M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
4 Why do you fight and quarrel? It is because your feelings are fighting inside of you. That is why you fight.
2 You want something but you cannot get it. Then you kill. You want something very much and cannot get it. So you quarrel and fight. You do not get it because you do not ask God for it.
3 You ask for it, but you do not get it, because you ask in a wrong way. You want to use it for yourselves and not for others.
4 You people promised God you would be true to him, but you did not stay true! Do you not know that if you love the world you hate God? Anyone who wants to be a lover of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
5 The holy writings say, `God gave his Spirit to live in us. And that Spirit wants us for himself.' Do you think this means nothing?
6 But God helps you even more than that. That is why the holy writings say, `God fights against those who are proud, but he helps those who are not proud.'
7 So let God control you. Fight the devil and he will run away from you.
8 Come to God and he will come to you. You bad people, make your hands clean! You love what is good and what is wrong at the same time. Make your hearts clean.
9 Be sad about this, and cry. Turn your laughing into crying. Stop being happy. Be sad.
10 Do not be proud before the Lord. Then he will lift you up.
11 My brothers, do not say wrong things about each other. A man who says wrong things about his brother or judges his brother is saying wrong things about God's law and he is judging God's law. If you judge the law, you are not obeying the law, but you are a judge.
12 God made the law and he is the judge. And he is the one who can save you or kill you. Who are you that you should judge your neighbour?
13 Listen to me! You say, `Today or tomorrow we will go to that town. We will stay there a year. We will buy and sell and get rich.' But you do not know what will happen to you tomorrow.
14 What is your life like? It is like a cloud. It is here for a little while and then it is gone.
15 You should say `If the Lord wants to do it, we will live and do this or that.'
16 But now you talk about the big things you will do. All that kind of talk is wrong!
17 But if a person knows what he should do and he does not do it, he has done something wrong.
6 Jesus was walking through the grain fields on a Sabbath day. His disciples picked some of the grain as they went along. They cleaned it by rubbing it in their hands, and ate it.
2 Some of the Pharisees said, `Why do your disciples do what is not right on the Sabbath day?"
3 Jesus answered them, `Have you not read what David did? He and his men were hungry.
4 He went into God's house. Some bread was there for God. But David took the bread and ate it. He also gave some of it to the men who were with him. Only the priests have the right to eat that bread.'
5 Jesus said to them, `The Son of Man rules over the Sabbath day.'
6 On another Sabbath day, Jesus went into the meeting house and taught. A man was there whose right hand was thin and weak.
7 The scribes and Pharisees watched Jesus to see if he would heal the man on the Sabbath day. They wanted to find something wrong about Jesus.
8 But Jesus knew what they were thinking. He spoke to the man whose hand was thin and weak. He said, `Come and stand here in front' The man stood up.
9 Jesus said to them, `I ask you, is it right to do good things on the Sabbath day, or to do wrong things? Is it right to heal people so that they will live, or to let them die?'
10 He looked around at them all. Then he said to the man, `Hold out your hand.' The man did so and it was made well like the other hand.
11 The Pharisees were very angry and they talked together about what they could do to Jesus.
12 About that time Jesus went out of the city on the hill to talk with God. He talked with God all night.
13 In the morning he called his disciples to him. He chose twelve of them and called them apostles [special messengers].
14-16 hey were Simon, whom Jesus called Peter, and his brother Andrew, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the freedom fighter, Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, the one who gave Jesus over to people who hated him.
17 Then Jesus came down the hill with them and stood on the flat ground. Many people came. There were many of his disciples. And there were many people from all parts of Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from the seaside of Tyre and Sidon. They came to hear him and to be healed because they were sick.
18 Some were troubled by bad spirits, and they were healed.
19 All the people wanted to touch Jesus. Power came from him and he healed them all.
20 Jesus looked at his disciples and said, `God will make happy you who are poor. The kingdom of God is for you.
21 `God will make happy you who are hungry now. You will be filled. `God will make happy you who cry now. You will laugh.
22 `God will make you happy when people hate you, when they will not let you belong to their group, when they say wrong things about you and make your name bad. God blesses you when it is for the sake of the Son of Man.
23 Be very happy on that day and dance for joy. God will be good to you in heaven. The fathers of these people did the same things to the prophets of God long ago.
24 `But you who are rich will have trouble. You have already had your good times.
25 `You who have all you want now will have trouble! You will be hungry. `You who laugh now will have trouble. You will be sad and cry.
26 `When all the people praise you, you will have trouble! The fathers of these people did the same things to those who were not true prophets of God.'
27 `But I say to you who hear, love your enemies. Do good things to those who hate you.
28 Bless those who use bad words about you. Ask God to do good to those who trouble you.
29 `If someone hits you on one side of your face, turn the other side also. `If someone takes your coat, let him have your shirt also.
30 `Give to every one who begs you for something.
31 `Do to other people what you want them to do to you.
32 If you love those who love you, what good is there in that? Even bad people love those who love them.
33 If you do good things to those who do good things to you, what good is there in that? Bad people do the same.
34 If you lend to those who will give to you, what good is there in that? Even bad people lend to bad people, if they think they will get the same from them.
35 `Love your enemies. Do good things. Lend to people and do not look to get anything back. You will be paid well. You will be sons of the Highest One. He is kind to those who do not thank him and to those who are bad.
36 So be kind like your Father.'
37 `Do not judge others and you will not be judged. Do not punish others, and you will not be punished. Let others go free and God will let you go free.
38 Give to people and they will give to you. They will fill your cup, press it down, shake it, and let it run over. That is what they will give to you. How much you give to others is how much God will give to you.'
39 Jesus also told the people a story. He said, `A blind man cannot lead a blind man. They will both fall into a hole.
40 The one who learns is not better than his teacher. But every one who learns will be like his teacher when his teacher has finished teaching him.
41 `Why do you look at the small piece of dust in your brother's eye? And you do not see the big stick in your own eye.
42 How can you say to your brother, "Brother, let me take the dust out of your eye"? But you do not see the stick in your own eye. You are not true to yourselves! First take the stick out of your own eye. Then you will be able to see to take the dust out of your brother's eye.'
43 `A good tree does not have bad fruit. And also, a bad tree does not have good fruit.
44 Every kind of tree is known by its fruit. People do not pick fruit like figs from thorn trees. And they do not pick grapes from bramble bushes.
45 A good man has stored up good things in his heart, so he says good things. A bad man has stored up wrong things in his heart, so he will say wrong things. The mouth will say what is in the heart.'
46 `Why do you call me "Lord, Lord," but you do not do what I tell you?
47 `A person comes to me. He hears what I say and obeys me. I will show you who he is like.
48 He is like a man who built a house. He dug down deep in the ground and made it stand on a rock. The water in the river came up high. The water beat hard against the house. But the house did not move, because it was built on a rock.
49 A man hears what I say but does not obey me. He is like a man who built his house on top of the ground. He did not dig down deep. The water beat hard against it and it fell with a loud noise!'
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