Matthew 7:1-14 Acts 10:1-23 Psalms 17 Genesis 37-38

Matthew 7:1-14
Mat 7:1 "Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults--unless, of course, you want the same treatment.
Mat 7:2 That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging.
Mat 7:3 It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbor's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own.
Mat 7:4 Do you have the nerve to say, 'Let me wash your face for you,' when your own face is distorted by contempt?
Mat 7:5 It's this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.
Mat 7:6 "Don't be flip with the sacred. Banter and silliness give no honor to God. Don't reduce holy mysteries to slogans. In trying to be relevant, you're only being cute and inviting sacrilege.
Mat 7:7 "Don't bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need.
Mat 7:8 This isn't a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we're in.
Mat 7:9 If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust?
Mat 7:10 If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate?
Mat 7:11 As bad as you are, you wouldn't think of such a thing. You're at least decent to your own children. So don't you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?
Mat 7:12 "Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God's Law and Prophets and this is what you get.
Mat 7:13 "Don't look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don't fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do.
Mat 7:14 The way to life--to God!--is vigorous and requires total attention.

Acts 10:1-23
Act 10:1 There was a man named Cornelius who lived in Caesarea, captain of the Italian Guard stationed there.
Act 10:2 He was a thoroughly good man. He had led everyone in his house to live worshipfully before God, was always helping people in need, and had the habit of prayer.
Act 10:3 One day about three o'clock in the afternoon he had a vision. An angel of God, as real as his next-door neighbor, came in and said, "Cornelius."
Act 10:4 Cornelius stared hard, wondering if he was seeing things. Then he said, "What do you want, sir?" The angel said, "Your prayers and neighborly acts have brought you to God's attention.
Act 10:5 Here's what you are to do. Send men to Joppa to get Simon, the one everyone calls Peter.
Act 10:6 He is staying with Simon the Tanner, whose house is down by the sea."
Act 10:7 As soon as the angel was gone, Cornelius called two servants and one particularly devout soldier from the guard.
Act 10:8 He went over with them in great detail everything that had just happened, and then sent them off to Joppa.
Act 10:9 The next day as the three travelers were approaching the town, Peter went out on the balcony to pray. It was about noon.
Act 10:10 Peter got hungry and started thinking about lunch. While lunch was being prepared, he fell into a trance.
Act 10:11 He saw the skies open up. Something that looked like a huge blanket lowered by ropes at its four corners settled on the ground.
Act 10:12 Every kind of animal and reptile and bird you could think of was on it.
Act 10:13 Then a voice came: "Go to it, Peter--kill and eat."
Act 10:14 Peter said, "Oh, no, Lord. I've never so much as tasted food that was not kosher."
Act 10:15 The voice came a second time: "If God says it's okay, it's okay."
Act 10:16 This happened three times, and then the blanket was pulled back up into the skies.
Act 10:17 As Peter, puzzled, sat there trying to figure out what it all meant, the men sent by Cornelius showed up at Simon's front door.
Act 10:18 They called in, asking if there was a Simon, also called Peter, staying there.
Act 10:19 Peter, lost in thought, didn't hear them, so the Spirit whispered to him, "Three men are knocking at the door looking for you.
Act 10:20 Get down there and go with them. Don't ask any questions. I sent them to get you."
Act 10:21 Peter went down and said to the men, "I think I'm the man you're looking for. What's up?"
Act 10:22 They said, "Captain Cornelius, a God-fearing man well-known for his fair play--ask any Jew in this part of the country--was commanded by a holy angel to get you and bring you to his house so he could hear what you had to say."
Act 10:23 Peter invited them in and made them feel at home. The next morning he got up and went with them. Some of his friends from Joppa went along.

Psalms 17
Psa 17:1 A David prayer. Listen while I build my case, GOD, the most honest prayer you'll ever hear.
Psa 17:2 Show the world I'm innocent-- in your heart you know I am.
Psa 17:3 Go ahead, examine me from inside out, surprise me in the middle of the night-- You'll find I'm just what I say I am. My words don't run loose.
Psa 17:4 I'm not trying to get my way in the world's way. I'm trying to get your way, your Word's way.
Psa 17:5 I'm staying on your trail; I'm putting one foot In front of the other. I'm not giving up.
Psa 17:6 I call to you, God, because I'm sure of an answer. So--answer! bend your ear! listen sharp!
Psa 17:7 Paint grace-graffiti on the fences; take in your frightened children who Are running from the neighborhood bullies straight to you.
