Day 244 of 365

Neh 9:1–38

1 Now in the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth on them.

2 The seed of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.

3 They stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the Lord their God a fourth part of the day; and a fourth part they confessed, and worshiped the Lord their God.

4 Then Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani of the Levites stood up on the stairs, and cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God.

5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, "Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting! Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise!

6 You are the Lord, even you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their army, the earth and all things that are on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all. The army of heaven worships you.

7 You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram, and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and gave him the name of Abraham,

8 and found his heart faithful before you, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite, and the Girgashite, to give it to his seed, and have performed your words; for you are righteous.

9 "You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the Red Sea,

10 and showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, and against all his servants, and against all the people of his land; for you knew that they dealt proudly against them, and made a name for yourself, as it is this day.

11 You divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and you cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone into the mighty waters.

12 Moreover, in a pillar of cloud you led them by day; and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light in the way in which they should go.

13 "You came down also on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments,

14 and made known to them your holy Sabbath, and commanded them commandments, and statutes, and a law, by Moses your servant,

15 and gave them bread from the sky for their hunger, and brought forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and commanded them that they should go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them.

16 "But they and our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their neck, did not listen to your commandments,

17 and refused to obey, neither were they mindful of your wonders that you did among them, but hardened their neck, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage. But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and did not forsake them.

18 Yes, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, 'This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,' and had committed awful blasphemies;

19 yet you in your manifold mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness: the pillar of cloud did not depart from over them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way in which they should go.

20 You gave also your good Spirit to instruct them, and did not withhold your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst.

21 "Yes, forty years you sustained them in the wilderness. They lacked nothing. Their clothes did not grow old, and their feet did not swell.

22 Moreover you gave them kingdoms and peoples, which you allotted according to their portions. So they possessed the land of Sihon, even the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.

23 You also multiplied their children as the stars of the sky, and brought them into the land concerning which you said to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.

24 "So the children went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings, and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they pleased.

25 They took fortified cities, and a rich land, and possessed houses full of all good things, cisterns dug out, vineyards, and olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate, were filled, became fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness.

26 "Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against you, and cast your law behind their back, and killed your prophets that testified against them to turn them again to you, and they committed awful blasphemies.

27 Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their adversaries, who distressed them. In the time of their trouble, when they cried to you, you heard from heaven; and according to your manifold mercies you gave them saviors who saved them out of the hand of their adversaries.

28 But after they had rest, they did evil again before you; therefore left you them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them; yet when they returned, and cried to you, you heard from heaven; and many times you delivered them according to your mercies,

29 and testified against them, that you might bring them again to your law. Yet they dealt proudly, and did not listen to your commandments, but sinned against your ordinances, (which if a man does, he shall live in them), turned their backs, stiffened their neck, and would not hear.

30 Yet many years you put up with them, and testified against them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet would they not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

31 "Nevertheless in your manifold mercies you did not make a full end of them, nor forsake them; for you are a gracious and merciful God.

32 Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness, do not let all the travail seem little before you, that has come on us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria to this day.

33 However you are just in all that has come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly;

34 neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept your law, nor listened to your commandments and your testimonies with which you testified against them.

35 For they have not served you in their kingdom, and in your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and rich land which you gave before them, neither did they turn from their wicked works.

36 "Behold, we are servants this day, and as for the land that you gave to our fathers to eat its fruit and its good, behold, we are servants in it.

37 It yields much increase to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins: also they have power over our bodies, and over our livestock, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.

38 Yet for all this, we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, our Levites, and our priests, seal it."

Rom 6:1–23

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

2 May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?

3 Or do you not know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just like Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;

6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.

7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.

8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him;

9 knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him!

10 For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.

11 Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

13 Neither present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

14 For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.

15 What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be!

16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as servants to obedience, his servants you are whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?

17 But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered.

18 Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.

19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.

20 For when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

21 What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

22 But now, being made free from sin, and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification, and the result of eternal life.

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ps 104:1–35

1 Bless the Lord, my soul. The Lord, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty.

2 He covers himself with light as with a garment. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain.

3 He lays the beams of his chambers in the waters. He makes the clouds his chariot. He walks on the wings of the wind.

4 He makes his angels winds; his servants flames of fire.

5 He laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be moved forever.

6 You covered it with the deep as with a cloak. The waters stood above the mountains.

7 At your rebuke they fled. At the voice of your thunder they hurried away.

8 The mountains rose, the valleys sank down, to the place which you had assigned to them.

9 You have set a boundary that they may not pass over; that they do not turn again to cover the earth.

10 He sends forth springs into the valleys. They run among the mountains.

11 They give drink to every animal of the field. The wild donkeys quench their thirst.

12 The birds of the sky nest by them. They sing among the branches.

13 He waters the mountains from his chambers. The earth is filled with the fruit of your works.

14 He causes the grass to grow for the livestock, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food out of the earth:

15 wine that makes glad the heart of man, oil to make his face to shine, and bread that strengthens man's heart.

16 The Lord's trees are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon, which he has planted;

17 where the birds make their nests. The stork makes its home in the fir trees.

18 The high mountains are for the wild goats. The rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.

19 He appointed the moon for seasons. The sun knows when to set.

20 You make darkness, and it is night, in which all the animals of the forest prowl.

21 The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their food from God.

22 The sun rises, and they steal away, and lie down in their dens.

23 Man goes forth to his work, to his labor until the evening.

24 The Lord, how many are your works! In wisdom have you made them all. The earth is full of your riches.

25 There is the sea, great and wide, in which are innumerable living things, both small and large animals.

26 There the ships go, and leviathan, whom you formed to play there.

27 These all wait for you, that you may give them their food in due season.

28 You give to them; they gather. You open your hand; they are satisfied with good.

29 You hide your face: they are troubled; you take away their breath: they die, and return to the dust.

30 You send forth your Spirit: they are created. You renew the face of the ground.

31 Let the glory of the Lord endure forever. Let the Lord rejoice in his works.

32 He looks at the earth, and it trembles. He touches the mountains, and they smoke.

33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have any being.

34 Let your meditation be sweet to him. I will rejoice in the Lord.

35 Let sinners be consumed out of the earth. Let the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, my soul. Praise the Lord!