Daily Scripture Readings
Read along with us in community as we follow this daily scripture outline.
Sunday April 12th
Acts 2:14, 22-32; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31
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Resurrection is not merely spiritual but bodily. We do not believe in, nor do we hope for, a disembodied future in the clouds, but our faith is firmly grounded in the reality of Christ’s own resurrection from the dead. Peter, in his Pentecost sermon, declares that “the patriarch David died and was buried,” but that “God has raised this Jesus to life.” Thomas questioned the reality of Jesus’ glorified body, which led him to confess, “My Lord and my God!” upon Jesus’ invitation to touch His wounds. Christ’s risen body is physical, glorified, and Spirit-filled—not a return to mere biological life. It would be a disappointing resurrection if God had not truly defeated death itself, raising Jesus only in some spiritual sense. Yet the Scriptures repeatedly affirm the bodily resurrection from the dead. Praise be to God for our salvation in Christ. Amen.
Monday April 13th
Judges 6:36-40; Psalm 114; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20
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Gideon’s fleece and Paul’s proclamation of the resurrection reveal the journey from fragile faith to settled confidence. Gideon believes God’s call yet trembles before its cost. He asks for a sign—not once, but twice—and God, in mercy, meets him there. The fleece does not create faith; it steadies a fearful servant long enough for obedience to begin. Paul addresses a deeper instability. If Christ has not been raised, no sign, experience, or sincerity can sustain faith. Everything collapses. But Paul does not offer reassurance through new proofs, he announces the finished act of God. Christ has been raised, and that reality now grounds all hope. God is patient with our weakness, yet calls us beyond dependence on signs. Faith matures when it rests not on repeated assurances, but on the decisive victory of God over death in the risen Christ. Amen.
Tuesday April 14th
Jonah 1; Psalm 114; 1 Corinthians 15:19-28
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Jonah’s flight exposes a fundamental problem in the human condition: we resist the reign of God even when we are clearly aware of it. When we do, like Jonah, our lives are marked by chaos and disorder. Our reluctant cooperation may ease our plight temporarily, but a deeper unrest remains that we cannot resolve on our own. The true solution is the reign of Christ, who comes to bring order to our disordered lives. The resurrection is not an escape from danger, but the renewal of creation itself. No matter how much we resist, God’s reign has decisively triumphed over death and is now restoring what has been lost. Christ has overcome every false power and idol, just as God revealed His sovereign might to the sailors in Jonah’s story. He does not coerce, but invites humanity to be restored and to find life in Him. Praise the Lord.
Wednesday April 15th
Jonah 2; Psalm 114; Matthew 12:38-42
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Jonah’s journey into the belly of the giant fish is a type of salvation which is like that of Jesus’ deliverance of humanity from death. When all was lost and death seemed inevitable, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God and confessed that it was by Him alone that he could be saved. The parallel is direct, so much so that Jesus references it when the Pharisees ask Him for a sign to verify all that Jesus had claimed. Jesus spent three days in the grave and Jonah three in the fish. It is what happens after that gives sharp irony; pagan Nineveh repented and was spared but the religious elite resist the One greater than Jonah standing before them. It isn’t a lack of signs but a hardness of heart that Jesus exposes. Those who repent at the sign find life. Those who demand more signs stand condemned by it. Let our hearts always seek God in repentance.
Thursday April 16th
Isaiah 25:1-5; Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19; 1 Peter 1:8-12
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The praise the prophet Isaiah offers to God is not random or unfounded, but grounded in God’s faithfulness revealed in the past. In wisdom, God has brought protection from the nations, shelter to the poor, and refuge for those in distress. God has been faithful and will continue to be faithful even when His work cannot yet be seen. Peter echoes this same confidence as he commends those to whom he writes. Though they have not seen the risen Jesus as he has, they believe in the gospel and are receiving the promised salvation even now. God’s grace is revealed through His trustworthiness and confirmed in the resurrection of Christ. The prophets spoke of Christ before He was revealed, and now the gospel is proclaimed by His disciples who bear witness to Him. May our hearts trust and believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus.
Friday April 17th
Isaiah 26:1-4; Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19; 1 Peter 1:13-16
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The call of Christ isn’t simply to come and receive salvation, but to be transformed into holy participants in God’s own life through faith in Christ. No one can have Jesus as savior who will not have Him as their Lord. Therefore we must be vigilant and fully alert, obeying all that Christ commanded us. To seek His kingdom and the will of the Father through loving, selfless service. We all were at one time distant from God and outside of His grace but because of His great love revealed in the death and resurrection of Jesus, we now can live as those who have received salvation, the forgiveness of sins unto eternal life. We are not alone in this because God has poured out His Spirit into those who follow Christ and become obedient to Him through baptism. Hold fast to the faith and be transformed by the renewing of your minds.
Saturday April 18th
Isaiah 25:6-9; Psalm 16; Luke 14:12-14
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The banquet motif is extremely important to Christian theology as a whole because it reveals to us a significant truth. That truth is that God is gracious, merciful, and kind to those who do not deserve it not because of their worthiness, but because He desires a relationship with us. Isaiah writes of God holding an eschatological meal where He “will remove the disgrace of His people.” It is God who first acts toward the lowly and the sinner in order to draw us into the depths of His love. Jesus embodies this same pattern and encourages His disciples to do likewise: to call the sinner and the poor, the weak and the blind, into participation in the mercy of God’s saving grace. Jesus came to seek and save the lost, and our posture toward others should reflect His own.