Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.

²He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’

³and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.

⁴A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away.

⁵When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread.

⁶“Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

⁷They discussed this among themselves and said, “It is because we didn’t bring any bread.”

⁸Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, “You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread?

⁹Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?

¹⁰Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?

¹¹How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

¹²Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

¹³When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

¹⁴They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

¹⁵“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

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

¹⁷Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.

¹⁸And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

¹⁹I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

²⁰Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

²¹From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

²²Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

²³Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

²⁴Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

²⁵For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

²⁶What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

²⁷For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.

²⁸“Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

¹The LORD then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.

²Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate,

³and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.

⁴Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”

⁵And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.

⁶Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth.

⁷And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.

⁸Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground,

⁹male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.

¹⁰And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.

¹¹In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

¹²And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

¹³On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.

¹⁴They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings.

¹⁵Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark.

¹⁶The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in.

¹⁷For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth.

¹⁸The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water.

¹⁹They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered.

²⁰The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits.

²¹Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.

²²Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.

²³Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

²⁴The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.

¹As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.

²For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.

³We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited.

⁴Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses;

⁵in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger;

⁶in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love;

⁷in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left;

⁸through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors;

⁹known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed;

¹⁰sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

¹¹We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you.

¹²We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us.

¹³As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts also.

¹⁴Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?

¹⁵What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

¹⁶What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

¹⁷Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

¹⁸And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

¹Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

²I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

⁴‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

⁵He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

⁶He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.

⁷Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.

⁸But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

⁹One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

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

¹¹It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

¹²It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.

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

¹⁴The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

¹⁵The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls.

¹⁶The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long.

¹⁷The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick.

¹⁸The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass.

¹⁹The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald,

²⁰the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.

²¹The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.

²²I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

²³The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.

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

²⁵On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.

²⁶The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.

²⁷Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

²“How long will you say such things? Your words are a blustering wind.

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

⁴When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.

⁵But if you will seek God earnestly and plead with the Almighty,

⁶if you are pure and upright, even now he will rouse himself on your behalf and restore you to your prosperous state.

⁷Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be.

⁸“Ask the former generation and find out what their ancestors learned,

⁹for we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow.

¹⁰Will they not instruct you and tell you? Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?

¹¹Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water?

¹²While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly than grass.

¹³Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.

¹⁴What they trust in is fragile; what they rely on is a spider’s web.

¹⁵They lean on the web, but it gives way; they cling to it, but it does not hold.

¹⁶They are like a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden;

¹⁷it entwines its roots around a pile of rocks and looks for a place among the stones.

¹⁸But when it is torn from its spot, that place disowns it and says, ‘I never saw you.’

¹⁹Surely its life withers away, and from the soil other plants grow.

²⁰“Surely God does not reject one who is blameless or strengthen the hands of evildoers.

²¹He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.

²²Your enemies will be clothed in shame, and the tents of the wicked will be no more.”

¹For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A maskil. We have heard it with our ears, O God; our ancestors have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago.

²With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our ancestors; you crushed the peoples and made our ancestors flourish.

³It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them.

⁴You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob.

⁵Through you we push back our enemies; through your name we trample our foes.

⁶I put no trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory;

⁷but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame.

⁸In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever.

⁹But now you have rejected and humbled us; you no longer go out with our armies.

¹⁰You made us retreat before the enemy, and our adversaries have plundered us.

¹¹You gave us up to be devoured like sheep and have scattered us among the nations.

¹²You sold your people for a pittance, gaining nothing from their sale.

¹³You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, the scorn and derision of those around us.

¹⁴You have made us a byword among the nations; the peoples shake their heads at us.

¹⁵I live in disgrace all day long, and my face is covered with shame

¹⁶at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me, because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge.

¹⁷All this came upon us, though we had not forgotten you; we had not been false to your covenant.

¹⁸Our hearts had not turned back; our feet had not strayed from your path.

¹⁹But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals; you covered us over with deep darkness.

²⁰If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,

²¹would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart?

²²Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

²³Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever.

²⁴Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?

²⁵We are brought down to the dust; our bodies cling to the ground.

²⁶Rise up and help us; rescue us because of your unfailing love.

¹Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?

²At the highest point along the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand;

³beside the gate leading into the city, at the entrance, she cries aloud:

⁴“To you, O people, I call out; I raise my voice to all mankind.

⁵You who are simple, gain prudence; you who are foolish, set your hearts on it.

⁶Listen, for I have trustworthy things to say; I open my lips to speak what is right.

⁷My mouth speaks what is true, for my lips detest wickedness.

⁸All the words of my mouth are just; none of them is crooked or perverse.

⁹To the discerning all of them are right; they are upright to those who have found knowledge.

¹⁰Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold,

¹¹for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.

