May 27
Jeremiah 9 & Acts 8
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Jeremiah 9

Chapter 9

9:1If my head were a spring of water,
my eyes a fountain of tears,
I would weep day and night
over the slain of my dear people.
2If only I had a traveler's lodging place
in the wilderness,
I would abandon my people
and depart from them,
for they are all adulterers,
a solemn assembly of treacherous people.
3They bent their tongues like their bows;
lies and not faithfulness prevail in the land,
for they proceed from one evil to another,
and they do not take Me into account.

This is the Lord's declaration.
4Everyone has to be on guard against his friend.
Don't trust any brother,
for every brother will certainly deceive,
and every friend spread slander.
5Each one betrays his friend;
no one tells the truth.
They have taught their tongues to speak lies;
they wear themselves out doing wrong.
6You live in a world of deception.
In their deception they refuse to know Me.

This is the Lord's declaration.
7Therefore, this is what the Lord of Hosts says:
I am about to refine them and test them,
for what else can I do
because of My dear people?
8Their tongues are deadly arrows-
they speak deception.
With his mouth
a man speaks peaceably with his friend,
but inwardly he sets up an ambush.
9Should I not punish them for these things?

This is the Lord's declaration.
Should I not avenge Myself
on such a nation as this?
10I will raise weeping and a lament
over the mountains,
a dirge over the wilderness grazing land,
for they have been so scorched
that no one passes through.
The sound of cattle is no longer heard.
From the birds of the sky to the animals,
everything has fled-they have gone away.
11I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble,
a jackals' den.
I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,
an uninhabited place.
12Who is the man wise enough to understand this? Who has the Lord spoken to, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a wilderness, so no one can pass through?
13The Lord said, "It is because they abandoned My instruction that I set in front of them and did not obey My voice or walk according to it. 14Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their hearts and followed after the Baals as their fathers taught them." 15Therefore, this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: "I am about to feed this people wormwood and give them poisonous water to drink. 16I will scatter them among the nations that they and their fathers have not known. I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off."
17This is what the Lord of Hosts says:
Consider, and summon the women who mourn;
send for the skillful women.
18Let them come quickly to raise a lament over us
so that our eyes may overflow with tears,
our eyelids soaked with weeping.
19For a sound of lamentation is heard from Zion:
How devastated we are.
We are greatly ashamed,
for we have abandoned the land;
our dwellings have been torn down.
20Now hear the word of the Lord, you women.
Pay attention to the word of His mouth.
Teach your daughters a lament
and one another a dirge,
21for Death has climbed through our windows;
it has entered our fortresses,
cutting off children from the streets,
young men from the squares.
22Speak as follows:
This is what the Lord says:
Human corpses will fall
like manure on the surface of the field,
like newly cut grain after the reaper
with no one to gather it.
23This is what the Lord says:
The wise man must not boast in his wisdom;
the strong man must not boast in his strength;
the wealthy man must not boast in his wealth.
24But the one who boasts should boast in this,
that he understands and knows Me-
that I am Yahweh, showing faithful love,
justice, and righteousness on the earth,
for I delight in these things.

This is the Lord's declaration.
25"The days are coming"-the Lord's declaration-"when I will punish all the circumcised yet uncircumcised: 26Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all the inhabitants of the desert who clip the hair on their temples. All these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart."

Acts 8

Chapter 8

8:1Saul agreed with putting him to death.
On that day a severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria. 2Devout men buried Stephen and mourned deeply over him. 3Saul, however, was ravaging the church. He would enter house after house, drag off men and women, and put them in prison.
4So those who were scattered went on their way preaching the message of good news. 5Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. 6The crowds paid attention with one mind to what Philip said, as they heard and saw the signs he was performing. 7For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. 8So there was great joy in that city.
9A man named Simon had previously practiced sorcery in that city and astounded the Samaritan people, while claiming to be somebody great. 10They all paid attention to him, from the least of them to the greatest, and they said, "This man is called the Great Power of God!" 11They were attentive to him because he had astounded them with his sorceries for a long time. 12But when they believed Philip, as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. 13Then even Simon himself believed. And after he was baptized, he went around constantly with Philip and was astounded as he observed the signs and great miracles that were being performed.
14When the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had welcomed God's message, they sent Peter and John to them. 15After they went down there, they prayed for them, so the Samaritans might receive the Holy Spirit. 16For He had not yet come down on any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
18When Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, 19saying, "Give me this power too, so that anyone I lay hands on may receive the Holy Spirit."
20But Peter told him, "May your silver be destroyed with you, because you thought the gift of God could be obtained with money! 21You have no part or share in this matter, because your heart is not right before God. 22Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. 23For I see you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity."
24"Please pray to the Lord for me," Simon replied, "so that nothing you have said may happen to me."
25Then, after they had testified and spoken the message of the Lord, they traveled back to Jerusalem, evangelizing many villages of the Samaritans.
26An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip: "Get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is the desert road.) 27So he got up and went. There was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch and high official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to worship in Jerusalem 28and was sitting in his chariot on his way home, reading the prophet Isaiah aloud.
29The Spirit told Philip, "Go and join that chariot."
30When Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, "Do you understand what you're reading?"
31"How can I," he said, "unless someone guides me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32Now the Scripture passage he was reading was this:
He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb is silent before its shearer,
so He does not open His mouth.
33In His humiliation justice was denied Him.
Who will describe His generation?
For His life is taken from the earth.
34The eunuch replied to Philip, "I ask you, who is the prophet saying this about-himself or another person?" 35So Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus, beginning from that Scripture.
36As they were traveling down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, "Look, there's water! What would keep me from being baptized?" 37[And Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart you may." And he replied, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."] 38Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. 39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any longer. But he went on his way rejoicing. 40Philip appeared in Azotus, and he was traveling and evangelizing all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

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