M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
2 Solomon now decided that the time had come to build a temple for the Lord and a palace for himself. 2 This required a force of 70,000 laborers, 80,000 stonecutters in the hills, and 3,600 foremen. 3 Solomon sent an ambassador to King Hiram at Tyre, requesting shipments of cedar lumber such as Hiram had supplied to David when he was building his palace.
4 “I am about to build a temple for the Lord my God,” Solomon told Hiram. “It will be a place where I can burn incense and sweet spices before God, and display the special sacrificial bread, and sacrifice burnt offerings each morning and evening, and on the Sabbaths, and at the new moon celebration and other regular festivals of the Lord our God. For God wants Israel always to celebrate these special occasions. 5 It is going to be a wonderful temple because he is a great God, greater than any other. 6 But who can ever build him a worthy home? Not even the highest heaven would be beautiful enough! And who am I to be allowed to build a temple for God? But it will be a place to worship him.[a]
7 “So send me skilled craftsmen—goldsmiths and silversmiths, brass and iron workers; and send me weavers to make purple, crimson, and blue cloth; and skilled engravers to work beside the craftsmen of Judah and Jerusalem who were selected by my father David. 8 Also send me cedar trees, fir trees, and algum trees from the forests of Lebanon, for your men are without equal as lumbermen, and I will send my men to help them. 9 An immense amount of lumber will be needed, for the temple I am going to build will be large and incredibly beautiful. 10 As to the financial arrangements, I will pay your men 20,000 sacks of crushed wheat, 20,000 barrels of barley, 20,000 barrels of wine, and 20,000 barrels of olive oil.”
11 King Hiram replied to King Solomon: “It is because the Lord loves his people that he has made you their king! 12 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who made the heavens and the earth and who has given to David such a wise, intelligent, and understanding son to build God’s Temple and a royal palace for himself.
13 “I am sending you a master craftsman—my famous Huramabi! He is a brilliant man, 14 the son of a Jewish woman from Dan in Israel; his father is from here in Tyre. He is a skillful goldsmith and silversmith, and also does exquisite work with brass and iron and knows all about stonework, carpentry, and weaving; and he is an expert in the dyeing of purple and blue linen and crimson cloth. He is an engraver besides, and an inventor! He will work with your craftsmen and those appointed by my lord David, your father. 15 So send along the wheat, barley, olive oil, and wine you mentioned, 16 and we will begin cutting wood from the Lebanon mountains, as much as you need, and bring it to you in log floats across the sea to Joppa, and from there you can take them inland to Jerusalem.”
17 Solomon now took a census of all foreigners in the country (just as his father David had done) and found that there were 153,600 of them. 18 He indentured 70,000 as common laborers, 80,000 as loggers, and 3,600 as foremen.
2 My little children, I am telling you this so that you will stay away from sin. But if you sin, there is someone to plead for you before the Father. His name is Jesus Christ, the one who is all that is good and who pleases God completely. 2 He is the one who took God’s wrath against our sins upon himself and brought us into fellowship with God; and he is the forgiveness for our sins,[a] and not only ours but all the world’s.
3 And how can we be sure that we belong to him? By looking within ourselves: are we really trying to do what he wants us to?
4 Someone may say, “I am a Christian; I am on my way to heaven; I belong to Christ.” But if he doesn’t do what Christ tells him to, he is a liar. 5 But those who do what Christ tells them to will learn to love God more and more. That is the way to know whether or not you are a Christian. 6 Anyone who says he is a Christian should live as Christ did.
7 Dear brothers, I am not writing out a new rule for you to obey, for it is an old one you have always had, right from the start. You have heard it all before. 8 Yet it is always new, and works for you just as it did for Christ; and as we obey this commandment, to love one another, the darkness in our lives disappears and the new light of life in Christ shines in.
9 Anyone who says he is walking in the light of Christ but dislikes his fellow man is still in darkness. 10 But whoever loves his fellow man is “walking in the light” and can see his way without stumbling around in darkness and sin. 11 For he who dislikes his brother is wandering in spiritual darkness and doesn’t know where he is going, for the darkness has made him blind so that he cannot see the way.
12 I am writing these things to all of you, my little children, because your sins have been forgiven in the name of Jesus our Savior. 13 I am saying these things to you older men because you really know Christ, the one who has been alive from the beginning. And you young men, I am talking to you because you have won your battle with Satan. And I am writing to you younger boys and girls because you, too, have learned to know God our Father.
14 And so I say to you fathers who know the eternal God, and to you young men who are strong with God’s Word in your hearts, and have won your struggle against Satan: 15 Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love these things you show that you do not really love God; 16 for all these worldly things, these evil desires—the craze for sex, the ambition to buy everything that appeals to you, and the pride that comes from wealth and importance—these are not from God. They are from this evil world itself. 17 And this world is fading away, and these evil, forbidden things will go with it, but whoever keeps doing the will of God will live forever.
18 Dear children, this world’s last hour has come. You have heard about the Antichrist who is coming—the one who is against Christ—and already many such persons have appeared. This makes us all the more certain that the end of the world is near. 19 These “against-Christ” people used to be members of our churches, but they never really belonged with us or else they would have stayed. When they left us it proved that they were not of us at all.
20 But you are not like that, for the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you know the truth. 21 So I am not writing to you as to those who need to know the truth, but I warn you as those who can discern the difference between true and false.
22 And who is the greatest liar? The one who says that Jesus is not Christ. Such a person is antichrist, for he does not believe in God the Father and in his Son. 23 For a person who doesn’t believe in Christ, God’s Son, can’t have God the Father either. But he who has Christ, God’s Son, has God the Father also.
