Today's Reading: Romans 11:1-36Paul reminds us that God is not finished with Israel yet even though they have consistently rebelled against Him. In fact, God even used their disobedience to make salvation available to the Gentiles, thus fulfilling the promise He mad to Abraham in Genesis 12 to bless all the world through his offspring.One of the big takeaways for me from this chapter is that God i...

Today's Reading: Acts 2:1-47When Peter began to preach on the day of Pentecost, he cited the passage from Joel 2 that we looked at a couple weeks ago. Those who were listening would have known that Peter was claiming that the "Day of the Lord" had been initiated by Jesus at His first coming. He also quoted from Psalm 16 to prove that the death and resurrection of Jesus was always God's plan for de...

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...

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...

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". ...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...