{"epistles":{"days":[{"author":"Douglas J. Moo","book":"NIC: Romans","day":1,"description":"Romans 1 moves from Paul’s most elaborate letter opening — defining himself, his gospel, and the exalted Christ — through a thematic statement about God’s saving righteousness revealed by faith, into a devastating indictment of humanity’s suppression of truth.","duration_min":17,"isbn":"9780802871213","theme":"The Gospel According to Paul","title":"The Gospel’s Power and Humanity’s Plight"},{"author":"Dietrich Bonhoeffer","book":"I Want to Live These Days with You","day":2,"description":"Bonhoeffer said not even the Christian religion saves you. ‘Not religion but revelation, grace, love. Not the way to God but the way of God to humanity: that is the sum of Christianity.’ Everything you’ve built your spiritual life on still falls under divine judgment — except grace.","duration_min":14,"isbn":"9781611641295","quote":{"author":"Dietrich Bonhoeffer","book":"I Want to Live These Days with You","text":"Lord, is it I? Is it I?"},"theme":"Grace, Not Religion","title":"This-Worldly Life"},{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"1 Corinthians for Everyone","day":3,"description":"When people insult Paul, he offers blessings. When they persecute him, he bears it patiently. What sort of person behaves like this? Wright’s answer: only someone who believes God’s wisdom is revealed in the tortured and broken body of his beloved son.","duration_min":13,"isbn":"9781646983087","quote":{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"1 Corinthians for Everyone","text":"Only someone who believes God's wisdom is revealed in the tortured and broken body of his beloved son behaves this way."},"theme":"What the Cross Looks Like","title":"Rubbish of the World: What Apostleship Actually Looks Like"},{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"Romans for Everyone, Part 1","day":4,"description":"What if your suffering isn’t a punishment but a transformation? Wright traces Paul’s argument in Romans 5 — from justification by faith through celebration in suffering — and shows the steady progression from patience to character to hope that makes us truly human.","duration_min":14,"isbn":"9781646983322","quote":{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"Romans for Everyone, Part 1","text":"We celebrate in our sufferings... to transform us into the truly human people we were made to be."},"theme":"Suffering as Transformation","title":"Abraham’s Family: Who’s In?"},{"author":"Ronald Y.K. Fung","book":"NIC: Galatians","day":5,"description":"Paul opens his letter to the Galatians with an explosive greeting that doubles as a theological manifesto, then launches into an autobiographical defense tracing how his gospel came not from human tradition but through a direct revelation of Jesus Christ.","duration_min":14,"isbn":"9780802825094","theme":"Freedom in Christ","title":"No Human Gospel: Paul’s Divine Commission to Galatia"},{"author":"Rowan Williams","book":"Tokens of Trust","day":6,"description":"Even the worst of our failures cannot shut a door for God. Williams shows that forgiveness is not a transaction but the restoration of a relationship — with the person you’ve hurt and with God. And if God can reclaim your failure, then so can you.","duration_min":14,"isbn":"9781646980413","quote":{"author":"Rowan Williams","book":"Tokens of Trust","text":"Even the worst of our failures cannot shut a door for God."},"theme":"God’s Door Remains Open","title":"God Eternally Knocking on a Closed Door"},{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon for Everyone","day":7,"description":"The gospel isn’t primarily about your personal religious experience. It’s about cosmic transformation. Wright shows that when Paul thinks of someone proclaiming King Jesus, he doesn’t think of information being conveyed — he thinks of God’s power at work, producing nothing less than new creation.","duration_min":15,"isbn":"9781646983438","quote":{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon for Everyone","text":"Jesus was the place where true God and true humanity meet... we are free to approach the living and holy God without a stain on our character."},"theme":"Cosmic Transformation","title":"The Gospel Brings Nothing Less Than New Creation"},{"author":"Jürgen Moltmann","book":"The Living God and the Fullness of Life","day":8,"description":"Forgiveness is a resurrection experience — for both the victim and the person who hurt you. Moltmann traces how overcoming evil with good is not weakness but requires great inner sovereignty, and how the Lord’s Prayer shapes a life that defeats evil by refusing to become it.","duration_min":16,"isbn":"9781611646634","quote":{"author":"Jürgen Moltmann","book":"The Living God and the Fullness of Life","text":"The forgiveness of guilt is a resurrection experience for victims and perpetrators, for it creates new life for them both."