God is near
Some of you set sail in big ships;
you put to sea to do business in faraway ports.
Out at sea you saw God in action,
saw his breathtaking ways with the ocean... So thank God for his marvelous love,
for his miracle mercy to the children he loves. ~ Psalm 107:23-24, 31 (MSG)
God made the nations so they would seek him, perhaps even reach out to him and find him. In fact, God isn’t far away from any of us. ~ Acts 17:27 (CEB)
KEY IDEA:
God's activities are not confined to any single place or nation.
PRAYER:
God, your vision is so big and wide but mine is so small and narrow. Help me to look beyond my island -- my people -- my family -- my little world. Inspire me with the wonder of your love expressed throughout your big world.
I want to help everyone out there discover the love of Jesus and the nearness of God. 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 -- 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)
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)
