M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Covenant of Circumcision
17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am Almighty God. Walk before Me and be blameless. 2 And I will make My covenant between you and Me and will exceedingly multiply you.”
3 Abram fell on his face and God said to him, 4 “As for Me, My covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer will your name be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. 8 All the land of Canaan, where you now live as strangers, I will give to you and to your descendants for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 10 This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you; every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 Every male throughout every generation that is eight days old shall be circumcised, whether born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner who is not your descendant. 13 He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised. My covenant shall be in your flesh as an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised shall be cut off from his people. He has broken My covenant.”
15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you will not call her name Sarai, but her name will be Sarah. 16 I will bless her and also give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will be the mother of nations. Kings of peoples will come from her.”
17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man that is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”
19 Then God said, “No, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call his name Isaac. I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant and with his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. He will be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But I will establish My covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year.” 22 Then He stopped talking with Abraham, and God went up from him.
23 Then Abraham took Ishmael, his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s household, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day as God had said to him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 25 His son, Ishmael, was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 26 Abraham and Ishmael were circumcised on the same day. 27 All the men born in Abraham’s household or bought from foreigners were circumcised with him.
The Demand for a Sign(A)
16 The Pharisees and Sadducees came and, testing Him, asked Him to show them a sign from heaven.
2 He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ 3 and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and overcast.’ O you hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. 4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” So He left them and departed.
The Yeast of Pharisees and Sadducees(B)
5 But when His disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. 6 Then Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
7 They reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because we have taken no bread.”
8 But when Jesus perceived it, He said to them, “O you of little faith, why reason among yourselves, that it is because you have brought no bread? 9 Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you collected? 10 Or the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many baskets you collected? 11 How is it that you do not understand that I spoke to you not concerning bread, but that you should beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees?” 12 Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the yeast of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Peter’s Declaration About Jesus(C)
13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
14 They said, “Some say that You are John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then He commanded His disciples to tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.
Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection(D)
21 From that time on, Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised on the third day.
22 Then Peter took Him and began rebuking Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord! This shall not happen to You.”
23 But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things that are of God, but those that are of men.”
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man shall come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and then He will repay every man according to his works. 28 Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”
Nehemiah’s Enemies
6 When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that there was not a gap in it (though at that time I had not erected the doors on the gates), 2 Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come, that we might meet together in one of the villages in the plain of Ono.”
But they planned to do evil to me. 3 So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work, so I am not able to come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and come down to you?” 4 Four more times they sent for me like this, but I answered them the same way.
5 Sanballat sent the same request a fifth time by his servant, but the letter was open in his hand. 6 In it was written,
“It is reported among the nations, and Geshem confirms it, that you and the Jews are planning to rebel; consequently you are rebuilding the wall. According to these words, you are their king. 7 You have also appointed prophets to preach on your behalf in Jerusalem, saying, ‘There is a king in Judah!’ According to these words, it will now be reported to the king. So come now and let us consult together.”
8 I sent him this response, saying, “Nothing like these reports that you are saying has occurred. From your own mind, you are inventing them.”
9 Because they all wanted to frighten us, they thought, “They will pull their hands back from the work.” But that would never be done.
So now, O God, strengthen my hands.
10 When I came to the house of Shemaiah the crippled son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabel, he said, “Let us meet together at the house of God, inside the temple, and then we can shut the temple doors. They are coming to kill you! Even tonight, they could come to kill you!”
11 But I said, “Should a man like me flee? Who is there like me who would go into the temple to save his life? I would never go!” 12 Then I perceived and saw that God had not sent him, but that he pronounced the prophecy against me, because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. 13 He was hired for this reason: that I might become fearful, act accordingly, and sin. Then they would have an evil report by which they could reproach me.
14 Remember, O my God, concerning Tobiah and Sanballat these deeds of theirs, as well as the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who were trying to frighten me.
The Wall Completed
15 The wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 When all our enemies heard it and all the surrounding nations saw it, they were tremendously humbled. They perceived that, because of our God, this work had been accomplished.
17 Moreover in those days the nobles of Judah produced numerous letters in transit to Tobiah. Likewise, the letters of Tobiah came to them, 18 because so many in Judah were bound by oath to him since he was the son-in-law of Shekaniah the son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berekiah. 19 Also they reported his good deeds in front of me and reported my words to him. Tobiah sent letters to frighten me.
Timothy Accompanies Paul and Silas
16 Then he came to Derbe and then to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewess who believed, but his father was a Greek. 2 He was well spoken of by the brothers who were at Lystra and Iconium. 3 Paul wanted him to travel with him. So he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 As they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to observe, that were set forth by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily.
Paul’s Vision of the Macedonian
6 They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia and were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 When they came near Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not allow them. 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 During the night a vision appeared to Paul: A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 After he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.
The Conversion of Lydia
11 From Troas we set sail on a straight course to Samothrace and the next day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is the main city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony. We stayed in this city several days.
13 On the Sabbath we went out of the city to a riverside, where prayer was customarily offered. And we sat down and spoke to the women who had assembled. 14 A woman named Lydia, a seller of purple fabric of the city of Thyatira, who worshipped God, heard us. The Lord opened her heart to acknowledge what Paul said. 15 When she and her household were baptized, she entreated us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and remain there.” And she persuaded us.
The Imprisonment in Philippi
16 On one occasion, as we went to the place of prayer, a servant girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” 18 She did this for many days. But becoming greatly troubled, Paul turned to the spirit and said, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out at that moment.
19 When her masters saw that the hope of their profits was gone, they seized Paul and Silas, and dragged them into the marketplace to the rulers. 20 And they brought them to the magistrates, saying, “These men, being Jews, greatly trouble our city 21 and teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.”
22 The crowd rose up together against them. And the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them. 23 After they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely. 24 Having received such an order, he threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 At midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s shackles were loosened. 27 When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”
29 He called for lights and rushed in, trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 He then led them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you and your household will be saved.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his household. 33 In that hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds. And immediately he and his entire household were baptized. 34 Then he brought them up to his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced with his entire household believing in God.
35 When it was day, the magistrates sent the sergeants, saying, “Release those men.” 36 The prison guard reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to release you. Now therefore depart, and go in peace.”
37 But Paul said to them, “They have publicly beaten us, who are uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they secretly throw us out? Certainly not! Let them come themselves and bring us out.”
38 The sergeants reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans. 39 So they came and entreated them. And they brought them out, asking them to leave the city. 40 They went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia. When they had seen the brothers, they exhorted them and departed.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.