Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you,

²since you gave him authority over all flesh, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him.

³This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent — Jesus Christ.

⁴I have glorified you on the earth by completing the work you gave me to do.

⁵Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with that glory I had with you before the world existed.

⁶“I have revealed your name to the people you gave me from the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

⁷Now they know that everything you have given is from you,

⁸because I have given them the words you gave me. They have received them and have known for certain that I came from you. They have believed that you sent me.

⁹“I pray for them. I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me, because they are yours.

¹⁰Everything I have is yours, and everything you have is mine, and I am glorified in them.

¹¹I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by your name that you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one.

¹²While I was with them, I was protecting them by your name that you have given me. I guarded them and not one of them is lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture may be fulfilled.

¹³Now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy completed in them.

¹⁴I have given them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

¹⁵I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.

¹⁶They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

¹⁷Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

¹⁸As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

¹⁹I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

²⁰“I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word.

²¹May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me.

²²I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one.

²³I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.

²⁴“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world’s foundation.

²⁵Righteous Father, the world has not known you. However, I have known you, and they have known that you sent me.

²⁶I made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them and I may be in them.”

¹“If a murder victim is found lying in a field in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him,

²your elders and judges are to come out and measure the distance from the victim to the nearby cities.

³The elders of the city nearest to the victim are to get a young cow that has not been yoked or used for work.

⁴The elders of that city will bring the cow down to a continually flowing stream, to a place not tilled or sown, and they will break its neck there by the stream.

⁵Then the priests, the sons of Levi, will come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve him and pronounce blessings in his name, and they are to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault.

⁶All the elders of the city nearest to the victim will wash their hands by the stream over the young cow whose neck has been broken.

⁷They will declare, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood; our eyes did not see it.

⁸LORD, wipe away the guilt of your people Israel whom you redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.’ Then the responsibility for bloodshed will be wiped away from them.

⁹You must purge from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, for you will be doing what is right in the LORD’s sight.

¹⁰“When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God hands them over to you and you take some of them prisoner, and

¹¹if you see a beautiful woman among the captives, desire her, and want to take her as your wife,

¹²you are to bring her into your house. She is to shave her head, trim her nails,

¹³remove the clothes she was wearing when she was taken prisoner, live in your house, and mourn for her father and mother a full month. After that, you may have sexual relations with her and be her husband, and she will be your wife.

¹⁴Then if you are not satisfied with her, you are to let her go where she wants, but you must not sell her or treat her as merchandise, because you have humiliated her.

¹⁵“If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved bear him sons, and if the unloved wife has the firstborn son,

¹⁶when that man gives what he has to his sons as an inheritance, he is not to show favoritism to the son of the loved wife as his firstborn over the firstborn of the unloved wife.

¹⁷He must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved wife, by giving him two shares of his estate, for he is the firstfruits of his virility; he has the rights of the firstborn.

¹⁸“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father or mother and doesn’t listen to them even after they discipline him,

¹⁹his father and mother are to take hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his hometown.

²⁰They will say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he doesn’t obey us. He’s a glutton and a drunkard.’

²¹Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. You must purge the evil from you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

²²“If anyone is found guilty of an offense deserving the death penalty and is executed, and you hang his body on a tree,

²³you are not to leave his corpse on the tree overnight but are to bury him that day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

¹When I came to you, brothers and sisters, announcing the mystery of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom.

²I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

³I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.

⁴My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,

⁵so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power.

⁶We do, however, speak a wisdom among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

⁷On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined before the ages for our glory.

⁸None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, because if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

⁹But as it is written, What no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived — God has prepared these things for those who love him.

¹⁰Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

¹¹For who knows a person’s thoughts except his spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

¹²Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God.

¹³We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people.

¹⁴But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.

¹⁵The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, and yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone.

¹⁶For who has known the Lord’s mind, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

¹The revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

²who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, whatever he saw.

³Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep what is written in it, because the time is near.

⁴John: To the seven churches in Asia. Grace and peace to you from the one who is, who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne,

⁵and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has set us free from our sins by his blood,

⁶and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father — to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

⁷Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. So it is to be. Amen.

