One Year Bible.

The LORD Has Chosen Zion

¹A song of ascents.

O LORD, remember on behalf of David

all the hardships he endured,

²how he swore an oath to the LORD,

and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob:

³“I will not enter my house

or get into my bed,

⁴I will not give sleep to my eyes

or slumber to my eyelids,

⁵until I find a place for the LORD,

a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.”

⁶We heard that the ark was in Ephrathah;

we found it in the fields of Jaar.

⁷Let us go to His dwelling place;

let us worship at His footstool.

⁸Arise, O LORD, to Your resting place,

You and the ark of Your strength.

⁹May Your priests be clothed with righteousness,

and Your saints shout for joy.

¹⁰For the sake of Your servant David,

do not reject Your anointed one.

¹¹The LORD swore an oath to David,

a promise He will not revoke:

“One of your descendants

I will place on your throne.

¹²If your sons keep My covenant

and the testimony I will teach them,

then their sons will also sit on your throne

forever and ever.”

¹³For the LORD has chosen Zion;

He has desired it for His home:

¹⁴“This is My resting place forever and ever;

here I will dwell, for I have desired this home.

¹⁵I will bless her with abundant provisions;

I will satisfy her poor with bread.

¹⁶I will clothe her priests with salvation,

and her saints will sing out in joy.

¹⁷There I will make a horn grow for David;

I have prepared a lamp for My anointed one.

¹⁸I will clothe his enemies with shame,

but the crown upon him will gleam.”

The Greatest in the Kingdom

¹At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

²Jesus invited a little child to stand among them. ³“Truly I tell you,” He said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ⁵And whoever welcomes a little child like this in My name welcomes Me.

Temptations and Trespasses

⁶But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

⁷Woe to the world for the causes of sin. These stumbling blocks must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!

⁸If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands and two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire. ⁹And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

¹⁰See that you do not look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of My Father in heaven.

¹²What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? ¹³And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices more over that one sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. ¹⁴In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

A Brother Who Sins

¹⁵If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. ¹⁶But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ ¹⁷If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, regard him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

¹⁸Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Ask in My Name

¹⁹Again, I tell you truly that if two of you on the earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven. ²⁰For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them.”

The Unforgiving Servant

²¹Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

²²Jesus answered, “I tell you, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!

²³Because of this, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴As he began the settlements, a debtor owing ten thousand talents was brought to him. ²⁵Since the man was unable to pay, the master ordered that he be sold to pay his debt, along with his wife and children and everything he owned.

²⁶Then the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Have patience with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’

²⁷His master had compassion on him, forgave his debt, and released him.

²⁸But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’

²⁹So his fellow servant fell down and begged him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you back.’

³⁰But he refused. Instead, he went and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay his debt.

³¹When his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and recounted all of this to their master.

³²Then the master summoned him and said, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave all your debt because you begged me. ³³Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you?’ ³⁴In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should repay all that he owed.

³⁵That is how My heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

Paul’s Message by the Spirit’s Power

¹When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. ²For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. ³I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. ⁴My message and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵so that your faith would not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

Spiritual Wisdom

⁶Among the mature, however, we speak a message of wisdom — but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷No, we speak of the mysterious and hidden wisdom of God, which He destined for our glory before time began. ⁸None of the rulers of this age understood it. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹Rather, as it is written:

“No eye has seen,

no ear has heard,

no heart has imagined,

what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

¹⁰But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹For who among men knows the thoughts of man except his own spirit within him? So too, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹²We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

¹⁴The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment. ¹⁶“For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

God’s Fellow Workers

¹Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly — as infants in Christ. ²I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food. In fact, you are still not ready, ³for you are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and dissension among you, are you not worldly? Are you not walking in the way of man? ⁴For when one of you says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men?

⁵What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, as the Lord has assigned to each his role. ⁶I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. ⁷So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. ⁸He who plants and he who waters are one in purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. ⁹For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

Christ Our Foundation

¹⁰By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one must be careful how he builds. ¹¹For no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

¹²If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, ¹³his workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work. ¹⁴If what he has built survives, he will receive a reward. ¹⁵If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as if through the flames.

God’s Temple and God’s Wisdom

¹⁶Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? ¹⁷If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

¹⁸Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise. ¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness.” ²⁰And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”

²¹Therefore, stop boasting in men. All things are yours, ²²whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. All of them belong to you, ²³and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.