24 So keep on believing what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will always be in close fellowship with both God the Father and his Son. 25 And he himself has promised us this: eternal life.
26 These remarks of mine about the Antichrist are pointed at those who would dearly love to blindfold you and lead you astray. 27 But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, in your hearts, so that you don’t need anyone to teach you what is right. For he teaches you all things, and he is the Truth, and no liar; and so, just as he has said, you must live in Christ, never to depart from him.
28 And now, my little children, stay in happy fellowship with the Lord so that when he comes you will be sure that all is well and will not have to be ashamed and shrink back from meeting him. 29 Since we know that God is always good and does only right, we may rightly assume that all those who do right are his children.
1 This is the vision God gave to Nahum, who lived in Elkosh, concerning the impending doom of Nineveh:[a]
2 God is jealous over those he loves; that is why he takes vengeance on those who hurt them. He furiously destroys their enemies. 3 He is slow in getting angry, but when aroused, his power is incredible, and he does not easily forgive. He shows his power in the terrors of the cyclone and the raging storms; clouds are billowing dust beneath his feet! 4 At his command the oceans and rivers become dry sand; the lush pastures of Bashan and Carmel fade away; the green forests of Lebanon wilt. 5 In his presence mountains quake and hills melt; the earth crumbles, and its people are destroyed.
6 Who can stand before an angry God? His fury is like fire; the mountains tumble down before his anger.
7 The Lord is good. When trouble comes, he is the place to go! And he knows everyone who trusts in him! 8 But he sweeps away his enemies with an overwhelming flood; he pursues them all night long.
9 What are you thinking of, Nineveh, to defy the Lord? He will stop you with one blow; he won’t need to strike again. 10 He tosses his enemies into the fire like a tangled mass of thorns. They burst into flames like straw. 11 Who is this king[b] of yours who dares to plot against the Lord? 12 But the Lord is not afraid of him! “Though he build his army millions strong,” the Lord declares, “it will vanish.
“O my people, I have punished you enough! 13 Now I will break your chains and release you from the yoke of slavery to this Assyrian king.” 14 And to the king he says, “I have ordered an end to your dynasty; your sons will never sit upon your throne. And I will destroy your gods and temples, and I will bury you! For how you stink with sin!”
15 See, the messengers come running down the mountains with glad news: “The invaders have been wiped out and we are safe!” O Judah, proclaim a day of thanksgiving and worship only the Lord, as you have vowed. For this enemy from Nineveh will never come again. He is cut off forever; he will never be seen again.
17 “There will always be temptations to sin,” Jesus said one day to his disciples, “but woe to the man who does the tempting. 2-3 If he were thrown into the sea with a huge rock tied to his neck, he would be far better off than facing the punishment in store for those who harm these little children’s souls. I am warning you!
“Rebuke your brother if he sins, and forgive him if he is sorry. 4 Even if he wrongs you seven times a day and each time turns again and asks forgiveness, forgive him.”
5 One day the apostles said to the Lord, “We need more faith; tell us how to get it.”
6 “If your faith were only the size of a mustard seed,” Jesus answered, “it would be large enough to uproot that mulberry tree over there and send it hurtling into the sea! Your command would bring immediate results! 7-9 When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, he doesn’t just sit down and eat, but first prepares his master’s meal and serves him his supper before he eats his own. And he is not even thanked, for he is merely doing what he is supposed to do. 10 Just so, if you merely obey me, you should not consider yourselves worthy of praise. For you have simply done your duty!”
11 As they continued onward toward Jerusalem, they reached the border between Galilee and Samaria, 12 and as they entered a village there, ten lepers stood at a distance, 13 crying out, “Jesus, sir, have mercy on us!”
14 He looked at them and said, “Go to the Jewish priest and show him that you are healed!” And as they were going, their leprosy disappeared.
15 One of them came back to Jesus, shouting, “Glory to God, I’m healed!” 16 He fell flat on the ground in front of Jesus, face downward in the dust, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a despised[a] Samaritan.
17 Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the nine? 18 Does only this foreigner return to give glory to God?”
19 And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”
20 One day the Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will the Kingdom of God begin?” Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God isn’t ushered in with visible signs. 21 You won’t be able to say, ‘It has begun here in this place or there in that part of the country.’ For the Kingdom of God is within you.”[b]
22 Later he talked again about this with his disciples. “The time is coming when you will long for me[c] to be with you even for a single day, but I won’t be here,” he said. 23 “Reports will reach you that I have returned and that I am in this place or that; don’t believe it or go out to look for me. 24 For when I return, you will know it beyond all doubt. It will be as evident as the lightning that flashes across the skies. 25 But first I must suffer terribly and be rejected by this whole nation.
26 “When I return[d] the world will be as indifferent to the things of God as the people were in Noah’s day. 27 They ate and drank and married—everything just as usual right up to the day when Noah went into the ark and the Flood came and destroyed them all.
28 “And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot: people went about their daily business—eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building— 29 until the morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and brimstone rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 Yes, it will be ‘business as usual’ right up to the hour of my return.[e]
31 “Those away from home that day must not return to pack; those in the fields must not return to town— 32 remember what happened to Lot’s wife! 33 Whoever clings to his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life shall save it. 34 That night two men will be asleep in the same room, and one will be taken away, the other left. 35-36 Two women will be working together at household tasks; one will be taken, the other left; and so it will be with men working side by side in the fields.”
37 “Lord, where will they be taken?” the disciples asked.
Jesus replied, “Where the body is, the vultures gather!”[f]
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.