Psa 17:8 Keep your eye on me; hide me under your cool wing feathers
Psa 17:9 From the wicked who are out to get me, from mortal enemies closing in.
Psa 17:10 Their hearts are hard as nails, their mouths blast hot air.
Psa 17:11 They are after me, nipping my heels, determined to bring me down,
Psa 17:12 Lions ready to rip me apart, young lions poised to pounce.
Psa 17:13 Up, GOD: beard them! break them! By your sword, free me from their clutches;
Psa 17:14 Barehanded, GOD, break these mortals, these flat-earth people who can't think beyond today. I'd like to see their bellies swollen with famine food, The weeds they've sown harvested and baked into famine bread, With second helpings for their children and crusts for their babies to chew on.
Psa 17:15 And me? I plan on looking you full in the face. When I get up, I'll see your full stature and live heaven on earth. A David song, which he sang to God after being saved from all his enemies and from Saul.

Genesis 37-38
Gen 37:1 Meanwhile Jacob had settled down where his father had lived, the land of Canaan.
Gen 37:2 This is the story of Jacob. The story continues with Joseph, seventeen years old at the time, helping out his brothers in herding the flocks. These were his half brothers actually, the sons of his father's wives Bilhah and Zilpah. And Joseph brought his father bad reports on them.
Gen 37:3 Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he was the child of his old age. And he made him an elaborately embroidered coat.
Gen 37:4 When his brothers realized that their father loved him more than them, they grew to hate him--they wouldn't even speak to him.
Gen 37:5 Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.
Gen 37:6 He said, "Listen to this dream I had.
Gen 37:7 We were all out in the field gathering bundles of wheat. All of a sudden my bundle stood straight up and your bundles circled around it and bowed down to mine."
Gen 37:8 His brothers said, "So! You're going to rule us? You're going to boss us around?" And they hated him more than ever because of his dreams and the way he talked.
Gen 37:9 He had another dream and told this one also to his brothers: "I dreamed another dream--the sun and moon and eleven stars bowed down to me!"
Gen 37:10 When he told it to his father and brothers, his father reprimanded him: "What's with all this dreaming? Am I and your mother and your brothers all supposed to bow down to you?"
Gen 37:11 Now his brothers were really jealous; but his father brooded over the whole business.
Gen 37:12 His brothers had gone off to Shechem where they were pasturing their father's flocks.
Gen 37:13 Israel said to Joseph, "Your brothers are with flocks in Shechem. Come, I want to send you to them." Joseph said, "I'm ready."
Gen 37:14 He said, "Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are doing and bring me back a report." He sent him off from the valley of Hebron to Shechem.
Gen 37:15 A man met him as he was wandering through the fields and asked him, "What are you looking for?"
Gen 37:16 "I'm trying to find my brothers. Do you have any idea where they are grazing their flocks?"
Gen 37:17 The man said, "They've left here, but I overheard them say, 'Let's go to Dothan.'" So Joseph took off, tracked his brothers down, and found them in Dothan.
Gen 37:18 They spotted him off in the distance. By the time he got to them they had cooked up a plot to kill him.
Gen 37:19 The brothers were saying, "Here comes that dreamer.
Gen 37:20 Let's kill him and throw him into one of these old cisterns; we can say that a vicious animal ate him up. We'll see what his dreams amount to."
Gen 37:21 Reuben heard the brothers talking and intervened to save him, "We're not going to kill him.
Gen 37:22 No murder. Go ahead and throw him in this cistern out here in the wild, but don't hurt him." Reuben planned to go back later and get him out and take him back to his father.
Gen 37:23 When Joseph reached his brothers, they ripped off the fancy coat he was wearing,
Gen 37:24 grabbed him, and threw him into a cistern. The cistern was dry; there wasn't any water in it.
Gen 37:25 Then they sat down to eat their supper. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites on their way from Gilead, their camels loaded with spices, ointments, and perfumes to sell in Egypt.
Gen 37:26 Judah said, "Brothers, what are we going to get out of killing our brother and concealing the evidence?
Gen 37:27 Let's sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let's not kill him--he is, after all, our brother, our own flesh and blood." His brothers agreed.
Gen 37:28 By that time the Midianite traders were passing by. His brothers pulled Joseph out of the cistern and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites who took Joseph with them down to Egypt.
Gen 37:29 Later Reuben came back and went to the cistern--no Joseph! He ripped his clothes in despair.
