M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
26 “You must have no idols; you must never worship carved images, obelisks, or shaped stones, for I am the Lord your God. 2 You must obey my Sabbath laws of rest, and reverence my Tabernacle, for I am the Lord.
3 “If you obey all of my commandments, 4-5 I will give you regular rains, and the land will yield bumper crops, and the trees will be loaded with fruit long after the normal time![a] And grapes will still be ripening when sowing time comes again. You shall eat your fill, and live safely in the land, 6 for I will give you peace, and you will go to sleep without fear. I will chase away the dangerous animals. 7 You will chase your enemies; they will die beneath your swords. 8 Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you, ten thousand! You will defeat all of your enemies. 9 I will look after you, and multiply you, and fulfill my covenant with you. 10 You will have such a surplus of crops that you won’t know what to do with them when the new harvest is ready! 11 And I will live among you and not despise you. 12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be my people. 13 For I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, so that you would be slaves no longer; I have broken your chains so that you can walk with dignity.[b]
14 “But if you will not listen to me or obey me, 15 but reject my laws, 16 this is what I will do to you: I will punish you with sudden terrors and panic, and with tuberculosis and burning fever; your eyes shall be consumed and your life shall ebb away; you will sow your crops in vain, for your enemies will eat them. 17 I will set my face against you and you will flee before your attackers; those who hate you will rule you; you will even run when no one is chasing you!
18 “And if you still disobey me, I will punish you seven times more severely for your sins. 19 I will break your proud power and make your heavens as iron and your earth as bronze. 20 Your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its crops, nor your trees their fruit.
21 “And if even then you will not obey me and listen to me, I will send you seven times more plagues because of your sins. 22 I will send wild animals to kill your children and destroy your cattle and reduce your numbers so that your roads will be deserted.
23 “And if even this will not reform you, but you continue to walk against my wishes, 24 then I will walk against your wishes, and I, even I, will personally smite you seven times for your sin. 25 I will revenge the breaking of my covenant by bringing war against you. You will flee to your cities, and I will send a plague among you there; and you will be conquered by your enemies. 26 I will destroy your food supply so that one oven will be large enough to bake all the bread available for ten entire families; and you will still be hungry after your pittance has been doled out to you.
27 “And if you still won’t listen to me or obey me, 28 then I will let loose my great anger and send you seven times greater punishment for your sins. 29 You shall eat your own sons and daughters, 30 and I will destroy the altars on the hills where you worship your idols, and I will cut down your incense altars, leaving your dead bodies to rot among your idols; and I will abhor you. 31 I will make your cities desolate, and destroy your places of worship, and will not respond to your incense offerings. 32 Yes, I will desolate your land; your enemies shall live in it, utterly amazed at what I have done to you.
33 “I will scatter you out among the nations, destroying you with war as you go. Your land shall be desolate and your cities destroyed. 34-35 Then at last the land will rest and make up for the many years you refused to let it lie idle; for it will lie desolate all the years that you are captives in enemy lands. Yes, then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths! It will make up for the rest you didn’t give it every seventh year when you lived upon it.
36 “And for those who are left alive, I will cause them to be dragged away to distant lands as prisoners of war and slaves. There they will live in constant fear. The sound of a leaf driven in the wind will send them fleeing as though chased by a man with a sword; they shall fall when no one is pursuing them. 37 Yes, though none pursue they shall stumble over each other in flight, as though fleeing in battle, with no power to stand before their enemies. 38 You shall perish among the nations and be destroyed among your enemies. 39 Those left shall pine away in enemy lands because of their sins, the same sins as those of their fathers.
40-41 “But at last they shall confess their sins and their fathers’ sins of treachery against me. (Because they were against me, I was against them, and brought them into the land of their enemies.) When at last their evil hearts are humbled and they accept the punishment I send them for their sins, 42 then I will remember again my promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will remember the land (and its desolation). 43 For the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as it lies desolate. But then at last they shall accept their punishment for rejecting my laws and for despising my rule. 44 But despite all they have done, I will not utterly destroy them and my covenant with them, for I am Jehovah their God. 45 For their sakes I will remember my promises to their ancestors to be their God. For I brought their forefathers out of Egypt as all the nations watched in wonder. I am Jehovah.”
46 These were the laws, ordinances, and instructions that Jehovah gave to the people of Israel, through Moses, on Mount Sinai.
33 Let all the joys of the godly well up in praise to the Lord, for it is right to praise him. 2 Play joyous melodies of praise upon the lyre and on the harp. 3 Compose new songs of praise to him, accompanied skillfully on the harp; sing joyfully.
4 For all God’s words are right, and everything he does is worthy of our trust. 5 He loves whatever is just and good; the earth is filled with his tender love. 6 He merely spoke, and the heavens were formed and all the galaxies of stars. 7 He made the oceans, pouring them into his vast reservoirs.
