Daily Reading Week 15

Sunday

Romans 6

  • What verse did you connect with today? 

  • Why does Easter Matter? 

  • What is an Easter memory that you hold on to today?

  • How does Jesus’ death and resurrection free us from the power of sin? 


Respond:

  • "There would be no Christmas if there was no Easter." -  Gordon P. Hinckley

  • There is so much power in the resurrection. It sets the table for everything that we believe. If it does not happen, everything else is meaningless. 

  • Take some time today to reflect on what Jesus has done and celebrate him.

monday

Isaiah 53

 

  • What verse did you connect with today? 

  • Who is this scripture talking about? 

  • How did Jesus respond to this hardship? V. 7

  • What did Jesus do to deserve this death? V. 9

  • What’s the result of this death? V. 11

Respond:

  • This is a sobering scripture to read for all of us. Jesus did nothing wrong, deserved no punishment, was beaten, mocked, spit on…. All for us. Everything that he experienced is what we should experience for all of eternity. BUT, we matter so much to him that he would be willing to endure this pain and struggle so that we don’t have to. It’s interesting too to consider the timing of this writing… This prophecy of Jesus was written 700 years before Jesus came to Earth. The plan to redeem the world was not a hasty plan. This was something that had been in the works for an extremely long time. Which points to the fact that God’s timing is always going to be right. Today may be the day that you recognize what Jesus has done for you and you respond to him.

tuesday

John 20

  • What verse did you connect with today? 

  • Who was the first person to find the empty tomb? V. 1

  • At what moment did Mary discover that Jesus was alive? V. 16

  • What doubts do you wrestle with about God like Thomas? 


Respond:

  • There is a fascinating importance to women finding the empty tomb first, read this for more information, “Finally, a fifth line of evidence concerns a peculiarity of the eyewitness testimony. In all of the major resurrection narratives, women are credited as the first and primary eyewitnesses. This would be an odd invention since in both the ancient Jewish and Roman cultures women were severely disesteemed. Their testimony was regarded as insubstantial and dismissible. Given this fact, it is highly unlikely that any perpetrators of a hoax in 1st Century Judea would elect women to be their primary witnesses. Of all the male disciples who claimed to see Jesus resurrected, if they all were lying and the resurrection was a scam, why did they pick the most ill-perceived, distrusted witnesses they could find?

  • What causes you to believe? 

WEDNESDAY

Psalm 22

  • What verse did you connect with today? 

  • What emotions was David wrestling with? Have you ever felt that way? 

  • How has God shown up in a time of need for you? 

  • V. 27-28 the whole earth will acknowledge the Lord. For royal power belongs to him. What does that mean? 

Respond:

  • We all have times where we are struggling and we feel far from God. That does mean that God is far from us and ignoring us though. One of the things that we see all week is that there is a plan, there is hope, there is power in the name of God. I think back to those three days between Christ's death and resurrection. The overwhelming fear had to be a weight that we cannot even fathom. In a lot of ways we see David struggling witht he weight as well. This feeling of being forsaken. At the end though we see him acknowledge that at the end of the day God wins. Same thing is happening here in our lives. At the end of the day God wins because Jesus rose from the grave. 

Thursday

Romans 14

  • What verse did you connect with today? 

  • How do you hold onto biblical truth while also understanding that there may be some differences in understanding? 

  • Why is it important to take ownership of your faith? V 12

  • How can you share truth without condemning? V. 13

  • In what ways can you help the people in your circle with what they deal with? V.21


Respond:

  • Holmans commentary says this, “The exact historical background of the problem described in this section is unknown. Christians in Rome had different opinions on certain practices since they came from various backgrounds…. Food or calender issues may therefore have special importance to them as matters of conscience…. Theologians have called these issues “matters of indifference” since differences of opinion are allowed, but it is easy to see how some believers feel otherwise. The church must strive for tolernece and understand on such matters, emphasizing the unity of believers, expression of love for others, and the purity of the gospel message.”

  • Long story short… fight for unity, love your neighbor, hold onto truth.

Friday

Romans 15

  • What verse did you connect with today? 

  • What do the scriptures give us? V. 4

  • Who is the source of hope? V. 13

  • Paul's ambition was shared in V. 20. What’s yours? 

Respond:

  • One Commentary said this, “The words "strive together" in verse 30 suggest an athlete giving his best in the contest. Perhaps the words "wrestling together" better express the idea. This same term is used of the praying of Epaphras in Colossians 4:12. This verse does not mean that we must fight with God to get what we need. Rather, it means our praying must not be a casual experience that has no heart or earnestness. We should put as much fervor into our praying as a wrestler does into his wrestling!”

  • What do you need to be praying for today? 

Saturday

Romans 16

  • What verse did you connect with today? 

  • Who are the people in your life that you care about? 

  • How do you fight for unity? V. 17

  • How can you be more obedient today? V. 19

  • What does God do to Satan? V. 20

Respond:

  • Weirsbe wraps his commentary by saying this, “The closing benediction is the longest one Paul ever wrote. It reflects his special ministry to the Gentiles.

"The mystery" has to do with God's program of uniting believing Jews and Gentiles in the One Body, the Church (see Eph. 3). This was Paul's special message. It was because of this message that the Judaizers persecuted Paul, because they wanted to maintain Jewish privileges. Both Jews and Gentiles in the Roman churches needed to know what God's program was. Some of this Paul had explained in chapters 9 through 11.

Christians are established by the truth, which explains why Paul wrote this letter: to explain God's plan of salvation to Christians so they would be established, and so they would share the truth with the lost. After all, we cannot really share with others something we do not have ourselves.


This means that our own study of Romans should make us more stable in the faith, and more excited to share Christ with others. And the result: "To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever!"