Let's read the Bible together in the next year. Today, our passages are Genesis 3:1–4:26; Matthew 2:13–3:6; Psalm 2:1-12; and Proverbs 1:7-9. The readings are from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson.

Genesis 3-4:26 (The Message)

Genesis 3

¹ The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made. He spoke to the Woman: "Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?" ^2-3 The Woman said to the serpent, "Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It's only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, 'Don't eat from it; don't even touch it or you'll die.'"
^4-5 The serpent told the Woman, "You won't die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you'll see what's really going on. You'll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil."
⁶ When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she'd know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.
⁷ Immediately the two of them did "see what's really going on"—saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves.
⁸ When they heard the sound of God strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from God.
⁹ God called to the Man: "Where are you?"
¹⁰ He said, "I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid."
¹¹ God said, "Who told you you were naked? Did you eat from that tree I told you not to eat from?"
¹² The Man said, "The Woman you gave me as a companion, she gave me fruit from the tree, and, yes, I ate it."
   God said to the Woman, "What is this that you've done?"
¹³ "The serpent seduced me," she said, "and I ate."

    ^14-15 God told the serpent:
   "Because you've done this, you're cursed,
      cursed beyond all cattle and wild animals,
   Cursed to slink on your belly
      and eat dirt all your life.
   I'm declaring war between you and the Woman,
      between your offspring and hers.
   He'll wound your head,
      you'll wound his heel."

    ¹⁶ He told the Woman:
   "I'll multiply your pains in childbirth;
      you'll give birth to your babies in pain.
   You'll want to please your husband,
      but he'll lord it over you."

    ^17-19 He told the Man:
   "Because you listened to your wife
      and ate from the tree
   That I commanded you not to eat from,
      'Don't eat from this tree,'
   The very ground is cursed because of you;
      getting food from the ground
   Will be as painful as having babies is for your wife;
      you'll be working in pain all your life long.
   The ground will sprout thorns and weeds,
      you'll get your food the hard way,
   Planting and tilling and harvesting,
      sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk,
   Until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried;
      you started out as dirt, you'll end up dirt."
²⁰ The Man, known as Adam, named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living.
²¹ God made leather clothing for Adam and his wife and dressed them.
²² God said, "The Man has become like one of us, capable of knowing everything, ranging from good to evil. What if he now should reach out and take fruit from the Tree-of-Life and eat, and live forever? Never—this cannot happen!"
^23-24 So God expelled them from the Garden of Eden and sent them to work the ground, the same dirt out of which they'd been made. He threw them out of the garden and stationed angel-cherubim and a revolving sword of fire east of it, guarding the path to the Tree-of-Life.

Genesis 4

¹ Adam slept with Eve his wife. She conceived and had Cain. She said, "I've gotten a man, with God's help!" ² Then she had another baby, Abel. Abel was a herdsman and Cain a farmer. ^3-5 Time passed. Cain brought an offering to God from the produce of his farm. Abel also brought an offering, but from the firstborn animals of his herd, choice cuts of meat. God liked Abel and his offering, but Cain and his offering didn't get his approval. Cain lost his temper and went into a sulk.
^6-7 God spoke to Cain: "Why this tantrum? Why the sulking? If you do well, won't you be accepted? And if you don't do well, sin is lying in wait for you, ready to pounce; it's out to get you, you've got to master it."
⁸ Cain had words with his brother. They were out in the field; Cain came at Abel his brother and killed him.
⁹ God said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?"
   He said, "How should I know? Am I his babysitter?"
^10-12 God said, "What have you done! The voice of your brother's blood is calling to me from the ground. From now on you'll get nothing but curses from this ground; you'll be driven from this ground that has opened its arms to receive the blood of your murdered brother. You'll farm this ground, but it will no longer give you its best. You'll be a homeless wanderer on Earth."
^13-14 Cain said to God, "My punishment is too much. I can't take it! You've thrown me off the land and I can never again face you. I'm a homeless wanderer on Earth and whoever finds me will kill me."
¹⁵ God told him, "No. Anyone who kills Cain will pay for it seven times over." God put a mark on Cain to protect him so that no one who met him would kill him.
¹⁶ Cain left the presence of God and lived in No-Man's-Land, east of Eden.
^17-18 Cain slept with his wife. She conceived and had Enoch. He then built a city and named it after his son, Enoch.
   Enoch had Irad,
   Irad had Mehujael,
   Mehujael had Methushael,
   Methushael had Lamech.
^19-22 Lamech married two wives, Adah and Zillah. Adah gave birth to Jabal, the ancestor of all who live in tents and herd cattle. His brother's name was Jubal, the ancestor of all who play the lyre and flute. Zillah gave birth to Tubal-Cain, who worked at the forge making bronze and iron tools. Tubal-Cain's sister was Naamah.

    ^23-24 Lamech said to his wives,
   Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
      you wives of Lamech, hear me out:
   I killed a man for wounding me,
      a young man who attacked me.
   If Cain is avenged seven times,
      for Lamech it's seventy-seven!
^25-26 Adam slept with his wife again. She had a son whom she named Seth. She said, "God has given me another child in place of Abel whom Cain killed." And then Seth had a son whom he named Enosh.
   That's when men and women began praying and worshiping in the name of God.

