Daily Reading Week 48
Sunday
Genesis 1 (Scripture Focus verse 27)
Discover:
According to today’s passage, God created men and women in His own image. Whatever the full meaning (and theologians have discussed it for centuries), the key point is clear—humans alone, not animals, bear God’s image.
This “image” points to a unique excellence in humanity. John Calvin noticed that on the sixth day, God pauses and “consults” with the heavenly court before making us—a beautiful way of highlighting our dignity.
A quick clarification: being made in God’s image doesn’t mean God has a physical body (He is spirit—John 4:24). But that doesn’t make our bodies unimportant! They’re part of God’s “very good” creation (Gen 1:31) and essential to who we are.
So what does the image of God give us? Among other things, it means we can:
• Know and understand God’s revelation
• Think, plan, and create
• Enjoy real fellowship with Him
• Reflect His character—like exercising wise dominion (v. 26)
Only the Bible gives us a rock-solid basis for human dignity and equality. Without it, “all people are equal” is just a nice wish. Even in the worst of us, that faint image explains why love and goodness can still break through.
So take a moment today to marvel: you and every person you meet carry God’s image. That’s why kindness and respect aren’t optional—they’re the fitting response to such priceless worth.
Respond:
1. What does it mean to you that you were made in God’s image?
2. Why is relationship with God essential to human purpose?
3. How can you “dwell” with God in your daily life?
Monday
Genesis 2 (Scripture Focus 7–8)
Discover:
Stop for a second and picture this: the almighty God—who spoke galaxies into being—bends low over a pile of dirt, shapes it with His hands like a potter, and then puts His mouth near the man’s face and breathes.
This is not distant, impersonal creation. This is kiss-close. God shares His own breath—His ruach, His very life—with us. From the very first moment, we were made for intimacy with Him. You and I still carry that divine breath in our lungs today. Every inhale is a quiet reminder: I am not an accident. I am intimately known and endlessly loved by the One who gave me life.
Then God does something even more tender: He plants a garden and places the man there. Eden isn’t just scenery; it’s a portrait of God’s heart for us. A place of beauty, abundance, purpose, and unbroken fellowship. Work that feels like joy, food that grows freely, rivers that water the earth, and best of all—God Himself walking in the garden in the cool of the day, looking for His friend. This is what we were made for: to live in a garden-space with God, to walk with Him, talk with Him, rule with Him, rest with Him.
Sin broke the garden, but it didn’t break God’s desire. Jesus came as the “second Adam” to bring us back the garden-life. And now, by His Spirit, He is planting new Edens in our hearts—places where we can dwell with Him again.
Respond:
1. How does God’s breath of life show His intimacy with us?
2. What does the Garden reveal about God’s original design for humanity?
3. Where do you sense God inviting you to “dwell” more closely with Him?
tuesday
Genesis 3 (Scripture Focus 1–7)
Discover:
God gave Adam and Eve the whole Garden—every tree, every fruit—except one. Just one simple command: “You may freely eat of every tree… but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die.”
That’s it. One loving boundary in a world of endless yeses.
We don’t know how long they walked in perfect obedience—days? years?—but if Adam had kept trusting and kept saying “yes” to God until the test was over, he would have secured everlasting life and blessing for himself and every one of us (see Romans 5:12–21).
Here’s what the tree was never about: Adam and Eve already knew right from wrong. God’s warning itself taught them that obedience = good, disobedience = evil. Eating the fruit didn’t give them moral knowledge; it gave them experiential knowledge. Suddenly they didn’t just know about evil—they felt its shame, its guilt, its poison in their bones.
Satan’s half-truth was sneaky: “You’ll be like God, knowing good and evil”. In a tragic way, he was right—now they understood evil the way God does: with perfect clarity. But the devil conveniently left out the fine print: this “knowledge” would twist their hearts to love the darkness they now understood. And his flat-out lie? “You won’t die.”
Jesus called Satan “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44), and his playbook hasn’t changed. He still loves to zoom in on the one thing God says “no” to, while ignoring the thousand “yeses” all around us. He still whispers, “Did God really say…?” and “He’s holding out on you.”
The enemy who twisted God’s words in the Garden is still twisting them today. Let’s answer him the way Jesus did—with God’s truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Respond:
1. Why is it so tempting to believe lies instead of trusting God’s truth?
2. How does sin divide us from God and from one another?
3. What’s one “fruit” in your life you need to stop reaching for?
Wednesday
Genesis 3 (Scripture Focus 8–10)
Discover:
They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees… But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
David asks the real question centuries later: “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?” (Psalm 139:7) The answer? Nowhere. Heaven, hell, darkness, dawn—God is there. Always.
Yet the moment Adam and Eve sinned, what did they do? Grabbed fig leaves and ducked behind a bush. As if the One who made every leaf and every shadow wouldn’t notice.
We still play the same silly game.
• We sin in secret, pretending God didn’t see.
• We minimize (“It’s not that bad”)
• We avoid prayer and church because guilt feels like a spotlight
Sin doesn’t just make us guilty; it makes us stupid. It clouds the mind so badly that we actually believe the Creator of the universe can be ghosted.
When God calls out, “Adam, where are you?
” He’s not playing hide-and-seek with GPS turned off. He’s doing what every loving father does—giving His child a chance to come clean. The question isn’t about location; it’s an invitation to confession.
