M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
33 The Lord said to Moses, “Lead these people you brought from Egypt to the land I promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for I said, ‘I will give this land to your descendants.’ 2 I will send an Angel before you to drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 3 It is a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’; but I will not travel among you, for you are a stubborn, unruly people, and I would be tempted to destroy you along the way.”
4 When the people heard these stern words, they went into mourning and stripped themselves of their jewelry and ornaments.
5 For the Lord had told Moses to tell them, “You are an unruly, stubborn people. If I were there among you for even a moment, I would exterminate you. Remove your jewelry and ornaments until I decide what to do with you.” 6 So, after that, they wore no jewelry.
7 Moses always erected the sacred tent (the “Tent for Meeting with God,” he called it) far outside the camp, and everyone who wanted to consult with Jehovah went out there.
8 Whenever Moses went to the Tabernacle, all the people, when they saw it, stood and would rise and stand in their tent doors. 9 As he entered, the pillar of cloud would come down and stand at the door while the Lord spoke with Moses. 10 Then all the people worshiped from their tent doors, bowing low to the pillar of cloud. 11 Inside the tent the Lord spoke to Moses face-to-face, as a man speaks to his friend. Afterwards Moses would return to the camp, but the young man who assisted him, Joshua (son of Nun), stayed behind in the Tabernacle.
12 Moses talked there with the Lord and said to him, “You have been telling me, ‘Take these people to the Promised Land,’ but you haven’t told me whom you will send with me. You say you are my friend,[a] and that I have found favor before you; 13 please, if this is really so, guide me clearly along the way you want me to travel[b] so that I will understand you and walk acceptably before you. For don’t forget that this nation is your people.”
14 And the Lord replied, “I myself will go with you and give you success.”
15 For Moses had said, “If you aren’t going with us, don’t let us move a step from this place. 16 If you don’t go with us, who will ever know that I and my people have found favor with you, and that we are different from any other people upon the face of the earth?”
17 And the Lord had replied to Moses, “Yes, I will do what you have asked, for you have certainly found favor with me, and you are my friend.”[c]
18 Then Moses asked to see God’s glory.
19 The Lord replied, “I will make my goodness pass before you, and I will announce to you the meaning of my name[d] Jehovah, the Lord. I show kindness and mercy to anyone I want to. 20 But you may not see the glory of my face, for man may not see me and live. 21 However, stand here on this rock beside me. 22 And when my glory goes by, I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed. 23 Then I will remove my hand, and you shall see my back but not my face.”
12 Six days before the Passover ceremonies began, Jesus arrived in Bethany where Lazarus was—the man he had brought back to life. 2 A banquet was prepared in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, and Lazarus sat at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took a jar of costly perfume made from essence of nard, and anointed Jesus’ feet with it and wiped them with her hair. And the house was filled with fragrance.
4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples—the one who would betray him—said, 5 “That perfume was worth a fortune. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.” 6 Not that he cared for the poor, but he was in charge of the disciples’ funds and often dipped into them for his own use!
7 Jesus replied, “Let her alone. She did it in preparation for my burial. 8 You can always help the poor, but I won’t be with you very long.”
9 When the ordinary people of Jerusalem heard of his arrival, they flocked to see him and also to see Lazarus—the man who had come back to life again. 10 Then the chief priests decided to kill Lazarus too, 11 for it was because of him that many of the Jewish leaders had deserted and believed in Jesus as their Messiah.
12 The next day, the news that Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem swept through the city, and a huge crowd of Passover visitors 13 took palm branches and went down the road to meet him, shouting, “The Savior! God bless the King of Israel! Hail to God’s Ambassador!”
14 Jesus rode along on a young donkey, fulfilling the prophecy that said: 15 “Don’t be afraid of your King, people of Israel, for he will come to you meekly, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
16 (His disciples didn’t realize at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy; but after Jesus returned to his glory in heaven, then they noticed how many prophecies of Scripture had come true before their eyes.)
17 And those in the crowd who had seen Jesus call Lazarus back to life were telling all about it. 18 That was the main reason why so many went out to meet him—because they had heard about this mighty miracle.
19 Then the Pharisees said to each other, “We’ve lost. Look—the whole world has gone after him!”
20 Some Greeks who had come to Jerusalem to attend the Passover 21 paid a visit to Philip,[a] who was from Bethsaida, and said, “Sir, we want to meet Jesus.” 22 Philip told Andrew about it, and they went together to ask Jesus.
23-24 Jesus replied that the time had come for him to return to his glory in heaven, and that “I must fall and die like a kernel of wheat that falls into the furrows of the earth. Unless I die I will be alone—a single seed. But my death will produce many new wheat kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives. 25 If you love your life down here—you will lose it. If you despise your life down here—you will exchange it for eternal glory.
26 “If these Greeks[b] want to be my disciples, tell them to come and follow me, for my servants must be where I am. And if they follow me, the Father will honor them. 27 Now my soul is deeply troubled. Shall I pray, ‘Father, save me from what lies ahead’? But that is the very reason why I came! 28 Father, bring glory and honor to your name.”
Then a voice spoke from heaven saying, “I have already done this, and I will do it again.” 29 When the crowd heard the voice, some of them thought it was thunder, while others declared an angel had spoken to him.
30 Then Jesus told them, “The voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 The time of judgment for the world has come—and the time when Satan,[c] the prince of this world, shall be cast out. 32 And when I am lifted up on the cross,[d] I will draw everyone to me.” 33 He said this to indicate how he was going to die.
34 “Die?” asked the crowd. “We understood that the Messiah would live forever and never die. Why are you saying he will die? What Messiah are you talking about?”
