Category: Daily Bible Reading Blog

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

Romans 5:6-11

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            Biblical Christian love is more than a feeling; it is an active gracious meeting of a need in another simply for no other reason than that the person requires it.  This means that God’s love is not dependent upon any person’s striving toward him.  Rather, God’s love is based solely upon his free choice to show mercy to whomever he wants to show mercy.  It is an astounding phrase that we have here in Holy Scripture:  “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  God doesn’t wait until we look good enough, act good enough, or make a good enough effort toward good until he steps in and acts.  No, when we are at our worst; when we have no thought toward looking to God for answers; when we are going along our merry way with no intention of being a Christian; then, God shows his love for us by doing the improbable and the impossible:  he saves, justifies, and reconciles us to himself.
 
            This is some really robust truth that needs to sink deep down into our spiritual bones.  We do not save ourselves – God does.  We do not have a leg to stand on in making ourselves righteous – God does that.  We do not gin-up faith and love from within ourselves – God gives it to us.  In other words, all of Christianity is a precious and wonderful gift to us from the very heart of God, who delights in showing grace to the ungracious.
 
            So, then, the appropriate response to all this is to rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ!  Rather than grumping our way through most days like a believer baptized in pickle juice, we can contemplate the mercies of God, which are new every morning.  We can take some time each day to stop and think about the great love of God in Christ that saved a wretch like me.  And, we can live our lives being gracious and loving even toward those who disagree with us or are different from us, because that is exactly what God did for us.
 

 

            Gracious God, your love is unfathomable and beyond description.  Even a glimpse of your mercy is enough to change my life forever.  Let your enduring love be with me always so that I might show that same love toward others, just as Jesus did.  Amen.

John 13:31-35

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            To love one another, as Jesus defines love, is the distinctive feature of Christianity.  It is not reproducible by the world.  Jesus said that this love is “new.”  Although love is displayed and commanded throughout the Old Testament, the New Testament love that Jesus spoke of is distinctive in several ways.  In Christ, we have a new model of love.  Jesus showed a servant-love that went well beyond non-retaliation toward others to actually serving enemies.  Furthermore, Christian love has a new motive of loving because we have been loved by Jesus, demonstrated through the cross.  We also have a new motivator, the Holy Spirit, who teaches us and energizes for a new mission:  world evangelization.
 
            Since Jesus let us know that our mission hinges on the ability to love with Christ’s own love, we must grasp the reality that love is not optional, but absolutely vital.  The way in which we treat one another in the Body of Christ is fundamental to mission.  The medieval mystic, St. John of the Cross, said that “mission is putting love where love is not.”  Love is entering into another person’s life with service and meeting needs in a manner that emulates the character of Christ.
 
            Therefore, Christianity is not about “me.”  It is about others.  The church is the one institution on earth that doesn’t exist to promote itself, but to bless the world.  Whatever we must do in order to love people to Jesus is what we need to do, period.  Take some time today and meditate on these words of Jesus from the Gospel of John, and see what the Holy Spirit works inside you.  Then, share it with another and seek to do it with all the love that God gives you.
 

 

            Loving God, you demonstrated your great love by sending your Son on my behalf.  Help me to live and love like Jesus in all I say and do so that Christ’s Church is built up in the faith, and the world is blessed.  Amen.

Psalm 18:20-30

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            I confess that I am tired a lot.  Maybe it is the rigors of pastoral ministry.  It could be because my mind is always a beehive of activity and doesn’t shut down easily at night.  Perhaps it is due to not enough exercise or self-care.  More than likely, it is a bit of all.  But I perked up when I read today’s psalm and heard David say that “by my God I can leap over a wall.”
 
            It has been a while since I’ve leapt over a wall.  I’m not that old, but old enough to know better than try something like leaping over walls and pulling hamstrings.  David was really no spring chicken himself when he wrote this.  Psalm 18 is a psalm of praise to God for rescuing David from Saul and all his enemies.  This deliverance did not happen overnight; it came over years of David running from the king and being pursued by others.  But the day finally did come, and David was not shy in proclaiming his praise to God.
 
            If God’s deliverance from earthly enemies can energize him so much, how much more can I be invigorated by the reality that I am delivered from sin, death, and hell through the blood of Jesus Christ?  Maybe you, like me sometimes, think way too much about adverse circumstances and ornery people.  I am continually an advocate of using the ancient psalms to help give voice to our contemporary situations.  So, today, I am taking my own advice by reading and meditating on this psalm and getting a head start on Thanksgiving Day.  I probably won’t go out a leap over a wall, but I suspect my soul will be renewed and energized by contemplating the redemptive events of Jesus.
 

 

            Saving God, you have settled the sin issue once for all through your Son, the Lord Jesus.  Thank you for your gracious deliverance.  May my mind and heart be fortified through living into such a great salvation.  Amen.

Romans 12:17-21; 13:8-10

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            Not everybody is likable.  We all have others that drive us crazy on the inside with their annoying habits or ungodly ways of life.  But sometimes we might experience much more than being irritated.  Raging vitriol that results in verbal persecution; becoming the targets of evil intent; and, in some cases, finding ourselves victims of violence done to us or a loved one can stretch our Christian sensibilities to their maximum.  It is understandable that in such cases we would be upset, angry, in grief, and desire justice.
 
As we reflect back on Reformation Day and the great truth that we are justified apart from any work of our own but by grace alone through faith, this helps to give understanding as to why we do not take vengeance into our own hands.  We are clearly exhorted in this passage of Holy Scripture to “repay no one evil for evil” because “vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”  If justification is a work of God to rescue and redeem sinners from their plight, then wrath is also a work of God.  Just as to be justified is initiated and made possible through Christ by faith, so vengeance belongs to God, as well.  Our part in the whole affair is to trust God that he will take care of judging the world.  Judgment is way above our pay grade.
 
What is within our purview is showing love, even to those whom we consider enemies.  If we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, then we will leave plenty of room for God to do what God does best:  either show mercy to sinners; or, execute judgment upon them.  It is really all his business what he does with his creatures.  Our business is coming under the lordship of Christ and allowing God’s new creation to work itself out through us.  We are to work for the kind of justice that provides others with what they need, not what they deserve.  The world cannot become a better place if we keep insisting on playing judge, jury, and executioner.  Sometimes the best way to show love is to sincerely pray for the person for whom we have such difficulty loving.  Who do you need to love today?
 

 

Just and merciful God, you are the rightful Judge of all the earth.  Help me to trust in you to the degree that I can give room for you to do whatever you want to do in others’ lives.  I pray you will grace many people with the repentance that leads to new life in Jesus.  Amen.