M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Magnificat: Mary’s song of praise
39 Mary got up then and there, and went in excitement to the hill country of Judaea. 40 She went into Zechariah’s house, and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby gave a leap in her womb. Elizabeth was filled with the holy spirit, 42 and shouted at the top of her voice: “Of all women, you’re the blessed one! And the fruit of your womb—he’s blessed, too! 43 Why should this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 Look—when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the child in my womb gave a great leap for joy! 45 A blessing on you, for believing that what the Lord said to you would come true!”
46 Mary said,
“My soul declares that the Lord is great,
47 my spirit exults in my savior, my God.
48 He saw his servant-girl in her humility;
from now, I’ll be blessed by all peoples to come.
49 The Powerful One, whose name is Holy,
has done great things for me, for me.
50 His mercy extends from father to son,
from mother to daughter for those who fear him.
51 Powerful things he has done with his arm:
he routed the arrogant through their own cunning.
52 Down from their thrones he hurled the rulers,
up from the earth he raised the humble.
53 The hungry he filled with the fat of the land,
but the rich he sent off with nothing to eat.
54 He has rescued his servant, Israel his child,
because he remembered his mercy of old,
55 just as he said to our long-ago ancestors—
Abraham and his descendants forever.”
56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months, and then returned home.
Zechariah’s song of praise
57 The time arrived for Elizabeth’s child to be born, and she gave birth to a son. 58 Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had increased his mercy to her, and they came to celebrate with her.
59 Now on the eighth day, when they came to circumcise the child, they were calling him by his father’s name, Zechariah. 60 But his mother spoke up.
“No,” she said, “he is to be called John.”
61 “None of your relatives,” they objected, “is called by that name.”
62 They made signs to his father, to ask what he wanted him to be called. 63 He asked for a writing tablet, and wrote on it, “His name is John.”
Everyone was astonished. 64 Immediately his mouth and his tongue were unfastened, and he spoke, praising God. 65 Fear came over all those who lived in the neighborhood, and people spoke of all these things throughout all the hill country of Judaea. 66 Everyone who heard about it turned the matter over in their hearts.
“What then will this child become?” they said. And the Lord’s hand was with him.
67 John’s father Zechariah was filled with the holy spirit, and spoke this prophecy:
68 “Blessed be the Lord, Israel’s God!
He’s come to his people and bought them their freedom.
69 He’s raised up a horn of salvation for us
in David’s house, the house of his servant,
70 just as he promised, through the mouths of his prophets,
the holy ones, speaking from ages of old:
71 salvation from our enemies, rescue from hatred,
72 mercy to our ancestors, keeping his holy covenant.
73 He swore an oath to Abraham our father,
74 to give us deliverance from fear and from foes,
so we might worship him, 75 holy and righteous
before his face to the end of our days.
76 You, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest One,
You’ll go before the Lord, preparing his way,
77 letting his people know of salvation,
through the forgiveness of all their sins.
78 The heart of our God is full of mercy,
that’s why his daylight has dawned from on high,
79 bringing light to the dark, as we sat in death’s shadow,
guiding our feet in the path of peace.”
80 The child grew, and became powerful in the spirit. He lived in the wilderness until the day when he was revealed to Israel.
The powerful message of the cross
2 This is how it was for me, too, my dear family. When I came to you, I didn’t come and proclaim God’s mystery to you by means of a superior style of speaking or wisdom. 2 No: I decided to know nothing in my dealings with you except Jesus the Messiah, especially his crucifixion. 3 I came to you in weakness, in great fear and trembling. 4 My speech and my proclamation were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in transparent proof brought home powerfully by the spirit, 5 so that your faith might not be in human wisdom but in God’s power.
God’s strange wisdom
6 We do, however, speak wisdom among the mature. But this isn’t a wisdom of this present world, or of the rulers of this present world—those same rulers who are being done away with. 7 No: we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery. This is the wisdom God prepared ahead of time, before the world began, for our glory.
8 None of the rulers of this present age knew about this wisdom. If they had, you see, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as the Bible says,
Human eyes have never seen,
human ears have never heard,
it’s never entered human hearts:
all that God has now prepared
for those who truly love him.
10 —and that’s what God has revealed to us through the spirit! The spirit, you see, searches everything, yes, even the depths of God. 11 Think of it this way: who knows what is really going on inside a person, except the spirit of the person which is inside them? Well, it’s like that with God. Nobody knows what is going on inside God except God’s spirit. 12 And we haven’t received the spirit of the world, but the spirit that comes from God, so that we can know the things that have been given to us by God.
13 That, then, is what we speak. We don’t use words we’ve been taught by human wisdom, but words we’ve been taught by the spirit, interpreting spiritual things to spiritual people.
Spiritual or merely human?
14 Someone living at the merely human level doesn’t accept the things of God’s spirit. They are foolishness to such people, you see, and they can’t understand them because they need to be discerned spiritually. 15 But spiritual people discern everything, while nobody else can discern the truth about them! 16 For “Who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of the Messiah.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.