Matthew 6:1-15 Acts 8:26-40 Psalms 14 Genesis 32-33

Matthew 6:1-15
Mat 6:1 "Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don't make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won't be applauding.
Mat 6:2 "When you do something for someone else, don't call attention to yourself. You've seen them in action, I'm sure--'playactors' I call them--treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that's all they get.
Mat 6:3 When you help someone out, don't think about how it looks.
Mat 6:4 Just do it--quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.
Mat 6:5 "And when you come before God, don't turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?
Mat 6:6 "Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.
Mat 6:7 "The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God.
Mat 6:8 Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need.
Mat 6:9 With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this: Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are.
Mat 6:10 Set the world right; Do what's best-- as above, so below.
Mat 6:11 Keep us alive with three square meals.
Mat 6:12 Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Mat 6:13 Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes.
Mat 6:14 "In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can't get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others.
Mat 6:15 If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God's part.

Acts 8:26-40
Act 8:26 Later God's angel spoke to Philip: "At noon today I want you to walk over to that desolate road that goes from Jerusalem down to Gaza."
Act 8:27 He got up and went. He met an Ethiopian eunuch coming down the road. The eunuch had been on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and was returning to Ethiopia, where he was minister in charge of all the finances of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians.
Act 8:28 He was riding in a chariot and reading the prophet Isaiah.
Act 8:29 The Spirit told Philip, "Climb into the chariot."
Act 8:30 Running up alongside, Philip heard the eunuch reading Isaiah and asked, "Do you understand what you're reading?"
Act 8:31 He answered, "How can I without some help?" and invited Philip into the chariot with him.
Act 8:32 The passage he was reading was this: As a sheep led to slaughter, and quiet as a lamb being sheared, He was silent, saying nothing.
Act 8:33 He was mocked and put down, never got a fair trial. But who now can count his kin since he's been taken from the earth?
Act 8:34 The eunuch said, "Tell me, who is the prophet talking about: himself or some other?"
Act 8:35 Philip grabbed his chance. Using this passage as his text, he preached Jesus to him.
Act 8:36 As they continued down the road, they came to a stream of water. The eunuch said, "Here's water. Why can't I be baptized?"
Act 8:37 (OMITTED TEXT)
Act 8:38 He ordered the chariot to stop. They both went down to the water, and Philip baptized him on the spot.
Act 8:39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of God suddenly took Philip off, and that was the last the eunuch saw of him. But he didn't mind. He had what he'd come for and went on down the road as happy as he could be.
Act 8:40 Philip showed up in Azotus and continued north, preaching the Message in all the villages along that route until he arrived at Caesarea.

Psalms 14
Psa 14:1 A David psalm. Bilious and bloated, they gas, "God is gone." Their words are poison gas, fouling the air; they poison Rivers and skies; thistles are their cash crop.
Psa 14:2 GOD sticks his head out of heaven. He looks around. He's looking for someone not stupid-- one man, even, God-expectant, just one God-ready woman.
Psa 14:3 He comes up empty. A string of zeros. Useless, unshepherded Sheep, taking turns pretending to be Shepherd. The ninety and nine follow their fellow.
Psa 14:4 Don't they know anything, all these impostors? Don't they know they can't get away with this-- Treating people like a fast-food meal over which they're too busy to pray?
Psa 14:5 Night is coming for them, and nightmares, for God takes the side of victims.
Psa 14:6 Do you think you can mess with the dreams of the poor? You can't, for God makes their dreams come true.
Psa 14:7 Is there anyone around to save Israel? Yes. God is around; GOD turns life around. Turned-around Jacob skips rope, turned-around Israel sings laughter.

