The Wartburg Project

Daily Lectionary

January 15, 2025

January 14, 2025 January 16, 2025

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 37:15-28

One People United Under the New David
15The word of the Lord came to me.
16Now you, son of man, take one piece of wood and write on it: “Belonging to Judah and belonging to the people of Israel associated with him.” Then take another piece of wood and write on it: “Belonging to Joseph, Ephraim's piece of wood, and the whole house of Israel associated with him.” 17Then hold one piece of wood close to the other to make a single board for yourself, so that they are one in your hand.
18When your countrymen say to you, “Won't you tell us what you mean by these things?” 19you tell them, “This is what the Lord God says. I am going to take the piece of wood which is in the hand of Ephraim, which is for Joseph and for the tribes of Israel associated with him, and I will attach it to the piece of wood for Judah. In this way I will make them one board, so that they will be one in my hand.” 20The boards on which you will write should be in your hand in front of their eyes.
21Then say this to them. This is what the Lord God says. I am going to take the people of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from all around, and I will bring them to their own land. 22I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will be king for all of them. Never again will they be two nations, and never again will they be divided into two kingdoms. 23Never again will they defile themselves with their filthy idols, with their disgusting practices, and with all their rebellious actions. I will save them from all their backsliding by which they have sinned,[] and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
24My servant David will be King over them, and they will all have one Shepherd. They will follow my ordinances and be conscientious about keeping my statutes. 25They will live on the land I gave my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They will live there permanently—they, their children, and their grandchildren—and my servant David will be their prince forever. 26I will make a covenant of peace with them. It will be an everlasting covenant with them. I will establish them, and I will multiply them and set my sanctuary in their midst forever. 27My Dwelling Place will be over them. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 28Then the nations will know that I, the Lord, make Israel holy when my holy place is in their midst forever.

Romans 6:1-23

Dead to Sin and Living for God
61What shall we say then? Shall we keep on sinning so that grace may increase? 2Absolutely not! We died to sin. How can we go on living in it any longer? 3Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him by this baptism into his death, so that just as he was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too would also walk in a new life.
5For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united with him in the likeness of his resurrection.
6We know that our old self was crucified with him, to make our sinful body powerless, so that we would not continue to serve sin. 7For the person who has died has been declared free from sin. 8And since we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he will never die again. Death no longer has control over him. 10For the death he died, he died to sin once and for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11In the same way also consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.[]
Serve God, Not Sin, in Your Life
12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires. 13Do not offer the members of your body to sin as tools of unrighteousness. Instead, offer yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and offer the members of your body to God as tools of righteousness. 14Indeed, sin will not continue to control you, because you are not under law but under grace.
15What then? Should we continue to sin, because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not! 16Do you not know that when you offer yourselves to obey someone as slaves, you are slaves of the one you are obeying—whether slaves of sin, resulting in death, or slaves of obedience, resulting in righteousness?
17Thanks be to God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to the pattern of the teaching into which you were placed. 18After you were set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19(I am speaking in a human way because of the weakness of your flesh.) Indeed, just as you offered your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, resulting in more lawlessness, so now offer your members in the same way as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
20For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness. 21So what kind of fruit did you have then? They were things of which you are now ashamed. Yes, the final result of those things is death. 22But now, since you were set free from sin and have become slaves to God, you have your fruit resulting in sanctification—and the final result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the undeserved gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.