M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Creation
1 In the beginning, God created the universe.[a] 2 When the earth[b] was as yet unformed and desolate, with the surface of the ocean depths shrouded[c] in darkness, and while the Spirit of God was hovering[d] over the surface of the waters, 3 God said, “Let there be light!” So there was light.
4 God saw that the light was beautiful.[e] He[f] separated the light from the darkness, 5 calling the light “day,” and the darkness[g] “night.” The twilight and the dawn were day one.
6 Then God said, “Let there be a canopy[h] between bodies of water,[i] separating bodies of water[j] from bodies of water!”[k] 7 So God made a canopy[l] that separated the water beneath the canopy[m] from the water above it.[n] And that is what happened:[o] 8 God called the canopy[p] “sky.”[q] The twilight and the dawn were the second day.
9 Then God said, “Let the water beneath the sky come together into one area, and let dry ground appear!” And that is what happened:[r] 10 God called the dry ground “land,”[s] and he called the water that had come together “oceans.” And God saw how good it was.
11 Then God said, “Let vegetation sprout all over the earth, including[t] seed-bearing plants and fruit trees, each kind containing its own seed!” And that is what happened:[u] 12 Vegetation sprouted all over the earth, including seed-bearing plants and fruit trees, each kind containing its own seed. And God saw that it was good. 13 The twilight and the dawn were the third day.
14 Then God said, “Let there be lights across[v] the sky to distinguish day from night, to act as signs for seasons,[w] days, and years, 15 to serve as lights in[x] the sky, and to shine on the earth!” And that is what happened:[y] 16 God fashioned two great lights—the larger light to shine during[z] the day and the smaller light to shine during[aa] the night—as well as stars. 17 God placed them in space[ab] to shine on the earth, 18 to differentiate between[ac] day and night, and to distinguish[ad] light from darkness. And God saw how good it was. 19 The twilight and the dawn were the fourth day.
20 Then God said, “Let the oceans swarm[ae] with living creatures, and let flying creatures soar above the earth throughout[af] the sky!” 21 So God created every kind of magnificent marine creature, every kind of living marine crawler[ag] with which the waters swarmed, and every kind of flying creature.[ah] And God saw how good it was. 22 God blessed them by saying, “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the oceans. Let the birds multiply throughout the earth!” 23 The twilight and the dawn were the fifth day.
24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth each kind of living creature, each kind of livestock and crawling thing, and each kind of earth’s animals!”[ai] And that is what happened:[aj] 25 God made each kind of the earth’s animals, along with every kind of livestock and crawling thing.[ak] And God saw how good it was.
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, to be like us.[al] Let them be masters over the fish in the ocean, the birds that fly,[am] the livestock, everything that crawls on the earth, and over the earth itself!”
27 So God created mankind in his own image;
in his own image God created them;[an]
he created them male and female.
28 God blessed the humans by saying to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it! Be masters over the fish in the ocean, the birds that fly, and every living thing that crawls on the earth!”
29 God also told them,[ao] “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant that grows throughout[ap] the earth, along with every tree that grows seed-bearing fruit. They will produce your food. 30 I have given all green plants as food for every wild animal[aq] of the earth, every bird that flies, and to every living thing[ar] that crawls on the earth.” And that is what happened.[as]
31 Now God saw all that he had made, and indeed, it was very good! The twilight and the dawn were the sixth day.
An Introduction to Jesus the Messiah
1 This is[a] a record of the life[b] of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
The Ancestry of Jesus(A)
2 Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers. 3 Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Aram, 4 Aram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, and Nahshon fathered Salmon. 5 Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth, Obed fathered Jesse, 6 and Jesse fathered King David.
David fathered Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 Solomon fathered Rehoboam, Rehoboam fathered Abijah, Abijah fathered Asaph,[c] 8 Asaph[d] fathered Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat fathered Joram, Joram fathered Uzziah, 9 Uzziah fathered Jotham, Jotham fathered Ahaz, Ahaz fathered Hezekiah, 10 Hezekiah fathered Manasseh, Manasseh fathered Amos,[e] and Amos[f] fathered Josiah. 11 Josiah fathered Jechoniah[g] and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
12 After the deportation to Babylon, Jechoniah[h] fathered Salathiel,[i] Salathiel fathered Zerubbabel, 13 Zerubbabel fathered Abiud, Abiud fathered Eliakim, Eliakim fathered Azor, 14 Azor fathered Zadok, Zadok fathered Achim, Achim fathered Eliud, 15 Eliud fathered Eleazar, Eleazar fathered Matthan, and Matthan fathered Jacob. 16 Jacob fathered Joseph, the husband of Mary, who was the mother of Jesus,[j] who is called the Messiah.[k]
17 So all the generations from Abraham to David totaled fourteen[l] generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon totaled fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah[m] there were fourteen generations.
