Podcasts about Threshing

Kingdom of God - seek it and righteousness; Common themes of Old and New testament; Jacob vs Israel?; Loins out of joint?; Making Israel stink; Praying with supplication; Gen 10:16; Amorites; Bondage of Egypt; "Corvee"; Bible about government; Sloth leads to tribute; Consent; Socialism vs capitalism; Morality?; Repentance; Removing delusion; Learning to be Israel; Denominational Jews?; Hiding and fleeing from God; Identity; What are you missing?; Understanding "leaven"; Gen 50:1; Relationship of Family; Roman revolution; Republic; Volunteerism; Governments of Cain, Nimrod, Sumer, Egypt…; Strengthening by persecution; Importance of Family; "biet-kuf-hey" (Wept); Sphinx?; Joseph's request of Pharoah; Wrestling with God; "Elders"; Corporation of God; Mourning Jacob; "Threshing floor"; Getting the basics; Gen 13:2; Classes of citizens; Corruption; Saul: first king in Israel; Recognizing congregationalism vs kingdom; Vengeance; Freewill offerings; Jacob's command to Joseph; Forgiveness; Knowing yourself; Coming together as families; Christ's alternative system; Loving our enemy; Juries; Early Rome mimicking Israel; Excusing immorality; Death of Joseph; Land of Israel; Property tax?; Abraham's altars; "licking" blood; Modern vs Early Church; Religion; Doctrines; Covetousness; "One purse"; Social safety net?; What do you really own?; Moral bondage?; Electing new Sauls; Legal charity; Coming to the aid of your neighbor; Early Church ministers; "Not of this world"; Christ's system = charity alone; World system = force; Following Christ's way; Your daily bread; Lacking knowledge; Living altars; 1 Sam 8; Social Security; Christ's commands; Charity = Love, The truth shall set you free.

A sermon on Luke 3:15-17, 21-22.

Chapter three of Ruth is full of some interesting things. Threshing floors, odd routines, things just sound out of step to us.  What is happening? We see Ruth showing to Boaz that her time of grief is now over, and she would desire marriage. But not just any marriage, but marriage to him. As an older person, this is quite an unexpected gift of kindness. Once again, we see in Ruth the power of kindness, of true, empathic kindness, to change everything. Shameless plug: here's a link to Method(ist) to the Madness, our new, hopefully entertaining podcast about church history. - https://methodisttothemadness.buzzsprout.com/Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he'll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God's Word.If you'd like to receive this daily reflection on your phone, text @39110 to 81010 to sign up. You can read today's passage here - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ruth%203&version=NIVYou can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

Matthew week 74   Matthew 11:28 ESV   28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.   Matthew 11:29-30 ESV   29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”       Matthew 12:1-2 ESV   At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”       Genesis 2:2-3 ESV   Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.       Exodus 20:8-11 ESV   8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.       Exodus 31:12-17 ESV   12 And the Lord said to Moses, 13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. 14 You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. 16 Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever.17 It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.'”       Deuteronomy 23:24-25 ESV   24 “If you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag. 25 If you go into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain.           1.Carrying 2. Burning 3. Extinguishing 4. Finishing 5. Writing 6. Erasing 7. Cooking 8. Washing 9. Sewing 10. Tearing 11. Knotting 12. Untying 13. Shaping 14. Plowing 15. Planting 16. Reaping 17. Harvesting 18. Threshing 19. Winnowing 20. Selecting 21. Sifting 22. Grinding 23. Kneading 24. Combing 25. Spinning 26. Dyeing 27. Chain-stitching 28. Warping 29. Weaving 30. Unraveling 31. Building 32. Demolishing 33. Trapping 34. Shearing 35. Slaughtering 36. Skinning 37. Tanning 38. Smoothing 39. Marking           Colossians 2:16-17 ESV   16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.  

I couldn't resist the subtitle, kids, sorry. It's not that shocking—but Tim's journey was definitely only for the bold.I've known Tim Grahl—or known of him—for more than a decade. I watched him help writers like Dan Pink launch their non-fiction books onto the best seller list, and devoured and followed his excellent advice about launching my own books (which you can find here at booklaunch.com). Then I watched—or rather, listened—as he pivoted into the world of fiction, enlisting editor Shaun Coyne to join him on a podcast and help him use Coyne's Storygrid method to work on what eventually, after many revisions and a whole lot of failing in public, became Tim's first novel, The Threshing. At the same time, he and Shaun were building Storygrid into what's not just a business, but a huge community of writers and editors. He's just published his second novel, The Shithead, a very different book from the first… I call it The Firm meets The Alchemist; Tim prefers Fleishman Is In Trouble meets Faust. Both work. We talk Tim's sideways journey into fiction, and then we talk craft—in particular, how to learn what you don't know, the myth of the lone writer in a cabin and the importance of feedback and then we dig into a passionate discussion of theme.You can check out The Shithead here. Links from the podBooklaunch.comStorygridShaun Coyne's book, StorygridThe Prince of Tides, Pat ConroyThe Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz ZafonThe Accidental Tourist, Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler(KJ also mentions Redhead by the Side of the Road)The Husband's Secret, What Alice Forgot by Liane MoriartyHeads up! This is probably the only time you'll see this. Join me—KJ—for Novelmber, which is very hard to pronounce but is my word for reclaiming my writing space in November. Think NaNoWriMo, our version—daily challenges and stretch goals, formatted by you, for you.There will be write-alongs, posts, a massive Google spreadsheet for sharing goals and updating progress, thoughts on how hard this is, and more than you want to know about why I need this regroup so badly. All writers, every genre, welcome. This is sign-up only—I don't plan to spam the whole #AmWriting community with my wails of writerly distress daily for an entire month—but it's also for everyone who wants in. I hope you'll join me—I don't want to go this alone. Don't worry, signing up is simple! Here's how:Click here to go to your #AmWriting account, and when you see this screen, toggle “Novelmber” from “off” (grey) to “on” (green).THAT'S IT!Once you set that up, you'll get all future Novelmber emails. Any audio or video will show up in those, along with write-along schedules. You'll also want to add yourself to the Google Sheet where we'll all record our overall goal, day's goals, daily progress and what we're feeling. I've started it off. Join me for the first write-alongs HERE. (That's a link to my Zoom Room.) I'll be sitting there: Friday, November 1 10:30-12:30 (ALL TIMES EST)Tuesday, November 5, 2:00-4:00Friday, November 8, 9:00-11:00 More times coming. Join me, help me, let's make Novelmber WORK! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of the Write it Scared podcast, I chat with author and Story Grid CEO Tim Grahl. We discuss Tim's challenging yet rewarding journey from struggling writer to accomplished author, highlighting the importance of mastering scene writing and the rigorous learning process that led to his new novel, "The Shithead," dubbed as Faust meets Fleishman Is In Trouble.Tim shares his beliefs about the significance of building fundamental writing skills first. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to deepen their understanding of the writing craft and the internal narratives that shape their work.00:22 Welcome to Write It Scared01:24 Interview with Tim Grahl04:13 Tim Grahl's Writing Journey08:22 The Shithead: A Deep Dive19:33 Writing Process and Techniques27:32 The Importance of Learning to Write In Scenes30:42 Final Thoughts and FarewellGuest Bio: Tim Grahl is the C.E.O. of Story Grid, a university and publishing house dedicated to teaching and publishing complex stories. He is the author of the bestselling book marketing methodology and protocol, Your First Thousand Copies and The Book Launch Blueprint. His memoir Running Down a Dream, a warts and all confession of the trials and tribulations of a contemporary small business owner, drew accolades from Ryan Holiday, Barbara Corcoran, Daniel H. Pink, Derek Sivers, and Steven Pressfield, who described it as “Indispensable.” The writing of his first novel, a young adult science fiction coming-of-age action story, The Threshing, was the subject of the first three years of the Story Grid Podcast, a perennial chart-topper on multiple podcast bestseller lists.Connect with Tim Grahl and read the Shithead here. Story GridStory Grid's  YouTube ChannelSupport the show To become a supporter of the show, click here!To get in touch with Stacy: Email: Stacy@writeitscared.co https://www.writeitscared.co/ https://www.instagram.com/writeitscared/ Take advantage of these Free Resources From Write It Scared: Download Your Free Novel Planning and Drafting Quick Start Guide Download Your Free Guide to Remove Creative Blocks and Work Through Fears

Threshing time in McIntosh County, 1926, and the thresherman Gottlieb Bendewald was in the field. A young bundle pitcher, a neighbor from just a mile away, sixteen years old — Christian Lux — hailed the thresherman to collect wages for work he had done, and things went badly from there. Witnesses disagreed what was said and done, and the parties disputed vehemently.

Another cycle of disobedience begins in the book of Judges.  This time, God delivers Israel into the hands of Midian for 7 years.  Israel cries out to God.  God sends a prophet to explain why this is happening.  In His marvelous grace, He calls a man named Gideon to lead Israel in battle.  We will see that this man has many flaws and fears.  This is encouraging, because God has chosen the foolish things to confound the wise!  God wants to use ordinary people, just like you and me!! 

Al Iverson on the 35th Annual Threshing Bee and Antique Tractor and Engine Show:

How to Support the Rob Skinner Podcast.  If you would like to help support my mission to multiply disciples, leaders and churches, click here:  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/robskinner      Transcript of Exposition of Matthew 12:1-21 This section connects to and highlights what Jesus meant when he said in Matthew 11:28-30, 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  Jesus offers rest which is the express purpose of the sabbath.  He says his yoke is easy and his burden is light.  This is in contrast to the legalism of the Pharisees.  They had develop 39 laws that explained what you couldn't do on a day of rest.  39 categories of activity that could be classified as work.  They claimed to “put up a fence around the law” so you would be careful not to break the law. Here are twenty of the thirty-nine categories of work: 1. Carrying 2. Burning 3. Extinguishing 4. Finishing 5. Writing 6. Erasing 7. Cooking 8. Washing 9. Sewing 10. Tearing 11. Knotting 12. Untying 13. Shaping 14. Plowing 15. Planting 16. Reaping 17. Harvesting 18. Threshing 19. Winnowing 20. Selecting   Jesus addresses these by appealing to his inherent authority and the priority of the spirit of the law over the letter of the law.   Jesus, LORD of the Sabbath At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” 3 He answered, “Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5 Or haven't you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,'[a] you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Jesus had offered rest in the previous chapter which was the purpose of the sabbath:  28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  The Pharisees made sabbath keeping a chore: You could not spit on the Sabbath because it would disturb the dirt and you would be guilty of plowing. You could not swat a fly on the Sabbath because you would be guilty of hunting. A woman could not look at her reflection because she might see a gray hair and pluck it out, which would be doing work. They created loopholes to get around some laws. If your house was burning down on a Sabbath, you could not carry clothes out of it. However, you were allowed to put on several layers of clothes as the house was burning down. You could leave without breaking the law because you were wearing them instead of carrying them.   12:1-2  Picking grain could fall under the category of reaping, while getting the grain out of the husks could be considered threshing, both of which were prohibited by the Pharisees.  Keep in mind that this is happening on a Saturday and must have been close enough to town to not break the distance rule of about a half mile of walking allowed.  The Pharisees were circling Jesus and his disciples, looking for any breaking of their laws. Jesus argues against the Pharisees using three levels of authority he carries because of who he is as God: Jesus is greater than King David Jesus is greater than the temple Jesus is greater than the Law or Old Testament Writings 12:3-4  Jesus asks, “Haven't you read…?” This was a subtle dig to the Pharisees who prided themselves on their knowledge and memorization of scripture.  He points out that David, their hero and king, broke their law by eating bread only allowed to the priests.  It was his authority as king that superceded the law.  Jesus is saying, how much more is it lawful for the king of the world to supercede any regulation.  Not only that, they were both hungry.  He's not saying that because the law was broken once, it could be broken again, but it does matter who is doing it.  12:5-6  Jesus builds on this theme of authority when he talks about how the priests “work” on the sabbath in doing their normal duties at the temple.  Then he says something shocking.  He says, “something greater than the temple is here.”  To the Jew, what could be greater than the temple?  This was the house of God, where God lived.  The temple was the focus of Israel's worship, it's national center, the destination for all pilgrimages and the essence of its national identity.  Jesus is saying that he himself is the center of all future worship.  This is what got Jesus killed.  His cleansing of the temple, his claim that he would rebuild the temple in three days was the final straw that confirmed in the Jews' minds that Jesus deserved death.  Jesus was saying that in serving him and eating while working, his disciples were serving the greater presence and residence of God, Jesus himself.  They were exempt from these lesser regulations. Jesus and the church he started were greater than the temple.  His role as mediator, prophet, priest and king is greater than the temple of Moses time.  That's one of the significances of the temple curtain being torn when Jesus died.    12:7  Jesus again points out his operating theology drawn from Hosea 6:6, love matters more than ritual or rules.  It's always better to err on the side of love over laws.  He also highlights the error of their human traditions that led them to people who were innocent in the sight of God. 12:8  Jesus drives the sword even deeper in calling himself the LORD of the sabbath.  The sabbath is a defining feature of the Jewish religion.  They and a few other groups are known as “sabbath-keepers.”  The sabbath originates all the way back when God rested on the seventh day (Genesis 2:3) and was instituted in the ten commandments.  In Exodus 31:13 God calls it “My Sabbath.”    As the creator of the world and author of the law, Jesus had unique authority to interpret it as he chose. For Jesus to say, I am the Lord of the Sabbath was heresy in the ears of the Pharisees.  He was saying, “I, not you, know how to interpret the sabbath law and its application.  I wrote the law, you didn't.”  This was a direct attack on the Pharisees' religious authority and it's what made them so mad. The healing of man with the shriveled hand 9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” 11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. 11-12  He appeals to common sense that the average person would understand when he says, “If any of you has a sheep…” Jesus again stresses how much more valuable people are than animals.  Jesus also points out the inconsistency of the Pharisees' own teaching.  They would do “work” if it meant preserving their own property.  Jesus' interpretation puts responsibility on each one of us to figure out what is good or positive to do in interpreting any action.  The Pharisees had a fundamentally negative focus on what couldn't be done.  Jesus points to a higher method of asking yourself, “how can I do good in this situation?”  12:13-14  Jesus goes on to heal the man's hand publicly.  It was a public embarrassment and shaming of the Jews.  He embarrassed them in “their synagogue” (12:9).  He beat them on their home field.  Their authority was damaged, their motives were exposed and their hatred was inflamed.  The Jews want to kill Jesus.  Jesus said it's lawful to do good on the Sabbath.  The Pharisees wanted to kill on the sabbath! Turtle Illustration  This is a touching video, viewed over two million times.  How much more powerful when we help people turn their “upside down” lives right side up.  That fires Jesus up! God's Servant 15 Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill. 16 He warned them not to tell others about him. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: 18 “Here is my servant whom I have chosen,     the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him,     and he will proclaim justice to the nations. 19 He will not quarrel or cry out;     no one will hear his voice in the streets. 20 A bruised reed he will not break,     and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he has brought justice through to victory. 21     In his name the nations will put their hope.”[b]   12:15-16  What does Jesus do?  He doesn't go on the attack.  He withdraws.  He puts into practice what he had taught his disciples in Matthew 10:14 and 10:23.  When people don't accept your teaching, shake the dust off and go somewhere else.  Be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.  Jesus just leaves and continues his work of preaching and healing.  Why does he do this?  Why doesn't he have a massive showdown with the Pharisees right then and there.  It gets revealed in verses 18-21 as another fulfillment of Old Testament prophesy about the Messiah's character and method. 12:18-21  Again Jesus defines himself by what he “doesn't” do.  Unlike John and others' expectations that he would judge, condemn, blow away, destroy Roman rule, Jesus reveals himself as gentle and lowly or humble.  He will not quarrel or cry out.  He touts a more non-confrontational manner, an avoidance of publicity and a patient, encouraging type of ministry.  He won't argue with the Pharisees, he won't shout at them or deliberately embarrass them.  Bruised reeds and smoldering wicks.  A reed was used as a light walking stick, a musical instrument or a way to measure things.  Once it was bruised, it was typically discarded.  A smoldering wick was made of linen and if it smoked, would fill the whole house with smoke.  It too was immediately replaced.  The ministry of the messiah is one in which he won't break the reed or snuff out the wick.  Jesus is patient and kind with people who are bruised and who's fire has dimmed.  He is patient with the Pharisees who were deeply damaged and he is incredibly patient with people who have experienced trauma, trouble, difficulties and trials.  Think about the bleeding woman, the man with the shriveled hand, the lepers.  These were all bruised reeds. ·         You might be a bruised reed.  Life has bruised you.  You've taken your hits.  Guess what, Jesus is loving and patient with you.  He won't break you.  He won't say, “I'm done with you!”  He is patient, gentle and lowly and is willing to work with all of us in our bruised and battered condition.  All he asks is that you come to him.  Look to him for healing.  Don't count yourself out.  Stop tearing yourself down.  Go to Jesus. o   Share about recent appointment ·         You might be a smoldering wick.  Maybe your fire was higher in the past.  Maybe you used to light up the room when you walked into church, your home, your classroom or your workplace.  Now all you can muster is a barely burning flame and lots of smoke.  People know when you're coming and when you're around.  You're not what you once were.  Guess what, Jesus won't snuff you out.  He's willing to work with you and help you get your fire going again.  All you have to do is go to him and work with him.  Don't quit on him.  Ask for help.  Jesus offers rest and a light burden for all bruised reeds and smoldering wicks.

