Message Bible Daily Reading - Old/New Testament (MSG)

Old/New Testament Reading for Tuesday September 17, 2013 (MSG)

Posted: 16 Sep 2013 10:00 PM PDT

Proverbs 27-29

You Don't Know Tomorrow

27 Don't brashly announce what you're going to do tomorrow;
you don't know the first thing about tomorrow.

²Don't call attention to yourself;
let others do that for you.

³Carrying a log across your shoulders
while you're hefting a boulder with your arms
Is nothing compared to the burden
of putting up with a fool.

⁴We're blasted by anger and swamped by rage,
but who can survive jealousy?

⁵A spoken reprimand is better
than approval that's never expressed.

⁶The wounds from a lover are worth it;
kisses from an enemy do you in.

⁷When you've stuffed yourself, you refuse dessert;
when you're starved, you could eat a horse.

⁸People who won't settle down, wandering hither and yon,
are like restless birds, flitting to and fro.

⁹Just as lotions and fragrance give sensual delight,
a sweet friendship refreshes the soul.

¹⁰Don't leave your friends or your parents' friends
and run home to your family when things get rough;
Better a nearby friend
than a distant family.

¹¹Become wise, dear child, and make me happy;
then nothing the world throws my way will upset me.

¹²A prudent person sees trouble coming and ducks;
a simpleton walks in blindly and is clobbered.

¹³Hold tight to collateral on any loan to a stranger;
be wary of accepting what a transient has pawned.

¹⁴If you wake your friend in the early morning
by shouting "Rise and shine!"
It will sound to him
more like a curse than a blessing.

^15-16A nagging spouse is like
the drip, drip, drip of a leaky faucet;
You can't turn it off,
and you can't get away from it.

Your Face Mirrors Your Heart

¹⁷You use steel to sharpen steel,
and one friend sharpens another.

¹⁸If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit;
if you honor your boss, you'll be honored.

¹⁹Just as water mirrors your face,
so your face mirrors your heart.

²⁰Hell has a voracious appetite,
and lust just never quits.

²¹The purity of silver and gold is tested
by putting them in the fire;
The purity of human hearts is tested
by giving them a little fame.

²²Pound on a fool all you like—
you can't pound out foolishness.

^23-27Know your sheep by name;
carefully attend to your flocks;
(Don't take them for granted;
possessions don't last forever, you know.)
And then, when the crops are in
and the harvest is stored in the barns,
You can knit sweaters from lambs' wool,
and sell your goats for a profit;
There will be plenty of milk and meat
to last your family through the winter.

If You Desert God's Law

28 The wicked are edgy with guilt, ready to run off
even when no one's after them;
Honest people are relaxed and confident,
bold as lions.

²When the country is in chaos,
everybody has a plan to fix it—
But it takes a leader of real understanding
to straighten things out.

³The wicked who oppress the poor
are like a hailstorm that beats down the harvest.

⁴If you desert God's law, you're free to embrace depravity;
if you love God's law, you fight for it tooth and nail.

⁵Justice makes no sense to the evilminded;
those who seek God know it inside and out.

⁶It's better to be poor and direct
than rich and crooked.

⁷Practice God's law—get a reputation for wisdom;
hang out with a loose crowd—embarrass your family.

⁸Get as rich as you want
through cheating and extortion,
But eventually some friend of the poor
is going to give it all back to them.

⁹God has no use for the prayers
of the people who won't listen to him.

¹⁰Lead good people down a wrong path
and you'll come to a bad end;
do good and you'll be rewarded for it.

¹¹The rich think they know it all,
but the poor can see right through them.

¹²When good people are promoted, everything is great,
but when the bad are in charge, watch out!

¹³You can't whitewash your sins and get by with it;
you find mercy by admitting and leaving them.

¹⁴A tenderhearted person lives a blessed life;
a hardhearted person lives a hard life.

¹⁵Lions roar and bears charge—
and the wicked lord it over the poor.

¹⁶Among leaders who lack insight, abuse abounds,
but for one who hates corruption, the future is bright.

¹⁷A murderer haunted by guilt
is doomed—there's no helping him.

¹⁸Walk straight—live well and be saved;
a devious life is a doomed life.

Doing Great Harm in Seemingly Harmless Ways

¹⁹Work your garden—you'll end up with plenty of food;
play and party—you'll end up with an empty plate.

²⁰Committed and persistent work pays off;
get-rich-quick schemes are ripoffs.

²¹Playing favorites is always a bad thing;
you can do great harm in seemingly harmless ways.

²²A miser in a hurry to get rich
doesn't know that he'll end up broke.

²³In the end, serious reprimand is appreciated
far more than bootlicking flattery.

²⁴Anyone who robs father and mother
and says, "So, what's wrong with that?"
is worse than a pirate.

²⁵A grasping person stirs up trouble,
but trust in God brings a sense of well-being.

