Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and putting Jesus to the test, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven.

²But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’

³And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to discern theappearance of the sky, but are you unable to discern the signs of the times?

⁴An evil and adulterous generation wants asign; and so asign will not be given to it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away.

⁵And the disciples came to the other side of the sea, but they had forgotten to bring any bread.

⁶And Jesus said to them, “Watch out and beware of theleaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

⁷They began to discuss this among themselves, saying, “He said that because we did not bring any bread.”

⁸But Jesus, aware of this, said, “You men of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread?

⁹Do you not yet understand nor remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets you picked up?

¹⁰Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many large baskets you picked up?

¹¹How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you about bread? But beware of theleaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

¹²Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

¹³Now when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

¹⁴And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets.”

¹⁵He *said to them, “But who do you yourselves say that I am?”

¹⁶Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

¹⁷And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, SimonBarjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

¹⁸And I also say to you that you arePeter, and upon thisrock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

¹⁹I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever youbind on earthshall have been bound in heaven, and whatever youloose on earthshall have been loosed in heaven.”

²⁰Then He gave the disciples strict orders that they were to tell no one that He was the Christ.

²¹From that time Jesus began to point out to His disciples that it was necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem and to suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and to be killed, and to be raised up on the third day.

²²And yet Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You!”

²³But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind onGod’s purposes, but men’s.”

²⁴Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.

²⁵For whoever wants to save hislife will lose it; but whoever loses hislife for My sake will find it.

²⁶For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world, butforfeits his soul? Or what will a person give in exchange for his soul?

²⁷For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY PERSON ACCORDING TO HISDEEDS.

²⁸“Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”

¹Then the LORD said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this generation.

²You shall take with you seven pairs of every clean animal, a male and his female; and two of the animals that are not clean, a male and his female;

³also of the birds of the sky, seven pairs, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth.

⁴For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and I will wipe out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.”

⁵So Noah acted in accordance with everything that the LORD had commanded him.

⁶Now Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of water came upon the earth.

⁷Then Noah and his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him entered the ark because of the waters of the flood.

⁸Of clean animals and animals that are not clean and birds and everything that crawls on the ground,

⁹they all went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.

¹⁰Now it came about after the seven days, that the waters of the flood came upon the earth.

¹¹In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.

¹²The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

¹³On this very same day Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark,

¹⁴they and every animal according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kind, and every crawling thing that crawls on the earth according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, all sorts of birds.

¹⁵So they went into the ark to Noah, by twos of all flesh in which there was the breath of life.

¹⁶Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the LORD closed the door behind him.

¹⁷Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth.

¹⁸The water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water.

¹⁹And the water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered.

²⁰The water prevailed fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered.

²¹So all creatures that moved on the earth perished: birds, livestock, animals, and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind;

²²of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died.

²³So He wiped out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from mankind to animals, to crawling things, and the birds of the sky, and they were wiped out from the earth; and only Noah was left, together with those that were with him in the ark.

²⁴The water prevailed upon the earth for 150 days.

¹And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain—

²for He says, “AT A FAVORABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON A DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.” Behold, now is “A FAVORABLE TIME,” behold, now is “A DAY OF SALVATION”—

³giving no reason for taking offense in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited,

⁴but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in difficulties,

⁵in beatings, in imprisonments, in mob attacks, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger,

⁶in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love,

⁷in the word of truth, and in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left,

⁸by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true;

⁹as unknown and yet well known, as dying and yet behold, we are alive; as punished and yet not put to death,

¹⁰as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things.

¹¹Our mouth has spoken freely to you, you Corinthians, our heart is opened wide.

¹²You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections.

¹³Now in the same way in exchange—I am speaking as to children—open wide your hearts to us, you as well.

¹⁴Do not be mismatched with unbelievers; for what do righteousness and lawlessness share together, or what does light have in common with darkness?

¹⁵Or what harmony does Christ have with Belial, or what does a believer share with an unbeliever?

¹⁶Or what agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I WILL DWELL AMONG THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.