Genesis 32-33
Gen 32:1 And Jacob went his way. Angels of God met him.
Gen 32:2 When Jacob saw them he said, "Oh! God's Camp!" And he named the place Mahanaim (Campground).
Gen 32:3 Then Jacob sent messengers on ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir in Edom.
Gen 32:4 He instructed them: "Tell my master Esau this, 'A message from your servant Jacob: I've been staying with Laban and couldn't get away until now.
Gen 32:5 I've acquired cattle and donkeys and sheep; also men and women servants. I'm telling you all this, my master, hoping for your approval.'"
Gen 32:6 The messengers came back to Jacob and said, "We talked to your brother Esau and he's on his way to meet you. But he has four hundred men with him."
Gen 32:7 Jacob was scared. Very scared. Panicked, he divided his people, sheep, cattle, and camels into two camps.
Gen 32:8 He thought, "If Esau comes on the first camp and attacks it, the other camp has a chance to get away."
Gen 32:9 And then Jacob prayed, "God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, GOD who told me, 'Go back to your parents' homeland and I'll treat you well.'
Gen 32:10 I don't deserve all the love and loyalty you've shown me. When I left here and crossed the Jordan I only had the clothes on my back, and now look at me--two camps!
Gen 32:11 Save me, please, from the violence of my brother, my angry brother! I'm afraid he'll come and attack us all, me, the mothers and the children.
Gen 32:12 You yourself said, 'I will treat you well; I'll make your descendants like the sands of the sea, far too many to count.'"
Gen 32:13 He slept the night there. Then he prepared a present for his brother Esau from his possessions:
Gen 32:14 two hundred female goats, twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
Gen 32:15 thirty camels with their nursing young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.
Gen 32:16 He put a servant in charge of each herd and said, "Go ahead of me and keep a healthy space between each herd."
Gen 32:17 Then he instructed the first one out: "When my brother Esau comes close and asks, 'Who is your master? Where are you going? Who owns these?'--
Gen 32:18 answer him like this, 'Your servant Jacob. They are a gift to my master Esau. He's on his way.'"
Gen 32:19 He gave the same instructions to the second servant and to the third--to each in turn as they set out with their herds:
Gen 32:20 "Say 'Your servant Jacob is on his way behind us.'" He thought, "I will soften him up with the succession of gifts. Then when he sees me face-to-face, maybe he'll be glad to welcome me."
Gen 32:21 So his gifts went before him while he settled down for the night in the camp.
Gen 32:22 But during the night he got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
Gen 32:23 He got them safely across the brook along with all his possessions.
Gen 32:24 But Jacob stayed behind by himself, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.
Gen 32:25 When the man saw that he couldn't get the best of Jacob as they wrestled, he deliberately threw Jacob's hip out of joint.
Gen 32:26 The man said, "Let me go; it's daybreak." Jacob said, "I'm not letting you go 'til you bless me."
Gen 32:27 The man said, "What's your name?" He answered, "Jacob."
Gen 32:28 The man said, "But no longer. Your name is no longer Jacob. From now on it's Israel (God-Wrestler); you've wrestled with God and you've come through."
Gen 32:29 Jacob asked, "And what's your name?" The man said, "Why do you want to know my name?" And then, right then and there, he blessed him.
Gen 32:30 Jacob named the place Peniel (God's Face) because, he said, "I saw God face-to-face and lived to tell the story!"
Gen 32:31 The sun came up as he left Peniel, limping because of his hip.
Gen 32:32 (This is why Israelites to this day don't eat the hip muscle; because Jacob's hip was thrown out of joint.)
Gen 33:1 Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming with his four hundred men. He divided the children between Leah and Rachel and the two maidservants.
Gen 33:2 He put the maidservants out in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last.
Gen 33:3 He led the way and, as he approached his brother, bowed seven times, honoring his brother.
Gen 33:4 But Esau ran up and embraced him, held him tight and kissed him. And they both wept.
Gen 33:5 Then Esau looked around and saw the women and children: "And who are these with you?" Jacob said, "The children that God saw fit to bless me with."
Gen 33:6 Then the maidservants came up with their children and bowed;
Gen 33:7 then Leah and her children, also bowing; and finally, Joseph and Rachel came up and bowed to Esau.
Gen 33:8 Esau then asked, "And what was the meaning of all those herds that I met?" "I was hoping that they would pave the way for my master to welcome me."
Gen 33:9 Esau said, "Oh, brother. I have plenty of everything--keep what is yours for yourself."
Gen 33:10 Jacob said, "Please. If you can find it in your heart to welcome me, accept these gifts. When I saw your face, it was as the face of God smiling on me.
Gen 33:11 Accept the gifts I have brought for you. God has been good to me and I have more than enough." Jacob urged the gifts on him and Esau accepted.
Gen 33:12 Then Esau said, "Let's start out on our way; I'll take the lead."
Gen 33:13 But Jacob said, "My master can see that the children are frail. And the flocks and herds are nursing, making for slow going. If I push them too hard, even for a day, I'd lose them all.
Gen 33:14 So, master, you go on ahead of your servant, while I take it easy at the pace of my flocks and children. I'll catch up with you in Seir."
Gen 33:15 Esau said, "Let me at least lend you some of my men." "There's no need," said Jacob. "Your generous welcome is all I need or want."
Gen 33:16 So Esau set out that day and made his way back to Seir.
Gen 33:17 And Jacob left for Succoth. He built a shelter for himself and sheds for his livestock. That's how the place came to be called Succoth (Sheds).
Gen 33:18 And that's how it happened that Jacob arrived all in one piece in Shechem in the land of Canaan--all the way from Paddan Aram. He camped near the city.
Gen 33:19 He bought the land where he pitched his tent from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. He paid a hundred silver coins for it.
Gen 33:20 Then he built an altar there and named it El-Elohe-Israel (Mighty Is the God of Israel).