The Threshing FloorFor more information visit Pastorvlad.org

Stephen Paul - Gideons International 

join as we teach and study several scriptures on building a powerful prayer life. Explain the Threshing floor and how to continue to get downloads from Heaven.

Having described the nature and blessing of the righteous, being like a blessed, upright, strong tree planted by God's River of Life (1:1-3), it declares: "No so, the ungodly, not so!" (v4). He then compares the ungodly to the chaff, which the wind drives away (1:4). We describe threshing, when the chaff is separated from the wheat, and winnowing, when both wheat and chaff are thrown up into the air, and the chaff is carried away by the wind. This describes what happens at a man's judgment right after his death. The threshing, which physically separates the chaff from the wheat, corresponds to physical death, and the winnowing describes what happens after death, when the chaff is blown away by the wind to a place of judgment, to be burnt. Whereas the wheat (believer in Christ) continues to stand in God's Kingdom, the chaff (unbeliever) can't stand before God, and is blown away into His fire (Hades, then the Lake of Fire). This process of judgment will be brought to its climax and completion by Christ at the Day of Lord: “His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt 3:12). The word for threshing sledge is tribulum, where we get the word Tribulation. The chaff (thin skin around grain of wheat) is dry, empty, weak, unstable, and worthless, once separated from the wheat. God gives all men a measure of goodness in this life (common grace), but if they reject God, then at death His grace is removed and they become what they've chosen to be, an empty shell, separated from God's presence, life, goodness and glory (substance). The substance and value of our life comes from God's Presence, so those who die ungodly will immediately discover who they are in themselves, without God - worthless chaff, only good to be thrown into God's fire, for they are useless to God, for they've refused to fulfil the purpose for which they were created - to glorify God, choosing rather to be their own gods. Thus the nature and destiny of the cursed, weak, unstable chaff is opposite to the believer, who is like a tree, strong, stable, standing forever. At this time sinners and hypocrites can join in the congregation of the just, but when judgment day comes, sinners will find they can't stand before God with the just (who have right-standing with God thru Christ's righteousness), and will be separated from the just and removed - blown away to a place of fiery judgment (1:5). The conclusion (v6) contrasts the way and destination of the righteous and the way of the ungodly: "For the Lord knows (watches over) the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish (end in destruction)." We must choose to which of these 2 groups we belong. It describes these 2 groups and their 2 corresponding ways of life, to help us identify to which we actually belong. The Way of the righteous is Christ Himself (John 14:6), so to walk in this Way, means walking with Christ, in fellowship with Him. The statement that the Lord KNOWS the way of the righteous, in a way that He does not know the way of the ungodly, speaks of His personal relationship and involvement with them - that He is walking with them, and watching over them in love, making sure they will reach their glorious destination together. (Saying: 'I am the way' means personally leading us to our destination). On the other hand, the ungodly choose to go their own way, apart from God (Isa 53:6), and Jesus will say to them "I never knew you" (Matt 7:23), and so their way will end in ruin. Jesus is the narrow Gate and Way that leads to life (Matt 7:13-14). We enter through the narrow Gate when we trust in Him and His death & resurrection, receiving Him as our Lord and Saviour. Then we enter into the narrow Way, of walking in fellowship with Him, trusting His leadership. If you are righteous in Christ, you are on the Way of righteousness, which means you are travelling on a very different road through life than the multitudes of ungodly people, on the broad road leading to destruction ( 1:1). Finally, we point out there is only 1 Person who has perfectly fulfilled Psalm 1 - JESUS. This is a portrait of Christ - the Blessed Man of Psalm 1. This is why 'the blessed man' is in the singular, and the 'ungodly' is plural. Without Christ, we would all be useless chaff destined for fire. But He has made a way for us to be put into Christ and receive His righteousness. Since Psalm 1 is fulfilled in Christ, when you are put into Christ, then Psalm 1 also becomes true for you, for you are in Christ - you become a blessed man in Him (Eph 1:3), planted (in the new birth) by the River of the Spirit, with full access to His grace, enabling you to grow spiritually, become fruitful, as you meditate on His Word and develop strong faith roots to draw upon His life.

Having described the nature and blessing of the righteous, being like a blessed, upright, strong tree planted by God's River of Life (1:1-3), it declares: "No so, the ungodly, not so!" (v4). He then compares the ungodly to the chaff, which the wind drives away (1:4). We describe threshing, when the chaff is separated from the wheat, and winnowing, when both wheat and chaff are thrown up into the air, and the chaff is carried away by the wind. This describes what happens at a man's judgment right after his death. The threshing, which physically separates the chaff from the wheat, corresponds to physical death, and the winnowing describes what happens after death, when the chaff is blown away by the wind to a place of judgment, to be burnt. Whereas the wheat (believer in Christ) continues to stand in God's Kingdom, the chaff (unbeliever) can't stand before God, and is blown away into His fire (Hades, then the Lake of Fire). This process of judgment will be brought to its climax and completion by Christ at the Day of Lord: “His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt 3:12). The word for threshing sledge is tribulum, where we get the word Tribulation. The chaff (thin skin around grain of wheat) is dry, empty, weak, unstable, and worthless, once separated from the wheat. God gives all men a measure of goodness in this life (common grace), but if they reject God, then at death His grace is removed and they become what they've chosen to be, an empty shell, separated from God's presence, life, goodness and glory (substance). The substance and value of our life comes from God's Presence, so those who die ungodly will immediately discover who they are in themselves, without God - worthless chaff, only good to be thrown into God's fire, for they are useless to God, for they've refused to fulfil the purpose for which they were created - to glorify God, choosing rather to be their own gods. Thus the nature and destiny of the cursed, weak, unstable chaff is opposite to the believer, who is like a tree, strong, stable, standing forever. At this time sinners and hypocrites can join in the congregation of the just, but when judgment day comes, sinners will find they can't stand before God with the just (who have right-standing with God thru Christ's righteousness), and will be separated from the just and removed - blown away to a place of fiery judgment (1:5). The conclusion (v6) contrasts the way and destination of the righteous and the way of the ungodly: "For the Lord knows (watches over) the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish (end in destruction)." We must choose to which of these 2 groups we belong. It describes these 2 groups and their 2 corresponding ways of life, to help us identify to which we actually belong. The Way of the righteous is Christ Himself (John 14:6), so to walk in this Way, means walking with Christ, in fellowship with Him. The statement that the Lord KNOWS the way of the righteous, in a way that He does not know the way of the ungodly, speaks of His personal relationship and involvement with them - that He is walking with them, and watching over them in love, making sure they will reach their glorious destination together. (Saying: 'I am the way' means personally leading us to our destination). On the other hand, the ungodly choose to go their own way, apart from God (Isa 53:6), and Jesus will say to them "I never knew you" (Matt 7:23), and so their way will end in ruin. Jesus is the narrow Gate and Way that leads to life (Matt 7:13-14). We enter through the narrow Gate when we trust in Him and His death & resurrection, receiving Him as our Lord and Saviour. Then we enter into the narrow Way, of walking in fellowship with Him, trusting His leadership. If you are righteous in Christ, you are on the Way of righteousness, which means you are travelling on a very different road through life than the multitudes of ungodly people, on the broad road leading to destruction ( 1:1). Finally, we point out there is only 1 Person who has perfectly fulfilled Psalm 1 - JESUS. This is a portrait of Christ - the Blessed Man of Psalm 1. This is why 'the blessed man' is in the singular, and the 'ungodly' is plural. Without Christ, we would all be useless chaff destined for fire. But He has made a way for us to be put into Christ and receive His righteousness. Since Psalm 1 is fulfilled in Christ, when you are put into Christ, then Psalm 1 also becomes true for you, for you are in Christ - you become a blessed man in Him (Eph 1:3), planted (in the new birth) by the River of the Spirit, with full access to His grace, enabling you to grow spiritually, become fruitful, as you meditate on His Word and develop strong faith roots to draw upon His life.

"The threshing floors will again be piled high with grain, and the presses will overflow with new wine and olive oil. (NLT)" Joel 2 : 24

This week Whitney and McKinsey discuss chapters 8-15 of Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. IG/Threads/TikTok/: @dejalupodcast   Email: dejalupodcast@gmail.com  Music: https://www.purple-planet.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deja-lu/support

Old Testament: Hosea 6–9 Hosea 6–9 (Listen) Israel and Judah Are Unrepentant 6   “Come, let us return to the LORD;    for he has torn us, that he may heal us;    he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.2   After two days he will revive us;    on the third day he will raise us up,    that we may live before him.3   Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD;    his going out is sure as the dawn;  he will come to us as the showers,    as the spring rains that water the earth.” 4   What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?    What shall I do with you, O Judah?  Your love is like a morning cloud,    like the dew that goes early away.5   Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;    I have slain them by the words of my mouth,    and my judgment goes forth as the light.6   For I desire steadfast love1 and not sacrifice,    the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. 7   But like Adam they transgressed the covenant;    there they dealt faithlessly with me.8   Gilead is a city of evildoers,    tracked with blood.9   As robbers lie in wait for a man,    so the priests band together;  they murder on the way to Shechem;    they commit villainy.10   In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;    Ephraim's whoredom is there; Israel is defiled. 11   For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed.   When I restore the fortunes of my people,7   when I would heal Israel,    the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,    and the evil deeds of Samaria,  for they deal falsely;    the thief breaks in,    and the bandits raid outside.2   But they do not consider    that I remember all their evil.  Now their deeds surround them;    they are before my face.3   By their evil they make the king glad,    and the princes by their treachery.4   They are all adulterers;    they are like a heated oven  whose baker ceases to stir the fire,    from the kneading of the dough    until it is leavened.5   On the day of our king, the princes    became sick with the heat of wine;    he stretched out his hand with mockers.6   For with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue;    all night their anger smolders;    in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.7   All of them are hot as an oven,    and they devour their rulers.  All their kings have fallen,    and none of them calls upon me. 8   Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples;    Ephraim is a cake not turned.9   Strangers devour his strength,    and he knows it not;  gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,    and he knows it not.10   The pride of Israel testifies to his face;2    yet they do not return to the LORD their God,    nor seek him, for all this. 11   Ephraim is like a dove,    silly and without sense,    calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.12   As they go, I will spread over them my net;    I will bring them down like birds of the heavens;    I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation.13   Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!    Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!  I would redeem them,    but they speak lies against me. 14   They do not cry to me from the heart,    but they wail upon their beds;  for grain and wine they gash themselves;    they rebel against me.15   Although I trained and strengthened their arms,    yet they devise evil against me.16   They return, but not upward;3    they are like a treacherous bow;  their princes shall fall by the sword    because of the insolence of their tongue.  This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt. Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind 8   Set the trumpet to your lips!    One like a vulture is over the house of the LORD,  because they have transgressed my covenant    and rebelled against my law.2   To me they cry,    “My God, we—Israel—know you.”3   Israel has spurned the good;    the enemy shall pursue him. 4   They made kings, but not through me.    They set up princes, but I knew it not.  With their silver and gold they made idols    for their own destruction.5   I have4 spurned your calf, O Samaria.    My anger burns against them.  How long will they be incapable of innocence?6   For it is from Israel;  a craftsman made it;    it is not God.  The calf of Samaria    shall be broken to pieces.5 7   For they sow the wind,    and they shall reap the whirlwind.  The standing grain has no heads;    it shall yield no flour;  if it were to yield,    strangers would devour it.8   Israel is swallowed up;    already they are among the nations    as a useless vessel.9   For they have gone up to Assyria,    a wild donkey wandering alone;    Ephraim has hired lovers.10   Though they hire allies among the nations,    I will soon gather them up.  And the king and princes shall soon writhe    because of the tribute. 11   Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,    they have become to him altars for sinning.12   Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,    they would be regarded as a strange thing.13   As for my sacrificial offerings,    they sacrifice meat and eat it,    but the LORD does not accept them.  Now he will remember their iniquity    and punish their sins;    they shall return to Egypt.14   For Israel has forgotten his Maker    and built palaces,  and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;    so I will send a fire upon his cities,    and it shall devour her strongholds. The Lord Will Punish Israel 9   Rejoice not, O Israel!    Exult not like the peoples;  for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.    You have loved a prostitute's wages    on all threshing floors.2   Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,    and the new wine shall fail them.3   They shall not remain in the land of the LORD,    but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,    and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. 4   They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD,    and their sacrifices shall not please him.  It shall be like mourners' bread to them;    all who eat of it shall be defiled;  for their bread shall be for their hunger only;    it shall not come to the house of the LORD. 5   What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,    and on the day of the feast of the LORD?6   For behold, they are going away from destruction;    but Egypt shall gather them;    Memphis shall bury them.  Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;    thorns shall be in their tents. 7   The days of punishment have come;    the days of recompense have come;    Israel shall know it.  The prophet is a fool;    the man of the spirit is mad,  because of your great iniquity    and great hatred.8   The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God;  yet a fowler's snare is on all his ways,    and hatred in the house of his God.9   They have deeply corrupted themselves    as in the days of Gibeah:  he will remember their iniquity;    he will punish their sins. 10   Like grapes in the wilderness,    I found Israel.  Like the first fruit on the fig tree    in its first season,    I saw your fathers.  But they came to Baal-peor    and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,    and became detestable like the thing they loved.11   Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird—    no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!12   Even if they bring up children,    I will bereave them till none is left.  Woe to them    when I depart from them!13   Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm6 planted in a meadow;    but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.714   Give them, O LORD—    what will you give?  Give them a miscarrying womb    and dry breasts. 15   Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;    there I began to hate them.  Because of the wickedness of their deeds    I will drive them out of my house.  I will love them no more;    all their princes are rebels. 16   Ephraim is stricken;    their root is dried up;    they shall bear no fruit.  Even though they give birth,    I will put their beloved children to death.17   My God will reject them    because they have not listened to him;    they shall be wanderers among the nations. Footnotes [1] 6:6 Septuagint mercy [2] 7:10 Or in his presence [3] 7:16 Or to the Most High [4] 8:5 Hebrew He has [5] 8:6 Or shall go up in flames [6] 9:13 Or like Tyre [7] 9:13 Hebrew to him who slaughters (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 137 Psalm 137 (Listen) How Shall We Sing the Lord's Song? 137   By the waters of Babylon,    there we sat down and wept,    when we remembered Zion.2   On the willows1 there    we hung up our lyres.3   For there our captors    required of us songs,  and our tormentors, mirth, saying,    “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 4   How shall we sing the LORD's song    in a foreign land?5   If I forget you, O Jerusalem,    let my right hand forget its skill!6   Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,    if I do not remember you,  if I do not set Jerusalem    above my highest joy! 7   Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites    the day of Jerusalem,  how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare,    down to its foundations!”8   O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,    blessed shall he be who repays you    with what you have done to us!9   Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones    and dashes them against the rock! Footnotes [1] 137:2 Or poplars (ESV) New Testament: 1 Peter 3–5 1 Peter 3–5 (Listen) Wives and Husbands 3 Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, 2 when they see your respectful and pure conduct. 3 Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. 5 For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, 6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening. 7 Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you1 of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. Suffering for Righteousness' Sake 8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. 10 For   “Whoever desires to love life    and see good days,  let him keep his tongue from evil    and his lips from speaking deceit;11   let him turn away from evil and do good;    let him seek peace and pursue it.12   For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,    and his ears are open to their prayer.  But the

