So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new. - 2 Corinthians 5:17
The Greek word Paul chose for new in this verse is kainos referencing a new creation that has not existed previously. This has greater implications than if Paul had instead used neos, meaning new in an already established category.
This biblical concept of kainos new is a pillar of Christian doctrine. Since God is about the work of making us new every day, we are transformed throughout our lives into a new creation, continuously growing in our resemblance to the one we follow, Jesus Christ. Evidence of this transformation can be found in our words, attitudes, actions and lifestyle.
One way that we open ourselves to experience kainos new is by practicing the spiritual discipline of reading Scripture. This is because we encounter God in the pages of Scripture. And each time we meet the living God, we are changed.
With that in mind, I invite you, the Holston Conference, to join me in reading through the Bible together individually and collectively in 2022. As we participate in “Read Together” in community, we open ourselves to experience God's presence and kainos on an individual basis and as a conference.
- Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett
April 4, 2019 by Kathie Wilson-Parker Luke 9:10-17 Goodness! It’s almost the last Sunday in the Season of Lent. Inexorably, time leads us toward Palm Sunday, then Holy Week with the tortuous trials and excruciating death of Jesus, and ultimately to...
April 3, 2019 by Ralph Skinner Luke 9:10-17 Today's Thoughts: Five and Two Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. - Luke ...
April 2, 2019 by Del Holley Psalm 53 David begins Psalm 53 with a statement familiar to us: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” The Hebrew word nabal, translated “fool” in this verse, carries a meaning deeper than what we might call “...
April 1, 2019 by Laura McLean Leviticus 23:26-41 In today’s scripture found in Leviticus 23:26-41, we see God’s instructions to Moses about the Day of Atonement and The Festival of Booths. As Christians, we do not celebrate these holy days as our ...
March 31, 2019 by Susan Groseclose Luke 15:1-3.11b-32 In response to the Pharisees and scribes grumbling about Jesus’ radical hospitality, he tells the familiar parable of the Prodigal Son. We have an opportunity to not just read over the familiar ...
March 30, 2019 by Glenna Manning Psalm 32; Exodus 32:7-14; Luke 15:1-10 The old adage states “confession is good for the soul.” But if this is true, why is confession so difficult? Somehow it just seems easier to keep on denying the thing for which...
March 29, 2019 by Al Shaver Psalm 32; Joshua 4:14-24; 2 Corinthians 5:6-15 Today's Scriptures are Psalm 32, Joshua 4:14-24 and 2 Corinthians 5:6-15. Each has a message that is relevant to each of us. The message when you read all three passages, ...
March 28, 2019 by Kristen Burkhart Joshua 4:1-13 We do not have to go far in the Holston Conference located in the Appalachian Mountains to see the beauty of God’s creation. As we look at his creation may we be reminded that he created each of us in ...
March 27, 2019 by Sandra Johnson Psalm 39:1-7 NLT 1 I said to myself, “I will watch what I do and not sin in what I say. I will hold my tongue when the ungodly are around me.” 2 But as I stood there in silence— not even speaking of good things— ...
March 26, 2019 by Brenda Carroll Ezekiel 17 :1-10 My assigned passage was Ezekiel 17:1-10. As it is always best to do, I continued to read forward, looking for some meaning or some words that sparked my thinking. I write this on the week following ...
March 25, 2019 by Mary K. Briggs Psalm 39 Do you ever feel like the Psalmist crying out to God for help? These words sound especially familiar to me: “Hear my prayer, LORD, listen to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping.” (v 12) In our...
March 24, 2019 by Sharon Bowers Luke 13:1-9 13:1 At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 13:2 He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans ...
March 23, 2019 by Tim Jones Luke 6:43-45 New Living Translation (NLT) The Tree and Its Fruit 43 “A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. 44 A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from ...
March 22, 2019 by Jeff Wright Psalm 63:1-8 NRSV O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, ...
March 21, 2019 by Chris Brown Daniel 3:19-30; Psalm 63:1-8 When Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar constructed a golden statue with a requirement that all of the subjects of his kingdom assemble and bow down before it upon completion, we are all too ...
March 20, 2019 by Kim Goddard March 20 – Luke 13:22-31 The Cotton Patch Gospel, is a musical based on a retelling of the gospels, imagining Jesus’ life and ministry occurring in Georgia in the mid 1900’s. In 2010, Mafair UMC performed The Cotton ...
March 19, 2019 by Hugh Kilgore The Journey and the Destination 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 Numbers 14:1-24 The Exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt to the Promised Land is a nursery of faith. Most of the time we treat life as destination points, if we ...
March 18, 2019 by Wayne Cook We Are a Stiff-Necked People Exodus 33:1-6; Psalm 105:1-42; Romans 4:1-12 “Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, or I would consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people...
March 17, 2019 by Nathan Malone Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18; Psalm 27; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35 In each of these Scriptures for today, there is some sense of “not yet” in them. Abram questions God about both descendants and land which have ...
March 16, 2019 by Mike Sluder Matthew 23:4-7; 37-39 37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You who kill the prophets and stone those who were sent to you. How often I wanted to gather your people together, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But ...
by Micah Nicolaus March 15, 2019 Psalm 27 Transforming My Desires: If I am honest, I am a person with a lot of interests… ok hopes… no really desires…deep desires. I desire to have the Milwaukee Brewers win the World Series. I desire to see both ...
by Will Shelton March 14, 2019 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? Psalm 27:1 Glad you asked! I fear the weatherman. Technically, I fear the tornado, but you asked whom, so let's blame the meteorologist. Seems safer ...
March 13, 2019 by Randy Martin LUKE 21:25-38 (THE MESSAGE) 25-26 “It will seem like all hell has broken loose—sun, moon, stars, earth, sea, in an uproar and everyone all over the world in a panic, the wind knocked out of them by the threat of ...
March 12, 2019 by David Graybeal 2 Peter 2:4-21 (NRSV) 4 For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 and if he did not spare the ...
March 11, 2019 by Mike Sluder 1 John 2:1-6 Living in the light 2 My little children, I’m writing these things to you so that you don’t sin. But if you do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one. 2 He is God’s way of...