Jesus and sinners
Live in the fear of God—be most careful, for God hates dishonesty, partiality, and bribery. ~ 2 Chronicles 9:7 (MSG)
As Jesus sat down to eat in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners joined Jesus and his disciples at the table. ~ Matthew 9:10 (CEB)
God,
THANKS: I'm so glad that you are clear about what is acceptable and what is unacceptable. Yet you are also so willing to embrace those who do unacceptable things. You're eager to give people the opportunity to change. And I'm thankful for that because I need to change, too.
REGRETS: I'm not always so willing to invite sinners to my table. I'm annoyed at them -- tired of their games.
INTERCESSION: But I know that if I'm going to ride with you, I need to adopt your attitude. Help me to do that.
PURPOSE: I'm going to eat with some "tax collectors" and "sinners" today -- even if I'm uncomfortable doing so.
Amen.
*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 — my own 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)
MSG = The Message (©1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson)
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)
