Healing the Wounds of Rejection

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The Way God Handled Grief

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Forgive and Be Free

I’m Just a Guy: With Anxiety

Acts 17:1-15 | Leaving the Results to God

Rest in God’s Love: 3 Days of Contemplative Prayer

Transforming Culture

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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkGEN">
 <div class="chapter ch37" data-usfm="GEN.37">
 <div class="label">37</div><div class="s1">Joseph&#8217;s Dreams</div><div class="p"> 1Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="p"> 2This is the account of Jacob&#8217;s family line.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="p">Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father&#8217;s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.</div><div class="p"> 3Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate#37:3 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain; also in verses 23 and 32. robe for him. 4When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.</div><div class="p"> 5Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6He said to them, &#8220;Listen to this dream I had: 7We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 8His brothers said to him, &#8220;Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?&#8221; And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.</div><div class="p"> 9Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. &#8220;Listen,&#8221; he said, &#8220;I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 10When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, &#8220;What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?&#8221; 11His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.</div><div class="s1">Joseph Sold by His Brothers</div><div class="p"> 12Now his brothers had gone to graze their father&#8217;s flocks near Shechem, 13and Israel said to Joseph, &#8220;As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;Very well,&#8221; he replied.</div><div class="p"> 14So he said to him, &#8220;Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.&#8221; Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron.</div><div class="p">When Joseph arrived at Shechem, 15a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, &#8220;What are you looking for?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 16He replied, &#8220;I&#8217;m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 17&#8220;They have moved on from here,&#8221; the man answered. &#8220;I heard them say, &#8216;Let&#8217;s go to Dothan.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p">So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. 18But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.</div><div class="p"> 19&#8220;Here comes that dreamer!&#8221; they said to each other. 20&#8220;Come now, let&#8217;s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we&#8217;ll see what comes of his dreams.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 21When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. &#8220;Let&#8217;s not take his life,&#8221; he said. 22&#8220;Don&#8217;t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don&#8217;t lay a hand on him.&#8221; Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.</div><div class="p"> 23So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe&#8212;the ornate robe he was wearing&#8212; 24and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.</div><div class="p"> 25As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.</div><div class="p"> 26Judah said to his brothers, &#8220;What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27Come, let&#8217;s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.&#8221; His brothers agreed.</div><div class="p"> 28So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels#37:28 That is, about 8 ounces or about 230 grams of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.</div><div class="p"> 29When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. 30He went back to his brothers and said, &#8220;The boy isn&#8217;t there! Where can I turn now?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 31Then they got Joseph&#8217;s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. 32They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, &#8220;We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son&#8217;s robe.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 33He recognized it and said, &#8220;It is my son&#8217;s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 34Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. 35All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. &#8220;No,&#8221; he said, &#8220;I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.&#8221; So his father wept for him.</div><div class="p"> 36Meanwhile, the Midianites#37:36 Samaritan Pentateuch, Septuagint, Vulgate and Syriac (see also verse 28); Masoretic Text Medanites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh&#8217;s officials, the captain of the guard.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkGEN">
 <div class="chapter ch38" data-usfm="GEN.38">
 <div class="label">38</div><div class="s1">Judah and Tamar</div><div class="p"> 1At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah. 2There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and made love to her; 3she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er. 4She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. 5She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.</div><div class="p"> 6Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7But Er, Judah&#8217;s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord&#8217;s sight; so the Lord put him to death.</div><div class="p"> 8Then Judah said to Onan, &#8220;Sleep with your brother&#8217;s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.&#8221; 9But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother&#8217;s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother. 10What he did was wicked in the Lord&#8217;s sight; so the Lord put him to death also.</div><div class="p"> 11Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, &#8220;Live as a widow in your father&#8217;s household until my son Shelah grows up.&#8221; For he thought, &#8220;He may die too, just like his brothers.&#8221; So Tamar went to live in her father&#8217;s household.</div><div class="p"> 12After a long time Judah&#8217;s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.</div><div class="p"> 13When Tamar was told, &#8220;Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,&#8221; 14she took off her widow&#8217;s clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.</div><div class="p"> 15When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. 16Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, &#8220;Come now, let me sleep with you.&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;And what will you give me to sleep with you?&#8221; she asked.</div><div class="p"> 17&#8220;I&#8217;ll send you a young goat from my flock,&#8221; he said.</div><div class="p">&#8220;Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?&#8221; she asked.</div><div class="p"> 18He said, &#8220;What pledge should I give you?