},"theme":"Forgiveness as Resurrection","title":"Joy Is the Meaning of Life"},{"author":"F.F. Bruce","book":"NIC: Ephesians","day":9,"description":"Ephesians 1 opens with the longest sentence in the New Testament as Paul traces God’s redemptive plan from before creation to cosmic consummation, moving from adoption and redemption to the exaltation of Christ as head over all things for the church.","duration_min":13,"isbn":"9780802825100","theme":"Unity in Christ","title":"Blessed Before Time, United in Christ"},{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"Romans for Everyone, Part 1","day":10,"description":"Four times Paul asks: ‘Who can separate you from God’s love?’ No one. Wright follows Romans 8 to its crescendo — from the Spirit interceding when we have no words, through the courtroom where every accuser has vanished, to the declaration that nothing in all creation can break the bond.","duration_min":13,"isbn":"9781646983322","quote":{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"Romans for Everyone, Part 1","text":"Nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in King Jesus."},"theme":"Nothing Can Separate Us","title":"Prayer Beyond Words and Love Beyond Threat"}],"subtitle":"Grace, justification, and life in Christ — guided by Wright, Bonhoeffer, Moo, Williams, and more.","title":"10 Days Through Paul’s Letters"},"gospels":{"days":[{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"John for Everyone, Part 1","day":1,"description":"John skips the nativity and genealogy entirely. N.T. Wright walks through the prologue’s cosmic claim — that the Word who made everything became a person — and why this opening changes how you read every scene that follows.","duration_min":18,"isbn":"9781646983049","quote":{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"John for Everyone, Part 1","text":"The cross is the ultimate ladder set up between heaven and earth."},"theme":"The Word Made Flesh","title":"The Word Made Flesh: Meeting Jesus in John’s Prologue"},{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"Luke for Everyone","day":2,"description":"In the late 60s, a catastrophic war was tearing Palestine apart. Towns where Jesus had walked were being destroyed. The eyewitnesses were dying. Wright explains why Luke wrote when he did — and how close we came to losing this Gospel entirely.","duration_min":15,"isbn":"9781646983520","quote":{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"Luke for Everyone","text":"Unless steps were taken to write the Gospel down, the message would not be passed on to the next generation."},"theme":"A Gospel Nearly Lost","title":"A Gospel Built on Eyewitnesses: How Luke’s Story Begins"},{"author":"Dietrich Bonhoeffer","book":"I Want to Live These Days with You","day":3,"description":"His name literally meant ‘thanks’ — and he used it to betray the Son of God. Bonhoeffer asks whether we can understand the kiss as both gratitude and eternal rejection, then turns the question on the reader: ‘Lord, is it I?’","duration_min":10,"isbn":"9781611641295","quote":{"author":"Dietrich Bonhoeffer","book":"I Want to Live These Days with You","text":"Not our religion—not even the Christian religion!—but God's grace: that is the message of all of Christianity."},"theme":"The Betrayal","title":"Who Is Judas?"},{"author":"Barbara Brown Taylor","book":"Always A Guest","day":4,"description":"He knelt in front of her, took all the rings off her hands, and anointed them. Then he lifted her hands to his wet face and held them there. Barbara Brown Taylor tells the story of a couple’s foot-washing that became the most honest act of love either had ever performed — and why John 13 still breaks us open.","duration_min":10,"isbn":"9781646980093","quote":{"author":"Barbara Brown Taylor","book":"Always A Guest","text":"He lifted her hands to his wet face, placing one on each side and holding them there: his hands on her hands on his face."},"theme":"Reconciliation","title":"Bathing Deep: The Neglected Sacrament"},{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"The Meal Jesus Gave Us","day":5,"description":"Luther and Zwingli met to settle the Reformation’s most explosive question: Is the bread Christ’s body, or does it merely signify it? Luther wrote the Latin in beer-froth on the table and underlined one word. Wright tells the story of the split that still shapes every church’s table.","duration_min":12,"isbn":"9781611646092","quote":{"author":"N. T. Wright","book":"The Meal Jesus Gave Us, Revised Edition","text":"He wrote the Latin in beer-froth on the table: 'Hoc est corpus meus.' He underlined 'est': this doesn't merely 'signify', it IS Christ's body."