M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Ark Is Brought to Jerusalem
15 David built houses for himself in Jerusalem. Then he prepared a place for the Ark of God, and he set up a tent for it. 2 David said, “Only the Levites may carry the Ark of God. The Lord chose them to carry the Ark of the Lord and to serve him forever.”
3 David called all the people of Israel to come to Jerusalem. He wanted to bring the Ark of the Lord to the place he had made for it. 4 David called together the descendants of Aaron and the Levites. 5 There were one hundred twenty people from Kohath’s family group, with Uriel as their leader. 6 There were two hundred twenty people from Merari’s family group, with Asaiah as their leader. 7 There were one hundred thirty people from Gershon’s family group, with Joel as their leader. 8 There were two hundred people from Elizaphan’s family group, with Shemaiah as their leader. 9 There were eighty people from Hebron’s family group, with Eliel as their leader. 10 And there were one hundred twelve people from Uzziel’s family group, with Amminadab as their leader.
11 Then David asked the priests Zadok and Abiathar and these Levites to come to him: Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab. 12 David said to them, “You are the leaders of the families of Levi. You and the other Levites must give yourselves for service to the Lord. Bring up the Ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place I have made for it. 13 The last time we did not ask the Lord how to carry it. You Levites didn’t carry it, so the Lord our God punished us.”
14 Then the priests and Levites prepared themselves for service to the Lord so they could carry the Ark of the Lord, the God of Israel. 15 The Levites used special poles to carry the Ark of God on their shoulders, as Moses had commanded, just as the Lord had said they should.
16 David told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their brothers as singers to play their lyres, harps, and cymbals and to sing happy songs.
17 So the Levites appointed Heman and his relatives Asaph and Ethan. Heman was Joel’s son. Asaph was Berekiah’s son. And Ethan, from the Merari family group, was Kushaiah’s son. 18 There was also a second group of Levites: Zechariah, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-Edom, and Jeiel. They were the Levite guards.
19 The singers Heman, Asaph, and Ethan played bronze cymbals. 20 Zechariah, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah, and Benaiah played the lyres. 21 Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-Edom, Jeiel, and Azaziah played the harps. 22 The Levite leader Kenaniah was in charge of the singing, because he was very good at it.
23 Berekiah and Elkanah were two of the guards for the Ark of the Agreement. 24 The priests Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer had the job of blowing trumpets in front of the Ark of God. Obed-Edom and Jehiah were also guards for the Ark.
25 David, the leaders of Israel, and the commanders of a thousand soldiers went to get the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord. They all went to bring the Ark from Obed-Edom’s house with great joy. 26 Because God helped the Levites who carried the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord, they sacrificed seven bulls and seven male sheep. 27 All the Levites who carried the Ark, and Kenaniah, the man in charge of the singing, and all the singers wore robes of fine linen. David also wore a robe of fine linen and a holy vest of fine linen. 28 So all the people of Israel brought up the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord. They shouted, blew horns and trumpets, and played cymbals, lyres, and harps.
29 As the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord entered Jerusalem, Saul’s daughter Michal watched from a window. When she saw King David dancing and celebrating, she hated him.
Love All People
2 My dear brothers and sisters, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, never think some people are more important than others. 2 Suppose someone comes into your church meeting wearing nice clothes and a gold ring. At the same time a poor person comes in wearing old, dirty clothes. 3 You show special attention to the one wearing nice clothes and say, “Please, sit here in this good seat.” But you say to the poor person, “Stand over there,” or, “Sit on the floor by my feet.” 4 What are you doing? You are making some people more important than others, and with evil thoughts you are deciding that one person is better.
5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! God chose the poor in the world to be rich with faith and to receive the kingdom God promised to those who love him. 6 But you show no respect to the poor. The rich are always trying to control your lives. They are the ones who take you to court. 7 And they are the ones who speak against Jesus, who owns you.
