M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
7 Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have appointed you as my ambassador to Pharaoh, and your brother, Aaron, shall be your spokesman. 2 Tell Aaron everything I say to you, and he will announce it to Pharaoh, demanding that the people of Israel be allowed to leave Egypt. 3 But I will cause Pharaoh to stubbornly refuse, and I will multiply my miracles in the land of Egypt. 4 Yet even then Pharaoh won’t listen to you; so I will crush Egypt with a final major disaster and then lead my people out. 5 The Egyptians will find out that I am indeed God when I show them my power and force them to let my people go.”
6 So Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them. 7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three at this time of their confrontation with Pharaoh.
8 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 9 “Pharaoh will demand that you show him a miracle to prove that God has sent you; when he does, Aaron is to throw down his rod, and it will become a serpent.”
10 So Moses and Aaron went in to see Pharaoh, and performed the miracle, as Jehovah had instructed them—Aaron threw down his rod before Pharaoh and his court, and it became a serpent. 11 Then Pharaoh called in his sorcerers—the magicians of Egypt—and they were able to do the same thing with their magical arts! 12 Their rods became serpents, too! But Aaron’s serpent swallowed their serpents! 13 Pharaoh’s heart was still hard and stubborn, and he wouldn’t listen, just as the Lord had predicted. 14 The Lord pointed this out to Moses, that Pharaoh’s heart had been unmoved, and that he would continue to refuse to let the people go.
15 “Nevertheless,” the Lord said, “go back to Pharaoh in the morning, to be there as he goes down to the river. Stand beside the riverbank and meet him there, holding in your hand the rod that turned into a serpent. 16 Say to him, ‘Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me back to demand that you let his people go to worship him in the wilderness. You wouldn’t listen before, 17 and now the Lord says this: “You are going to find out that I am God. For I have instructed Moses to hit the water of the Nile with his rod, and the river will turn to blood! 18 The fish will die and the river will stink, so that the Egyptians will be unwilling to drink it.”’”
19 Then the Lord instructed Moses: “Tell Aaron to point his rod toward the waters of Egypt: all its rivers, canals, marshes, and reservoirs, and even the water stored in bowls and pots in the homes will turn to blood.”
20 So Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them. As Pharaoh and all of his officials watched, Aaron hit the surface of the Nile with the rod, and the river turned to blood. 21 The fish died and the water became so foul that the Egyptians couldn’t drink it; and there was blood throughout the land of Egypt. 22 But then the magicians of Egypt used their secret arts and they, too, turned water into blood; so Pharaoh’s heart remained hard and stubborn, and he wouldn’t listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had predicted, 23 and he returned to his palace, unimpressed. 24 Then the Egyptians dug wells along the riverbank to get drinking water, for they couldn’t drink from the river.
25 A week went by.
10 The Lord now chose seventy other disciples and sent them on ahead in pairs to all the towns and villages he planned to visit later.
2 These were his instructions to them: “Plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out more laborers to help you, for the harvest is so plentiful and the workers so few. 3 Go now, and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves. 4 Don’t take any money with you, or a beggar’s bag, or even an extra pair of shoes. And don’t waste time along the way.[a]
5 “Whenever you enter a home, give it your blessing. 6 If it is worthy of the blessing, the blessing will stand; if not, the blessing will return to you.
7 “When you enter a village, don’t shift around from home to home, but stay in one place, eating and drinking without question whatever is set before you. And don’t hesitate to accept hospitality, for the workman is worthy of his wages!
8-9 “If a town welcomes you, follow these two rules:
(1) Eat whatever is set before you.
(2) Heal the sick; and as you heal them, say, ‘The Kingdom of God is very near you now.’
10 “But if a town refuses you, go out into its streets and say, 11 ‘We wipe the dust of your town from our feet as a public announcement of your doom. Never forget how close you were to the Kingdom of God!’ 12 Even wicked Sodom will be better off than such a city on the Judgment Day. 13 What horrors await you, you cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida! For if the miracles I did for you had been done in the cities of Tyre and Sidon,[b] their people would have sat in deep repentance long ago, clothed in sackcloth and throwing ashes on their heads to show their remorse. 14 Yes, Tyre and Sidon will receive less punishment on the Judgment Day than you. 15 And you people of Capernaum, what shall I say about you? Will you be exalted to heaven? No, you shall be brought down to hell.”
