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M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

The classic M'Cheyne plan--read the Old Testament, New Testament, and Psalms or Gospels every day.
Duration: 365 days
The Voice (VOICE)
Version
2 Chronicles 1

After David had unified the tribes of Israel into one nation, subdued his neighboring enemies, and joined his ancestors in death, David’s son Solomon demonstrated his authority as king over Israel. The Eternal God was with Solomon and made him great.

As the new king, Solomon continues building God’s temple, utilizing David’s preparations, building the structure, and establishing the religion of the Lord.

As their new king, Solomon spoke to all Israel (commanders of thousands and hundreds, the judges, and every tribal leader). Then he took the group up to the high place at Gibeon, a place in the mountains known for its connection to the Divine, where God’s meeting tent stood. (Moses, the servant of the Eternal, had made this tent and the covenant chest in the wilderness where it traveled with the people, but David prepared a permanent home for the covenant chest of God in Jerusalem where it stayed after he took it from Kiriath-jearim.) At this high place, 5-6 Solomon and the group looked for the bronze altar, which Bezalel (son of Uri, son of Hur) had placed before the Eternal’s congregation tent. Solomon offered 1,000 burnt offerings there in the presence of the Eternal.

That night, the True God appeared to Solomon.

God (following the offerings of Solomon): Ask what you want from Me, and I shall give it to you.

Solomon: 8-9 The loyal love You showed my father, David, was immeasurable, and You, O Eternal God, have fulfilled Your promise to my father and made me the king of innumerable people in his place. 10 Now that I am their ruler, give me wisdom and knowledge to lead this great people. Without such wisdom, who can govern such a great people?

God: 11 You did not ask for selfish personal gain: riches, wealth, honor, the deaths of your enemies, or a long life. Instead, you asked for godly wisdom and knowledge to rule My people, over whom I have made you king. 12 Because you thought of the welfare of My people, I have granted you this exceptional wisdom and knowledge. In addition, I will give you riches and wealth and honor greater than any king ever has possessed or ever will possess.

These gifts are signs that God loves Solomon, and Solomon could use them for his own selfish reasons. But Solomon demonstrates wisdom by using these exceptional gifts to honor God in the construction of His temple.

13 Having sacrificed to God at the meeting tent on the high place of Gibeon and received His gifts, Solomon returned to Jerusalem to govern Israel.

14 There Solomon gathered his wealth. He collected 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen; and then he stationed them in the fortified cities, as well as in Jerusalem, where he remained. 15 He distributed silver and gold until they saturated Jerusalem. He imported cedar trees until they rivaled in number the sycamores of the foothills. 16 He imported horses from Egypt and from Kue, a nation north of Israel—the king’s merchants bought the horses from Kue, 17 and they acquired chariots from Egypt for about 15 pounds of silver each and horses for about 4 pounds of silver each. Solomon then traded them to all the Hittite and Aramean kings.

1 John 1

We want to tell you about the One who was from the beginning. We have seen Him with our own eyes, heard Him with our own ears, and touched Him with our own hands. This One is the manifestation of the life-giving Voice, and He showed us real life, eternal life. We have seen it all, and we can’t keep what we witnessed quiet—we have to share it with you. We are inviting you to experience eternal life through the One who was with the Father and came down to us. What we saw and heard we pass on to you so that you, too, will be connected with us intimately and become family. Our family is united by our connection with the Father and His Son Jesus, the Anointed One; and we write all this because retelling this story fulfills our[a] joy.

What we are telling you now is the very message we heard from Him: God is pure light, undimmed by darkness of any kind. If we say we have an intimate connection with the Father but we continue stumbling around in darkness, then we are lying because we do not live according to truth. If we walk step by step in the light, where the Father is, then we are ultimately connected to each other through the sacrifice of Jesus His Son. His blood purifies us from all our sins. If we go around bragging, “We have no sin,” then we are fooling ourselves and are strangers to the truth. But if we own up to our sins, God shows that He is faithful and just by forgiving us of our sins and purifying us from the pollution of all the bad things we have done. 10 If we say, “We have not sinned,” then we depict God as a liar and show that we have not let His word find its way into our hearts.

