Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

²He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

³You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

⁴Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

⁶If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

⁷If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

⁸This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

⁹“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.

¹⁰If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

¹¹I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

¹²My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

¹³Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command.

¹⁵I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

¹⁶You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

¹⁷This is my command: Love each other.

¹⁸“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.

¹⁹If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

²⁰Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.

²¹They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.

²²If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.

²³Whoever hates me hates my Father as well.

²⁴If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.

²⁵But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’

²⁶“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.

²⁷And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

¹At that time the LORD said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden ark.

²I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them in the ark.”

³So I made the ark out of acacia wood and chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands.

⁴The LORD wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandments he had proclaimed to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me.

⁵Then I came back down the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made, as the LORD commanded me, and they are there now.

⁶(The Israelites traveled from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died and was buried, and Eleazar his son succeeded him as priest.

⁷From there they traveled to Gudgodah and on to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water.

⁸At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister and to pronounce blessings in his name, as they still do today.

⁹That is why the Levites have no share or inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the LORD is their inheritance, as the LORD your God told them.)

¹⁰Now I had stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I did the first time, and the LORD listened to me at this time also. It was not his will to destroy you.

¹¹“Go,” the LORD said to me, “and lead the people on their way, so that they may enter and possess the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.”

¹²And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

¹³and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

¹⁴To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it.

¹⁵Yet the LORD set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today.

¹⁶Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.

¹⁷For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.

¹⁸He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.

¹⁹And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.

²⁰Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name.

²¹He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes.

²²Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.

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.”

¹Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

²We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.

³When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.

⁴Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.

⁵Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.

⁶The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

⁷All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind,

⁸but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

⁹With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness.

¹⁰Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.

¹¹Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?

¹²My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

¹³Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.

¹⁴But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.

¹⁵Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

¹⁶For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

¹⁷But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.

¹⁸Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

¹The LORD said to Job:

²“Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!”

³Then Job answered the LORD:

⁴“I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth.

⁵I spoke once, but I have no answer— twice, but I will say no more.”

⁶Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm:

⁷“Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.

⁸“Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?

⁹Do you have an arm like God’s, and can your voice thunder like his?

¹⁰Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor, and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.

¹¹Unleash the fury of your wrath, look at all who are proud and bring them low,

¹²look at all who are proud and humble them, crush the wicked where they stand.

¹³Bury them all in the dust together; shroud their faces in the grave.

¹⁴Then I myself will admit to you that your own right hand can save you.

¹⁵“Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox.

¹⁶What strength it has in its loins, what power in the muscles of its belly!

¹⁷Its tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of its thighs are close-knit.

¹⁸Its bones are tubes of bronze, its limbs like rods of iron.

¹⁹It ranks first among the works of God, yet its Maker can approach it with his sword.

²⁰The hills bring it their produce, and all the wild animals play nearby.

²¹Under the lotus plants it lies, hidden among the reeds in the marsh.

²²The lotuses conceal it in their shadow; the poplars by the stream surround it.

²³A raging river does not alarm it; it is secure, though the Jordan should surge against its mouth.

²⁴Can anyone capture it by the eyes, or trap it and pierce its nose?

¹A psalm of Asaph. The Mighty One, God, the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to where it sets.

²From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.

³Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before him, and around him a tempest rages.

⁴He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that he may judge his people:

⁵“Gather to me this consecrated people, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

⁶And the heavens proclaim his righteousness, for he is a God of justice.

⁷“Listen, my people, and I will speak; I will testify against you, Israel: I am God, your God.

⁸I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.

⁹I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens,

¹⁰for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.

¹¹I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine.

¹²If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

¹³Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?

¹⁴“Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High,

¹⁵and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

¹⁶But to the wicked person, God says: “What right have you to recite my laws or take my covenant on your lips?

¹⁷You hate my instruction and cast my words behind you.

¹⁸When you see a thief, you join with him; you throw in your lot with adulterers.

¹⁹You use your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit.

²⁰You sit and testify against your brother and slander your own mother’s son.

²¹When you did these things and I kept silent, you thought I was exactly like you. But I now arraign you and set my accusations before you.

²²“Consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:

²³Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation.”

¹Wisdom has built her house; she has set up its seven pillars.

²She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table.

³She has sent out her servants, and she calls from the highest point of the city,

⁴“Let all who are simple come to my house!” To those who have no sense she says,

⁵“Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed.

⁶Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of insight.”

⁷Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults; whoever rebukes the wicked incurs abuse.

⁸Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you.

⁹Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning.

¹⁰The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

¹¹For through wisdom your days will be many, and years will be added to your life.

¹²If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you; if you are a mocker, you alone will suffer.

¹³Folly is an unruly woman; she is simple and knows nothing.

¹⁴She sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the highest point of the city,

¹⁵calling out to those who pass by, who go straight on their way,

¹⁶“Let all who are simple come to my house!” To those who have no sense she says,

¹⁷“Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!”