16 Then he said to the disciples, “Those who welcome you are welcoming me. And those who reject you are rejecting me. And those who reject me are rejecting God who sent me.”
17 When the seventy disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, “Even the demons obey us when we use your name.”
18 “Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan falling from heaven as a flash of lightning! 19 And I have given you authority over all the power of the Enemy, and to walk among serpents and scorpions and to crush them. Nothing shall injure you! 20 However, the important thing is not that demons obey you, but that your names are registered as citizens of heaven.”
21 Then he was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit and said, “I praise you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the intellectuals and worldly wise and for revealing them to those who are as trusting as little children.[c] Yes, thank you, Father, for that is the way you wanted it. 22 I am the Agent of my Father in everything; and no one really knows the Son except the Father, and no one really knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
23 Then, turning to the twelve disciples, he said quietly, “How privileged you are to see what you have seen. 24 Many a prophet and king of old has longed for these days, to see and hear what you have seen and heard!”
25 One day an expert on Moses’ laws came to test Jesus’ orthodoxy by asking him this question: “Teacher, what does a man need to do to live forever in heaven?”
26 Jesus replied, “What does Moses’ law say about it?”
27 “It says,” he replied, “that you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind. And you must love your neighbor just as much as you love yourself.”
28 “Right!” Jesus told him.
29 The man wanted to justify his lack of love for some kinds of people,[d] so he asked, “Which neighbors?”
30 Jesus replied with an illustration: “A Jew going on a trip from Jerusalem to Jericho was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes and money, and beat him up and left him lying half dead beside the road.
31 “By chance a Jewish priest came along; and when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. 32 A Jewish Temple-assistant[e] walked over and looked at him lying there, but then went on.
33 “But a despised Samaritan[f] came along, and when he saw him, he felt deep pity. 34 Kneeling beside him the Samaritan soothed his wounds with medicine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his donkey and walked along beside him till they came to an inn, where he nursed him through the night.[g] 35 The next day he handed the innkeeper two twenty-dollar bills[h] and told him to take care of the man. ‘If his bill runs higher than that,’ he said, ‘I’ll pay the difference the next time I am here.’
36 “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the bandits’ victim?”
37 The man replied, “The one who showed him some pity.”
Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”
38 As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem[i] they came to a village where a woman named Martha welcomed them into her home. 39 Her sister Mary sat on the floor, listening to Jesus as he talked.
40 But Martha was the jittery type and was worrying over the big dinner she was preparing.
She came to Jesus and said, “Sir, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”
41 But the Lord said to her, “Martha, dear friend,[j] you are so upset over all these details! 42 There is really only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it—and I won’t take it away from her!”
24 “Why doesn’t God open the court and listen to my case? Why must the godly wait for him in vain? 2 For a crime wave has engulfed us—landmarks are moved, flocks of sheep are stolen, 3 and even the donkeys of the poor and fatherless are taken. Poor widows must surrender the little they have as a pledge to get a loan. 4 The needy are kicked aside; they must get out of the way. 5 Like the wild donkeys in the desert, the poor must spend all their time just getting barely enough to keep soul and body together. They are sent into the desert to search for food for their children. 6 They eat what they find that grows wild and must even glean the vineyards of the wicked. 7 All night they lie naked in the cold, without clothing or covering. 8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains and live in caves for want of a home.
9 “The wicked snatch fatherless children from their mother’s breasts, and take a poor man’s baby as a pledge before they will loan him any money or grain. 10 That is why they must go about naked, without clothing, and are forced to carry food while they are starving. 11 They are forced to press out the olive oil without tasting it and to tread out the grape juice as they suffer from thirst. 12 The bones of the dying cry from the city; the wounded cry for help; yet God does not respond to their moaning.
13 “The wicked rebel against the light and are not acquainted with the right and the good. 14-15 They are murderers who rise in the early dawn to kill the poor and needy; at night they are thieves and adulterers, waiting for the twilight ‘when no one will see me,’ they say. They mask their faces so no one will know them. 16 They break into houses at night and sleep in the daytime—they are not acquainted with the light. 17 The black night is their morning; they ally themselves with the terrors of the darkness.
