M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Micah's idols
17 There was a man who lived in the hill country of Ephraim. His name was Micah. 2 He said to his mother, ‘I know about the 1,100 pieces of silver that somebody took from you. You cursed the person who had robbed you and I heard you. Look! Here are the pieces of silver. I took them myself. But now I am giving them back to you.’
His mother said, ‘Thank you, my son. I pray that the Lord will bless you.’
3 When Micah gave the 1,100 pieces of silver back to his mother, she said, ‘I will now give this silver to the Lord. We will use it to make an image and a metal idol. In that way, I will give it back to you, my son.’
4 So Micah's mother took 200 pieces of silver. She gave them to a man who used silver to make things. He made an image and an idol for her. She put them in Micah's house.
5 Micah had a special room to worship his gods. He made an ephod and some more idols for it. He chose one of his sons to be a priest to serve his gods.
6 At that time, Israel had no king to rule over them. Everyone did what they thought was right.
Micah and the Levite
7 There was a young man who lived in Bethlehem, a town in Judah. He was a Levite. 8 He left Bethlehem to look for another place to live. As he travelled in the hill country of Ephraim, he arrived at Micah's house.
9 Micah asked him, ‘Where have you come from?’ The man replied, ‘I am a Levite who was living in Bethlehem in Judah. Now I am looking for a new place to live.’ 10 Micah said, ‘Stay here with me. You will be my advisor and my priest. I will pay you ten pieces of silver each year, as well as your clothes and food.’
11 So the Levite agreed to stay with Micah. He became like a son for Micah. 12 Micah gave the young man what he needed. The Levite became Micah's priest and he lived in Micah's home. 13 Then Micah said, ‘Now I know that the Lord will bless me, because I have this Levite as my own priest.’
Paul goes to Jerusalem
21 We said ‘goodbye’ to the leaders of the believers from Ephesus. Then we went on a ship straight across the sea, and we arrived at Cos. The next day, we continued on our journey to Rhodes. From there we went to the town of Patara.[a]
2 At Patara, we found a ship that was going to Phoenicia. So we got onto the ship and we sailed across the sea.
3 After travelling for some time, we could see the island called Cyprus. We went south of Cyprus, and we continued as far as Syria. We arrived on the coast at the city of Tyre and we got off the ship. The ship would remain in Tyre for some days, because people had to remove the things off the ship. 4 We found some believers in the city. So we stayed with them for a week. The Holy Spirit showed these believers that trouble would come to Paul in Jerusalem. So they said to him, ‘Paul, you should not to go to Jerusalem.’
5 After a week with the believers in Tyre, it was time for us to leave them. All the believers, together with their wives and their children, went with us out of the city. At the beach, we all went down on our knees and we prayed together. 6 Then we said ‘goodbye’ to each other and the believers returned to their homes in the city. We went and we got on the ship again, together with Paul.
7 We continued our journey across the sea. We sailed from Tyre to Ptolemais. There, we met some believers and we stayed with them for one day. 8 The next day, we left Ptolemais and we sailed to Caesarea. We stayed there with Philip. He was someone who taught people the good news about Jesus. He was one of the seven men that the believers had chosen in Jerusalem.[b] 9 He had four daughters who were not married. They spoke messages from God.
10 We stayed with Philip in Caesarea for a few days. Then a man called Agabus arrived in the city from Judea. He was a prophet and he spoke messages from God. 11 Agabus came to where we were. He took Paul's belt and he tied it around his own feet and hands. He said, ‘Listen to this message from the Holy Spirit. “The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will take hold of the man who has this belt. They will tie his hands and his feet. Then they will give him to the Gentiles to be their prisoner.” ’
12 When we heard Agabus's message, we all said many times to Paul, ‘Please do not go to Jerusalem.’ 13 But Paul answered, ‘Stop crying like this! You are making me very sad! I am ready for men in Jerusalem to take hold of me. They may tie me up, and I may even die there. I am ready for all this because I believe in the Lord Jesus.’
14 We could not cause Paul to think in a different way. So we stopped saying to him, ‘You should not go to Jerusalem.’ Instead we said to him, ‘We want the Lord God to do what he wants.’
15 We stayed in Caesarea for a few days. Then we prepared ourselves to travel across land. We left there to go to Jerusalem. 16 Some of the believers from Caesarea also went with us. They took us to the house of a man called Mnason. We had decided to stay with him. His home town was on the island called Cyprus. He had been a believer for a long time.
