Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.

²The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;

³Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;

⁴Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

⁵These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans,

⁶ but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

⁷And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’

⁸ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.

⁹ Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts,

¹⁰no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food.

¹¹And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart.

¹²As you enter the house, greet it.

¹³And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.

¹⁴And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.

¹⁵Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.

¹⁶ “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

¹⁷Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues,

¹⁸ and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.

¹⁹ When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.

²⁰ For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

²¹ Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death,

²² and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

²³When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

²⁴ “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.

²⁵It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.

²⁶“So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.

²⁷What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

²⁸And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

²⁹Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.

³⁰But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

³¹Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

³² So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,

³³but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

³⁴ “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

³⁵ For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

³⁶ And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.

³⁷ Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

³⁸And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

³⁹ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

⁴⁰ “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.

⁴¹ The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward.

⁴²And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”

¹In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

²The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

³And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

⁴And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.

⁵God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

⁶And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”

⁷And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so.

⁸And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

⁹And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.

¹⁰God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

¹¹And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so.

¹²The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

¹³And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

¹⁴And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,

¹⁵and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so.

¹⁶And God made the two great lights — the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night — and the stars.

¹⁷And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,

¹⁸to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

¹⁹And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

²⁰And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.”

²¹So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

²²And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”

²³And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

²⁴And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds — livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so.

²⁵And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

²⁷So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

²⁸And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

²⁹And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.

³⁰And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

³¹And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

¹Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do.

²On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.

³And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem.

⁴If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me.

⁵I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia,

⁶and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go.

⁷For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits.

⁸But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost,

⁹for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.

¹⁰When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you, for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I am.

¹¹So let no one despise him. Help him on his way in peace, that he may return to me, for I am expecting him with the brothers.

¹²Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers, but it was not at all his will to come now. He will come when he has opportunity.

¹³Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

¹⁴Let all that you do be done in love.

¹⁵Now I urge you, brothers — you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints —

¹⁶be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer.

¹⁷I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence,

¹⁸for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people.

¹⁹The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord.

²⁰All the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

²¹I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.

²²If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!

²³The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

²⁴My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.

¹Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished.

²And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire — and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands.

³And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!

⁴Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

⁵After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened,

⁶and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes around their chests.

⁷And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever,

⁸and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.

¹Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD.

²And the LORD said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”

³And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.”

⁴Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life.

⁵But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.”

⁶And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”

⁷So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

⁸And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.

⁹Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.”

¹⁰But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

¹¹Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.

¹²And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven.

¹³And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

¹O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath!

²For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me.

³There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin.

⁴For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

⁵My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness,

⁶I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about mourning.

⁷For my sides are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh.

⁸I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

⁹O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you.

¹⁰My heart throbs; my strength fails me, and the light of my eyes — it also has gone from me.

¹¹My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand far off.

¹²Those who seek my life lay their snares; those who seek my hurt speak of ruin and meditate treachery all day long.

¹³But I am like a deaf man; I do not hear, like a mute man who does not open his mouth.

¹⁴I have become like a man who does not hear, and in whose mouth are no rebukes.

¹⁵But for you, O LORD, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.

¹⁶For I said, “Only let them not rejoice over me, who boast against me when my foot slips!”

¹⁷For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever before me.

¹⁸I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin.

¹⁹But my foes are vigorous, they are mighty, and many are those who hate me wrongfully.

²⁰Those who render me evil for good accuse me because I follow after good.

²¹Do not forsake me, O LORD! O my God, be not far from me!

²²Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation!

¹My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you,

²making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;

³yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,

⁴if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,

⁵then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

⁶For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;

⁷he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,

⁸guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.

⁹Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path;

¹⁰for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;

¹¹discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you,

¹²delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech,

¹³who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,

¹⁴who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil,

¹⁵men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways.

¹⁶So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words,

¹⁷who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God;

¹⁸for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed;

¹⁹none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.

²⁰So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.

²¹For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it,

²²but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

¹At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the house of the LORD and his own house,

²Solomon rebuilt the cities that Hiram had given to him, and settled the people of Israel in them.

³And Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and took it.

⁴He built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the store cities that he built in Hamath.

⁵He also built Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon, fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars,

⁶and Baalath, and all the store cities that Solomon had and all the cities for his chariots and the cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

⁷All the people who were left of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel,

⁸from their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the people of Israel had not destroyed — these Solomon drafted as forced labor, and so they are to this day.

⁹But of the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves for his work; they were soldiers, and his officers, the commanders of his chariots, and his horsemen.

¹⁰And these were the chief officers of King Solomon, 250, who exercised authority over the people.

¹¹Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter up from the city of David to the house that he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not live in the house of David king of Israel, for the places to which the ark of the LORD has come are holy.”

¹²Then Solomon offered up burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar of the LORD that he had built before the vestibule,

¹³as the duty of each day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the three annual feasts — the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths.

¹⁴According to the ruling of David his father, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their offices of praise and ministry before the priests as the duty of each day required, and the gatekeepers in their divisions at each gate, for so David the man of God had commanded.

¹⁵And they did not turn aside from what the king had commanded the priests and Levites concerning any matter and concerning the treasuries.

¹⁶Thus was accomplished all the work of Solomon from the day the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid until it was finished. So the house of the LORD was completed.

¹⁷Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and Eloth on the shore of the sea, in the land of Edom.

¹⁸And Hiram sent to him by the hand of his servants ships and servants familiar with the sea, and they went to Ophir together with the servants of Solomon and brought from there 450 talents of gold and brought it to King Solomon.

¹Hear this, O priests! Pay attention, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment is for you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor.

²And the revolters have gone deep into slaughter, but I will discipline all of them.

³I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore; Israel is defiled.

⁴Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the LORD.

⁵The pride of Israel testifies to his face; Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt; Judah also shall stumble with them.

⁶With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the LORD, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them.

⁷They have dealt faithlessly with the LORD; for they have borne alien children. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.

⁸Blow the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah. Sound the alarm at Beth-aven; we follow you, O Benjamin!

⁹Ephraim shall become a desolation in the day of punishment; among the tribes of Israel I make known what is sure.

¹⁰The princes of Judah have become like those who move the landmark; upon them I will pour out my wrath like water.

¹¹Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to go after filth.

¹²But I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah.

¹³When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to the great king. But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound.

¹⁴For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.

¹⁵I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me.

¹After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia.

²When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece.

³There he spent three months, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.

⁴Sopater the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus.

⁵These went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas,

⁶but we sailed away from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days we came to them at Troas, where we stayed for seven days.

⁷On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.

⁸There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered.

⁹And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead.

¹⁰But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.”

¹¹And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed.

¹²And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted.

¹³But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there, for so he had arranged, intending himself to go by land.

¹⁴And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and went to Mitylene.

¹⁵And sailing from there we came the following day opposite Chios; the next day we touched at Samos; and the day after that we went to Miletus.

¹⁶For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.

¹⁷Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him.

¹⁸And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia,

¹⁹serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews;

²⁰how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house,

²¹testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

²²And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there,

²³except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.

²⁴But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

²⁵And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.

²⁶Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all,

²⁷for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

²⁸Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

²⁹I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;

³⁰and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.

³¹Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.

³²And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

³³I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel.

³⁴You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me.

³⁵In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

³⁶And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.

³⁷And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him,

³⁸being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.