M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Creation of the World
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was undeveloped[a] and empty. Darkness covered the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
3 God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good. He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” There was evening and there was morning—the first day.
6 God said, “Let there be an expanse[b] between the waters, and let it separate the water from the water.” 7 God made the expanse, and he separated the water that was below the expanse from the water that was above the expanse, and it was so. 8 God called the expanse “sky.” [c]There was evening and there was morning—the second day.
9 God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear,” and it was so. ⎣The waters under the sky gathered to their own places, and the dry land appeared.⎦[d] 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathering places of the waters he called “seas.” God saw that it was good. 11 God said, “Let the earth produce plants—vegetation that produces seed, and trees that bear fruit with its seed in it—each according to its own kind on the earth,” and it was so. 12 The earth brought forth plants, vegetation that produces seed according to its own kind, and trees that bear fruit with its seed in it, each according to its own kind, and God saw that it was good. 13 There was evening and there was morning—the third day.
14 God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night, and let them serve as markers to indicate seasons, days, and years. 15 Let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth,” and it was so. 16 God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set these lights in place in the expanse of the sky to provide light for the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. 19 There was evening and there was morning—the fourth day.
20 God said, “Let the waters swarm with living creatures, and let birds and other winged creatures[e] fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.” 21 God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their own kind, and every winged bird according to its own kind. God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them when he said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the waters of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 There was evening and there was morning—the fifth day.
24 God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to their own kind, livestock,[f] creeping things, and wild animals according to their own kind,” and it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their own kind, and the livestock according to their own kind, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its own kind. God saw that it was good.
26 God said, “Let us make man[g] in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that crawls on the earth.”
27 God created the man in his own image.
In the image of God he created him.
Male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 God said, “Look, I have given you every plant that produces seed on the face of the whole earth, and every tree that bears fruit that produces seed. It will be your food. 30 To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning—the sixth day.
The Genealogy of Jesus Christ
1 A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers. 3 Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. Perez was the father of Hezron. Hezron was the father of Ram. 4 Ram was the father of Amminadab. Amminadab was the father of Nahshon. Nahshon was the father of Salmon. 5 Salmon was the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Obed was the father of Jesse. 6 Jesse was the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been the wife of Uriah. 7 Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam was the father of Abijah. Abijah was the father of Asa. 8 Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat was the father of Joram. Joram was the father[a] of Uzziah. 9 Uzziah was the father of Jotham. Jotham was the father of Ahaz. Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah. 10 Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh. Manasseh was the father of Amon. Amon was the father of Josiah. 11 Josiah was the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the Babylonian exile.
12 After the Babylonian exile, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel. 13 Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud. Abiud was the father of Eliakim. Eliakim was the father of Azor. 14 Azor was the father of Zadok. Zadok was the father of Achim. Achim was the father of Eliud. 15 Eliud was the father of Eleazar. Eleazar was the father of Matthan. Matthan was the father of Jacob. 16 Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, from whom Jesus was born (who is called Christ).
17 So altogether there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen generations from David to the Babylonian exile, and fourteen generations from the Babylonian exile to Christ.
The Birth of Jesus Christ
18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. His mother, Mary, was pledged in marriage[b] to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph, her husband, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her. So he decided to divorce her privately. 20 But as he was considering these things, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[c] because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this happened to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 “Look, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son. And they will name him Immanuel,”[d] which means, “God with us.”
24 When Joseph woke up from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him. He took Mary home as his wife, 25 but he was not intimate with her until she gave birth to her firstborn son.[e] And he named him Jesus.
The Decree of Cyrus
1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord given through the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia. Cyrus circulated a proclamation throughout his kingdom and recorded it in a written document.
2 This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
The Lord, the God of Heaven, has given all the kingdoms of the earth to me. He has appointed me to build a house[a] for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 From all his people, whoever among you is willing (may the Lord his God be with him) is permitted to go up to Jerusalem in Judah. He may build the House of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 Any of the exiles who have survived, in any place where they are living as resident aliens, may receive support from the people of that place: silver, gold, goods, and livestock, along with their voluntary contributions for the House of the God who is in Jerusalem.
Preparations for the Return
5 Then the heads of the families[b] of Judah and Benjamin, the priests, and the Levites arose—everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to build the House of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem. 6 All of their neighbors supported them with articles of silver, with gold, with goods, with livestock, and with valuables, in addition to all kinds of voluntary contributions.
7 King Cyrus also brought out the vessels of the House of the Lord which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and put into the house of his gods. 8 Now Cyrus king of Persia entrusted them to the treasurer Mithredath, and he counted them out to Sheshbazzar, the leader[c] of Judah.
9 This is a tally of several different kinds of vessels:
| gold dishes | 30 |
| silver dishes | 1,000 |
| pans[d] | 29 |
| 10 gold bowls | 30 |
| silver bowls of other kinds | 410 |
| other articles | 1,000 |
11 The total number of all of the gold and silver vessels was 5,400.
Sheshbazzar brought these things up to Jerusalem along with the exiles who went up to Jerusalem.
Introduction and Theme
1 I wrote my first book, Theophilus, about everything Jesus began doing and teaching 2 until the day he was taken up, after he had given instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After he had suffered, he presented himself alive to the apostles with many convincing proofs. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and told them things about the kingdom of God.
4 Once, when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for what the Father promised, which you heard from me. 5 For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
6 So when they were together with him, they asked, “Lord, is this the time when you are going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Jesus Ascends to Heaven
9 After he said these things, he was taken up while they were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 They were looking intently into the sky as he went away. Suddenly, two men in white clothes stood beside them. 11 They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing here looking up into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away.[a]
Matthias Is Chosen
13 When they entered the city, they went to the upstairs room where they were staying. Peter and John were there, also James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. 14 All of them kept praying together with one mind, along with the women, with Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
15 In those days, when the group there numbered about 120 people, Peter stood up among the brothers[b] and said, 16 “Gentlemen,[c] brothers, the Scripture[d] had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David about Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus. 17 Judas was counted as one of us and was given a share in this ministry.
18 “Now this man acquired a field with what he was paid for his wicked act. When he fell headfirst, his middle burst open, and all his intestines spilled out. 19 This became known to all the residents of Jerusalem, and so in their own language that field was called Akeldema, which means Field of Blood. 20 Indeed, it is written in the book of Psalms:
May his residence be deserted.
Let there be no one dwelling in it.[e]
And,
let someone else take his position.[f]
21 “Therefore it is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us during the entire time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from his baptism by John until the day Jesus was taken up from us, become a witness with us of his resurrection.”
23 They proposed two: Joseph called Barsabbas (who was also called Justus) and Matthias. 24 Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen 25 to take the place in this apostolic ministry from which Judas turned away to go to his own place.”[g]
26 Then they assigned lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias. So he was counted with the eleven apostles.[h]
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.