Read To Me Daily Semester 4Sample

AMOS 5-6:
One device that Amos used in yesterday’s reading was rhetorical questions. He asked a whole series of them like this one:

3:4 GNT Does a lion roar in the forest unless he has found a victim?

All of his rhetorical questions expect the unspoken answer, No. And they all led up to two more in this verse:

Amo. 3:8 NLT The lion has roared—
so who isn’t frightened?
The Sovereign LORD has spoken—
so who can refuse to proclaim his message?

And, surprisingly, the message the Lord proclaimed next was an invitation to Israel’s enemies to come and witness Israel’s destruction. After the unforgettable denunciation against Israel’s wealthy women— whom the Lord called ‘cows’, He lists some of his previous acts of judgment against Israel— things like drought. And after each one are the words, “but you still would not return to Me.” Chapter 4 ended with these awesome words:

Amo. 4:12 GNT “So then, people of Israel, I am going to punish you.
And because I am going to do this, get ready to face my judgment!”
13 God is the one who made the mountains
and created the winds.
He makes his thoughts known to people;
he changes day into night.
He walks on the heights of the earth.
This is his name: the Lord God Almighty!

ISAIAH 47:
God continued speaking in Isaiah 46 about how He alone reveals his plans to mankind through prophecy. The section about Babylon’s idols being led off on a heavy ox cart was dripping with irony:

Is. 46:1 GNT “This is the end for Babylon's gods!
Bel and Nebo once were worshiped,
but now they are loaded on donkeys,
a burden for the backs of tired animals.
2 NLT Both the idols and their owners are bowed down.
The gods cannot protect the people,
and the people cannot protect the gods.
They go off into captivity together.

3JOHN:
Thomas Constable points out that 3rd John is the shortest letter in the New Testament and it is also the most personal. Certainly 2nd Timothy was an intensely personal letter, but at the end, Paul greeted everyone— showing that he knew his letter would be read to the church or churches. In 3rd John, the recipient seems to be Gaius alone, and this letter follows a pattern like a normal secular letter of the time— not including a ‘grace and peace’ salutation that Paul seems to have made standard for Christian letters. The time of the writing and the themes of this letter are like John’s two other letters.

Let’s pray.
Dear Lord Jesus, in our world today, give us the depth of love and the deep fellowship that was enjoyed by John and the believers of the church code-named ‘the dear Lady’. May we cooperate in ministry and support those ministries as they did. They welcomed the traveling preachers into their homes and helped them to continue their journey. May we also be vigilant so that we don’t support ministries that are not genuine and that do not uphold the truth of the Gospel, especially concerning Christ, that he was both fully God and fully man. Give us the same hope that the early believers had, namely, that there is a full reward waiting in heaven for us. John was not talking of their salvation as that reward. He was talking of the reward that we can lose, the rewards that you will give us because of our service to Christ. People today say not to think about such heavenly rewards. But Jesus, Peter, Paul, and John say to think of them, and tell us to be on guard not to lose them. So today, help us to think less about things on earth and more about things in heaven.