⁸“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the one who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

⁹I, John, your brother and partner in the affliction, kingdom, and endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

¹⁰I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard a loud voice behind me like a trumpet

¹¹saying, “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

¹²Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me. When I turned I saw seven golden lampstands,

¹³and among the lampstands was one like the Son of Man, dressed in a robe and with a golden sash wrapped around his chest.

¹⁴The hair of his head was white as wool — white as snow  — and his eyes like a fiery flame.

¹⁵His feet were like fine bronze as it is fired in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of cascading waters.

¹⁶He had seven stars in his right hand; a sharp double-edged sword came from his mouth, and his face was shining like the sun at full strength.

¹⁷When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid. I am the First and the Last,

¹⁸and the Living One. I was dead, but look — I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades.

¹⁹Therefore write what you have seen, what is, and what will take place after this.

²⁰The mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

¹Who is like the wise person, and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A person’s wisdom brightens his face, and the sternness of his face is changed.

²Keep the king’s command because of your oath made before God.

³Do not be in a hurry; leave his presence, and don’t persist in a bad cause, since he will do whatever he wants.

⁴For the king’s word is authoritative, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?”

⁵The one who keeps a command will not experience anything harmful, and a wise heart knows the right time and procedure.

⁶For every activity there is a right time and procedure, even though a person’s troubles are heavy on him.

⁷Yet no one knows what will happen because who can tell him what will happen?

⁸No one has authority over the wind to restrain it, and there is no authority over the day of death; no one is discharged during battle, and wickedness will not allow those who practice it to escape.

⁹All this I have seen, applying my mind to all the work that is done under the sun, at a time when one person has authority over another to his harm.

¹⁰In such circumstances, I saw the wicked buried. They came and went from the holy place, and they were praised in the city where they did those things. This too is futile.

¹¹Because the sentence against an evil act is not carried out quickly, the heart of people is filled with the desire to commit evil.

¹²Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, I also know that it will go well with God-fearing people, for they are reverent before him.

¹³However, it will not go well with the wicked, and they will not lengthen their days like a shadow, for they are not reverent before God.

¹⁴There is a futility that is done on the earth: there are righteous people who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked people who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile.

¹⁵So I commended enjoyment because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy himself, for this will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.

¹⁶When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the activity that is done on the earth (even though one’s eyes do not close in sleep day or night),

¹⁷I observed all the work of God and concluded that a person is unable to discover the work that is done under the sun. Even though a person labors hard to explore it, he cannot find it; even if a wise person claims to know it, he is unable to discover it.

¹A psalm of David. [1] The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the LORD;

²for he laid its foundation on the seas and established it on the rivers.

³Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place?

⁴The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not appealed to what is false, and who has not sworn deceitfully.

⁵He will receive blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

⁶Such is the generation of those who inquire of him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah

⁷Lift up your heads, you gates! Rise up, ancient doors! Then the King of glory will come in.

⁸Who is this King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle.

⁹Lift up your heads, you gates! Rise up, ancient doors! Then the King of glory will come in.

¹⁰Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD of Armies, he is the King of glory. Selah

¹Better a poor person who lives with integrity than someone who has deceitful lips and is a fool.

²Even zeal is not good without knowledge, and the one who acts hastily sins.

³A person’s own foolishness leads him astray, yet his heart rages against the LORD.

⁴Wealth attracts many friends, but a poor person is separated from his friend.

⁵A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who utters lies will not escape.

⁶Many seek a ruler’s favor, and everyone is a friend of one who gives gifts.

⁷All the brothers of a poor person hate him; how much more do his friends keep their distance from him! He may pursue them with words, but they are not there.

⁸The one who acquires good sense loves himself; one who safeguards understanding finds success.

⁹A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who utters lies perishes.

¹⁰Luxury is not appropriate for a fool —  how much less for a slave to rule over princes!

¹¹A person’s insight gives him patience, and his virtue is to overlook an offense.

¹²A king’s rage is like the roaring of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.

¹³A foolish son is his father’s ruin, and a wife’s nagging is an endless dripping.

