M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Love the Lord your God!
6 These are the commands, rules and laws that the Lord your God gave to me. He told me to teach them to you. You must obey them when you go across the Jordan River to live in that land. 2 You must respect the Lord your God with fear. You must obey his rules and his commands that I am teaching you. You, your children and your grandchildren must obey them all through your lives. If you do that, you will enjoy a long life.
3 Listen, Israelites! Be careful to obey God's rules. If you do that, everything will be well for you. You will have many children. You will live in a land where there is plenty of food and drink, enough for everyone. The Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised that this will happen.
4 Listen, Israelites! The Lord alone is our God. There is no other true God. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your mind and with all your strength. Love him with all that you are. 6 Always think about these commands that I am giving you today. 7 Teach them to your children at all times. Talk about them when you sit together at home. Talk about them as you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as signs on your arms and on your heads, so that you remember them. 9 Write them on the wood beside the doors of your houses and on your gates.
10 The Lord your God will soon bring you into a land that has large, beautiful cities that you did not build. That is the land that he promised to give to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 11 It has houses that are full of good things that you did not put into them. There are wells of water that you did not dig. There are fields with grapes and olive trees that you did not plant. You will be able to eat as much as you want. 12 But be careful that you do not forget the Lord. He rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves.
13 You must respect and obey the Lord your God. Serve only him. If you make a serious promise, only use his name to make it strong. 14 Do not try to serve other gods. They are the gods that the people who live around you worship. 15 The Lord your God lives among you. He wants you to belong to him alone. If you worship other gods, he will be very angry with you. He will completely destroy you from the whole earth.
16 Do not test the Lord your God, to see what he will do. That is what you did at Massah. 17 Be careful to obey his commands. Remember the laws and the rules that he has told you to obey. 18 Do things that the Lord says are right and good. If you do that, you will be happy in everything that you do. You will go into the good land that he promised to your ancestors, and that will be your home. 19 You will be able to chase out all your enemies, as the Lord has promised.
20 One day, your children may say to you, ‘Please tell us about the rules and laws that the Lord our God commanded us to obey.’
21 Then you must tell them, ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt. But the Lord used his great power to rescue us. 22 We saw him do great and powerful miracles that brought trouble to the Egyptians, and to Pharaoh himself and his family. 23 The Lord rescued us from Egypt so that he could give us another land to live in. That is the land that he promised to our ancestors. 24 The Lord commanded us to obey all these rules and to respect him with fear. If we do that, we will always live happily and the Lord will keep us safe, as he has done until now. 25 We must be careful to obey all the commands of the Lord our God. If we do what he has told us, he will be pleased with us as people who do what is right.’
This is a special song that Ethan the Ezrahite wrote.
God's special love[a]
89 I will always sing about the Lord's faithful love.
I will tell my children and my grandchildren
that you are always faithful.
2 Yes! Your faithful love will always continue to be strong.
You will always be faithful,
as the skies will always be there.
3 The Lord has said,
‘I have made a covenant with the king that I chose.
I have made this strong promise to my servant David:
4 “Someone from your family will always be king.
They will rule for ever.” ’
Selah.
5 Lord, everything in heaven praises you
for the great things that you have done.
Yes, your angels meet together to praise you,
because you are always faithful.
6 In all the heavens,
there is no one like you, Lord!
No angel in heaven is equal to you.
7 When the angels meet together in heaven,
they respect you with fear.
All who meet round your throne in heaven respect you,
as you deserve.
8 Lord God Almighty,
no one is as powerful as you!
You are always faithful in all that you do!
9 You rule over the powerful sea.
When the waves rise up,
you make them quiet again.
10 You caught the monster Rahab
and you killed it!
With your power,
you chased away your enemies.
11 The heavens belong to you
and so does the earth.
You made the world
and everything that is in it.
12 You made everything,
from the north to the south.
Tabor and Hermon are happy to praise your name.[b]
13 You have great strength,
and you can do great things.