¹²“I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence; I possess knowledge and discretion.

¹³To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.

¹⁴Counsel and sound judgment are mine; I have insight, I have power.

¹⁵By me kings reign and rulers issue decrees that are just;

¹⁶by me princes govern, and nobles—all who rule on earth.

¹⁷I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.

¹⁸With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity.

¹⁹My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver.

²⁰I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice,

²¹bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me and making their treasuries full.

²²“The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old;

²³I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be.

²⁴When there were no watery depths, I was given birth, when there were no springs overflowing with water;

²⁵before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth,

²⁶before he made the world or its fields or any of the dust of the earth.

²⁷I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,

²⁸when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,

²⁹when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.

³⁰Then I was constantly at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence,

³¹rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.

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

³³Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not disregard it.

³⁴Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway.

³⁵For those who find me find life and receive favor from the LORD.

³⁶But those who fail to find me harm themselves; all who hate me love death.”

¹And Abijah rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. Asa his son succeeded him as king, and in his days the country was at peace for ten years.

²Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God.

³He removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles.

⁴He commanded Judah to seek the LORD, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his laws and commands.

⁵He removed the high places and incense altars in every town in Judah, and the kingdom was at peace under him.

⁶He built up the fortified cities of Judah, since the land was at peace. No one was at war with him during those years, for the LORD gave him rest.

⁷“Let us build up these towns,” he said to Judah, “and put walls around them, with towers, gates and bars. The land is still ours, because we have sought the LORD our God; we sought him and he has given us rest on every side.” So they built and prospered.

⁸Asa had an army of three hundred thousand men from Judah, equipped with large shields and with spears, and two hundred and eighty thousand from Benjamin, armed with small shields and with bows. All these were brave fighting men.

⁹Zerah the Cushite marched out against them with an army of thousands upon thousands and three hundred chariots, and came as far as Mareshah.

¹⁰Asa went out to meet him, and they took up battle positions in the Valley of Zephathah near Mareshah.

¹¹Then Asa called to the LORD his God and said, “LORD, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. LORD, you are our God; do not let mere mortals prevail against you.”

¹²The LORD struck down the Cushites before Asa and Judah. The Cushites fled,

¹³and Asa and his army pursued them as far as Gerar. Such a great number of Cushites fell that they could not recover; they were crushed before the LORD and his forces. The men of Judah carried off a large amount of plunder.

¹⁴They destroyed all the villages around Gerar, for the terror of the LORD had fallen on them. They looted all these villages, since there was much plunder there.

¹⁵They also attacked the camps of the herders and carried off droves of sheep and goats and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.

¹“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

²But the more they were called, the more they went away from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images.

³It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them.

⁴I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.

⁵“Will they not return to Egypt and will not Assyria rule over them because they refuse to repent?

⁶A sword will flash in their cities; it will devour their false prophets and put an end to their plans.

⁷My people are determined to turn from me. Even though they call me God Most High, I will by no means exalt them.

⁸“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboyim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.

⁹I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I devastate Ephraim again. For I am God, and not a man— the Holy One among you. I will not come against their cities.

¹⁰They will follow the LORD; he will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west.

¹¹They will come from Egypt, trembling like sparrows, from Assyria, fluttering like doves. I will settle them in their homes,” declares the LORD.

¹²Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, Israel with deceit. And Judah is unruly against God, even against the faithful Holy One.

¹Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” So Paul motioned with his hand and began his defense:

²“King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my defense against all the accusations of the Jews,

³and especially so because you are well acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies. Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently.

⁴“The Jewish people all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child, from the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem.

⁵They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I conformed to the strictest sect of our religion, living as a Pharisee.

⁶And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today.

⁷This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. King Agrippa, it is because of this hope that these Jews are accusing me.

⁸Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?

⁹“I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the Lord’s people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them.

¹¹Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities.

¹²“On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests.

¹³About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions.

¹⁴We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

¹⁵“Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied.

¹⁶‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me.

¹⁷I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them

¹⁸to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

¹⁹“So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven.

²⁰First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds.

²¹That is why some Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me.

²²But God has helped me to this very day; so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen—

²³that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles.”

²⁴At this point Festus interrupted Paul’s defense. “You are out of your mind, Paul!” he shouted. “Your great learning is driving you insane.”

²⁵“I am not insane, most excellent Festus,” Paul replied. “What I am saying is true and reasonable.

²⁶The king is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner.

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

²⁸Then Agrippa said to Paul, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?”

²⁹Paul replied, “Short time or long—I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.”

³⁰The king rose, and with him the governor and Bernice and those sitting with them.

³¹After they left the room, they began saying to one another, “This man is not doing anything that deserves death or imprisonment.”

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