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Bible Reading Plan
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Going deeper...to go further

Daily Bible reading strengthens our relationship with God, nourishes our spirits and equips us to live a fruitful, effective life for Him.

This month we're reading a chapter from the New Testament and one from the Old Testament each day As we read the Word it’s important that we apply what we read and pray it out over our lives. One of the way you can do this is by using the acronym SOAP. To find out more about SOAP watch this video.

Below you’ll see what we’re reading today. To go forward or back a day in our reading plan use the 'Next' and 'Previous' buttons.

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1 Thessalonians 5

Remain spiritually alert1Now, my brothers, I have no need to write to you about when these events will take place,2for you can be sure that the Day of the Lord will come unexpectedly, as a thief who comes in the night.3While some are saying: "Everything is peaceful and we are safe," sudden destruction will come upon them, in the same way that a pregnant woman suddenly has labour pains. They shall not escape!4However, my brothers, you do not live in ignorance, so that this Day will surprise you like a thief.5For you are all sons of the light and of the day. No, we do not belong to the spiritual night where all is darkness.6So let us be alert and ready, and not like those who are asleep spiritually.7People sleep at night and get drunk at night.8But because we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled in the way we live. Wear your faith and love like a breastplate and your hope of salvation like a helmet.9For God has not condemned us to suffer His wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.10He died for us so that whether we are alive or have died at that time, we will live together with Him.Closing instructions11So continue to encourage one another and build each other up, as you are already doing.12Now, my brothers, I ask you to have true honour for those who work hard on your behalf, whom the Lord has placed over you and who warn and correct you as necessary.13Maintain the highest regard for them and love them wholeheartedly because of their work. And live in peace and harmony with one another.14My brothers, I also urge you to warn any who are lazy, to encourage the fearful, to help the weak and to be patient with everyone.15Be certain that none of you retaliates with wrong for wrong. Instead always aim to be kind to one another and to anyone else.16Always be full of joy.17Keep praying all the time.18Give thanks to God, regardless of your circumstances. All this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.19Do nothing to dampen the fire of God's Spirit within you.20Do not treat genuine prophetic words from the Lord with contempt by ignoring them.21Test whatever is said and hold onto what is good because it is clearly from God.22Shun evil in all its forms.23And may God Himself, the God of peace, cause you to be holy in every aspect of your lives, so that everything about you in spirit, soul and body will be kept blameless in God's eyes at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.24He who has called you is the Faithful One and He will work this in you.25Pray for us, brothers.26Greet all the brethren with genuine love.27In the Lord's name I insist you ensure this letter is read to the whole church.28May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

1 Samuel 6

1When the ark of the Lord had been in Philistine territory seven months, 2the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.” 3They answered, “If you return the ark of the god of Israel, do not send it back to him without a gift; by all means send a guilt offering to him. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand has not been lifted from you.” 4The Philistines asked, “What guilt offering should we send to him?”They replied, “Five gold tumors and five gold rats, according to the number of the Philistine rulers, because the same plague has struck both you and your rulers. 5Make models of the tumors and of the rats that are destroying the country, and give glory to Israel’s god. Perhaps he will lift his hand from you and your gods and your land. 6Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When Israel’s god dealt harshly with them, did they not send the Israelites out so they could go on their way? 7“Now then, get a new cart ready, with two cows that have calved and have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up. 8Take the ark of the Lord and put it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to him as a guilt offering. Send it on its way, 9but keep watching it. If it goes up to its own territory, toward Beth Shemesh, then the Lord has brought this great disaster on us. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us but that it happened to us by chance.” 10So they did this. They took two such cows and hitched them to the cart and penned up their calves. 11They placed the ark of the Lord on the cart and along with it the chest containing the gold rats and the models of the tumors. 12Then the cows went straight up toward Beth Shemesh, keeping on the road and lowing all the way; they did not turn to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh. 13Now the people of Beth Shemesh were harvesting their wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they rejoiced at the sight. 14The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and there it stopped beside a large rock. The people chopped up the wood of the cart and sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. 15The Levites took down the ark of the Lord, together with the chest containing the gold objects, and placed them on the large rock. On that day the people of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the Lord. 16The five rulers of the Philistines saw all this and then returned that same day to Ekron. 17These are the gold tumors the Philistines sent as a guilt offering to the Lord—one each for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron. 18And the number of the gold rats was according to the number of Philistine towns belonging to the five rulers—the fortified towns with their country villages. The large rock on which the Levites set the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh. 19But God struck down some of the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy of them to death because they looked into the ark of the Lord. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the Lord had dealt them. 20And the people of Beth Shemesh asked, “Who can stand in the presence of the Lord, this holy God? To whom will the ark go up from here?” 21Then they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to your town.”
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