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Going deeper...to go further

Daily Bible reading strengthens our relationship with God, nourishes our spirits and equips us to live a fruitful, effective life for Him.

This month we're looking at the different things Paul writes about in Romans chapter 12 which we encourage you to read regularly throughout the month. To help unpack the truths found in this chapter we've put some passages that you can meditate on alongside this to help you apply the Word to your life. As we read the Word it’s important that we apply what we read and pray it out over our lives. One of the way you can do this is by using the acronym SOAP. To find out more about SOAP watch this video.

Below you’ll see what we’re reading today. To go forward or back a day in our reading plan use the 'Next' and 'Previous' buttons.

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James 5

Honour God with your wealth1Listen, those of you who are rich: if you realised the misery you face you would grieve with anguish.2By then your wealth will have come to nothing and your fine clothes will be in tatters.3Your gold and silver will be useless to you. The wealth you have hoarded will testify against you, and your flesh life that you have indulged will simply rot away. You have held onto your wealth when it could have been used for God's purposes.4Consider this, you rich oppressors: you paid only a pittance to those who worked for you and their lack is now crying out against you, and these cries have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.5You have a life of luxury and self-indulgence, but have only fattened your­self for the slaughter.6You have condemned and ridden rough-shod over innocent people who have nothing against you.Wait patiently for the Lord7Faithful believers, wait patiently for the Lord's coming. Notice how the farmer waits patiently for the autumn and spring rains to water the land so the crops can grow and develop.8In the same way, you have to be patient and remain steadfast in your expectation that the Lord could come at any moment.9So do not complain about each other, my brothers; for to do so is to invite judgment on yourself. Realise that the Judge of all is always at hand!10My brothers, those who have suffered patiently, such as the prophets who spoke in the Lord's name, are an example for you.11You know we believe that those who have persevered in their faith are blessed. You have heard how Job was finally rewarded by the Lord, who is full of compassion and mercy.12It is really important, my brothers, that you never take an oath, swearing by heaven, by earth or by anything else. It is enough for everyone to know that your 'Yes' means yes, and your 'No' means no! Do not bring any condemnation on yourself by going beyond that.Encouragement to pray13If anyone among you has a problem, he should pray. If anyone is happy, he should thankfully sing praises to God.14If anyone is sick, he should call the church leaders to visit him so they can pray for him and anoint him with oil in the Lord's name.15The prayer of faith will cause the sick person to be healed and the Lord will raise him from his bed of sickness. If he has sinned, he will need to be forgiven.16So openly confess your sins before one another and pray for one another to be healed. The prayer of anyone made acceptable in God's sight is powerful and effective.17Elijah was only human as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain and for three and a half years there was no rain.18When he prayed again, the heavens were opened and it poured with rain. When the drought ended the crops grew!19-20My brothers, seek to bring back anyone who wanders from the truth, remembering this: Whoever turns a sinner from his evil ways will save him from death, because he is freed from his many sins!

1 Samuel 17

1Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Sokoh and Azekah. 2Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. 3The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them. 4A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span. 5He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; 6on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him. 8Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. 9If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” 10Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” 11On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified. 12Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul’s time he was very old. 13Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah. 14David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul, 15but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. 16For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand. 17Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. 18Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them. 19They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.” 20Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. 21Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. 22David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were. 23As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. 24Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear. 25Now the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel.” 26David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” 27They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.” 28When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.” 29“Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” 30He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. 31What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him. 32David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” 33Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” 34But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.” 38Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.“I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. 40Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine. 41Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. 42He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. 43He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44“Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!” 45David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” 48As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. 49Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. 50So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him. 51David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. 52Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath and to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron. 53When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp. 54David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem; he put the Philistine’s weapons in his own tent. 55As Saul watched David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is that young man?”Abner replied, “As surely as you live, Your Majesty, I don’t know.” 56The king said, “Find out whose son this young man is.” 57As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine’s head. 58“Whose son are you, young man?” Saul asked him.David said, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”
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