You hold up your right hand,
as you win against your enemies.
14 As King, you rule with justice,
and you always do what is right.
You show your faithful love and you are faithful.
15 You have truly blessed the people
who know how to praise you, Lord.
They know that you are pleased with them.
16 They praise your name all the time.
Your justice makes them happy.
17 You give strength and glory to your people.
Because you are kind to us,
we win against our enemies.
18 Yes! Our king belongs to the Lord,
and he protects us like a shield.
Our king belongs to the Holy One of Israel.
God's covenant with David
19 A long time ago, Lord,
you spoke to your servants.
In a vision, you said to them,
‘I have helped a brave soldier to be strong.
I have chosen as king
a young man from among the people.
20 I have found David, my servant.
I have poured my special oil on him,
to make him king.
21 I will help him with my power,
so that he is strong.
22 No enemy will win against him.
No cruel people will have power to hurt him.
23 I will destroy his enemies in front of him
I will kill those who hate him.
24 I will always be faithful
and show him my faithful love.
By my name he will win against his enemies.
25 I will cause his kingdom to reach
beyond the sea and the rivers.
26 The king will say to me, “You are my Father.
You are my God.
You protect me and you rescue me.”
27 Also, I will make him my firstborn son.
He will be the greatest of the kings of the earth.
28 I will always love him with my faithful love.
I will never change the covenant
that I have made with him.
29 Someone from his family will always be king.
They will rule for ever,
as long as there are skies above us.
30-31 But I will punish his descendants,
if they do not accept my laws.
If they do not obey my teaching, my rules, or my commands,
32 I will punish them.
Because of their sins,
I will give them much pain.
33 But I will not take my faithful love away from David.
I will always be faithful,
and I will do what I have promised to him.
34 I will not spoil the covenant that I have made with him.
I will always keep my promises.
35 I made that promise to David at one time,
and that will not change.
I promised him by my holy name
and I will never deceive him.
36 His descendants will always rule.
His kingdom will continue to be there for ever,
as long as the sun shines.
37 As the moon is always there in the sky,
to show that God is faithful,
David's kingdom will also continue.’
Selah.
A sad song
38 But now you have turned against your king.
You have become angry with the king that you have chosen.
39 You have spoiled the covenant
that you made with your servant.
You have thrown his crown into the dirt.
40 You have knocked down all the walls of his city.
You have destroyed all his strong places.
41 Every stranger robs him of his things.
His neighbours laugh at him.
42 You have made his enemies strong,
so that they win against him and they are happy.
43 You have made his weapons useless,
so that he cannot beat his enemies in war.
44 You have taken away his authority as king.
You have knocked down his throne to the ground.
45 He no longer has the strength of a young man.
You have dressed him in clothes of shame.
Selah.
46 Lord, how long will this continue?
Will you hide yourself from us for ever?
Will your anger continue to burn like a fire?
47 Remember that my life is very short!
People are weak and their lives seem useless.
Why do you make people like that?
48 Nobody can continue to live and never die.
Nobody can escape from the power of death.
49 My Lord, where is the faithful love
that you showed to us in past times?
Where are the blessings that you promised to David?
50 My Lord, look at how people are insulting me!
People from all nations laugh at me, your servant.
51 Lord, your enemies insult the king that you have chosen.
Wherever I go, they insult me!
52 Praise the Lord as he deserves!
Yes! Amen! We agree!
God will punish his enemies
34 Come near to me, people of all nations.
Listen carefully, everyone!
All the earth, and everything that is in it,
listen to me!
Yes, the whole world, and all who live in it,
listen carefully!
2 The Lord is angry against all the nations
and all their armies.
He has decided to destroy them,
and that is what he will do.
3 Nobody will bury the dead bodies
of those who have died in battle.
The smell of their dead bodies will be everywhere.
Their blood will pour down the mountains.
4 The stars in the sky will slowly disappear.
The sky will close up like a book.
