Selected Scripture Passages

 

Genesis 3 – The Fall of Man

            Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

Exodus 3 – Moses and the Burning Bush

            Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and         see this strange sight – why the bush does not burn up.”

Leviticus 3 – The Fellowship Offering

            “If someone’s offering is a fellowship offering, and he offers an animal from the herd, whether male or female, he is to present before the LORD an animal without defect. He is to lay his hand on the head of his offering and slaughter it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. Then Aaron’s sons the priests shall sprinkle the blood against the altar on all sides. From the fellowship offering he is to bring a sacrifice made to the LORD by fire: all the fat that covers the inner parts or is connected to them, “both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the covering of the liver, which he will remove with the kidneys.

Numbers 3 – The Levites

            This is the account of the family of Aaron and Moses at the time the LORD talked with Moses on Mount Sinai.

            The names of the sons of Aaron were Nadab the firstborn and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. Those were the names of Aaron’s sons, the anointed priests, who were ordained to serve as priests.

Deuteronomy 3 – Defeat of Og King of Bashan

            Next we turned and went up along the road toward Bashan, and Og king of Bashan with his whole army marched out to meet us in battle at Edrei. The LORD said to me, “Do not be afraid of him, for I have handed him over to you with his whole army and his land. Do to him what you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon.” So the LORD our God also gave into our hands Og king of Bashan and all him army. We struck them down, leaving no survivors.

Joshua 3 – Crossing Jordan

            Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and  went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. After three days the officers went throughout the camp, giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, who are Levities, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it.

Judges 3 – Disobedience and Defeat

            These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebos Hamath.

Ruth 3 – Ruth and Boaz at the Threshing Floor

            One day Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not   try to find a home for you, where you will be well provided for? Is not Boaz, with whose servant girls you have been, a kinsman of ours? Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Wash and perfume yourself, and put on your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.

I Samuel – The Lord Calls Samuel

            The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare: there were not many visions.

            One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down God was.

II Samuel – War Between the Houses of David and Saul

            The War between the house of Saul and the house of David lasted a long time. David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker. Sons were born to David in Hebron: His firstborn was Ammon the son of Ahinoam of Jezreel:

            His second, Kileab the son of Abigail the window of Nabal of Carmel; the third, Absalom the son of Maacah daughter of Talmai king of Geshur; the fourth, Adonijah the son of Hagguth; the fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital; and the sixth, Ithream the son of David’s wife Eglah. These were born to David in Hebron.

I Kings – Solomon Asks for Wisdom

            Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt and married his     daughter. He brought her to the City of David until he finished building his palace and the temple of    the LORD, and the wall around Jerusalem. The people, however, were still sacrificing at the high places, because a temple had not yet been built for the Name of the LORD. Solomon showed his love     for the LORD by walking according to the statutes of his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.

II Kings – Moab Revolts

            Joram a son of Ahab become king of Isreal in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned twelve years. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, but not as his father and mother had done. He got rid of the sacred stone of Baal that his father had made. Nevertheless he clung to the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Isreal to commit; he did not turn away from them.

I Chronicles – The Son of David

            These were the sons of David born to him in Hebron:

            The firstborn was Ammon the son of Ahinoam of Jezreel; the second, Daniel the son of Abigail of Carmel; the third, Absalom the son of Maach daughter of Talmai king of Geshur; the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith; the fifth, Stephataih the son of Abital; and the sixth, Ithream, by his wife Eglah.

II Chronicles – Solomon Builds the Temple

            Then Solomon began to build the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David. He began building on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign. The foundation Solomon laid for building the temple of God was sixty cubits long and twenty Cubits wide.

Ezra – Rebuilding the Altar

            When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the people assembled as one man in Jerusalem. Then Jeshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. Despite their fear of the people around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the LORD, both the morning and evening sacrifices.

Nehemiah – Builders of the Wall

            Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests went to work and rebuilt the Sheep Gate. They dedicated it and set its doors in place, building as far as the Tower of the Hundred, which they dedicated, and as far as the Tower of Hananel. The men of Jericho built the adjoining section, and Zaccur son of Imri built next to them. The Fish Gate was rebuilt by the sons of Hassenaah. They laid its beams and put its doors and bolts and bars in place.

