Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.

²For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.

³“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?

⁴How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?

⁵Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.

⁶“Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.

⁷“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.

⁸For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

⁹“You parents — if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead?

¹⁰Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not!

¹¹So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.

¹²“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.

¹³“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way.

¹⁴But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.

¹⁵“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves.

¹⁶You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

¹⁷A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit.

¹⁸A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit.

¹⁹So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire.

²⁰Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.

²¹“Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.

²²On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’

²³But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’

²⁴“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.

²⁵Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.

²⁶But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand.

²⁷When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”

²⁸When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching,

²⁹for he taught with real authority — quite unlike their teachers of religious law.

¹“If a man’s testicles are crushed or his penis is cut off, he may not be admitted to the assembly of the LORD.

²“If a person is illegitimate by birth, neither he nor his descendants for ten generations may be admitted to the assembly of the LORD.

³“No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants for ten generations may be admitted to the assembly of the LORD.

⁴These nations did not welcome you with food and water when you came out of Egypt. Instead, they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in distant Aram-naharaim to curse you.

⁵But the LORD your God refused to listen to Balaam. He turned the intended curse into a blessing because the LORD your God loves you.

⁶As long as you live, you must never promote the welfare and prosperity of the Ammonites or Moabites.

⁷“Do not detest the Edomites or the Egyptians, because the Edomites are your relatives and you lived as foreigners among the Egyptians.

⁸The third generation of Edomites and Egyptians may enter the assembly of the LORD.

⁹“When you go to war against your enemies, be sure to stay away from anything that is impure.

¹⁰“Any man who becomes ceremonially defiled because of a nocturnal emission must leave the camp and stay away all day.

¹¹Toward evening he must bathe himself, and at sunset he may return to the camp.

¹²“You must have a designated area outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself.

¹³Each of you must have a spade as part of your equipment. Whenever you relieve yourself, dig a hole with the spade and cover the excrement.

¹⁴The camp must be holy, for the LORD your God moves around in your camp to protect you and to defeat your enemies. He must not see any shameful thing among you, or he will turn away from you.

¹⁵“If slaves should escape from their masters and take refuge with you, you must not hand them over to their masters.

¹⁶Let them live among you in any town they choose, and do not oppress them.

¹⁷“No Israelite, whether man or woman, may become a temple prostitute.

¹⁸When you are bringing an offering to fulfill a vow, you must not bring to the house of the LORD your God any offering from the earnings of a prostitute, whether a man or a woman, for both are detestable to the LORD your God.

¹⁹“Do not charge interest on the loans you make to a fellow Israelite, whether you loan money, or food, or anything else.

²⁰You may charge interest to foreigners, but you may not charge interest to Israelites, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything you do in the land you are about to enter and occupy.

²¹“When you make a vow to the LORD your God, be prompt in fulfilling whatever you promised him. For the LORD your God demands that you promptly fulfill all your vows, or you will be guilty of sin.

²²However, it is not a sin to refrain from making a vow.

²³But once you have voluntarily made a vow, be careful to fulfill your promise to the LORD your God.

²⁴“When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, but you must not carry any away in a basket.

²⁵And when you enter your neighbor’s field of grain, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you must not harvest it with a sickle.

¹Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.

²Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.

³If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.

⁴Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.

⁵For we are each responsible for our own conduct.

⁶Those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them.

⁷Don’t be misled — you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.

⁸Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.

⁹So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.

¹⁰Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone — especially to those in the family of faith.

¹¹NOTICE WHAT LARGE LETTERS I USE AS I WRITE THESE CLOSING WORDS IN MY OWN HANDWRITING.

¹²Those who are trying to force you to be circumcised want to look good to others. They don’t want to be persecuted for teaching that the cross of Christ alone can save.

¹³And even those who advocate circumcision don’t keep the whole law themselves. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast about it and claim you as their disciples.

¹⁴As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died.

¹⁵It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation.

¹⁶May God’s peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the new people of God.

¹⁷From now on, don’t let anyone trouble me with these things. For I bear on my body the scars that show I belong to Jesus.

¹⁸Dear brothers and sisters, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

¹See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.

²Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.

³And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.

⁴Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.

⁵And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him.

⁶Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.

⁷Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous.

⁸But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.

⁹Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.

¹⁰So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.

¹¹This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

¹²We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous.

¹³So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.

