M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

16 Jesus also talked to his disciples. He said, `A rich man had a manager in charge of his things. People told the rich man that the manager was wasting his things.

² he called the manager and asked him, "What is this I hear about you? Tell me what you have done. You cannot be my manager any more."

³ `Then the manager thought to himself, "What will I do? My master is taking my work away from me. I am not strong enough to go out and dig. I am ashamed to beg.

⁴ I know what I will do. Then, when I lose my job, these people will take me into their own homes."

⁵ `So he called to him everyone who owed his master something. He asked the first man, "How much do you owe my master?"

⁶ He answered, "A hundred tins of oil." The manager said, "Take your paper. Sit down right now and write on it fifty."

⁷ Then he asked the next man, "How much do you owe?" He said, "A hundred bags of grain." The manager said, "Take your paper and write on it eighty."

⁸ `Then the master praised the manager who did wrong. He praised him because he did what was wise. The people of this world are wiser than the people who have the Light. They know how to get along with people like themselves.

⁹ `I tell you this. Money may be a wrong thing, but use it to make friends for yourselves. Then when your money is spent, they will be glad to see you come into that place where people live for ever.

¹⁰ `Anyone who can be trusted in a little matter can also be trusted in a big matter. Anyone who does wrong in a very little matter will do wrong also in a big matter.

¹¹ So if you could not be trusted to use money, which is bad, who will trust you to use true riches?

¹² If you could not be trusted with what belonged to another person, who will give you something for yourself?

¹³ No servant can work for two masters. He will hate one and love the other. Or he will obey one and despise the other. You cannot work for both God and money.'

¹⁴ The Pharisees loved money. They heard all these things. They made fun of him.

¹⁵ He said to them, `You try to make men think you are all right. But God knows your hearts. What men think is fine, God hates.

¹⁶ `The Law and the Prophets gave God's word until John came. Since then, the good news of God's kingdom has been told. And now everyone tries hard to get into the kingdom.

¹⁷ It would be easier to take away the sky and the earth than for the smallest part of the law to fall.'

¹⁸ `If a man sends away his wife and marries another woman, he commits adultery. And if the man marries a woman who has been sent away by her husband, he commits adultery.'

¹⁹ `There was a rich man who dressed and lived like a king every day.

²⁰ A poor man named Lazarus was put at his door. He had many sores on his body.

²¹ He wanted to eat the pieces of food that fell from the rich man's table. Dogs came and licked his sores.

²² The poor man died. Angels carried him to be with Abraham. `The rich man also died and was buried.

²³ He was in great pain in the world of dead people. He looked up and saw Abraham far away. With him was Lazarus.

²⁴ He called out, "Father Abraham, help me! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in some water and cool my tongue. This fire is very hot for me."

²⁵ `But Abraham said to him, "Son, remember this. You had a good time when you were living. Lazarus had a bad time when he was living. But now he is happy here and you are in pain.

²⁶ But that is not all. A wide hole is between you and us. No one can go from here to you if he wanted to. And no one can come from where you are to us."

²⁷ `The rich man said, "Then, father, I beg you, send Lazarus to my father's house.

²⁸ I have five brothers there. Tell him to talk to them so that they will not come to this place where there is pain."

²⁹ `But Abraham said, "They have Moses and the Prophets. They can listen to them."

³⁰ `He answered, "No, father Abraham! But if a man who had died went to them, they would stop their wrong ways."

³¹ `Abraham said, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, then they will not believe, even if a man were raised from death." '

1 I am Paul. I am called by God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. My Christian brother Timothy and I send greetings to the church of God in the city of Corinth. We also send greetings to all of God's people in the country of Greece.

² May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you with their loving kindness and peace. Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He is a very, very kind Father to us. He is a God who always comforts and helps people.

³ He helps us every time we have trouble. Then we are able to be strong and help other people every time they have trouble. We can do this with the same comfort that God gives us.

⁴ We have plenty of the same troubles that Christ had. But we also have plenty of comfort and help from him.

⁵ When we have trouble, it is for your sake so that you will be helped and saved. When we are comforted, this helps you. Then you will stand strong when you have the same troubles we have.

⁶ Our hope for you is strong. If you have the same trouble we have had, then you will also have the same comfort and help we have. This we know.

⁷ Brothers, we want you to know about the trouble we had in the country of Asia Minor. We were not strong enough to carry such a load of trouble. It was so heavy we thought we would die.

⁸ Yes, we really felt our time had come to die. This was to make us trust, not in ourselves, but in God. He brings people back to life.

⁹ He saved us from the death that was so near, and he still saves us. We believe that God will keep on saving us.

¹⁰ But you must help us also. You must talk to God about us. When many people ask God to help us, then many people will thank God for the way he has blessed us. ourselves. Our hearts tell us that we have lived the right way in the world, and even more so toward you. We have lived a clean and true life as God wants us to. We have not trusted in the wise things of men, but in the blessing of God.

¹¹ We write you nothing but what you have been reading out to the people, and what you all know. I hope that you will really know what is right even to the end.

¹² You already know something about us. I hope that you will come to know us fully. On the day when the Lord Jesus comes you will be proud of us. So too will we be proud of you.

¹³ Because I was sure of this, I wanted to visit you before. Then you would have had a double blessing.

¹⁴ I wanted to visit you and then go to Macedonia. I wanted to visit you again when I was on my way back from Macedonia. Then you would send me on my way to Judea.

¹⁵ That was what I wanted to do. Now then, did I act as if I did not know what I wanted? When I make my plans, do you think I make them like a man of this world? Do I say `Yes' when I mean to say `No'?

¹⁶ As surely as God is true, our message to you was not `Yes' and `No' at the same time.

¹⁷ Silvanus and Timothy and I told you about the Son of God, Jesus Christ. His word was not `Yes' and `No.' It was always `Yes.'

¹⁸ To the many promises God has made Christ can say `Yes'. He can make them all come true. So then, it is because of Christ that we can say, `Yes, it is so!' when we praise God.

¹⁹ It is God who makes us stand strong with you in Christ. God has chosen us and put his mark on us.

²⁰ He has put his Spirit in our hearts. This is the first part of what we are to receive, and it proves that we will receive all God has promised.

²¹ Let God take my life if what I say is not true. I did not go to Corinth because I did not want to make you sad.

²² We do not rule over what you believe. But we work with you to make you glad. You are strong already by believing as you do.