8 This royal law is found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”[a] If you obey this law, you are doing right. 9 But if you treat one person as being more important than another, you are sinning. You are guilty of breaking God’s law. 10 A person who follows all of God’s law but fails to obey even one command is guilty of breaking all the commands in that law. 11 The same God who said, “You must not be guilty of adultery,”[b] also said, “You must not murder anyone.”[c] So if you do not take part in adultery but you murder someone, you are guilty of breaking all of God’s law. 12 In everything you say and do, remember that you will be judged by the law that makes people free. 13 So you must show mercy to others, or God will not show mercy to you when he judges you. But the person who shows mercy can stand without fear at the judgment.
Faith and Good Works
14 My brothers and sisters, if people say they have faith, but do nothing, their faith is worth nothing. Can faith like that save them? 15 A brother or sister in Christ might need clothes or food. 16 If you say to that person, “God be with you! I hope you stay warm and get plenty to eat,” but you do not give what that person needs, your words are worth nothing. 17 In the same way, faith by itself—that does nothing—is dead.
18 Someone might say, “You have faith, but I have deeds.” Show me your faith without doing anything, and I will show you my faith by what I do. 19 You believe there is one God. Good! But the demons believe that, too, and they tremble with fear.
20 You foolish person! Must you be shown that faith that does nothing is worth nothing? 21 Abraham, our ancestor, was made right with God by what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar. 22 So you see that Abraham’s faith and the things he did worked together. His faith was made perfect by what he did. 23 This shows the full meaning of the Scripture that says: “Abraham believed God, and God accepted Abraham’s faith, and that faith made him right with God.”[d] And Abraham was called God’s friend.[e] 24 So you see that people are made right with God by what they do, not by faith only.
25 Another example is Rahab, a prostitute, who was made right with God by something she did. She welcomed the spies into her home and helped them escape by a different road.
26 Just as a person’s body that does not have a spirit is dead, so faith that does nothing is dead!
Israel Will Be Destroyed
9 I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said:
“Smash the top of the pillars
so that even the bottom of the doors will shake.
Make the pillars fall on the people’s heads;
anyone left alive I will kill with a sword.
Not one person will get away;
no one will escape.
2 If they dig down as deep as the place of the dead,
I will pull them up from there.
If they climb up into heaven,
I will bring them down from there.
3 If they hide at the top of Mount Carmel,
I will find them and take them away.
If they try to hide from me at the bottom of the sea,
I will command a snake to bite them.
4 If they are captured and taken away by their enemies,
I will command the sword to kill them.
I will keep watch over them,
but I will keep watch to give them trouble, not to do them good.”
5 The Lord God All-Powerful touches the land,
and the land shakes.
Then everyone who lives in the land cries for the dead.
The whole land rises like the Nile River
and falls like the river of Egypt.
6 The Lord builds his upper rooms above the skies;
he sets their foundations on the earth.
He calls for the waters of the sea
and pours them out on the land.
The Lord is his name.
7 The Lord says,
“Israel, you are no different to me than the people of Cush.
I brought Israel out of the land of Egypt,
and the Philistines from Crete,
and the Arameans from Kir.
8 I, the Lord God, am watching the sinful kingdom Israel.
I will destroy it
from off the earth,
but I will not completely destroy
Jacob’s descendants,” says the Lord.
9 “I am giving the command
to scatter the nation of Israel among all nations.
It will be like someone shaking grain through a strainer,
but not even a tiny stone falls through.
10 All the sinners among my people
will die by the sword—
those who say,
‘Nothing bad will happen to us.’
The Lord Promises to Restore Israel
11 “The kingdom of David is like a fallen tent,
but in that day I will set it up again
and mend its broken places.
I will rebuild its ruins
as it was before.
12 Then Israel will take over what is left of Edom
and the other nations that belong to me,”
says the Lord,
who will make it happen.
13 The Lord says, “The time is coming when there will be all kinds of food.
People will still be harvesting crops
when it’s time to plow again.
People will still be taking the juice from grapes
when it’s time to plant again.
Wine will drip from the mountains
and pour from the hills.
14 I will bring my people Israel back from captivity;
they will build the ruined cities again,
and they will live in them.
They will plant vineyards and drink the wine from them;
they will plant gardens and eat their fruit.
15 I will plant my people on their land,
and they will not be pulled out again
from the land which I have given them,”
says the Lord your God.
