Foreigners
Don’t mistreat foreigners. You were foreigners in Egypt, and you know what it is like. ~ Exodus 23:9 (CEV)
That night, Joseph got up and took his wife and the child to Egypt... ~ Matthew 2:14 (CEV)
KEY IDEA:
Jesus was a refugee and so we treat all displaced people as though we were treating him.
PRAYER:
Thank you, Jesus, for your kindness toward displaced people. We are all subject to displacement and some of our families have been forced to move. I confess, though, that sometimes I have trouble treating people who are different from me with respect. I worry about their influence and their secret agendas to change us. Save me from my fear and help me to grow in my love for foreigners. Because of Jesus, I'm going to treat all with dignity -- whether they deserve it or not. 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)
