One Year Bible.

Elijah Flees from Jezebel

¹Now Ahab told Jezebel everything that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. ²So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “May the gods deal with me, and ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I have not made your life like the lives of those you killed!”

³And Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, ⁴while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

⁵Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep.

Suddenly an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”

⁶And he looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again.

⁷A second time the angel of the LORD returned and touched him, saying, “Get up and eat, or the journey will be too much for you.”

⁸So he got up and ate and drank. And strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

The LORD Speaks to Elijah at Horeb

⁹There Elijah entered a cave and spent the night. And the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

¹⁰“I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of Hosts,” he replied, “but the Israelites have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I am the only one left, and they are seeking my life as well.”

¹¹Then the LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD. Behold, the LORD is about to pass by.”

And a great and mighty wind tore into the mountains and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind.

After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.

¹²After the earthquake there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire.

And after the fire came a still, small voice. ¹³When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

¹⁴“I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of Hosts,” he replied, “but the Israelites have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I am the only one left, and they are seeking my life as well.”

¹⁵Then the LORD said to him, “Go back by the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you arrive, you are to anoint Hazael as king over Aram. ¹⁶You are also to anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel and Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel-meholah to succeed you as prophet.

¹⁷Then Jehu will put to death whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death whoever escapes the sword of Jehu.

¹⁸Nevertheless, I have reserved seven thousand in Israel— all whose knees have not bowed to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”

The Call of Elisha

¹⁹So Elijah departed and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve teams of oxen, and he was with the twelfth team. Elijah passed by him and threw his cloak around him.

²⁰So Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, and then I will follow you.”

“Go on back,” Elijah replied, “for what have I done to you?”

²¹So Elisha turned back from him, took his pair of oxen, and slaughtered them. Using the oxen’s equipment for fuel, he cooked the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow and serve Elijah.

Absent in Body, Present in Spirit

¹For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me face to face, ²that they may be encouraged in heart, knit together in love, and filled with the full riches of complete understanding, so that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, ³in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

⁴I say this so that no one will deceive you by smooth rhetoric. ⁵For although I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, and I delight to see your orderly condition and firm faith in Christ.

Alive with Christ

⁶Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in Him, ⁷rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

⁸See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ. ⁹For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form. ¹⁰And you have been made complete in Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

¹¹In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of your sinful nature, with the circumcision performed by Christ and not by human hands. ¹²And having been buried with Him in baptism, you were raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.

¹³When you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our trespasses, ¹⁴having canceled the debt ascribed to us in the decrees that stood against us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross! ¹⁵And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

¹⁶Therefore let no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a feast, a New Moon, or a Sabbath. ¹⁷These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts it belongs to Christ. ¹⁸Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you with speculation about what he has seen. Such a person is puffed up without basis by his unspiritual mind. ¹⁹He has lost connection to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and knit together by its joints and ligaments, grows as God causes it to grow.

²⁰If you have died with Christ to the spiritual forces of the world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its regulations: ²¹“Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”? ²²These will all perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. ²³Such restrictions indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-prescribed worship, their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body; but they are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

Jesus Appears by the Sea of Tiberias

¹Later, by the Sea of Tiberias, Jesus again revealed Himself to the disciples. He made Himself known in this way: ²Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. ³Simon Peter told them, “I am going fishing.”

“We will go with you,” they said. So they went out and got into the boat, but caught nothing that night.

⁴Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not recognize that it was Jesus. ⁵So He called out to them, “Children, do you have any fish?”

“No,” they answered.

⁶He told them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it there, and they were unable to haul it in because of the great number of fish.

⁷Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment (for he had removed it . . . ) and jumped into the sea. ⁸The other disciples came ashore in the boat. They dragged in the net full of fish, for they were not far from land, only about a hundred yards.

⁹When they landed, they saw a charcoal fire there with fish on it, and some bread.

¹⁰Jesus told them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” ¹¹So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many, the net was not torn.

¹²“Come, have breakfast,” Jesus said to them. None of the disciples dared to ask Him, “Who are You?” They knew it was the Lord. ¹³Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and He did the same with the fish.

¹⁴This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after He was raised from the dead.

Jesus and Peter

¹⁵When they had finished eating, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love Me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he answered, “You know I love You.”

Jesus replied, “Feed My lambs.”

¹⁶Jesus asked a second time, “Simon son of John, do you love Me?”

“Yes, Lord,” he answered, “You know I love You.”

Jesus told him, “Shepherd My sheep.”

¹⁷Jesus asked a third time, “Simon son of John, do you love Me?”

Peter was deeply hurt that Jesus had asked him a third time, “Do you love Me?”

“Lord, You know all things,” he replied. “You know I love You.”

Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.

¹⁸Truly, truly, I tell you, when you were young, you dressed yourself and walked where you wanted; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” ¹⁹Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.

And after He had said this, He told him, “Follow Me.”

Jesus and the Beloved Disciple

²⁰Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them. He was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper to ask, “Lord, who is going to betray You?” ²¹When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?”

²²Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain until I return, what is that to you? You follow Me!” ²³Because of this, the rumor spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. However, Jesus did not say that he would not die, but only, “If I want him to remain until I return, what is that to you?”

²⁴This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who has written them down. And we know that his testimony is true.

²⁵There are many more things that Jesus did. If all of them were written down, I suppose that not even the world itself would have space for the books that would be written.