Day 350 reading

Wisdom·Proverbs 27:1–7

¹Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. ²Let another praise you, and not your own mouth— a stranger, and not your own lips. ³A stone is heavy and sand is a burden, but aggravation from a fool outweighs them both. ⁴Wrath is cruel and anger is like a flood, but who can withstand jealousy? ⁵Better an open rebuke than love that is concealed. ⁶The wounds of a friend are faithful, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. ⁷The soul that is full loathes honey, but to a hungry soul, any bitter thing is sweet.

New Testament·Revelation 3–4

¹“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of the One who holds the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation for being alive, yet you are dead. ²Wake up and strengthen what remains, which was about to die; for I have found your deeds incomplete in the sight of My God. ³Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you. ⁴But you do have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments, and because they are worthy, they will walk with Me in white. ⁵Like them, he who overcomes will be dressed in white. And I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father and His angels. ⁶He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. ⁷To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the One who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open. ⁸I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door, which no one can shut. For you have only a little strength, yet you have kept My word and have not denied My name. ⁹Look at those who belong to the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews but are liars instead. I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I love you. ¹⁰Because you have kept My command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. ¹¹I am coming soon. Hold fast to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. ¹²The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will never again leave it. Upon him I will write the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from My God), and My new name. ¹³He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. ¹⁴To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Originator of God’s creation. ¹⁵I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other! ¹⁶So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to vomit you out of My mouth! ¹⁷You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. ¹⁸I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, white garments so that you may be clothed and your shameful nakedness not exposed, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. ¹⁹Those I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent. ²⁰Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me. ²¹To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. ²²He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

4After this I looked and saw a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had previously heard speak to me like a trumpet was saying, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after these things.” ²At once I was in the Spirit, and I saw a throne standing in heaven, with someone seated on it. ³The One seated there looked like jasper and carnelian, and a rainbow that gleamed like an emerald encircled the throne. ⁴Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and on these thrones sat twenty-four elders dressed in white, with golden crowns on their heads. ⁵From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings, and peals of thunder. Before the throne burned seven torches of fire. These are the seven Spirits of God. ⁶And before the throne was something like a sea of glass, as clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, covered with eyes in front and back. ⁷The first living creature was like a lion, the second like a calf, the third had a face like a man, and the fourth was like an eagle in flight. ⁸And each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around and within. Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” ⁹And whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the One seated on the throne who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰the twenty-four elders fall down before the One seated on the throne, and they worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying: ¹¹“Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things; by Your will they exist and came to be.”

Old Testament·Hosea 14; Joel 1–2

¹Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity. ²Bring your confessions and return to the LORD. Say to Him: “Take away all our iniquity and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips. ³Assyria will not save us, nor will we ride on horses. We will never again say, ‘Our gods!’ to the work of our own hands. For in You the fatherless find compassion.” ⁴I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them, for My anger has turned away from them. ⁵I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and take root like the cedars of Lebanon. ⁶His shoots will sprout, and his splendor will be like the olive tree, his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon. ⁷They will return and dwell in his shade; they will grow grain and blossom like the vine. His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon. ⁸O Ephraim, what have I to do anymore with idols? It is I who answer and watch over him. I am like a flourishing cypress; your fruit comes from Me. ⁹Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the LORD are right, and the righteous walk in them but the rebellious stumble in them.

1This is the word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel: ²Hear this, O elders; and give ear, all who dwell in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your fathers? ³Tell it to your children; let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. ⁴What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten. ⁵Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth. ⁶For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness. ⁷It has laid waste My grapevine and splintered My fig tree. It has stripped off the bark and thrown it away; the branches have turned white. ⁸Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth, grieving for the husband of her youth. ⁹Grain and drink offerings have been cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD. ¹⁰The field is ruined; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails. ¹¹Be dismayed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, over the wheat and barley, because the harvest of the field has perished. ¹²The grapevine is dried up, and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, palm, and apple— all the trees of the orchard—are withered. Surely the joy of mankind has dried up. ¹³Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God. ¹⁴Consecrate a fast; proclaim a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD. ¹⁵Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty. ¹⁶Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes— joy and gladness from the house of our God? ¹⁷The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods; the storehouses are in ruins; the granaries are broken down, for the grain has withered away. ¹⁸How the cattle groan! The herds wander in confusion because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering. ¹⁹To You, O LORD, I call, for fire has consumed the open pastures and flames have scorched all the trees of the field. ²⁰Even the beasts of the field pant for You, for the streams of water have dried up, and fire has consumed the open pastures.

2Blow the ram’s horn in Zion; sound the alarm on My holy mountain! Let all who dwell in the land tremble, for the Day of the LORD is coming; indeed, it is near— ²a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like the dawn overspreading the mountains a great and strong army appears, such as never was of old, nor will ever be in ages to come. ³Before them a fire devours, and behind them a flame scorches. The land before them is like the Garden of Eden, but behind them, it is like a desert wasteland— surely nothing will escape them. ⁴Their appearance is like that of horses, and they gallop like swift steeds. ⁵With a sound like that of chariots they bound over the mountaintops, like the crackling of fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army deployed for battle. ⁶Nations writhe in horror before them; every face turns pale. ⁷They charge like mighty men; they scale the walls like men of war. Each one marches in formation, not swerving from the course. ⁸They do not jostle one another; each proceeds in his path. They burst through the defenses, never breaking ranks. ⁹They storm the city; they run along the wall; they climb into houses, entering through windows like thieves. ¹⁰Before them the earth quakes; the heavens tremble. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars lose their brightness. ¹¹The LORD raises His voice in the presence of His army. Indeed, His camp is very large, for mighty are those who obey His command. For the Day of the LORD is great and very dreadful. Who can endure it? ¹²“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.” ¹³So rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the LORD your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion. And He relents from sending disaster. ¹⁴Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him— grain and drink offerings for the LORD your God. ¹⁵Blow the ram’s horn in Zion, consecrate a fast, proclaim a sacred assembly. ¹⁶Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the aged, gather the children, even those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. ¹⁷Let the priests who minister before the LORD weep between the portico and the altar, saying, “Spare Your people, O LORD, and do not make Your heritage a reproach, an object of scorn among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” ¹⁸Then the LORD became jealous for His land, and He spared His people. ¹⁹And the LORD answered His people: “Behold, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil, and by them you will be satisfied. I will never again make you a reproach among the nations. ²⁰The northern army I will drive away from you, banishing it to a barren and desolate land, its front ranks into the Eastern Sea, and its rear guard into the Western Sea. And its stench will rise; its foul odor will ascend. For He has done great things. ²¹Do not be afraid, O land; rejoice and be glad, for the LORD has done great things. ²²Do not be afraid, O beasts of the field, for the open pastures have turned green, the trees bear their fruit, and the fig tree and vine yield their best. ²³Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for He has given you the autumn rains for your vindication. He sends you showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. ²⁴The threshing floors will be full of grain, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. ²⁵I will repay you for the years eaten by locusts— the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust — My great army that I sent against you. ²⁶You will have plenty to eat, until you are satisfied. You will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has worked wonders for you. My people will never again be put to shame. ²⁷Then you will know that I am present in Israel and that I am the LORD your God, and there is no other. My people will never again be put to shame. ²⁸And afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. ²⁹Even on My menservants and maidservants, I will pour out My Spirit in those days. ³⁰I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. ³¹The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD. ³²And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has promised, among the remnant called by the LORD.