M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
11 If people believe God, then they know they have the things they hope to get. It is the proof of things we do not see.
2 There were people long ago believed God. He said they were good because they believed him.
3 We believe in God, so that is how we know that God made the world by his word. The things we see were made out of things that cannot be seen.
4 Because Abel believed God, he made a sacrifice that pleased God more than the one Cain made. Because Abel believed God, God showed that he was good. God was pleased with his gifts. Abel died. But because he believed God, he still speaks to us through his faith.
5 Because Enoch believed God, he was taken up into heaven without dying. The people could not find him because God had taken him. Before he was taken up, the holy writings say that he pleased God.
6 If a person does not believe God, he cannot please him. Anyone who comes to God must believe that God is real. And he must believe that God will bless those who try to find him. God will reward a person, if he really tries to find God.
7 God told Noah about things that would happen. These things had never happened before. Noah believed God; he respected God. He built a big house on a boat, and so his family was saved [from the big flood]. By believing God he showed that the other people were wrong. He was put right with God because he believed.
8 God called Abraham to go away to a place which he would have as his own. Because Abraham believed God, he obeyed him. He went even though he did not know where he was to go.
9 Because he believed God, he lived like a stranger in the land God promised him. He lived in tents with Isaac and Jacob. They had the same promise he had.
10 Abraham was looking for a city which will last for ever. It was the city God planned and made.
11 Sarah also believed God, and she was able to have a baby even though she was too old to have children. But she trusted God to do what he had promised.
12 Abraham was too old to be a father, but a great nation was born from that one man. They are as many as the stars in the sky and as the sands on the seaside. No man can count them.
13 These people all died still believing God. They did not get the things God had promised them. But they saw them far away and were glad to see them. They said they did not belong to this world, but were only travelling in it.
14 People who say such things mean they are looking for a country which will be their own.
15 If they had wanted the country they left behind, they could have gone back to it.
16 But now they want a better country. They want a place in heaven. That is why God wants to be called their God. He has made a city ready for them.
17 Abraham believed God when he was tested. The test was to give Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham gave up his only son, even though God had made a promise to him about Isaac.
18 God had said to Abraham, `Isaac's children will be called your family.'
19 Abraham said in his heart that God could bring Isaac back to life. And so it was just as if he did get his son back.
20 Isaac believed God. He gave Jacob and Esau blessings that were to come.
21 Jacob believed God. When he was dying, he blessed Joseph's two sons. He leaned on his walking stick as he worshipped God.
22 Joseph believed God. When he died, he remembered God's promise and talked about the time the people of Israel would leave Egypt. He told them what to do with his bones when they left Egypt.
23 The father and mother of Moses believed God. When he was born, they hid him for three months because they saw that he was a very nice baby. They were not afraid of the king's orders.
24 Moses believed God. When he was grown up, he did not want to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
25 He chose to have troubles along with God's people. He thought that was better than the fun which he could have living a wrong life. The fun would last only for a short time.
26 He thought it was better to take shame, as Christ did, than to be a rich man in Egypt. He was looking for God's blessings.
27 He believed God and left Egypt. He was not afraid of the king's anger. He was strong because he saw the one who cannot be seen.
28 He believed God and obeyed his law about the Passover Feast, and put blood on the door posts. He did this so that the angel who killed the oldest sons of the Egyptians, would pass over. Then he would not kill the oldest sons in the families of the Jews.
29 The people believed God and went through the Red Sea on dry land. When the people of Egypt tried to do that, they were drowned.
30 The people believed God and walked around the walls of the city of Jericho for seven days. The walls fell down.
31 Rahab was a woman who used her body wrongly for sex to get money. But she believed in God, so she did not die with the people who did not believe in God. This was when the men came to spy out her country. She took them into her house in peace.
32 What more should I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets.
33 Men believed God and were able to win over other nations. They made people do what was right. They got what God promised them. They were not eaten by lions.
34 The big, hot fire did not burn them. They got away from men who wanted to kill them with long knives or swords. They were weak, but they became strong. They became very strong to fight. They drove away the armies of their enemies.
35 Women had children who died and were raised to life again. Some people allowed themselves to be beaten to death. They would not go free because they wanted to rise again to a better life.
