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Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 3:30 AM
Subject: 'Bible in a Year' daily reading for December 2
>
> Bible in a Year - Friday, December 2, 2005
>
>
> Here is your daily Bible reading from the "THE MESSAGE" translation.
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> Ezekiel 1:1-28
>
> 1 When I was thirty years of age, I was living with the exiles
> on the Kebar River. On the fifth day of the fourth month, the
> sky opened up and I saw visions of God. 2 (It was the fifth day
> of the month in the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin
> 3 that GOD's Word came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi,
> on the banks of the Kebar River in the country of Babylon. GOD's
> hand came upon him that day.)
>
> 4 I looked: I saw an immense dust storm come from the north, an
> immense cloud with lightning flashing from it, a huge ball of
> fire glowing like bronze. 5 Within the fire were what looked
> like four creatures vibrant with life. Each had the form of a
> human being, 6 but each also had four faces and four wings. 7
> Their legs were as sturdy and straight as columns, but their
> feet were hoofed like those of a calf and sparkled from the fire
> like burnished bronze. 8 On all four sides under their wings
> they had human hands. All four had both faces and wings, 9 with
> the wings touching one another. They turned neither one way nor
> the other; they went straight forward. 10 Their faces looked
> like this: In front a human face, on the right side the face of
> a lion, on the left the face of an ox, and in back the face of
> an eagle. 11 So much for the faces. The wings were spread out
> with the tips of one pair touching the creature on either side;
> the other pair of wings covered its body. 12 Each creature went
> straight ahead. Wherever the spirit went, they went. They didn't
> turn as they went. 13 The four creatures looked like a blazing
> fire, or like fiery torches. Tongues of fire shot back and forth
> between the creatures, and out of the fire, bolts of lightning.
> 14 The creatures flashed back and forth like strikes of
> lightning.
>
> 15 As I watched the four creatures, I saw something that looked
> like a wheel on the ground beside each of the four-faced
> creatures. 16 This is what the wheels looked like: They were
> identical wheels, sparkling like diamonds in the sun. It looked
> like they were wheels within wheels, like a gyroscope. 17 They
> went in any one of the four directions they faced, but straight,
> not veering off. 18 The rims were immense, circled with eyes.
> 19 When the living creatures went, the wheels went; when the
> living creatures lifted off, the wheels lifted off. 20 Wherever
> the spirit went, they went, the wheels sticking right with them,
> for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. 21
> When the creatures went, the wheels went; when the creatures
> stopped, the wheels stopped; when the creatures lifted off, the
> wheels lifted off, because the spirit of the living creatures
> was in the wheels. 22 Over the heads of the living creatures
> was something like a dome, shimmering like a sky full of cut
> glass, vaulted over their heads. 23 Under the dome one set of
> wings was extended toward the others, with another set of wings
> covering their bodies. 24 When they moved I heard their
> wings--it was like the roar of a great waterfall, like the voice
> of The Strong God, like the noise of a battlefield. When they
> stopped, they folded their wings. 25 And then, as they stood
> with folded wings, there was a voice from above the dome over
> their heads.
>
> 26 Above the dome there was something that looked like a
> throne, sky-blue like a sapphire, with a humanlike figure
> towering above the throne. 27 From what I could see, from the
> waist up he looked like burnished bronze and from the waist down
> like a blazing fire. Brightness everywhere! 28 The way a
> rainbow springs out of the sky on a rainy day--that's what it
> was like. It turned out to be the Glory of GOD! When I saw all
> this, I fell to my knees, my face to the ground. Then I heard a
> voice.
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> Psalm 148:1-14
>
> 1 Hallelujah! Praise GOD from heaven, praise him from the
> mountaintops; 2 Praise him, all you his angels, praise him, all
> you his warriors, 3 Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, you
> morning stars; 4 Praise him, high heaven, praise him, heavenly
> rain clouds; 5 Praise, oh let them praise the name of GOD- he
> spoke the word, and there they were! 6 He set them in place
> from all time to eternity; He gave his orders, and that's it!
>
>
> 7 Praise GOD from earth, you sea dragons, you fathomless ocean
> deeps; 8 Fire and hail, snow and ice, hurricanes obeying his
> orders; 9 Mountains and all hills, apple orchards and cedar
> forests; 10 Wild beasts and herds of cattle, snakes, and birds
> in flight; 11 Earth's kings and all races, leaders and
> important people, 12 Robust men and women in their prime, and
> yes, graybeards and little children. 13 Let them praise the
> name of GOD- it's the only Name worth praising. His radiance
> exceeds anything in earth and sky; 14 he's built a
> monument--his very own people! Praise from all who love GOD!
> Israel's children, intimate friends of GOD. Hallelujah! al
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> Galatians 5:16-26 16 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and
motivated by God's
> Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness. 17
> For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at
> odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible
> with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so
> that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way
> according to how you feel on any given day. 18 Why don't you
> choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic
> compulsions of a law-dominated existence? 19 It is obvious what
> kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the
> time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation
> of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for
> happiness; 20 trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid
> loneliness; cutthroat competition;
> all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an
> impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives;
> small-minded and lopsided pursuits; 21 the vicious habit of
> depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and
> uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could
> go on. This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If
> you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's
> kingdom. 22 But what happens when we live God's way? He brings
> gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an
> orchard--things like affection for others, exuberance about
> life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a
> sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic
> holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved
> in loyal commitments, 23 not needing to force our way in life,
> able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. Legalism is
> helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. 24
> Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with
> getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone
> else calls necessities is killed off for good--crucified. 25
> Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the
> Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea
> in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its
> implications in every detail of our lives. 26 That means we
> will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were
> better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to
> do with our lives. Each of us is an original.
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Copyright Notice:
>
> THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language This edition issued
> by contractual arrangement with NavPress, a division of The
> Navigators, U.S.A.Originally published by NavPress in English as THE
> MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language Copyright (c) 2002 by
> Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
>
>
> http://www.studylight.org/info/copyright/bible/http://www.navpress.co
> m/message.asp
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
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