M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Abijah King of Judah
13 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king over Judah. 2 He ruled for three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Micaiah,[a] the daughter of Uriel from Gibeah.[b]
There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. 3 Abijah got ready for battle with an army of four hundred thousand strong warriors, each man specially chosen.[c] Jeroboam lined up for battle against him with eight hundred thousand strong warriors, each man specially chosen.
4 Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim in the hill country of Ephraim and said this to them:
Listen to me, Jeroboam and all Israel. 5 You should know that the Lord, the God of Israel, gave the kingship over Israel to David forever, to him and to his sons, with a covenant of salt. 6 But Jeroboam son of Nebat, an official who served Solomon, the son of David, rose up and rebelled against his master. 7 Worthless, good-for-nothing men gathered around him. They strongly opposed Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, when he was young and indecisive and not strong enough to stand up against them. 8 Now you are planning to take your stand against the kingdom of the Lord, which is under the control of the sons of David. You are a great horde, and you have the golden calves with you, which Jeroboam made to be your gods.
9 But haven’t you driven out the priests of the Lord, who are the descendants of Aaron, as well as the Levites? You have made priests for yourselves like the peoples of other lands. Anyone who comes with a young bull and seven rams can ordain himself—but only as a priest to nonexistent gods!
10 As for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not abandoned him, and we have not abandoned the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who minister to the Lord, or the Levites, who serve with them. 11 They send burnt offerings up to the Lord in smoke, every morning and every evening, along with incense made of sweet spices. They arrange the bread on the pure table and take care of the gold lampstand, lighting its lamps every evening. We are fulfilling our duties to the Lord our God, but you have forsaken him.
12 Look! God is with us as our head, and his priests with their trumpets are sounding the call to battle against you. People of Israel, do not fight against the Lord, the God of your fathers, for you will not succeed.
13 However, Jeroboam had set up an ambush to come around them from behind. So the main enemy forces were in front of Judah, and the ambush was behind them. 14 When Judah turned and saw that the battle line was in front of them and behind them, they cried out to the Lord while the priests kept blowing the trumpets.
15 The men of Judah raised a battle cry. When they raised the battle cry, God defeated Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. 16 The men of Israel fled from Judah, and God gave them into their hand. 17 Abijah and his people inflicted very heavy casualties on them. Five hundred thousand specially chosen men of Israel fell in battle.
18 So the men of Israel were subdued at that time. The men of Judah prevailed because they relied on the Lord, the God of their fathers. 19 Abijah pursued Jeroboam and took these cities from him: Bethel and its villages, Jeshanah and its villages, and Ephron and its villages. 20 Jeroboam never recovered his power during the days of Abijah. Then the Lord struck Jeroboam, and he died.
21 But Abijah grew strong. He took for himself fourteen wives and fathered twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.
22 The rest of the acts of Abijah, his ways and his words, are written in the notes of the prophet Iddo.
Letter to the Church in Sardis
3 To the messenger of the church in Sardis write:
The one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says this:
I know your works. You have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what is left, which is about to die, for I have found that your works are not complete in the sight of my God. 3 Therefore remember what you received and heard. Hold on to it and repent! If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come upon you.
4 Yet you have a few names in Sardis, people who have not defiled their clothes. They will walk with me in white clothing, for they are worthy.
5 The one who is victorious in this way[a] will be clothed in white clothing. I certainly will not erase his name from the Book of Life, and I will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.
6 Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Letter to the Church in Philadelphia
7 To the messenger of the church in Philadelphia write:
The Holy One, the one who is true, the one who has the key of David, the one who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one can open, says this:
8 I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9 Look, I will make those who are from the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not but are lying—look, I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and make them realize that I have loved you. 10 Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will also keep you from the hour of testing, which is about to come over the whole inhabited world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
11 I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have so that no one takes your crown.
12 The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never leave it again. I will also write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God—the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God—and my new name.
13 Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Letter to the Church in Laodicea
14 To the messenger of the church in Laodicea write:
The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation, says this:
15 I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. If only you were cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm and not hot or cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, “I am rich. I have become very wealthy and need nothing.” But you do not know that you are miserable, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments, so that you may be clothed and the shame of your nakedness may not become public, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.
19 I rebuke and discipline those whom I love. So take this seriously and repent.
20 Look, I stand at the door and I am knocking. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will go in with him and dine with him, and he with me. 21 To the one who is victorious I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.
22 Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
The First Set of Messages:
Build the Lord’s House
1 In the second year of King Darius,[a] on the first day of the sixth month,[b] the word of the Lord came through[c] Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest.
2 This is what the Lord of Armies[d] says. This people has said, “It is not the right time for the House of the Lord to be built.”
3 So the word of the Lord came through Haggai the prophet.
4 Is it time for you to live in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins? 5 Now this is what the Lord of Armies says. Consider your ways carefully. 6 You sow much seed but you harvest little. You eat but you are never satisfied. You drink but you never become drunk. You get dressed, but no one is warm. The one who makes money puts that money into a bag with a hole in it.
7 This is what the Lord of Armies says. Consider your ways carefully. 8 Go up to the mountains, bring lumber down, and build the House. I will be pleased with it, and I will be glorified, says the Lord.
9 You expected much, but look, there was little. When you brought it home, I blew it away.
Why did I do that? This is a declaration of the Lord of Armies. It is because my house lies in ruins while each of you is busy with your own house. 10 So it is because of you that the heavens have withheld the dew and the earth has withheld its produce. 11 I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the olive oil, on everything which the soil produces, on people, on livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.
12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the surviving remnant[e] of the people, listened to the voice of the Lord their God and to the words of Haggai the prophet, because the Lord their God had sent him. So the people feared the Lord.
13 Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, spoke the Lord’s message to the people: “I am with you, declares the Lord.”
14 The Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the surviving remnant of the people, and they came and worked on the house for the Lord of Armies, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.
Jesus Changes Water Into Wine
2 Three days later, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there. 2 Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.
3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no wine.”
4 Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with you and me? My time has not come yet.”
5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Six stone water jars, which the Jews used for ceremonial cleansing, were standing there, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.[a] 7 Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim. 8 Then he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” And they did.
9 When the master of the banquet tasted the water that had now become wine, he did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew). The master of the banquet called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when the guests have had plenty to drink, then the cheaper wine. You saved the good wine until now!”
11 This, the beginning of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
12 After this, he went down to Capernaum with his mother, brothers, and disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
Jesus Clears Out the Temple
13 The Jewish Passover was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and money changers sitting at tables. 15 He made a whip of cords and drove everyone out of the temple courts, along with the sheep and oxen. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those selling doves he said, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a place of business!”
17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”[b]
18 So the Jews responded, “What sign are you going to show us to prove you can do these things?”
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.”
20 The Jews said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple! And you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When Jesus was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this. Then they believed the Scripture and what Jesus had said.
23 While he was in Jerusalem for the Passover Festival, many believed in his name as they observed the miraculous signs he was doing. 24 But Jesus, on his part, was not entrusting himself to them, because he knew them all. 25 He did not need anyone to testify about man, because he himself knew what was in man.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.