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Reading Plan
Day 147 Day 148Day 149

Proverbs chapter 7

1
My child, remember what I say and never forget what I tell you to do.
2
Do what I say, and you will live. Be as careful to follow my teaching as you are to protect your eyes.
3
Keep my teaching with you all the time; write it on your heart.
4
Treat wisdom as your sister, and insight as your closest friend.
5
They will keep you away from other men's wives, from women with seductive words.
6
Once I was looking out the window of my house,
7
and I saw many inexperienced young men, but noticed one foolish fellow in particular.
8
He was walking along the street near the corner where a certain woman lived. He was passing near her house
9
in the evening after it was dark.
10
And then she met him; she was dressed like a prostitute and was making plans.
11
She was a bold and shameless woman who always walked the streets
12
or stood waiting at a corner, sometimes in the streets, sometimes in the marketplace.
13
She threw her arms around the young man, kissed him, looked him straight in the eye, and said,
14
"I made my offerings today and have the meat from the sacrifices.
15
So I came out looking for you. I wanted to find you, and here you are!
16
I've covered my bed with sheets of colored linen from Egypt.
17
I've perfumed it with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18
Come on! Let's make love all night long. We'll be happy in each other's arms.
19
My husband isn't at home. He's on a long trip.
20
He took plenty of money with him and won't be back for two weeks."
21
So she tempted him with her charms, and he gave in to her smooth talk.
22
Suddenly he was going with her like an ox on the way to be slaughtered, like a deer prancing into a trap
23
where an arrow would pierce its heart. He was like a bird going into a net---he did not know that his life was in danger.
24
Now then, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to what I say.
25
Do not let such a woman win your heart; don't go wandering after her.
26
She has been the ruin of many men and caused the death of too many to count.
27
If you go to her house, you are on the way to the world of the dead. It is a shortcut to death.

Proverbs chapter 8

1
Listen! Wisdom is calling out. Reason is making herself heard.
2
On the hilltops near the road and at the crossroads she stands.
3
At the entrance to the city, beside the gates, she calls:
4
"I appeal to all of you; I call to everyone on earth.
5
Are you immature? Learn to be mature. Are you foolish? Learn to have sense.
6
Listen to my excellent words; all I tell you is right.
7
What I say is the truth; lies are hateful to me.
8
Everything I say is true; nothing is false or misleading.
9
To those with insight, it is all clear; to the well-informed, it is all plain.
10
Choose my instruction instead of silver; choose knowledge rather than the finest gold.
11
"I am Wisdom, I am better than jewels; nothing you want can compare with me.
12
I am Wisdom, and I have insight; I have knowledge and sound judgment.
13
To honor the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil ways and false words.
14
I make plans and carry them out. I have understanding, and I am strong.
15
I help kings to govern and rulers to make good laws.
16
Every ruler on earth governs with my help, officials and nobles alike.
17
I love those who love me; whoever looks for me can find me.
18
I have riches and honor to give, prosperity and success.
19
What you get from me is better than the finest gold, better than the purest silver.
20
I walk the way of righteousness; I follow the paths of justice,
21
giving wealth to those who love me, filling their houses with treasures.
22
"The LORD created me first of all, the first of his works, long ago.
23
I was made in the very beginning, at the first, before the world began.
24
I was born before the oceans, when there were no springs of water.
25
I was born before the mountains, before the hills were set in place,
26
before God made the earth and its fields or even the first handful of soil.
27
I was there when he set the sky in place, when he stretched the horizon across the ocean,
28
when he placed the clouds in the sky, when he opened the springs of the ocean
29
and ordered the waters of the sea to rise no further than he said. I was there when he laid the earth's foundations.
30
I was beside him like an architect, I was his daily source of joy, always happy in his presence---
31
happy with the world and pleased with the human race.
32
"Now, young people, listen to me. Do as I say, and you will be happy.
33
Listen to what you are taught. Be wise; do not neglect it.
34
Those who listen to me will be happy--- those who stay at my door every day, waiting at the entrance to my home.
35
Those who find me find life, and the LORD will be pleased with them.
36
Those who do not find me hurt themselves; anyone who hates me loves death."