36 Others were laughed at and beaten very hard. They were even tied with chains and put into prison.
37 They were killed with stones. They were tested. They were cut in pieces. They were killed with swords. They walked about wearing skins of sheep and goats. They were very poor. They were treated very badly. They were punished.
38 They were really too good to be in this world. They walked about in the desert and in the mountains, and in the holes in the hills and in the holes among the rocks on the earth.
39 All of these people had good things said about them because they believed God. But they did not get what God had promised.
40 God planned something better. They will be made perfect but only with us.
1 Many people have tried already to write down the things that have happened among us.
2 These things were told us by men who saw them happen from the time they began to happen. And these men helped tell the good news.
3 I have tried to find out all that has happened from the beginning. And so, Theophilus, great ruler, I myself will write you the whole story.
4 Then you will know that the things people have told you are true.
5 When Herod was king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah. He was one of a group of priests, and Abijah was their leader. Zechariah's wife Elizabeth came from the family of Aaron.
6 Both of them were good people as God saw them. They obeyed all the laws and the things that the Lord said they should do.
7 But they had no children. Elizabeth was not able to have a baby and they were both very old.
8 Zechariah was doing his work one day as a priest to God. It was time for his group to do the work in the temple.
9 The priests had a certain way of dividing their work. This day it was Zechariah's turn to go into the temple of the Lord and burn the incense [that smells sweet when it is burned].
10 All the people were talking to God outside the temple at this time.
11 An angel of the Lord came to Zechariah. He was standing on the right side of the incense table.
12 When Zechariah saw him, he was surprised and afraid.
13 But the angel said, `Do not be afraid, Zechariah. You have been talking to God. He has heard you. Your wife Elizabeth will have a son. Name him John.
14 `You will be glad and happy. Many people will be glad when he is born.
15 He will be great in the way the Lord calls people great. He must not drink wine or any strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit from the time he is born.
16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.
17 He will go ahead of the Lord. He will have the spirit and power of Elijah. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children. And he will bring back the people who do not obey, so that they will want to do what good people do. He will make people ready for the Lord.'
18 Then Zechariah said to the angel, `How can I know that this will happen? I am an old man and my wife is also old.'
19 The angel answered him, `I am Gabriel and I stand before God. I have been sent to talk to you and to bring you this good news.
20 Now listen. You will be silent and not be able to talk until the day that all this has happened. This is because you did not believe what I told you. At the right time all that I said will come true.'
21 the people were waiting for Zechariah to come out of the temple. They were surprised that he stayed in so long.
22 When he came out, he could not talk to them. They knew that he had seen something in the temple. He made signs to them with his hands and did not talk.
23 When his time for doing the work of a priest was finished, Zechariah went home.
24 After that, his wife Elizabeth found she was going to have a baby. For five months she stayed away from people.
25 She said to herself, `The Lord has done this for me. At this time he has remembered me so that I need not be ashamed among people anymore.'
26 Elizabeth was now in her sixth month. God sent the angel Gabriel to the town of Nazareth in Galilee.
27 The angel was sent to a young woman there. Her name was Mary. She was promised to a man named Joseph, to be his wife. He was of David's family line.
28 The angel went into the house and said to her, `Be happy! God has blessed you more than other women. The Lord is with you!'
29 What the angel said troubled Mary. She wondered what this greeting meant.
30 The angel said to her, `Do not be afraid, Mary. God has blessed you.
31 You will have a baby son. Name him Jesus.
32 He will be a great man. He will be called the Son of the Highest One [a name for God]. The Lord God will make him king where his father David was king.
33 He will be king over the people of Israel for ever. He will never stop being king.'
34 Then Mary said to the angel, `How can this happen? I have no husband.'
35 The angel answered, `The Holy Spirit will come to you. The power of the Highest One will be over you. That is why the holy child who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
36 `Your cousin Elizabeth is also going to have a baby son, though she is an old woman. This is the sixth month for her. She is one whom people said would not have a baby.
37 But God can do anything.'
38 Mary said, `I am the Lord's servant. Let it be as you have said.' Then the angel left her.
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