M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

God’s Promise to David

17 David moved into his palace. Then he said to Nathan the prophet, “Look, I am living in a palace made of cedar. But the Ark of the Covenant with the Lord sits in a tent.”

² Nathan answered David, “Do what you want to do. God is with you.”

³ But that night God spoke his word to Nathan. God said, ⁴ “Go and tell my servant David: ‘This is what the Lord says: David, you are not the person to build a house for me to live in. ⁵ From the time I brought Israel out of Egypt until now I have not lived in a house. I have moved from one tent site to another. I have gone from one place to another. ⁶ I have moved with the Israelites to different places. I commanded leaders to take care of my people. I never said to any of those leaders, “Why haven’t you built me a house of cedar?”’

⁷ “Now, tell my servant David: ‘The Lord of heaven’s armies says: I took you from the pasture and from tending the sheep. I made you king of my people Israel. ⁸ I have been with you everywhere you have gone. I have killed your enemies for you. Now I will make you one of the most famous men on earth. ⁹ I will give this place to my people Israel. I will settle them here. Then they will have a home of their own. They won’t be bothered anymore. Evil people won’t hurt them as they have done since the first. ¹⁰ Evil people have hurt them since I chose leaders for my people Israel. I will also defeat all your enemies.

“‘I tell you that the Lord will make your descendants kings of Israel after you. ¹¹ When you die and join your ancestors, I will let your child be the new king. He will be one of your own sons. And I will make his kingdom strong. ¹² He will build a house for me. And I will let his family rule forever. ¹³ I will be his father, and he will be my son. I took away my love from Saul, who ruled before you. But I will never stop loving your son. ¹⁴ I will put him in charge of my house and kingdom forever. His family will rule forever.’”

¹⁵ Nathan told David everything God had said in this vision.

David’s Prayer

¹⁶ Then King David went in and sat in front of the Lord. David said, “Lord God, why have you made me so important to you? Why have you made my family important? ¹⁷ But that was not enough for you, God. You have also said these kind things about my future family. I am your servant. Lord God, you have treated me like a very important man.

¹⁸ “What more can I say to you? You have done so much for me, your servant. You love me so much. ¹⁹ Lord, you have done this wonderful thing for me for my sake. And you have done it because you wanted to. You have let me know all these great promises.

²⁰ “There is no one like you, Lord. There is no God except you. We have heard all this ourselves. ²¹ There is no one like your people, the Israelites. It is the one nation on earth that God chose to be his people. You used them to make your name well-known. You did great and wonderful things for them. You went ahead of them and forced other nations out of the land. You freed your people from slavery in Egypt. ²² You made the people of Israel your very own people forever. And, Lord, you became their God.

²³ “Lord, you made this promise about my family and me, your servant. Now, keep your promise forever. Do what you have promised. ²⁴ Then people will know you and honor you forever. And people will say, ‘The Lord of heaven’s armies, the God over Israel, is Israel’s God!’ And the family of your servant David will continue before you.

²⁵ “My God, you have told me that you would make my family great. So I, your servant, am brave enough to pray to you. ²⁶ Lord, you are God. You have promised these good things to me, your servant. ²⁷ You have chosen to bless my family. Let it continue before you forever. Lord, you have blessed my family. So it will be blessed forever.”

Give Yourselves to God

4 Do you know where your fights and arguments come from? They come from the selfish desires that make war inside you. ² You want things, but you do not have them. So you are ready to kill and are jealous of other people. But you still cannot get what you want. So you argue and fight. You do not get what you want because you do not ask God. ³ Or when you ask, you do not receive because the reason you ask is wrong. You want things only so that you can use them for your own pleasures.

⁴ So, you people are not loyal to God! You should know that loving the world is the same as hating God. So if a person wants to be a friend of the world, he makes himself God’s enemy. ⁵ Do you think the Scripture means nothing? It says, “The Spirit that God made to live in us wants us for himself alone.”^{[a] 6} But God gives us even more grace, as the Scripture says,

⁷ So give yourselves to God. Stand against the devil, and the devil will run away from you. ⁸ Come near to God, and God will come near to you. You are sinners. So clean sin out of your lives. You are trying to follow God and the world at the same time. Make your thinking pure. ⁹ Be sad, cry, and weep! Change your laughter into crying. Change your joy into sadness. ¹⁰ Humble yourself before the Lord, and he will honor you.

