Today's Reading: Mark 1:1-45The Gospel of Mark is attributed by early church fathers to John Mark, whose mother was a prominent member of the early church in Jerusalem (Acts 12:12). It is the shortest, and likely the first of the four gospel accounts to be written. The repeated uses of the words "immediately" and "soon" give this gospel a sense of urgency.Mark begins his gospel account with the mi...  Read More

Today's Reading: Daniel 12:1-13Any time we read a passage like this there is a tendency to try and figure out the meaning of all the details here. And there is certainly a place for that kind of deep study. But I'm struck here by the fact that when Daniel doesn't understand, he is basically told (an I'm obviously paraphrasing here) "Don't worry about it. When that time comes you'll understand".Wha...  Read More

Today's Reading: Malachi 4:1-6The Old Testament ends with a glimmer of hope as God promises to send Elijah (a reference to John the Baptist) before the "Day of the Lord" commences. There is also the promise of "the sun of righteousness".We've been covering the "Day of the Lord" for a while now, so this is probably a good time to define what that term means. It is also sometimes called "that day". ...  Read More

Today's Reading: Malachi 3:1-18Like so many prophecies regarding Jesus, this prophecy intertwines His first and second coming. Before His first coming God promised to send a messenger to prepare the way (John the Baptist). That first coming was for the purpose of bringing salvation to God's peopleJohn 3:17 (ESV)For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the...  Read More

Today's Reading: Ezekiel 43:1-27God gives Ezekiel a vision of a future temple in which He will rule forever. And then He gives directions for how worship is to take place within that temple. God tells Ezekiel to describe his vision to the people of Israel so that they may be ashamed of their iniquities (v. 10).One of the things that we can take from this passage is that the worship of a holy God r...  Read More

Today's Reading: Ezekiel 36:1-38For the sake of His name, during the Day of the Lord, God is going to restore Israel. He will not do that because they are deserving in any way. The thing that strikes me the most in this chapter is that it is God who is doing everything that is necessary to restore and vindicate His chosen people. He is the one who will give them a new heart so that they will be ab...  Read More

Today's Reading: Joel 2:1-32We once again see that God is both a holy God and a God of grace and mercy. On the Day of the Lord He is going to pour out His wrath on the righteous. But before He does that, He is going to give people an opportunity to humble themselves before Him and receive mercy and grace.I am amazed here at the extent of God's grace. He delights in restoring what we have lost due ...  Read More

Today's Reading: Isaiah 66:1-24The book of Isaiah doesn't exactly end on an encouraging note, does it? But what I do find encouraging here is that God rejoices in those who have a humble heart and contrite spirit. That is an idea that we find consistently in the Bible.The only way that we can be declared righteous before God is to humbly admit that we are sinners in need of a Savior. Until we admi...  Read More

Today's Reading: Isaiah 65:1-25Here we see that God's true servants are those who trust in and worship Him faithfully. In Romans 10, Paul quotes from this chapter to prove that God always intended to provide salvation for all, not just Israel. We see here that God always preserves a remnant of those who are declared righteous because of their faith in Him. For them, the Day of the Lord is a time o...  Read More

Today's Reading: Isaiah 42:1-25The first nine verses comprise the first of four "servant songs" in Isaiah. Each of these songs portray the Messiah as YHWH's servant who will come to provide salvation to the righteous and execute judgement on the wicked.The Jews generally looked forward to the "Day of the Lord" because they thought it would mean judgment on their enemies and vindication for them. H...  Read More

Today's Reading: Jeremiah 33:1-26Today we begin the last section of this Bible reading plan.In conjunction with the coming of a deliverer, the Old Testament prophets also envision a new covenant, the return of God’s presence, the outpouring of the Spirit, the engrafting of the Gentiles (fulfilling the Abrahamic promise), cosmic renewal, and resurrection in the Day of the LordIn this chapter we see...  Read More

Today's Reading: Revelation 5:1-14In this chapter we see that Jesus, who is described as a Lamb who was slain, is the fulfillment of several of the prophecies that we have read in this section that predicted the Messiah would come from the line of David.For those who have put their faith in Jesus, the opening of the scroll will be a joyous occasion because it means that Jesus is about to rule comp...  Read More