8 Let everyone in all the world—men, women, and children—fear the Lord and stand in awe of him. 9 For when he but spoke, the world began! It appeared at his command! 10 And with a breath he can scatter the plans of all the nations who oppose him, 11 but his own plan stands forever. His intentions are the same for every generation.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, whose people he has chosen as his own. 13-15 The Lord gazes down upon mankind from heaven where he lives. He has made their hearts and closely watches everything they do.
16-17 The best-equipped army cannot save a king—for great strength is not enough to save anyone. A war horse is a poor risk for winning victories—it is strong, but it cannot save.
18-19 But the eyes of the Lord are watching over those who fear him, who rely upon his steady love. He will keep them from death even in times of famine! 20 We depend upon the Lord alone to save us. Only he can help us; he protects us like a shield. 21 No wonder we are happy in the Lord! For we are trusting him. We trust his holy name. 22 Yes, Lord, let your constant love surround us, for our hopes are in you alone.
9 This, too, I carefully explored—that godly and wise men are in God’s will; no one knows whether he will favor them or not. All is chance! 2-3 The same providence confronts everyone, whether good or bad, religious or irreligious, profane or godly. It seems so unfair that one fate comes to all. That is why men are not more careful to be good but instead choose their own mad course, for they have no hope—there is nothing but death ahead anyway.
4 There is hope only for the living. “It is better to be a live dog than a dead lion!” 5 For the living at least know that they will die! But the dead know nothing ; they don’t even have their memories.[a] 6 Whatever they did in their lifetimes—loving, hating, envying—is long gone, and they have no part in anything here on earth anymore. 7 So go ahead, eat, drink, and be merry, for it makes no difference to God! 8 Wear fine clothes—with a dash of cologne! 9 Live happily with the woman you love through the fleeting days of life, for the wife God gives you is your best reward down here for all your earthly toil. 10 Whatever you do, do well, for in death, where you are going, there is no working or planning, or knowing, or understanding.
11 Again I looked throughout the earth and saw that the swiftest person does not always win the race, nor the strongest man the battle, and that wise men are often poor, and skillful men are not necessarily famous; but it is all by chance, by happening to be at the right place at the right time. 12 A man never knows when he is going to run into bad luck. He is like a fish caught in a net, or a bird caught in a snare.
13 Here is another thing that has made a deep impression on me as I have watched human affairs: 14 There was a small city with only a few people living in it, and a great king came with his army and besieged it. 15 There was in the city a wise man, very poor, and he knew what to do to save the city, and so it was rescued. But afterwards no one thought any more about him. 16 Then I realized that though wisdom is better than strength, nevertheless, if the wise man is poor, he will be despised, and what he says will not be appreciated. 17 But even so, the quiet words of a wise man are better than the shout of a king of fools. 18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one rotten apple can spoil a barrelful.
1 1-2 From: Paul, the slave of God and the messenger of Jesus Christ.
I have been sent to bring faith to those God has chosen and to teach them to know God’s truth—the kind of truth that changes lives—so that they can have eternal life, which God promised them before the world began—and he cannot lie. 3 And now in his own good time he has revealed this Good News and permits me to tell it to everyone. By command of God our Savior, I have been trusted to do this work for him.
4 To: Titus, who is truly my son in the affairs of the Lord.
May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior give you his blessings and his peace.
5 I left you there on the island of Crete so that you could do whatever was needed to help strengthen each of its churches, and I asked you to appoint pastors[a] in every city who would follow the instructions I gave you. 6 The men you choose must be well thought of for their good lives; they must have only one wife and their children must love the Lord and not have a reputation for being wild or disobedient to their parents.
7 These pastors must be men of blameless lives because they are God’s ministers. They must not be proud or impatient; they must not be drunkards or fighters or greedy for money. 8 They must enjoy having guests in their homes and must love all that is good. They must be sensible men, and fair. They must be clean minded and level headed. 9 Their belief in the truth that they have been taught must be strong and steadfast so that they will be able to teach it to others and show those who disagree with them where they are wrong.
10 For there are many who refuse to obey; this is especially true among those who say that all Christians must obey the Jewish laws. But this is foolish talk; it blinds people to the truth, 11 and it must be stopped. Already whole families have been turned away from the grace of God. Such teachers are only after your money. 12 One of their own men, a prophet from Crete, has said about them, “These men of Crete are all liars; they are like lazy animals, living only to satisfy their stomachs.” 13 And this is true. So speak to the Christians there as sternly as necessary to make them strong in the faith 14 and to stop them from listening to Jewish folk tales and the demands of men who have turned their backs on the truth.
15 A person who is pure of heart sees goodness and purity in everything; but a person whose own heart is evil and untrusting finds evil in everything, for his dirty mind and rebellious heart color all he sees and hears. 16 Such persons claim they know God, but from seeing the way they act, one knows they don’t. They are rotten and disobedient, worthless so far as doing anything good is concerned.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.