M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Ishmael Is Born
16 Sarai, Abram’s wife, had no children, but she had a slave girl from Egypt named Hagar. 2 Sarai said to Abram, “Look, the Lord has not allowed me to have children, so have sexual relations with my slave girl. If she has a child, maybe I can have my own family through her.”
Abram did what Sarai said. 3 It was after he had lived ten years in Canaan that Sarai gave Hagar to her husband Abram. (Hagar was her slave girl from Egypt.)
4 Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When Hagar learned she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress Sarai badly. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “This is your fault. I gave my slave girl to you, and when she became pregnant, she began to treat me badly. Let the Lord decide who is right—you or me.”
6 But Abram said to Sarai, “You are Hagar’s mistress. Do anything you want to her.” Then Sarai was hard on Hagar, and Hagar ran away.
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the desert, by the road to Shur. 8 The angel said, “Hagar, Sarai’s slave girl, where have you come from? Where are you going?”
Hagar answered, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.”
9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Go home to your mistress and obey her.” 10 The angel also said, “I will give you so many descendants they cannot be counted.”
11 The angel added,
“You are now pregnant,
and you will have a son.
You will name him Ishmael,[a]
because the Lord has heard your cries.
12 Ishmael will be like a wild donkey.
He will be against everyone,
and everyone will be against him.
He will attack all his brothers.”
13 The slave girl gave a name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are ‘God who sees me,’” because she said to herself, “Have I really seen God who sees me?” 14 So the well there, between Kadesh and Bered, was called Beer Lahai Roi.[b]
15 Hagar gave birth to a son for Abram, and Abram named him Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.
Obey God’s Law
15 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem. They asked him, 2 “Why don’t your followers obey the unwritten laws which have been handed down to us? They don’t wash their hands before they eat.”
3 Jesus answered, “And why do you refuse to obey God’s command so that you can follow your own teachings? 4 God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’[a] and ‘Anyone who says cruel things to his father or mother must be put to death.’[b] 5 But you say a person can tell his father or mother, ‘I have something I could use to help you, but I have given it to God already.’ 6 You teach that person not to honor his father or his mother. You rejected what God said for the sake of your own rules. 7 You are hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he said about you:
8 ‘These people show honor to me with words,
but their hearts are far from me.
9 Their worship of me is worthless.
The things they teach are nothing but human rules.’” Isaiah 29:13
10 After Jesus called the crowd to him, he said, “Listen and understand what I am saying. 11 It is not what people put into their mouths that makes them unclean. It is what comes out of their mouths that makes them unclean.”
12 Then his followers came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees are angry because of what you said?”
13 Jesus answered, “Every plant that my Father in heaven has not planted himself will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Stay away from the Pharisees; they are blind leaders.[c] And if a blind person leads a blind person, both will fall into a ditch.”
15 Peter said, “Explain the example to us.”
16 Jesus said, “Do you still not understand? 17 Surely you know that all the food that enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then goes out of the body. 18 But what people say with their mouths comes from the way they think; these are the things that make people unclean. 19 Out of the mind come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual sins, stealing, lying, and speaking evil of others. 20 These things make people unclean; eating with unwashed hands does not make them unclean.”
Jesus Helps a Non-Jewish Woman
21 Jesus left that place and went to the area of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that area came to Jesus and cried out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter has a demon, and she is suffering very much.”
23 But Jesus did not answer the woman. So his followers came to Jesus and begged him, “Tell the woman to go away. She is following us and shouting.”
24 Jesus answered, “God sent me only to the lost sheep, the people of Israel.”
25 Then the woman came to Jesus again and bowed before him and said, “Lord, help me!”
26 Jesus answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and give it to the dogs.”
27 The woman said, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
28 Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! I will do what you asked.” And at that moment the woman’s daughter was healed.
Jesus Heals Many People
29 After leaving there, Jesus went along the shore of Lake Galilee. He went up on a hill and sat there.
30 Great crowds came to Jesus, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, those who could not speak, and many others. They put them at Jesus’ feet, and he healed them. 31 The crowd was amazed when they saw that people who could not speak before were now able to speak. The crippled were made strong. The lame could walk, and the blind could see. And they praised the God of Israel for this.
More than Four Thousand Fed
32 Jesus called his followers to him and said, “I feel sorry for these people, because they have already been with me three days, and they have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry. They might faint while going home.”
33 His followers asked him, “How can we get enough bread to feed all these people? We are far away from any town.”
34 Jesus asked, “How many loaves of bread do you have?”
They answered, “Seven, and a few small fish.”
35 Jesus told the people to sit on the ground. 36 He took the seven loaves of bread and the fish and gave thanks to God. Then he divided the food and gave it to his followers, and they gave it to the people. 37 All the people ate and were satisfied. Then his followers filled seven baskets with the leftover pieces of food. 38 There were about four thousand men there who ate, besides women and children. 39 After sending the people home, Jesus got into the boat and went to the area of Magadan.
Nehemiah Helps Poor People
5 The men and their wives complained loudly against their fellow Jews. 2 Some of them were saying, “We have many sons and daughters in our families. To eat and stay alive, we need grain.”
3 Others were saying, “We are borrowing money against our fields, vineyards, and homes to get grain because there is not much food.”
4 And still others were saying, “We are borrowing money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. 5 We are just like our fellow Jews, and our sons are like their sons. But we have to sell our sons and daughters as slaves. Some of our daughters have already been sold. But there is nothing we can do, because our fields and vineyards already belong to other people.”
6 When I heard their complaints about these things, I was very angry. 7 After I thought about it, I accused the important people and the leaders, “You are charging your own brothers too much interest.” So I called a large meeting to deal with them. 8 I said to them, “As much as possible, we have bought freedom for our fellow Jews who had been sold to foreigners. Now you are selling your fellow Jews to us!” The leaders were quiet and had nothing to say.
