Introduction:

Over the course of a month, I want to help you appreciate the Bible more by helping you get a better understanding of the story the Bible tells.

As Tim Keller has written, “We usually read the Bible as a series of disconnected stories, each with a “moral” for how we should live our lives. It is not. Rather, it comprises a single story, telling us how the human race got into its present condition, and how God through Jesus Christ has come and will come to put things right.”

These Bible readings will help you write your own summary of that single story by taking you to various passages throughout the Scripture that clarify exactly how God is doing that.

Helps for Getting the Most from Your Study

* Review where you are in the story so far

*Read the passages for each day out loud

* Get out a notebook and answer the following questions for each day:

1. What stands out to you the most after having read through these Scriptures?
2. If someone asked you what the passages you read that day were mostly about, what would you say?
3. What do you think was the main point of what you were reading?
4. What did these passages teach you about the character of God? What did they teach you about us as humans? What did they teach you about how God saves people?
5. Write one paragraph that summarizes the part of the gospel story these passages tell.

Day Sixteen 

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

¹⁸ The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. ¹⁹ As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.” ²⁰ So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. ²¹ Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. ²² It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom.²³ So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense. ²⁴ But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.