M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Looking to Jesus
12 What about us, then? We have such a great cloud of witnesses all around us! What we must do is this: we must put aside each heavy weight, and the sin which gets in the way so easily. We must run the race that lies in front of us, and we must run it patiently. 2 We must look ahead, to Jesus. He is the one who carved out the path for faith, and he’s the one who brought it to completion.
He knew that there was joy spread out and waiting for him. That’s why he endured the cross, making light of its shame, and has now taken his seat at the right hand of God’s throne. 3 He put up with enormous opposition from sinners. Weigh up in your minds just how severe it was; then you won’t find yourselves getting weary and worn out.
Christian suffering is God’s discipline
4 You have been struggling against sin, but your resistance hasn’t yet cost you any blood. 5 And perhaps you have forgotten the word of exhortation which speaks to you as God’s children:
My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s rebuke,
or grow weary when he takes issue with you;
6 for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves,
and chastises every child he welcomes.
7 You must be patient with discipline. God is dealing with you as his sons and daughters. What child is there that the parent doesn’t discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline (we’ve all had our fair share of it!), you are illegitimate, and not true children. 9 After all, we had earthly parents who disciplined us, and we respected them. Shouldn’t we much rather submit ourselves to the father of spirits, and live? 10 Our earthly parents disciplined us for a little while, as they judged best; but when he disciplines us it’s for our advantage. It is so that we may share his holiness. 11 No discipline seems to bring joy at the time, but only sorrow. Later, though, it produces fruit, the peaceful fruit of righteousness, for those who are trained by it.
Watch out for dangers!
12 So stop letting your hands go slack, and get some energy into your sagging knees! 13 Make straight paths for your feet. If you’re lame, make sure you get healed instead of being put out of joint. 14 Follow after peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one can see the Lord. 15 Take good care that nobody lacks God’s grace; don’t let any “root of bitterness spring up to cause trouble,” defiling many people. 16 No one must be immoral or worldly-minded, like Esau: he sold his birthright for a single meal! 17 You know, don’t you, that later on, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. There was no way he could change either his mind or Isaac’s, even though he wept bitterly in trying to do so.
From Mount Sinai to Mount Zion
18 You haven’t come, after all, to something that can be touched—a blazing fire, darkness, gloom and whirlwind, 19 the sound of a trumpet and a voice speaking words which the hearers begged not to have to listen to anymore. 20 (They couldn’t bear the command that “if even a beast touches the mountain, it must be stoned.”) 21 The sight was so terrifying that even Moses said, “I’m trembling with fear.”
22 No: you have come to Mount Zion—to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to where thousands and thousands of angels are gathered for a festival; 23 to the assembly of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God the judge of all, to the spirits of righteous people who have been made perfect, 24 and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which has better words to say than the blood of Abel.
The kingdom that cannot be shaken
25 Take care that you don’t refuse the one who is speaking. For if people didn’t escape when they rejected the one who gave them earthly warnings, how much more if we turn away from the one who speaks from heaven! 26 At that point, his voice shook the earth; but now he has issued a promise in the following words: “One more time I will shake not only the earth but heaven as well.” 27 The phrase “one more time” shows that the things that are to be shaken (that is, the created things) will be taken away, so that the things that cannot be shaken will remain.
28 Well, then: we are to receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken! This calls for gratitude! That’s how to offer God true and acceptable worship, reverently and with fear. 29 Our God, you see, is a devouring fire.
The Magnificat: Mary’s song of praise
39 Mary got up then and there, and went in excitement to the hill country of Judaea. 40 She went into Zechariah’s house, and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby gave a leap in her womb. Elizabeth was filled with the holy spirit, 42 and shouted at the top of her voice: “Of all women, you’re the blessed one! And the fruit of your womb—he’s blessed, too! 43 Why should this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 Look—when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the child in my womb gave a great leap for joy! 45 A blessing on you, for believing that what the Lord said to you would come true!”
46 Mary said,
“My soul declares that the Lord is great,
47 my spirit exults in my savior, my God.
48 He saw his servant-girl in her humility;
from now, I’ll be blessed by all peoples to come.
49 The Powerful One, whose name is Holy,
has done great things for me, for me.
50 His mercy extends from father to son,
from mother to daughter for those who fear him.
51 Powerful things he has done with his arm:
he routed the arrogant through their own cunning.
52 Down from their thrones he hurled the rulers,
up from the earth he raised the humble.
53 The hungry he filled with the fat of the land,
but the rich he sent off with nothing to eat.
54 He has rescued his servant, Israel his child,
because he remembered his mercy of old,
55 just as he said to our long-ago ancestors—
Abraham and his descendants forever.”
56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months, and then returned home.
Zechariah’s song of praise
57 The time arrived for Elizabeth’s child to be born, and she gave birth to a son. 58 Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had increased his mercy to her, and they came to celebrate with her.
59 Now on the eighth day, when they came to circumcise the child, they were calling him by his father’s name, Zechariah. 60 But his mother spoke up.
“No,” she said, “he is to be called John.”
61 “None of your relatives,” they objected, “is called by that name.”
62 They made signs to his father, to ask what he wanted him to be called. 63 He asked for a writing tablet, and wrote on it, “His name is John.”
Everyone was astonished. 64 Immediately his mouth and his tongue were unfastened, and he spoke, praising God. 65 Fear came over all those who lived in the neighborhood, and people spoke of all these things throughout all the hill country of Judaea. 66 Everyone who heard about it turned the matter over in their hearts.
“What then will this child become?” they said. And the Lord’s hand was with him.
67 John’s father Zechariah was filled with the holy spirit, and spoke this prophecy:
68 “Blessed be the Lord, Israel’s God!
He’s come to his people and bought them their freedom.
69 He’s raised up a horn of salvation for us
in David’s house, the house of his servant,
70 just as he promised, through the mouths of his prophets,
the holy ones, speaking from ages of old:
71 salvation from our enemies, rescue from hatred,
72 mercy to our ancestors, keeping his holy covenant.
73 He swore an oath to Abraham our father,
74 to give us deliverance from fear and from foes,
so we might worship him, 75 holy and righteous
before his face to the end of our days.
76 You, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest One,
You’ll go before the Lord, preparing his way,
77 letting his people know of salvation,
through the forgiveness of all their sins.
78 The heart of our God is full of mercy,
that’s why his daylight has dawned from on high,
79 bringing light to the dark, as we sat in death’s shadow,
guiding our feet in the path of peace.”
80 The child grew, and became powerful in the spirit. He lived in the wilderness until the day when he was revealed to Israel.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.