¹⁴If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead.

¹⁵Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.

¹⁶We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.

¹⁷If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion — how can God’s love be in that person?

¹⁸Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.

¹⁹Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.

²⁰Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.

²¹Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence.

²²And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.

²³And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us.

²⁴Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.

¹Send your grain across the seas, and in time, profits will flow back to you.

²But divide your investments among many places, for you do not know what risks might lie ahead.

³When clouds are heavy, the rains come down. Whether a tree falls north or south, it stays where it falls.

⁴Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.

⁵Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.

⁶Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don’t know if profit will come from one activity or another — or maybe both.

⁷Light is sweet; how pleasant to see a new day dawning.

⁸When people live to be very old, let them rejoice in every day of life. But let them also remember there will be many dark days. Everything still to come is meaningless.

⁹Young people, it’s wonderful to be young! Enjoy every minute of it. Do everything you want to do; take it all in. But remember that you must give an account to God for everything you do.

¹⁰So refuse to worry, and keep your body healthy. But remember that youth, with a whole life before you, is meaningless.

¹O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water.

²I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory.

³Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you!

⁴I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer.

⁵You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy.

⁶I lie awake thinking of you, meditating on you through the night.

⁷Because you are my helper, I sing for joy in the shadow of your wings.

⁸I cling to you; your strong right hand holds me securely.

⁹But those plotting to destroy me will come to ruin. They will go down into the depths of the earth.

¹⁰They will die by the sword and become the food of jackals.

¹¹But the king will rejoice in God. All who swear to tell the truth will praise him, while liars will be silenced.

¹Choose a good reputation over great riches; being held in high esteem is better than silver or gold.

²The rich and poor have this in common: The LORD made them both.

³A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.

⁴True humility and fear of the LORD lead to riches, honor, and long life.

⁵Corrupt people walk a thorny, treacherous road; whoever values life will avoid it.

⁶Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.

⁷Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender.

⁸Those who plant injustice will harvest disaster, and their reign of terror will come to an end.

⁹Blessed are those who are generous, because they feed the poor.

¹⁰Throw out the mocker, and fighting goes, too. Quarrels and insults will disappear.

¹¹Whoever loves a pure heart and gracious speech will have the king as a friend.

¹²The LORD preserves those with knowledge, but he ruins the plans of the treacherous.

¹³The lazy person claims, “There’s a lion out there! If I go outside, I might be killed!”

¹⁴The mouth of an immoral woman is a dangerous trap; those who make the LORD angry will fall into it.

¹⁵A youngster’s heart is filled with foolishness, but physical discipline will drive it far away.

¹⁶A person who gets ahead by oppressing the poor or by showering gifts on the rich will end in poverty.

¹⁷Listen to the words of the wise; apply your heart to my instruction.

¹⁸For it is good to keep these sayings in your heart and always ready on your lips.

¹⁹I am teaching you today — yes, you — so you will trust in the LORD.

²⁰I have written thirty sayings for you, filled with advice and knowledge.

²¹In this way, you may know the truth and take an accurate report to those who sent you.

²²Don’t rob the poor just because you can, or exploit the needy in court.

²³For the LORD is their defender. He will ruin anyone who ruins them.

²⁴Don’t befriend angry people or associate with hot-tempered people,

²⁵or you will learn to be like them and endanger your soul.

²⁶Don’t agree to guarantee another person’s debt or put up security for someone else.

²⁷If you can’t pay it, even your bed will be snatched from under you.

²⁸Don’t cheat your neighbor by moving the ancient boundary markers set up by previous generations.

²⁹Do you see any truly competent workers? They will serve kings rather than working for ordinary people.

¹When the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame, which brought honor to the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions.

²She arrived in Jerusalem with a large group of attendants and a great caravan of camels loaded with spices, large quantities of gold, and precious jewels. When she met with Solomon, she talked with him about everything she had on her mind.

³Solomon had answers for all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her.

⁴When the queen of Sheba realized how very wise Solomon was, and when she saw the palace he had built,

⁵she was overwhelmed. She was also amazed at the food on his tables, the organization of his officials and their splendid clothing, the cup-bearers, and the burnt offerings Solomon made at the Temple of the LORD.

⁶She exclaimed to the king, “Everything I heard in my country about your achievements and wisdom is true!

