M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
14 King Abijah was buried in Jerusalem. Then his son Asa became the new king of Judah, and there was peace in the land for the first ten years of his reign, 2 for Asa was careful to obey the Lord his God. 3 He demolished the heathen altars on the hills, and broke down the obelisks, and chopped down the shameful Asherim idols, 4 and demanded that the entire nation obey the commandments of the Lord God of their ancestors. 5 Also, he removed the sun images from the hills and the incense altars from every one of Judah’s cities. That is why God gave his kingdom peace. 6 This made it possible for him to build walled cities throughout Judah.
7 “Now is the time to do it, while the Lord is blessing us with peace because of our obedience to him,” he told his people. “Let us build and fortify cities now, with walls, towers, gates, and bars.” So they went ahead with these projects very successfully.
8 King Asa’s Judean army was 300,000 strong, equipped with light shields and spears. His army of Benjaminites numbered 280,000, armed with large shields and bows. Both armies were composed of well-trained, brave men.
9-10 But now he was attacked by an army of 1,000,000 troops from Ethiopia with 300 chariots, under the leadership of General Zerah. They advanced to the city of Mareshah, in the valley of Zephathah, and King Asa sent his troops to battle with them there.
11 “O Lord,” he cried out to God, “no one else can help us! Here we are, powerless against this mighty army. Oh, help us, Lord our God! For we trust in you alone to rescue us, and in your name we attack this vast horde. Don’t let mere men defeat you!”
12 Then the Lord defeated the Ethiopians, and Asa and the army of Judah triumphed as the Ethiopians fled. 13 They chased them as far as Gerar, and the entire Ethiopian army was wiped out so that not one man remained; for the Lord and his army destroyed them all. Then the army of Judah carried off vast quantities of plunder. 14 While they were at Gerar they attacked all the cities in that area, and terror from the Lord came upon the residents. As a result, additional vast quantities of plunder were collected from these cities too. 15 They not only plundered the cities but destroyed the cattle tents and captured great herds of sheep and camels before finally returning to Jerusalem.
15 Then the Spirit of God came upon Azariah (son of Oded), 2 and he went out to meet King Asa as he was returning from the battle.
“Listen to me, Asa! Listen, armies of Judah and Benjamin!” he shouted. “The Lord will stay with you as long as you stay with him! Whenever you look for him, you will find him. But if you forsake him, he will forsake you. 3 For a long time now, over in Israel, the people haven’t worshiped the true God and have not had a true priest to teach them. They have lived without God’s laws. 4 But whenever they have turned again to the Lord God of Israel in their distress and searched for him he has helped them. 5 In their times of rebellion against God there was no peace. Problems troubled the nation on every hand. Crime was on the increase everywhere. 6 There were external wars and internal fighting of city against city, for God was plaguing them with all sorts of trouble. 7 But you men of Judah, keep up the good work and don’t get discouraged, for you will be rewarded.”
8 When King Asa heard this message from God, he took courage and destroyed all the idols in the land of Judah and Benjamin and in the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim, and he rebuilt the altar of the Lord in front of the Temple.
9 Then he summoned all the people of Judah and Benjamin and the immigrants from Israel (for many had come from the territories of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon in Israel when they saw that the Lord God was with King Asa). 10 They all came to Jerusalem in June of the fifteenth year of King Asa’s reign 11 and sacrificed to the Lord seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep—it was part of the plunder they had captured in the battle. 12 Then they entered into a contract to worship only the Lord God of their fathers 13 and agreed that anyone who refused to do this must die—whether old or young, man or woman. 14 They shouted out their oath of loyalty to God with trumpets blaring and horns sounding. 15 All were happy for this covenant with God, for they had entered into it with all their hearts and wills and wanted him above everything else, and they found him! And he gave them peace throughout the nation.
16 King Asa even removed his mother Maacah from being the queen mother because she made an Asherah idol; he cut down the idol and crushed and burned it at Kidron Brook. 17 Over in Israel the idol-temples were not removed. But here in Judah and Benjamin the heart of King Asa was perfect before God throughout his lifetime. 18 He brought back into the Temple the silver and gold bowls that he and his father had dedicated to the Lord. 19 So there was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of King Asa’s reign.
4 Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven, and the same voice I had heard before, which sounded like a mighty trumpet blast, spoke to me and said, “Come up here and I will show you what must happen in the future!”
2 And instantly I was in spirit there in heaven and saw—oh, the glory of it!—a throne and someone sitting on it! 3 Great bursts of light flashed forth from him as from a glittering diamond or from a shining ruby, and a rainbow glowing like an emerald encircled his throne. 4 Twenty-four smaller thrones surrounded his, with twenty-four Elders sitting on them; all were clothed in white, with golden crowns upon their heads. 5 Lightning and thunder issued from the throne, and there were voices in the thunder. Directly in front of his throne were seven lighted lamps representing the sevenfold Spirit of God.[a] 6 Spread out before it was a shiny crystal sea. Four Living Beings, dotted front and back with eyes, stood at the throne’s four sides. 7 The first of these Living Beings was in the form of a lion; the second looked like an ox; the third had the face of a man; and the fourth, the form of an eagle, with wings spread out as though in flight. 8 Each of these Living Beings had six wings, and the central sections of their wings were covered with eyes. Day after day and night after night they kept on saying, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty—the one who was, and is, and is to come.”
9 And when the Living Beings gave glory and honor and thanks to the one sitting on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four Elders fell down before him and worshiped him, the Eternal Living One, and cast their crowns before the throne, singing, 11 “O Lord, you are worthy to receive the glory and the honor and the power, for you have created all things. They were created and called into being by your act of will.”
