M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

King Abijah of Judah

(1 Kings 15.1-8)

13 Abijah^[a] became king of Judah in Jeroboam's eighteenth year as king of Israel, ² and he ruled from Jerusalem for three years. His mother was Micaiah the daughter of Uriel from Gibeah.

Some time later, Abijah and King Jeroboam of Israel went to war against each other. ³ Abijah's army had 400,000 troops, and Jeroboam met him in battle with 800,000 troops.

⁴ Abijah went to the top of Mount Zemaraim^[b] in the hills of Ephraim and shouted:

Listen, Jeroboam and all you Israelites! ⁵ The Lord God of Israel has made a solemn promise that every king of Israel will be from David's family. ⁶ But Jeroboam, you were King Solomon's official, and you rebelled. ⁷ Then right after Rehoboam became king, you and your bunch of worthless followers challenged Rehoboam, who was too young to know how to stop you.

⁸ Now you and your powerful army think you can stand up to the kingdom that the Lord has given to David's descendants. The only gods you have are those gold statues of calves that Jeroboam made for you. ⁹ You don't even have descendants of Aaron on your side, because you forced out the Lord's priests and Levites. In their place, you appoint ordinary people to be priests, just as the foreign nations do. In fact, anyone who brings a bull and seven rams to the altar can become a priest of your so-called gods.

¹⁰ But we have not turned our backs on the Lord God! Aaron's own descendants serve as our priests, and the Levites are their assistants. ¹¹ Two times every day they offer sacrifices and burn incense to the Lord. They set out the sacred loaves of bread on a table that has been purified, and they light the lamps in the gold lampstand every day at sunset. We follow the commands of the Lord our God—you have rejected him! ¹² That's why God is on our side and will lead us into battle when the priests sound the signal on the trumpets. It's no use, Israelites. You might as well give up. There's no way you can defeat the Lord, the God your ancestors worshiped.

¹³ But while Abijah was talking, Jeroboam had sent some of his troops to attack Judah's army from behind, while the rest attacked from the front. ¹⁴ Judah's army realized they were trapped, and so they prayed to the Lord. The priests blew the signal on the trumpet, ¹⁵ and the troops let out a battle cry. Then with Abijah leading them into battle, God defeated Jeroboam and Israel's army. ¹⁶ The Israelites ran away, and God helped Judah's soldiers slaughter ¹⁷ 500,000 enemy troops. ¹⁸ Judah's army won because they had trusted the Lord God of their ancestors.

¹⁹ Abijah kept up his attack on Jeroboam's army and captured the Israelite towns of Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron, as well as the villages around them.

²⁰ Jeroboam never regained his power during the rest of Abijah's rule. The Lord punished Jeroboam, and he died, but Abijah became more powerful.

²¹ Abijah had a total of 14 wives, 22 sons, and 16 daughters. ²² Everything Abijah said and did while he was king is written in the records of Iddo the prophet.

The Letter to Sardis

3 This is what you must write to the angel of the church in Sardis:

I have the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. Listen to what I say.

I know what you are doing. Everyone may think you are alive, but you are dead. ² Wake up! You have only a little strength left, and it is almost gone. So try to become stronger. I have found that you are not completely obeying God. ^3 (A) Remember the teaching you were given and heard. Hold firmly to it and turn from your sins. If you don't wake up, I will come when you least expect it, just as a thief does.

⁴ A few of you in Sardis have not dirtied your clothes with sin. You will walk with me in white clothes, because you are worthy. ^5 (B) Everyone who wins the victory will wear white clothes. Their names will not be erased from the book of life,^[a] and I will tell my Father and his angels that they are my followers.

⁶ If you have ears, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.

The Letter to Philadelphia

^7 (C) This is what you must write to the angel of the church in Philadelphia:

I am the one who is holy and true, and I have the keys that belonged to David.^[b] When I open a door, no one can close it. And when I close a door, no one can open it. Listen to what I say.

⁸ I know everything you have done. And I have placed before you an open door no one can close. You were not very strong, but you obeyed my message and did not deny you are my followers.^{[c] 9 (D)} Now you will see what I will do with those people who belong to Satan's group. They claim to be God's people, but they are liars. I will make them come and kneel down at your feet. Then they will know that I love you.

¹⁰ You obeyed my message and endured. So I will protect you from the time of testing everyone in all the world must go through. ¹¹ I am coming soon. So hold firmly to what you have, and no one will take away the crown you will be given as your reward.

^12 (E) Everyone who wins the victory will be made into a pillar in the temple of my God, and they will stay there forever. I will write on each of them the name of my God and the name of his city. It is the new Jerusalem my God will send down from heaven. I will also write on them my own new name.

¹³ If you have ears, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.

The Letter to Laodicea

^14 (F) This is what you must write to the angel of the church in Laodicea:

I am the one called Amen!^[d] I am the faithful and true witness and the source^[e] of God's creation. Listen to what I say.

