Category: Daily Bible Reading Blog

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

1 Kings 3:5-14

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            Solomon was a very wise king.  In this Old Testament lesson for today we understand the reason for this.  At the outset of his reign Solomon could have asked for anything from God; he might have chosen to focus on the perquisites or the power of kingship.  But instead Solomon asked for wisdom, and this pleased God.  “Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this, your great people?”  This was Solomon’s prayer, and all these millennia later he still has the reputation of being the wisest king that ever lived.
 
            As a pastor, I think there is no greater prayer I could pray than this.  Rather than choosing to focus prayers and ministry on bigger budgets, more attendance, and adding on building space, I can make the choice to pray for wisdom.  Solomon’s request was borne out of a clear realization of who God is (the One who shows steadfast love) and who he himself is (“I am but like a little child”).  God’s greatness and Solomon’s humility collided in a wonderful prayer for discernment to carry out God’s will on earth.
 
            In this time of year in which it is vogue to make New Year’s resolutions based upon the individual’s willpower, let us take a different approach.  Let us pray and invite God to do the kind of deep change in our lives that is needed in order to live well and do God’s will.  May we pray for discernment to serve well, and ask for wisdom to be good stewards of our callings from God.
            O LORD, my God, give me a mind and heart of wisdom so that I might rightly discern good and evil, right and wrong, and the best decisions to made in every situation.  I choose to walk in your ways to the glory of Jesus Christ through the power of your Spirit.  Amen.

Proverbs 9:1-12

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            Wisdom personified is portrayed in this chapter of Proverbs as calling out to us as people.  Wisdom’s message is a passionate appeal to take the path of insight through God’s revealed will.  “Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”  Wisdom in Scripture is the ability to apply God’s Word to concrete situations in our lives.  In our day to day lives, choosing to listen to wisdom and follow her instructions is vital to experiencing success in the Christian walk.
 
            The fact of the matter for too many people is this:  we are too impatient to let wisdom teach us her ways.  Idolatry and running after other gods often results from the inability to wait on the lessons that wisdom wants to impart.  Wisdom is not something that is gained quickly; her teachings must be learned slowly with careful application over time.  We are much too prone to finding simple solutions to complex problems.  But wisdom calls us to leave such simplistic thinking and take the high road.
 
            Rather than rush to Google for answers to our questions; instead of allowing another person to make decisions for us; in place of implementing sheer pragmatic plans, allow wisdom to penetrate the mind and heart so that what comes out is thoroughly godly and biblical.  Where is the place to start?  “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”  There is no substitute to committing oneself to the regular and daily regimen of reading God’s Holy Word, and seeking to put it into practice.
            All-Wise God, the One who is never in a hurry, create in me a wise mind and heart.  Help me to sit still long enough for wisdom to bring biblical and spiritual maturity to my life, through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Isaiah 49:5-15

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            Restoration is a major theme in the prophetic books of the Old Testament.  In this passage of Isaiah, God speaks of bringing Israel back to her original calling and purpose.  This would be accomplished through not just one nation but in the Messiah.  The scope and vision of what the Savior would do is enunciated by God:  “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
 
            In other words, Messiah is not just for Israel – Christ is given to reach the entire planet.  Jesus did not come to earth only to gather the Jewish nation back together like some sort of Bill Gaither Homecoming tour.  Instead, Messiah’s place and power is so significant that it is to be shared with everyone in the world.  Although Israel was to be a holy entity and separate from the surrounding culture, they were always to be a light to the nations.
 
            This has great import for the church and every individual believer in Jesus.  The church is not just to be like a country club that caters to club functions and members.  Instead, a missional understanding of church is to be at the forefront of Christian theology and practice because it has always been God’s vision to reach the nations.  The Lord is not satisfied with only catering to a specific people; God wants everyone.  And until believers grasp this heart of God for all persons the church will not be what it is designed to be:  a missionary enterprise that is to put all its resources into shining the light of Christ to every nook and cranny of creation.
 
            It behooves each of us, then, to be taught, trained, and led into God’s missionary heart for all.  Let us build caring relationships and extend loving actions not just to those within the church but toward those outside our fellowship so that God’s intentions are carried out and his prophecy fulfilled in Jesus’ name.
            Restoring God, you bring us back to close relation and fellowship so that we might extend your gracious purposes throughout the world.  Revive us again, God, so that we can hear your call to the nations through our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

1 John 1:1-9

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            It is day three in the twelve days of Christmas.  In the Church Calendar, Christmas in not only one day in which we celebrate the birth of Christ, but a season between December 25 and January 5 in which Christians express their joy over the incarnation of Jesus.  It is an intentional time of affirming the wonderful truth that Jesus is fully man and fully God; that Jesus has gone before us and brought salvation; that in Jesus our sins are forgiven.  And that, my friends, is reason to spend twelve days in celebration.  God has graciously come to earth for our deliverance from sin, death, and hell.
             The Apostle John began his first epistle telling us the reason he writes about Jesus is to make our joy complete.  With Jesus the light, the good news, has come.  If we enter the light and walk in the light, eschewing the darkness, we participate and have fellowship with God through Jesus.  Through Jesus, if we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all that is unrighteous and of the darkness.
             As a pastor who leads worship in a more liturgically oriented church, the gospel of Jesus is presented each and every Sunday through the liturgy.  My favorite part in the service, and my most joyous experience, is when, having confessed our sins together I declare the assurance of pardon from our God using Scripture.  Often I quote from this passage in 1 John.
             This is a time of year in which Christians can choose to praise the Lord for salvation from sin.  It is a season to reflect on the gracious reality that God has chosen to come near to us in Jesus.  These are days in which our reflection upon the person and work of Christ is to lead us to eternal praise as we glorify our Lord and Savior, Jesus.  Glory to God in the highest; peace on earth; and, goodwill to humanity on whom his favor rests!
             Gracious God, I praise your holy name for sending your Son, the Lord Jesus, to this earth in order to redeem humanity.  Help me so completely to confess my sins and accept your forgiveness that I glorify your name. May your good news of salvation permeate my life in both words and actions in the power of the Spirit.  Amen.