18 “But how quickly they disappear from the face of the earth. Everything they own is cursed. They leave no property for their children. 19 Death consumes sinners as drought and heat consume snow. 20 Even the sinner’s own mother shall forget him. Worms shall feed sweetly on him. No one will remember him anymore. For wicked men are broken like a tree in the storm. 21 For they have taken advantage of the childless who have no protecting sons. They refuse to help the needy widows.
22-23 “Yet sometimes[a] it seems as though God preserves the rich by his power and restores them to life when anyone else would die. God gives them confidence and strength, and helps them in many ways. 24 But though they are very great now, yet in a moment they shall be gone like all others, cut off like heads of grain. 25 Can anyone claim otherwise? Who can prove me a liar and claim that I am wrong?”
11 And you should follow my example, just as I follow Christ’s.
2 I am so glad, dear brothers, that you have been remembering and doing everything I taught you. 3 But there is one matter I want to remind you about: that a wife is responsible to her husband, her husband is responsible to Christ, and Christ is responsible to God. 4 That is why, if a man refuses to remove his hat while praying or preaching, he dishonors Christ. 5 And that is why a woman who publicly prays or prophesies without a covering on her head dishonors her husband, for her covering is a sign of her subjection to him.[a] 6 Yes, if she refuses to wear a head covering, then she should cut off all her hair. And if it is shameful for a woman to have her head shaved, then she should wear a covering. 7 But a man should not wear anything on his head when worshiping, for his hat is a sign of subjection to men.[b]
God’s glory is man made in his image, and man’s glory is the woman. 8 The first man didn’t come from woman, but the first woman came out of man.[c] 9 And Adam, the first man, was not made for Eve’s benefit, but Eve was made for Adam. 10 So a woman should wear a covering on her head as a sign that she is under man’s authority,[d] a fact for all the angels to notice and rejoice in.
11 But remember that in God’s plan men and women need each other. 12 For although the first woman came out of man, all men have been born from women ever since, and both men and women come from God their Creator.
13 What do you yourselves really think about this? Is it right for a woman to pray in public without covering her head? 14-15 Doesn’t even instinct itself teach us that women’s heads should be covered? For women are proud of their long hair, while a man with long hair tends to be ashamed. 16 But if anyone wants to argue about this, all I can say is that we never teach anything else than this—that a woman should wear a covering when prophesying or praying publicly in the church, and all the churches feel the same way about it.
17 Next on my list of items to write you about is something else I cannot agree with. For it sounds as if more harm than good is done when you meet together for your communion services. 18 Everyone keeps telling me about the arguing that goes on in these meetings, and the divisions developing among you, and I can just about believe it. 19 But I suppose you feel this is necessary so that you who are always right will become known and recognized!
20 When you come together to eat, it isn’t the Lord’s Supper you are eating, 21 but your own. For I am told that everyone hastily gobbles all the food he can without waiting to share with the others, so that one doesn’t get enough and goes hungry while another has too much to drink and gets drunk. 22 What? Is this really true? Can’t you do your eating and drinking at home to avoid disgracing the church and shaming those who are poor and can bring no food? What am I supposed to say about these things? Do you want me to praise you? Well, I certainly do not!
23 For this is what the Lord himself has said about his Table, and I have passed it on to you before: That on the night when Judas betrayed him, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks to God for it, he broke it and gave it to his disciples and said, “Take this and eat it. This is my body, which is given[e] for you. Do this to remember me.” 25 In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new agreement between God and you that has been established and set in motion by my blood. Do this in remembrance of me whenever you drink it.” 26 For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup you are retelling the message of the Lord’s death, that he has died for you. Do this until he comes again.
27 So if anyone eats this bread and drinks from this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, he is guilty of sin against the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 That is why a man should examine himself carefully before eating the bread and drinking from the cup. 29 For if he eats the bread and drinks from the cup unworthily, not thinking about the body of Christ and what it means, he is eating and drinking God’s judgment upon himself; for he is trifling with the death of Christ. 30 That is why many of you are weak and sick, and some have even died.
31 But if you carefully examine yourselves before eating you will not need to be judged and punished. 32 Yet, when we are judged and punished by the Lord, it is so that we will not be condemned with the rest of the world. 33 So, dear brothers, when you gather for the Lord’s Supper—the communion service—wait for each other; 34 if anyone is really hungry he should eat at home so that he won’t bring punishment upon himself when you meet together.
I’ll talk to you about the other matters after I arrive.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.