Thursday, April 9, 2015

Slaves

If at that time you and your children return to the Lord your God and if you obey with all your heart and all your soul all the commands I have given you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes. He will have mercy on you... ~ Deuteronomy 30:2,3 (NLT)

Now that you have been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness. ~ Romans 6:18 (CEB)
You are the Master -- and we are your slaves. Except, unlike our prior slavery, we have chosen to be your slaves. And you have been merciful to us. Your mercy is restoring us -- healing us -- and ironically -- freeing us. So now, I really want to serve you. It's not because I have to, but because I want to. I am so grateful for your kindness. It makes me want to live the right kind of life. I acknowledge my inconsistency in obeying you. And I am working on becoming more consistent. But it's not really so much about me, anyway. It is all about your grace. For you are the one will empower me to turn to you. So, Master Jesus, today I am going to focus my attention on serving you through every interaction and activity. Amen.
Challenging Words
  • ironically -- surprisingly in a strange or twisted way, the opposite of what you might think
  • inconsistency -- failing to be consistent. not living in the way that you say you believe, doing the right thing sometimes -- but not at other times
  • interaction -- the communication between two or more people or parties. It can be a conversation where people speak. It can be messages sent on Facebook. Or it can be totally non-verbal, where people are not speaking at all.

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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