Category: Daily Bible Reading Blog

A blog following the daily readings from the Revised Common Lectionary.

Psalm 124

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
 
           “Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.”  These are the words for which I begin nearly every worship service in church.  It is a call to worship the God who is above all and sees all – and can do something about all the adversity and trouble we face in the world.  When confronted with a new day, our attention must be arrested and directed in the positive way of acknowledging God. 
 
            Our ultimate help is in the Lord.  Our fears about the future, our insecurities of what will happen, and our anxieties about all of the upcoming stuff we must face can be transformed with the biblical perspective of acknowledging our need for God.  The Lord is our most prescient support.  That meeting you have been dreading; that conversation you have been avoiding; or, that deadline that has been looming over your head; these and all situations can only find their proper perspective in light of the God who helps.
 
            I am a big believer in making daily affirmations of faith in God.  That is, affirming the truth about God, even if I don’t feel like it, each and every day so that some solid robust theology is not only at the forefront of my mind, but that the attributes of God also sink firmly into my heart.  For faith does not simply come as a result of signing off on a checklist of beliefs.  Rather, faith arises as a response to the recognition that God is good – all the time – and that he helps those who look to him.
 

 

            Creator God, you are the One who provides everything I need for life and godliness.  I need your help today and everyday so that I can confidently do your will.  I stand in confidence because I serve the Lord Jesus, who is benevolent and always does what is right and just.  Amen.

Romans 6:1-11

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
 
 
            It is perhaps ironic that this New Testament lesson falls on Cyber-Monday.  After all, the impulse to shop runs high in a great many Americans.  But shopping can quite easily move from necessity to compulsion.  Before you know it, we can be consuming without much restraint.  On-line shopping, especially, is just so darn easy and can trigger the brain just as much as any addiction.  There is often a very thin line between justified shopping and sinful rationalization of consumption.  So, how do we say “no” in the face of competing choices?  Whatever besetting sin is in our lives, how do we put it aside and rid ourselves of it? 
 
            One of the practical ways of approaching this answer is to read Romans 6 not from a generic standpoint, but make it very personal.  In other words, it could be quite helpful to make all of the pronouns personal and name the specific sin when sin is mentioned.  For example, it would look something like this:
 
“What shall I say, then?  Shall I go on shopping so that grace may increase?  By no means!  I died to shopping; how can I live in it any longer?  Or don’t I know that I am baptized into Christ Jesus and, so, am baptized into his death?  I am therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, I, too, may live a new life.”
 
            You can put your own besetting sin and struggling addiction into the text:  “If I have been united with him like this in his death, I will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.  For I know that my old self was crucified with him so that shopping/gossiping/lying/overeating/alcoholism/legalism, etc. might be done away with, that I should no longer be a slave to shopping – because I have died and have been freed from the compulsive and obsessive need to shop.”
 
            I think you get the idea.  We are to count ourselves dead to all the addictions, compulsions, and activities that we use to replace the finished work of Christ.  Instead, we are to reckon ourselves alive to God in Christ.  The struggle against sin comes down to each and every day making an affirmation of faith that we belong to God through Jesus – and not to some other master.  Yes, the daily work of spiritually affirming our identity might seem mundane, but it is quite necessary to achieving practical victory.
 

 

            Holy God, you have made it possible for us to be forgiven and free in Jesus Christ.  I choose today to serve you and you alone in my quest avail myself of the provision you have given me to live above sin.  Amen.

Luke 1:1-4

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            The season of Advent is almost upon us.  Advent is simply another word for “coming.”  During this liturgical season on the Christian Calendar, we rehearse the incarnation of Jesus, his coming to this earth as a baby.  Through this focus we anticipate Christ’s coming again in his Second Advent, at the end of the age.  As the secular world encroaches more and more into the sacred through a mere cultural assent to Christmas with its anticipation of gifts, food, and time off, the spiritual grounding of Advent is quite necessary for the Christian.
 
            It is appropriate, then, that today’s lectionary brings us to the beginning verses of Luke’s Gospel.  We are told that Luke set about the task of an historian, providing a first-hand account of Jesus Christ as well as researching primary sources to give a reliable and faithful narrative of the major redemptive events of Christ’s life and ministry.  The purpose of it all is to ground the believer in truth, and to orient the unbeliever into the vital components of God’s rescue mission of humanity.
 
            Let’s make it our goal to journey with Jesus in this next month by carefully and devotionally reading the daily lectionary so that we might be the recipients of God’s incredible story to us.  It would be helpful if you kept a journal of daily observations and thoughtful applications.  Yes, this takes the time of thought and reflection, but, then again, we are seeking to reverse the trend of the secular invading the sacred.  Who knows?  A fresh movement of the Spirit might stir up amongst us.
 

 

            Gracious God, thank you for neither abandoning nor obliterating humanity because of our terrible estrangement from you.  In this Advent season, lead us to Christ and save us from ourselves so that we might know the life that is truly life.  Amen.

Psalm 117

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            God’s faithfulness never ends.  Let that statement from the psalmist sink in and ruminate on it for a bit.  What does it mean?  How does it work itself out?  Is God faithful to me?  As a pastor, I can tell you that one of the most difficult things that I see people encounter is wondering if God can really do things in their lives like he does in other people’s lives.  Sometimes we have all the faith in the world for other people – that God will forgive, heal, help, and show up in their lives – but when it comes to me personally, it becomes an entirely different thing.  We wonder if anything can really change.
 
            God is good for his promises.  He will accomplish all that he has said he will do.  It certainly might seem like he is taking his time and is terribly slow in moving on our behalf.  Yet, it shall be done on earth as it is in heaven.  God does not just work in other countries with mass conversions; he does not only grow his church in other geographical locales; and, he does not limit himself to establishing his kingdom in receptive areas.  God can and does work everywhere and will show up in your life and your church, just like he has been doing for ages in all places in all times.
 
            Perhaps the most appropriate response is to praise God for what he is going to do.  That is, don’t just wait for him to do something astounding.  Look for it and give thanks ahead of time for the incredible work of saving, healing, teaching, growing, and transforming that God will do in Christ through the power of his Holy Spirit.  It isn’t just for others; it is for you, my friend.  How will you trust him today?
 

 

            Faithful God, I praise you for what you will do in my life this season.  Thanks for the answers to prayer that will come.  I give you gratitude for the people you will deliver from sin, darkness, addiction, disease, and suffering and the new spirit you will give to me and many others in Jesus’ name.  Amen.