Old Testament: Hosea 6–9 Hosea 6–9 (Listen) Israel and Judah Are Unrepentant 6   “Come, let us return to the LORD;    for he has torn us, that he may heal us;    he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.2   After two days he will revive us;    on the third day he will raise us up,    that we may live before him.3   Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD;    his going out is sure as the dawn;  he will come to us as the showers,    as the spring rains that water the earth.” 4   What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?    What shall I do with you, O Judah?  Your love is like a morning cloud,    like the dew that goes early away.5   Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;    I have slain them by the words of my mouth,    and my judgment goes forth as the light.6   For I desire steadfast love1 and not sacrifice,    the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. 7   But like Adam they transgressed the covenant;    there they dealt faithlessly with me.8   Gilead is a city of evildoers,    tracked with blood.9   As robbers lie in wait for a man,    so the priests band together;  they murder on the way to Shechem;    they commit villainy.10   In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;    Ephraim's whoredom is there; Israel is defiled. 11   For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed.   When I restore the fortunes of my people,7   when I would heal Israel,    the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,    and the evil deeds of Samaria,  for they deal falsely;    the thief breaks in,    and the bandits raid outside.2   But they do not consider    that I remember all their evil.  Now their deeds surround them;    they are before my face.3   By their evil they make the king glad,    and the princes by their treachery.4   They are all adulterers;    they are like a heated oven  whose baker ceases to stir the fire,    from the kneading of the dough    until it is leavened.5   On the day of our king, the princes    became sick with the heat of wine;    he stretched out his hand with mockers.6   For with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue;    all night their anger smolders;    in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.7   All of them are hot as an oven,    and they devour their rulers.  All their kings have fallen,    and none of them calls upon me. 8   Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples;    Ephraim is a cake not turned.9   Strangers devour his strength,    and he knows it not;  gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,    and he knows it not.10   The pride of Israel testifies to his face;2    yet they do not return to the LORD their God,    nor seek him, for all this. 11   Ephraim is like a dove,    silly and without sense,    calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.12   As they go, I will spread over them my net;    I will bring them down like birds of the heavens;    I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation.13   Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!    Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!  I would redeem them,    but they speak lies against me. 14   They do not cry to me from the heart,    but they wail upon their beds;  for grain and wine they gash themselves;    they rebel against me.15   Although I trained and strengthened their arms,    yet they devise evil against me.16   They return, but not upward;3    they are like a treacherous bow;  their princes shall fall by the sword    because of the insolence of their tongue.  This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt. Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind 8   Set the trumpet to your lips!    One like a vulture is over the house of the LORD,  because they have transgressed my covenant    and rebelled against my law.2   To me they cry,    “My God, we—Israel—know you.”3   Israel has spurned the good;    the enemy shall pursue him. 4   They made kings, but not through me.    They set up princes, but I knew it not.  With their silver and gold they made idols    for their own destruction.5   I have4 spurned your calf, O Samaria.    My anger burns against them.  How long will they be incapable of innocence?6   For it is from Israel;  a craftsman made it;    it is not God.  The calf of Samaria    shall be broken to pieces.5 7   For they sow the wind,    and they shall reap the whirlwind.  The standing grain has no heads;    it shall yield no flour;  if it were to yield,    strangers would devour it.8   Israel is swallowed up;    already they are among the nations    as a useless vessel.9   For they have gone up to Assyria,    a wild donkey wandering alone;    Ephraim has hired lovers.10   Though they hire allies among the nations,    I will soon gather them up.  And the king and princes shall soon writhe    because of the tribute. 11   Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,    they have become to him altars for sinning.12   Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,    they would be regarded as a strange thing.13   As for my sacrificial offerings,    they sacrifice meat and eat it,    but the LORD does not accept them.  Now he will remember their iniquity    and punish their sins;    they shall return to Egypt.14   For Israel has forgotten his Maker    and built palaces,  and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;    so I will send a fire upon his cities,    and it shall devour her strongholds. The Lord Will Punish Israel 9   Rejoice not, O Israel!    Exult not like the peoples;  for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.    You have loved a prostitute's wages    on all threshing floors.2   Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,    and the new wine shall fail them.3   They shall not remain in the land of the LORD,    but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,    and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. 4   They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD,    and their sacrifices shall not please him.  It shall be like mourners' bread to them;    all who eat of it shall be defiled;  for their bread shall be for their hunger only;    it shall not come to the house of the LORD. 5   What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,    and on the day of the feast of the LORD?6   For behold, they are going away from destruction;    but Egypt shall gather them;    Memphis shall bury them.  Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;    thorns shall be in their tents. 7   The days of punishment have come;    the days of recompense have come;    Israel shall know it.  The prophet is a fool;    the man of the spirit is mad,  because of your great iniquity    and great hatred.8   The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God;  yet a fowler's snare is on all his ways,    and hatred in the house of his God.9   They have deeply corrupted themselves    as in the days of Gibeah:  he will remember their iniquity;    he will punish their sins. 10   Like grapes in the wilderness,    I found Israel.  Like the first fruit on the fig tree    in its first season,    I saw your fathers.  But they came to Baal-peor    and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,    and became detestable like the thing they loved.11   Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird—    no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!12   Even if they bring up children,    I will bereave them till none is left.  Woe to them    when I depart from them!13   Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm6 planted in a meadow;    but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.714   Give them, O LORD—    what will you give?  Give them a miscarrying womb    and dry breasts. 15   Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;    there I began to hate them.  Because of the wickedness of their deeds    I will drive them out of my house.  I will love them no more;    all their princes are rebels. 16   Ephraim is stricken;    their root is dried up;    they shall bear no fruit.  Even though they give birth,    I will put their beloved children to death.17   My God will reject them    because they have not listened to him;    they shall be wanderers among the nations. Footnotes [1] 6:6 Septuagint mercy [2] 7:10 Or in his presence [3] 7:16 Or to the Most High [4] 8:5 Hebrew He has [5] 8:6 Or shall go up in flames [6] 9:13 Or like Tyre [7] 9:13 Hebrew to him who slaughters (ESV) New Testament: John 11:1–54 John 11:1–54 (Listen) The Death of Lazarus 11 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus1 was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” 11 After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas, called the Twin,2 said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” I Am the Resurrection and the Life 17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles3 off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.4 Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” Jesus Weeps 28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved5 in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” Jesus Raises Lazarus 38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 

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Morning: Hosea 9–11 Hosea 9–11 (Listen) The Lord Will Punish Israel 9   Rejoice not, O Israel!    Exult not like the peoples;  for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.    You have loved a prostitute's wages    on all threshing floors.2   Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,    and the new wine shall fail them.3   They shall not remain in the land of the LORD,    but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,    and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. 4   They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD,    and their sacrifices shall not please him.  It shall be like mourners' bread to them;    all who eat of it shall be defiled;  for their bread shall be for their hunger only;    it shall not come to the house of the LORD. 5   What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,    and on the day of the feast of the LORD?6   For behold, they are going away from destruction;    but Egypt shall gather them;    Memphis shall bury them.  Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;    thorns shall be in their tents. 7   The days of punishment have come;    the days of recompense have come;    Israel shall know it.  The prophet is a fool;    the man of the spirit is mad,  because of your great iniquity    and great hatred.8   The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God;  yet a fowler's snare is on all his ways,    and hatred in the house of his God.9   They have deeply corrupted themselves    as in the days of Gibeah:  he will remember their iniquity;    he will punish their sins. 10   Like grapes in the wilderness,    I found Israel.  Like the first fruit on the fig tree    in its first season,    I saw your fathers.  But they came to Baal-peor    and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,    and became detestable like the thing they loved.11   Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird—    no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!12   Even if they bring up children,    I will bereave them till none is left.  Woe to them    when I depart from them!13   Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm1 planted in a meadow;    but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.214   Give them, O LORD—    what will you give?  Give them a miscarrying womb    and dry breasts. 15   Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;    there I began to hate them.  Because of the wickedness of their deeds    I will drive them out of my house.  I will love them no more;    all their princes are rebels. 16   Ephraim is stricken;    their root is dried up;    they shall bear no fruit.  Even though they give birth,    I will put their beloved children to death.17   My God will reject them    because they have not listened to him;    they shall be wanderers among the nations. 10   Israel is a luxuriant vine    that yields its fruit.  The more his fruit increased,    the more altars he built;  as his country improved,    he improved his pillars.2   Their heart is false;    now they must bear their guilt.  The LORD3 will break down their altars    and destroy their pillars. 3   For now they will say:    “We have no king,  for we do not fear the LORD;    and a king—what could he do for us?”4   They utter mere words;    with empty4 oaths they make covenants;  so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds    in the furrows of the field.5   The inhabitants of Samaria tremble    for the calf5 of Beth-aven.  Its people mourn for it, and so do its idolatrous priests—    those who rejoiced over it and over its glory—    for it has departed6 from them.6   The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria    as tribute to the great king.7  Ephraim shall be put to shame,    and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.8 7   Samaria's king shall perish    like a twig on the face of the waters.8   The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,    shall be destroyed.  Thorn and thistle shall grow up    on their altars,  and they shall say to the mountains, “Cover us,”    and to the hills, “Fall on us.” 9   From the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel;    there they have continued.    Shall not the war against the unjust9 overtake them in Gibeah?10   When I please, I will discipline them,    and nations shall be gathered against them    when they are bound up for their double iniquity. 11   Ephraim was a trained calf    that loved to thresh,    and I spared her fair neck;  but I will put Ephraim to the yoke;    Judah must plow;    Jacob must harrow for himself.12   Sow for yourselves righteousness;    reap steadfast love;    break up your fallow ground,  for it is the time to seek the LORD,    that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. 13   You have plowed iniquity;    you have reaped injustice;    you have eaten the fruit of lies.  Because you have trusted in your own way    and in the multitude of your warriors,14   therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people,    and all your fortresses shall be destroyed,  as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle;    mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.15   Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel,    because of your great evil.  At dawn the king of Israel    shall be utterly cut off. The Lord's Love for Israel 11   When Israel was a child, I loved him,    and out of Egypt I called my son.2   The more they were called,    the more they went away;  they kept sacrificing to the Baals    and burning offerings to idols. 3   Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;    I took them up by their arms,    but they did not know that I healed them.4   I led them with cords of kindness,10    with the bands of love,  and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,    and I bent down to them and fed them. 5   They shall not11 return to the land of Egypt,    but Assyria shall be their king,    because they have refused to return to me.6   The sword shall rage against their cities,    consume the bars of their gates,    and devour them because of their own counsels.7   My people are bent on turning away from me,    and though they call out to the Most High,    he shall not raise them up at all. 8   How can I give you up, O Ephraim?    How can I hand you over, O Israel?  How can I make you like Admah?    How can I treat you like Zeboiim?  My heart recoils within me;    my compassion grows warm and tender.9   I will not execute my burning anger;    I will not again destroy Ephraim;  for I am God and not a man,    the Holy One in your midst,    and I will not come in wrath.12 10   They shall go after the LORD;    he will roar like a lion;  when he roars,    his children shall come trembling from the west;11   they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt,    and like doves from the land of Assyria,    and I will return them to their homes, declares the LORD.12   13 Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,    and the house of Israel with deceit,  but Judah still walks with God    and is faithful to the Holy One. Footnotes [1] 9:13 Or like Tyre [2] 9:13 Hebrew to him who slaughters [3] 10:2 Hebrew He [4] 10:4 Or vain (see Exodus 20:7) [5] 10:5 Or calves [6] 10:5 Or has gone into exile [7] 10:6 Or to King Jareb [8] 10:6 Or counsel [9] 10:9 Hebrew the children of injustice [10] 11:4 Or humaneness; Hebrew man [11] 11:5 Or surely [12] 11:9 Or into the city [13] 11:12 Ch 12:1 in Hebrew (ESV) Evening: Revelation 2 Revelation 2 (Listen) To the Church in Ephesus 2 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.' To the Church in Smyrna 8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life. 9 “‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander1 of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.' To the Church in Pergamum 12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. 13 “‘I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith2 even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. 17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.' To the Church in Thyatira 18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 “‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. 20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22 Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. 24 But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. 25 Only hold fast what you have until I come. 26 The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, 27 and he will rule3 them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. 28 And I will give him the morning star. 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.' Footnotes [1] 2:9 Greek blasphemy [2] 2:13 Or your faith in me [3] 2:27 Greek shepherd (ESV)

A short summary of the 39 Melochos of Shabbos.

The threshing floors of God are the Intersection of my faith and my flesh. My flesh wants to believe that God will make it enough but also struggles to believe it. Open a Bible to 2 Samuel 24 and follow along with Pastor Kyle as he invites you to the threshing floor of God for your life.