¹⁷Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the Lord. “AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you.

¹⁸And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” Says the Lord Almighty.

¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.

²And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

³And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among the people, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,

⁴and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

⁵And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”

⁶Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give water to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life, without cost.

⁷The one who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.

⁸But for the cowardly, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and sexually immoral persons, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

⁹Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, full of the seven last plagues, came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

¹⁰And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,

¹¹having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very valuable stone, like a stone of crystal-clear jasper.

¹²It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on the gates, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.

¹³There were three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west.

¹⁴And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

¹⁵The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, its gates, and its wall.

¹⁶The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, twelve thousand stadia; its length, width, and height are equal.

¹⁷And he measured its wall, 144 cubits, by human measurements, which are also angelic measurements.

¹⁸The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass.

¹⁹The foundation stones of the city wall were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald;

²⁰the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst.

²¹And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

²²I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

²³And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

²⁴The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.

²⁵In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed;

²⁶and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it;

²⁷and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite responded,

²“How long will you say these things, And the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?

³Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert what is right?

⁴If your sons sinned against Him, Then He turned them over to the power of their wrongdoing.

⁵If you will search for God And implore the compassion of the Almighty,

⁶If you are pure and upright, Surely now He will stir Himself for you And restore your righteous estate.

⁷Though your beginning was insignificant, Yet your end will increase greatly.

⁸“Please inquire of past generations, And consider the things searched out by their fathers.

⁹For we are only of yesterday and know nothing, Because our days on earth are as a shadow.

¹⁰Will they not teach you and tell you, And bring forth words from their minds?

¹¹“Can papyrus grow tall without a marsh? Can the rushes grow without water?

¹²While it is still green and not cut down, Yet it withers before any other plant.

¹³So are the paths of all who forget God; And the hope of the godless will perish,

¹⁴His confidence is fragile, And his trust is a spider’s web.

¹⁵He depends on his house, but it does not stand; He holds on to it, but it does not endure.

¹⁶He flourishes before the sun, And his shoots spread out over his garden.

¹⁷His roots wrap around a rock pile, He grasps a house of stones.

¹⁸If he is removed from his place, Then it will deny him, saying, ‘I never saw you.’

¹⁹Behold, this is the joy of His way; And out of the dust others will spring.

²⁰Behold, God will not reject a person of integrity, Nor will He help evildoers.

²¹He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, And your lips with joyful shouting.

²²Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, And the tent of the wicked will no longer exist.”

¹God, we have heard with our ears, Our fathers have told us The work that You did in their days, In the days of old.

²You with Your own hand drove out the nations; Then You planted them; You afflicted the peoples, Then You let them go free.

³For by their own sword they did not possess the land, And their own arm did not save them, But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence, For You favored them.

⁴You are my King, God; Command victories for Jacob.

⁵Through You we will push back our adversaries; Through Your name we will trample down those who rise up against us.

⁶For I will not trust in my bow, Nor will my sword save me.

⁷But You have saved us from our adversaries, And You have put to shame those who hate us.

⁸In God we have boasted all day long, And we will give thanks to Your name forever. Selah

⁹Yet You have rejected us and brought us to dishonor, And do not go out with our armies.

¹⁰You cause us to turn back from the enemy; And those who hate us have taken spoils for themselves.

¹¹You turn us over to be eaten like sheep, And have scattered us among the nations.

¹²You sell Your people cheaply, And have not profited by their sale.

¹³You make us an object of reproach to our neighbors, Of scoffing and ridicule to those around us.

¹⁴You make us a proverb among the nations, A laughingstock among the peoples.

¹⁵All day long my dishonor is before me And I am covered with my humiliation,

¹⁶Because of the voice of one who taunts and reviles, Because of the presence of the enemy and the avenger.

¹⁷All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten You, And we have not dealt falsely with Your covenant.

¹⁸Our heart has not turned back, And our steps have not deviated from Your way,

¹⁹Yet You have crushed us in a place of jackals And covered us with deep darkness.