Paul visits James in Jerusalem
17 When we arrived in Jerusalem, the believers there were very happy to welcome us. 18 The next day, we went with Paul to see James. The leaders of the believers were also there. 19 Paul said, ‘hello’ to them and then he told them everything about his work. God had helped him to do many good things for the Gentiles.
20 After the leaders had listened to Paul, they praised God. Then they said, ‘Brother Paul, you can see the problem. There are now many thousands of Jews who have believed in Jesus. But they also really want to obey the Law of Moses.[c] 21 These Jews here have heard about what you teach Jewish people in other countries. They think that you say to them, “You do not need to obey the Law of Moses any longer. You do not need to circumcise your children. You do not need to live in the way that Jewish people usually live.”
22 We need to do something about this problem. These Jewish believers will certainly hear that you are in Jerusalem. 23 We will tell you what you must do. There are four Jewish men in our group who have made a promise to God. 24 You must go with these men to the temple. There, they will wash to make themselves clean in front of God. Join with them when they do that. Then pay the priest the money for their sacrifices. After that, the men can cut the hair off their heads. When you do that, everyone will understand about you. They will see what you have done. They will know that you yourself obey the Law of Moses. They will know that what they have heard about you is not true. 25 But it is different for the Gentiles who believe in Jesus. We have already sent a letter to them. We wrote, “Do not eat any food that people have given to their idols. Do not eat anything that still has blood in it. If people have strangled an animal to kill it, do not eat its meat. Do not have sex with anyone that you are not married to.” ’
26 So the next day, Paul went with the four men. He joined with them when they washed to make themselves clean in front of God. Then he went into the yard of the temple. He told the priest there when the four men would finish their promise to God. This would be after seven days. After that, each man would give an animal as a sacrifice to God.[d]
27 At the end of those seven days, some Jews from Asia region saw Paul in the temple. They said some bad things against Paul to the crowd. So the people became angry and they took hold of Paul. 28 The Jews from Asia shouted, ‘People of Israel, come and help us! This is the man who goes everywhere and he teaches everyone bad things. He speaks against us, the people of Israel. He also speaks against the Law of Moses and against this temple. Now he has even brought some Gentiles into this temple. So now this special place is not clean in front of God any longer.’
29 (These men had earlier seen Paul in the city with a man called Trophimus. Trophimus was a Gentile who came from Ephesus. They thought that Paul had brought Trophimus into the temple. That is why they shouted bad things against Paul.)[e]
30 Many other people in the city heard about the trouble and they also became angry. They all ran from their homes to the temple and they took hold of Paul. Then they pulled him out of the temple and they closed the doors immediately.[f]
31 The angry crowd was trying to kill Paul. But someone sent a message to the leader of the Roman soldiers. The message was, ‘People are fighting everywhere in the city.’
32 So the soldiers' leader quickly took some other officers and a large group of soldiers and they ran down to the crowd. The angry crowd of people saw the leader with his soldiers. So then they stopped hitting Paul.
33 The Roman soldiers' leader went to Paul and he took hold of him. He said to his men, ‘Tie two chains round the arms of this man.’ Then he asked the people in the crowd, ‘Who is this man and what has he done?’
34 Some people in the crowd shouted one thing and other people shouted something different. There was so much noise that the leader of the soldiers was not sure about the true facts. He did not know what had really happened. So he said to his soldiers, ‘Take this man up into our strong building!’ 35 The soldiers then led Paul as far as the steps of their building. Then they had to carry him because the crowd was so angry. 36 The crowd followed behind Paul and the soldiers. They were shouting, ‘Kill him!’
37 While the soldiers were leading Paul into their building, he asked their leader, ‘Please may I say something to you?’
The soldiers' leader replied, ‘Oh! Do you speak the Greek language? 38 I thought that you must be that bad man who came from Egypt. He was the one who fought against our Roman government. Some time ago, he led 4,000 of his own men out into the wilderness, with their weapons.’
39 Paul answered, ‘I am a Jew and I was born in Tarsus in the region called Cilicia. So you see, I am a man from an important city. Please, let me speak to this crowd.’
40 The leader of the soldiers said to Paul, ‘Yes, you may speak to the people.’ So Paul stood still on the steps of the soldiers' building. He raised his hands towards them so that the people became quiet. Then he spoke to them in Aramaic, the Jewish people's own language.