God I'm broken!! I will never be! How can HE ever use me? These are words that so many feel. They are scars from lies that we have believed, but HE says to us, "I will make you into a new and sharp instrument that will thresh the mountains and crush them!" --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/samuel-baez/message

A PLAGUE that spread through the kingdom of David led to the consecration of a 35-acre piece of ground that is fought over to this day.This week, we discuss the sin of David in ordering a census of his kingdom. If God “incited” David, why was the census a sin? And why is there is a difference between 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles, which names Satan (or “an adversary”) as the one who incited David to order a census?It's possible that this was a test of David's faith to see whether he trusted in God or in his army for security. The account in 1 Chronicles may refer to a human adversary such as a political opponent or an enemy nation rather than Satan, since this is the only place in the Old Testament where the word saitan is not preceded by the definite article (“the satan”).What is clear is that God allowed this test and David failed, resulting in a plague that claimed at least 70,000 lives (probably more, since the text reads “70,000 men”). God stopped the Angel of YHWH, which is the preincarnate Christ, before Jerusalem was destroyed. That prompted David to buy the threshing floor of Araunah and build an altar to the Lord. That became the spot on which Solomon built the Temple, a place now occupied by the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount.Interestingly, below the Dome of the Rock—and thus below Solomon's Temple—is a partly natural, partly man-made cave called the Well of Souls by Muslims. During the Crusader period, it was called the Holy of Holies. It may have been used before David's capture of the Jebusite city in necromantic rituals. See Derek's articles on this site and its possible use in these excerpts from his book The Second Coming of Saturn:The Well of SoulsRitual Pits and RephaimThreshing Floors and Portals

With family: 2 Kings 16; Titus 2 2 Kings 16 (Listen) Ahaz Reigns in Judah 16 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God, as his father David had done, 3 but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering,1 according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. 4 And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree. 5 Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to wage war on Jerusalem, and they besieged Ahaz but could not conquer him. 6 At that time Rezin the king of Syria recovered Elath for Syria and drove the men of Judah from Elath, and the Edomites came to Elath, where they dwell to this day. 7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.” 8 Ahaz also took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasures of the king's house and sent a present to the king of Assyria. 9 And the king of Assyria listened to him. The king of Assyria marched up against Damascus and took it, carrying its people captive to Kir, and he killed Rezin. 10 When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, he saw the altar that was at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a model of the altar, and its pattern, exact in all its details. 11 And Uriah the priest built the altar; in accordance with all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so Uriah the priest made it, before King Ahaz arrived from Damascus. 12 And when the king came from Damascus, the king viewed the altar. Then the king drew near to the altar and went up on it 13 and burned his burnt offering and his grain offering and poured his drink offering and threw the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. 14 And the bronze altar that was before the LORD he removed from the front of the house, from the place between his altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of his altar. 15 And King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, saying, “On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering and the king's burnt offering and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their grain offering and their drink offering. And throw on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice, but the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.” 16 Uriah the priest did all this, as King Ahaz commanded. 17 And King Ahaz cut off the frames of the stands and removed the basin from them, and he took down the sea2 from off the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone pedestal. 18 And the covered way for the Sabbath that had been built inside the house and the outer entrance for the king he caused to go around the house of the LORD, because of the king of Assyria. 19 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 20 And Ahaz slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place. Footnotes [1] 16:3 Or made his son pass through the fire [2] 16:17 Compare 1 Kings 7:23 (ESV) Titus 2 (Listen) Teach Sound Doctrine 2 But as for you, teach what accords with sound1 doctrine. 2 Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. 3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. 6 Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. 7 Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8 and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. 9 Bondservants2 are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. 11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. 15 Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. Footnotes [1] 2:1 Or healthy; also verses 2, 8 [2] 2:9 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface (ESV) In private: Psalms 126–128; Hosea 9 Psalms 126–128 (Listen) Restore Our Fortunes, O Lord A Song of Ascents. 126   When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion,    we were like those who dream.2   Then our mouth was filled with laughter,    and our tongue with shouts of joy;  then they said among the nations,    “The LORD has done great things for them.”3   The LORD has done great things for us;    we are glad. 4   Restore our fortunes, O LORD,    like streams in the Negeb!5   Those who sow in tears    shall reap with shouts of joy!6   He who goes out weeping,    bearing the seed for sowing,  shall come home with shouts of joy,    bringing his sheaves with him. Unless the Lord Builds the House A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon. 127   Unless the LORD builds the house,    those who build it labor in vain.  Unless the LORD watches over the city,    the watchman stays awake in vain.2   It is in vain that you rise up early    and go late to rest,  eating the bread of anxious toil;    for he gives to his beloved sleep. 3   Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,    the fruit of the womb a reward.4   Like arrows in the hand of a warrior    are the children1 of one's youth.5   Blessed is the man    who fills his quiver with them!  He shall not be put to shame    when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.2 Blessed Is Everyone Who Fears the Lord A Song of Ascents. 128   Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD,    who walks in his ways!2   You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;    you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. 3   Your wife will be like a fruitful vine    within your house;  your children will be like olive shoots    around your table.4   Behold, thus shall the man be blessed    who fears the LORD. 5   The LORD bless you from Zion!    May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem    all the days of your life!6   May you see your children's children!    Peace be upon Israel! Footnotes [1] 127:4 Or sons [2] 127:5 Or They shall not be put to shame when they speak with their enemies in the gate (ESV) Hosea 9 (Listen) The Lord Will Punish Israel 9   Rejoice not, O Israel!    Exult not like the peoples;  for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.    You have loved a prostitute's wages    on all threshing floors.2   Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,    and the new wine shall fail them.3   They shall not remain in the land of the LORD,    but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,    and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. 4   They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD,    and their sacrifices shall not please him.  It shall be like mourners' bread to them;    all who eat of it shall be defiled;  for their bread shall be for their hunger only;    it shall not come to the house of the LORD. 5   What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,    and on the day of the feast of the LORD?6   For behold, they are going away from destruction;    but Egypt shall gather them;    Memphis shall bury them.  Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;    thorns shall be in their tents. 7   The days of punishment have come;    the days of recompense have come;    Israel shall know it.  The prophet is a fool;    the man of the spirit is mad,  because of your great iniquity    and great hatred.8   The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God;  yet a fowler's snare is on all his ways,    and hatred in the house of his God.9   They have deeply corrupted themselves    as in the days of Gibeah:  he will remember their iniquity;    he will punish their sins. 10   Like grapes in the wilderness,    I found Israel.  Like the first fruit on the fig tree    in its first season,    I saw your fathers.  But they came to Baal-peor    and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,    and became detestable like the thing they loved.11   Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird—    no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!12   Even if they bring up children,    I will bereave them till none is left.  Woe to them    when I depart from them!13   Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm1 planted in a meadow;    but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.214   Give them, O LORD—    what will you give?  Give them a miscarrying womb    and dry breasts. 15   Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;    there I began to hate them.  Because of the wickedness of their deeds    I will drive them out of my house.  I will love them no more;    all their princes are rebels. 16   Ephraim is stricken;    their root is dried up;    they shall bear no fruit.  Even though they give birth,    I will put their beloved children to death.17   My God will reject them    because they have not listened to him;    they shall be wanderers among the nations. Footnotes [1] 9:13 Or like Tyre [2] 9:13 Hebrew to him who slaughters (ESV)

Hosea 8–14 Hosea 8–14 (Listen) Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind 8   Set the trumpet to your lips!    One like a vulture is over the house of the LORD,  because they have transgressed my covenant    and rebelled against my law.2   To me they cry,    “My God, we—Israel—know you.”3   Israel has spurned the good;    the enemy shall pursue him. 4   They made kings, but not through me.    They set up princes, but I knew it not.  With their silver and gold they made idols    for their own destruction.5   I have1 spurned your calf, O Samaria.    My anger burns against them.  How long will they be incapable of innocence?6   For it is from Israel;  a craftsman made it;    it is not God.  The calf of Samaria    shall be broken to pieces.2 7   For they sow the wind,    and they shall reap the whirlwind.  The standing grain has no heads;    it shall yield no flour;  if it were to yield,    strangers would devour it.8   Israel is swallowed up;    already they are among the nations    as a useless vessel.9   For they have gone up to Assyria,    a wild donkey wandering alone;    Ephraim has hired lovers.10   Though they hire allies among the nations,    I will soon gather them up.  And the king and princes shall soon writhe    because of the tribute. 11   Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,    they have become to him altars for sinning.12   Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,    they would be regarded as a strange thing.13   As for my sacrificial offerings,    they sacrifice meat and eat it,    but the LORD does not accept them.  Now he will remember their iniquity    and punish their sins;    they shall return to Egypt.14   For Israel has forgotten his Maker    and built palaces,  and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;    so I will send a fire upon his cities,    and it shall devour her strongholds. The Lord Will Punish Israel 9   Rejoice not, O Israel!    Exult not like the peoples;  for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.    You have loved a prostitute's wages    on all threshing floors.2   Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,    and the new wine shall fail them.3   They shall not remain in the land of the LORD,    but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,    and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. 4   They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD,    and their sacrifices shall not please him.  It shall be like mourners' bread to them;    all who eat of it shall be defiled;  for their bread shall be for their hunger only;    it shall not come to the house of the LORD. 5   What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,    and on the day of the feast of the LORD?6   For behold, they are going away from destruction;    but Egypt shall gather them;    Memphis shall bury them.  Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;    thorns shall be in their tents. 7   The days of punishment have come;    the days of recompense have come;    Israel shall know it.  The prophet is a fool;    the man of the spirit is mad,  because of your great iniquity    and great hatred.8   The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God;  yet a fowler's snare is on all his ways,    and hatred in the house of his God.9   They have deeply corrupted themselves    as in the days of Gibeah:  he will remember their iniquity;    he will punish their sins. 10   Like grapes in the wilderness,    I found Israel.  Like the first fruit on the fig tree    in its first season,    I saw your fathers.  But they came to Baal-peor    and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,    and became detestable like the thing they loved.11   Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird—    no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!12   Even if they bring up children,    I will bereave them till none is left.  Woe to them    when I depart from them!13   Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm3 planted in a meadow;    but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.414   Give them, O LORD—    what will you give?  Give them a miscarrying womb    and dry breasts. 15   Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;    there I began to hate them.  Because of the wickedness of their deeds    I will drive them out of my house.  I will love them no more;    all their princes are rebels. 16   Ephraim is stricken;    their root is dried up;    they shall bear no fruit.  Even though they give birth,    I will put their beloved children to death.17   My God will reject them    because they have not listened to him;    they shall be wanderers among the nations. 10   Israel is a luxuriant vine    that yields its fruit.  The more his fruit increased,    the more altars he built;  as his country improved,    he improved his pillars.2   Their heart is false;    now they must bear their guilt.  The LORD5 will break down their altars    and destroy their pillars. 3   For now they will say:    “We have no king,  for we do not fear the LORD;    and a king—what could he do for us?”4   They utter mere words;    with empty6 oaths they make covenants;  so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds    in the furrows of the field.5   The inhabitants of Samaria tremble    for the calf7 of Beth-aven.  Its people mourn for it, and so do its idolatrous priests—    those who rejoiced over it and over its glory—    for it has departed8 from them.6   The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria    as tribute to the great king.9  Ephraim shall be put to shame,    and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.10 7   Samaria's king shall perish    like a twig on the face of the waters.8   The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,    shall be destroyed.  Thorn and thistle shall grow up    on their altars,  and they shall say to the mountains, “Cover us,”    and to the hills, “Fall on us.” 9   From the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel;    there they have continued.    Shall not the war against the unjust11 overtake them in Gibeah?10   When I please, I will discipline them,    and nations shall be gathered against them    when they are bound up for their double iniquity. 11   Ephraim was a trained calf    that loved to thresh,    and I spared her fair neck;  but I will put Ephraim to the yoke;    Judah must plow;    Jacob must harrow for himself.12   Sow for yourselves righteousness;    reap steadfast love;    break up your fallow ground,  for it is the time to seek the LORD,    that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. 13   You have plowed iniquity;    you have reaped injustice;    you have eaten the fruit of lies.  Because you have trusted in your own way    and in the multitude of your warriors,14   therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people,    and all your fortresses shall be destroyed,  as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle;    mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.15   Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel,    because of your great evil.  At dawn the king of Israel    shall be utterly cut off. The Lord's Love for Israel 11   When Israel was a child, I loved him,    and out of Egypt I called my son.2   The more they were called,    the more they went away;  they kept sacrificing to the Baals    and burning offerings to idols. 3   Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;    I took them up by their arms,    but they did not know that I healed them.4   I led them with cords of kindness,12    with the bands of love,  and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,    and I bent down to them and fed them. 5   They shall not13 return to the land of Egypt,    but Assyria shall be their king,    because they have refused to return to me.6   The sword shall rage against their cities,    consume the bars of their gates,    and devour them because of their own counsels.7   My people are bent on turning away from me,    and though they call out to the Most High,    he shall not raise them up at all. 8   How can I give you up, O Ephraim?    How can I hand you over, O Israel?  How can I make you like Admah?    How can I treat you like Zeboiim?  My heart recoils within me;    my compassion grows warm and tender.9   I will not execute my burning anger;    I will not again destroy Ephraim;  for I am God and not a man,    the Holy One in your midst,    and I will not come in wrath.14 10   They shall go after the LORD;    he will roar like a lion;  when he roars,    his children shall come trembling from the west;11   they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt,    and like doves from the land of Assyria,    and I will return them to their homes, declares the LORD.12   15 Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,    and the house of Israel with deceit,  but Judah still walks with God    and is faithful to the Holy One.12   Ephraim feeds on the wind    and pursues the east wind all day long;  they multiply falsehood and violence;    they make a covenant with Assyria,    and oil is carried to Egypt. The Lord's Indictment of Israel and Judah 2   The LORD has an indictment against Judah    and will punish Jacob according to his ways;    he will repay him according to his deeds.3   In the womb he took his brother by the heel,    and in his manhood he strove with God.4   He strove with the angel and prevailed;    he wept and sought his favor.  He met God16 at Bethel,    and there God spoke with us—5   the LORD, the God of hosts,    the LORD is his memorial name:6   “So you, by the help of your God, return,    hold fast to love and justice,    and wait continually for your God.” 7   A merchant, in whose hands are false balances,    he loves to oppress.8   Ephraim has said, “Ah, but I am rich;    I have found wealth for myself;  in all my labors they cannot find in me iniquity or sin.”9   I am the LORD your God    from the land of Egypt;  I will again make you dwell in tents,    as in the days of the appointed feast. 10   I spoke to the prophets;    it was I who multiplied visions,    and through the prophets gave parables.11   If there is iniquity in Gilead,    they shall surely come to nothing:  in Gilgal they sacrifice bulls;&n

Nick Tyler and Al Iverson discuss the events.

The story that took BookTok by storm(lightning included, obviously). Was it worth the hype? Would your three favorite booksellers recommend Fourth Wing to fellow readers? Journey to Basgiath War College with us as we dragon-nose dive into one of the hottest books of the year. If you don't want spoilers, then don't enter Threshing just yet, because this episode is FULL of spoilers and hot takes.

