5-Day Bible Reading Plan
and Devotional Guide
5-Day Bible Reading Plan and Devotional Guide
Based on All Saints Sunday: Seeing as Jesus Sees
Day 1: The Cloud of Witnesses Who Shaped Us
Reading: Hebrews 11:1 through 12:2 — The author defines faith as confident trust in what is not yet seen, then recounts the faithful men and women across generations whose lives demonstrated that trust. He concludes by describing these saints as a surrounding cloud of witnesses who inspire our own endurance.
Devotional:
We do not walk the road of faith alone. Every person who taught you to pray, who modeled generosity, who spoke the name of Jesus over your life with tenderness — they are part of the great company that surrounds you still. Pastor John Mitchum spoke of his friend Art, a man whose kindness and faithfulness left such a mark that even now, in moments of uncertainty, Art's witness speaks. Think of the people who shaped your faith. Their legacy is not buried. It is living and active in you. The same God who sustained them sustains you. Run the race they ran. Their finish line is your encouragement.
Reflection: Who is your "Art"? Name someone whose faith shaped yours, and spend time today thanking God specifically for that person's influence in your life.
Practical Application: Write the name of a faith mentor — living or gone — on a piece of paper. Place it somewhere visible this week as a daily reminder that you are part of a continuing story of grace.
Day 2: Grace That Seeks the Lost
Reading: Luke 19:1-10 — Jesus passes through Jericho and notices Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector who has climbed a tree to see him. Jesus calls him down, declares his intention to stay at his home, and after Zacchaeus pledges restitution and generosity, Jesus declares that salvation has come to his household because the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.
Devotional:
Zacchaeus was not waiting to be found — he was simply trying to catch a glimpse. Yet Jesus stopped, looked up, and called him by name. This is the nature of pursuing grace. It does not wait for us to clean ourselves up or earn a standing invitation. It finds us in the undignified places, up in the trees of our own making, and calls us down into relationship. The crowd saw a sinner. Jesus saw a son of Abraham. The same grace that sought Zacchaeus seeks you — not the version of you that has everything together, but the real you, exactly where you are today.
Reflection: In what area of your life have you felt too far outside the crowd for Jesus to notice? How does this passage challenge that assumption?
Practical Application: Identify one person in your life whom others tend to write off. Commit to one intentional act of dignity and kindness toward that person this week.
Day 3: Seeing Others as God Sees Them
Reading: 1 Samuel 16:1-13 — God sends Samuel to anoint a new king from among the sons of Jesse. When Samuel sees the eldest and assumes he is the chosen one, God corrects him, declaring that God does not look at outward appearance but at the heart. The youngest son, David, tending sheep in the field, is the one God has chosen.
Devotional:
The crowd in Jericho saw Zacchaeus and muttered. Samuel saw Eliab and assumed. We are all prone to the same error — forming complete judgments from incomplete information. Pastor Mitchum described this tendency as intergroup bias, the systematic habit of viewing those outside our group as less capable, less trustworthy, less worthy of grace. But God's vision cuts through every label we assign. He sees the child of God behind the political affiliation, the tax collector's title, the outward appearance. We are called to practice the same corrected vision — not because it is easy, but because it is holy.
Reflection: Where does intergroup bias most easily take root in your own thinking? What would it look like to ask God to correct your vision in that specific area?
Practical Application: The next time you encounter someone with whom you deeply disagree, pause before forming a judgment. Silently say, "This is a child of God." Notice how that simple act begins to shift your posture toward them.
Day 4: The Transforming Power of an Encounter with Jesus
Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 — Paul declares that because of Christ, we no longer regard anyone from a merely human point of view. Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation — the old has gone, the new has come. God has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation.
Devotional:
Zacchaeus did not simply feel better after meeting Jesus. He was transformed. His money moved. His relationships changed. His reputation began to be rebuilt — not through his own effort at self-improvement, but through the encounter with the One who saw him fully and loved him completely. John Wesley understood this passage as evidence that salvation is both an instantaneous gift and a visible, outward transformation. Grace does not leave us where it finds us. It calls us down from our trees, walks with us into our homes, and then sends us back out into the world as agents of the same reconciliation we received.
Reflection: Where in your life is God currently calling you down from a tree? What transformation might he be inviting you into that you have been reluctant to accept?
Practical Application: Identify one concrete, outward change — in generosity, in relationship, in habit — that would reflect an inner transformation God has been prompting in you. Take one small step toward that change today.
Day 5: Living as Saints in the Present Age
Reading: Matthew 5:1-12 — Jesus delivers the Beatitudes, describing the character and posture of those who belong to the kingdom of heaven. He blesses the poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, and those who hunger for righteousness, declaring that the kingdom belongs to and through them.
Devotional:
All Saints Sunday is not only a day for looking backward. It is a day for looking inward and forward. The saints we honor were not extraordinary because they were perfect. They were extraordinary because they kept showing up — in kitchens at funerals, in Sunday school classrooms, in quiet moments of prayer for people they loved. Pastor Mitchum reminded the congregation that we too are living saints, called to tend the poor, comfort the mourners, make peace, and offer mercy. The Beatitudes are not a description of a distant ideal. They are a daily invitation to live in the way of Jesus, right now, in the ordinary places of our lives.
Reflection: Which of the Beatitudes feels most personally challenging to you in this season of your life? What might it look like to lean into that specific call with greater intentionality?
Practical Application: Choose one Beatitude and make it your focus for the coming week. Write it on a card, place it where you will see it each morning, and ask God each day to show you one specific way to live it out before the day ends.