The Lord makes promises to his people
30 The Lord gave this message to Jeremiah: 2 ‘The Lord, Israel's God, says, “Write all the words that I have spoken in a book.” 3 I, the Lord, tell you this: “The time will come when I will bring back my people from foreign lands. I will bring the people of Israel and Judah back to the land that I gave to their ancestors. It will belong to them.” That is what the Lord says.’
4 The Lord spoke this message about Israel and Judah:
5 The Lord said,
‘People are shouting because they are afraid!
Listen to them!
There is no peace anywhere.
6 Think carefully about this.
Do men ever give birth to babies?
So why are these strong men weak with pain?
They seem like a woman who is giving birth.
All their faces have become white with fear.
7 It will be a time of terrible trouble,
worse than anything that has happened before.
It will be a time of great trouble for Jacob's descendants.[a]
But I will rescue them from their trouble.’
8 The Lord Almighty says this:
‘When that day comes,
I will break the yoke that is around your necks.[b]
I will remove the ropes that tie your legs.
My people will no longer be slaves
under the power of foreign people.
9 Instead, they will serve the Lord their God.
They will serve David's descendant.
I will raise that man up to be their king.’
10 The Lord says,
‘Do not be afraid, descendants of Jacob, my servants.
People of Israel, do not be upset.
I will rescue you and your descendants from your enemies.
I will bring you back from the land far away,
where you are prisoners.
Jacob's descendants will return to their own land.
They will live there safely in peace.
There will be no enemies to make them afraid.’
11 The Lord says,
‘I am with you and I will save you.
I have sent you away to live in foreign lands.
That was the punishment that you deserved.
I will completely destroy the nations where I sent you to live.
But I will not completely destroy you.
I will certainly punish you,
but only as much as you deserve.’
12 The Lord says this to Zion's people:
‘You have received very bad wounds.
Nobody can make you well again.
13 There is no one who will speak on your behalf.
There is no medicine that can make you well.
14 All your friends have turned away from you.
They do not want to help you in your troubles.
I have hurt you,
in the way that an enemy might attack you.
You have lived in a very wicked way,
and you are guilty of many sins.
So I had to punish you,
to teach you what is right.
15 You complain about your wounds.
You say that your pain will never get better.
But I had to punish you,
because you are very wicked,
and you are guilty of many sins.
16 But I will destroy your enemies who destroyed you.
All of them will go as prisoners to foreign lands.
They took your valuable things for themselves.
Now I will take away their valuable things.
17 People say that nobody takes care of you,
people of Zion.
They say that I have chased you out of your land.
But I will give you back your health.
I will make your wounds better.’
That is what the Lord says.
18 The Lord says,
‘I will bring back Jacob's descendants to their own land.
Enemies have knocked down their houses,
but I will repair the homes where they lived.
I will be kind to them,
so that each family can live safely.
The city will stand again in its right place.
The palace will also stand where it was before.
19 In those places you will hear happy songs,
as people thank God.
People will laugh aloud because they are so happy.
I will make them grow in number.
Their descendants will be many.
I will cause other nations to give them honour.
They will no longer insult my people.
20 Jacob's descendants will be strong again,
as they were long ago.
They will serve me together as one group of people.
I will punish anyone who wants to hurt them.
21 One of their own people will rule them as king.
I will ask him to come near to me,
and he will come near.
Nobody would be brave enough to come near to me,
unless I asked him to come.’
That is what the Lord says.
22 ‘At that time, you will again be my people,
and I will be your God. ’
23 Look! The Lord's anger will come
like a strong storm.
Like a strong wind,
it will blow away the heads of wicked people.
24 The Lord will not stop being angry,
until he has finished what he has decided to do.
When the time comes,
you will understand this clearly.
The Israelites will return to their own land
31 The Lord says this:
‘When that time comes,
I will be the God of every family in Israel.
And they will be my people.’
2 The Lord says,
‘I was kind to the Israelites
when they travelled in the desert.
I helped those that the enemy had not killed,
as they looked for a place where they could rest.’
3 At that time long ago,
the Lord showed himself to his people.
He said, ‘I have always loved you
and I always will love you.
My faithful love for you continues for ever.
4 My special people of Israel,
I will make you strong again.
You will be so happy that you dance,
as people make music with tambourines.
5 You will again plant vines
on the hills in Samaria.
Yes, farmers will plant vines
and they will eat their fruit.