Proverbs chapter 9

1
Wisdom has built her house and made seven columns for it.
2
She has had an animal killed for a feast, mixed spices in the wine, and set the table.
3
She has sent her servant women to call out from the highest place in town:
4
"Come in, ignorant people!" And to the foolish she says,
5
"Come, eat my food and drink the wine that I have mixed.
6
Leave the company of ignorant people, and live. Follow the way of knowledge."
7
If you correct conceited people, you will only be insulted. If you reprimand evil people, you will only get hurt.
8
Never correct conceited people; they will hate you for it. But if you correct the wise, they will respect you.
9
Anything you say to the wise will make them wiser. Whatever you tell the righteous will add to their knowledge.
10
To be wise you must first have reverence for the LORD. If you know the Holy One, you have understanding.
11
Wisdom will add years to your life.
12
You are the one who will profit if you have wisdom, and if you reject it, you are the one who will suffer.
13
Stupidity is like a loud, ignorant, shameless woman.
14
She sits at the door of her house or on a seat in the highest part of town,
15
and calls out to people passing by, who are minding their own business:
16
"Come in, ignorant people!" To the foolish she says,
17
"Stolen water is sweeter. Stolen bread tastes better."
18
Her victims do not know that the people die who go to her house, that those who have already entered are now deep in the world of the dead.

Romans chapter 9

1
I am speaking the truth; I belong to Christ and I do not lie. My conscience, ruled by the Holy Spirit, also assures me that I am not lying
2
when I say how great is my sorrow, how endless the pain in my heart
3
for my people, my own flesh and blood! For their sake I could wish that I myself were under God's curse and separated from Christ.
4
They are God's people; he made them his children and revealed his glory to them; he made his covenants with them and gave them the Law; they have the true worship; they have received God's promises;
5
they are descended from the famous Hebrew ancestors; and Christ, as a human being, belongs to their race. May God, who rules over all, be praised forever! Amen.
6
I am not saying that the promise of God has failed; for not all the people of Israel are the people of God.
7
Nor are all of Abraham's descendants the children of God. God said to Abraham, "It is through Isaac that you will have the descendants I promised you."
8
This means that the children born in the usual way are not the children of God; instead, the children born as a result of God's promise are regarded as the true descendants.
9
For God's promise was made in these words: "At the right time I will come back, and Sarah will have a son."
10
And this is not all. For Rebecca's two sons had the same father, our ancestor Isaac.
11
But in order that the choice of one son might be completely the result of God's own purpose, God said to her, "The older will serve the younger." He said this before they were born, before they had done anything either good or bad; so God's choice was based on his call, and not on anything they had done.
12
(SEE 9:11)
13
As the scripture says, "I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau."
14
Shall we say, then, that God is unjust? Not at all.
15
For he said to Moses, "I will have mercy on anyone I wish; I will take pity on anyone I wish."
16
So then, everything depends, not on what we humans want or do, but only on God's mercy.
17
For the scripture says to the king of Egypt, "I made you king in order to use you to show my power and to spread my fame over the whole world."
18
So then, God has mercy on anyone he wishes, and he makes stubborn anyone he wishes.
19
But one of you will say to me, "If this is so, how can God find fault with anyone? Who can resist God's will?"
20
But who are you, my friend, to talk back to God? A clay pot does not ask the man who made it, "Why did you make me like this?"
21
After all, the man who makes the pots has the right to use the clay as he wishes, and to make two pots from the same lump of clay, one for special occasions and the other for ordinary use.
22
And the same is true of what God has done. He wanted to show his anger and to make his power known. But he was very patient in enduring those who were the objects of his anger, who were doomed to destruction.
23
And he also wanted to reveal his abundant glory, which was poured out on us who are the objects of his mercy, those of us whom he has prepared to receive his glory.
24
For we are the people he called, not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles.
25
This is what he says in the book of Hosea: "The people who were not mine I will call 'My People.' The nation that I did not love I will call 'My Beloved.'
26
And in the very place where they were told, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called the children of the living God."
27
And Isaiah exclaims about Israel: "Even if the people of Israel are as many as the grains of sand by the sea, yet only a few of them will be saved;
28
for the Lord will quickly settle his full account with the world."
29
It is as Isaiah had said before, "If the Lord Almighty had not left us some descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah."
30
So we say that the Gentiles, who were not trying to put themselves right with God, were put right with him through faith;
31
while God's people, who were seeking a law that would put them right with God, did not find it.
32
And why not? Because they did not depend on faith but on what they did. And so they stumbled over the "stumbling stone"
33
that the scripture speaks of: "Look, I place in Zion a stone that will make people stumble, a rock that will make them fall. But whoever believes in him will not be disappointed."

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