Translate

Thursday, November 5, 2020

GOD'S PROMISES

JOSHUA 21:45 (CEB)
Not one of all the good things that the LORD had promised to the house of Israel failed. Every promise was fulfilled.

GALATIANS 4:28 (CEB)
Brothers and sisters, you are children of the promise like Isaac.

SUMMARY SENTENCE
Allow God's promises to define your life.

PRAYER
Thank you, God, for your loyalty and faithfulness. What you say goes -- even if I'm not seeing it at the moment. I confess to allowing unseen fulfillments to drag me down at times. I so want everything spelled out in a clear and timely (my time frame) manner. Help me to trust you and embrace the "not yet" as a sign that you are busy doing what you've said you'd do. So far, even though things haven't turned out the way I expected, they've actually been better. I'm going to trust that your promises all work that way. Amen.

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

CHRIST IS THE SACRIFICE

ZEPHANIAH 3:14-15 (MSG)
So sing, Daughter Zion!
Raise the rafters, Israel!
Daughter Jerusalem,
     be happy! celebrate!
God has reversed his judgments against you
     and sent your enemies off chasing their tails.


1 JOHN 2:2 (CEV)
Christ is the sacrifice that takes away our sins and the sins of all the world’s people.

SUMMARY SENTENCE
God deals with all sin and sinfulness through the sacrifice of Christ.

PRAYER
O loving Savior, you suffered and died for this broken world. Yet in spite of your great sacrifice, we choose to live independently from you, building our lives on the false securities of wealth, position, and power. Turn us away from these false gods and toward you. Amen. (Daily Texts, Mount Carmel Ministries edition)

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

HOPE AND FREEDOM

ISAIAH 66:10 (CEV)
If you love Jerusalem,
     celebrate and shout!
If you were in sorrow
     because of the city,
     you can now be glad.


LUKE 2:38 (CEV)
At that time Anna came in and praised God. She spoke about the child Jesus to everyone who hoped for Jerusalem to be set free.

SUMMARY SENTENCE
Celebrate Jesus, who is the embodiment of the hope that delivers freedom.

PRAYER
Thank you, God, for Jesus, and the freedom that belongs to all as they trust him. Forgive me for latching onto counterfeit forms of freedom and looking for hope in all the wrong places. Help me to let go of all my faulty assumptions and expectations so that I can fully embrace Jesus as the sole source of the hope in my life. I'm going to celebrate this gift. Amen.

Monday, November 2, 2020

MISFITS MADE RIGHT

PSALM 14:3 (NLT)
But no, all have turned away;
     all have become corrupt.
No one does good,
     not a single one!


ROMANS 3:22-24 (ABP)
God makes things right between us and himself through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ -- a righteousness which we access as we put our faith in him. It doesn't matter who you are or to which group of people you belong; it's the same for all. Just as all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standards, so is freedom from that sin generously delivered to all by Christ Jesus.

SUMMARY SENTENCE
Even though we're screw-ups, Christ Jesus makes things right between God and us.

PRAYER
We are most thankful, God, for the sacrifice of Christ and the reconciliation which he established. Thank you for including me in your gift. Forgive me for acting as though I'm somehow worthy of your consideration. That mindset tends to make me judgmental and condescending. Help me to humbly accept your gift and to live out my freedom surrounded by all the redeemed misfits of the world. Above all else, I'm going to celebrate the faithfulness of Christ Jesus. Amen.


DAILYTEXTS.ORG

*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 — 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)

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 (© 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.)

Blog Archive