Formation Journal Reading Plan

Genesis 19

19:1 The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face to the earth,
19:2 and he said, “See now, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you can rise up early, and go on your way.” They said, “No, but we will stay in the street all night.”
19:3 He urged them greatly, and they came in with him, and entered into his house. He made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
19:4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.
19:5 They called to Lot, and said to him, “Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.”
19:6 Lot went out to them to the door, and shut the door after him.
19:7 He said, “Please, my brothers, don’t act so wickedly.
19:8 See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof.”
19:9 They said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now will we deal worse with you, than with them!” They pressed hard on the man Lot, and drew near to break the door.
19:10 But the men reached out their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door.
19:11 They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.
19:12 The men said to Lot, “Do you have anybody else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whoever you have in the city, bring them out of the place:
19:13 for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before Yahweh that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it.”
19:14 Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up! Get out of this place, for Yahweh will destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.
19:15 When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, “Get up! Take your wife, and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city.”
19:16 But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and his two daughters’ hands, Yahweh being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city.
19:17 It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!”
19:18 Lot said to them, “Oh, not so, my lord.
19:19 See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can’t escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die.
19:20 See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn’t it a little one?), and my soul will live.”
19:21 He said to him, “Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.
19:22 Hurry, escape there, for I can’t do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
19:23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
19:24 Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky.
19:25 He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.
19:26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
19:27 Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahweh.
19:28 He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and looked, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.
19:29 It happened, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
19:30 Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters.
19:31 The firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth.
19:32 Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s seed.”
19:33 They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she arose.
19:34 It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine again, tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s seed.”
19:35 They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she got up.
19:36 Thus both of Lot’s daughters were with child by their father.
19:37 The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day.
19:38 The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.

Psalm 18:1-24

18:1 For the Chief Musician. By David the servant of Yahweh, who spoke to Yahweh the words of this song in the day that Yahweh delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said, I love you, Yahweh, my strength.
18:2 Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
18:3 I call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised; and I am saved from my enemies.
18:4 The cords of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
18:5 The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death came on me.
18:6 In my distress I called on Yahweh, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears.
18:7 Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations also of the mountains quaked and were shaken, because he was angry.
18:8 Smoke went out of his nostrils. Consuming fire came out of his mouth. Coals were kindled by it.
18:9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet.
18:10 He rode on a cherub, and flew. Yes, he soared on the wings of the wind.
18:11 He made darkness his hiding place, his pavilion around him, darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
18:12 At the brightness before him his thick clouds passed, hailstones and coals of fire.
18:13 Yahweh also thundered in the sky. The Most High uttered his voice: hailstones and coals of fire.
18:14 He sent out his arrows, and scattered them; Yes, great lightning bolts, and routed them.
18:15 Then the channels of waters appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, Yahweh, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
18:16 He sent from on high. He took me. He drew me out of many waters.
18:17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me.
18:18 They came on me in the day of my calamity, but Yahweh was my support.
18:19 He brought me forth also into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
18:20 Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands has he recompensed me.
18:21 For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, and have not wickedly departed from my God.
18:22 For all his ordinances were before me. I didn’t put away his statutes from me.
18:23 I was also blameless with him. I kept myself from my iniquity.
18:24 Therefore Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.

Matthew 6:25-34

6:25 Therefore, I tell you, don’t be anxious for your life: what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
6:26 See the birds of the sky, that they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you of much more value than they?
6:27 “Which of you, by being anxious, can add one moment to his lifespan?
6:28 Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They don’t toil, neither do they spin,
6:29 yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these.
6:30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today exists, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, won’t he much more clothe you, you of little faith?
6:31 “Therefore don’t be anxious, saying, ‘What will we eat?’, ‘What will we drink?’ or, ‘With what will we be clothed?’
6:32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
6:33 But seek first God’s Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.
6:34 Therefore don’t be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day’s own evil is sufficient.