You Are Not the Judge

¹¹ Brothers, do not say bad things about each other. If you say bad things about your brother in Christ or judge him, then you are saying bad things about the law he follows. You are also judging the law he follows. And when you are judging the law, you are not a follower of the law. You have become a judge! ¹² God is the only One who makes laws, and he is the only Judge. He is the only One who can save and destroy. So it is not right for you to judge your neighbor.

Let God Plan Your Life

¹³ Some of you say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to some city. We will stay there a year, do business, and make money.” ¹⁴ But you do not know what will happen tomorrow! Your life is like a mist. You can see it for a short time, but then it goes away. ¹⁵ So you should say, “If the Lord wants, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ But now you are proud and you brag. All of this bragging is wrong. ¹⁷ And when a person knows the right thing to do, but does not do it, then he is sinning.

God Calls and Jonah Runs

1 The Lord spoke his word to Jonah son of Amittai: ² “Get up, go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it. I see the evil things they do.”

³ But Jonah got up to run away from the Lord. He went to the city of Joppa. There he found a ship that was going to the city of Tarshish. Jonah paid for the trip and went aboard. He wanted to go to Tarshish to run away from the Lord.

⁴ But the Lord sent a great wind on the sea. This wind made the sea very rough. So the ship was in danger of breaking apart. ⁵ The sailors were afraid. Each man cried to his own god. The men began throwing the cargo into the sea. This would make the ship lighter so it would not sink.

But Jonah had gone down into the ship to lie down. He fell fast asleep. ⁶ The captain of the ship came and said, “Why are you sleeping? Get up! Pray to your god! Maybe your god will pay attention to us. Maybe he will save us!”

⁷ Then the men said to each other, “Let’s throw lots to see who caused these troubles to happen to us.”

So the men threw lots. The lot showed that the trouble had happened because of Jonah. ⁸ Then the men said to Jonah, “Tell us what you have done. Why has this terrible thing happened to us? What is your job? Where do you come from? What is your country? Who are your people?”

⁹ Then Jonah said to them, “I am a Hebrew. I fear the Lord, the God of heaven. He is the God who made the sea and the land.”

¹⁰ Then the men were very afraid. They asked Jonah, “What terrible thing did you do?” They knew Jonah was running away from the Lord because Jonah had told them.

¹¹ The wind and the waves of the sea were becoming much stronger. So the men said to Jonah, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down?”

¹² Jonah said to them, “Pick me up, and throw me into the sea. Then it will calm down. I know it is my fault that this great storm has come on you.”

¹³ Instead, the men tried to row the ship back to the land. But they could not. The wind and the waves of the sea were becoming much stronger.

Jonah’s Punishment

¹⁴ So the men cried to the Lord, “Lord, please don’t let us die because of taking this man’s life. Please don’t think we are guilty of killing an innocent man. Lord, you have caused all this to happen. You wanted it this way.” ¹⁵ Then the men picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea. So the sea became calm. ¹⁶ Then they began to fear the Lord very much. They offered a sacrifice to the Lord. They also made promises to him.

¹⁷ And the Lord caused a very big fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

Jesus Is Lord over the Sabbath

6 One Sabbath day Jesus was walking through some grainfields. His followers picked the heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. ² Some Pharisees said, “Why are you doing that? It is against the law of Moses to do that on the Sabbath day.”

³ Jesus answered, “Haven’t you read about what David did when he and those with him were hungry? ⁴ David went into God’s house. He took the bread that was made holy for God and ate it. And he gave some of the bread to the people with him. This was against the law of Moses. It says that only priests can eat that bread.” ⁵ Then Jesus said to the Pharisees, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath day.”

Jesus Heals a Man’s Crippled Hand

⁶ On another Sabbath day Jesus went into the synagogue and was teaching. A man with a crippled right hand was there. ⁷ The teachers of the law and the Pharisees were watching to see if Jesus would heal on the Sabbath day. They wanted to see Jesus do something wrong so that they could accuse him. ⁸ But he knew what they were thinking. He said to the man with the crippled hand, “Get up and stand before these people.” The man got up and stood there. ⁹ Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is it right to do on the Sabbath day: to do good, or to do evil? Is it right to save a life or to destroy one?” ¹⁰ Jesus looked around at all of them. He said to the man, “Let me see your hand.” The man stretched out his hand, and it was completely healed.