¹⁴A house and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the LORD.

¹⁵Laziness induces deep sleep, and a lazy person will go hungry.

¹⁶The one who keeps commands preserves himself; one who disregards his ways will die.

¹⁷Kindness to the poor is a loan to the LORD, and he will give a reward to the lender.

¹⁸Discipline your son while there is hope; don’t set your heart on being the cause of his death.

¹⁹A person with intense anger bears the penalty; if you rescue him, you’ll have to do it again.

²⁰Listen to counsel and receive instruction so that you may be wise later in life.

²¹Many plans are in a person’s heart, but the LORD’s decree will prevail.

²²What is desirable in a person is his fidelity; better to be a poor person than a liar.

²³The fear of the LORD leads to life; one will sleep at night without danger.

²⁴The slacker buries his hand in the bowl; he doesn’t even bring it back to his mouth!

²⁵Strike a mocker, and the inexperienced learn a lesson; rebuke the discerning, and he gains knowledge.

²⁶The one who plunders his father and evicts his mother is a disgraceful and shameful son.

²⁷If you stop listening to correction, my son, you will stray from the words of knowledge.

²⁸A worthless witness mocks justice, and a wicked mouth swallows iniquity.

²⁹Judgments are prepared for mockers, and beatings for the backs of fools.

¹When David was old and full of days, he installed his son Solomon as king over Israel.

²Then he gathered all the leaders of Israel, the priests, and the Levites.

³The Levites thirty years old or more were counted; the total number of men was thirty-eight thousand by headcount.

⁴“Of these,” David said, “twenty-four thousand are to be in charge of the work on the LORD’s temple, six thousand are to be officers and judges,

⁵four thousand are to be gatekeepers, and four thousand are to praise the LORD with the instruments that I have made for worship.”

⁶Then David divided them into divisions according to Levi’s sons: Gershom, Kohath, and Merari.

⁷The Gershonites: Ladan and Shimei.

⁸Ladan’s sons: Jehiel was the first, then Zetham, and Joel — three.

⁹Shimei’s sons: Shelomoth, Haziel, and Haran — three. Those were the heads of the families of Ladan.

¹⁰Shimei’s sons: Jahath, Zizah, Jeush, and Beriah. Those were Shimei’s sons — four.

¹¹Jahath was the first and Zizah was the second; however, Jeush and Beriah did not have many sons, so they became one family and received a single assignment.

¹²Kohath’s sons: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel — four.

¹³Amram’s sons: Aaron and Moses. Aaron, along with his descendants, was set apart forever to consecrate the most holy things, to burn incense in the presence of the LORD, to minister to him, and to pronounce blessings in his name forever.

¹⁴As for Moses the man of God, his sons were named among the tribe of Levi.

¹⁵Moses’s sons: Gershom and Eliezer.

¹⁶Gershom’s sons: Shebuel was first.

¹⁷Eliezer’s sons were Rehabiah, first; Eliezer did not have any other sons, but Rehabiah’s sons were very numerous.

¹⁸Izhar’s sons: Shelomith was first.

¹⁹Hebron’s sons: Jeriah was first, Amariah second, Jahaziel third, and Jekameam fourth.

²⁰Uzziel’s sons: Micah was first, and Isshiah second.

²¹Merari’s sons: Mahli and Mushi. Mahli’s sons: Eleazar and Kish.

²²Eleazar died having no sons, only daughters. Their cousins, the sons of Kish, married them.

²³Mushi’s sons: Mahli, Eder, and Jeremoth — three.

²⁴These were the descendants of Levi by their ancestral families  — the family heads, according to their registration by name in the headcount — twenty years old or more, who worked in the service of the LORD’s temple.

²⁵For David said, “The LORD God of Israel has given rest to his people, and he has come to stay in Jerusalem forever.

²⁶Also, the Levites no longer need to carry the tabernacle or any of the equipment for its service”  —

²⁷for according to the last words of David, the Levites twenty years old or more were to be counted —

²⁸“but their duty will be to assist the descendants of Aaron with the service of the LORD’s temple, being responsible for the courts and the chambers, the purification of all the holy things, and the work of the service of God’s temple —

²⁹as well as the rows of the Bread of the Presence, the fine flour for the grain offering, the wafers of unleavened bread, the baking, the mixing, and all measurements of volume and length.