Matthew 2:13-3:6 (The Message)

¹³After the scholars were gone, God's angel showed up again in Joseph's dream and commanded, "Get up. Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Stay until further notice. Herod is on the hunt for this child, and wants to kill him."
^14-15Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother under cover of darkness. They were out of town and well on their way by daylight. They lived in Egypt until Herod's death. This Egyptian exile fulfilled what Hosea had preached: "I called my son out of Egypt."
^16-18Herod, when he realized that the scholars had tricked him, flew into a rage. He commanded the murder of every little boy two years old and under who lived in Bethlehem and its surrounding hills. (He determined that age from information he'd gotten from the scholars.) That's when Jeremiah's sermon was fulfilled:
   A sound was heard in Ramah,
         weeping and much lament.
   Rachel weeping for her children,
         Rachel refusing all solace,
   Her children gone,
      dead and buried.

^19-20Later, when Herod died, God's angel appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt: "Up, take the child and his mother and return to Israel. All those out to murder the child are dead."
^21-23Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother, and reentered Israel. When he heard, though, that Archelaus had succeeded his father, Herod, as king in Judea, he was afraid to go there. But then Joseph was directed in a dream to go to the hills of Galilee. On arrival, he settled in the village of Nazareth. This move was a fulfillment of the prophetic words, "He shall be called a Nazarene."

Matthew 3

Thunder in the Desert!

^1-2 While Jesus was living in the Galilean hills, John, called "the Baptizer," was preaching in the desert country of Judea. His message was simple and austere, like his desert surroundings: "Change your life. God's kingdom is here." ³John and his message were authorized by Isaiah's prophecy:

   Thunder in the desert!
   Prepare for God's arrival!
   Make the road smooth and straight!
^4-6John dressed in a camel-hair habit tied at the waist by a leather strap. He lived on a diet of locusts and wild field honey. People poured out of Jerusalem, Judea, and the Jordanian countryside to hear and see him in action. There at the Jordan River those who came to confess their sins were baptized into a changed life.

Psalm 2:1-12 (The Message)

Psalm 2

    Why the big noise, nations? Why the mean plots, peoples?
   Earth-leaders push for position,
   Demagogues and delegates meet for summit talks,
   The God-deniers, the Messiah-defiers:
   "Let's get free of God!
   Cast loose from Messiah!"
   Heaven-throned God breaks out laughing.
   At first he's amused at their presumption;
   Then he gets good and angry.
   Furiously, he shuts them up:
   "Don't you know there's a King in Zion? A coronation banquet
   Is spread for him on the holy summit."

^7-9 Let me tell you what God said next.
   He said, "You're my son,
   And today is your birthday.
   What do you want? Name it:
   Nations as a present? continents as a prize?
   You can command them all to dance for you,
   Or throw them out with tomorrow's trash."

^10-12 So, rebel-kings, use your heads;
   Upstart-judges, learn your lesson:
   Worship God in adoring embrace,
   Celebrate in trembling awe. Kiss Messiah!
   Your very lives are in danger, you know;
   His anger is about to explode,
   But if you make a run for God—you won't regret it!

A David Psalm, When He Escaped

for His Life from Absalom, His Son

Proverbs 1:7-9 (The Message)

Start with God

⁷ Start with God—the first step in learning is bowing down to God;
   only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning.

^8-19 Pay close attention, friend, to what your father tells you;
   never forget what you learned at your mother's knee.
Wear their counsel like flowers in your hair,
   like rings on your fingers.
Dear friend, if bad companions tempt you,
   don't go along with them.
If they say—"Let's go out and raise some hell.
   Let's beat up some old man, mug some old woman.
Let's pick them clean
   and get them ready for their funerals.
We'll load up on top-quality loot.
   We'll haul it home by the truckload.
Join us for the time of your life!
   With us, it's share and share alike!"—
Oh, friend, don't give them a second look;
   don't listen to them for a minute.
They're racing to a very bad end,
   hurrying to ruin everything they lay hands on.
Nobody robs a bank
   with everyone watching,
Yet that's what these people are doing—
   they're doing themselves in.
When you grab all you can get, that's what happens:
   the more you get, the less you are.

Thought for the Day

“Teach us to use wisely all the time we have.” (Psalm 90:12 - Contemporary English Version) As we move into this new year, maybe we should reconsider the prayers we pray. Instead of praying for more blessings, maybe we should pray that we be more effective using the blessings we've already received.

Quote for the Day

American author, critic and scholar, William Lyon Phelps wrote, "The final test of a gentleman is his respect for those who can be of no possible service to him."

Joke for Today

Everyone was seated around the table as the food was being served. When little Logan received his plate, he started eating right away.

"Logan, wait until we say our prayer," his mother reminded him.

"I don't have to," the little boy replied.

"Of course you do," his mother insisted, "we say a prayer before eating at our house."

"That's at our house," Logan explained, "but this is Grandma's house and she knows how to cook."

A Prayer Request

As Christians, we can offer specific daily prayers for our community, nation and world. Below is the need that we're laying before God today.

That our city, state and national leaders would be presented with the Gospel and a loving Christian witness.

Study, Learn and Grow

Sunday, January 2, 2022

Bible Readings for January 2, 2022