¹⁸But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are deep in the realm of the dead.

¹During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the LORD. The LORD said, “It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.”

²The king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not a part of Israel but were survivors of the Amorites; the Israelites had sworn to spare them, but Saul in his zeal for Israel and Judah had tried to annihilate them.)

³David asked the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How shall I make atonement so that you will bless the LORD’s inheritance?”

⁴The Gibeonites answered him, “We have no right to demand silver or gold from Saul or his family, nor do we have the right to put anyone in Israel to death.” “What do you want me to do for you?” David asked.

⁵They answered the king, “As for the man who destroyed us and plotted against us so that we have been decimated and have no place anywhere in Israel,

⁶let seven of his male descendants be given to us to be killed and their bodies exposed before the LORD at Gibeah of Saul—the LORD’s chosen one.” So the king said, “I will give them to you.”

⁷The king spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath before the LORD between David and Jonathan son of Saul.

⁸But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Aiah’s daughter Rizpah, whom she had borne to Saul, together with the five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab, whom she had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite.

⁹He handed them over to the Gibeonites, who killed them and exposed their bodies on a hill before the LORD. All seven of them fell together; they were put to death during the first days of the harvest, just as the barley harvest was beginning.

¹⁰Rizpah daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest till the rain poured down from the heavens on the bodies, she did not let the birds touch them by day or the wild animals by night.

¹¹When David was told what Aiah’s daughter Rizpah, Saul’s concubine, had done,

¹²he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh Gilead. (They had stolen their bodies from the public square at Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hung them after they struck Saul down on Gilboa.)

¹³David brought the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from there, and the bones of those who had been killed and exposed were gathered up.

¹⁴They buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish, at Zela in Benjamin, and did everything the king commanded. After that, God answered prayer in behalf of the land.

¹⁵Once again there was a battle between the Philistines and Israel. David went down with his men to fight against the Philistines, and he became exhausted.

¹⁶And Ishbi-Benob, one of the descendants of Rapha, whose bronze spearhead weighed three hundred shekels and who was armed with a new sword, said he would kill David.

¹⁷But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to David’s rescue; he struck the Philistine down and killed him. Then David’s men swore to him, saying, “Never again will you go out with us to battle, so that the lamp of Israel will not be extinguished.”

¹⁸In the course of time, there was another battle with the Philistines, at Gob. At that time Sibbekai the Hushathite killed Saph, one of the descendants of Rapha.

¹⁹In another battle with the Philistines at Gob, Elhanan son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver’s rod.

²⁰In still another battle, which took place at Gath, there was a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He also was descended from Rapha.

²¹When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of Shimeah, David’s brother, killed him.

²²These four were descendants of Rapha in Gath, and they fell at the hands of David and his men.

¹While Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms and peoples in the empire he ruled were fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding towns, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

²“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Go to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down.

³You will not escape from his grasp but will surely be captured and given into his hands. You will see the king of Babylon with your own eyes, and he will speak with you face to face. And you will go to Babylon.

⁴“ ‘Yet hear the LORD’s promise to you, Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the LORD says concerning you: You will not die by the sword;

⁵you will die peacefully. As people made a funeral fire in honor of your predecessors, the kings who ruled before you, so they will make a fire in your honor and lament, “Alas, master!” I myself make this promise, declares the LORD.’ ”

⁶Then Jeremiah the prophet told all this to Zedekiah king of Judah, in Jerusalem,

⁷while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah that were still holding out—Lachish and Azekah. These were the only fortified cities left in Judah.

⁸The word came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves.

⁹Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage.

¹⁰So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free.

¹¹But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.

¹²Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

¹³“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I said,

¹⁴‘Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you six years, you must let them go free.’ Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay attention to me.

¹⁵Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to your own people. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name.

¹⁶But now you have turned around and profaned my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again.

¹⁷“Therefore this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim ‘freedom’ for you, declares the LORD—‘freedom’ to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth.

¹⁸Those who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces.

¹⁹The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf,

²⁰I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.

²¹“I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them, to the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you.

²²I am going to give the order, declares the LORD, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, take it and burn it down. And I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.”

¹At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed.

²But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the other Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.

³So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders.

⁴The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles.

⁵There was a plot afoot among both Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them.

⁶But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country,

⁷where they continued to preach the gospel.

⁸In Lystra there sat a man who was lame. He had been that way from birth and had never walked.

⁹He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed

¹⁰and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.

¹¹When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!”

¹²Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker.

¹³The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.

¹⁴But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting:

¹⁵“Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them.

¹⁶In the past, he let all nations go their own way.

¹⁷Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”

¹⁸Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them.

¹⁹Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead.

²⁰But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.

²¹They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch,

²²strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.

²³Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.

²⁴After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia,

²⁵and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.

²⁶From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed.

²⁷On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.

²⁸And they stayed there a long time with the disciples.