Micah 7

From the descendants of Omri (his son Ahab, daughter-in-law Jezebel, and granddaughter Athaliah) come many of the sins of Israel.

Israel: I am filled with sadness, like one who, after the grapes have been gathered,
        after all the summer fruit has been picked, can find nothing to eat,
    Not a cluster of grapes, not even one of those early figs I love.
    The faithful have disappeared from the land, and no one honest remains;
        they are all alert for blood, hunting their neighbors with a net.
    The hands of those who should know better are good at doing evil:
        the ruler and the judge ask for bribes;
    The people in power merely mention their deepest desires,
        and the ruler and judge make sure they happen.
    The best of them is as painful to deal with as a briar,
        the most honest of them like a hedge heavy with thorns.
    So the day your watchmen have awaited—
        the day of your punishment—has come.
    Now you will be confused and confounded.
    Do not trust your neighbor or rely on a friend.
        Do not tell your secrets even to the spouse who shares your bed,
    For the son insults the father, the daughter rebels against the mother,
        and the daughter-in-law rises up against the mother-in-law.
    Your enemies can be found within your own household.

    But as for me, I will look to the Eternal One, and my hope is in the True God
        who will save me. My God will hear me.
    Do not gloat at my fate, my enemy;
        although I am down now, I will rise up.
    Although I am in darkness now, the Eternal One will be my light.
    I must bear His anger because I have sinned against Him
        until He argues on my behalf and rights all my wrongs.
    He will bring me out into the light,
        and then I will see His saving justice.
10     When my enemy sees that God has rescued me,
        then shame will wash over her
    Because she sneered to me, “Where is the Eternal your God?”
        It will be my turn to watch when she is trampled,
    Walked on like mud in the street.

11 Israel, that will be the day for building your city walls;
    that will be the day to expand your national boundaries.
12 In that day, people will come to you
    from everywhere: from Assyria to cities in Egypt,
From Egypt to the Euphrates River,
    from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
13 The earth will become a desert because those who live on it
    will produce no fruit from their labors.

14 God, with Your shepherd’s staff lead Your people to pasture;
    lead the flock that belongs to You
And grazes alone in the forest surrounded by garden lands.
    Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as they used to do, long ago.
15 I will show you[a] wonders
    as you saw in the days when you came out of Egypt;
16 The nations will see and be ashamed, despite all their might.
    With their hands over their mouths and ears they will hear nothing.
17 They will lick dust like the snakes of the earth crawling across the dirt.
    They will creep out of their holes, shivering in terror because of You.
They turn to the Eternal, our True God, filled with dread,
    and they stand in awe of You.

18 Is there any other God like You, who forgives evil
    and passes over the transgressions done by Yours who remain?
He does not hold onto His anger forever
    because He delights in showing love and kindness.
19 He will take pity on us again, will tread our wrongdoing underfoot.
    He will cast all our sins down to the bottom of the sea.

20 Show Your faithfulness to Jacob and show Your faithful love to Abraham
    As You swore to our ancestors in the days long ago.

Luke 16

The parable ends. Jesus never reveals how it came out. Did the older brother join the party and reconcile with his younger, wayward brother? Or did he stay outside, fuming over the seeming injustice of his father’s extravagant love? The story remains unresolved because it is, in fact, an invitation—an invitation to the Pharisees and other opponents of Jesus to join Him in welcoming sinners and other outsiders into the joyful party of the Kingdom.

16 Here’s a parable He told the disciples:

Jesus: Once there was a rich and powerful man who had an asset manager. One day, the man received word that his asset manager was squandering his assets.

The rich man brought in the asset manager and said, “You’ve been accused of wrongdoing. I want a full and accurate accounting of all your financial transactions because you are really close to being fired.”

The manager said to himself, “Oh, no! Now what am I going to do? I’m going to lose my job here, and I’m too weak to dig ditches and too proud to beg. I have an idea. This plan will mean that I have a lot of hospitable friends when I get fired.”