Well hey, hello and happy giveaway winner announcement day! Yeah, that's not an official federal day to celebrate I guess, but I'm going to announce the winners of the Celebrate 150 Episodes Giveaway. And we are on to the next book in the Bible, Leviticus, in this series where we are really just working our way through every single one of the 66 books of the Bible to deep dive into a promise from each book. Here we are in book number 3, Leviticus. This is a good one, really powerful faith-building stuff in today's promise. I'm ready if you are! Let's go…   Free Basic Pass to 2023 Homeschool Super Heroes Summit hosted by Kerry Beck You're listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, part of the Spark Network, now playing in the Edifi app. Today's episode is sponsored by Kerry Beck's Homeschool Super Heroes Summit, an online summit for homeschool families that will bless, equip, and encourage those who have chosen the home education lifestyle. Grab your free ticket at the link in the show notes (and fun fact: I'm blessed to be the prayer coordinator for this event and I will be hosting a live prayer room each day of the summit at 12 noon Central time - and I'd love to be able to connect with you there and pray for you in real time, so feel free to sign up and share this with anyone you know who might be interested.) Big thanks to Kerry for hosting this event year after year. Now, on with the show! This is episode number 153.   Leviticus chapter 26 is a promise chapter. In the NLT, it is entitled “God's Promises for Those Who Keep His Laws”. So God's promises play pretty predominantly in Leviticus 26. Now, disclaimer: we are under the New Covenant, thank You Jesus, and I surely do mean that, thank You Jesus, so we aren't like the religious leaders or legalists who are all about the law. We live by faith, we have a living hope, and we are under grace, recipients of tremendous mercy, not sinning wildly, not grace abusers, not bratty children of the Most High God, not at all. Just not legalists. I'm gonna let you in on something, and so many of you likely already know this…the devil is a legalist. If he can find a way to gain some sort of legal access, like he's got permission, has been given access, to invade some part of your life, he will take full advantage (and it is an invasion…he won't stay politely in the guest suite. Invaders just invade, and they aren't usually super polite about it.)  Anywhere he can start to build a stronghold, he's gonna do it. He's a destroyer, for sure, but he is a legalist so he wants a legal reason to get all up into your business. So, what does that actually look like for us? Well, if satan can get you to be a legalist, to be religious more than having a relationship with the Lord, that's a good start for the devil. He would like for all of God's children to have our own set of adaptations and additions to God's Word…like the Pharisees and Sadducees had in Jesus' day. The ten commandments grew into more than 600 rules and regulations. If satan can't keep you out of the Kingdom, he'll put some serious effort into turning you into a legalist. And then, as Jesus said, what happens is we end judging others, inside and outside of the Church, and some things in our own life we let slide, we leave wiggle room, because we're really doing pretty good at following the rules, now the rules may be based on the Bible, but the grace dissipates and do's versus don'ts spring up in the place where grace ought to be. And then it becomes really easy to judge judge judge everybody else by that set of rules. But it's a sliding scale, isn't it? We so easily see the little tiny splinter in someone else's eye and we can't see clearly because we have a two by four jutting out of our skull. Is it time to yell, “Timber!” regarding that hunk of wood obstructing our view, cut it down, rip it out, ask the Holy Spirit for grace in place of legalism, and kick the enemy out by revoking his legal access to our life? If he can get at you legally, he will. He is, after, the accuser of the brethren (that's you and me, my friend) who stands accusing us before the Father day and night. But when you live and walk and exist by grace and stand by grace alone, knowing and even saying out loud at times that you are clean by because the blood of the Lamb has made you clean, you are telling the devil he has overstayed his welcome, time to go. Bye bye.   I hope that is encouraging to somebody listening today. Your freedom in Christ is a big deal. Don't trade it in for legalism.    Leviticus 26:3-11 NLT 3 “This is what I will do if you will live by my laws and carefully obey my commands: 4 “I will give you rain at the right time. The land will produce its crops, and the trees in the field will produce their fruit. 5 Threshing [a] time will last until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until planting. You will eat all you want and live securely in your land. 6 “I will bring peace to your land. You will lie down with no one to scare you. I will remove dangerous animals, and there will be no war in your land. 7 You will chase your enemies, and you will defeat them. 8 Five of you will chase a hundred of them, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand of them. You will defeat your enemies, 9 and I will be pleased with you. Your families will be large, and I will keep my promise [b] to you. 10 You will clear out old food supplies to make room for new ones. 11 “I will put my tent among you, and I will never look at you with disgust. 12 So I will live among you and be your God, and you will be my people. 13 I am the Lord your God. I brought you out of Egypt so that you are no longer slaves of the Egyptians. I have broken their power over you and made you live as a free people. Yeah, this is awesome. And we can apply this to our lives as disciples of Jesus. Because the Old Testament, if we look and pay attention, it is always pointing toward Jesus. What can we learn about God's promises for us under the New Covenant from this passage? First, we see that God loves us enough to warn us of the evil that is after us. And He is so kind, He tells us about the opposite, too. He promises provision, and uses the words “at the right time” which should alleviate our stress. He is a good, faithful provider. Do you need to trust Him more and believe Him better in the area of provision? If so, you are for sure not alone.  God goes on here to promise peace and protection. He mentions wild and dangerous animals, and He mentions war in their land, they will chase their enemies and defeat them. Hey, let's look at that spiritually. We know based on what Paul told us about who we fight, and who don't fight - principalities and dark forces in the spiritual realm, that's who we are really warring with. Can we believe, based on Leviticus 26, that God will allow us to defeat our enemies? The answer is a bold, strong YES! Can we believe that we won't have war in our land? Well, that comes with a nationwide obedience to the Lord, and we don't have that happening here in the USA…and as I've said before, it is so helpful to remember we are Christians above all else, I just happen to have been born in America but I'm not one to say I am an American Christian because I am a citizen of heaven, as it says in the New Testament. My love of Jesus is far above and beyond the place I live. In this current age, I don't know that God is breaking a promise if war were to come to our nation, ya know what I mean? We don't fulfill the criteria, we have so much heartbreaking vile sin in the US, maybe our baseline prayer for our country should be for revival, that millions upon millions would have Christ revealed to them. And that would be so beautiful, wouldn't it?    Here we also find a promised blessing on the family unit. You know it's a good thing to believe God for His very best for your family, and when your kiddos are younger and still at home, pray boldly and live Biblically, parent Biblically. Expect God to keep His promises, and there are promises about the family in the Bible. A lot of encouragement for us in God's word, so if you are raising young children, ask boldly for all God's promises for the family to prove true for you. That's a big prayer, but man, God is so good at keeping His promises, let's be so good at believing Him for that.   In verse 10, we sort of touch on provision again, but it's like combined with the family blessing promise. If God gives you a large family, He is telling You He will provide. You're gonna have to clear out the old food supply, you won't even be able to use it all, and the new supply will be at your doorstep and you'll have to put that in your storehouse. I think you could pray this in a variety of ways for your own life. “Lord, we need some more coming in provision wise for our family. You blessed us with these children, and You have entrusted them to us for a time. Help us to teach them Your Word, to speak of Your miracles as it says in Psalm 78, and to lean fully on the power of Your Spirit in our parenting. Give us all the provision we need, financially, with food and with healthcare and with our home and our cars and clothing and celebrating special days like birthdays and give us amply all that we need to raise them to know You and to love You and to be set apart to live fully for You, even once they leave our home.” That is how I would pray Leviticus 26 verse 10 if my children were still young and living at home. Pray like God is hearing you, and pray like He is answering you. Pray and trust, two really solid spiritual disciplines for Christian living in times when the economy is rough and society is pushy pushy pushy with things that are the exact opposite of what God wants for the people He created. Pray and trust today, and do it again tomorrow.   Verse 11 - “I will put My tent among you, and I will never look at you with disgust.” He really is God with us. He is Emmanuel. He sees us through the righteousness of Christ, our filthiness becomes wooly white. God does not have to put His tent among us. We have the Holy Spirit indwelling us. This is a gift of magnitude we cannot fully comprehend. We ought to be the most grateful, thankful, joyful people on this planet because God has put His tent among us. This is a big, big deal! How blessed are we? Boy, we are crazy blessed. It's so much blessing we'd prolly fall over and faint if we caught even a glimpse of what it looks like in the spiritual realm to have the Lord right here…has God not made great promises and then kept them all to His people?    Verse 12 - “So I will live among you and be your God, and you will be My people.” Do you know that you are a child of God? Like, know that you know? And has that knowing changed your thinking and changed your living? Children of God should live knowing how loved they are. They should love others well because they are secure in who they are, due to the love of their Father. Are you numbered among His people? If so, you are so very loved and God's love poured out on you is going to keep on pouring out on you, in never-ending measure. Live loved. I think if we could do that we could change the world around us, ya know?   Let's skip down to verse 40 -   40 “But if they confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors—the treacherous things they did to oppose me— 41 I will oppose them and bring them into the lands of their enemies. Then, if they humble their uncircumcised hearts and accept their guilt, 42 I will remember my promise to Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham. I will also remember the land. 43 The land, abandoned by them, will enjoy its time to honor the Lord while it lies deserted without them. They must accept their guilt because they rejected my rules and looked at my laws with disgust. 44 Even when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or look at them with disgust. I will not reject or cancel my promise to them, because I am the Lord their God. 45 But for their sake, I will remember the promise to their ancestors. I brought them out of Egypt to be their God while nations looked on. I am the Lord.”   Now when we sin, He is faithful and just to cleanse us from all our sin and unrighteousness when we confess it, it says in 1 John 1:9. Be quick to confess when you need to. That saying, keep short accounts with God, that's good counsel. As quickly as you can, confess. Repentance isn't a shameful thing; the devil wants us to feel like it's shameful, but it's not. It's a gift. It keeps us clean. Take a shower when you need to, and repent when you need to. And then get the promised blessing! God will not reject or cancel His promise to His people. Because He is the Lord our God.  For our sake, oh man how He loves us, for our sake He will remember the promises He's made. He brought them out of Egypt, the nation of Israel. And has He not brought you out of something? Some place that was bondage? Where you felt beat down, low, lost, forgotten, weary…has He not brought you out? He is good at that, and He does it for each and every person who will turn to Him and receive Him as Savior.    He is your God today, and He has heaped up these promises in the Bible, piled them up high as can be, and they are but a drop in the bucket compared to His love for you. I hope today you can rest in that love, be at peace in His love, pray boldly with newfound faith because of God's love, and go to sleep tonight with ease and wake up refreshed and renewed due to the love God has for you.   Thank you so much for listening today, and remember the link for the homeschool summit and also it's time to announce the giveaway winners…here are the names (not sharing too much like don't want to be unsafe or anything, but check your DM's on Instagram or Messenger on Facebook if you hear your like first name). Okay, had several prizes and several winners so hang on with me while I go through them now.    (Names removed from show notes...) Please check your DMs and that will be on it's way to you soon!  Thank you so much for the support with the new podcast and the milestone of 150 episodes of this podcast. It was a good time to pause and reflect and thank God for allowing me to even do this at all, so thank for listening and being part of getting the promises of God into the people of God. I'm truly grateful!   Now, don't you forget that God's promises for you are true today, tomorrow, and always! I'll see ya back here next time as we take a look at a promise from Numbers. Bye for now!

ACOFAE Podcast Presents: Fourth Wing: "Quick as what!? Fast as what?!" Welcome to Basgiath War College. You survive the parapet or you die. You survive the Gauntlet or you die. You survive Threshing or you die. It's a tough place. Enter Violet. Trained her whole life to be a Scribe, but on the order of her General mother must enter the Dragon Rider sect, Violet has a lot stacked against her. Add in an unending war, dragons who are refusing to bond to riders, and folklore that everyone should know but doesn't, mysteries abound at magic school. Oh and there are two hot men who have their sights set on Violet and only one who didn't give ACOFAE the ick instantly. "A dragon without it's rider is a tragedy, a rider without it's dragon is dead. Welcome to Fourth Wing." Spoilers: Fourth Wing Mentions: The Black Witch Chronicles, Legally Blonde, Throne of Glass, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Men in Black TW/CW: none to our awareness For additional TW/CW information for your future reads, head to this site for more: https://triggerwarningdatabase.com/ *Thank you for listening to us! Please subscribe and leave a 5 star review and follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/acofaepodcast/) at @ACOFAEpodcast and on our TikToks! TikTok: ACOFAELaura : Laura Marie (https://www.tiktok.com/@acofaelaura?) ( https://www.tiktok.com/@acofaelaura) ACOFAEJessica : Jessica Marie (https://www.tiktok.com/@acofaejessica?) (https://www.tiktok.com/@acofaejessica) Instagram: @ACOFAEpodcast (https://www.instagram.com/acofaepodcast/) https://www.instagram.com/acofaepodcast/ @ACOFAELaura (https://www.instagram.com/acofaelaura/) https://www.instagram.com/acofaelaura/

Skybreak Church and Nathan Green presents a message about the hiding place.

Psalms and Wisdom: Proverbs 6:1–19 Proverbs 6:1–19 (Listen) Practical Warnings 6   My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,    have given your pledge for a stranger,2   if you are snared in the words of your mouth,    caught in the words of your mouth,3   then do this, my son, and save yourself,    for you have come into the hand of your neighbor:    go, hasten,1 and plead urgently with your neighbor.4   Give your eyes no sleep    and your eyelids no slumber;5   save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,2    like a bird from the hand of the fowler. 6   Go to the ant, O sluggard;    consider her ways, and be wise.7   Without having any chief,    officer, or ruler,8   she prepares her bread in summer    and gathers her food in harvest.9   How long will you lie there, O sluggard?    When will you arise from your sleep?10   A little sleep, a little slumber,    a little folding of the hands to rest,11   and poverty will come upon you like a robber,    and want like an armed man. 12   A worthless person, a wicked man,    goes about with crooked speech,13   winks with his eyes, signals3 with his feet,    points with his finger,14   with perverted heart devises evil,    continually sowing discord;15   therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly;    in a moment he will be broken beyond healing. 16   There are six things that the LORD hates,    seven that are an abomination to him:17   haughty eyes, a lying tongue,    and hands that shed innocent blood,18   a heart that devises wicked plans,    feet that make haste to run to evil,19   a false witness who breathes out lies,    and one who sows discord among brothers. Footnotes [1] 6:3 Or humble yourself [2] 6:5 Hebrew lacks of the hunter [3] 6:13 Hebrew scrapes (ESV) Pentateuch and History: Deuteronomy 12 Deuteronomy 12 (Listen) The Lord's Chosen Place of Worship 12 “These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. 2 You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. 4 You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way. 5 But you shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation1 there. There you shall go, 6 and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. 7 And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the LORD your God has blessed you. 8 “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, 9 for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you. 10 But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, 11 then to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the LORD. 12 And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. 13 Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, 14 but at the place that the LORD will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you. 15 “However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer. 16 Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. 17 You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present, 18 but you shall eat them before the LORD your God in the place that the LORD your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all that you undertake. 19 Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land. 20 “When the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,' because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire. 21 If the place that the LORD your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, then you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. 22 Just as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. The unclean and the clean alike may eat of it. 23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. 24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. 25 You shall not eat it, that all may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD. 26 But the holy things that are due from you, and your vow offerings, you shall take, and you shall go to the place that the LORD will choose, 27 and offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, but the flesh you may eat. 28 Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God. Warning Against Idolatry 29 “When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30 take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.' 31 You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. 2 32 “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it. Footnotes [1] 12:5 Or name as its habitation [2] 12:31 Ch 13:1 in Hebrew (ESV) Chronicles and Prophets: Hosea 9 Hosea 9 (Listen) The Lord Will Punish Israel 9   Rejoice not, O Israel!    Exult not like the peoples;  for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.    You have loved a prostitute's wages    on all threshing floors.2   Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,    and the new wine shall fail them.3   They shall not remain in the land of the LORD,    but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,    and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. 4   They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD,    and their sacrifices shall not please him.  It shall be like mourners' bread to them;    all who eat of it shall be defiled;  for their bread shall be for their hunger only;    it shall not come to the house of the LORD. 5   What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,    and on the day of the feast of the LORD?6   For behold, they are going away from destruction;    but Egypt shall gather them;    Memphis shall bury them.  Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;    thorns shall be in their tents. 7   The days of punishment have come;    the days of recompense have come;    Israel shall know it.  The prophet is a fool;    the man of the spirit is mad,  because of your great iniquity    and great hatred.8   The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God;  yet a fowler's snare is on all his ways,    and hatred in the house of his God.9   They have deeply corrupted themselves    as in the days of Gibeah:  he will remember their iniquity;    he will punish their sins. 10   Like grapes in the wilderness,    I found Israel.  Like the first fruit on the fig tree    in its first season,    I saw your fathers.  But they came to Baal-peor    and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,    and became detestable like the thing they loved.11   Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird—    no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!12   Even if they bring up children,    I will bereave them till none is left.  Woe to them    when I depart from them!13   Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm1 planted in a meadow;    but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.214   Give them, O LORD—    what will you give?  Give them a miscarrying womb    and dry breasts. 15   Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;    there I began to hate them.  Because of the wickedness of their deeds    I will drive them out of my house.  I will love them no more;    all their princes are rebels. 16   Ephraim is stricken;    their root is dried up;    they shall bear no fruit.  Even though they give birth,    I will put their beloved children to death.17   My God will reject them    because they have not listened to him;    they shall be wanderers among the nations. Footnotes [1] 9:13 Or like Tyre [2] 9:13 Hebrew to him who slaughters (ESV) Gospels and Epistles: Titus 3:8–11 Titus 3:8–11 (Listen) 8 The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. 9 But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. 10 As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, 11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned. (ESV)

