Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Daily Readings for May 17
Click the arrow above to the left of the audio strip to start audio for today
Joshua 1
1.Now it happened after the death of Moses the servant of Yahweh,1 that Yahweh spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' servant, saying, 2."Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you, and all this people, to the land which I give to them, even to the children of Israel. 3.I have given you every place that the sole of your foot will tread on, as I told Moses. 4.From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, even to the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border. 5.No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you nor forsake you.
6."Be strong and courageous; for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 7.Only be strong and very courageous, to observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded you. Don't turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 8.This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success. 9.Haven't I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid, neither be dismayed: for Yahweh your God2 is with you wherever you go."
10.Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, 11."Pass through the midst of the camp, and command the people, saying, 'Prepare food; for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which Yahweh your God gives you to possess it.'"
12.Joshua spoke to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, saying, 13."Remember the word which Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded you, saying, 'Yahweh your God gives you rest, and will give you this land. 14.Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock, shall live in the land which Moses gave you beyond the Jordan; but you shall pass over before your brothers armed, all the mighty men of valor, and shall help them 15.until Yahweh has given your brothers rest, as he has given you, and they have also possessed the land which Yahweh your God gives them. Then you shall return to the land of your possession, and possess it, which Moses the servant of Yahweh gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise.'"
16.They answered Joshua, saying, "All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. 17.Just as we listened to Moses in all things, so will we listen to you. Only may Yahweh your God be with you, as he was with Moses. 18.Whoever rebels against your commandment, and doesn't listen to your words in all that you command him, he shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous."
Isaiah 7
1.It happened in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. 2.It was told the house of David, saying, "Syria is allied with Ephraim." His heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble with the wind. 3.Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, "Go out now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shearjashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller's field. 4.Tell him, 'Be careful, and keep calm. Don't be afraid, neither let your heart be faint because of these two tails of smoking torches, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. 5.Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have plotted evil against you, saying, 6."Let's go up against Judah, and tear it apart, and let's divide it among ourselves, and set up a king in its midst, even the son of Tabeel." 7.This is what the Lord Yahweh says: "It shall not stand, neither shall it happen." 8.For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years Ephraim shall be broken in pieces, so that it shall not be a people; 9.and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.'"
10.Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 11."Ask a sign of Yahweh your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above."
12.But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, neither will I tempt Yahweh."
13.He said, "Listen now, house of David. Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God also? 14.Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.9 15.He shall eat butter and honey when he knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good. 16.For before the child knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken. 17.Yahweh will bring on you, on your people, and on your father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria. 18.It will happen in that day that Yahweh will whistle for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19.They shall come, and shall all rest in the desolate valleys, in the clefts of the rocks, on all thorn hedges, and on all pastures. 20.In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the River, even with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard. 21.It shall happen in that day that a man shall keep alive a young cow, and two sheep; 22.and it shall happen, that because of the abundance of milk which they shall give he shall eat butter: for everyone will eat butter and honey that is left in the midst of the land. 23.It will happen in that day that every place where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silver shekels, shall be for briers and thorns. 24.People will go there with arrows and with bow, because all the land will be briers and thorns. 25.All the hills that were cultivated with the hoe, you shall not come there for fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of sheep."
1Thessalonians 1
1.Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2.We always give thanks to God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers, 3.remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father. 4.We know, brothers1 loved by God, that you are chosen, 5.and that our Good News came to you not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance. You know what kind of men we showed ourselves to be among you for your sake. 6.You became imitators of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, 7.so that you became an example to all who believe in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8.For from you the word of the Lord has been declared, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone out; so that we need not to say anything. 9.For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you; and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, 10.and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead--Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.
1Thessalonians 2
1.For you yourselves know, brothers, our visit to you wasn't in vain, 2.but having suffered before and been shamefully treated, as you know, at Philippi, we grew bold in our God to tell you the Good News of God in much conflict. 3.For our exhortation is not of error, nor of uncleanness, nor in deception. 4.But even as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News, so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, who tests our hearts. 5.For neither were we at any time found using words of flattery, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness (God is witness), 6.nor seeking glory from men (neither from you nor from others), when we might have claimed authority as apostles of Christ. 7.But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother cherishes her own children.
8.Even so, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you, not the Good News of God only, but also our own souls, because you had become very dear to us. 9.For you remember, brothers, our labor and travail; for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached to you the Good News of God. 10.You are witnesses with God, how holy, righteously, and blamelessly we behaved ourselves toward you who believe. 11.As you know, we exhorted, comforted, and implored every one of you, as a father does his own children, 12.to the end that you should walk worthily of God, who calls you into his own Kingdom and glory. 13.For this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that, when you received from us the word of the message of God, you accepted it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you who believe. 14.For you, brothers, became imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus; for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews; 15.who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and didn't please God, and are contrary to all men; 16.forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved; to fill up their sins always. But wrath has come on them to the uttermost.
17.But we, brothers, being bereaved of you for a short season, in presence, not in heart, tried even harder to see your face with great desire, 18.because we wanted to come to you--indeed, I, Paul, once and again--but Satan hindered us. 19.For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Isn't it even you, before our Lord Jesus2 at his coming? 20.For you are our glory and our joy.