²⁰If we had forgotten the name of our God Or extended our hands to a strange god,

²¹Would God not find this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.

²²But for Your sake we are killed all day long; We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

²³Wake Yourself up, why do You sleep, Lord? Awake, do not reject us forever.

²⁴Why do You hide Your face And forget our affliction and oppression?

²⁵For our souls have sunk down into the dust; Our bodies cling to the earth.

²⁶Rise up, be our help, And redeem us because of Your mercy.

¹Does not wisdom call, And understanding raise her voice?

²On top of the heights beside the way, Where the paths meet, she takes her stand;

³Beside the gates, at the opening to the city, At the entrance of the doors, she cries out:

⁴“To you, people, I call, And my voice is to mankind.

⁵You naive ones, understand prudence; And, you fools, understand wisdom!

⁶Listen, for I will speak noble things; And the opening of my lips will reveal right things.

⁷For my mouth will proclaim truth; And wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

⁸All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; There is nothing crooked or perverted in them.

⁹They are all straightforward to him who understands, And right to those who find knowledge.

¹⁰Accept my instruction and not silver, And knowledge rather than choice gold.

¹¹For wisdom is better than jewels; And all desirable things cannot compare with her.

¹²“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, And I find knowledge and discretion.

¹³The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride, arrogance, the evil way, And the perverted mouth, I hate.

¹⁴Advice is mine and sound wisdom; I am understanding, power is mine.

¹⁵By me kings reign, And rulers decree justice.

¹⁶By me princes rule, and nobles, All who judge rightly.

¹⁷I love those who love me; And those who diligently seek me will find me.

¹⁸Riches and honor are with me, Enduring wealth and righteousness.

¹⁹My fruit is better than gold, even pure gold; And my yield better than choice silver.

²⁰I walk in the way of righteousness, In the midst of the paths of justice,

²¹To endow those who love me with wealth, That I may fill their treasuries.

²²“The LORD created me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old.

²³From eternity I was established, From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth.

²⁴When there were no ocean depths, I was born, When there were no springs abounding with water.

²⁵Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills, I was born;

²⁶While He had not yet made the earth and the fields, Nor the first dust of the world.

²⁷When He established the heavens, I was there; When He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep,

²⁸When He made firm the skies above, When the springs of the deep became fixed,

²⁹When He set a boundary for the sea So that the water would not violate His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth;

³⁰Then I was beside Him, as a master workman; And I was His delight daily, Rejoicing always before Him,

³¹Rejoicing in the world, His earth, And having my delight in the sons of mankind.

³²“Now then, sons, listen to me, For blessed are those who keep my ways.

³³Listen to instruction and be wise, And do not neglect it.

³⁴Blessed is the person who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at my doorposts.

³⁵For one who finds me finds life, And obtains favor from the LORD.

³⁶But one who sins against me injures himself; All those who hate me love death.”

¹So Abijah lay down with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David, and his son Asa became king in his place. The land was undisturbed for ten years during his days.

²And Asa did what was good and right in the sight of the LORD his God,

³for he removed the foreign altars and high places, tore down the memorial stones, cut down the Asherim,

⁴and commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers and to comply with the Law and the commandment.

⁵He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah. And the kingdom was undisturbed under him.

⁶He built fortified cities in Judah, since the land was undisturbed, and there was no one at war with him during those years, because the LORD had given him rest.

⁷For he said to Judah, “Let’s build these cities and surround them with walls and towers, gates and bars. The land is still ours because we have sought the LORD our God; we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side.” So they built and prospered.

⁸Now Asa had an army of three hundred thousand from Judah, carrying large shields and spears, and 280,000 from Benjamin, carrying shields and wielding bows; all of them were valiant warriors.

⁹Now Zerah the Ethiopian went out against them with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots, and he came to Mareshah.

¹⁰So Asa went out to meet him, and they drew up in battle formation in the Valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.

¹¹Then Asa called to the LORD his God and said, “LORD, there is no one besides You to help in the battle between the powerful and those who have no strength; help us, LORD our God, for we trust in You, and in Your name have come against this multitude. LORD, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You.”