6 There will be a time when guards will call out,
as they watch for danger in the hills of Ephraim.
They will shout, “Let us go up to Zion,
to worship the Lord our God.” ’[c]
7 The Lord says this:
‘Sing with joy for Jacob's descendants!
They are the greatest of all the nations!
Praise the Lord with loud voices!
Say, “Lord, please save your people.
Save those Israelites who are still alive.”
8 See what I will do!
I will bring them back from the land in the north.
Wherever they are, I will bring them back.
A great crowd of my people will return.
Blind people will be among them,
and people who cannot walk well.
There will be pregnant women
and some who will very soon give birth.
9 They will be weeping as they come.
They will pray for my help as I lead them.
I will lead them beside streams of fresh water,
and on flat paths where they will not fall down.
I will help them because I am a father for Israel's people.
Ephraim is like my firstborn son.’[d]
10 People of all nations,
listen to the Lord's message.
Shout it aloud for everyone to hear,
even those who live on the coasts far away.
Say, ‘The Lord chased Israel's people away,
but now he will bring them back.
He will take care of them,
like a shepherd who takes care of his sheep.’
11 Yes, the Lord will rescue Jacob's descendants.
He will pay the cost to let them be free.
They will no longer be under the power of people who were stronger than them.
12 His people will come back to Mount Zion,
and they will shout with joy.
They will be very happy
because of all the good things that the Lord gives to them.
There will be grain to make bread,
new wine and olive oil.
There will be lambs and young cows.
They will grow and be strong,
like a garden that has plenty of water.
They will not be weak or sad any more.
13 The Lord says this:
‘Young women will dance because they are happy.
The young men and the old men will also be happy.
I will cause them to laugh instead of weep.
I will comfort them,
so that they are happy instead of sad.
14 I will give the priests plenty of good things.
My people will have everything that they need,
because of all the good things that I give to them.’
15 The Lord says,
‘You can hear a sad noise in Ramah.
Someone is weeping with a loud voice.
It is Rachel, and she is weeping for her children.
Nobody can help her to stop weeping,
because her children are dead.’[e]
16 The Lord says,
‘Stop crying!
Do not weep any more!
I will help you because of what you have done.
Your children will return from the land of their enemies.’
That is what the Lord says.
17 ‘Yes, you will have descendants in the future.
Your children will return to their own land.’
That is what the Lord says.
18 ‘I have heard Israel's people when they are sad.
They say to me, “You punished us,
and we accepted it.
You taught us to obey you,
like a farmer teaches an ox to work for him.
So let us come back to serve you.
We are ready to return to you,
because you are the Lord, our God.
19 After we turned away from you,
we were sorry that we had done that.
We understood what we had done,
and we showed that we were sad.
We were ashamed and upset,
because of the disgusting things that we did when we were young.”
20 But Israel's people are my own dear children.
I still love them,
even when I have to speak against them.
I can never forget them.
I only want to help them.
I will certainly be kind to them.’
That is what the Lord says.
21 ‘People of Israel, put up signs along the roads,
so that you know the way to go.
Remember the road that you travelled on
when you went away from your land.
Now return, my special people, Israel.
Return to your cities that you had to leave.
22 You went away from me,
like a daughter who refuses to obey her father.
Do not continue to turn away from me.
I, the Lord, promise to do a new thing.
Women will take care of men!’
The people of Judah will be strong again
23 The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says this:
‘I will bring my people back from the land where they have been prisoners. Then the people in the towns of Judah will again say, “We pray that the Lord will bless you, Jerusalem. You are the special place where he lives on his holy mountain!”[f]
24 People will live together in the towns of Judah. Farmers and shepherds will work in the fields. 25 I will help those who feel tired. I will make those who feel weak strong again.
26 Then they will say, “When I woke from my sleep and I looked around, I was happy.” ’
27 The Lord says this:
‘The time will come when I fill the lands of Israel and Judah with people and animals. 28 In past time, I chose to pull them out of their land, like a plant with its roots. I knocked them down and I destroyed them. But now I will put them in their land again, like strong plants.’ That is what the Lord says.
29 ‘When that happens, people will not say, “The fathers have eaten bitter fruit, but it causes their children's teeth to hurt.”[g] 30 Instead, I will punish everyone for their own sins. It will be the teeth of the person who eats bitter fruit that will hurt.’
