The 23rd Sunday after Pentecost
Rip the heavens apart!
Come down, Lord;
make the mountains tremble. ~ Isaiah 64:1 (CEV)
Then the Son of Man will be seen coming in the clouds with great power and glory. ~ Mark 13:26 (CEV)
Come down, Lord! Even though I am not as ready as I should be, I am eager for your coming. I look forward to justice for the poor. I look forward to knowing you more fully. I look forward to living in greater harmony with you. And I want to start all of that even before you come to shake things up. Help me to prepare and to prepare others. I'm going to live in the shadow of your hope. Amen.
From dawn until dusk my name is praised by every nation on this earth... ~ Malachi 1:11 (CEV)
Many people will come from everywhere to enjoy the feast in the kingdom of heaven with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ~ Matthew 8:11 (CEV)
Lord, thank you for including people from everywhere in your work and celebration. We all join together to daily praise you with our words and our lives. It's starting to happen. But I get too easily discouraged by the negative things in the world. Help me to focus on you and your coming feast. Things really are moving in a positive direction and with every ounce of energy I have I'm going to be a part of what you are doing. Amen.
I will look favorably upon you, making you fertile and multiplying your people. And I will fulfill my covenant with you. ~ Leviticus 26:9 (NLT)
You are God’s garden and God’s building. ~ 1 Corinthians 3:9 (CEV)
Lord, it makes me feel good knowing that you have your people working on us -- improving us so that we can be fruitful for you. It gives me a sense of purpose and delight because I realize that my life is going to count for something important. This is true even though I have a lot of problems and am not a perfect follower of Jesus. But your grace is changing me. Amen.
Hush before the Lord God,
for the day of the Lord is near! ~ Zephaniah 1:7 (CEB)
Everything will soon come to an end. So be serious and be sensible enough to pray. Most important of all, you must sincerely love each other, because love wipes away many sins. ~ 1 Peter 4:7-8 (CEV)
Lord,
THANKS: I'm grateful that you have a plan to put an end to the craziness of this work. It gives me confidence.
REGRETS: But I don't think that I'm really as ready as I should be. I don't take it all that seriously.
INTERCESSION: Rewire my brain so that it is above all loving.
PURPOSE: I'm going to prepare by excelling at the love of Jesus which flows through me.
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)
