Formation Journal Reading Plan

18:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

18:2 “How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and afterwards we will speak.

18:3 Why are we counted as animals, which have become unclean in your sight?

18:4 You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you? Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?

18:5 “Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out, The spark of his fire shall not shine.

18:6 The light shall be dark in his tent. His lamp above him shall be put out.

18:7 The steps of his strength shall be shortened. His own counsel shall cast him down.

18:8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he wanders into its mesh.

18:9 A snare will take him by the heel. A trap will catch him.

18:10 A noose is hidden for him in the ground, a trap for him in the way.

18:11 Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall chase him at his heels.

18:12 His strength shall be famished. Calamity shall be ready at his side.

18:13 The members of his body shall be devoured. The firstborn of death shall devour his members.

18:14 He shall be rooted out of his tent where he trusts. He shall be brought to the king of terrors.

18:15 There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur shall be scattered on his habitation.

18:16 His roots shall be dried up beneath. Above shall his branch be cut off.

18:17 His memory shall perish from the earth. He shall have no name in the street.

18:18 He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.

18:19 He shall have neither son nor grandson among his people, nor any remaining where he lived.

18:20 Those who come after shall be astonished at his day, as those who went before were frightened.

18:21 Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn’t know God.”

53:1 For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Mahalath.” A contemplation by David. The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity. There is no one who does good.

53:2 God looks down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there are any who understood, who seek after God.

53:3 Every one of them has gone back. They have become filthy together. There is no one who does good, no, not one.

53:4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on God?

53:5 There they were in great fear, where no fear was, for God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you. You have put them to shame, because God has rejected them.

53:6 Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When God brings back his people from captivity, then Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

7:17 Only, as the Lord has distributed to each man, as God has called each, so let him walk. So I command in all the assemblies.

7:18 Was anyone called having been circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised.

7:19 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.

7:20 Let each man stay in that calling in which he was called.

7:21 Were you called being a bondservant? Don’t let that bother you, but if you get an opportunity to become free, use it.

7:22 For he who was called in the Lord being a bondservant is the Lord’s free man. Likewise he who was called being free is Christ’s bondservant.

7:23 You were bought with a price. Don’t become bondservants of men.

7:24 Brothers, let each man, in whatever condition he was called, stay in that condition with God.

7:25 Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord to be trustworthy.

7:26 I think that it is good therefore, because of the distress that is on us, that it is good for a man to be as he is.

7:27 Are you bound to a wife? Don’t seek to be freed. Are you free from a wife? Don’t seek a wife.

7:28 But if you marry, you have not sinned. If a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have oppression in the flesh, and I want to spare you.

7:29 But I say this, brothers: the time is short, that from now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none;

7:30 and those who weep, as though they didn’t weep; and those who rejoice, as though they didn’t rejoice; and those who buy, as though they didn’t possess;

7:31 and those who use the world, as not using it to the fullest. For the mode of this world passes away.

7:32 But I desire to have you to be free from cares. He who is unmarried is concerned for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord;

7:33 but he who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife.

7:34 There is also a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world—how she may please her husband.

7:35 This I say for your own profit; not that I may ensnare you, but for that which is appropriate, and that you may attend to the Lord without distraction.

7:36 But if any man thinks that he is behaving inappropriately toward his virgin, if she is past the flower of her age, and if need so requires, let him do what he desires. He doesn’t sin. Let them marry.

7:37 But he who stands steadfast in his heart, having no necessity, but has power over his own heart, to keep his own virgin, does well.

7:38 So then both he who gives his own virgin in marriage does well, and he who doesn’t give her in marriage does better.

7:39 A wife is bound by law for as long as her husband lives; but if the husband is dead, she is free to be married to whomever she desires, only in the Lord.

7:40 But she is happier if she stays as she is, in my judgment, and I think that I also have God’s Spirit.