Competing for Christ

Lifestyle of Worship - Part 2

DRAWING FROM the RIGHT WELL

When to Forgive and Stand Firm

Who Owns Your Time?

Journey Through 1 Thessalonians

Overcoming Marital Anxiety

Faith That Endures

Praying God's Word: 7-Day Guide for the Buddhist World

Wait Well: Trusting God's Timing

The Listener’s Bible®: NIV Edition

New International Version™  (Anglicised), Audio Edition

Holy Bible, New International Version™ (Anglicised), South Asian Audio Edition

<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk1KI">
 <div class="chapter ch11" data-usfm="1KI.11">
 <div class="label">11</div><div class="s1">Solomon&#8217;s Wives</div><div class="p"> 1King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh&#8217;s daughter&#8212;Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, &#8220;You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.&#8221; Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. 3He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. 4As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. 5He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.</div><div class="p"> 7On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 8He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.</div><div class="p"> 9The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. 10Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord&#8217;s command. 11So the Lord said to Solomon, &#8220;Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. 12Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.&#8221;</div><div class="s1">Solomon&#8217;s Adversaries</div><div class="p"> 14Then the Lord raised up against Solomon an adversary, Hadad the Edomite, from the royal line of Edom. 15Earlier when David was fighting with Edom, Joab the commander of the army, who had gone up to bury the dead, had struck down all the men in Edom. 16Joab and all the Israelites stayed there for six months, until they had destroyed all the men in Edom. 17But Hadad, still only a boy, fled to Egypt with some Edomite officials who had served his father. 18They set out from Midian and went to Paran. Then taking people from Paran with them, they went to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave Hadad a house and land and provided him with food.</div><div class="p"> 19Pharaoh was so pleased with Hadad that he gave him a sister of his own wife, Queen Tahpenes, in marriage. 20The sister of Tahpenes bore him a son named Genubath, whom Tahpenes brought up in the royal palace. There Genubath lived with Pharaoh&#8217;s own children.</div><div class="p"> 21While he was in Egypt, Hadad heard that David rested with his ancestors and that Joab the commander of the army was also dead. Then Hadad said to Pharaoh, &#8220;Let me go, that I may return to my own country.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 22&#8220;What have you lacked here that you want to go back to your own country?&#8221; Pharaoh asked.</div><div class="p">&#8220;Nothing,&#8221; Hadad replied, &#8220;but do let me go!&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 23And God raised up against Solomon another adversary, Rezon son of Eliada, who had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah. 24When David destroyed Zobah&#8217;s army, Rezon gathered a band of men around him and became their leader; they went to Damascus, where they settled and took control. 25Rezon was Israel&#8217;s adversary as long as Solomon lived, adding to the trouble caused by Hadad. So Rezon ruled in Aram and was hostile toward Israel.</div><div class="s1">Jeroboam Rebels Against Solomon</div><div class="p"> 26Also, Jeroboam son of Nebat rebelled against the king. He was one of Solomon&#8217;s officials, an Ephraimite from Zeredah, and his mother was a widow named Zeruah.</div><div class="p"> 27Here is the account of how he rebelled against the king: Solomon had built the terraces#11:27 Or the Millo and had filled in the gap in the wall of the city of David his father. 28Now Jeroboam was a man of standing, and when Solomon saw how well the young man did his work, he put him in charge of the whole labor force of the tribes of Joseph.</div><div class="p"> 29About that time Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country, 30and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. 31Then he said to Jeroboam, &#8220;Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: &#8216;See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon&#8217;s hand and give you ten tribes. 32But for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe. 33I will do this because they have#11:33 Hebrew; Septuagint, Vulgate and Syriac because he has forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molek the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in obedience to me, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my decrees and laws as David, Solomon&#8217;s father, did.</div><div class="p"> 34&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;But I will not take the whole kingdom out of Solomon&#8217;s hand; I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose and who obeyed my commands and decrees. 35I will take the kingdom from his son&#8217;s hands and give you ten tribes. 36I will give one tribe to his son so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my Name. 37However, as for you, I will take you, and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel. 38If you do whatever I command you and walk in obedience to me and do what is right in my eyes by obeying my decrees and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you. 39I will humble David&#8217;s descendants because of this, but not forever.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 40Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt, to Shishak the king, and stayed there until Solomon&#8217;s death.</div><div class="s1">Solomon&#8217;s Death</div><div class="p"> 41As for the other events of Solomon&#8217;s reign&#8212;all he did and the wisdom he displayed&#8212;are they not written in the book of the annals of Solomon? 42Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. 43Then he rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son succeeded him as king.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkECC">
 <div class="chapter ch1" data-usfm="ECC.1">
