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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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Colossians 4

1Those of you in positions of responsibility in the workplace, be sure to treat your employees in ways that are right and honourable, because you know that you will be held accountable by your Master in heaven.Be devoted in prayer2Be sure that you are devoted in prayer, that you have a disciplined prayer life so that you are alert spiritually, living in dependence on the Lord and thankful to Him in all things.3-4Pray for us as well, that He will provide ready-made opportunities for us to proclaim the message of Christ, in order to give people revelation of the truth. I am held captive for doing this; yet even so I want to proclaim the message of the Kingdom clearly in the way that I should.Be wise with unbelievers5You have to be wise in the way you behave towards unbelievers and to make the most of every opportunity you have to share the gospel with them.6You will need to be gracious in the way you speak, and able to answer the questions asked of you. Your words can come as salt to bring seasoning into tasteless lives.7-8I am sending Tychicus to you so he can bring you further news about my circumstances. He is a dear and faithful brother, a fellow minister and the Lord's true servant. What he tells you will encourage your hearts.9Onesimus, another faithful and dear brother, will come with him. He is one with you and will tell you all about what is taking place here.10Aristarchus is held prisoner with me and sends you his greetings, as does Mark, Barnabas' cousin. If he comes to visit you, welcome him in the way you have already been instructed.11Jesus Justus also greets you. These are the only Jewish brethren who work with me for God's Kingdom and they have each been used to bless and encourage me.12Epaphras, one of your own servants of Christ Jesus, greets you. He continues to wrestle in prayer for you so that you will be strong in doing God's will, showing your maturity in the faith and how confident you are in the Lord.13I can assure you that he works so hard for you and your fellow believers at Laodicea and Hierapolis.14Our dear brothers Dr. Luke and Demas also greet you.15Please pass my own greetings onto the brothers at Laodicea, and the church that meets at Nympha's house.16When you have read this letter and taken note of what I have said, pass it on to the church at Laodicea. Be sure that in return you receive the letter I wrote to the Laodiceans.17I have a message for Archippus: "Make certain that you finish the work the Lord gave as His commission to you."18I, Paul, write this final greeting in my own hand. Remember me in my chains. The Lord's grace be with you always.

Joshua 8

1Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. 2You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.” 3So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night 4with these orders: “Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from it. All of you be on the alert. 5I and all those with me will advance on the city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them. 6They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are running away from us as they did before.’ So when we flee from them, 7you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The Lord your God will give it into your hand. 8When you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do what the Lord has commanded. See to it; you have my orders.” 9Then Joshua sent them off, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai—but Joshua spent that night with the people. 10Early the next morning Joshua mustered his army, and he and the leaders of Israel marched before them to Ai. 11The entire force that was with him marched up and approached the city and arrived in front of it. They set up camp north of Ai, with the valley between them and the city. 12Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. 13So the soldiers took up their positions—with the main camp to the north of the city and the ambush to the west of it. That night Joshua went into the valley. 14When the king of Ai saw this, he and all the men of the city hurried out early in the morning to meet Israel in battle at a certain place overlooking the Arabah. But he did not know that an ambush had been set against him behind the city. 15Joshua and all Israel let themselves be driven back before them, and they fled toward the wilderness. 16All the men of Ai were called to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away from the city. 17Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who did not go after Israel. They left the city open and went in pursuit of Israel. 18Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Hold out toward Ai the javelin that is in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver the city.” So Joshua held out toward the city the javelin that was in his hand. 19As soon as he did this, the men in the ambush rose quickly from their position and rushed forward. They entered the city and captured it and quickly set it on fire. 20The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising up into the sky, but they had no chance to escape in any direction; the Israelites who had been fleeing toward the wilderness had turned back against their pursuers. 21For when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that smoke was going up from it, they turned around and attacked the men of Ai. 22Those in the ambush also came out of the city against them, so that they were caught in the middle, with Israelites on both sides. Israel cut them down, leaving them neither survivors nor fugitives. 23But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua. 24When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. 25Twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai. 26For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed all who lived in Ai. 27But Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock and plunder of this city, as the Lord had instructed Joshua. 28So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolate place to this day. 29He impaled the body of the king of Ai on a pole and left it there until evening. At sunset, Joshua ordered them to take the body from the pole and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And they raised a large pile of rocks over it, which remains to this day.30Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, 31as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses—an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool had been used. On it they offered to the Lord burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings. 32There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua wrote on stones a copy of the law of Moses. 33All the Israelites, with their elders, officials and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the Lord, facing the Levitical priests who carried it. Both the foreigners living among them and the native-born were there. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel. 34Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses—just as it is written in the Book of the Law. 35There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the foreigners who lived among them.
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