Here’s the beautiful (and terrifying) truth: God’s voice always does its work. Sooner or later, every one of us will answer—either with excuses and a harder heart, or with brokenness and repentance. The only question is which kind of answer we’ll give.
Respond:
1. What are some ways we try to “hide” from God today?
2. Why do we often feel shame instead of drawing near when we sin?
3. How does God’s pursuit of Adam and Eve encourage you personally?
THursday
Isaiah 59 (Scripture Focus Verse 2)
Discover:
Most people assume, “If I’m sincere and really need help, God will listen.” The Bible says the exact opposite: “The prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord.” (Prov. 15:8)
That word “abomination” is strong—it’s the same word used for idolatry and child sacrifice. God isn’t mildly annoyed by the prayers of people who ignore Him 364 days a year and then run to Him in a crisis. He is deeply offended.
Why? Because every “God, please get me out of this and I’ll change” prayer quietly declares: “I don’t actually need Jesus. My crisis + my sincerity is enough.”
That insults the cross. It’s like telling God His Son died for nothing—at least in your case.
Jesus was crystal clear: “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) We only have “confidence to enter the presence of God by the blood of Jesus” (Heb. 10:19).
So does God ever answer a non-Christians’ prayers? Maybe—in the same way He lets the Sun shine on everyone. But the Bible never promises it, and we shouldn’t either. The only prayer God has explicitly promised to always hear from an unbeliever is the one that says, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner—save me through Jesus!”
But once we belong to Jesus? Everything flips.
• Sin’s wall is torn down forever.
• The Holy Spirit moves in and gives us a brand-new instinct: “Abba! Father!”
• Prayer stops feeling like a duty and starts feeling like breathing—like talking to the Dad who adores us.
Yes, we still have to fight distraction and make time to pray. But the welcome mat is always out. Our worst prayers, offered in Jesus’ name, smell like incense to God because they’re washed in His Son’s blood.
Respond:
1. What kind of separation have you experienced because of sin?
2. Why can’t we fix the division on our own?
3. How does this verse point us toward our need for a Savior?
Friday
Romans 3 (Scripture Focus Verse 23)
Discover:
We all know it deep down. Rich or poor, Eastern or Western, ancient or modern—every culture has the same quiet ache: “To err is human.” “Nobody’s perfect.” “I’m not proud of what I did.”
When we hurt others, we invent laws, fines, community service, jail time. We talk about “paying your debt to society,” as if a few years or a few dollars can balance the scales.
But here’s what that gut-level guilt is really pointing to: we haven’t just broken human rules. We’ve broken God’s perfect law. And as Paul puts it so plainly: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
Falling short of a human standard is bad. Falling short of the glory of an infinite, holy God? That’s an infinite debt.
That’s why every religion on earth is full of people climbing sacred stairs on their knees, fasting for weeks, whipping themselves, walking hundreds of miles on pilgrimages, giving away money—anything to try to “pay God back.”
But think about it: If I owe you $100 and I pay you $100, the debt is gone. If I owe the infinite, holy Creator of the universe, how many prayers, good deeds, or acts of penance does it take to cancel an infinite offense? A finite creature can never pay an infinite debt. Ever.
We can pay our debt to society (sometimes). We can never pay our debt to God.
That’s the bad news—and the unbelievably good news. The debt is real. The debt is infinite. And Someone infinite has already paid it.
Jesus didn’t come to help us pay the debt. He came to pay a debt we could never pay.
So today, let the old sayings remind you of the gospel: “Yes, to err really is human… but to be forgiven, to be declared perfect, to have an infinite debt stamped ‘Paid in Full’— that is pure grace, through Christ alone.”
Respond:
1. How do you see this truth—“all have sinned”—in your own life?
2. Why is it important to acknowledge our sin instead of excusing it?
3. How does admitting our sin actually lead to hope?
Saturday
Romans 3 (Scripture Focus Verse 24)
Discover:
Here’s the heart of the gospel in four short lines:
1. You and I don’t have a righteousness that’s good enough for God. (We never did and never will.)
2. But God has provided a perfect righteousness that IS good enough — His own!
3. This righteousness doesn’t come by trying harder, being religious, or cleaning yourself up. It only comes “apart from law” — meaning you receive it the same way you receive a gift: empty-handed, by faith alone.
4. And this gift is for everyone who believes — Jew, Gentile, good kid, train-wreck — because we’re all in the exact same boat: “All have sinned and fall short.”
Why faith alone? Because faith admits, “I’m bankrupt. I bring nothing. Jesus is everything.” Faith is the open hand that simply receives what grace gives.
The ground of our acceptance isn’t our faith (thank goodness — some days our faith feels tiny!). The ground is “the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Jesus lived the perfect life we should have lived and died the death we should have died. God now treats believers as if we had lived Jesus’ life.
John Calvin summed it up perfectly: “The efficient cause is God’s mercy, the meritorious cause is Christ, the instrumental cause is the word received by faith.”
In plain English: God’s love planned it. Jesus paid for it. Faith grabs it.
Respond:
1. How does God’s grace restore what sin destroyed?
2. Why is it significant that justification is a free gift?
3. How can you celebrate God’s grace this Christmas season?