¹⁵ I know everything you have done, and you are not cold or hot. I wish you were either one or the other. ¹⁶ But since you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of my mouth. ¹⁷ You claim to be rich and successful and to have everything you need. But you don't know how bad off you really are. You are pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.

¹⁸ Buy your gold from me. It has been refined in a fire, and it will make you rich. Buy white clothes from me. Wear them and you can cover up your shameful nakedness. Buy medicine for your eyes, so you will be able to see.

^19 (G) I correct and punish everyone I love. So make up your minds to turn away from your sins. ²⁰ Listen! I am standing and knocking at your door. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and we will eat together. ²¹ Everyone who wins the victory will sit with me on my throne, just as I won the victory and sat with my Father on his throne.

²² If you have ears, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.

Rebuild the Temple

1 ^(A) On the first day of the sixth month of the second year that Darius was king of Persia,^[a] the Lord told Haggai the prophet to speak his message to the governor of Judah and to the high priest.

So Haggai told Governor Zerubbabel and High Priest Joshua^{[b] 2-5} that the Lord All-Powerful had said to them and to the people:

You say this isn't the right time to build a temple for me. But is it right for you to live in expensive houses,^[c] while my temple is a pile of ruins? Just look at what's happening. ⁶ You harvest less than you plant, you never have enough to eat or drink, your clothes don't keep you warm, and your wages are stored in bags full of holes.

⁷ Think about what I have said! ⁸ But first, go to the hills and get wood for my temple, so I can take pride in it and be worshiped there. ⁹ You expected much, but received only a little. And when you brought it home, I made that little disappear. Why have I done this? It's because you hurry off to build your own houses, while my temple is still in ruins. ¹⁰ That's also why the dew doesn't fall and your harvest fails. ¹¹ And so, at my command everything will become barren—your farmland and pastures, your vineyards and olive trees, your animals and you yourselves. All your hard work will be for nothing.

¹² Zerubbabel and Joshua, together with the others who had returned from exile in Babylonia, obeyed the Lord's message spoken by his prophet Haggai, and they started showing proper respect for the Lord. ¹³ Haggai then told them that the Lord had promised to be with them. ¹⁴ So the Lord God All-Powerful made everyone eager to work on his temple, especially Zerubbabel and Joshua. ¹⁵ And the work began on the twenty-fourth day of that same month.

Jesus at a Wedding in Cana

2 Three days later Mary, the mother of Jesus, was at a wedding feast in the village of Cana in Galilee. ² Jesus and his disciples had also been invited and were there.

³ When the wine was all gone, Mary said to Jesus, “They don't have any more wine.”

⁴ Jesus replied, “Mother, my time hasn't yet come!^[a] You must not tell me what to do.”

⁵ Mary then said to the servants, “Do whatever Jesus tells you to do.”

⁶ At the feast there were six stone water jars that were used by the people for washing themselves in the way that their religion said they must. Each jar held about 100 liters. ⁷ Jesus told the servants to fill them to the top with water. Then after the jars had been filled, ⁸ he said, “Now take some water and give it to the man in charge of the feast.”

The servants did as Jesus told them, ⁹ and the man in charge drank some of the water that had now turned into wine. He did not know where the wine had come from, but the servants did. He called the bridegroom over ¹⁰ and said, “The best wine is always served first. Then after the guests have had plenty, the other wine is served. But you have kept the best until last!”

¹¹ This was Jesus' first miracle,^[b] and he did it in the village of Cana in Galilee. There Jesus showed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him. ^12 (A) After this, he went with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples to the town of Capernaum, where they stayed for a few days.

Jesus in the Temple

(Matthew 21.12,13; Mark 11.15-17; Luke 19.45,46)

^13 (B) Not long before the Jewish festival of Passover, Jesus went to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ There he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves in the temple. He also saw moneychangers sitting at their tables. ¹⁵ So he took some rope and made a whip. Then he chased everyone out of the temple, together with their sheep and cattle. He turned over the tables of the moneychangers and scattered their coins.

¹⁶ Jesus said to the people who had been selling doves, “Get those doves out of here! Don't make my Father's house a marketplace.”

^17 (C) The disciples then remembered that the Scriptures say, “My love for your house burns in me like a fire.”

¹⁸ The Jewish leaders asked Jesus, “What miracle^[c] will you work to show us why you have done this?”

^19 (D) “Destroy this temple,” Jesus answered, “and in three days I will build it again!”

²⁰ The leaders replied, “It took 46 years to build this temple. What makes you think you can rebuild it in three days?”

²¹ But Jesus was talking about his body as a temple. ²² And when he was raised from death, his disciples remembered what he had told them. Then they believed the Scriptures and the words of Jesus.

Jesus Knows What People Are Like

²³ In Jerusalem during Passover many people put their faith in Jesus, because they saw him work miracles.^{[d] 24} But Jesus knew what was in their hearts, and he would not let them have power over him. ²⁵ No one had to tell him what people were like. He already knew.