},"theme":"Communion’s Great Divide","title":"Written in Beer-Froth: How Jesus Is Present"},{"author":"William Barclay","book":"The Letter to the Romans","day":6,"description":"Paul says people can know the truth and still suppress it. Barclay traces how the heart builds a callus against what it knows — and why that matters for understanding the Gospel’s urgency.","duration_min":15,"isbn":"9781611640205","theme":"The Heart’s Resistance","title":"The Callus on the Heart"},{"author":"Carolyn J. Sharp","book":"Old Testament Prophets for Today","day":7,"description":"What actually makes someone a prophet? Carolyn Sharp defines the role, distinguishes it from prediction, and shows why the prophetic voice still disrupts comfortable religion — including the religion of people who think they already understand the Bible.","duration_min":15,"isbn":"9781611640557","theme":"The Prophetic Voice","title":"Truth Tellers: What Makes a Biblical Prophet?"},{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"Matthew for Everyone, Part 2","day":8,"description":"Christianity isn’t airy-fairy. Wright traces how Jesus shines God’s love into the world’s darkest corners — by taking the evil of the world and letting it do its worst to him. The crucifixion in Matthew is not a defeat. It’s how the light swallows the darkness.","duration_min":15,"isbn":"9781646983421","quote":{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"Matthew for Everyone, Part 2","text":"What stops us from saying sorry or 'I forgive you'? Pride disguised as importance."},"theme":"The King on the Cross","title":"The King on the Cross"},{"author":"Rowan Williams","book":"The Sign and the Sacrifice","day":9,"description":"A woman tells an old canon she can bear her suffering now — because of him. Then she catches herself: ‘Why must you break your heart to comfort mine? Is that what men have asked of God?’ Williams uses this scene to ask the question every believer secretly carries: Does God really care?","duration_min":11,"isbn":"9781611648003","quote":{"author":"Rowan Williams","book":"The Sign and the Sacrifice","text":"I can bear it now, because... of you. Though why you must break your heart to comfort mine? Is that what men have asked of God?'"},"theme":"God Is in It Too","title":"A Broken Old Man’s Tears"},{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"John for Everyone, Part 2","day":10,"description":"Peter promised to die for Jesus. Then he couldn’t even admit knowing him. Three times he denies it. Wright traces the arc from Peter’s loud loyalty in John 13, through his collapse in chapter 18, to the risen Jesus restoring him with three questions that mirror the three denials.","duration_min":13,"isbn":"9781646983056","quote":{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"John for Everyone, Part 2","text":"Washing their feet was what he had to do, precisely because he had come from God."},"theme":"Peter’s Failure and Restoration","title":"My Lord and My God: Thomas, Peter, and the Risen Jesus"}],"subtitle":"From John’s prologue to the empty tomb — guided by Wright, Bonhoeffer, Barclay, Williams, and more.","title":"10 Days Through the Gospels"},"old_testament":{"days":[{"author":"Victor P. Hamilton","book":"NIC: Genesis","day":1,"description":"A guided tour through Genesis 1, examining how this creation account uses terse, deliberate prose to describe God bringing order from formlessness — and how its vision of humanity as royal image-bearers stands in sharp contrast to ancient Near Eastern myths.","duration_min":17,"isbn":"9780802823090","theme":"In the Beginning","title":"God Speaks and the World Takes Shape"},{"author":"Barbara Brown Taylor","book":"Always A Guest","day":2,"description":"Abraham asked God, ‘What will you give me?’ — and you have to wonder why anyone wrote it down. Barbara Brown Taylor traces Abraham’s embarrassingly honest prayer in Genesis 15 and shows that the founder of faith was actually kind of awkward with God. That’s the point.","duration_min":10,"isbn":"9781646980093","quote":{"author":"Barbara Brown Taylor","book":"Always A Guest","text":"When she took his foot in her hands, she did it with such tenderness that he began to weep, bending over her... until I actually watched a woman bathing a man's foot with her tears."},"theme":"Raw Faith","title":"Trust Means Deciding You Can Handle It"},{"author":"John Goldingay","book":"Genesis for Everyone, Part 2","day":3,"description":"Abraham’s story had a ram in the thicket. Jesus’ story didn’t. Goldingay traces the binding of Isaac from Genesis 22 through Romans 8:32 — ‘God did not spare his own Son’ — to show that God put a monumentally hard demand on Abraham, but it was one God was also prepared to fulfill himself.","duration_min":12,"isbn":"9781611641349","quote":{"author":"John Goldingay","book":"Genesis for Everyone, Part 2","text":"God put a monumentally hard demand on Abraham, but it was an expectation God was also prepared to fulfill."