Enjoy life
The 22nd Sunday after Pentecost
So I decided it was more important to enjoy life. The best that people can do here on earth is to eat, drink, and enjoy life, because these joys will help them do the hard work God gives them here on earth. ~ Ecclesiastes 8:15 (NCV)
Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it but receive it with thanks. ~ 1 Timothy 4:4 (NLT)
KEY IDEA:
God made life to be enjoyed.
PRAYER:
Thank you, Lord, for life -- and especially for the new life that has been established through Christ. I confess, though, that I don't really enjoy life in the way you intend. I'm quick to reduce it all to keeping rules and trying to get more stuff. It's not that the rules are bad or that the stuff should be rejected. It's just that I'm so easily tricked into allowing those things to become life. Help me to keep my priorities straight so that I can receive all the good things you have given to me with thanksgiving. Amen.
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)