31 The Lord says, ‘A time will soon come when I make a new covenant with Israel's people and with Judah's people. 32 It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors. At that time, I brought them safely out of Egypt. I took care of them, like a faithful husband who takes care of his wife. But they did not obey my covenant.’ That is what the Lord says.
33 ‘Yes, I will make a new covenant with Israel's people at that time. It will be like this: I will put my law deep inside them, in their hearts and minds. I will be their God, and they will be my people.’ That is what the Lord says.
34 ‘Then people will not have to teach their friends or their family about me. They will all know me already. The important people and the ordinary people will all know me. I will forgive the wicked things that they have done. I will no longer think about their sins.’ That is what the Lord says.
35 The Lord is the one who causes the sun to shine during the day.
He causes the moon and the stars to shine at night.
He causes the waves of the sea to move around
and they make a loud noise.
He is the Lord Almighty,
and he makes this promise:
36 ‘I will always take care of Israel's people as my special nation.
I will always cause the laws that rule everything to continue.
I could never forget those laws, and I could never forget my people.’
37 The Lord says,
‘Nobody can measure the size of the sky.
Nobody can dig down to the bottom of the earth's foundations.
In the same way, I can never turn away from all Israel's people.
I will not leave them,
even though they have done wicked things.’
That is what the Lord says.[h]
38 The Lord says this:
‘The time will soon come when this city of Jerusalem belongs to me again. You will build it all again, from the tower of Hananel to the Corner gate. 39 The edge of the city will go straight from there to Gareb hill. Then it will turn south and go to Goah. 40 The whole area will belong to the Lord as a holy place. It will include the valley where they throw dead bodies and the ashes from sacrifices. It will include all the fields of the Kidron valley in the east, as far north as the corner of the Horse Gate. All of that will be my holy place. Nobody will ever again take the city or destroy it.’
Jesus becomes alive again
16 After the day of rest had finished, the women bought some spices. They wanted to mix these with some oil to put on Jesus' body.[a] These women were Mary from Magdala, Salome, and Mary the mother of James. 2 They went out at dawn on the first day of the week, Sunday. They went to the hole in the rock where Joseph had put Jesus' dead body.
3 The women asked each other, ‘Who will roll away the heavy stone for us? It closes the hole in the rock where they put Jesus' dead body.’
4 Then they looked and they saw the stone. It was a very big stone. But someone had already rolled it away from the hole. 5 When the women went into the hole in the rock, they saw a young man there.[b] He was sitting in there on the right side and he wore bright white clothes. The women were very afraid.
6 The young man said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. You are looking for Jesus from Nazareth. The soldiers killed him on a cross, but he has become alive again. He is not here. Look! You can see the place where the men put him. 7 But now you must go to tell his disciples and Peter about this.[c] Tell them, “Jesus is going to Galilee and you must also go there. You will see him there, just as he told you it would happen.” ’
8 Then the women went out of the hole in the rock, and they ran away from that place. They were very upset and they had trouble in their minds. Because they were afraid, they did not say anything to anyone.
The end of Mark's book
9 [d] [Jesus became alive again early on the first day of the week. He appeared first to Mary from Magdala. Jesus had caused seven bad spirits to leave her. 10 She went to the people who had been with Jesus. They were all very sad and they were crying. Mary spoke to them. 11 She told them that Jesus was alive. And she told them that she had seen him. But they did not believe it.
12 After these things had happened, Jesus appeared to two other disciples. They were walking away from Jerusalem to their village. It seemed to them that Jesus was different. 13 Those two disciples went and told all the other disciples. But the other disciples did not believe them.
14 After that, Jesus appeared to the 11 apostles while they were eating. He told them that they were wrong not to believe. They should have been ready to believe. People had seen that he was now alive again. But the disciples had not believed them.
15 Then Jesus said to them, ‘Go to all people everywhere in the world. Tell God's good news to everyone. 16 If a person believes in me, then you should baptize that person. And God will save that person. But if a person does not believe, God will judge that person to be guilty. 17 These miracles will happen when people believe in me. On my behalf, they will send bad spirits out of people. They will speak new languages. 18 If they pick up a snake, it will not hurt them. If they drink poison, it will not hurt them. They will put their hands on ill people, and God will make those people well.’
Jesus goes up to heaven
19 So, after the Lord Jesus had spoken to the disciples, God took him up into heaven. There he sat down at the right side of God.
20 The disciples went out everywhere. They told people God's good news. The Lord worked with them. He did powerful things to show that the message which they spoke was true.]
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