&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,&#8221; she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. 19After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow&#8217;s clothes again.</div><div class="p"> 20Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her. 21He asked the men who lived there, &#8220;Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;There hasn&#8217;t been any shrine prostitute here,&#8221; they said.</div><div class="p"> 22So he went back to Judah and said, &#8220;I didn&#8217;t find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, &#8216;There hasn&#8217;t been any shrine prostitute here.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 23Then Judah said, &#8220;Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn&#8217;t find her.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 24About three months later Judah was told, &#8220;Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.&#8221;</div><div class="p">Judah said, &#8220;Bring her out and have her burned to death!&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 25As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. &#8220;I am pregnant by the man who owns these,&#8221; she said. And she added, &#8220;See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 26Judah recognized them and said, &#8220;She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn&#8217;t give her to my son Shelah.&#8221; And he did not sleep with her again.</div><div class="p"> 27When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. 28As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, &#8220;This one came out first.&#8221; 29But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, &#8220;So this is how you have broken out!&#8221; And he was named Perez.#38:29 Perez means breaking out. 30Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out. And he was named Zerah.#38:30 Zerah can mean scarlet or brightness.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkACT">
 <div class="chapter ch17" data-usfm="ACT.17">
 <div class="label">17</div><div class="s1">In Thessalonica</div><div class="p"> 1When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. &#8220;This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,&#8221; he said. 4Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women.</div><div class="p"> 5But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason&#8217;s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.#17:5 Or the assembly of the people 6But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: &#8220;These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar&#8217;s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.&#8221; 8When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. 9Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.</div><div class="s1">In Berea</div><div class="p"> 10As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.</div><div class="p"> 13But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. 14The believers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. 15Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.</div><div class="s1">In Athens</div><div class="p"> 16While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, &#8220;What is this babbler trying to say?&#8221; Others remarked, &#8220;He seems to be advocating foreign gods.&#8221; They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, &#8220;May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.&#8221; 21(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)</div><div class="p"> 22Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: &#8220;People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship&#8212;and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.</div><div class="p"> 24&#8220;The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28&#8216;For in him we live and move and have our being.&#8217;#17:28 From the Cretan philosopher Epimenides As some of your own poets have said, &#8216;We are his offspring.&#8217;#17:28 From the Cilician Stoic philosopher Aratus</div><div class="p"> 29&#8220;Therefore since we are God&#8217;s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone&#8212;an image made by human design and skill. 30In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 32When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, &#8220;We want to hear you again on this subject.&#8221; 33At that, Paul left the Council. 34Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkMAT">
 <div class="chapter ch11" data-usfm="MAT.11">
 <div class="label">11</div><div class="s1">Jesus and John the Baptist</div><div class="p"> 1After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.#11:1 Greek in their towns</div><div class="p"> 2When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples 3to ask him, &#8220;Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 4Jesus replied, &#8220;Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy#11:5 The Greek word traditionally translated leprosy was used for various diseases affecting the skin. are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 6Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 7As John&#8217;s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: &#8220;What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 8If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings&#8217; palaces. 9Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10This is the one about whom it is written:</div><div class="q1"> &#8220;&#8198;&#8216;I will send my messenger ahead of you,</div><div class="q2"> who will prepare your way before you.&#8217; # 11:10 
 Mal. 3:1
 </div><div class="m"> 11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence,#11:12 Or been forcefully advancing and violent people have been raiding it. 13For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. 14And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. 15Whoever has ears, let them hear.</div><div class="p"> 16 &#8220;To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:</div><div class="q1"> 17 &#8220;&#8198;&#8216;We played the pipe for you,</div><div class="q2"> and you did not dance;</div><div class="q1"> we sang a dirge,</div><div class="q2"> and you did not mourn.&#8217;</div><div class="m"> 18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, &#8216;He has a demon.&#8217; 19The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, &#8216;Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.&#8217; But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.&#8221;</div><div class="s1">Woe on Unrepentant Towns</div><div class="p"> 20Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 21&#8220;Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. 23And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades.#11:23 That is, the realm of the dead For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. 24But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.&#8221;</div><div class="s1">The Father Revealed in the Son</div><div class="p"> 25At that time Jesus said, &#8220;I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.</div><div class="p"> 27 &#8220;All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.</div><div class="p"> 28 &#8220;Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.&#8221;</div>
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