Jesus Is Tempted by the Devil
4 Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. The Spirit led Jesus into the desert 2 where the devil tempted Jesus for forty days. Jesus ate nothing during that time, and when those days were ended, he was very hungry.
3 The devil said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, tell this rock to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written in the Scriptures: ‘A person does not live on bread alone.’”[a]
5 Then the devil took Jesus and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in an instant. 6 The devil said to Jesus, “I will give you all these kingdoms and all their power and glory. It has all been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I wish. 7 If you worship me, then it will all be yours.”
8 Jesus answered, “It is written in the Scriptures: ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”[b]
9 Then the devil led Jesus to Jerusalem and put him on a high place of the Temple. He said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, jump down. 10 It is written in the Scriptures:
‘He has put his angels in charge of you
to watch over you.’ Psalm 91:11
11 It is also written:
‘They will catch you in their hands
so that you will not hit your foot on a rock.’” Psalm 91:12
12 Jesus answered, “But it also says in the Scriptures: ‘Do not test the Lord your God.’”[c]
13 After the devil had tempted Jesus in every way, he left him to wait until a better time.
Jesus Teaches the People
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Holy Spirit, and stories about him spread all through the area. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
16 Jesus traveled to Nazareth, where he had grown up. On the Sabbath day he went to the synagogue, as he always did, and stood up to read. 17 The book of Isaiah the prophet was given to him. He opened the book and found the place where this is written:
18 “The Lord has put his Spirit in me,
because he appointed me to tell the Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to tell the captives they are free
and to tell the blind that they can see again. Isaiah 61:1
God sent me to free those who have been treated unfairly Isaiah 58:6
19 and to announce the time when the Lord will show his kindness.” Isaiah 61:2
20 Jesus closed the book, gave it back to the assistant, and sat down. Everyone in the synagogue was watching Jesus closely. 21 He began to say to them, “While you heard these words just now, they were coming true!”
22 All the people spoke well of Jesus and were amazed at the words of grace he spoke. They asked, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
23 Jesus said to them, “I know that you will tell me the old saying: ‘Doctor, heal yourself.’ You want to say, ‘We heard about the things you did in Capernaum. Do those things here in your own town!’” 24 Then Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, a prophet is not accepted in his hometown. 25 But I tell you the truth, there were many widows in Israel during the time of Elijah. It did not rain in Israel for three and one-half years, and there was no food anywhere in the whole country. 26 But Elijah was sent to none of those widows, only to a widow in Zarephath, a town in Sidon. 27 And there were many with skin diseases living in Israel during the time of the prophet Elisha. But none of them were healed, only Naaman, who was from the country of Syria.”
28 When all the people in the synagogue heard these things, they became very angry. 29 They got up, forced Jesus out of town, and took him to the edge of the cliff on which the town was built. They planned to throw him off the edge, 30 but Jesus walked through the crowd and went on his way.
Jesus Forces Out an Evil Spirit
31 Jesus went to Capernaum, a city in Galilee, and on the Sabbath day, he taught the people. 32 They were amazed at his teaching, because he spoke with authority. 33 In the synagogue a man who had within him an evil spirit shouted in a loud voice, 34 “Jesus of Nazareth! What do you want with us? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are—God’s Holy One!”
35 Jesus commanded the evil spirit, “Be quiet! Come out of the man!” The evil spirit threw the man down to the ground before all the people and then left the man without hurting him.
36 The people were amazed and said to each other, “What does this mean? With authority and power he commands evil spirits, and they come out.” 37 And so the news about Jesus spread to every place in the whole area.
Jesus Heals Many People
38 Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon.[d] Simon’s mother-in-law was sick with a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. 39 He came to her side and commanded the fever to leave. It left her, and immediately she got up and began serving them.
40 When the sun went down, the people brought those who were sick to Jesus. Putting his hands on each sick person, he healed every one of them. 41 Demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God.” But Jesus commanded the demons and would not allow them to speak, because they knew Jesus was the Christ.
42 At daybreak, Jesus went to a lonely place, but the people looked for him. When they found him, they tried to keep him from leaving. 43 But Jesus said to them, “I must preach about God’s kingdom to other towns, too. This is why I was sent.”
44 Then he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.[e]
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.