Daily Devotions · March 10
Reading for March 10
Read the whole Bible in a year, a few chapters a day.
Deuteronomy 13–15 · Galatians 1
Deuteronomy 13–15 · Galatians 1, Berean Standard Bible
Deuteronomy 13
If a prophet or dreamer of dreams arises among you and proclaims a sign or wonder to you, 2 and if the sign or wonder he has spoken to you comes about, but he says, “Let us follow other gods (which you have not known) and let us worship them,” 3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. For the LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You are to follow the LORD your God and fear Him. Keep His commandments and listen to His voice; serve Him and hold fast to Him. 5 Such a prophet or dreamer must be put to death, because he has advocated rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery; he has tried to turn you from the way in which the LORD your God has commanded you to walk. So you must purge the evil from among you. 6 If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (which neither you nor your fathers have known, 7 the gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, whether from one end of the earth or the other), 8 you must not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity, and do not spare him or shield him. 9 Instead, you must surely kill him. Your hand must be the first against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people. 10 Stone him to death for trying to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 11 Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you. 12 If, regarding one of the cities the LORD your God is giving you to inhabit, you hear it said 13 that wicked men have arisen from among you and have led the people of their city astray, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” (which you have not known), 14 then you must inquire, investigate, and interrogate thoroughly. And if it is established with certainty that this abomination has been committed among you, 15 you must surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword. Devote to destruction all its people and livestock. 16 And you are to gather all its plunder in the middle of the public square, and completely burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. The city must remain a mound of ruins forever, never to be rebuilt. 17 Nothing devoted to destruction shall cling to your hands, so that the LORD will turn from His fierce anger, grant you mercy, show you compassion, and multiply you as He swore to your fathers, 18 because you obey the LORD your God, keeping all His commandments I am giving you today and doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 14
You are sons of the LORD your God; do not cut yourselves or shave your foreheads on behalf of the dead, 2 for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth. 3 You must not eat any detestable thing. 4 These are the animals that you may eat: The ox, the sheep, the goat, 5 the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. 6 You may eat any animal that has a split hoof divided in two and that chews the cud. 7 But of those that chew the cud or have a completely divided hoof, you are not to eat the following: the camel, the rabbit, or the rock badger. Although they chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof. They are unclean for you, 8 as well as the pig; though it has a divided hoof, it does not chew the cud. It is unclean for you. You must not eat its meat or touch its carcass. 9 Of all the creatures that live in the water, you may eat anything with fins and scales, 10 but you may not eat anything that does not have fins and scales; it is unclean for you. 11 You may eat any clean bird, 12 but these you may not eat: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture, 13 the red kite, the falcon, any kind of kite, 14 any kind of raven, 15 the ostrich, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, 16 the little owl, the great owl, the white owl, 17 the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant, 18 the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe, or the bat. 19 All flying insects are unclean for you; they may not be eaten. 20 But you may eat any clean bird. 21 You are not to eat any carcass; you may give it to the foreigner residing within your gates, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a holy people belonging to the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk. 22 You must be sure to set aside a tenth of all the produce brought forth each year from your fields. 23 And you are to eat a tenth of your grain, new wine, and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks, in the presence of the LORD your God at the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name, so that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always. 24 But if the distance is too great for you to carry that with which the LORD your God has blessed you, because the place where the LORD your God will choose to put His Name is too far away, 25 then exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place the LORD your God will choose. 26 Then you may spend the money on anything you desire: cattle, sheep, wine, strong drink, or anything you wish. You are to feast there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice with your household. 27 And do not neglect the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you. 28 At the end of every three years, bring a tenth of all your produce for that year and lay it up within your gates. 29 Then the Levite (because he has no portion or inheritance among you), the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow within your gates may come and eat and be satisfied. And the LORD your God will bless you in all the work of your hands.
Deuteronomy 15
At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. 2 This is the manner of remission: Every creditor shall cancel what he has loaned to his neighbor. He is not to collect anything from his neighbor or brother, because the LORD’s time of release has been proclaimed. 3 You may collect something from a foreigner, but you must forgive whatever your brother owes you. 4 There will be no poor among you, however, because the LORD will surely bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, 5 if only you obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commandments I am giving you today. 6 When the LORD your God blesses you as He has promised, you will lend to many nations but borrow from none; you will rule over many nations but be ruled by none. 7 If there is a poor man among your brothers within any of the gates in the land that the LORD your God is giving you, then you are not to harden your heart or shut your hand from your poor brother. 8 Instead, you are to open your hand to him and freely loan him whatever he needs. 9 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought in your heart: “The seventh year, the year of release, is near,” so that you look upon your poor brother begrudgingly and give him nothing. He will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin. 10 Give generously to him, and do not let your heart be grieved when you do so. And because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything to which you put your hand. 11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land; that is why I am commanding you to open wide your hand to your brother and to the poor and needy in your land. 12 If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you must set him free. 13 And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed. 14 You are to furnish him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress. You shall give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you. 15 Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; that is why I am giving you this command today. 16 But if your servant says to you, ‘I do not want to leave you,’ because he loves you and your household and is well off with you, 17 then take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he will become your servant for life. And treat your maidservant the same way. 18 Do not regard it as a hardship to set your servant free, because his six years of service were worth twice the wages of a hired hand. And the LORD your God will bless you in all you do. 19 You must set apart to the LORD your God every firstborn male produced by your herds and flocks. You are not to put the firstborn of your oxen to work, nor are you to shear the firstborn of your flock. 20 Each year you and your household are to eat it before the LORD your God in the place the LORD will choose. 21 But if an animal has a defect, is lame or blind, or has any serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God. 22 Eat it within your gates; both the ceremonially unclean and clean may eat it as they would a gazelle or a deer. 23 But you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.
Galatians 1
Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers with me, To the churches of Galatia: 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. 6 I am amazed how quickly you are deserting the One who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is not even a gospel. Evidently some people are troubling you and trying to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be under a curse! 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be under a curse! 10 Am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. 11 For I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached was not devised by man. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how severely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, was pleased 16 to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not rush to consult with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to the apostles who came before me, but I went into Arabia and later returned to Damascus. 18 Only after three years did I go up to Jerusalem to confer with Cephas, and I stayed with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. 20 I assure you before God that what I am writing to you is no lie. 21 Later I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was personally unknown, however, to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only heard the account: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me.
Scripture from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), dedicated to the public domain.
How to SOAP
Grab a journal and a pen. Read the chapters above and watch for the verse that stops you. Then take it through four steps.
-
Scripture
Write out the verse that stood out to you.
-
Observation
What is it saying? Who is speaking, and to whom?
-
Application
What does it mean for your life today? Be specific.
-
Prayer
Talk to God about it. Ask Him to help you live it.
Your SOAP journal
Write your SOAP here. Tap any verse in the reading to add it to Scripture. Your journal saves on this device only, so no one else sees it.
Added to your journal. Go to journal
Why daily devotions?
Devotions are time set aside each day to read God's Word and let Him speak. The point isn't checking off chapters. It's meeting with Him.
Ten or fifteen minutes is enough to start. Pick a time and a place and keep the appointment. Mornings work well for a lot of us, before the phone and the day start talking.
Missed a day? Don't start over. Read today's chapters and keep going.