2 In early October of the same year, the Lord sent them this message through Haggai:
2 “Ask this question of the governor and High Priest and everyone left in the land:
3 “‘Who among you can remember the Temple as it was before? How glorious it was! In comparison, it is nothing now, is it? 4 But take courage, O Zerubbabel and Joshua and all the people; take courage and work, for I am with you, says the Lord Almighty. 5 For I promised when you left Egypt that my Spirit would remain among you; so don’t be afraid.’
6 “For the Lord Almighty says, ‘In just a little while I will begin to shake the heavens and earth—and the oceans, too, and the dry land. 7 I will shake all nations, and the Desire of All Nations[a] shall come to this Temple, and I will fill this place with my glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. 8-9 ‘The future splendor of this Temple will be greater than the splendor of the first one! For I have plenty of silver and gold to do it! And here I will give peace,’[b] says the Lord.”
10 In early December, in the second year of the reign of King Darius, this message came from the Lord through Haggai the prophet:
11 “Ask the priests this question about the law: 12 ‘If one of you is carrying a holy sacrifice in his robes and happens to brush against some bread or wine or meat, will it too become holy?’”
“No,” the priests replied. “Holiness does not pass to other things that way.”
13 Then Haggai asked, “But if someone touches a dead person, and so becomes ceremonially impure, and then brushes against something, does it become contaminated?”
And the priests answered, “Yes.”
14 Haggai then made his meaning clear. “You people,” he said (speaking for the Lord), “were contaminating your sacrifices by living with selfish attitudes and evil hearts—and not only your sacrifices, but everything else that you did as a ‘service’ to me. 15 And so everything you did went wrong. But all is different now because you have begun to build the Temple. 16-17 Before, when you expected a twenty-bushel crop, there were only ten. When you came to draw fifty gallons from the olive press, there were only twenty. I rewarded all your labor with rust and mildew and hail. Yet, even so, you refused to return to me, says the Lord.
18-19 “But now note this: From today, this 24th day of the month,[c] as the foundation of the Lord’s Temple is finished, and from this day onward, I will bless you. Notice, I am giving you this promise now before you have even begun to rebuild the Temple structure, and before you have harvested your grain, and before the grapes, the figs, the pomegranates, and olives have produced their next crops: From this day I will bless you.”
20 Another message came to Haggai from the Lord that same day:
21 “Tell Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, ‘I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, 22 to overthrow thrones, destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overthrow their armed might, and brothers and companions will kill each other. 23 But when that happens, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, and honor you like a signet ring upon my finger; for I have specially chosen you,’ says the Lord Almighty.”
3 1-2 After dark one night a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus, a member of the sect of the Pharisees, came for an interview with Jesus. “Sir,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miracles are proof enough of this.”
3 Jesus replied, “With all the earnestness I possess I tell you this: Unless you are born again, you can never get into the Kingdom of God.”
4 “Born again!” exclaimed Nicodemus. “What do you mean? How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”
5 Jesus replied, “What I am telling you so earnestly is this: Unless one is born of water and the Spirit,[a] he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. 6 Men can only reproduce human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven; 7 so don’t be surprised at my statement that you must be born again! 8 Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it will go next, so it is with the Spirit. We do not know on whom he will next bestow this life from heaven.”
9 “What do you mean?” Nicodemus asked.
10-11 Jesus replied, “You, a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? I am telling you what I know and have seen—and yet you won’t believe me. 12 But if you don’t even believe me when I tell you about such things as these that happen here among men, how can you possibly believe if I tell you what is going on in heaven? 13 For only I, the Messiah,[b] have come to earth and will return to heaven again. 14 And as Moses in the wilderness lifted up the bronze image of a serpent on a pole, even so I must be lifted up upon a pole, 15 so that anyone who believes in me will have eternal life. 16 For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son[c] so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.
18 “There is no eternal doom awaiting those who trust him to save them. But those who don’t trust him have already been tried and condemned for not believing in the only Son of God. 19 Their sentence is based on this fact: that the Light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 They hated the heavenly Light because they wanted to sin in the darkness. They stayed away from that Light for fear their sins would be exposed and they would be punished. 21 But those doing right come gladly to the Light to let everyone see that they are doing what God wants them to.”
22 Afterwards Jesus and his disciples left Jerusalem and stayed for a while in Judea and baptized there.
23-24 At this time John the Baptist was not yet in prison. He was baptizing at Aenon, near Salim, because there was plenty of water there. 25 One day someone began an argument with John’s disciples, telling them that Jesus’ baptism was best.[d] 26 So they came to John and said, “Master, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River—the one you said was the Messiah—he is baptizing too, and everybody is going over there instead of coming here to us.”
27 John replied, “God in heaven appoints each man’s work. 28 My work is to prepare the way for that man so that everyone will go to him. You yourselves know how plainly I told you that I am not the Messiah. I am here to prepare the way for him—that is all. 29 The crowds will naturally go to the main attraction[e]—the bride will go where the bridegroom is! A bridegroom’s friends rejoice with him. I am the Bridegroom’s friend, and I am filled with joy at his success. 30 He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.
31 “He has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else. I am of the earth, and my understanding is limited to the things of earth. 32 He tells what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them! 33-34 Those who believe him discover that God is a fountain of truth. For this one—sent by God—speaks God’s words, for God’s Spirit is upon him without measure or limit. 35 The Father loves this man because he is his Son, and God has given him everything there is. 36 And all who trust him—God’s Son—to save them have eternal life; those who don’t believe and obey him shall never see heaven, but the wrath of God remains upon them.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.