But the Lord will acquit his people and will have compassion on those who serve him... ~ Deuteronomy 32:36a (ABP)
Jesus said: "Let me ask you, while God is quick to grant justice to his people, will the Ultimate Man find any faith on earth when he arrives?" ~ Luke 18:8 (ABP)
KEY IDEA:
While God is gracious and merciful, the world doesn't necessarily respond to him.
PRAYER:
God, you are gracious and kind, yet I'm not as responsive to you as I could be. Transform my life so that when Jesus returns in all his glory he will find that I am a model of faith. I'm going to live out his agenda. Amen.
In the future... the Lord will settle arguments
between nations.
They will pound their swords
and their spears
into rakes and shovels;
they will never make war
or attack one another. ~ Isaiah 2:2a,4 (CEV)
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.” ~ John 20:21 (CEB)
KEY IDEA:
The Lord welcomes us all with peace and sends us to share his peace with the people of all nations.
PRAYER:
Lord, you are the ultimate peacenik. You embody peace and call us to pass it to all others. I confess, though, that I'm such a pragmatist that I fail to act on your peace mandate because I can't see how it will work. Give me the faith to be able to act now on your radical future. I am going to embrace your peace agenda now. Amen.
Resurrection Day!
The Lord said: Israel, you have no right
to argue with your Creator.
You are merely a clay pot
shaped by a potter.
The clay doesn’t ask,
“Why did you make me this way?
Where are the handles?” ~ Isaiah 45:9 (CEV)
So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived! ~ 2 Corinthians 5:17 (CEB)
KEY IDEA:
God is re-creating his creation.
PRAYER:
Hallelujah! Christ, you are risen! Thank you for overcoming death on our behalf. Thank you for starting a new creation. I want to be a part of that. Forgive me for all the times that I am too attached to the old fallen way of doing things. Help me to live out the resurrection life in anticipation of the completion of re-creation which you began on the first Easter morning. I'm excited about being a part of the new creation. Amen.
Listen carefully, O people of Israel: You've only got one god -- the LORD is your one and only because he IS the one and only God. ~ Deuteronomy 6:4 (ABP)
And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth. ~ John 17:3 (NLT)
KEY IDEA:
You are wasting your life if you look to anyone or thing other than the one and only God.
PRAYER:
LORD, you are the one and only God. But even though you are worthy of all my attention I am easily distracted by the flashy amusements and diversions offered by the world. Help me to sustain my focus on you, even while I am bombarded with false gods of various sorts. You are the one true God and you are the only one to whom I pledge allegiance. Amen.
*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)