9 Then I said, “What you are doing is not right. Don’t you fear God? Don’t let our foreign enemies shame us. 10 I, my brothers, and my men are also lending money and grain to the people. But stop charging them so much for this. 11 Give back their fields, vineyards, olive trees, and houses right now. Also give back the extra amount you charged—the hundredth part of the money, grain, new wine, and oil.”
12 They said, “We will give it back and not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.”
Then I called for the priests, and I made the important people and leaders take an oath to do what they had said. 13 Also I shook out the folds of my robe and said, “In this way may God shake out everyone who does not keep his promise. May God shake him out of his house and out of the things that are his. Let that person be shaken out and emptied!”
Then the whole group said, “Amen,” and they praised the Lord. So the people did what they had promised.
14 I was appointed governor in the land of Judah in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes’ rule. I was governor of Judah for twelve years, until his thirty-second year. During that time neither my brothers nor I ate the food that was allowed for a governor. 15 But the governors before me had placed a heavy load on the people. They took about one pound of silver from each person, along with food and wine. The governors’ helpers before me also controlled the people, but I did not do that, because I feared God. 16 I worked on the wall, as did all my men who were gathered there. We did not buy any fields.
17 Also, I fed one hundred fifty Jewish people and officers at my table, as well as those who came from the nations around us. 18 This is what was prepared every day: one ox, six good sheep, and birds. And every ten days there were all kinds of wine. But I never demanded the food that was due a governor, because the people were already working very hard.
19 Remember to be kind to me, my God, for all the good I have done for these people.
The Meeting at Jerusalem
15 Then some people came to Antioch from Judea and began teaching the non-Jewish believers: “You cannot be saved if you are not circumcised as Moses taught us.” 2 Paul and Barnabas were against this teaching and argued with them about it. So the church decided to send Paul, Barnabas, and some others to Jerusalem where they could talk more about this with the apostles and elders.
3 The church helped them leave on the trip, and they went through the countries of Phoenicia and Samaria, telling all about how the other nations had turned to God. This made all the believers very happy. 4 When they arrived in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the apostles, the elders, and the church. Paul, Barnabas, and the others told about everything God had done with them. 5 But some of the believers who belonged to the Pharisee group came forward and said, “The non-Jewish believers must be circumcised. They must be told to obey the law of Moses.”
6 The apostles and the elders gathered to consider this problem. 7 After a long debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God chose me from among you to preach the Good News to the nations. They heard the Good News from me, and they believed. 8 God, who knows the thoughts of everyone, accepted them. He showed this to us by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. 9 To God, those people are not different from us. When they believed, he made their hearts pure. 10 So now why are you testing God by putting a heavy load around the necks of the non-Jewish believers? It is a load that neither we nor our ancestors were able to carry. 11 But we believe that we and they too will be saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus.”
12 Then the whole group became quiet. They listened to Paul and Barnabas tell about all the miracles and signs that God did through them among the people. 13 After they finished speaking, James said, “Brothers, listen to me. 14 Simon has told us how God showed his love for those people. For the first time he is accepting from among them a people to be his own. 15 The words of the prophets agree with this too:
16 ‘After these things I will return.
The kingdom of David is like a fallen tent.
But I will rebuild its ruins,
and I will set it up.
17 Then those people who are left alive may ask the Lord for help,
and the other nations that belong to me,
says the Lord,
who will make it happen.
18 And these things have been known for a long time.’ Amos 9:11–12
19 “So I think we should not bother the other people who are turning to God. 20 Instead, we should write a letter to them telling them these things: Stay away from food that has been offered to idols (which makes it unclean), any kind of sexual sin, eating animals that have been strangled, and blood. 21 They should do these things, because for a long time in every city the law of Moses has been taught. And it is still read in the synagogue every Sabbath day.”
Letter to Non-Jewish Believers
22 The apostles, the elders, and the whole church decided to send some of their men with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch. They chose Judas Barsabbas and Silas, who were respected by the believers. 23 They sent the following letter with them:
From the apostles and elders, your brothers.
To all the non-Jewish believers in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia:
Greetings!
24 We have heard that some of our group have come to you and said things that trouble and upset you. But we did not tell them to do this. 25 We have all agreed to choose some messengers and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul— 26 people who have given their lives to serve our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 So we are sending Judas and Silas, who will tell you the same things. 28 It has pleased the Holy Spirit that you should not have a heavy load to carry, and we agree. You need to do only these things: 29 Stay away from any food that has been offered to idols, eating any animals that have been strangled, and blood, and any kind of sexual sin. If you stay away from these things, you will do well.
Good-bye.
30 So they left Jerusalem and went to Antioch where they gathered the church and gave them the letter. 31 When they read it, they were very happy because of the encouraging message. 32 Judas and Silas, who were also prophets, said many things to encourage the believers and make them stronger. 33 After some time Judas and Silas were sent off in peace by the believers, and they went back to those who had sent them [, 34 but Silas decided to remain there].[a]
35 But Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch and, along with many others, preached the Good News and taught the people the message of the Lord.
Paul and Barnabas Separate
36 After some time, Paul said to Barnabas, “We should go back to all those towns where we preached the message of the Lord. Let’s visit the believers and see how they are doing.”
37 Barnabas wanted to take John Mark with them, 38 but he had left them at Pamphylia; he did not continue with them in the work. So Paul did not think it was a good idea to take him. 39 Paul and Barnabas had such a serious argument about this that they separated and went different ways. Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and left. The believers in Antioch put Paul into the Lord’s care, 41 and he went through Syria and Cilicia, giving strength to the churches.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.