35 Jesus replied, “My light will shine out for you just a little while longer. Walk in it while you can, and go where you want to go before the darkness falls, for then it will be too late for you to find your way. 36 Make use of the Light while there is still time; then you will become light bearers.”[e]
After saying these things, Jesus went away and was hidden from them.
37 But despite all the miracles he had done, most of the people would not believe he was the Messiah. 38 This is exactly what Isaiah the prophet had predicted: “Lord, who will believe us? Who will accept God’s mighty miracles as proof?”[f] 39 But they couldn’t believe, for as Isaiah also said: 40 “God[g] has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts so that they can neither see nor understand nor turn to me to heal them.” 41 Isaiah was referring to Jesus when he made this prediction, for he had seen a vision of the Messiah’s glory.
42 However, even many of the Jewish leaders believed him to be the Messiah but wouldn’t admit it to anyone because of their fear that the Pharisees would excommunicate them from the synagogue; 43 for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
44 Jesus shouted to the crowds, “If you trust me, you are really trusting God. 45 For when you see me, you are seeing the one who sent me. 46 I have come as a Light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer wander in the darkness. 47 If anyone hears me and doesn’t obey me, I am not his judge—for I have come to save the world and not to judge it. 48 But all who reject me and my message will be judged at the Day of Judgment by the truths I have spoken. 49 For these are not my own ideas, but I have told you what the Father said to tell you. 50 And I know his instructions lead to eternal life; so whatever he tells me to say, I say!”
9 Wisdom has built a palace supported on seven pillars, 2 and has prepared a great banquet, and mixed the wines, 3 and sent out her maidens inviting all to come. She calls from the busiest intersections in the city, 4 “Come, you simple ones without good judgment; 5 come to wisdom’s banquet and drink the wines that I have mixed. 6 Leave behind your foolishness and begin to live; learn how to be wise.”
7-8 If you rebuke a mocker, you will only get a smart retort; yes, he will snarl at you. So don’t bother with him; he will only hate you for trying to help him. But a wise man, when rebuked, will love you all the more. 9 Teach a wise man, and he will be the wiser; teach a good man, and he will learn more. 10 For the reverence and fear of God are basic to all wisdom. Knowing God results in every other kind of understanding. 11 “I, Wisdom, will make the hours of your day more profitable and the years of your life more fruitful.” 12 Wisdom is its own reward, and if you scorn her, you hurt only yourself.
13 A prostitute is loud and brash and never has enough of lust and shame. 14 She sits at the door of her house or stands at the street corners of the city, 15 whispering to men going by and to those minding their own business. 16 “Come home with me,” she urges simpletons. 17 “Stolen melons[a] are the sweetest; stolen apples taste the best!” 18 But they don’t realize that her former guests are now citizens of hell.
2 Once you were under God’s curse, doomed forever for your sins. 2 You went along with the crowd and were just like all the others, full of sin, obeying Satan, the mighty prince of the power of the air, who is at work right now in the hearts of those who are against the Lord. 3 All of us used to be just as they are, our lives expressing the evil within us, doing every wicked thing that our passions or our evil thoughts might lead us into. We started out bad, being born with evil natures, and were under God’s anger just like everyone else.
4 But God is so rich in mercy; he loved us so much 5 that even though we were spiritually dead and doomed by our sins, he gave us back our lives again[a] when he raised Christ from the dead—only by his undeserved favor have we ever been saved— 6 and lifted us up from the grave into glory along with Christ, where we sit with him in the heavenly realms—all because of what Christ Jesus did. 7 And now God can always point to us as examples of how very, very rich his kindness is, as shown in all he has done for us through Jesus Christ.
8 Because of his kindness, you have been saved through trusting Christ. And even trusting is not of yourselves;[b] it too is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good we have done, so none of us can take any credit for it. 10 It is God himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ Jesus; and long ages ago he planned that we should spend these lives in helping others.
11 Never forget that once you were heathen and that you were called godless and “unclean” by the Jews. (But their hearts, too, were still unclean, even though they were going through the ceremonies and rituals of the godly, for they circumcised themselves as a sign of godliness.) 12 Remember that in those days you were living utterly apart from Christ; you were enemies of God’s children, and he had promised you no help. You were lost, without God, without hope.
13 But now you belong to Christ Jesus, and though you once were far away from God, now you have been brought very near to him because of what Jesus Christ has done for you with his blood.
14 For Christ himself is our way of peace. He has made peace between us Jews and you Gentiles by making us all one family,[c] breaking down the wall of contempt that used to separate us. 15 By his death he ended the angry resentment between us, caused by the Jewish laws that favored the Jews and excluded the Gentiles, for he died to annul that whole system of Jewish laws. Then he took the two groups that had been opposed to each other and made them parts of himself; thus he fused us together to become one new person, and at last there was peace. 16 As parts of the same body, our anger against each other has disappeared, for both of us have been reconciled to God. And so the feud ended at last at the cross. 17 And he has brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were very far away from him, and to us Jews who were near. 18 Now all of us, whether Jews or Gentiles, may come to God the Father with the Holy Spirit’s help because of what Christ has done for us.
19 Now you are no longer strangers to God and foreigners to heaven, but you are members of God’s very own family, citizens of God’s country, and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian.
20 What a foundation you stand on now: the apostles and the prophets; and the cornerstone of the building is Jesus Christ himself! 21 We who believe are carefully joined together with Christ as parts of a beautiful, constantly growing temple for God. 22 And you also are joined with him and with each other by the Spirit and are part of this dwelling place of God.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.