All the stars will fall,
like dry leaves that fall from a vine.
They will drop like figs from a fig tree,
when they become dry.
5 The Lord says,
‘My sword has finished its work in the skies.
Now it will come to punish Edom.
Those are the people that I have decided to destroy.’
6 The Lord's sword has blood all over it!
It is the blood of young sheep and goats.
It has the fat of meat on it.
It is the fat from sheep's kidneys.
Yes! The Lord is killing animals for a sacrifice in Bozrah.[a]
He will kill many people in Edom.
7 He will kill their wild oxen
and their young bulls.[b]
Blood will pour over Edom's land.
Fat will feed their soil.
8 The Lord has chosen a day for punishment.
It will be a time when he punishes Zion's enemies,
because they have attacked his people.
9 The water in Edom's streams will become tar.
Its soil will become sulphur.
Its whole land will become tar that is burning.
10 That fire will burn through the days and the nights.
Its smoke will always continue to rise up.
The land will be empty from one century to the next.
Nobody will ever travel through it again.
11 Owls, hawks and hedgehogs will live there,[c]
as well as all kinds of wild animals and wild birds.
The Lord will carefully measure the whole land,
so that he can destroy it.
It will become like an empty desert.
12 There will be no kingdom left for anyone to rule.
Edom's leaders and officers will all disappear.
13 Thorn bushes will grow over its palaces.
Bushes and weeds will grow over its strong cities.
Jackals and ostriches will make their homes in the land.
14 Wild animals and hyenas will meet there.
Wild goats will call out to each other.
The night monster will come there,
and she will find a place to stay.
15 Owls will build their nests there.
They will take care of their eggs
until the baby birds come out.
They will keep their babies safe under their wings.
Hawks will meet there too.
They will be together in pairs, male and female.
16 Read the Lord's book very carefully:
‘All these animals and birds will be there.
They will all be together in pairs.
The Lord himself has commanded what must happen.
His Spirit brings them all together.’
17 The Lord has decided where each one will live.
He measures a place for every kind of animal and bird.
The land will always belong to them to live in.
It will be their home from one century to the next.
God on his throne
4 After this, I looked. There in front of me was an open door in heaven. I heard the same voice that I had heard before. It spoke like the sound of a trumpet. It said to me, ‘Come up here. I will show you the things that must happen after this.’
2 Immediately God's Spirit caused me to see and to hear more things. I saw a throne in heaven, with someone sitting on it. 3 The person who sat there shone with bright red and white light, like jewels called jasper and ruby. Around the throne there was a rainbow that shone with bright green light like an emerald jewel. 4 All around the throne there were 24 other thrones. 24 leaders were sitting on these thrones. They were wearing white clothes and they had gold crowns on their heads. 5 A storm with bright lightning came from the throne. There was the loud noise of thunder. In front of the throne there were seven lights of fire burning brightly. These lights are the seven spirits of God.[a] 6 Also in front of the throne there was something like a sea of glass that shone with light.
In the middle, round the throne, there were four other beings that were alive. They had eyes all over them, on their fronts and on their backs. 7 The first of these beings was like a lion. The second being was like an ox. The third being had a face like a man's face. And the fourth being was like an eagle that was flying. 8 Each of these four beings had six wings. They had eyes all over them, even under their wings. All day and all night they never stop saying:
‘The Lord God has all power and authority.
He has no bad thing in him. He is completely good.
He has always been alive. He is alive now.
He will continue to be alive for ever.’
9 God sits on the throne and he is alive for ever. The four beings that are alive worship him and they thank him. 10 When they do this, the 24 leaders bend down to the ground. They also worship the Lord God, who sits on the throne and is alive for ever. They put their crowns in front of God's throne, and they praise him. They say:
11 ‘God, our Lord, you are very good!
Everyone should give you honour and say how great and powerful you are!
Everyone should worship you, because you created everything.
You decided to make them and so you made them!
That is why everything in the world is here.’
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