¹¹ The Pharisees and the teachers of the law became very angry. They said to each other, “What can we do to Jesus?”

Jesus Chooses His Apostles

¹² At that time Jesus went off to a mountain to pray. He stayed there all night, praying to God. ¹³ The next morning, Jesus called his followers to him. He chose 12 of them, whom he named “apostles.” They were ¹⁴ Simon (Jesus named him Peter) and Andrew, Peter’s brother; James and John, Philip and Bartholomew; ¹⁵ Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon (called the Zealot), ¹⁶ Judas son of James and Judas Iscariot. This Judas was the one who gave Jesus to his enemies.

Jesus Teaches and Heals

¹⁷ Jesus and the apostles came down from the mountain. Jesus stood on level ground where there was a large group of his followers. Also, there were many people from all around Judea, Jerusalem, and the seacoast cities of Tyre and Sidon. ¹⁸ They all came to hear Jesus teach and to be healed of their sicknesses. He healed those who were troubled by evil spirits. ¹⁹ All the people were trying to touch Jesus, because power was coming from him and healing them all!

²⁰ Jesus looked at his followers and said,

²² “You are happy when people hate you and are cruel to you. You are happy when they say that you are evil because you belong to the Son of Man. ²³ At that time be full of joy, because you have a great reward in heaven. Their fathers were cruel to the prophets in the same way these people are cruel to you.

²⁶ “How terrible when all people say only good things about you. Their fathers always said good things about the false prophets.

Love Your Enemies

²⁷ “I say to you who are listening to me, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. ²⁸ Ask God to bless those who say bad things to you. Pray for those who are cruel to you. ²⁹ If anyone slaps you on one cheek, let him slap the other cheek too. If someone takes your coat, do not stop him from taking your shirt. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you. When a person takes something that is yours, don’t ask for it back. ³¹ Do for other people what you want them to do for you. ³² If you love only those who love you, should you get some special praise for doing that? No! Even sinners love the people who love them! ³³ If you do good only to those who do good to you, should you get some special praise for doing that? No! Even sinners do that! ³⁴ If you lend things to people, always hoping to get something back, should you get some special praise for that? No! Even sinners lend to other sinners so that they can get back the same amount! ³⁵ So love your enemies. Do good to them, and lend to them without hoping to get anything back. If you do these things, you will have a great reward. You will be sons of the Most High God. Yes, because God is kind even to people who are ungrateful and full of sin. ³⁶ Show mercy just as your father shows mercy.

Look at Yourselves

³⁷ “Don’t judge other people, and you will not be judged. Don’t accuse others of being guilty, and you will not be accused of being guilty. Forgive other people, and you will be forgiven. ³⁸ Give, and you will receive. You will be given much. It will be poured into your hands—more than you can hold. You will be given so much that it will spill into your lap. The way you give to others is the way God will give to you.”

³⁹ Jesus told them this story: “Can a blind man lead another blind man? No! Both of them will fall into a ditch. ⁴⁰ A student is not better than his teacher. But when the student has fully learned all that he has been taught, then he will be like his teacher.

⁴¹ “Why do you notice the little piece of dust that is in your brother’s eye, but you don’t see the big piece of wood that is in your own eye? ⁴² You say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take that little piece of dust out of your eye.’ Why do you say this? You cannot see that big piece of wood in your own eye! You are a hypocrite! First, take the piece of wood out of your own eye. Then you will see clearly to take the dust out of your brother’s eye.

Two Kinds of Fruit

⁴³ “A good tree does not produce bad fruit. Also, a bad tree does not produce good fruit. ⁴⁴ Each tree is known by its fruit. People don’t gather figs from thornbushes. And they don’t get grapes from bushes. ⁴⁵ A good person has good things saved up in his heart. And so he brings good things out of his heart. But an evil person has evil things saved up in his heart. So he brings out bad things. A person speaks the things that are in his heart.

Two Kinds of People

⁴⁶ “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but do not do what I say? ⁴⁷ Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and obeys ⁴⁸ is like a man building a house. He digs deep and lays his foundation on rock. The floods come, and the water tries to wash the house away. But the flood cannot move the house, because the house was built well. ⁴⁹ But the one who hears my words and does not obey is like a man who builds his house on the ground without a foundation. When the floods come, the house quickly falls down. And that house is completely destroyed.”