M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

The Beginning

1 In the beginning God made from nothing the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was an empty waste and darkness was over the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was moving over the top of the waters. ³ Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good. He divided the light from the darkness. ⁵ Then God called the light day, and He called the darkness night. There was evening and there was morning, one day.

⁶ Then God said, “Let there be an open space between the waters. Let it divide waters from waters.” ⁷ God made the open space, and divided the waters under the open space from the waters above the open space. And it was so. ⁸ Then God called the open space Heaven. There was evening and there was morning, the second day.

⁹ Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered into one place. Let the dry land be seen.” And it was so. ¹⁰ Then God called the dry land Earth. He called the gathering of the waters Seas. And God saw that it was good. ¹¹ Then God said, “Let plants grow from the earth, plants that have seeds. Let fruit trees grow on the earth that bring their kind of fruit with their own seeds.” And it was so. ¹² Plants grew out of the earth, giving their own kind of seeds. Trees grew with their fruit, and their kind of seeds. And God saw that it was good. ¹³ There was evening and there was morning, the third day.

¹⁴ Then God said, “Let there be lights in the open space of the heavens to divide day from night. Let them tell the days and years and times of the year. ¹⁵ Let them be lights in the open space of the heavens to give light on the earth.” And it was so. ¹⁶ Then God made the two great lights, the brighter light to rule the day, and the smaller light to rule the night. He made the stars also. ¹⁷ God put them in the open space of the heavens to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ to rule the day and the night. He divided the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ There was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

²⁰ Then God said, “Let the waters be full of living things. Let birds fly above the earth in the open space of the heavens.” ²¹ God made the big animals that live in the sea, and every living thing that moves through the waters by its kind, and every winged bird after its kind. And God saw that it was good. ²² God wanted good to come to them, saying, “Give birth to many. Grow in number. Fill the waters in the seas. Let birds grow in number on the earth.” ²³ There was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

²⁴ Then God said, “Let the earth bring into being living things after their kind: Cattle and things that move upon the ground, and wild animals of the earth after their kind.” And it was so. ²⁵ Then God made the wild animals of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every thing that moves upon the ground after its kind. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make man like Us and let him be head over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every thing that moves on the ground.” ²⁷ And God made man in His own likeness. In the likeness of God He made him. He made both male and female. ²⁸ And God wanted good to come to them, saying, “Give birth to many. Grow in number. Fill the earth and rule over it. Rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” ²⁹ Then God said, “See, I have given you every plant that gives seeds that is on the earth, and every tree that has fruit that gives seeds. They will be food for you. ³⁰ I have given every green plant for food to every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to every thing that moves on the earth that has life.” And it was so. ³¹ God saw all that He had made and it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

The Families Jesus Came Through ^(A)

1 These are the families through which Jesus Christ came. He came through David and 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. Their mother was Tamar. Perez was the father of Hezron. Hezron was the father of Aram. ⁴ Aram was the father of Amminadab. Amminadab was the father of Nahshon. Nahshon was the father of Salmon. ⁵ Salmon was the father of Boaz. The mother of Boaz was Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed. The mother of Obed was Ruth. Obed was the father of Jesse. ⁶ Jesse was the father of David the king.

King David was the father of Solomon. His 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 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 the people were taken to Babylon.

¹² After they were taken to the city of Babylon, 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. Joseph was the husband of Mary. She was the mother of Jesus Who is called the Christ. ¹⁷ So the number of families from Abraham to David was fourteen. The number of families from David to the time the people were taken to Babylon was fourteen. The number of families after they were taken to Babylon to the birth of Jesus Christ was fourteen.

The Birth of Jesus ^(B)

¹⁸ The birth of Jesus Christ was like this: Mary His mother had been promised in marriage to Joseph. Before they were married, it was learned that she was to have a baby by the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Joseph was her promised husband. He was a good man and did not want to make it hard for Mary in front of people. He thought it would be good to break the promised marriage without people knowing it. ²⁰ While he was thinking about this, an angel of the Lord came to him in a dream. The angel said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She is to become a mother by the Holy Spirit. ²¹ A Son will be born to her. You will give Him the name Jesus because He will save His people from the punishment of their sins.”

²² This happened as the Lord said it would happen through the early preacher. ²³ He said, “The young woman, who has never had a man, will give birth to a Son. They will give Him the name Immanuel. This means God with us.” ^{(C) 24} Joseph awoke from his sleep. He did what the angel of the Lord told him to do. He took Mary as his wife. ²⁵ But he did not have her, as a husband has a wife, until she gave birth to a Son. Joseph gave Him the name Jesus.