The Birth of Jesus(B)
18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah[n] happened in this way. When his mother Mary was engaged[o] to Joseph, before they lived together she was discovered to be pregnant by the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to disgrace her, decided to divorce her secretly.
20 After he had thought about it, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” he said, “don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus,[p] because he is the one who will save his people from their sins.”
22 Now all this happened to fulfill what was declared by the Lord through the prophet when he said,
23 “See, a virgin will become pregnant
and give birth to a son,
and they will name him Immanuel,”[q]
which means, “God with us.” 24 When Joseph got up from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary as[r] his wife. 25 He did not have marital relations with[s] her until she had given birth to a son;[t] and he named him Jesus.
An Edict to Rebuild the Temple(A)
1 During the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in fulfillment of the message from the Lord spoken through Jeremiah, the Lord prompted[a] Cyrus, king of Persia, to make this proclamation throughout his entire kingdom, which was also released in written form:
2 An Official Statement
from[b] Cyrus, King of Persia
All of the kingdoms of the earth have been given to me by the Lord God of Heaven, and he specifically charged me to build a temple[c] for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Therefore, who among the Lord’s[d] people trusts in his God? Whoever among this group wishes to do so may travel to Jerusalem of Judah to rebuild the Temple of the Lord[e] God of Israel, the God of Jerusalem. 4 Furthermore, everyone who wishes to repatriate[f] from any territory where he now resides is to receive assistance from his fellow residents in the form of silver, gold, equipment, and pack animals, in addition to voluntary offerings for the Temple of the God of Jerusalem.
5 In response, the heads of the families[g] of Judah and Benjamin, the priests and descendants of Levi, and all those who had been prompted[h] by God, prepared to travel to rebuild the Temple of the Lord, which was in Jerusalem. 6 So all of their neighbors equipped the travelers[i] with silver, gold, equipment, pack animals, and valuable goods, in addition to voluntary offerings.
Temple Instruments Returned
7 King Cyrus also brought out from storage[j] the service instruments from the Temple of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his gods.[k] 8 Cyrus, king of Persia, had them brought out to Mithredath the Treasurer, had them inventoried, and had them placed in care of[l] Sheshbazzar,[m] governor of Judah. 9 Here is a partial inventory:[n]
Gold dishes: 30
Silver dishes: 1,000
Sacrificial knives: 29
10 Gold bowls: 30
Silver bowls of another kind:[o] 410
Miscellaneous instruments: 1,000
11 The complete inventory of gold and silver vessels totaled 5,400. Sheshbazzar[p] brought them all to Jerusalem, along with the exiles from Babylon.
Introduction
1 In my first book, Theophilus, I wrote about everything Jesus did and taught from the beginning, 2 up to the day when he was taken up to heaven[a] after giving orders by the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After he had suffered, he had shown himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during a period of 40 days and telling them about the kingdom of God.
The Promise of the Holy Spirit
4 While he was meeting with them, he ordered them, “Don’t leave Jerusalem. Instead, wait for what the Father has promised, about which you heard me speak, 5 because John baptized with[b] water, but you will be baptized with[c] the Holy Spirit a few days from now.”
6 Now those who had gathered together began to ask Jesus,[d] “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He answered them, “It isn’t for you to know what times or periods the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you’ll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Jesus Goes Up to Heaven
9 After saying this, Jesus[e] was taken up while those who had gathered together[f] were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, two men in white robes stood right beside them. 11 They asked, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This same Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you saw him go up into heaven.”
A New Apostle Takes the Place of Judas
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives,[g] which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away.[h] 13 When they came into the city, these men[i] went to the upstairs room where they had been staying: Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son[j] of James. 14 With one mind, all of them kept devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women (including Mary the mother of Jesus) and his brothers.
15 At that time,[k] Peter got up among the brothers (there were about 120 people present) and said, 16 “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the voice of David about Judas, who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus, 17 because he was one of our number and was appointed[l] to share in this ministry.” 18 (Now this man bought a field with the money he got for his crime. Falling on his face, he burst open in the middle, and all his intestines gushed out. 19 This became known to all the residents of Jerusalem, so that this field is called in their language Hakeldama, that is, “The Field of Blood”.) 20 “For in the Book of Psalms it is written, ‘Let his estate be desolate, and let no one live on it,’[m] and, ‘Let someone else take over his office,’[n] 21 who was one of the men associated with us all the time the Lord Jesus came and went among us, 22 beginning when he was baptized by John until the day he was taken up from us. Therefore, someone like this[o] must become a witness with us to his resurrection.”
23 So they nominated two men—Joseph called Barsabbas, who also was called Justus, and Matthias. 24 Then they prayed, “Lord, you know the hearts of all people. Show us which one of these two men you have chosen 25 to serve in this office of apostle,[p] from which Judas left to go to his own place.”
26 So they drew lots for them, and when the lot fell on Matthias, he was enrolled with the eleven apostles.
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