M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
David’s first attempt to move the chest
13 After consulting with the captains of the units of a thousand and a hundred, in fact with every leader, 2 David said to the entire Israelite assembly: “If you approve, and if the Lord our God agrees, let’s spread the word to the rest of our relatives in all the regions of Israel, including the priests and Levites in their cities with pasturelands. Let’s ask them to join us 3 so that we may bring the chest of our God back to us, because we didn’t look for it in Saul’s days.” 4 The whole assembly agreed to do so, because all the people thought it was the right thing to do.
5 So David assembled all Israel, from the border[a] of Egypt to Lebo-hamath in order to bring up God’s chest from Kiriath-jearim. 6 Then David and all Israel went up toward Baalah, to Kiriath-jearim, which belongs to Judah, to bring up from there the chest of God, the Lord, who sits enthroned on the winged creatures, where he is called by name.[b] 7 They moved God’s chest on a new cart from Abinadab’s house. Uzzah and Ahio were guiding the cart, 8 while David and all Israel celebrated in God’s presence with all their strength, accompanied by songs, zithers, harps, tambourines, cymbals, and trumpets. 9 When they came to Chidon’s threshing floor, Uzzah reached out to the chest and grabbed it because the oxen had stumbled. 10 But the Lord became angry with Uzzah and struck him because he had placed his hand on the chest. He died right there before God. 11 David was angry that the Lord lashed out at Uzzah; and so that place is still called Perez-uzzah today. 12 David was frightened by God that day. “How will I ever bring God’s chest home to me?” he asked. 13 So David didn’t take the chest away with him to David’s City. Instead, he had it put in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. 14 God’s chest stayed with Obed-edom’s household for three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom’s household and all that he had.
David’s kingship established in Jerusalem
14 Tyre’s King Hiram sent messengers to David with cedar logs, bricklayers, and carpenters to build David a palace. 2 Then David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel, and that his kingship was held in great honor for the sake of his people Israel. 3 David married more secondary wives in Jerusalem and fathered more sons and daughters. 4 The names of his children in Jerusalem were as follows: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, 5 Ibhar, Elishua, Elpelet, 6 Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, 7 Elishama, Beeliada, and Eliphelet.
David defeats the Philistines
8 When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over all Israel, they all marched up to find him. David heard this and went out to confront them. 9 The Philistines had invaded and were plundering the Rephaim Valley. 10 David asked God for advice: “Should I attack the Philistines, and will you hand them over to me?”
The Lord answered, “Attack them, and I’ll definitely hand them over to you.”
11 So they marched up to Baal-perazim, and David defeated them there. “By my strength,” David exclaimed, “God has burst out against my enemies, the way water bursts out.” That’s why the place is called Baal-perazim.[c] 12 The Philistines left their divine images behind, and David ordered them burned.
13 When the Philistines plundered the valley a second time, 14 David again asked God’s advice, but God answered, “Don’t attack them directly. Circle around behind them and come at them from in front of the balsam trees. 15 As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the trees, then attack, for God has attacked in front of you to defeat the Philistine army.” 16 David followed God’s orders exactly, and they defeated the Philistine army from Gibeon all the way to Gezer. 17 David’s fame spread throughout all lands, and the Lord made all the nations fear him.
Greeting
1 From James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
To the twelve tribes who are scattered outside the land of Israel.
Greetings!
Stand firm
2 My brothers and sisters, think of the various tests you encounter as occasions for joy. 3 After all, you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 Let this endurance complete its work so that you may be fully mature, complete, and lacking in nothing. 5 But anyone who needs wisdom should ask God, whose very nature is to give to everyone without a second thought, without keeping score. Wisdom will certainly be given to those who ask. 6 Whoever asks shouldn’t hesitate. They should ask in faith, without doubting. Whoever doubts is like the surf of the sea, tossed and turned by the wind. 7 People like that should never imagine that they will receive anything from the Lord. 8 They are double-minded, unstable in all their ways.
9 Brothers and sisters who are poor should find satisfaction in their high status. 10 Those who are wealthy should find satisfaction in their low status, because they will die off like wildflowers. 11 The sun rises with its scorching heat and dries up the grass so that its flowers fall and its beauty is lost. Just like that, in the midst of their daily lives, the wealthy will waste away. 12 Those who stand firm during testing are blessed. They are tried and true. They will receive the life God has promised to those who love him as their reward.
Our cravings versus God’s gifts
13 No one who is tested should say, “God is tempting me!” This is because God is not tempted by any form of evil, nor does he tempt anyone. 14 Everyone is tempted by their own cravings; they are lured away and enticed by them. 15 Once those cravings conceive, they give birth to sin; and when sin grows up, it gives birth to death.
16 Don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good gift, every perfect gift, comes from above. These gifts come down from the Father, the creator of the heavenly lights, in whose character there is no change at all. 18 He chose to give us birth by his true word, and here is the result: we are like the first crop from the harvest of everything he created.
Welcoming and doing the word
19 Know this, my dear brothers and sisters: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to grow angry. 20 This is because an angry person doesn’t produce God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore, with humility, set aside all moral filth and the growth of wickedness, and welcome the word planted deep inside you—the very word that is able to save you.
22 You must be doers of the word and not only hearers who mislead themselves. 23 Those who hear but don’t do the word are like those who look at their faces in a mirror. 24 They look at themselves, walk away, and immediately forget what they were like. 25 But there are those who study the perfect law, the law of freedom, and continue to do it. They don’t listen and then forget, but they put it into practice in their lives. They will be blessed in whatever they do.
