Read To Me Daily Semester 4Sample

NEHEMIAH 8-9:
Nehemiah 7 dealt with listing the various families and temple workers who came back after the exile. The last verse in that chapter is the transition to the next events. It is so much of a transition that NLT has verse 73 ending with an incomplete sentence. Here is that transition verse in the GNT:

7:73 GNT The priests, the Levites, the Temple guards, the musicians, many of the ordinary people, the Temple workers—all the people of Israel—settled in the towns and cities of Judah.

ISAIAH 38:
Yesterday in chapter 37 of Isaiah, we heard of Hezekiah’s triumph through his prayer. As we have seen before in Isaiah (and not just in Isaiah’s message to the king), this defeat was prophesied, and we heard the fulfillment yesterday. 

COLOSSIANS 2:
After that wonderful poem in Colossians chapter 1— which I can barely resist asking you to read a second time— Paul says these things:

Col. 1:21 GNT At one time you were far away from God and were his enemies because of the evil things you did and thought.
22 But now, by means of the physical death of his Son, God has made you his friends, in order to bring you, holy, pure, and faultless, into his presence. 

Then in talking about the revelation of the Good News, he says,

1:26 NLT This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people.
27 For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.

Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, and our Lord Jesus, how can I lead a prayer about chapter 1 of Colossians? I feel that I would be doing good if I could pray about just 10 percent of the content. I can make a beginning only by asking You to help me and my listener to be able to understand this chapter more fully. So like Paul prayed, we pray that you would fill us with the knowledge of your will, and with all the wisdom and understanding that your Spirit gives. As we grow in knowledge and understanding, enable us to understand our prior position when we had not yet come to Christ, and the incredible riches you have now given us through union with Christ. Lord Jesus, help us to understand more deeply about who You are, and the Father’s plan that You will bring to completion. Please do in us all that Paul prayed for the Colossian believers.