1 Chronicles 17, James 4, Jonah 1, Luke 6

1 Chronicles 17,

1 After David was settled in his palace, he said to Nathan the prophet, "Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of the covenant of the LORD is under a tent."
 
2 Nathan replied to David, "Whatever you have in mind, do it, for God is with you."
 
3 That night the word of God came to Nathan, saying:
 
4 "Go and tell my servant David, 'This is what the LORD says: You are not the one to build me a house to dwell in.
 
5 I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought Israel up out of Egypt to this day. I have moved from one tent site to another, from one dwelling place to another.
 
6 Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their leaders whom I commanded to shepherd my people, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?" '
 
7 "Now then, tell my servant David, 'This is what the LORD Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock, to be ruler over my people Israel.
 
8 I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name like the names of the greatest men of the earth.
 
9 And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning
 
10 and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also subdue all your enemies. " 'I declare to you that the LORD will build a house for you:
 
11 When your days are over and you go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.
 
12 He is the one who will build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever.
 
13 I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will never take my love away from him, as I took it away from your predecessor.
 
14 I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will be established forever.' "
 
15 Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation.
 
16 Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said: "Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?
 
17 And as if this were not enough in your sight, O God, you have spoken about the future of the house of your servant. You have looked on me as though I were the most exalted of men, O LORD God.
 
18 "What more can David say to you for honoring your servant? For you know your servant,
 
19 O LORD. For the sake of your servant and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made known all these great promises.
 
20 "There is no one like you, O LORD, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears.
 
21 And who is like your people Israel-the one nation on earth whose God went out to redeem a people for himself, and to make a name for yourself, and to perform great and awesome wonders by driving out nations from before your people, whom you redeemed from Egypt?
 
22 You made your people Israel your very own forever, and you, O LORD, have become their God.
 
23 "And now, LORD, let the promise you have made concerning your servant and his house be established forever. Do as you promised,
 
24 so that it will be established and that your name will be great forever. Then men will say, 'The LORD Almighty, the God over Israel, is Israel's God!' And the house of your servant David will be established before you.
 
25 "You, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build a house for him. So your servant has found courage to pray to you.
 
26 O LORD, you are God! You have promised these good things to your servant.
 
27 Now you have been pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever in your sight; for you, O LORD, have blessed it, and it will be blessed forever."

James 4,

1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?
 
2 You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.
 
3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
 
4 You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
 
5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?
 
6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
 
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
 
8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
 
9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.
 
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
 
11 Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.
 
12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you-who are you to judge your neighbor?
 
13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money."
 
14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
 
15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."
 
16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.
 
17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.

Jonah 1,

1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai:
 
2 "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."
 
3 But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.
 
4 Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.
 
5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.
 
6 The captain went to him and said, "How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish."
 
7 Then the sailors said to each other, "Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity." They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.
 
8 So they asked him, "Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?"
 
9 He answered, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land."
 
10 This terrified them and they asked, "What have you done?" (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.)
 
11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?"
 
12 "Pick me up and throw me into the sea," he replied, "and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you."
 
13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before.
 
14 Then they cried to the LORD, "O LORD, please do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O LORD, have done as you pleased."
 
15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.
 
16 At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.
 
17 But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.

Luke 6

1 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels.
 
2 Some of the Pharisees asked, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"
 
3 Jesus answered them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?
 
4 He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."
 
5 Then Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."
 
6 On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled.
 
7 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath.
 
8 But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there.
 
9 Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?"
 
10 He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand was completely restored.
 
11 But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.
 
12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.
 
13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles:
 
14 Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,
 
15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot,
 
16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
 
17 He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon,
 
18 who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured,
 
19 and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.
 
20 Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
 
21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
 
22 Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
 
23 "Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.
 
24 "But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.
 
25 Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
 
26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.
 
27 "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
 
28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
 
29 If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic.
 
30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.
 
31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
 
32 "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them.
 
33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that.
 
34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full.
 
35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
 
36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
 
37 "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
 
38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
 
39 He also told them this parable: "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?
 
40 A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.
 
41 "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
 
42 How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
 
43 "No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.
 
44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers.
 
45 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.
 
46 "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?
 
47 I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice.
 
48 He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.
 
49 But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."