Good and bad alike
All the world will know that I, the Lord,
am your Savior and your Redeemer... ~ Isaiah 49:26 (NLT)
The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son... So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests. ~ Matthew 22:2,10 (CEV)
KEY IDEA:
God welcomes us all because he is a savior and redeemer.
PRAYER:
Lord, thank you for welcoming us all -- good and bad alike -- into your great kingdom. I'm more partial than you, though. I want to surround myself with good people -- people who can add value to my life. Save me from my narrowmindedness and implant within me a heart for those who are misfits. I'm going to join the world in celebrating your mercy and grace. Amen.
*ABOUT THE
DAILY TEXTS
The Daily Texts have been published by the Moravian Church since 1731. In 2011 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)
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.)