Hosea 8–14 Hosea 8–14 (Listen) Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind 8   Set the trumpet to your lips!    One like a vulture is over the house of the LORD,  because they have transgressed my covenant    and rebelled against my law.2   To me they cry,    “My God, we—Israel—know you.”3   Israel has spurned the good;    the enemy shall pursue him. 4   They made kings, but not through me.    They set up princes, but I knew it not.  With their silver and gold they made idols    for their own destruction.5   I have1 spurned your calf, O Samaria.    My anger burns against them.  How long will they be incapable of innocence?6   For it is from Israel;  a craftsman made it;    it is not God.  The calf of Samaria    shall be broken to pieces.2 7   For they sow the wind,    and they shall reap the whirlwind.  The standing grain has no heads;    it shall yield no flour;  if it were to yield,    strangers would devour it.8   Israel is swallowed up;    already they are among the nations    as a useless vessel.9   For they have gone up to Assyria,    a wild donkey wandering alone;    Ephraim has hired lovers.10   Though they hire allies among the nations,    I will soon gather them up.  And the king and princes shall soon writhe    because of the tribute. 11   Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,    they have become to him altars for sinning.12   Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,    they would be regarded as a strange thing.13   As for my sacrificial offerings,    they sacrifice meat and eat it,    but the LORD does not accept them.  Now he will remember their iniquity    and punish their sins;    they shall return to Egypt.14   For Israel has forgotten his Maker    and built palaces,  and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;    so I will send a fire upon his cities,    and it shall devour her strongholds. The Lord Will Punish Israel 9   Rejoice not, O Israel!    Exult not like the peoples;  for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.    You have loved a prostitute's wages    on all threshing floors.2   Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,    and the new wine shall fail them.3   They shall not remain in the land of the LORD,    but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,    and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. 4   They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD,    and their sacrifices shall not please him.  It shall be like mourners' bread to them;    all who eat of it shall be defiled;  for their bread shall be for their hunger only;    it shall not come to the house of the LORD. 5   What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,    and on the day of the feast of the LORD?6   For behold, they are going away from destruction;    but Egypt shall gather them;    Memphis shall bury them.  Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;    thorns shall be in their tents. 7   The days of punishment have come;    the days of recompense have come;    Israel shall know it.  The prophet is a fool;    the man of the spirit is mad,  because of your great iniquity    and great hatred.8   The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God;  yet a fowler's snare is on all his ways,    and hatred in the house of his God.9   They have deeply corrupted themselves    as in the days of Gibeah:  he will remember their iniquity;    he will punish their sins. 10   Like grapes in the wilderness,    I found Israel.  Like the first fruit on the fig tree    in its first season,    I saw your fathers.  But they came to Baal-peor    and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,    and became detestable like the thing they loved.11   Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird—    no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!12   Even if they bring up children,    I will bereave them till none is left.  Woe to them    when I depart from them!13   Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm3 planted in a meadow;    but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.414   Give them, O LORD—    what will you give?  Give them a miscarrying womb    and dry breasts. 15   Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;    there I began to hate them.  Because of the wickedness of their deeds    I will drive them out of my house.  I will love them no more;    all their princes are rebels. 16   Ephraim is stricken;    their root is dried up;    they shall bear no fruit.  Even though they give birth,    I will put their beloved children to death.17   My God will reject them    because they have not listened to him;    they shall be wanderers among the nations. 10   Israel is a luxuriant vine    that yields its fruit.  The more his fruit increased,    the more altars he built;  as his country improved,    he improved his pillars.2   Their heart is false;    now they must bear their guilt.  The LORD5 will break down their altars    and destroy their pillars. 3   For now they will say:    “We have no king,  for we do not fear the LORD;    and a king—what could he do for us?”4   They utter mere words;    with empty6 oaths they make covenants;  so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds    in the furrows of the field.5   The inhabitants of Samaria tremble    for the calf7 of Beth-aven.  Its people mourn for it, and so do its idolatrous priests—    those who rejoiced over it and over its glory—    for it has departed8 from them.6   The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria    as tribute to the great king.9  Ephraim shall be put to shame,    and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.10 7   Samaria's king shall perish    like a twig on the face of the waters.8   The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,    shall be destroyed.  Thorn and thistle shall grow up    on their altars,  and they shall say to the mountains, “Cover us,”    and to the hills, “Fall on us.” 9   From the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel;    there they have continued.    Shall not the war against the unjust11 overtake them in Gibeah?10   When I please, I will discipline them,    and nations shall be gathered against them    when they are bound up for their double iniquity. 11   Ephraim was a trained calf    that loved to thresh,    and I spared her fair neck;  but I will put Ephraim to the yoke;    Judah must plow;    Jacob must harrow for himself.12   Sow for yourselves righteousness;    reap steadfast love;    break up your fallow ground,  for it is the time to seek the LORD,    that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. 13   You have plowed iniquity;    you have reaped injustice;    you have eaten the fruit of lies.  Because you have trusted in your own way    and in the multitude of your warriors,14   therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people,    and all your fortresses shall be destroyed,  as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle;    mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.15   Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel,    because of your great evil.  At dawn the king of Israel    shall be utterly cut off. The Lord's Love for Israel 11   When Israel was a child, I loved him,    and out of Egypt I called my son.2   The more they were called,    the more they went away;  they kept sacrificing to the Baals    and burning offerings to idols. 3   Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;    I took them up by their arms,    but they did not know that I healed them.4   I led them with cords of kindness,12    with the bands of love,  and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,    and I bent down to them and fed them. 5   They shall not13 return to the land of Egypt,    but Assyria shall be their king,    because they have refused to return to me.6   The sword shall rage against their cities,    consume the bars of their gates,    and devour them because of their own counsels.7   My people are bent on turning away from me,    and though they call out to the Most High,    he shall not raise them up at all. 8   How can I give you up, O Ephraim?    How can I hand you over, O Israel?  How can I make you like Admah?    How can I treat you like Zeboiim?  My heart recoils within me;    my compassion grows warm and tender.9   I will not execute my burning anger;    I will not again destroy Ephraim;  for I am God and not a man,    the Holy One in your midst,    and I will not come in wrath.14 10   They shall go after the LORD;    he will roar like a lion;  when he roars,    his children shall come trembling from the west;11   they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt,    and like doves from the land of Assyria,    and I will return them to their homes, declares the LORD.12   15 Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,    and the house of Israel with deceit,  but Judah still walks with God    and is faithful to the Holy One.12   Ephraim feeds on the wind    and pursues the east wind all day long;  they multiply falsehood and violence;    they make a covenant with Assyria,    and oil is carried to Egypt. The Lord's Indictment of Israel and Judah 2   The LORD has an indictment against Judah    and will punish Jacob according to his ways;    he will repay him according to his deeds.3   In the womb he took his brother by the heel,    and in his manhood he strove with God.4   He strove with the angel and prevailed;    he wept and sought his favor.  He met God16 at Bethel,    and there God spoke with us—5   the LORD, the God of hosts,    the LORD is his memorial name:6   “So you, by the help of your God, return,    hold fast to love and justice,    and wait continually for your God.” 7   A merchant, in whose hands are false balances,    he loves to oppress.8   Ephraim has said, “Ah, but I am rich;    I have found wealth for myself;  in all my labors they cannot find in me iniquity or sin.”9   I am the LORD your God    from the land of Egypt;  I will again make you dwell in tents,    as in the days of the appointed feast. 10   I spoke to the prophets;    it was I who multiplied visions,    and through the prophets gave parables.11   If there is iniquity in Gilead,    they shall surely come to nothing:  in Gilgal they sacrifice bulls;&n

Wouldn't it had been wonderful to live 2000 years ago, and witness the events surrounding the person and the work of Messiah, you're sure all those miracles, hearing those teachings and seeing how the people responded to John, the Baptists, we read in the scripture that all of Jerusalem, Judea, the area around the Jordan, all of these individuals came out to John's baptism. What an excitement. To donate please visit us at: https://loveisrael.org/donate/ Checks may be sent to: LoveIsrael.org 6355 N Courtenay Parkway Merritt Island, FL 32953 Feel free to download our MyBibleStudy App on telephone https://get.theapp.co/yjjq we don't know how long we can post the teachings on YT https://www.instagram.com/mybiblestudyofficial/

Wouldn't it had been wonderful to live 2000 years ago, and witness the events surrounding the person and the work of Messiah, you're sure all those miracles, hearing those teachings and seeing how the people responded to John, the Baptists, we read in the scripture that all of Jerusalem, Judea, the area around the Jordan, all of these individuals came out to John's baptism. What an excitement. To donate please visit us at: https://loveisrael.org/donate/ Checks may be sent to: LoveIsrael.org 6355 N Courtenay Parkway Merritt Island, FL 32953 Feel free to download our MyBibleStudy App on telephone https://get.theapp.co/yjjq we don't know how long we can post the teachings on YT https://www.instagram.com/mybiblestudyofficial/

Buried Oars and Threshing Floors 01-08-23 by LifePath Church

Old Testament: Hosea 6–9 Hosea 6–9 (Listen) Israel and Judah Are Unrepentant 6   “Come, let us return to the LORD;    for he has torn us, that he may heal us;    he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.2   After two days he will revive us;    on the third day he will raise us up,    that we may live before him.3   Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD;    his going out is sure as the dawn;  he will come to us as the showers,    as the spring rains that water the earth.” 4   What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?    What shall I do with you, O Judah?  Your love is like a morning cloud,    like the dew that goes early away.5   Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;    I have slain them by the words of my mouth,    and my judgment goes forth as the light.6   For I desire steadfast love1 and not sacrifice,    the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. 7   But like Adam they transgressed the covenant;    there they dealt faithlessly with me.8   Gilead is a city of evildoers,    tracked with blood.9   As robbers lie in wait for a man,    so the priests band together;  they murder on the way to Shechem;    they commit villainy.10   In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;    Ephraim's whoredom is there; Israel is defiled. 11   For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed.   When I restore the fortunes of my people,7   when I would heal Israel,    the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,    and the evil deeds of Samaria,  for they deal falsely;    the thief breaks in,    and the bandits raid outside.2   But they do not consider    that I remember all their evil.  Now their deeds surround them;    they are before my face.3   By their evil they make the king glad,    and the princes by their treachery.4   They are all adulterers;    they are like a heated oven  whose baker ceases to stir the fire,    from the kneading of the dough    until it is leavened.5   On the day of our king, the princes    became sick with the heat of wine;    he stretched out his hand with mockers.6   For with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue;    all night their anger smolders;    in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.7   All of them are hot as an oven,    and they devour their rulers.  All their kings have fallen,    and none of them calls upon me. 8   Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples;    Ephraim is a cake not turned.9   Strangers devour his strength,    and he knows it not;  gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,    and he knows it not.10   The pride of Israel testifies to his face;2    yet they do not return to the LORD their God,    nor seek him, for all this. 11   Ephraim is like a dove,    silly and without sense,    calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.12   As they go, I will spread over them my net;    I will bring them down like birds of the heavens;    I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation.13   Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!    Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!  I would redeem them,    but they speak lies against me. 14   They do not cry to me from the heart,    but they wail upon their beds;  for grain and wine they gash themselves;    they rebel against me.15   Although I trained and strengthened their arms,    yet they devise evil against me.16   They return, but not upward;3    they are like a treacherous bow;  their princes shall fall by the sword    because of the insolence of their tongue.  This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt. Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind 8   Set the trumpet to your lips!    One like a vulture is over the house of the LORD,  because they have transgressed my covenant    and rebelled against my law.2   To me they cry,    “My God, we—Israel—know you.”3   Israel has spurned the good;    the enemy shall pursue him. 4   They made kings, but not through me.    They set up princes, but I knew it not.  With their silver and gold they made idols    for their own destruction.5   I have4 spurned your calf, O Samaria.    My anger burns against them.  How long will they be incapable of innocence?6   For it is from Israel;  a craftsman made it;    it is not God.  The calf of Samaria    shall be broken to pieces.5 7   For they sow the wind,    and they shall reap the whirlwind.  The standing grain has no heads;    it shall yield no flour;  if it were to yield,    strangers would devour it.8   Israel is swallowed up;    already they are among the nations    as a useless vessel.9   For they have gone up to Assyria,    a wild donkey wandering alone;    Ephraim has hired lovers.10   Though they hire allies among the nations,    I will soon gather them up.  And the king and princes shall soon writhe    because of the tribute. 11   Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,    they have become to him altars for sinning.12   Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,    they would be regarded as a strange thing.13   As for my sacrificial offerings,    they sacrifice meat and eat it,    but the LORD does not accept them.  Now he will remember their iniquity    and punish their sins;    they shall return to Egypt.14   For Israel has forgotten his Maker    and built palaces,  and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;    so I will send a fire upon his cities,    and it shall devour her strongholds. The Lord Will Punish Israel 9   Rejoice not, O Israel!    Exult not like the peoples;  for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.    You have loved a prostitute's wages    on all threshing floors.2   Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,    and the new wine shall fail them.3   They shall not remain in the land of the LORD,    but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,    and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. 4   They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD,    and their sacrifices shall not please him.  It shall be like mourners' bread to them;    all who eat of it shall be defiled;  for their bread shall be for their hunger only;    it shall not come to the house of the LORD. 5   What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,    and on the day of the feast of the LORD?6   For behold, they are going away from destruction;    but Egypt shall gather them;    Memphis shall bury them.  Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;    thorns shall be in their tents. 7   The days of punishment have come;    the days of recompense have come;    Israel shall know it.  The prophet is a fool;    the man of the spirit is mad,  because of your great iniquity    and great hatred.8   The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God;  yet a fowler's snare is on all his ways,    and hatred in the house of his God.9   They have deeply corrupted themselves    as in the days of Gibeah:  he will remember their iniquity;    he will punish their sins. 10   Like grapes in the wilderness,    I found Israel.  Like the first fruit on the fig tree    in its first season,    I saw your fathers.  But they came to Baal-peor    and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,    and became detestable like the thing they loved.11   Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird—    no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!12   Even if they bring up children,    I will bereave them till none is left.  Woe to them    when I depart from them!13   Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm6 planted in a meadow;    but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.714   Give them, O LORD—    what will you give?  Give them a miscarrying womb    and dry breasts. 15   Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;    there I began to hate them.  Because of the wickedness of their deeds    I will drive them out of my house.  I will love them no more;    all their princes are rebels. 16   Ephraim is stricken;    their root is dried up;    they shall bear no fruit.  Even though they give birth,    I will put their beloved children to death.17   My God will reject them    because they have not listened to him;    they shall be wanderers among the nations. Footnotes [1] 6:6 Septuagint mercy [2] 7:10 Or in his presence [3] 7:16 Or to the Most High [4] 8:5 Hebrew He has [5] 8:6 Or shall go up in flames [6] 9:13 Or like Tyre [7] 9:13 Hebrew to him who slaughters (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 137 Psalm 137 (Listen) How Shall We Sing the Lord's Song? 137   By the waters of Babylon,    there we sat down and wept,    when we remembered Zion.2   On the willows1 there    we hung up our lyres.3   For there our captors    required of us songs,  and our tormentors, mirth, saying,    “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 4   How shall we sing the LORD's song    in a foreign land?5   If I forget you, O Jerusalem,    let my right hand forget its skill!6   Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,    if I do not remember you,  if I do not set Jerusalem    above my highest joy! 7   Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites    the day of Jerusalem,  how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare,    down to its foundations!”8   O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,    blessed shall he be who repays you    with what you have done to us!9   Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones    and dashes them against the rock! Footnotes [1] 137:2 Or poplars (ESV) New Testament: 1 Peter 3–5 1 Peter 3–5 (Listen) Wives and Husbands 3 Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, 2 when they see your respectful and pure conduct. 3 Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. 5 For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, 6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening. 7 Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you1 of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. Suffering for Righteousness' Sake 8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. 10 For   “Whoever desires to love life    and see good days,  let him keep his tongue from evil    and his lips from speaking deceit;11   let him turn away from evil and do good;    let him seek peace and pursue it.12   For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,    and his ears are open to their prayer.  But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