},"theme":"The Ram in the Thicket","title":"Now I Know: God Tests Abraham"},{"author":"Thomas B. Dozeman","book":"ECC: Exodus","day":4,"description":"Exodus 3 recounts God’s self-revelation to Moses at the burning bush, exploring both the identity of this God who has been absent from the story and Moses’ authority to carry a message no one is prepared to believe.","duration_min":16,"isbn":"9780802826176","theme":"I AM WHO I AM","title":"I Will Be Who I Will Be"},{"author":"Walter Brueggemann","book":"Mandate to Difference","day":5,"description":"Your anxiety isn’t a sin problem — it’s a sabbath problem. Brueggemann traces the line from Pharaoh’s relentless productivity to our own inability to stop, and shows that sabbath is a total antidote to the devouring anxiety that comes from not trusting in God’s abundance.","duration_min":13,"isbn":"9781611644197","quote":{"author":"Walter Brueggemann","book":"Mandate to Difference","text":"You cannot fool your nephesh. The nephesh will not be lied to, and so we must pause."},"theme":"Sabbath vs. Anxiety","title":"Pharaoh’s Nightmare and God’s Manna"},{"author":"John N. Oswalt","book":"NIC: Isaiah","day":6,"description":"Isaiah chapter 1 opens the entire book with God’s case against Judah: they have rebelled like ungrateful children, substituted ritual for righteousness, and corrupted their leadership — yet through judgment, God intends purification and restoration.","duration_min":16,"isbn":"9780802825292","theme":"The Grand Arraignment","title":"The Grand Arraignment of God’s Children"},{"author":"Walter Brueggemann","book":"An Introduction to the Old Testament","day":7,"description":"The phrase ‘Old Testament’ is too often understood as supersessionism — that Christianity simply replaced Judaism. Brueggemann shows why that’s wrong, why Christian faith is both continuous with and discontinuous from Judaism, and why the Old Testament is indispensably important for reading the New.","duration_min":20,"isbn":"9781646980116","quote":{"author":"Walter Brueggemann","book":"An Introduction to the Old Testament","text":"Christian faith is both continuous with Judaism and discontinuous from it... the Old Testament is indispensably important in a Christian reading of the New Testament."},"theme":"What the Old Testament Is","title":"What Do We Mean by ‘Old Testament’?"},{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"Hebrews for Everyone","day":8,"description":"What if every animal sacrifice was God’s love letter to his people, written in blood? Wright traces the sacrificial system from Exodus 24 through Hebrews 9 to show that the blood was always saying: ‘All this happens because I love you enough to give my own self, my own life, for you.’","duration_min":15,"isbn":"9781646983537","quote":{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"Hebrews for Everyone","text":"All this happens because I love you enough to give my own self, my own life, for you.'"},"theme":"God’s Love Letters in Blood","title":"Once for All: Why the Old Sacrifices Were Always Temporary"},{"author":"Peter C. Craigie","book":"NIC: Deuteronomy","day":9,"description":"Deuteronomy 1 opens with Moses retelling Israel’s history — from the command to leave Horeb, through the appointment of judges, to the catastrophic rebellion at Kadesh-barnea that turned an eleven-day journey into a generation-long wandering.","duration_min":18,"isbn":"9780802825247","theme":"Choose Life","title":"Eleven Days That Became Forty Years"},{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"Revelation for Everyone","day":10,"description":"You’ve been taught the gospel wrong. It’s not about escaping earth — it’s about renovating it. Wright shows that the classic Christian hope is not ‘going to heaven when you die’ but resurrection, new bodies, and a restored physical world where heaven and earth come together at last.","duration_min":12,"isbn":"9781646983643","quote":{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"Revelation for Everyone","text":"Resurrection, the abolition of death itself, giving God's people new bodies to live in God's new world, is the great hope of classic Christianity."},"theme":"Not Escape — Renovation","title":"Death Dies: The Millennium, Final Judgment, and the New Jerusalem"}],"subtitle":"From creation to covenant to prophecy — guided by Hamilton, Brueggemann, Goldingay, Wright, and more.","title":"10 Days Through the Old Testament"},"psalms":{"days":[{"author":"Rolf A. Jacobson \u0026 Nancy L. DeClaissé-Walford","book":"NIC: Psalms","day":1,"description":"Psalm 1 introduces the Psalter’s big framework: two ways of life, delight in God’s instruction, and the promise of rootedness. It gives the study a clear foundation before moving into prayer and emotion.","duration_min":10,"isbn":"9780802824936","theme":"Two Paths","title":"Two Paths, One Tree, and the Way of Happiness"},{"author":"John Goldingay","book":"Psalms for Everyone, Part 1","day":2,"description":"Denying your anger is not much better than expressing it toward other people. Goldingay shows why God wanted anger in the Bible — the Psalms give it to God instead of to each other. A radical alternative to bottling it up or lashing out.","duration_min":14,"isbn":"9781611643497","quote":{"author":"John Goldingay","book":"Psalms for Everyone, Part 1","text":"Denying your anger is not much better than expressing it toward other people... expressing to God your anger... was a preferable alternative to taking action against them yourself or turning it in on yourself."