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you."
4 For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince,(c) without sacrifice(d) or sacred stones,(e) without ephod(f) or household gods.(g) 5 Afterward the Israelites will return and seek(h) the Lord their God and David their king.(i) They will come trembling(j) to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.(k)
The Charge Against Israel
1 Hear the word of the
Lord
, you Israelites,
because the
Lord
has a charge(a) to bring
against you who live in the land:(b)
"There is no faithfulness,(c) no love,
no acknowledgment(d) of God in the land.(e)
2 There is only cursing,[a] lying(f) and murder,(g)
stealing(h) and adultery;(i)
they break all bounds,
and bloodshed follows bloodshed.(j)
3 Because of this the land dries up,(k)
and all who live in it waste away;(l)
the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky
and the fish in the sea are swept away.(m)
4 "But let no one bring a charge,
let no one accuse another,
for your people are like those
who bring charges against a priest.(n)
5 You stumble(o) day and night,
and the prophets stumble with you.
So I will destroy your mother(p)—
6
my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.(q)
"Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also reject you as my priests;
because you have ignored the law(r) of your God,
I also will ignore your children.
7 The more priests there were,
the more they sinned against me;
they exchanged their glorious God[b](s) for something disgraceful.(t)
8 They feed on the sins of my people
and relish their wickedness.(u)
9 And it will be: Like people, like priests.(v)
I will punish both of them for their ways
and repay them for their deeds.(w)
10 "They will eat but not have enough;(x)
they will engage in prostitution(y) but not flourish,
because they have deserted(z) the
Lord
to give themselves
11 to prostitution;(aa)
old wine(ab) and new wine
take away their understanding.(ac)
12 My people consult a wooden idol,(ad)
and a diviner's rod speaks to them.(ae)
A spirit of prostitution(af) leads them astray;(ag)
they are unfaithful(ah) to their God.
13 They sacrifice on the mountaintops
and burn offerings on the hills,
under oak,(ai) poplar and terebinth,
where the shade is pleasant.(aj)
Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution(ak)
and your daughters-in-law to adultery.(al)
14 "I will not punish your daughters
when they turn to prostitution,
nor your daughters-in-law
when they commit adultery,
because the men themselves consort with harlots(am)
and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes(an)—
a people without understanding(ao) will come to ruin!(ap)
15 "Though you, Israel, commit adultery,
do not let Judah become guilty.
"Do not go to Gilgal;(aq)
do not go up to Beth Aven.[c](ar)
And do not swear, ‘As surely as the
Lord
lives!'(as)
16 The Israelites are stubborn,(at)
like a stubborn heifer.(au)
How then can the
Lord
pasture them
like lambs(av) in a meadow?
17 Ephraim is joined to idols;
leave him alone!
18 Even when their drinks are gone,
they continue their prostitution;
their rulers dearly love shameful ways.
19 A whirlwind(aw) will sweep them away,
and their sacrifices will bring them shame.(ax)
Romans 14
Chapter 14
The Weak and the Strong
1 Accept the one whose faith is weak,(a) without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person's faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.(b) 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt(c) the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge(d) the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else's servant?(e) To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
5 One person considers one day more sacred than another;(f) another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. 6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God;(g) and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for ourselves alone,(h) and none of us dies for ourselves alone. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.(i) 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life(j) so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.(k)
10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister[a]? Or why do you treat them with contempt?(l) For we will all stand before God's judgment seat.(m) 11 It is written:
"‘As surely as I live,'(n) says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will acknowledge God.'"[b](o)
12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.(p)
13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment(q) on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.(r) 14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself.(s) But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean.(t) 15 If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love.(u) Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died.(v) 16 Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil.(w) 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking,(x) but of righteousness, peace(y) and joy in the Holy Spirit,(z) 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.(aa)
19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace(ab) and to mutual edification.(ac) 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food.(ad) All food is clean,(ae) but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.(af) 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.(ag)
22 So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn(ah) himself by what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts(ai) is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.[c]
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