⁷I didn’t believe what was said until I arrived here and saw it with my own eyes. In fact, I had not heard the half of it! Your wisdom and prosperity are far beyond what I was told.

⁸How happy your people must be! What a privilege for your officials to stand here day after day, listening to your wisdom!

⁹Praise the LORD your God, who delights in you and has placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the LORD’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king so you can rule with justice and righteousness.”

¹⁰Then she gave the king a gift of 9,000 pounds of gold, great quantities of spices, and precious jewels. Never again were so many spices brought in as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹¹(In addition, Hiram’s ships brought gold from Ophir, and they also brought rich cargoes of red sandalwood and precious jewels.

¹²The king used the sandalwood to make railings for the Temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and to construct lyres and harps for the musicians. Never before or since has there been such a supply of sandalwood.)

¹³King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba whatever she asked for, besides all the customary gifts he had so generously given. Then she and all her attendants returned to their own land.

¹⁴Each year Solomon received about 25 tons of gold.

¹⁵This did not include the additional revenue he received from merchants and traders, all the kings of Arabia, and the governors of the land.

¹⁶King Solomon made 200 large shields of hammered gold, each weighing more than fifteen pounds.

¹⁷He also made 300 smaller shields of hammered gold, each weighing nearly four pounds. The king placed these shields in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁸Then the king made a huge throne, decorated with ivory and overlaid with fine gold.

¹⁹The throne had six steps and a rounded back. There were armrests on both sides of the seat, and the figure of a lion stood on each side of the throne.

²⁰There were also twelve other lions, one standing on each end of the six steps. No other throne in all the world could be compared with it!

²¹All of King Solomon’s drinking cups were solid gold, as were all the utensils in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon. They were not made of silver, for silver was considered worthless in Solomon’s day!

²²The king had a fleet of trading ships of Tarshish that sailed with Hiram’s fleet. Once every three years the ships returned, loaded with gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.

²³So King Solomon became richer and wiser than any other king on earth.

²⁴People from every nation came to consult him and to hear the wisdom God had given him.

²⁵Year after year everyone who visited brought him gifts of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.

²⁶Solomon built up a huge force of chariots and horses. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses. He stationed some of them in the chariot cities and some near him in Jerusalem.

²⁷The king made silver as plentiful in Jerusalem as stone. And valuable cedar timber was as common as the sycamore-fig trees that grow in the foothills of Judah.

²⁸Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from Cilicia ; the king’s traders acquired them from Cilicia at the standard price.

²⁹At that time chariots from Egypt could be purchased for 600 pieces of silver, and horses for 150 pieces of silver. They were then exported to the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram.

¹This is the LORD’s message to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the Philistines of Gaza, before it was captured by the Egyptian army.

²This is what the LORD says: “A flood is coming from the north to overflow the land. It will destroy the land and everything in it — cities and people alike. People will scream in terror, and everyone in the land will wail.

³Hear the clatter of stallions’ hooves and the rumble of wheels as the chariots rush by. Terrified fathers run madly, without a backward glance at their helpless children.

⁴“The time has come for the Philistines to be destroyed, along with their allies from Tyre and Sidon. Yes, the LORD is destroying the remnant of the Philistines, those colonists from the island of Crete.

⁵Gaza will be humiliated, its head shaved bald; Ashkelon will lie silent. You remnant from the Mediterranean coast, how long will you cut yourselves in mourning?

⁶“Now, O sword of the LORD, when will you be at rest again? Go back into your sheath; rest and be still.

⁷“But how can it be still when the LORD has sent it on a mission? For the city of Ashkelon and the people living along the sea must be destroyed.”

¹When the time came, we set sail for Italy. Paul and several other prisoners were placed in the custody of a Roman officer named Julius, a captain of the Imperial Regiment.

²Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was also with us. We left on a ship whose home port was Adramyttium on the northwest coast of the province of Asia; it was scheduled to make several stops at ports along the coast of the province.

³The next day when we docked at Sidon, Julius was very kind to Paul and let him go ashore to visit with friends so they could provide for his needs.

⁴Putting out to sea from there, we encountered strong headwinds that made it difficult to keep the ship on course, so we sailed north of Cyprus between the island and the mainland.

⁵Keeping to the open sea, we passed along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, landing at Myra, in the province of Lycia.

⁶There the commanding officer found an Egyptian ship from Alexandria that was bound for Italy, and he put us on board.

