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Wednesday, September 3, 2025

NEWNESS

EZEKIEL 36:26 (CEB)
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.

MATTHEW 5:44-45 (CEB)
But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who harass you so that you will be acting as children of your Father who is in heaven.

THE ESSENCE
God's ways ooze with out-of-the-box newness.

DAILY FODDER
Is it possible to love Jesus and, at the same time, reject his new radical approach to living? Explain.

PRAYER 
Thank you, God, for the new hearts that come with your arrival in our lives. Forgive us for trying to hold on to the old ways of doing things while trying to embrace the new. It doesn't work. We need to be totally renewed so that we can live the new life of Christ. I don't want anything less than a new heart, and a new spirit, and the radical life that comes with all that newness. Amen. 

THE LORD’S PRAYER (ABP)
Our Father in Heaven,
     we hold your name in the highest regard.
Please come and establish your reign here on earth
     so that everything that happens here will align
     with what is happening in heaven.
Give us enough food for today.
Forgive us our wrongdoing,
     and we’ll forgive those who have wronged us.
Shield us from the trials and temptations that come our way.
Lastly, we pray that you will protect us from all forms of evil. 
Amen.

DAILYTEXTS.ORG

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)

EEB = EasyEnglish Bible (©2015, MissionAssist)

ERV = Easy-To-Read Version (©2006, World Bible Translation Center)

EXB = The Expanded Bible (©2011, Thomas Nelson Publishing)

GNT = Good News Translation (©1992, American Bible Society)

MSG = The Message (©1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson)

NCB = New Catholic Bible (©2019 by Catholic Book Publishing Corp.)

NCV = New Century Version (©2005, Thomas Nelson Inc)

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)

NRSVue = New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (© 2021 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.)

REB = Revised English Bible (© 1989 Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press)

TCEB = The Casual English Bible (© Stephen M. Miller)

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