Goodness
Everyone is greedy and dishonest,
whether poor or rich.
Even the prophets and priests
cannot be trusted.
All they ever offer
to my deeply wounded people
are empty hopes for peace.
~ Jeremiah 6:13-14 (CEV)
You can tell what a tree is like by the fruit it produces. You cannot pick figs or grapes from thornbushes. Good people do good things because of the good in their hearts. ~ Luke 6:44-45 (CEV)
SUMMARY SENTENCE
Ignore the glib fast-talkers and pay attention to those whose lives actually produce goodness.
PRAYER
God of truth, your word reveals my falsehood. Thank you for continuing to plant and prune, drawing forth fruit from my once-dead branches. Teach me not only to say peace, but to work to establish it throughout your creation. May I treasure the gift of the gospel above all else. May it guide my heart toward the good. Amen. (Daily Texts, Mount Carmel Ministries edition)
*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)
