This Bible reading plan takes you through most of the Holy Scriptures each weekday of the year. Each day has three Bible readings:
You're welcome to read one, two, or all three of the readings every weekday. And if you fall behind, don't worry! You can either use the weekends to catch up or you can simply dive in to the reading for that day, even if you've missed a few days, weeks, or even months!
3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears1 we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s2 seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers,3 that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God,4 and God5 in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
[1] 3:2
[2] 3:9
[3] 3:13
[4] 3:24
[5] 3:24
(ESV)
I have never had much of a green thumb. Just the other day, my wife and I received an email asking us to purchase some poinsettias as part of a fundraiser. After agreeing to the offer because the proceeds go to a good cause, we also agreed to find good homes for them. After all, if we were to keep them, they wouldn't last a week. For I never have had much of a green thumb.
I can remember, when I was in second grade, how my class planted seeds in Dixie cups and placed them on the windowsill and waited for them to grow. Many of my classmates' seeds sprouted quickly, beautiful, and heartily. Mine, on the other hand, never broke its soil. Indeed, the only seed I have ever had that has done anything impressive is birdseed. The pigeons loved me.
In our reading for today from 1 John 3, the apostle speaks of a Christian's life in Jesus: "No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God" (verse 9). A Christian, John says, has God's seed in him. What seed is this? It is the same seed promised by God as he cursed Satan for his beguilement: "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (Genesis 3:15). God promised a Seed from Eve who would crush Satan's head. Who is this Seed? None other than Jesus Christ. Indeed, Jesus even speaks of himself as Seed when he foretells his death: "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds" (John 12:24). Jesus, through his death on the cross as the Seed of Eve, produces many seeds. These seeds, in turn, are we who are "called children of God" (verse 1). We are the seeds of God.
Commenting on the Lord's Prayer, Martin Luther writes, "God would tenderly encourage us to believe that he is our true father and that we are his true children, so that we may ask him confidently with all assurance, as dear children ask their dear father" (SC III:2). This is John's encouragement as well. We, as Christians, are invited to approach God as our Father, for we are his children - we are his seeds.
With what do you need to approach God today? Is there something heavy on your heart? Is there a trial that you face? Perhaps there is a daunting decision that you have to make. Whatever it is, don't forget to turn to your heavenly Father for the guidance and strength you need. He will always be there to hear and to help. After all, you are family. You are his child. You are his seed.
1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
2 Hear this, you elders;
give ear, all inhabitants of the land!
Has such a thing happened in your days,
or in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell your children of it,
and let your children tell their children,
and their children to another generation.
4 What the cutting locust left,
the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
the destroying locust has eaten.
5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep,
and wail, all you drinkers of wine,
because of the sweet wine,
for it is cut off from your mouth.
6 For a nation has come up against my land,
powerful and beyond number;
its teeth are lions’ teeth,
and it has the fangs of a lioness.
7 It has laid waste my vine
and splintered my fig tree;
it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
their branches are made white.
8 Lament like a virgin1 wearing sackcloth
for the bridegroom of her youth.
9 The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
from the house of the LORD.
The priests mourn,
the ministers of the LORD.
10 The fields are destroyed,
the ground mourns,
because the grain is destroyed,
the wine dries up,
the oil languishes.
11 Be ashamed,2 O tillers of the soil;
wail, O vinedressers,
for the wheat and the barley,
because the harvest of the field has perished.
12 The vine dries up;
the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
all the trees of the field are dried up,
and gladness dries up
from the children of man.
13 Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;
wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
O ministers of my God!
Because grain offering and drink offering
are withheld from the house of your God.
14 Consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the LORD your God,
and cry out to the LORD.
15 Alas for the day!
For the day of the LORD is near,
and as destruction from the Almighty3 it comes.
16 Is not the food cut off
before our eyes,
joy and gladness
from the house of our God?
17 The seed shrivels under the clods;4
the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are torn down
because the grain has dried up.
18 How the beasts groan!
The herds of cattle are perplexed
because there is no pasture for them;
even the flocks of sheep suffer.5
19 To you, O LORD, I call.
For fire has devoured
the pastures of the wilderness,
and flame has burned
all the trees of the field.
20 Even the beasts of the field pant for you
because the water brooks are dried up,
and fire has devoured
the pastures of the wilderness.
2:1 Blow a trumpet in Zion;
sound an alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near,
2 a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains
a great and powerful people;
their like has never been before,
nor will be again after them
through the years of all generations.
3 Fire devours before them,
and behind them a flame burns.
The land is like the garden of Eden before them,
but behind them a desolate wilderness,
and nothing escapes them.
4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses,
and like war horses they run.
5 As with the rumbling of chariots,
they leap on the tops of the mountains,
like the crackling of a flame of fire
devouring the stubble,
like a powerful army
drawn up for battle.
6 Before them peoples are in anguish;
all faces grow pale.
7 Like warriors they charge;
like soldiers they scale the wall.
They march each on his way;
they do not swerve from their paths.
8 They do not jostle one another;
each marches in his path;
they burst through the weapons
and are not halted.
9 They leap upon the city,
they run upon the walls,
they climb up into the houses,
they enter through the windows like a thief.
10 The earth quakes before them;
the heavens tremble.
The sun and the moon are darkened,
and the stars withdraw their shining.
11 The LORD utters his voice
before his army,
for his camp is exceedingly great;
he who executes his word is powerful.
For the day of the LORD is great and very awesome;
who can endure it?
[1] 1:8
[2] 1:11
[3] 1:15
[4] 1:17
[5] 1:18
(ESV)
The name of the prophet Joel means, "Yahweh is God." Little else is know about him except the name of his father, Pethuel (who was also unknown) and that He served God in the Southern Kingdom of Judah anywhere from the ninth to the sixth century BC. Joel prophesied about a plague of locusts such as his generation or their forbears had never before seen. More than that, Joel identified the plague as an act of God's judgment and a precursor of God's final judgment. He called the people of Judah to awaken from their drunken stupor, because this invading army of locusts was destroying both the vine and the fig tree. Repentance was decreed, "like a virgin wearing sackcloth." Grain was being destroyed in the field, oil from the olive tree was running dry, and fruit was disappearing from the trees of the field. Joel compared locusts to the Day of the LORD, a day that Judah was anticipating with hopefulness, for they believed that on that day God would judge the nations. However, Joel said: "For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes," showing that this day would mean judgment for Judah as well. Joel saw the beasts of the land panting for water as the brook dried up, and fire devoured the trees and pastures. The depiction of God's judgment as a consuming fire is common in Scripture, and as Joel shared it, the result was a penitent cry for mercy, "To you, O LORD, I call." As Joel cried out to "sound an alarm on my holy mountain," his attention turned from the plague of locusts to what they were a picture of: "a great and powerful people" who would serve as God's agent of judgment. The land of Judah would be transformed from a Garden of Eden into a desolate wilderness. The appearance of such a dreaded and powerful army causes anguish among God's people, and "all faces grow pale." Joel's description of the locusts parallels an invading horde, and is a portent of a future apocalyptic army that would bring judgment on the Day of the LORD. God "utters his voice before his army" which is "exceedingly great." God's word of judgment is powerful, and therefore "the Day of the LORD is great and very awesome."
32 The wicked is overthrown through his evildoing,
but the righteous finds refuge in his death.
33 Wisdom rests in the heart of a man of understanding,
but it makes itself known even in the midst of fools.1
34 Righteousness exalts a nation,
but sin is a reproach to any people.
35 A servant who deals wisely has the king’s favor,
but his wrath falls on one who acts shamefully.
15:1 A soft answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.
2 The tongue of the wise commends knowledge,
but the mouths of fools pour out folly.
3 The eyes of the LORD are in every place,
keeping watch on the evil and the good.
4 A gentle2 tongue is a tree of life,
but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.
5 A fool despises his father’s instruction,
but whoever heeds reproof is prudent.
6 In the house of the righteous there is much treasure,
but trouble befalls the income of the wicked.
7 The lips of the wise spread knowledge;
not so the hearts of fools.3
8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD,
but the prayer of the upright is acceptable to him.
9 The way of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD,
but he loves him who pursues righteousness.
10 There is severe discipline for him who forsakes the way;
whoever hates reproof will die.
[1] 14:33
[2] 15:4
[3] 15:7
(ESV)