},"theme":"Permission to Be Angry","title":"Father of the Fatherless: On Telling God What to Do"},{"author":"Rolf A. Jacobson \u0026 Nancy L. DeClaissé-Walford","book":"NIC: Psalms","day":3,"description":"Psalm 23 is a familiar and reassuring follow-up to lament, showing how trust can coexist with vulnerability. Its clarity and memorability make it ideal after an honest prayer of need.","duration_min":13,"isbn":"9780802824936","theme":"The Shepherd","title":"You Are with Me: The Heart of Psalm 23"},{"author":"Dietrich Bonhoeffer","book":"I Want to Live These Days with You","day":4,"description":"Most Christians have never been taught what prayer actually is. Bonhoeffer says Christianity lives and dies with it — and prayer means first being so still that you perceive God’s word, then giving an answer in words or deeds. If you go to God, God will come to you.","duration_min":16,"isbn":"9781611641295","quote":{"author":"Dietrich Bonhoeffer","book":"I Want to Live These Days with You","text":"The throne of God in the world is not on human thrones, but in human depths, in the manger."},"theme":"What Prayer Actually Is","title":"God Is Not a Matter of Mood"},{"author":"Rolf A. Jacobson \u0026 Nancy L. DeClaissé-Walford","book":"NIC: Psalms","day":5,"description":"Psalm 32 introduces repentance and forgiveness as a natural next step after lament and trust. It shows that the Psalms are not only about comfort but also about confession, grace, and restored joy.","duration_min":8,"isbn":"9780802824936","theme":"Silence and Forgiveness","title":"The Weight of Silence and the Joy of Forgiveness"},{"author":"Walter Brueggemann","book":"Mandate to Difference","day":6,"description":"Imagine a world without Psalm 107 — no acknowledgment of rescue, no public processing of pain, no miracles of newness. Brueggemann’s haunting question: what would your faith be without the cry? He shows that worship isn’t escape. It’s subversion.","duration_min":11,"isbn":"9781611644197","quote":{"author":"Walter Brueggemann","book":"Mandate to Difference","text":"We violate sabbath because we do not believe in, trust in, or count on God's abundance. Sabbath is a total antidote to anxiety."},"theme":"Worship as Subversion","title":"The Sub-Version of Reality"},{"author":"Walter Brueggemann","book":"Great Prayers of the Old Testament","day":7,"description":"The destiny of the world hangs in the balance and is under intense negotiation. Brueggemann traces Abraham’s audacious prayer in Genesis 18 — moving God from fifty righteous to ten — and what it reveals about prayer as a daring act of faith.","duration_min":12,"isbn":"9781611640076","quote":{"author":"Walter Brueggemann","book":"Great Prayers of the Old Testament","text":"The destiny of the world hangs in the balance and is under intense negotiation."},"theme":"Negotiating with God","title":"Abraham Bargains with God"},{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"Romans for Everyone, Part 1","day":8,"description":"Four times Paul asks: ‘Who can separate you from God’s love?’ Wright follows the logic of Romans 8 to its crescendo — from the Spirit’s intercession when we have no words, to the declaration that nothing in all creation can break the bond.","duration_min":13,"isbn":"9781646983322","quote":{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"Romans for Everyone, Part 1","text":"We do the same thing as ancient idolaters. The modern Western world has worshipped money, sex and power."},"theme":"Prayer Beyond Words","title":"Prayer Beyond Words and Love Beyond Threat"},{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"2 Corinthians for Everyone","day":9,"description":"Paul prayed three times for God to remove his suffering. God said something he didn’t expect: ‘My power comes to perfection in weakness.’ Wright traces how this answer dismantled everything Paul thought he knew about strength, authority, and what it means to follow a crucified Messiah.","duration_min":17,"isbn":"9781646983094","quote":{"author":"N.T. Wright","book":"2 Corinthians for Everyone","text":"Paul had to learn that resurrection means relying not on his own resources, but on 'the God who raises the dead' – the God whose power will recreate it."},"theme":"The Crown of Weakness","title":"The Crown of Weakness"},{"author":"Rolf A. Jacobson \u0026 Nancy L. DeClaissé-Walford","book":"NIC: Psalms","day":10,"description":"Psalm 103 gathers the Psalter’s great themes — compassion, mercy, steadfast love — into a single, soaring act of worship. It’s the perfect ending: after lament, anger, silence, and negotiation, the final word is praise.","duration_min":12,"isbn":"9780802824936","theme":"Everlasting Love","title":"From Everlasting to Everlasting: The Hesed of the Lord"}],"subtitle":"Honest prayer, lament, and praise — guided by Goldingay, Brueggemann, Bonhoeffer, and the NIC Commentary.","title":"10 Days Through the Psalms \u0026 Prayer"}}