Old Testament: Hosea 6–9 Hosea 6–9 (Listen) Israel and Judah Are Unrepentant 6   “Come, let us return to the LORD;    for he has torn us, that he may heal us;    he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.2   After two days he will revive us;    on the third day he will raise us up,    that we may live before him.3   Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD;    his going out is sure as the dawn;  he will come to us as the showers,    as the spring rains that water the earth.” 4   What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?    What shall I do with you, O Judah?  Your love is like a morning cloud,    like the dew that goes early away.5   Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;    I have slain them by the words of my mouth,    and my judgment goes forth as the light.6   For I desire steadfast love1 and not sacrifice,    the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. 7   But like Adam they transgressed the covenant;    there they dealt faithlessly with me.8   Gilead is a city of evildoers,    tracked with blood.9   As robbers lie in wait for a man,    so the priests band together;  they murder on the way to Shechem;    they commit villainy.10   In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;    Ephraim's whoredom is there; Israel is defiled. 11   For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed.   When I restore the fortunes of my people,7   when I would heal Israel,    the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,    and the evil deeds of Samaria,  for they deal falsely;    the thief breaks in,    and the bandits raid outside.2   But they do not consider    that I remember all their evil.  Now their deeds surround them;    they are before my face.3   By their evil they make the king glad,    and the princes by their treachery.4   They are all adulterers;    they are like a heated oven  whose baker ceases to stir the fire,    from the kneading of the dough    until it is leavened.5   On the day of our king, the princes    became sick with the heat of wine;    he stretched out his hand with mockers.6   For with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue;    all night their anger smolders;    in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.7   All of them are hot as an oven,    and they devour their rulers.  All their kings have fallen,    and none of them calls upon me. 8   Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples;    Ephraim is a cake not turned.9   Strangers devour his strength,    and he knows it not;  gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,    and he knows it not.10   The pride of Israel testifies to his face;2    yet they do not return to the LORD their God,    nor seek him, for all this. 11   Ephraim is like a dove,    silly and without sense,    calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.12   As they go, I will spread over them my net;    I will bring them down like birds of the heavens;    I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation.13   Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!    Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!  I would redeem them,    but they speak lies against me. 14   They do not cry to me from the heart,    but they wail upon their beds;  for grain and wine they gash themselves;    they rebel against me.15   Although I trained and strengthened their arms,    yet they devise evil against me.16   They return, but not upward;3    they are like a treacherous bow;  their princes shall fall by the sword    because of the insolence of their tongue.  This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt. Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind 8   Set the trumpet to your lips!    One like a vulture is over the house of the LORD,  because they have transgressed my covenant    and rebelled against my law.2   To me they cry,    “My God, we—Israel—know you.”3   Israel has spurned the good;    the enemy shall pursue him. 4   They made kings, but not through me.    They set up princes, but I knew it not.  With their silver and gold they made idols    for their own destruction.5   I have4 spurned your calf, O Samaria.    My anger burns against them.  How long will they be incapable of innocence?6   For it is from Israel;  a craftsman made it;    it is not God.  The calf of Samaria    shall be broken to pieces.5 7   For they sow the wind,    and they shall reap the whirlwind.  The standing grain has no heads;    it shall yield no flour;  if it were to yield,    strangers would devour it.8   Israel is swallowed up;    already they are among the nations    as a useless vessel.9   For they have gone up to Assyria,    a wild donkey wandering alone;    Ephraim has hired lovers.10   Though they hire allies among the nations,    I will soon gather them up.  And the king and princes shall soon writhe    because of the tribute. 11   Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,    they have become to him altars for sinning.12   Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,    they would be regarded as a strange thing.13   As for my sacrificial offerings,    they sacrifice meat and eat it,    but the LORD does not accept them.  Now he will remember their iniquity    and punish their sins;    they shall return to Egypt.14   For Israel has forgotten his Maker    and built palaces,  and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;    so I will send a fire upon his cities,    and it shall devour her strongholds. The Lord Will Punish Israel 9   Rejoice not, O Israel!    Exult not like the peoples;  for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.    You have loved a prostitute's wages    on all threshing floors.2   Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,    and the new wine shall fail them.3   They shall not remain in the land of the LORD,    but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,    and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. 4   They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD,    and their sacrifices shall not please him.  It shall be like mourners' bread to them;    all who eat of it shall be defiled;  for their bread shall be for their hunger only;    it shall not come to the house of the LORD. 5   What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,    and on the day of the feast of the LORD?6   For behold, they are going away from destruction;    but Egypt shall gather them;    Memphis shall bury them.  Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;    thorns shall be in their tents. 7   The days of punishment have come;    the days of recompense have come;    Israel shall know it.  The prophet is a fool;    the man of the spirit is mad,  because of your great iniquity    and great hatred.8   The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God;  yet a fowler's snare is on all his ways,    and hatred in the house of his God.9   They have deeply corrupted themselves    as in the days of Gibeah:  he will remember their iniquity;    he will punish their sins. 10   Like grapes in the wilderness,    I found Israel.  Like the first fruit on the fig tree    in its first season,    I saw your fathers.  But they came to Baal-peor    and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,    and became detestable like the thing they loved.11   Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird—    no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!12   Even if they bring up children,    I will bereave them till none is left.  Woe to them    when I depart from them!13   Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm6 planted in a meadow;    but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.714   Give them, O LORD—    what will you give?  Give them a miscarrying womb    and dry breasts. 15   Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;    there I began to hate them.  Because of the wickedness of their deeds    I will drive them out of my house.  I will love them no more;    all their princes are rebels. 16   Ephraim is stricken;    their root is dried up;    they shall bear no fruit.  Even though they give birth,    I will put their beloved children to death.17   My God will reject them    because they have not listened to him;    they shall be wanderers among the nations. Footnotes [1] 6:6 Septuagint mercy [2] 7:10 Or in his presence [3] 7:16 Or to the Most High [4] 8:5 Hebrew He has [5] 8:6 Or shall go up in flames [6] 9:13 Or like Tyre [7] 9:13 Hebrew to him who slaughters (ESV) New Testament: John 11:1–54 John 11:1–54 (Listen) The Death of Lazarus 11 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus1 was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” 11 After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas, called the Twin,2 said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” I Am the Resurrection and the Life 17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles3 off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.4 Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” Jesus Weeps 28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved5 in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” Jesus Raises Lazarus 38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these thi

Morning: Hosea 9–11 Hosea 9–11 (Listen) The Lord Will Punish Israel 9   Rejoice not, O Israel!    Exult not like the peoples;  for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.    You have loved a prostitute's wages    on all threshing floors.2   Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,    and the new wine shall fail them.3   They shall not remain in the land of the LORD,    but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,    and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. 4   They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD,    and their sacrifices shall not please him.  It shall be like mourners' bread to them;    all who eat of it shall be defiled;  for their bread shall be for their hunger only;    it shall not come to the house of the LORD. 5   What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,    and on the day of the feast of the LORD?6   For behold, they are going away from destruction;    but Egypt shall gather them;    Memphis shall bury them.  Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;    thorns shall be in their tents. 7   The days of punishment have come;    the days of recompense have come;    Israel shall know it.  The prophet is a fool;    the man of the spirit is mad,  because of your great iniquity    and great hatred.8   The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God;  yet a fowler's snare is on all his ways,    and hatred in the house of his God.9   They have deeply corrupted themselves    as in the days of Gibeah:  he will remember their iniquity;    he will punish their sins. 10   Like grapes in the wilderness,    I found Israel.  Like the first fruit on the fig tree    in its first season,    I saw your fathers.  But they came to Baal-peor    and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,    and became detestable like the thing they loved.11   Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird—    no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!12   Even if they bring up children,    I will bereave them till none is left.  Woe to them    when I depart from them!13   Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm1 planted in a meadow;    but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.214   Give them, O LORD—    what will you give?  Give them a miscarrying womb    and dry breasts. 15   Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;    there I began to hate them.  Because of the wickedness of their deeds    I will drive them out of my house.  I will love them no more;    all their princes are rebels. 16   Ephraim is stricken;    their root is dried up;    they shall bear no fruit.  Even though they give birth,    I will put their beloved children to death.17   My God will reject them    because they have not listened to him;    they shall be wanderers among the nations. 10   Israel is a luxuriant vine    that yields its fruit.  The more his fruit increased,    the more altars he built;  as his country improved,    he improved his pillars.2   Their heart is false;    now they must bear their guilt.  The LORD3 will break down their altars    and destroy their pillars. 3   For now they will say:    “We have no king,  for we do not fear the LORD;    and a king—what could he do for us?”4   They utter mere words;    with empty4 oaths they make covenants;  so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds    in the furrows of the field.5   The inhabitants of Samaria tremble    for the calf5 of Beth-aven.  Its people mourn for it, and so do its idolatrous priests—    those who rejoiced over it and over its glory—    for it has departed6 from them.6   The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria    as tribute to the great king.7  Ephraim shall be put to shame,    and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.8 7   Samaria's king shall perish    like a twig on the face of the waters.8   The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,    shall be destroyed.  Thorn and thistle shall grow up    on their altars,  and they shall say to the mountains, “Cover us,”    and to the hills, “Fall on us.” 9   From the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel;    there they have continued.    Shall not the war against the unjust9 overtake them in Gibeah?10   When I please, I will discipline them,    and nations shall be gathered against them    when they are bound up for their double iniquity. 11   Ephraim was a trained calf    that loved to thresh,    and I spared her fair neck;  but I will put Ephraim to the yoke;    Judah must plow;    Jacob must harrow for himself.12   Sow for yourselves righteousness;    reap steadfast love;    break up your fallow ground,  for it is the time to seek the LORD,    that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. 13   You have plowed iniquity;    you have reaped injustice;    you have eaten the fruit of lies.  Because you have trusted in your own way    and in the multitude of your warriors,14   therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people,    and all your fortresses shall be destroyed,  as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle;    mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.15   Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel,    because of your great evil.  At dawn the king of Israel    shall be utterly cut off. The Lord's Love for Israel 11   When Israel was a child, I loved him,    and out of Egypt I called my son.2   The more they were called,    the more they went away;  they kept sacrificing to the Baals    and burning offerings to idols. 3   Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;    I took them up by their arms,    but they did not know that I healed them.4   I led them with cords of kindness,10    with the bands of love,  and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,    and I bent down to them and fed them. 5   They shall not11 return to the land of Egypt,    but Assyria shall be their king,    because they have refused to return to me.6   The sword shall rage against their cities,    consume the bars of their gates,    and devour them because of their own counsels.7   My people are bent on turning away from me,    and though they call out to the Most High,    he shall not raise them up at all. 8   How can I give you up, O Ephraim?    How can I hand you over, O Israel?  How can I make you like Admah?    How can I treat you like Zeboiim?  My heart recoils within me;    my compassion grows warm and tender.9   I will not execute my burning anger;    I will not again destroy Ephraim;  for I am God and not a man,    the Holy One in your midst,    and I will not come in wrath.12 10   They shall go after the LORD;    he will roar like a lion;  when he roars,    his children shall come trembling from the west;11   they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt,    and like doves from the land of Assyria,    and I will return them to their homes, declares the LORD.12   13 Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,    and the house of Israel with deceit,  but Judah still walks with God    and is faithful to the Holy One. Footnotes [1] 9:13 Or like Tyre [2] 9:13 Hebrew to him who slaughters [3] 10:2 Hebrew He [4] 10:4 Or vain (see Exodus 20:7) [5] 10:5 Or calves [6] 10:5 Or has gone into exile [7] 10:6 Or to King Jareb [8] 10:6 Or counsel [9] 10:9 Hebrew the children of injustice [10] 11:4 Or humaneness; Hebrew man [11] 11:5 Or surely [12] 11:9 Or into the city [13] 11:12 Ch 12:1 in Hebrew (ESV) Evening: Revelation 2 Revelation 2 (Listen) To the Church in Ephesus 2 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.' To the Church in Smyrna 8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life. 9 “‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander1 of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.' To the Church in Pergamum 12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. 13 “‘I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith2 even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. 17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.' To the Church in Thyatira 18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 “‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. 20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22 Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. 24 But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. 25 Only hold fast what you have until I come. 26 The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, 27 and he will rule3 them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. 28 And I will give him the morning star. 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.' Footnotes [1] 2:9 Greek blasphemy [2] 2:13 Or your faith in me [3] 2:27 Greek shepherd (ESV)