.
.
Based on All Saints Sunday: Seeing as Jesus Sees
Day 1: The Cloud of Witnesses Who Shaped Us
Reading: Hebrews 11:1 through 12:2 — The author defines faith as confident trust in what is not yet seen, then recounts the faithful men and women across generations whose lives demonstrated that trust. He concludes by describing these saints as a surrounding cloud of witnesses who inspire our own endurance.
Devotional:
We do not walk the road of faith alone. Every person who taught you to pray, who modeled generosity, who spoke the name of Jesus over your life with tenderness — they are part of the great company that surrounds you still. Pastor John Mitchum spoke of his friend Art, a man whose kindness and faithfulness left such a mark that even now, in moments of uncertainty, Art's witness speaks. Think of the people who shaped your faith. Their legacy is not buried. It is living and active in you. The same God who sustained them sustains you. Run the race they ran. Their finish line is your encouragement.
Reflection: Who is your "Art"? Name someone whose faith shaped yours, and spend time today thanking God specifically for that person's influence in your life.
Practical Application: Write the name of a faith mentor — living or gone — on a piece of paper. Place it somewhere visible this week as a daily reminder that you are part of a continuing story of grace.
Day 2: Grace That Seeks the Lost
Reading: Luke 19:1-10 — Jesus passes through Jericho and notices Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector who has climbed a tree to see him. Jesus calls him down, declares his intention to stay at his home, and after Zacchaeus pledges restitution and generosity, Jesus declares that salvation has come to his household because the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.
Devotional:
Zacchaeus was not waiting to be found — he was simply trying to catch a glimpse. Yet Jesus stopped, looked up, and called him by name. This is the nature of pursuing grace. It does not wait for us to clean ourselves up or earn a standing invitation. It finds us in the undignified places, up in the trees of our own making, and calls us down into relationship. The crowd saw a sinner. Jesus saw a son of Abraham. The same grace that sought Zacchaeus seeks you — not the version of you that has everything together, but the real you, exactly where you are today.
Reflection: In what area of your life have you felt too far outside the crowd for Jesus to notice? How does this passage challenge that assumption?
Practical Application: Identify one person in your life whom others tend to write off. Commit to one intentional act of dignity and kindness toward that person this week.
Day 3: Seeing Others as God Sees Them
Reading: 1 Samuel 16:1-13 — God sends Samuel to anoint a new king from among the sons of Jesse. When Samuel sees the eldest and assumes he is the chosen one, God corrects him, declaring that God does not look at outward appearance but at the heart. The youngest son, David, tending sheep in the field, is the one God has chosen.
Devotional:
The crowd in Jericho saw Zacchaeus and muttered. Samuel saw Eliab and assumed. We are all prone to the same error — forming complete judgments from incomplete information. Pastor Mitchum described this tendency as intergroup bias, the systematic habit of viewing those outside our group as less capable, less trustworthy, less worthy of grace. But God's vision cuts through every label we assign. He sees the child of God behind the political affiliation, the tax collector's title, the outward appearance. We are called to practice the same corrected vision — not because it is easy, but because it is holy.
Reflection: Where does intergroup bias most easily take root in your own thinking? What would it look like to ask God to correct your vision in that specific area?
Practical Application: The next time you encounter someone with whom you deeply disagree, pause before forming a judgment. Silently say, "This is a child of God." Notice how that simple act begins to shift your posture toward them.
Day 4: The Transforming Power of an Encounter with Jesus
Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 — Paul declares that because of Christ, we no longer regard anyone from a merely human point of view. Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation — the old has gone, the new has come. God has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation.
Devotional:
Zacchaeus did not simply feel better after meeting Jesus. He was transformed. His money moved. His relationships changed. His reputation began to be rebuilt — not through his own effort at self-improvement, but through the encounter with the One who saw him fully and loved him completely. John Wesley understood this passage as evidence that salvation is both an instantaneous gift and a visible, outward transformation. Grace does not leave us where it finds us. It calls us down from our trees, walks with us into our homes, and then sends us back out into the world as agents of the same reconciliation we received.
Reflection: Where in your life is God currently calling you down from a tree? What transformation might he be inviting you into that you have been reluctant to accept?
Practical Application: Identify one concrete, outward change — in generosity, in relationship, in habit — that would reflect an inner transformation God has been prompting in you. Take one small step toward that change today.
Day 5: Living as Saints in the Present Age
Reading: Matthew 5:1-12 — Jesus delivers the Beatitudes, describing the character and posture of those who belong to the kingdom of heaven. He blesses the poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, and those who hunger for righteousness, declaring that the kingdom belongs to and through them.
Devotional:
All Saints Sunday is not only a day for looking backward. It is a day for looking inward and forward. The saints we honor were not extraordinary because they were perfect. They were extraordinary because they kept showing up — in kitchens at funerals, in Sunday school classrooms, in quiet moments of prayer for people they loved. Pastor Mitchum reminded the congregation that we too are living saints, called to tend the poor, comfort the mourners, make peace, and offer mercy. The Beatitudes are not a description of a distant ideal. They are a daily invitation to live in the way of Jesus, right now, in the ordinary places of our lives.
Reflection: Which of the Beatitudes feels most personally challenging to you in this season of your life? What might it look like to lean into that specific call with greater intentionality?
Practical Application: Choose one Beatitude and make it your focus for the coming week. Write it on a card, place it where you will see it each morning, and ask God each day to show you one specific way to live it out before the day ends.
.
.