The Message Bible.....
Not everyone's favorite version.
I like it because it colors that KJV with a common everyday language that helps those, who aren't familiar with the Bible, to understand and comprehend.
Debbie Handy taught at last night's Vineyard Recovery meeting, and she used the Message Bible to reference verses.
This sent me to Matthew 7 this morning for my reading, and I was taken with the way the Message Bible colors these verses.
Matthew 7:13-14
Don't look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don't fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life-----to God!----is vigorous and requires total attention.
No shortcuts. That is so a part of recovery. The Big book of A.A. says that "we look for the easier, softer way." In other words, our nature is look for the shortcut. To try and figure out how we can do 12 steps in 6 steps.
Matthew 7:24-25
These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit------but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.
God provides the materials and the power to build a new life.
But we have to lay hands to the task and make use of the materials and allow the Power to work in us. We don't get to alter the blueprints or redesign the house. God knows what it's suppose to look like. But in the end, as we continue to work on our house (life), it doesn't matter what kind of storm comes our way......cravings...temptations from old friends to return to our old lifestyle.....rejection from old friends..it doesn't matter. As long as our house is fixed to the Rock of Jesus, we can stand.
How cool is that?
God on you...
mb
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