²⁶If you think you know it all, you're a fool for sure;
real survivors learn wisdom from others.

²⁷Be generous to the poor—you'll never go hungry;
shut your eyes to their needs, and run a gauntlet of curses.

²⁸When corruption takes over, good people go underground,
but when the crooks are thrown out, it's safe to come out.

If People Can't See What God Is Doing

29 For people who hate discipline
and only get more stubborn,
There'll come a day when life tumbles in and they break,
but by then it'll be too late to help them.

²When good people run things, everyone is glad,
but when the ruler is bad, everyone groans.

³If you love wisdom, you'll delight your parents,
but you'll destroy their trust if you run with whores.

⁴A leader of good judgment gives stability;
an exploiting leader leaves a trail of waste.

⁵A flattering neighbor is up to no good;
he's probably planning to take advantage of you.

⁶Evil people fall into their own traps;
good people run the other way, glad to escape.

⁷The good-hearted understand what it's like to be poor;
the hardhearted haven't the faintest idea.

⁸A gang of cynics can upset a whole city;
a group of sages can calm everyone down.

⁹A sage trying to work things out with a fool
gets only scorn and sarcasm for his trouble.

¹⁰Murderers hate honest people;
moral folks encourage them.

¹¹A fool lets it all hang out;
a sage quietly mulls it over.

¹²When a leader listens to malicious gossip,
all the workers get infected with evil.

¹³The poor and their abusers have at least something in common:
they can both see—their sight, God's gift!

¹⁴Leadership gains authority and respect
when the voiceless poor are treated fairly.

¹⁵Wise discipline imparts wisdom;
spoiled adolescents embarrass their parents.

¹⁶When degenerates take charge, crime runs wild,
but the righteous will eventually observe their collapse.

¹⁷Discipline your children; you'll be glad you did—
they'll turn out delightful to live with.

¹⁸If people can't see what God is doing,
they stumble all over themselves;
But when they attend to what he reveals,
they are most blessed.

¹⁹It takes more than talk to keep workers in line;
mere words go in one ear and out the other.

²⁰Observe the people who always talk before they think—
even simpletons are better off than they are.

²¹If you let people treat you like a doormat,
you'll be quite forgotten in the end.

²²Angry people stir up a lot of discord;
the intemperate stir up trouble.

²³Pride lands you flat on your face;
humility prepares you for honors.

²⁴Befriend an outlaw
and become an enemy to yourself.
When the victims cry out,
you'll be included in their curses
if you're a coward to their cause in court.

²⁵The fear of human opinion disables;
trusting in God protects you from that.

²⁶Everyone tries to get help from the leader,
but only God will give us justice.

²⁷Good people can't stand the sight of deliberate evil;
the wicked can't stand the sight of well-chosen goodness.

The Message (MSG)

2 Corinthians 10

Tearing Down Barriers

10 ^1-2And now a personal but most urgent matter; I write in the gentle but firm spirit of Christ. I hear that I'm being painted as cringing and wishy-washy when I'm with you, but harsh and demanding when at a safe distance writing letters. Please don't force me to take a hard line when I'm present with you. Don't think that I'll hesitate a single minute to stand up to those who say I'm an unprincipled opportunist. Then they'll have to eat their words.

^3-6The world is unprincipled. It's dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn't fight fair. But we don't live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren't for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.

^7-8You stare and stare at the obvious, but you can't see the forest for the trees. If you're looking for a clear example of someone on Christ's side, why do you so quickly cut me out? Believe me, I am quite sure of my standing with Christ. You may think I overstate the authority he gave me, but I'm not backing off. Every bit of my commitment is for the purpose of building you up, after all, not tearing you down.

^9-11And what's this talk about me bullying you with my letters? "His letters are brawny and potent, but in person he's a weakling and mumbles when he talks." Such talk won't survive scrutiny. What we write when away, we do when present. We're the exact same people, absent or present, in letter or in person.

¹²We're not, understand, putting ourselves in a league with those who boast that they're our superiors. We wouldn't dare do that. But in all this comparing and grading and competing, they quite miss the point.

^13-14We aren't making outrageous claims here. We're sticking to the limits of what God has set for us. But there can be no question that those limits reach to and include you. We're not moving into someone else's "territory." We were already there with you, weren't we? We were the first ones to get there with the Message of Christ, right? So how can there be any question of overstepping our bounds by writing or visiting you?

^15-18We're not barging in on the rightful work of others, interfering with their ministries, demanding a place in the sun with them. What we're hoping for is that as your lives grow in faith, you'll play a part within our expanding work. And we'll all still be within the limits God sets as we proclaim the Message in countries beyond Corinth. But we have no intention of moving in on what others have done and taking credit for it. "If you want to claim credit, claim it for God." What you say about yourself means nothing in God's work. It's what God says about you that makes the difference.

The Message (MSG)