The Wartburg Project

Daily Lectionary

January 17, 2019

January 16, 2019 January 18, 2019

These daily readings from the EHV follow the one-year daily lectionary provided in Christian Worship: Hymnal, the Lutheran Service Book, and the Treasury of Daily Prayer. In this lectionary, two readings of 15-25 verses each are provided for each day. Under this plan, nearly all of the New Testament and approximately one-third of the Old Testament are read each year. These readings fit well within the daily offices of Matins, Vespers, or Compline as daily family devotions.

Ezekiel 39:1-10, 17-29

The Lord Will Defeat Gog
And Pour Out His Spirit on His People
391Now you, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say this.
This is what the Lord says to you. I am against you, Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshek, and Tubal. 2I will turn you around. I will show you the way. I will lead you up from the remotest regions of the north, and I will bring you against the mountains of Israel. 3But there I will knock your bow out of your left hand, and I will make your arrows fall from your right hand. 4On the mountains of Israel you will fall—you, all your troops, and the peoples who are with you. I will give you as food to scavenging birds of every kind and to the wild animals. 5In the open country you will fall, for I have spoken, declares the Lord God. 6I will also send fire on Magog and on those who live in security on the coastlands. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
7I will make my holy name known among my people Israel. I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore, and the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. 8It is coming! It will surely take place, declares the Lord God. This is the day of which I have spoken. 9Then those who live in the cities of Israel will go out and set the weapons on fire and burn the small shields and large shields, bows and arrows, clubs and spears. They will use them as firewood for seven years. 10They will not take wood from the open country or gather it from the forests because they will use the weapons as firewood. They will loot those who looted them and plunder those who plundered them, declares the Lord God.
17This is what the Lord God says to you, son of man. Speak to the birds, to every winged creature, and to all the wild animals. Tell them this.
Assemble yourselves and come. From all around gather yourselves to my sacrificial meal, which I am preparing for you as a sacrificial meal on the mountains of Israel. You will eat meat and drink blood. 18You will eat the meat of warriors and drink the blood of the princes of the earth like rams and lambs, goats and bulls, all of them fattened animals from Bashan. 19You will eat fat until you are full and drink blood until you are drunk from my sacrificial meal, which I have prepared for you. 20At my table you will be filled with horses and charioteers, with warriors and soldiers of every kind, declares the Lord God.
21In this way I will establish my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see my justice which I have carried out and my hand which I have laid upon them. 22The house of Israel will know from that day forward that I am the Lord, their God. 23Then the nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile because of their guilt, because they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and delivered them into the hand of their adversaries, and they all fell by the sword. 24I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their rebellion, and I hid my face from them.
25Therefore, this is what the Lord God says. Now I will bring about the restoration of Jacob. I will have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be zealous for my holy name. 26They will bear their shame and all the unfaithfulness that they displayed toward me, even when they lived securely in their own land with no one to make them afraid. 27When I bring them back from the nations and gather them from the lands of their enemies, I will show myself to be holy among them in the sight of many nations. 28They will know that I am the Lord their God, because, even though I sent them into captivity among the nations, I also gathered them again to their own land, and I will never again leave any of them there in captivity. 29Nor will I ever hide my face from them again, because I will have poured out my Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Lord God.

Romans 7:21-8:17

21So I find this law[] at work: When I want to do good, evil is present with me. 22I certainly delight in God's law according to my inner self, 23but I see a different law at work in my members, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me captive to the law of sin, which is present in my members. 24What a miserable wretch I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25I thank God[] through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my sinful flesh I serve the law of sin.
God Placed Our Judgment on Christ
81So then, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.[] 2For in Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set me[] free from the law of sin and death. 3Indeed, what the law was unable to do, because it was weakened by the flesh, God did, when he sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to deal with sin.[] God condemned sin in his flesh, 4so that the righteous decree of the law would be fully satisfied in us who are not walking according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.[]
Living in Harmony With the Spiritual Nature
5To be sure, those who are in harmony with the sinful flesh think about things the way the sinful flesh does, and those in harmony with the spirit think about things the way the spirit does. 6Now, the way the sinful flesh thinks results in death, but the way the spirit thinks results in life and peace. 7For the mind-set of the sinful flesh is hostile to God, since it does not submit to God's law, and in fact, it cannot. 8Those who are in the sinful flesh cannot please God.
9But you are not in the sinful flesh but in the spirit, if indeed God's Spirit lives in you. And if someone does not have the Spirit of Christ, that person does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit, who is dwelling in you.
12So then, brothers, we do not owe it to the sinful flesh to live in harmony with it. 13For if you live in harmony with the sinful flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the actions of the body, you will live.
The Spirit Assures Us We Are Children of God
14Indeed, those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery so that you are afraid again, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom[] we call out, “Abba, Father!” 16The Spirit himself joins our spirit in testifying that we are God's children.
17Now if we are children, we are also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, since we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.