Gen 37:30 Beside himself, he went to his brothers. "The boy's gone! What am I going to do!"
Gen 37:31 They took Joseph's coat, butchered a goat, and dipped the coat in the blood.
Gen 37:32 They took the fancy coat back to their father and said, "We found this. Look it over--do you think this is your son's coat?"
Gen 37:33 He recognized it at once. "My son's coat--a wild animal has eaten him. Joseph torn limb from limb!"
Gen 37:34 Jacob tore his clothes in grief, dressed in rough burlap, and mourned his son a long, long time.
Gen 37:35 His sons and daughters tried to comfort him but he refused their comfort. "I'll go to the grave mourning my son." Oh, how his father wept for him.
Gen 37:36 In Egypt the Midianites sold Joseph to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, manager of his household affairs.
Gen 38:1 About that time, Judah separated from his brothers and hooked up with a man in Adullam named Hirah.
Gen 38:2 While there, Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite named Shua. He married her, they went to bed,
Gen 38:3 she became pregnant and had a son named Er.
Gen 38:4 She got pregnant again and had a son named Onan.
Gen 38:5 She had still another son; she named this one Shelah. They were living at Kezib when she had him.
Gen 38:6 Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn. Her name was Tamar.
Gen 38:7 But Judah's firstborn, Er, grievously offended GOD and GOD took his life.
Gen 38:8 So Judah told Onan, "Go and sleep with your brother's widow; it's the duty of a brother-in-law to keep your brother's line alive."
Gen 38:9 But Onan knew that the child wouldn't be his, so whenever he slept with his brother's widow he spilled his semen on the ground so he wouldn't produce a child for his brother.
Gen 38:10 GOD was much offended by what he did and also took his life.
Gen 38:11 So Judah stepped in and told his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Live as a widow at home with your father until my son Shelah grows up." He was worried that Shelah would also end up dead, just like his brothers. So Tamar went to live with her father.
Gen 38:12 Time passed. Judah's wife, Shua's daughter, died. When the time of mourning was over, Judah with his friend Hirah of Adullam went to Timnah for the sheep shearing.
Gen 38:13 Tamar was told, "Your father-in-law has gone to Timnah to shear his sheep."
Gen 38:14 She took off her widow's clothes, put on a veil to disguise herself, and sat at the entrance to Enaim which is on the road to Timnah. She realized by now that even though Shelah was grown up, she wasn't going to be married to him.
Gen 38:15 Judah saw her and assumed she was a prostitute since she had veiled her face.
Gen 38:16 He left the road and went over to her. He said, "Let me sleep with you." He had no idea that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, "What will you pay me?"
Gen 38:17 "I'll send you," he said, "a kid goat from the flock." She said, "Not unless you give me a pledge until you send it."
Gen 38:18 "So what would you want in the way of a pledge?" She said, "Your personal seal-and-cord and the staff you carry." He handed them over to her and slept with her. And she got pregnant.
Gen 38:19 She then left and went home. She removed her veil and put her widow's clothes back on.
Gen 38:20 Judah sent the kid goat by his friend from Adullam to recover the pledge from the woman. But he couldn't find her.
Gen 38:21 He asked the men of that place, "Where's the prostitute that used to sit by the road here near Enaim?" They said, "There's never been a prostitute here."
Gen 38:22 He went back to Judah and said, "I couldn't find her. The men there said there never has been a prostitute there."
Gen 38:23 Judah said, "Let her have it then. If we keep looking, everyone will be poking fun at us. I kept my part of the bargain--I sent the kid goat but you couldn't find her."
Gen 38:24 Three months or so later, Judah was told, "Your daughter-in-law has been playing the whore--and now she's a pregnant whore." Judah yelled, "Get her out here. Burn her up!"
Gen 38:25 As they brought her out, she sent a message to her father-in-law, "I'm pregnant by the man who owns these things. Identify them, please. Who's the owner of the seal-and-cord and the staff?"
Gen 38:26 Judah saw they were his. He said, "She's in the right; I'm in the wrong--I wouldn't let her marry my son Shelah." He never slept with her again.
Gen 38:27 When her time came to give birth, it turned out that there were twins in her womb.
Gen 38:28 As she was giving birth, one put his hand out; the midwife tied a red thread on his hand, saying, "This one came first."
Gen 38:29 But then he pulled it back and his brother came out. She said, "Oh! A breakout!" So she named him Perez (Breakout).
Gen 38:30 Then his brother came out with the red thread on his hand. They named him Zerah (Bright).