Tuesday, November 24, 2020

FOR ALL

PSALM 98:3 (MSG)
The whole earth comes to attention.
Look—God’s work of salvation!


MARK 4:21 (NTE)
Jesus said to them, ‘When you bring a lamp into a room, do you put it under a bucket, or under a bed? Of course not! It goes on a lampstand."

SUMMARY SENTENCE
God's salvation isn't just for an elite group that really gets into some kind of esoteric spiritual experience or has religious knowledge.

PRAYER
Lord God, thank you for putting your good news out there for everyone. Forgive me for my smug and insular mindset which subtly makes everything about my relationship with you. Expand my vision and passion for the people of the world. Help me to become outwardly focused with your good news, which is for all people -- everywhere. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Monday, November 23, 2020

GOD'S COMPASSION

ISAIAH 57:15 (CEB)
I live on high, in holiness,
     and also with the crushed 
     and the lowly,
     reviving the spirit of the lowly,
     reviving the heart of those who have been crushed.


MARK 6:34 (MSG)
When Jesus arrived, he saw this huge crowd. At the sight of them, his heart broke—like sheep with no shepherd they were. He went right to work teaching them.

SUMMARY SENTENCE
God is full of compassion for the crushed and disoriented.

PRAYER
Good Shepherd God, thank you for seeing how needy I am. Thank you for reaching out -- for sending Christ into the world to shepherd us. I confess that in spite of your care I let things get to me. There is so much discouragement in the world and I focus on it rather than on you and your compassionate protection. Open my eyes. Revive my heart. Lift my spirit. I'm going to move forward under your watchful eye. Amen.

Sunday, November 22, 2020

ONE

Christ the King Sunday

ISAIAH 43:11 (MSG)
I, yes I, am GOD.
I’m the only Savior there is.


EPHESIANS 4:5-6 (MSG)
You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.

SUMMARY SENTENCE
Stick with the one God.

PRAYER
God, it's clear that you are the one who matters and you rule over everything. But I have wandering eyes. Save me from drifting away from you and your salvation. I'm going to be satisfied with the one and only solution to a fragmented life. Amen.

Saturday, November 21, 2020

GOD'S GREAT LOVE

PSALM 63:3 (ABP)
The praise rolls off my lips because your deep, unrelenting, and unfailing love is more significant than life itself.

1 JOHN 4:16 (NLT)
We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.

God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.


SUMMARY SENTENCE
God's great love is the most important thing of all.

PRAYER
Thank you, God, for your great love. I know that I barely understand it and I'm slow to apply what I know. Cultivate and nurture this essential life-giving quality within me so that my life and the lives of those around me are transformed. I'm going to live in love. Amen.

DAILYTEXTS.ORG

*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)

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)

NRSV = New Revised Standard Version (© 1989 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.)

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