⁷We had several days of slow sailing, and after great difficulty we finally neared Cnidus. But the wind was against us, so we sailed across to Crete and along the sheltered coast of the island, past the cape of Salmone.

⁸We struggled along the coast with great difficulty and finally arrived at Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea.

⁹We had lost a lot of time. The weather was becoming dangerous for sea travel because it was so late in the fall, and Paul spoke to the ship’s officers about it.

¹⁰“Men,” he said, “I believe there is trouble ahead if we go on — shipwreck, loss of cargo, and danger to our lives as well.”

¹¹But the officer in charge of the prisoners listened more to the ship’s captain and the owner than to Paul.

¹²And since Fair Havens was an exposed harbor — a poor place to spend the winter — most of the crew wanted to go on to Phoenix, farther up the coast of Crete, and spend the winter there. Phoenix was a good harbor with only a southwest and northwest exposure.

¹³When a light wind began blowing from the south, the sailors thought they could make it. So they pulled up anchor and sailed close to the shore of Crete.

¹⁴But the weather changed abruptly, and a wind of typhoon strength (called a “northeaster”) burst across the island and blew us out to sea.

¹⁵The sailors couldn’t turn the ship into the wind, so they gave up and let it run before the gale.

¹⁶We sailed along the sheltered side of a small island named Cauda, where with great difficulty we hoisted aboard the lifeboat being towed behind us.

¹⁷Then the sailors bound ropes around the hull of the ship to strengthen it. They were afraid of being driven across to the sandbars of Syrtis off the African coast, so they lowered the sea anchor to slow the ship and were driven before the wind.

¹⁸The next day, as gale-force winds continued to batter the ship, the crew began throwing the cargo overboard.

¹⁹The following day they even took some of the ship’s gear and threw it overboard.

²⁰The terrible storm raged for many days, blotting out the sun and the stars, until at last all hope was gone.

²¹No one had eaten for a long time. Finally, Paul called the crew together and said, “Men, you should have listened to me in the first place and not left Crete. You would have avoided all this damage and loss.

²²But take courage! None of you will lose your lives, even though the ship will go down.

²³For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me,

²⁴and he said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul, for you will surely stand trial before Caesar! What’s more, God in his goodness has granted safety to everyone sailing with you.’

²⁵So take courage! For I believe God. It will be just as he said.

²⁶But we will be shipwrecked on an island.”

²⁷About midnight on the fourteenth night of the storm, as we were being driven across the Sea of Adria, the sailors sensed land was near.

²⁸They dropped a weighted line and found that the water was 120 feet deep. But a little later they measured again and found it was only 90 feet deep.

²⁹At this rate they were afraid we would soon be driven against the rocks along the shore, so they threw out four anchors from the back of the ship and prayed for daylight.

³⁰Then the sailors tried to abandon the ship; they lowered the lifeboat as though they were going to put out anchors from the front of the ship.

³¹But Paul said to the commanding officer and the soldiers, “You will all die unless the sailors stay aboard.”

³²So the soldiers cut the ropes to the lifeboat and let it drift away.

³³Just as day was dawning, Paul urged everyone to eat. “You have been so worried that you haven’t touched food for two weeks,” he said.

³⁴“Please eat something now for your own good. For not a hair of your heads will perish.”

³⁵Then he took some bread, gave thanks to God before them all, and broke off a piece and ate it.

³⁶Then everyone was encouraged and began to eat —

³⁷all 276 of us who were on board.

³⁸After eating, the crew lightened the ship further by throwing the cargo of wheat overboard.

³⁹When morning dawned, they didn’t recognize the coastline, but they saw a bay with a beach and wondered if they could get to shore by running the ship aground.

⁴⁰So they cut off the anchors and left them in the sea. Then they lowered the rudders, raised the foresail, and headed toward shore.

⁴¹But they hit a shoal and ran the ship aground too soon. The bow of the ship stuck fast, while the stern was repeatedly smashed by the force of the waves and began to break apart.

⁴²The soldiers wanted to kill the prisoners to make sure they didn’t swim ashore and escape.

⁴³But the commanding officer wanted to spare Paul, so he didn’t let them carry out their plan. Then he ordered all who could swim to jump overboard first and make for land.

⁴⁴The others held on to planks or debris from the broken ship. So everyone escaped safely to shore.