Listener's Audio Bible Devotional Podcast

Then I said: \'LORD, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father\'s family, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses. \'Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.\'

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: \'Love your neighbor as yourself.\' If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.

\'Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. \'Do not go about spreading slander among your people. \'Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor\'s life. I am the LORD. \'Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt. \'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.\n

The LORD is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: \'The LORD\'s right hand has done mighty things! The LORD\'s right hand is lifted high; the LORD\'s right hand has done mighty things!\' I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done. The LORD has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Open for me the gates of the righteous; I will enter and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD through which the righteous may enter. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: \'Go down to the potter\'s house, and there I will give you my message.\' So I went down to the potter\'s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the LORD came to me. He said, \'Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?\' declares the LORD. \'Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.

Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, \'Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.\' [] After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. \'Are you so dull?\' he asked. \'Don\'t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn\'t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.\' (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.) He went on: \'What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person\'s heart, that evil thoughts come--sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.\'

When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went--into villages, towns or countryside--they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother\'s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand--when I awake, I am still with you.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother\'s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand--when I awake, I am still with you.

He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, \'Take courage! It is I. Don\'t be afraid.\' Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed,

He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, \'Take courage! It is I. Don\'t be afraid.\' Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed,

These were his instructions: \'Take nothing for the journey except a staff--no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.\' They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

These were his instructions: \'Take nothing for the journey except a staff--no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.\' They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story--those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south. Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind,