Daily Read

Ephesians 1:15-23 (NIV)

In today’s passage Paul prays that the Lord would open the eyes of the Ephesians' hearts. It’s hard to imagine Paul talking about eyes being opened without thinking back to his first encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus in Acts chapter 9. He met the risen Jesus there and was blinded for three days, until Ananias came and prayed for him to regain his sight. And it says that “he rose, was baptized, (which is an image of the resurrection) and, taking food, was strengthened.”

Later in Acts 9 there is another story of eyes being opened. A disciple named Tabitha had died. And after Peter prayed for her she was raised back to life! The text says “she opened her eyes… and Peter gave her his hand and raised her up.” These two passages could tell us a lot about what Paul means when he prays that the Ephesians would have the eyes of their hearts opened to know the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.

----------REFLECT----------

1. What encouraged you about this passage?

2. Asking that the eyes of our hearts would be open implies that there might be something that has them blinded. Paul asks that for this they would receive the Spirit, who gives wisdom and revelation. The Greek word for “revelation” is apokalypseos which means to open or uncover. Right now, ask the Spirit to open, uncover, reveal or apocalypse what your heart might be blind to today.

3. Jesus is seated far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked. These days it can feel like that is not the case, but therein lies the need for Paul's prayer--that we would see it. What difference would it make in your life, if you lived out of the knowledge that Jesus truly is in charge? What would you do differently today?

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Ephesians 1:1-14 (NIV)

The apostle Paul is writing this letter to a group of churches in and around the ancient city Ephesus. He’d planted churches there, but now is imprisoned, and is writing to encourage and exhort the church to live as good witnesses in society; especially as they overcome the challenges of persecution, division, and the temptation to give their allegiance to something other than Jesus.

As the letter opens we hear a long Jewish style poem, praising God for carrying out his promises to Israel in and through Jesus. With this Paul starts the first half of the letter designed to help the Ephesians to remember the bigger story that they are living in--the story of God’s faithfulness in King Jesus.

----------REFLECT----------

1. In what ways does this passage cause you to be grateful for God’s love? Bring that to the LORD with thanksgiving.

2. As Paul retells the story of God’s covenant faithfulness, he helps the Ephesians see that when God chose Israel, he had them in mind! That reality extends to us today.  We too were adopted, and not just for our own sake! Like Israel was chosen as a people through whom God could bless the nations, we have been chosen for the sake of what God wants to accomplish through us. In what way might God want to bless others through you or your community this week?

3. Paul calls the Spirit a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance, the genuine life in a new creation that is given to us by Jesus. One scholar calls this deposit a down payment: a part of the promised future coming forward into the present. What difference will it make in your life today to know that you will receive, in full, the promise of new creation?

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As we begin our series through the Prison Letters, Clayton talks a little bit about the letter the the Ephesians, Ephesus at the time of it's writing and points us to some resources that are linked below to go further. 

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John 21:15-25 (NIV)

Have you ever smelled something, and in that very instant you’re taken back to a specific time and place? I mean, you can see it, taste it, feel it, hear it!  There are certain smells that can bring us back to some of the sweetest moments in our lives, or to some of the darkest.

John is careful to point out that the fire that Jesus and the disciples gather around is burning charcoal. This is significant because the last time that Peter was around a charcoal fire, he was denying Jesus, afraid to be recognized as one of his disciples. As Peter  he sits down around this fire, Jesus intends to replace those memories of shame and guilt with restoration and redemption.

----------REFLECT----------

1. What surprised you the most about this passage?

2. Peter kind of takes offense at Jesus asking him three times if he loves him. But Jesus was seeking a full restoration, giving Peter an opportunity to answer these three questions the way he would have wanted too when he denied him. How do you do with trusting in Jesus’ ability to fully restore you from your failures?

3. The picture that Jesus paints of Peter’s future is pretty bleak. Being dressed by others and being led to a place where he won’t want to go. He’s saying this to describe the death of a man who cut another guy's ear off in defense of Jesus. It’s not the future Peter had in mind when he began following Jesus. What about you? If you knew that following Jesus would take your life to a place that was undesirable to you… would you still follow him?

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John 21:1-14 (NIV)

Imagine what it must have been like to be the disciples at this point in John. You’ve been following Jesus for a few years, and then he gets brutally murdered, then he shows up behind closed doors…. And then leaves… What do you do now? What’s next?

The disciples did what most of us do in times of uncertainty,  we go back--to what’s comfortable, or to what’s “sensible”--like the disciples in this passage... going fishing. But life after the resurrection of Jesus isn’t the old life. It’s a new kind of life for the disciples, for you listening to this right now. It’s the miraculous entering into the ordinary. Heaven and earth coming together in our daily things- in our day to day work even.

----------REFLECT----------

1. What part of the disciples' reactions stood out to you in this passage?

2. It’s dawn again, and like Mary at the tomb, Peter and the other fishermen do not recognize the risen Jesus in the morning light. Can you think of a night you spent working or studying or caring for something or someone, or crying? And when morning comes you feel no closer to being done that you were at dusk? Maybe you’re in that dark night right now. What if Jesus is waiting to talk with you in the light of dawn… how do you respond?

3. In the Jewish world, it was the host or the head of the family who passed out the bread. Jesus here reminds the disciples of his place in the family- in their lives, and in the world. He is the generous Host, longing to share his abundance with us. Where in your life do you need to move from a mindset of scarcity to one of abundance? Ask the Lord to meet you on that shore.

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John 20:21-31 (NIV)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning…. These are the first words of Johns Gospel… he continues in talking about this Word… this one who was with God… saying: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

In today’s passage… the Word has been raised from the dead, and he makes his dwelling among the disciples once again. Except this time it’s in a locked room. And it’s there, behind doors of fear and self-preservation that the eternal Word speaks the words “peace be with you,” as he breathes new life into the disciples… just as he did in the beginning in the garden.

----------REFLECT----------

1. What part of this interaction between Jesus and HIs disciples stands out to you?

2. Thomas tends to get a bad reputation for asking questions of Jesus in this moment, of needing proof. But in reality… he’s the very first to lean into the promise of Jesus being the word that became flesh. And as he reaches out to touch the body of a man who he saw die but who is now alive and in the flesh, his whole concept of life and death is transformed. How does the physical resurrection of Jesus change the way you think about death knowing that we will also be raised?

3. Thomas recognized Jesus by his scars. We often imagine and perhaps long for a life after death that does not include the scars of this life. However, in this passage and in the future we have in Jesus, the presence of scars is proof of healing. So, what wounds in your life, do you long to be transformed into scars in the resurrection?

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John 20:1-20 (NIV)

Darkness and Stillness. After the longest Sabbath they had ever known, shock and pain hung in the air. Their hearts were broken. Their eyes were red and swollen from tears. A horrifying passover,  the silence of Saturday, and still no appetite for lamb or bread. How could this be? Was it all a nightmare? Maybe He wasn’t who they thought he was. What hope was there now? But he was like no one they had ever known! He did things, said things that they never imagined that they would see or hear.

Sabbath was ending. Night was almost over, the sun was about to rise. The first day of the new week is about to begin. And perhaps the only place she felt like she could be was near him, near the place where he lay. To grieve, to cry, to remember. . . So Mary got up and went to the tomb.

----------REFLECT----------

1. What moment stood out to you in this passage? What image, What emotion?

2. Have you ever wondered why Jesus is mistaken as a gardener? John starts the gospel off with the words “in the beginning” and follows the creation narrative through all the way to Jesus laying to rest on the 7th day of the week. And now it’s the first day of a new week when Jesus shows up as a gardener… John’s trying to help us see that when Jesus stepped out of that tomb… the first day of new creation had begun and he is the gardener. In what ways have you seen Jesus as a gardener of new creation in your life, planting seeds, pulling weeds, watering, pruning?

3. As characteristic of John’s gospel, Mary doesn’t at first recognize Jesus, yet he engages her pain. “Woman, why are you crying?” Are there people in your life who are in pain? How might Jesus be calling you to engage their pain, even if they don’t yet recognize him?

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John 19:28-42 (NIV)

Throughout the Gospel of John we’ve been paying attention to the “signs” performed by Jesus--each one a picture of what it looks like when heaven and earth come together. The blind see, the sick are well, the dead are raised…

Some see the crucifixion itself as one of these signs, which forces us to ask the question: how is this a picture of what it looks like when God’s space and our space overlap and interlock? We may be tempted to look away at this moment and say this whole thing makes no sense, but if we have eyes, we can come closer and see… We can see that for these two spaces to be brought back together as they were in the garden, as they will be in new creation… all the evil and death that exists in the world has to go somewhere… it has to be dealt with…

----------REFLECT----------

1. What were your primary emotions as you listened to this passage, how did your body respond?

2. John offers us extraordinary details that are painfully specific and deeply physical. Sometimes we can think of the crucifixion of Jesus as a purely theological event, but it was physical and historical. Take a few moments to remind yourself that this actually happened, consider the sights, the smells, the sounds…

3. The passage in Zechariah that John quotes here is a prophecy about the Messiah--and how God will bring about redemption and deliverance to the world through the Messiah’s suffering. Do you believe that God can bring redemption through suffering in your life? Ask the Spirit to meet you in the places where you need deliverance and redemption, even in your suffering.

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MS. SKIP McDONALD - ANXIETY (LIFE GUIDE)

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John 19:17-27 (NIV)

For generations the people of Israel would celebrate the Passover the same way. Passover lambs were traditionally hung up on hooks to be flayed. The Passover in today’s passage leaves Jesus naked, hanging from a cross. The Passover was about longing for redemption, about waiting for Messiah to come and reign.

Caiaphas unknowingly prophesied that “it would be better for one man to die for the people.” Pilate perhaps unknowingly makes the announcement to the whole world “This is the King of the Jews.” It doesn’t look the way they imagined, but Messiah has come. And somehow God’s purposes for the restoration of the world are being born in and through his suffering.

----------REFLECT----------

1. What word or phrase stood out to you in the passage?

2. How does the idea of a suffering Savior align with your understanding of success? How does it challenge? How does it comfort?

3. How will  you respond today to the suffering love of Jesus?

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John 18:38-19:16

People who’ve studied the Bible over time have pointed out that John’s gospel is outlined to match the 7 days of creation in Genesis 1. From the first verse saying “in the beginning” the outline continues through to the end of the Gospel. More on that later! But for now we find ourselves on the 6th day of the week, Good Friday,  matching the 6th day in Genesis when God breathed life into Adam.

This passage brings the new Adam into his final hours. “Here is the man!” Pilate tells the Jews. John is intentionally trying to point out that the entire story of Scripture has been leading up to this moment.

----------REFLECT----------

1. What stood out to you in the passage?

2. The Jewish leaders had tried to stone Jesus a few times before, and finally they’re getting what they want. Jesus is mocked, ridiculed, and beaten. The compassion of Yahweh is acted out through this Son of the Father in complete solidarity with those who are mistreated. In what area of your life does this bring you comfort today?

3. These days, the word authority makes us cringe. We’ve been told that true freedom is getting to do what we want when we want, to have autonomy. But Jesus, this true image of God, this new kind of human, expresses his freedom and his authority in his willingness to lay down his life. How is the Spirit asking you to respond to this kind of King?

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