According to the scriptures
Day 604, Tuesday, April 7
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
As we are in the midst of the Easter season it is tempting to read this as just one more account of the crucifixion and resurrection: It summarizes the core of our faith, but it tells the same story we can also read in other parts of the Bible.
Paul wrote, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance; that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.” After that, Jesus appeared to gathered believers, to James and lastly to Paul.
Looking back from our day it’s easy to miss that Paul is talking about two distinct witnesses to our faith here.
First, when he speaks about the scriptures, the refers to the witness of the Old Testament. We usually think of the gospels as the scriptural witness to the crucifixion and resurrection, but Paul wrote his letters before any of the gospels were written—at least in the complete form we have today.
Paul’s proof here of the validity of what the people have heard about Jesus is that it is what was predicted many years before, “according to the Scriptures.”
The second proof he is presenting here is that many people who were still living at the time he wrote 1 Corinthians—about A.D. 55, or about 20-25 years after the resurrection. The members of the church at Corinth may not have personally witnessed the resurrected Jesus, but they knew people who had.

-Rev. Mark Fleming

Tuesday meditation

Psalms 106:19-31
At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped an idol cast from metal. They exchanged their glorious God for an image of a bull, which eats grass. They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt, miracles in the land of Ham and awesome deeds by the Red Sea. So he said he would destroy them—had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them.
Then they despised the pleasant land; they did not believe his promise. They grumbled in their tents and did not obey the Lord. So he swore to them with uplifted hand that he would make them fall in the wilderness, make their descendants fall among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands.
They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods; they aroused the Lord’s anger by their wicked deeds, and a plague broke out among them. But Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was checked. This was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come.

Prayer focus
Thank you, Lord, for the witnesses who have given testimony of your salvation. May we also give faithful testimony.