You made me; you created me. Now give me the sense to follow your commands. ~ Psalm 119:73 (NLT)
Every time I think of you—and I think of you often!—I thank God for your lives of free and open access to God, given by Jesus. There’s no end to what has happened in you—it’s beyond speech, beyond knowledge. ~ 1 Corinthians 1:4-5 (MSG)
KEY IDEA:
God has given us his incredible life-changing commandments.
PRAYER:
Lord, thank you for giving me directions for my life. But I'm not good at following directions.
Please give me the sense to follow your commands. I'm going to grow into living a life of free and open access to you --
that which has come through Jesus. Amen.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I’m still alive. ~ Psalm 104:33 (CEB)
When you meet together, sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, as you praise the Lord with all your heart. ~ Ephesians 5:19 (CEV)
KEY IDEA:
Healthy Christians love to sing and praise the Lord.
PRAYER:
Lord, thank you for giving me a song worth singing. I may not be the best of singers -- and I might not sing as much as I should -- but I think you deserve a song from me and all the other believers. Help me to choose my songs wisely. I want to offer you the best music I can. Amen.
The 7th Sunday after Pentecost
The Lord thunders commands to his army.
The troops that obey him
are many and mighty.
How terrible is the day of the Lord!
Who will survive it?
"But even now," says the Lord,
"repent sincerely and return to me
with fasting and weeping and mourning." ~ Joel 2:11-12 (GNT)
The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living. ~ Romans 13:12 (NLT)
KEY IDEA:
It's time to make some changes because the judgment day of the Lord is coming soon.
PRAYER:
Lord, thank you for promising to return. I'm not sure that I'm ready, though. There are things that need to change -- lots of small things -- perhaps a few big things. I'm not ready to face you. I need help changing.
Start wherever you want with me. You know me better than I know myself. I just want to be among "the troops that obey him." Amen.
God, you pulled me out of the grave,
gave me another chance at life
when I was down-and-out. ~ Psalm 30:3 (MSG)
He rescued us from the control of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. ~ Colossians 1:13 (CEB)
KEY IDEA:
God has saved us from the dark powers associated with death in order to give us a chance to live now according to the kingdom of Jesus.
PRAYER:
Thank you, God, for the rescue. I confess that I'm inclined to leave it all at that -- me rescued -- to pretend that that is the whole story. But you rescue people for a purpose -- your purpose. Help me to make Jesus' purpose my only purpose. I'm going to live according to the kingdom of Jesus. 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)