³⁰They are also to stand every morning to give thanks and praise to the LORD, and likewise in the evening.

³¹Whenever burnt offerings are offered to the LORD on the Sabbaths, New Moons, and appointed festivals, they are to offer them regularly in the LORD’s presence according to the number prescribed for them.

³²They are to carry out their responsibilities for the tent of meeting, for the holy place, and for their relatives, the descendants of Aaron, in the service of the LORD’s temple.”

¹King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue, ninety feet high and nine feet wide. He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

²King Nebuchadnezzar sent word to assemble the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the rulers of the provinces to attend the dedication of the statue King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

³So the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the rulers of the provinces assembled for the dedication of the statue the king had set up. Then they stood before the statue Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

⁴A herald loudly proclaimed, “People of every nation and language, you are commanded:

⁵When you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, drum, and every kind of music, you are to fall facedown and worship the gold statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.

⁶But whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire.”

⁷Therefore, when all the people heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, and every kind of music, people of every nation and language fell down and worshiped the gold statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

⁸Some Chaldeans took this occasion to come forward and maliciously accuse the Jews.

⁹They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “May the king live forever.

¹⁰You as king have issued a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, drum, and every kind of music must fall down and worship the gold statue.

¹¹Whoever does not fall down and worship will be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire.

¹²There are some Jews you have appointed to manage the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men have ignored you, the king; they do not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.”

¹³Then in a furious rage Nebuchadnezzar gave orders to bring in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king.

¹⁴Nebuchadnezzar asked them, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, is it true that you don’t serve my gods or worship the gold statue I have set up?

¹⁵Now if you’re ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, drum, and every kind of music, fall down and worship the statue I made. But if you don’t worship it, you will immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire — and who is the god who can rescue you from my power?”

¹⁶Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t need to give you an answer to this question.

¹⁷If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he can rescue us from the power of you, the king.

¹⁸But even if he does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.”

¹⁹Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders to heat the furnace seven times more than was customary,

²⁰and he commanded some of the best soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the furnace of blazing fire.

²¹So these men, in their trousers, robes, head coverings, and other clothes, were tied up and thrown into the furnace of blazing fire.

²²Since the king’s command was so urgent and the furnace extremely hot, the raging flames killed those men who carried Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego up.

²³And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fell, bound, into the furnace of blazing fire.

²⁴Then King Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in alarm. He said to his advisers, “Didn’t we throw three men, bound, into the fire?” “Yes, of course, Your Majesty,” they replied to the king.

²⁵He exclaimed, “Look! I see four men, not tied, walking around in the fire unharmed; and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”

²⁶Nebuchadnezzar then approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire and called: “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the Most High God — come out!” So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire.

²⁷When the satraps, prefects, governors, and the king’s advisers gathered around, they saw that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men: not a hair of their heads was singed, their robes were unaffected, and there was no smell of fire on them.

²⁸Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed, “Praise to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego! He sent his angel and rescued his servants who trusted in him. They violated the king’s command and risked their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.

²⁹Therefore I issue a decree that anyone of any people, nation, or language who says anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will be torn limb from limb and his house made a garbage dump. For there is no other god who is able to deliver like this.”

³⁰Then the king rewarded Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

¹In those days, as the disciples were increasing in number, there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution.

²The Twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, “It would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on tables.

³Brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty.

⁴But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

⁵This proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a convert from Antioch.

⁶They had them stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

⁷So the word of God spread, the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith.

⁸Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.

⁹Opposition arose, however, from some members of the Freedmen’s Synagogue, composed of both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, and they began to argue with Stephen.

¹⁰But they were unable to stand up against his wisdom and the Spirit by whom he was speaking.

¹¹Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God.”

¹²They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; so they came, seized him, and took him to the Sanhedrin.

¹³They also presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and the law.

¹⁴For we heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.”

¹⁵And all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.