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 2025. 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
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April 2, 2025 1 Samuel 13-15 (NRSV) 1 Samuel 13-15 (RVR1960) Saul’s Unlawful Sacrifice 13 Saul was . . . years old when he began to reign, and he reigned . . . and two years over Israel. 2 Saul chose three thousand out of Israel; two thousand were ...
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April 3, 2025 1 Samuel 16-18 (NRSV) 1 Samuel 16-18 (RVR1960) David Anointed as King 16 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send ...
April 1, 2025 1 Samuel 10-12, Psalm 61 (NRSV) 1 Samuel 10-12, Salmos 61 (RVR1960) 10 1 Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him; he said, “The Lord has anointed you ruler over his people Israel. You shall reign over the ...
March 30, 2025 1 Samuel 4-6 (NRSV) 1 Samuel 4-6 (RVR1960) 4 1 And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. The Ark of God Captured In those days the Philistines mustered for war against Israel, and Israel went out to battle against them; they ...
March 31, 2025 1 Samuel 7-9 (NRSV) 1 Samuel 7-9 (RVR1960) 7 1 And the people of Kiriath-jearim came and took up the ark of the Lord and brought it to the house of Abinadab on the hill. They consecrated his son, Eleazar, to have charge of the ark of ...
March 29, 2025 1 Samuel 1-3 (NRSV) 1 Samuel 1-3 (RVR1960) Samuel’s Birth and Dedication 1 There was a certain man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham son of Elihu son of Tohu son of Zuph, ...
March 28, 2025 Ruth 1-4 (NRSV) Rut 1-4 (RVR1960) Elimelech’s Family Goes to Moab 1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and ...
March 27, 2025 Judges 20-21, Psalm 60 (NRSV) Jueces 20-21, Salmos 60 (RVR1960) The Other Tribes Attack Benjamin 20 Then all the Israelites came out, from Dan to Beer-sheba, including the land of Gilead, and the congregation assembled in one body ...
March 26, 2025 Judges 17-19 (NRSV) Jueces 17-19 (RVR1960) Micah and the Levite 17 There was a man in the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. 2 He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, about ...
March 25, 2025 Judges 15-16, Psalms 58-59 (NRSV) Jueces 15-16, Salmos 58-59 (RVR1960) Samson Defeats the Philistines 15 After a while, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife, bringing along a kid. He said, “I want to go ...
March 24, 2025 Judges 12-14 (NRSV) Jueces 12-14 (RVR1960) Intertribal Dissension 12 The men of Ephraim were called to arms, and they crossed to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight against the Ammonites and did not call us ...
March 21, 2025 Judges 4-5, Psalms 56-57 (NRSV) Jueces 4-5, Salmos 56-57 (RVR1960) Deborah and Barak 4 The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, after Ehud died. 2 So the Lord sold them into the hand of King Jabin of Canaan, ...
March 22, 2025 Judges 6-8 (NRSV) Jueces 6-8 (RVR1960) The Midianite Oppression 6 The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 The hand of Midian prevailed over Israel, and ...
March 23, 2025 Judges 9-11 (NRSV) Jueces 9-11 (RVR1960) Abimelech Attempts to Establish a Monarchy 9 Now Abimelech son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s kinsfolk and said to them and to the whole clan of his mother’s family, 2 “Say in the...
March 20, 2025 Judges 1-3 (NRSV) Jueces 1-3 (RVR1960) Israel’s Failure to Complete the Conquest of Canaan 1 After the death of Joshua, the Israelites inquired of the Lord, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?”...
March 19, 2025 Joshua 22-24 (NRSV) Josué 22-24 (RVR1960) The Eastern Tribes Return to Their Territory 22 Then Joshua summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh 2 and said to them, “You have observed all that Moses the ...
March 17, 2025 Joshua 16-18 (NRSV) Josué 16-18 (RVR1960) The Territory of Ephraim 16 The allotment of the Josephites went from the Jordan by Jericho, east of the waters of Jericho, into the wilderness, going up from Jericho into the hill country to ...
March 18, 2024 Joshua 19-21, Psalm 55 (NRSV) Josué 19-21, Salmos 55 (RVR1960) The Territory of Simeon 19 The second lot came out for Simeon, for the tribe of Simeon, according to its families; its inheritance lay within the inheritance of the ...
March 16, 2025 Joshua 13-15 (NRSV) Josué 13-15 (RVR1960) The Parts of Canaan Still Unconquered 13 Now Joshua was old and advanced in years, and the Lord said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and very much of the land still remains to be ...
March 15, 2025 Joshua 10-12 (NRSV) Josué 10-12 (RVR1960) The Sun Stands Still 10 When King Adoni-zedek of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken Ai and had utterly destroyed it, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and how ...
March 14, 2025 Joshua 7-9, Psalm 54 (NRSV) Josué 7-9, Salmos 54 (RVR1960) The Sin of Achan and Its Punishment 7 But the Israelites broke faith in regard to the devoted things: Achan son of Carmi son of Zabdi son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, ...
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March 13, 2025 Joshua 4-6 (NRSV) Josué 4-6 (RVR1960) Twelve Stones Set Up at Gilgal 4 When the entire nation had finished crossing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 2 “Select twelve men from the people, one from each tribe, 3 and command ...
March 12, 2025 Joshua 1-3 (NRSV) Josué 1-3 (RVR1960) God’s Commission to Joshua 1 After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’s assistant, saying, 2 “My servant Moses is dead. Now proceed to cross the...
March 11, 2025 Deuteronomy 33-34, Psalms 52-53 (NRSV) Deuteronomio 33-34, Salmos 52-53 (RVR1960) Moses’s Final Blessing on Israel 33 This is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the Israelites before his death. 2 He said, “The ...
March 10, 2025 Deuteronomy 30-32 (NRSV) Deuteronomio 30-32 (RVR1960) God’s Fidelity Assured 30 “When all these things have happened to you, the blessings and the curses that I have set before you, if you call them to mind among all the nations where...