Sunday, June 25, 2017

Guides into the mystery of Christ

Enable me to speak the truth at all times, because my hope is in your judgments. ~ Psalm 119:43a (GNT)

Don’t imagine us leaders to be something we aren’t. We are servants of Christ, not his masters. We are guides into God’s most sublime secrets, not security guards posted to protect them. The requirements for a good guide are reliability and accurate knowledge. ~ 1 Corinthians 4:1-2 (MSG)

KEY IDEA:
Our assignment is to guide people deeper into God's truth.
PRAYER:
Thank you, Lord, for entrusting your church with the wonderful mystery of Christ -- that he is God among us living with real flesh and bones, that he came to establish his own kingdom where even the poor are treated well, that he suffered and died on our behalf, relieving us of the burden of sin, that he rose from the dead and established the new life which we all embrace by faith in Christ's faithfulness. This is such a great life changing truth. Forgive me for twisting this mystery so that it gives me some kind of power and control over others. I like to be in charge. So, I am asking that you enable me to speak the truth at all times -- as a servant. I'm eager to guide many more people to know Christ -- and to know him well. Amen.

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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