Ester – Haman’s Plot to Destroy the Jews

            After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles. All the royal officials at the king’s gate knelt down and paid honor to Human, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordeccai would not kneel down or pay him honor. Then the royal officials at the king’s gate asked Mordecai, “Why do you disobey the king’s command?”

Job – Job Speaks

            After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. He said; “May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, A boy is born!”

Psalms – A Psalm of David. When he fled from his son Absalom

            O LORD, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.” But you are a shield around me, I LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.

Proverbs – Further Benefits of Wisdom

            My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity. Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.

Ecclesiastes – A Time for Everything

            There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven; a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,

Isaiah – Judgment on Jerusalem and Judah

            See now, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, is about to take from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: all supplies of food and all supplies of water, the hero and warrior, the judge and prophet, the soothsayer and elder, the captain of fifty and man of rank, the counselor, skilled craftsman and clever enchanter.

Jeremiah – Israel Forsakes God

            “If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and marries another man, should he return to her again? Would not the land be completely defiled? But you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers- would you now return to me?” declares the LORD. “Look up to the barren heights and see,. Is there any place where you have not been ravished? By the roadside you sat waiting for lovers, sat like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with you prostitution and wickedness. Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to blush with shame.

Ezekiel – Ezekiel’s Call

            And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. Then he said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill you stomach with it.” So I ate it, and it wasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.

Daniel – The Image of Gold and the Fiery Furnace

            King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, ninety feet high and nine feet wide, and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. He then summoned the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the other provincial officials to come to the dedication of the image he had set up. So the satraps, judges, magistrates, and all the other provincial officials assembled for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and they stood before it.

            Then the herald loudly proclaimed, “This is what you are commanded to do, O peoples, nations and men of every language: As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, Zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.

            Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and you holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.

            Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two “sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a   flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.

Hosea – Hosea’s Reconciliation With His Wife

            The LORD said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and Is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”

Amos – Witnesses Summoned Against Israel

            Hear this word the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel – against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt: “You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins.” Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?

Jonah – Jonah goes to Nineveh

            Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important city – a visit required three days.

Micah – Leaders and Prophets Rebuked

            Then I said, “Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Should you not know justices, you who hate good and love evil; who tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones; who eat people’s flesh, strip off their skin and break their bones in pieces; who chop them up like meat for the pan, like flesh for the pot?”

            “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

            He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace.

Nahum - Woe to Nineveh

            The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots!

            Charging cavalry, flashing swords and glittering spears! Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses

Zephaniah - The Future of Jerusalem

            Woe to the city of oppressors, rebellious and defiled!

            She obeys no one, she accepts no correction. She does not trust in the Lord, she does not draw near to her God.

            Her prophets are arrogant; they are treacherous men. Her priests profane the sanctuary and so violence to the law.

Malachi - The Day of Judgment   

            “See, I will send my messenger, who will preparing the way before me. The suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty

            But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness,

            “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

 

 

Matthew – John the Baptist Prepares the Way

            In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near,” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the desert, Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.”

Mark – Lord of the Sabbath

            Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”

Luke – John the Baptist Prepares the Way

            In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar – When Pontius Pilate was governor Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch Abilene – during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

John – Jesus Teaches Nicodemus

            Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

Acts – Peter Heals the Crippled Beggar

           One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer – at three in the afternoon. Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and john about to enter, he asked them for money.

Romans – God’s Faithfulness

            What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God. What id some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness?

I Corinthians – On Divisions in the Church

            Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly – mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?

II Corinthians – Forgiveness for the Sinner

            Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on out hearts, know and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry; written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

Ephesians – Paul the Preacher to the Gentiles

            For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles. Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly.

Philippians – No Confidence in the Flesh

            Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh.

Colossians – Rules for Holy Living

            Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set you heart on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on thins above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

I Thessalonians – Paul’s Longing to See the Thessalonians

            So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God’s fellow worker in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. You know quite well that we were destined for them.

II Thessalonians – Request for Prayer

            Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith. But the lord id faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.

I Timothy – Overseers and Deacons

            Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

II Timothy – Godlessness in the Last Days

            But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves., lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,

Hebrews – Jesus Greater Than Moses

            Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. Jesus had been found worthy of greater honor that Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself.

Revelation – To the Church in Sardis

            “To the angel of the church in Sardis write: these are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I come to you.