 <div class="label">1</div><div class="s1">Everything Is Meaningless</div><div class="p"> 1The words of the Teacher,#1:1 Or the leader of the assembly; also in verses 2 and 12 son of David, king in Jerusalem:</div><div class="q1"> 2&#8220;Meaningless! Meaningless!&#8221;</div><div class="q2">says the Teacher.</div><div class="q1">&#8220;Utterly meaningless!</div><div class="q2">Everything is meaningless.&#8221;</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1"> 3What do people gain from all their labors</div><div class="q2">at which they toil under the sun?</div><div class="q1"> 4Generations come and generations go,</div><div class="q2">but the earth remains forever.</div><div class="q1"> 5The sun rises and the sun sets,</div><div class="q2">and hurries back to where it rises.</div><div class="q1"> 6The wind blows to the south</div><div class="q2">and turns to the north;</div><div class="q1">round and round it goes,</div><div class="q2">ever returning on its course.</div><div class="q1"> 7All streams flow into the sea,</div><div class="q2">yet the sea is never full.</div><div class="q1">To the place the streams come from,</div><div class="q2">there they return again.</div><div class="q1"> 8All things are wearisome,</div><div class="q2">more than one can say.</div><div class="q1">The eye never has enough of seeing,</div><div class="q2">nor the ear its fill of hearing.</div><div class="q1"> 9What has been will be again,</div><div class="q2">what has been done will be done again;</div><div class="q2">there is nothing new under the sun.</div><div class="q1"> 10Is there anything of which one can say,</div><div class="q2">&#8220;Look! This is something new&#8221;?</div><div class="q1">It was here already, long ago;</div><div class="q2">it was here before our time.</div><div class="q1"> 11No one remembers the former generations,</div><div class="q2">and even those yet to come</div><div class="q1">will not be remembered</div><div class="q2">by those who follow them.</div><div class="s1">Wisdom Is Meaningless</div><div class="p"> 12I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! 14I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.</div><div class="q1"> 15What is crooked cannot be straightened;</div><div class="q2">what is lacking cannot be counted.</div><div class="p"> 16I said to myself, &#8220;Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.&#8221; 17Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.</div><div class="q1"> 18For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;</div><div class="q2">the more knowledge, the more grief.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk1JN">
 <div class="chapter ch4" data-usfm="1JN.4">
 <div class="label">4</div><div class="s1">On Denying the Incarnation</div><div class="p"> 1Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.</div><div class="p"> 4You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit#4:6 Or spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.</div><div class="s1">God&#8217;s Love and Ours</div><div class="p"> 7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.</div><div class="p"> 13This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.</div><div class="p">God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.</div><div class="p"> 19We love because he first loved us. 20Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkLUK">
 <div class="chapter ch16" data-usfm="LUK.16">
 <div class="label">16</div><div class="s1">The Parable of the Shrewd Manager</div><div class="p"> 1Jesus told his disciples: &#8220;There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2So he called him in and asked him, &#8216;What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 3 &#8220;The manager said to himself, &#8216;What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I&#8217;m not strong enough to dig, and I&#8217;m ashamed to beg&#8212; 4I know what I&#8217;ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 5 &#8220;So he called in each one of his master&#8217;s debtors. He asked the first, &#8216;How much do you owe my master?&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 6 &#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Nine hundred gallons # 16:6 Or about 3,000 liters of olive oil,&#8217; he replied.</div><div class="p"> &#8220;The manager told him, &#8216;Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 7 &#8220;Then he asked the second, &#8216;And how much do you owe?&#8217;</div><div class="p"> &#8220;&#8198;&#8216;A thousand bushels # 16:7 Or about 30 tons of wheat,&#8217; he replied.</div><div class="p"> &#8220;He told him, &#8216;Take your bill and make it eight hundred.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 8 &#8220;The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.</div><div class="p"> 10 &#8220;Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else&#8217;s property, who will give you property of your own?</div><div class="p"> 13 &#8220;No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 14The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15He said to them, &#8220;You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God&#8217;s sight.</div><div class="s1">Additional Teachings</div><div class="p"> 16 &#8220;The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it. 17It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.</div><div class="p"> 18 &#8220;Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.</div><div class="s1">The Rich Man and Lazarus</div><div class="p"> 19 &#8220;There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21and longing to eat what fell from the rich man&#8217;s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.</div><div class="p"> 22 &#8220;The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham&#8217;s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24So he called to him, &#8216;Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 25 &#8220;But Abraham replied, &#8216;Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 27 &#8220;He answered, &#8216;Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 29 &#8220;Abraham replied, &#8216;They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 30 &#8220;&#8198;&#8216;No, father Abraham,&#8217; he said, &#8216;but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 31 &#8220;He said to him, &#8216;If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div>
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