¹²So the LORD routed the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled.

¹³Asa and the people who were with him pursued them as far as Gerar; and so many Ethiopians fell that they could not recover, for they were shattered before the LORD and before His army. And they carried away a very large amount of plunder.

¹⁴They destroyed all the cities around Gerar, for the dread of the LORD had fallen on them; and they pillaged all the cities, for there was much plunder in them.

¹⁵They also fatally struck those who owned livestock, and they led away large numbers of sheep and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.

¹When Israel was a youth I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.

²The more they called them, The more they went away from them; They kept sacrificing to the Baals And burning incense to idols.

³Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in My arms; But they did not know that I healed them.

⁴I pulled them along with cords of a man, with ropes of love, And I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws; And I bent down and fed them.

⁵They will not return to the land of Egypt; But Assyria—he will be their king Because they refused to return to Me.

⁶And the sword will whirl against their cities, And will destroy their oracle priests And consume them, because of their counsels.

⁷So My people are determined to turn from Me. Though they call them to the One on high, None at all exalts Him.

⁸How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I surrender you, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned over within Me, All My compassions are kindled.

⁹I will not carry out My fierce anger; I will not destroy Ephraim again. For I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, And I will not come in wrath.

¹⁰They will walk after the LORD, He will roar like a lion; Indeed He will roar, And His sons will come trembling from the west.

¹¹They will come trembling like birds from Egypt, And like doves from the land of Assyria; And I will settle them in their houses, declares the LORD.

¹²Ephraim surrounds Me with lies And the house of Israel with deceit; Judah is still unruly against God, Even against the Holy One who is faithful.

¹Now Agrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself.” Then Paul extended his hand and proceeded to make his defense:

²“Regarding all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate that I am about to make my defense before you today,

³especially because you are an expert in all customs and questions among the Jews; therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.

⁴“So then, all Jews know my way of life since my youth, which from the beginning was spent among my own nation and in Jerusalem,

⁵since they have known about me for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest sect of our religion.

⁶And now I am standing trial for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers;

⁷the promise to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly serve God night and day. For this hope, O king, I am being accused by Jews.

⁸Why is it considered incredible among you people if God raises the dead?

⁹“So I thought to myself that I had to act in strong opposition to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, after receiving authority from the chief priests, but I also cast my vote against them when they were being put to death.

¹¹And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and since I was extremely enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.

¹²“While so engaged, as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests,

¹³at midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who were journeying with me.

¹⁴And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

¹⁵And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

¹⁶But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you as a servant and a witness not only to the things in which you have seen Me, but also to the things in which I will appear to you,

¹⁷rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you,

¹⁸to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light, and from thepower of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’

¹⁹“For that reason, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision,

²⁰but continually proclaimed to those in Damascus first, and in Jerusalem, and then all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they are to repent and turn to God, performing deeds consistent with repentance.

²¹For these reasons some Jews seized me in the temple and tried to murder me.

²²So, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place,

²³as to whether the Christ was to suffer, and whether, as first from the resurrection of the dead, He would proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”

²⁴While Paul was stating these things in his defense, Festus *said in a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind! Your great learning is driving you insane.”

²⁵But Paul *said, “I am not insane, most excellent Festus; on the contrary, I am speaking out with truthful and rational words.

²⁶For the king knows about these matters, and I also speak to him with confidence, since I am persuaded that none of these things escape his notice; for this has not been done in a corner.

²⁷King Agrippa, do you believe the Prophets? I know that you believe.”

²⁸Agrippa replied to Paul, “In a short time you are going to persuade me to make a Christian of myself.”

²⁹And Paul said, “I would wish to God that even in a short or long time not only you, but also all who hear me this day would become such as I myself am, except for these chains.”

³⁰The king stood up and the governor and Bernice, and those who were sitting with them,

³¹and when they had gone out, they began talking to one another, saying, “This man is not doing anything deserving death or imprisonment.”

³²And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”