With family: 2 Kings 16; Titus 2 2 Kings 16 (Listen) Ahaz Reigns in Judah 16 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God, as his father David had done, 3 but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering,1 according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. 4 And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree. 5 Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to wage war on Jerusalem, and they besieged Ahaz but could not conquer him. 6 At that time Rezin the king of Syria recovered Elath for Syria and drove the men of Judah from Elath, and the Edomites came to Elath, where they dwell to this day. 7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.” 8 Ahaz also took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasures of the king's house and sent a present to the king of Assyria. 9 And the king of Assyria listened to him. The king of Assyria marched up against Damascus and took it, carrying its people captive to Kir, and he killed Rezin. 10 When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, he saw the altar that was at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a model of the altar, and its pattern, exact in all its details. 11 And Uriah the priest built the altar; in accordance with all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so Uriah the priest made it, before King Ahaz arrived from Damascus. 12 And when the king came from Damascus, the king viewed the altar. Then the king drew near to the altar and went up on it 13 and burned his burnt offering and his grain offering and poured his drink offering and threw the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. 14 And the bronze altar that was before the LORD he removed from the front of the house, from the place between his altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of his altar. 15 And King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, saying, “On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering and the king's burnt offering and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their grain offering and their drink offering. And throw on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice, but the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.” 16 Uriah the priest did all this, as King Ahaz commanded. 17 And King Ahaz cut off the frames of the stands and removed the basin from them, and he took down the sea2 from off the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone pedestal. 18 And the covered way for the Sabbath that had been built inside the house and the outer entrance for the king he caused to go around the house of the LORD, because of the king of Assyria. 19 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 20 And Ahaz slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place. Footnotes [1] 16:3 Or made his son pass through the fire [2] 16:17 Compare 1 Kings 7:23 (ESV) Titus 2 (Listen) Teach Sound Doctrine 2 But as for you, teach what accords with sound1 doctrine. 2 Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. 3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. 6 Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. 7 Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8 and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. 9 Bondservants2 are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. 11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. 15 Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. Footnotes [1] 2:1 Or healthy; also verses 2, 8 [2] 2:9 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface (ESV) In private: Psalms 126–128; Hosea 9 Psalms 126–128 (Listen) Restore Our Fortunes, O Lord A Song of Ascents. 126   When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion,    we were like those who dream.2   Then our mouth was filled with laughter,    and our tongue with shouts of joy;  then they said among the nations,    “The LORD has done great things for them.”3   The LORD has done great things for us;    we are glad. 4   Restore our fortunes, O LORD,    like streams in the Negeb!5   Those who sow in tears    shall reap with shouts of joy!6   He who goes out weeping,    bearing the seed for sowing,  shall come home with shouts of joy,    bringing his sheaves with him. Unless the Lord Builds the House A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon. 127   Unless the LORD builds the house,    those who build it labor in vain.  Unless the LORD watches over the city,    the watchman stays awake in vain.2   It is in vain that you rise up early    and go late to rest,  eating the bread of anxious toil;    for he gives to his beloved sleep. 3   Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,    the fruit of the womb a reward.4   Like arrows in the hand of a warrior    are the children1 of one's youth.5   Blessed is the man    who fills his quiver with them!  He shall not be put to shame    when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.2 Blessed Is Everyone Who Fears the Lord A Song of Ascents. 128   Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD,    who walks in his ways!2   You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;    you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. 3   Your wife will be like a fruitful vine    within your house;  your children will be like olive shoots    around your table.4   Behold, thus shall the man be blessed    who fears the LORD. 5   The LORD bless you from Zion!    May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem    all the days of your life!6   May you see your children's children!    Peace be upon Israel! Footnotes [1] 127:4 Or sons [2] 127:5 Or They shall not be put to shame when they speak with their enemies in the gate (ESV) Hosea 9 (Listen) The Lord Will Punish Israel 9   Rejoice not, O Israel!    Exult not like the peoples;  for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.    You have loved a prostitute's wages    on all threshing floors.2   Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,    and the new wine shall fail them.3   They shall not remain in the land of the LORD,    but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,    and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. 4   They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD,    and their sacrifices shall not please him.  It shall be like mourners' bread to them;    all who eat of it shall be defiled;  for their bread shall be for their hunger only;    it shall not come to the house of the LORD. 5   What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,    and on the day of the feast of the LORD?6   For behold, they are going away from destruction;    but Egypt shall gather them;    Memphis shall bury them.  Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;    thorns shall be in their tents. 7   The days of punishment have come;    the days of recompense have come;    Israel shall know it.  The prophet is a fool;    the man of the spirit is mad,  because of your great iniquity    and great hatred.8   The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God;  yet a fowler's snare is on all his ways,    and hatred in the house of his God.9   They have deeply corrupted themselves    as in the days of Gibeah:  he will remember their iniquity;    he will punish their sins. 10   Like grapes in the wilderness,    I found Israel.  Like the first fruit on the fig tree    in its first season,    I saw your fathers.  But they came to Baal-peor    and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,    and became detestable like the thing they loved.11   Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird—    no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!12   Even if they bring up children,    I will bereave them till none is left.  Woe to them    when I depart from them!13   Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm1 planted in a meadow;    but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.214   Give them, O LORD—    what will you give?  Give them a miscarrying womb    and dry breasts. 15   Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;    there I began to hate them.  Because of the wickedness of their deeds    I will drive them out of my house.  I will love them no more;    all their princes are rebels. 16   Ephraim is stricken;    their root is dried up;    they shall bear no fruit.  Even though they give birth,    I will put their beloved children to death.17   My God will reject them    because they have not listened to him;    they shall be wanderers among the nations. Footnotes [1] 9:13 Or like Tyre [2] 9:13 Hebrew to him who slaughters (ESV)

Join Pastor Jon Pignatelli in his recent message; Processing The Harvest: Threshing And Pressing.

The story of Ruth, which is really a close up that allows us to see our covenant God's faithfulness in sharp detail. Even as His people live their lives and make decisions and execute their plans, God does not leave us and is always working His plans for our good and His glory. 

Join us as we continue our journey through the book of Ruth. In this episode we're looking at the Ruth's Threshing floor moment with Boaz. We're paralleling it to our own Threshing floor moment with Jesus, the moment when we acknowledge Him as our Redeemer. This episode is the fifith episode of a series. To catch up on episode 4 Ruth: What does it mean to be grafted in, click here To catch up on episode 3 Ruth: The Purpose of Struggle, click here To catch up on episode 2 Ruth: True Repentance, click here To catch up on episode 1 Ruth: No One Wants To Wait, click click here. For more visit she-chooses.com Follow on Instagram @jdhartzy Follow on Facebook: She Chooses - JD Hartz

Hosea 8–14 Hosea 8–14 (Listen) Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind 8   Set the trumpet to your lips!    One like a vulture is over the house of the LORD,  because they have transgressed my covenant    and rebelled against my law.2   To me they cry,    “My God, we—Israel—know you.”3   Israel has spurned the good;    the enemy shall pursue him. 4   They made kings, but not through me.    They set up princes, but I knew it not.  With their silver and gold they made idols    for their own destruction.5   I have1 spurned your calf, O Samaria.    My anger burns against them.  How long will they be incapable of innocence?6   For it is from Israel;  a craftsman made it;    it is not God.  The calf of Samaria    shall be broken to pieces.2 7   For they sow the wind,    and they shall reap the whirlwind.  The standing grain has no heads;    it shall yield no flour;  if it were to yield,    strangers would devour it.8   Israel is swallowed up;    already they are among the nations    as a useless vessel.9   For they have gone up to Assyria,    a wild donkey wandering alone;    Ephraim has hired lovers.10   Though they hire allies among the nations,    I will soon gather them up.  And the king and princes shall soon writhe    because of the tribute. 11   Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,    they have become to him altars for sinning.12   Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,    they would be regarded as a strange thing.13   As for my sacrificial offerings,    they sacrifice meat and eat it,    but the LORD does not accept them.  Now he will remember their iniquity    and punish their sins;    they shall return to Egypt.14   For Israel has forgotten his Maker    and built palaces,  and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;    so I will send a fire upon his cities,    and it shall devour her strongholds. The Lord Will Punish Israel 9   Rejoice not, O Israel!    Exult not like the peoples;  for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.    You have loved a prostitute's wages    on all threshing floors.2   Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,    and the new wine shall fail them.3   They shall not remain in the land of the LORD,    but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,    and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. 4   They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD,    and their sacrifices shall not please him.  It shall be like mourners' bread to them;    all who eat of it shall be defiled;  for their bread shall be for their hunger only;    it shall not come to the house of the LORD. 5   What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,    and on the day of the feast of the LORD?6   For behold, they are going away from destruction;    but Egypt shall gather them;    Memphis shall bury them.  Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;    thorns shall be in their tents. 7   The days of punishment have come;    the days of recompense have come;    Israel shall know it.  The prophet is a fool;    the man of the spirit is mad,  because of your great iniquity    and great hatred.8   The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God;  yet a fowler's snare is on all his ways,    and hatred in the house of his God.9   They have deeply corrupted themselves    as in the days of Gibeah:  he will remember their iniquity;    he will punish their sins. 10   Like grapes in the wilderness,    I found Israel.  Like the first fruit on the fig tree    in its first season,    I saw your fathers.  But they came to Baal-peor    and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,    and became detestable like the thing they loved.11   Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird—    no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!12   Even if they bring up children,    I will bereave them till none is left.  Woe to them    when I depart from them!13   Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm3 planted in a meadow;    but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.414   Give them, O LORD—    what will you give?  Give them a miscarrying womb    and dry breasts. 15   Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;    there I began to hate them.  Because of the wickedness of their deeds    I will drive them out of my house.  I will love them no more;    all their princes are rebels. 16   Ephraim is stricken;    their root is dried up;    they shall bear no fruit.  Even though they give birth,    I will put their beloved children to death.17   My God will reject them    because they have not listened to him;    they shall be wanderers among the nations. 10   Israel is a luxuriant vine    that yields its fruit.  The more his fruit increased,    the more altars he built;  as his country improved,    he improved his pillars.2   Their heart is false;    now they must bear their guilt.  The LORD5 will break down their altars    and destroy their pillars. 3   For now they will say:    “We have no king,  for we do not fear the LORD;    and a king—what could he do for us?”4   They utter mere words;    with empty6 oaths they make covenants;  so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds    in the furrows of the field.5   The inhabitants of Samaria tremble    for the calf7 of Beth-aven.  Its people mourn for it, and so do its idolatrous priests—    those who rejoiced over it and over its glory—    for it has departed8 from them.6   The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria    as tribute to the great king.9  Ephraim shall be put to shame,    and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.10 7   Samaria's king shall perish    like a twig on the face of the waters.8   The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,    shall be destroyed.  Thorn and thistle shall grow up    on their altars,  and they shall say to the mountains, “Cover us,”    and to the hills, “Fall on us.” 9   From the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel;    there they have continued.    Shall not the war against the unjust11 overtake them in Gibeah?10   When I please, I will discipline them,    and nations shall be gathered against them    when they are bound up for their double iniquity. 11   Ephraim was a trained calf    that loved to thresh,    and I spared her fair neck;  but I will put Ephraim to the yoke;    Judah must plow;    Jacob must harrow for himself.12   Sow for yourselves righteousness;    reap steadfast love;    break up your fallow ground,  for it is the time to seek the LORD,    that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. 13   You have plowed iniquity;    you have reaped injustice;    you have eaten the fruit of lies.  Because you have trusted in your own way    and in the multitude of your warriors,14   therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people,    and all your fortresses shall be destroyed,  as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle;    mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.15   Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel,    because of your great evil.  At dawn the king of Israel    shall be utterly cut off. The Lord's Love for Israel 11   When Israel was a child, I loved him,    and out of Egypt I called my son.2   The more they were called,    the more they went away;  they kept sacrificing to the Baals    and burning offerings to idols. 3   Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;    I took them up by their arms,    but they did not know that I healed them.4   I led them with cords of kindness,12    with the bands of love,  and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,    and I bent down to them and fed them. 5   They shall not13 return to the land of Egypt,    but Assyria shall be their king,    because they have refused to return to me.6   The sword shall rage against their cities,    consume the bars of their gates,    and devour them because of their own counsels.7   My people are bent on turning away from me,    and though they call out to the Most High,    he shall not raise them up at all. 8   How can I give you up, O Ephraim?    How can I hand you over, O Israel?  How can I make you like Admah?    How can I treat you like Zeboiim?  My heart recoils within me;    my compassion grows warm and tender.9   I will not execute my burning anger;    I will not again destroy Ephraim;  for I am God and not a man,    the Holy One in your midst,    and I will not come in wrath.14 10   They shall go after the LORD;    he will roar like a lion;  when he roars,    his children shall come trembling from the west;11   they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt,    and like doves from the land of Assyria,    and I will return them to their homes, declares the LORD.12   15 Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,    and the house of Israel with deceit,  but Judah still walks with God    and is faithful to the Holy One.12   Ephraim feeds on the wind    and pursues the east wind all day long;  they multiply falsehood and violence;    they make a covenant with Assyria,    and oil is carried to Egypt. The Lord's Indictment of Israel and Judah 2   The LORD has an indictment against Judah    and will punish Jacob according to his ways;    he will repay him according to his deeds.3   In the womb he took his brother by the heel,    and in his manhood he strove with God.4   He strove with the angel and prevailed;    he wept and sought his favor.  He met God16 at Bethel,    and there God spoke with us—5   the LORD, the God of hosts,    the LORD is his memorial name:6   “So you, by the help of your God, return,    hold fast to love and justice,    and wait continually for your God.” 7   A merchant, in whose hands are false balances,    he loves to oppress.8   Ephraim has said, “Ah, but I am rich;    I have found wealth for myself;  in all my labors they cannot find in me iniquity or sin.”9   I am the LORD your God    from the land of Egypt;  I will again make you dwell in tents,    as in the days of the appointed feast. 10   I spoke to the prophets;    it was I who multiplied visions,    and through the prophets gave parables.11   If there is iniquity in Gilead,    they shall surely come to nothing:  in Gilgal they sacrifice bulls;&n

Isaiah sees the nations considering the folly of idolatry, Israel transformed from worm to mountain-crusher, and deserts filled with trees and water. What does it all mean? Visit our website: https://www.crosstocrown.org Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CrossToCrown Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crosstocrownministries School of Theology: https://www.newcovenantschooloftheology.org

Suggestion: Have a Tanach handy before you listen to this show. Eve Harow gives some insights into the connections between the 9th and 15th days of Av. The former is a day of mourning national calamities and the latter is what was once celebrated as the 4th Biblical festival amid the yearly grape harvest. The symbol of the Sin of the Spies became a means to unity and love. Will swords eventually be turned into plowshares- transforming iron from doing harm to good a la the grapes? It's up to us. Is the life saving ‘Iron Dome' a clue?