26 If those who claim devotion to God don’t control what they say, they mislead themselves. Their devotion is worthless. 27 True devotion, the kind that is pure and faultless before God the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their difficulties and to keep the world from contaminating us.
A vision of summer fruit
8 This is what the Lord God showed me: a basket of summer fruit. 2 He said, “Amos, what do you see?”
I said, “A basket of summer fruit.”
Then the Lord said to me,
“The end has come upon my people Israel;
I will never again forgive them.
3 On that day, the people will wail the temple songs,”
says the Lord God;
“there will be many corpses,
thrown about everywhere.[a]
Silence.”
Judgment on oppressors and hypocrites
4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy and destroy
the poor of the land, 5 saying,
“When will the new moon
be over so that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath
so that we may offer wheat for sale,
make the ephah smaller, enlarge the shekel,
and deceive with false balances,
6 in order to buy the needy for silver
and the helpless for sandals,
and sell garbage as grain?”
7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget what they have done.
8 Will not the land tremble on this account,
and all who live in it mourn,
as it rises and overflows like the Nile,
and then falls again, like the River of Egypt?[b]
9 On that day, says the Lord God,
I will make the sun go down at noon,
and I will darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I will turn your feasts into sad affairs
and all your singing into a funeral song;
I will make people wear mourning clothes
and shave their heads;
I will make it like the loss of an only child,
and the end of it like a bitter day.
11 The days are surely coming, says the Lord God,
when I will send hunger and thirst on the land;
neither a hunger for bread, nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing the Lord ’s words.
12 They will wander from sea to sea,
and from north to east;
they will roam all around, seeking the Lord’s word,
but they won’t find it.
13 On that day the beautiful young women and the young men
will faint with thirst.
14 Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria,
and say, “As your god lives, Dan,”
and, “As the way of Beer-sheba lives”—
even they will fall and never rise again.
John the Baptist’s message
3 In the fifteenth year of the rule of the emperor Tiberius—when Pontius Pilate was governor over Judea and Herod was ruler[a] over Galilee, his brother Philip was ruler[b] over Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was ruler[c] over Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas—God’s word came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 John went throughout the region of the Jordan River, calling for people to be baptized to show that they were changing their hearts and lives and wanted God to forgive their sins. 4 This is just as it was written in the scroll of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
A voice crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way for the Lord;
make his paths straight.
5 Every valley will be filled,
and every mountain and hill will be leveled.
The crooked will be made straight
and the rough places made smooth.
6 All humanity will see God’s salvation.”[d]
7 Then John said to the crowds who came to be baptized by him, “You children of snakes! Who warned you to escape from the angry judgment that is coming soon? 8 Produce fruit that shows you have changed your hearts and lives. And don’t even think about saying to yourselves, Abraham is our father. I tell you that God is able to raise up Abraham’s children from these stones. 9 The ax is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be chopped down and tossed into the fire.”
10 The crowds asked him, “What then should we do?”
11 He answered, “Whoever has two shirts must share with the one who has none, and whoever has food must do the same.”
12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized. They said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?”
13 He replied, “Collect no more than you are authorized to collect.”
14 Soldiers asked, “What about us? What should we do?”
He answered, “Don’t cheat or harass anyone, and be satisfied with your pay.”
Responses to John
15 The people were filled with expectation, and everyone wondered whether John might be the Christ. 16 John replied to them all, “I baptize you with water, but the one who is more powerful than me is coming. I’m not worthy to loosen the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 The shovel he uses to sift the wheat from the husks is in his hands. He will clean out his threshing area and bring the wheat into his barn. But he will burn the husks with a fire that can’t be put out.” 18 With many other words John appealed to them, proclaiming good news to the people.
19 But Herod the ruler had been criticized harshly by John because of Herodias, Herod’s brother’s wife, and because of all the evil he had done. 20 He added this to the list of his evil deeds: he locked John up in prison.
Jesus’ baptism
21 When everyone was being baptized, Jesus also was baptized. While he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit came down on him in bodily form like a dove. And there was a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.”
Jesus’ genealogy
23 Jesus was about 30 years old when he began his ministry. People supposed that he was the son of Joseph son of Heli 24 son of Matthat son of Levi son of Melchi son of Jannai son of Joseph 25 son of Mattathias son of Amos son of Nahum son of Esli son of Naggai 26 son of Maath son of Mattathias son of Semein son of Josech son of Joda 27 son of Joanan son of Rhesa son of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel son of Neri 28 son of Melchi son of Addi son of Cosam son of Elmadam son of Er 29 son of Joshua son of Eliezer son of Jorim son of Matthat son of Levi 30 son of Simeon son of Judah son of Joseph son of Jonam son of Eliakim 31 son of Melea son of Menna son of Mattatha son of Nathan son of David 32 son of Jesse son of Obed son of Boaz son of Sala son of Nahshon 33 son of Amminadab son of Admin son of Arni son of Hezron son of Perez son of Judah 34 son of Jacob son of Isaac son of Abraham son of Terah son of Nahor 35 son of Serug son of Reu son of Peleg son of Eber son of Shelah 36 son of Cainan son of Arphaxad son of Shem son of Noah son of Lamech 37 son of Methuselah son of Enoch son of Jared son of Mahalalel son of Cainan 38 son of Enos son of Seth son of Adam son of God.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible