This Bible reading plan takes you through most of the Holy Scriptures each weekday of the year. Each day has three Bible readings:
You're welcome to read one, two, or all three of the readings every weekday. And if you fall behind, don't worry! You can either use the weekends to catch up or you can simply dive in to the reading for that day, even if you've missed a few days, weeks, or even months!
You can download a foldable bookmark here: 2026
1:1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants1 the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail2 on account of him. Even so. Amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
9 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. 19 Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. 20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
[1] 1:1
[2] 1:7
(ESV)
I first visited San Antonio in 1995. At the time, I was still in high school and was here for our church body's national youth gathering. It is still one of my fondest memories. The Alamo. The Tower of the Americas. The food. I had never enjoyed true Texas barbeque before that week. "And my first taste of Texas," as Ed Bruce once sang, "still lingers in my heart and on my tongue." After visiting for the first time, I knew I just had to return to Texas. And I did the very next year to attend college in Austin. I have been an "imported native" ever since.
One of the highlights of my maiden trip to the Lone Star State was taking a riverboat cruise down the Riverwalk. I suppose it's practically mandatory for anyone visiting San Antonio for the first time. And I remember being fascinated by what I learned from our very animated and friendly tour guide. They really constructed the Hilton Palacio Del Rio by stacking fully furnished rooms, one on top of another? Incredible! And Casa Rio, my favorite Riverwalk eatery, has been around since 1946 and was the river's first restaurant? Now that's longevity! And a Spanish expedition really held a mass on the river's famed Marriage Island all the way back in 1691 at which time they christened that spot "San Antonio"? Amazing! I tipped our tour guide that day. For I was truly appreciative of all he taught me.
Today in our "Word for Today" readings, we begin the book of Revelation. This book is the apostle John's account of a time when he was whisked away on a whirlwind tour of heaven: "After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven" (Revelation 4:1). And on this tour, John, and by extension, we, encounter some of the most fascinating, most incredible, most amazing, and most puzzling pictures in all the Bible. Lampstands and seals. Beasts and dragons. What are these all about?
Thankfully, we have a tour guide to lead us through these strange scenes. John describes him thusly in Revelation 1: He is "someone 'like a son of man,' dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance" (verses 13-16). This is quite an impressive and even awe-inspiring tour guide! And lest we have any doubts as to this tour guide's identity, he identifies himself: "I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades" (verses 17-18). Our tour guide is none other than Jesus.
Part of the reason so many people become so befuddled by Revelation is because they follow the wrong tour guide. They read fantastic works of Christian fiction describing catastrophic disasters and bloody wars. They peruse strange internet conspiracy theories explaining how our precise moment in history is aligning perfectly with the visions of John. But in the midst of such fantastic portraits of the earth's final days, may I suggest two things to you?
First, if you're reading such fanciful and probably non-scholarly literature about Revelation rather than the literature of Revelation itself, you're following the wrong tour guide. For Revelation already has a tour guide. And it's not a best-selling Christian author nor is it some faceless internet conspiracist hiding behind a computer screen. No, Revelation's tour guide is none other than Jesus. And I suspect he's a much better tour guide than any human. As the great Christian theologian and humorist G.K. Chesterton once wrote, "Though St. John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators" (Orthodoxy, 29). Revelation, if you follow the tour guide who is Jesus, is not nearly so weird as some would make it out to be.
Second, most of the exotic commentary that surrounds Revelation leads to only one thing: fear. And this is terribly tragic. For as our tour guide Jesus begins taking us on a truly extraordinary journey, the first words out of his mouth are, "Do not be afraid" (verse 17). For the Christian, Revelation is not meant to incite apprehension but to invoke hope in our conquering Lord who will one day bring to us his "new heaven and new earth" (Revelation 21:1). So as we begin reading Revelation, rather than grimacing at the prospect of reading the Bible's strangest book, delight in the prospect of taking a tour of heaven with Jesus as your guide. I promise, it'll be even better than a Riverwalk cruise. And you won't even have to tip your tour guide.
2:1 How the Lord in his anger
has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud!
He has cast down from heaven to earth
the splendor of Israel;
he has not remembered his footstool
in the day of his anger.
2 The Lord has swallowed up without mercy
all the habitations of Jacob;
in his wrath he has broken down
the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
he has brought down to the ground in dishonor
the kingdom and its rulers.
3 He has cut down in fierce anger
all the might of Israel;
he has withdrawn from them his right hand
in the face of the enemy;
he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob,
consuming all around.
4 He has bent his bow like an enemy,
with his right hand set like a foe;
and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes;
in the tent of the daughter of Zion,
he has poured out his fury like fire.
5 The Lord has become like an enemy;
he has swallowed up Israel;
he has swallowed up all its palaces;
he has laid in ruins its strongholds,
and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah
mourning and lamentation.
6 He has laid waste his booth like a garden,
laid in ruins his meeting place;
the LORD has made Zion forget
festival and Sabbath,
and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest.
7 The Lord has scorned his altar,
disowned his sanctuary;
he has delivered into the hand of the enemy
the walls of her palaces;
they raised a clamor in the house of the LORD
as on the day of festival.
8 The LORD determined to lay in ruins
the wall of the daughter of Zion;
he stretched out the measuring line;
he did not restrain his hand from destroying;
he caused rampart and wall to lament;
they languished together.
9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;
he has ruined and broken her bars;
her king and princes are among the nations;
the law is no more,
and her prophets find
no vision from the LORD.
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
sit on the ground in silence;
they have thrown dust on their heads
and put on sackcloth;
the young women of Jerusalem
have bowed their heads to the ground.
11 My eyes are spent with weeping;
my stomach churns;
my bile is poured out to the ground
because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
because infants and babies faint
in the streets of the city.
12 They cry to their mothers,
“Where is bread and wine?”
as they faint like a wounded man
in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
on their mothers’ bosom.
13 What can I say for you, to what compare you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For your ruin is vast as the sea;
who can heal you?
14 Your prophets have seen for you
false and deceptive visions;
they have not exposed your iniquity
to restore your fortunes,
but have seen for you oracles
that are false and misleading.
(ESV)
The fall of Jerusalem is described in epic terms in the second poetic dirge of Lamentations. The saying, "I have my own black cloud" could well have originated with verse one, where God pronounced Zion under a cloud. This city, which was the capital of God's chosen nation, was cast down from heaven. Even the LORD's footstool, that is, the Temple was not spared when God's wrath was poured out. The city, its walls, its residents and its rulers all lay in dishonor and ruin. God's wrath burned like a flaming fire in Judah, because He withdrew His protective right arm in the face of the enemy. Paul says of believers in Colossians 1:21, "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior." This perfectly describes the condition of Judah, when God became "like an enemy and swallowed up Israel." Festivals and Sabbaths established by God Himself were brought to an end by the destruction of the Temple. Because of their disobedience, Israel's sacrifices had become meaningless, therefore God brought them to a screeching halt. Mourning in dust and sackcloth had become the order of the day. The destruction was so complete that even babies and infants grew faint, crying out for food and drink. The ruin that came upon Jerusalem was incomparable. The people of God had listened to the false prophets who did not expose their sins, so that they might repent and be restored. Instead, they listened to the lying prophets who were more than happy to "say what their itching ears want to hear" (2 Timothy 4:3).
18 Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD:
19 that he looked down from his holy height;
from heaven the LORD looked at the earth,
20 to hear the groans of the prisoners,
to set free those who were doomed to die,
21 that they may declare in Zion the name of the LORD,
and in Jerusalem his praise,
22 when peoples gather together,
and kingdoms, to worship the LORD.
23 He has broken my strength in midcourse;
he has shortened my days.
24 “O my God,” I say, “take me not away
in the midst of my days—
you whose years endure
throughout all generations!”
25 Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
26 They will perish, but you will remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,
27 but you are the same, and your years have no end.
28 The children of your servants shall dwell secure;
their offspring shall be established before you.
(ESV)