So the asset manager set up appointments with each person who owed his master money. He said to the first debtor, “How much do you owe my boss?” The debtor replied, “A hundred barrels[a] of oil.” The manager said, “I’m discounting your bill by half. Just write 50 on this contract.” Then he said to the second debtor, “How much do you owe?” This fellow said, “A hundred bales[b] of wheat.” The manager said, “I’m discounting your debt by 20 percent. Just write down 80 bales on this contract.”

When the manager’s boss realized what he had done, he congratulated him for at least being clever. That’s how it is: those attuned to this evil age are more clever in dealing with their affairs than the enlightened are in dealing with their affairs!

Learn some lessons from this crooked but clever asset manager. Realize that the purpose of money is to strengthen friendships, to provide opportunities for being generous and kind. Eventually money will be useless to you—but if you use it generously to serve others, you will be welcomed joyfully into your eternal destination.

10 If you’re faithful in small-scale matters, you’ll be faithful with far bigger responsibilities. If you’re crooked in small responsibilities, you’ll be no different in bigger things. 11 If you can’t even handle a small thing like money, who’s going to entrust you with spiritual riches that really matter? 12 If you don’t manage well someone else’s assets that are entrusted to you, who’s going to give over to you important spiritual and personal relationships to manage?

13 Imagine you’re a servant and you have two masters giving you orders. What are you going to do when they have conflicting demands? You can’t serve both, so you’ll either hate the first and love the second, or you’ll faithfully serve the first and despise the second. One master is God and the other is money. You can’t serve them both.

14 The Pharisees overheard all this, and they started mocking Jesus because they really loved money.

Jesus (to the Pharisees): 15 You’ve made your choice. Your ambition is to look good in front of other people, not God. But God sees through to your hearts. He values things differently from you. The goals you and your peers are reaching for God detests.

16 The law and the prophets had their role until the coming of John the Baptist. Since John’s arrival, the good news of the kingdom of God has been taught while people are clamoring to enter it. 17 That’s not to say that God’s rules for living are useless. The stars in the sky and the earth beneath your feet will pass away before one letter of God’s rules for living become worthless.

18 Take God’s rules regarding marriage for example. If a man divorces his wife and marries somebody else, then it’s still adultery because that man has broken his vow to God. And if a man marries a woman divorced from her husband, he’s committing adultery for the same reason.

19 There was this rich man who had everything—purple clothing of fine quality and high fashion, gourmet meals every day, and a large house. 20 Just outside his front gate lay this poor homeless fellow named Lazarus. Lazarus was covered in ugly skin lesions. 21 He was so hungry he wished he could scavenge scraps from the rich man’s trash. Dogs would come and lick the sores on his skin. 22 The poor fellow died and was carried on the arms of the heavenly messengers to the embrace of Abraham. Then the rich fellow died and was buried 23 and found himself in the place of the dead. In his torment, he looked up, and off in the distance he saw Abraham, with Lazarus in his embrace.

24 He shouted out, “Father Abraham! Please show me mercy! Would you send that beggar Lazarus to dip his fingertip in water and cool my tongue? These flames are hot, and I’m in agony!”

25 But Abraham said, “Son, you seem to be forgetting something: your life was full to overflowing with comforts and pleasures, and the life of Lazarus was just as full with suffering and pain. So now is his time of comfort, and now is your time of agony. 26 Besides, a great canyon separates you and us. Nobody can cross over from our side to yours, or from your side to ours.”

27 “Please, Father Abraham, I beg you,” the formerly rich man continued, “send Lazarus to my father’s house. 28 I have five brothers there, and they’re on the same path I was on. If Lazarus warns them, they’ll choose another path and won’t end up here in torment.”

29 But Abraham said, “Why send Lazarus? They already have the law of Moses and the writings of the prophets to instruct them. Let your brothers hear them.”

30 “No, Father Abraham,” he said, “they’re already ignoring the law and the prophets. But if someone came back from the dead, then they’d listen for sure; then they’d change their way of life.”

31 Abraham answered, “If they’re not listening to Moses and the prophets, they won’t be convinced even if someone comes back from the dead.”

The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.