Thursday, January 15, 2015

God's doing

Why did the Lord love and choose you? It was not because you are such a large nation. You had the fewest of all people! But the Lord brought you out of Egypt with great power and made you free from slavery. He freed you from the control of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. The Lord did this because he loves you and he wanted to keep the promise he made to your ancestors. ~ Deuteronomy 7:7-8 (ERV)

So God will choose anyone he decides to show mercy to, and his choice does not depend on what people want or try to do. ~ Romans 9:16 (ERV)

It is ALL of your doing, Lord. You choose, you promise, you love, you free, and you show mercy. It is out of my control. There is absolutely nothing I can do to change your mind or impress you. In a way that is very freeing. Now I can love you, not out of any sense of obligation, but because I've been freed to do so. Thank you so much for including me in your promises. Because you love me I feel love for you. And that is worth carrying with me today. Amen.

Difficult Words
Ancestors -- Your family, tribe, or clan relations from a long time ago. That is, usually the relatives that came before your grandparents. Sometimes ancestors are the people to whom you are connected who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago.
Obligation -- Something that you are expected or required to do.
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DAILYTEXTS.ORG

*ABOUT THE
DAILY TEXTS

The Daily Texts have been published by the Moravian Church since 1731. In 2015 I started posting these Bible verses for my spiritual formation students at Pacific Islands University. In the process of responding to the verses, I found the rhythm of looking for a common thread and writing a prayer based on that key idea to be helpful for my own soul.

The prayers are more or less modeled on the TRIP method, which is what I ask my students to do in their journaling. ~ Brad Boydston

TRANSLATIONS

ABP = Authorized Boydston Paraphrase -- a freestyle biblical adaptation -- somewhere between paraphrase, commentary, and sermon

CEB = Common English Bible (©2011, the Common English Bible)

CEV = Contemporary English Version (©1995, American Bible Society)

EEB = EasyEnglish Bible (©2015, MissionAssist)

ERV = Easy-To-Read Version (©2006, World Bible Translation Center)

GNT = Good News Translation (©1992, American Bible Society)

MSG = The Message (©1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson)

NCB = New Catholic Bible (©2019 by Catholic Book Publishing Corp.)

NCV = New Century Version (©2005, Thomas Nelson Inc)

NIRV = New International Reader's Version (©1996, 1998, Biblica)

NIV = New International Version (©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011, Biblica)

NLT = New Living Translation (©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, Tyndale House Foundation)

NRSV = New Revised Standard Version (© 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.)

NTE = New Testament for Everyone (©2011 Nicolas Thomas Wright.)

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