Cyrus Lets the Jews Return

1 In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, the words of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah came true. The Lord worked in the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia so that he made it known through all his nation, and also put it in writing, saying, ² “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the nations of the earth. He has chosen me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. ³ Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his God be with him! Let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and build again the house of the Lord, the God of Israel. He is the God Who is in Jerusalem. ⁴ Let each one who is still alive, at whatever place he may live, be helped by the men of his place with silver and gold and with good things and cattle. Let the men also give a free-will gift for the house of God in Jerusalem.’”

⁵ Then the leaders of the family groups of Judah and Benjamin and the religious leaders and Levites stood up, everyone in whose spirit the Lord had worked to go up and build the Lord’s house in Jerusalem again. ⁶ All those around them helped them with gifts of silver, gold, good things, cattle, and things worth much money, besides all that was given as a free-will gift. ⁷ King Cyrus brought out the objects of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and put in the house of his gods. ⁸ King Cyrus of Persia had them brought out by Mithredath, the man who took care of the nation’s riches. And he numbered them as he handed them over to Sheshbazzar, the leader of Judah. ⁹ This was their number: 30 gold dishes, 1,000 silver dishes, 29 other dishes, ¹⁰ 30 gold pots, 410 silver pots, and 1,000 other objects. ¹¹ There were 5,400 objects of gold and silver in all. Sheshbazzar brought all of them back when the people who had been taken away went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Luke Writes to Theophilus

1 Dear Theophilus, in my first writings I wrote about all the things Jesus did and taught from the beginning ² until the day He went to heaven. He spoke to the missionaries through the Holy Spirit. He told those whom He had chosen what they should do. ³ After He had suffered much and then died, He showed Himself alive in many sure ways for forty days. He told them many things about the holy nation of God.

Jesus Speaks Before He Goes to Be with the Father

⁴ As they were gathered together with Him, He told them, “Do not leave Jerusalem. Wait for what the Father has promised. You heard Me speak of this. ⁵ For John the Baptist baptized with water but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

⁶ Those who were with Him asked, “Lord, is this the time for You to give the nation back to the Jews?” ⁷ He said, “It is not for you to know the special days or the special times which the Father has put in His own power.

⁸ “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes into your life. You will tell about Me in the city of Jerusalem and over all the countries of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”

Jesus Goes to Be with the Father

⁹ When Jesus had said this and while they were still looking at Him, He was taken up. A cloud carried Him away so they could not see Him. ¹⁰ They were still looking up to heaven, watching Him go. All at once two men dressed in white stood beside them. ¹¹ They said, “You men of the country of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This same Jesus Who was taken from you into heaven will return in the same way you saw Him go up into heaven.”

Matthias Is Chosen to Take the Place of Judas

¹² The followers went back to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is close to Jerusalem. ¹³ When they came into the city, they went up to a room on the second floor where they stayed. The followers were Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Canaanite, and Judas the brother of James. ¹⁴ These all agreed as they prayed together. The women and Mary the mother of Jesus and His brothers were there.

¹⁵ On one of those days Peter got up in front of the followers. (There were about 120 people there.) He said, ¹⁶ “Men and brothers, it happened as the Holy Writings said it would happen which the Holy Spirit spoke through David. They told about Judas who would hand Jesus over to those who wanted to take Him. ¹⁷ Judas was one of our group and had a part in our work. ¹⁸ This man bought a field with the money he received for his sin. And falling down head first, his body broke open and his insides ran out. ¹⁹ All the people of Jerusalem knew about this. They called the place Field of Blood. ²⁰ For it is written in the Book of Psalms, ‘Let his place of living be empty and let no one live there,’ and, ‘Let another person take over his work.’ ^(A)

²¹ “The man to take the place of Judas should be one of these men who walked along with us when the Lord Jesus was with us. ²² He must have been with Jesus from the day He was baptized by John to the day He was taken up from us. So one of these should be added to our group who will tell others that he saw Jesus raised from the dead.”

²³ They brought two men in front of them. They were Joseph, also called Barsabbas Justus, and Matthias. ²⁴ Then the followers prayed, saying, “Lord, You know the hearts of all men. Show us which of these two men You have chosen. ²⁵ He is to take the place of Judas in this work and be a missionary. Judas lost his place and went where he belonged because of sin.” ²⁶ Then they drew names and the name of Matthias was chosen. He became one with the eleven missionaries.