CONSIDER THIS
NOTE TO COMMUNITY: Each Sunday, The Daily Text hosts a guest writer. Some will be from the past, as found in today’s reading. Others will be contemporary voices to our own. It is a way for us to sit in the “great cloud of witnesses” each week and receive the rich nourishment of the wisdom of God from others.
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1. “Lord, speak because Your servant listens.” (1 Samuel 3:10) “I am Your servant;
Give me grace to know what You say;
I want to know Your laws.” (Psalm 119:125)
Motivate me to hear well, so Your words will penetrate my heart;
As moisture in air distills to make dew,
So make Your speech distill its meaning in my heart.
A long time ago the children of Israel told Moses,
“You can talk to us and we will listen;
But we don’t want God to speak to us
because we might die!” (Exodus 20:19)
Lord, I won’t talk to You like that;
I will talk to You like Samuel, humbly and earnestly,
‘Speak Lord, Your servant hears.”
Don’t let Moses speak, nor the prophets;
I want You to speak, Lord God,
Inspirer and Enlightener of prophets,
for You alone, without these great people,
instruct perfectly;
But without You,
even the prophets would speak no helpful word.
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The text for today’s entry comes from The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis. This particular version is a paraphrase from our dear friend, the late Donald E. Demaray (Alba House, 1996).
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J.D. Walt serves as Seedbed’s Sower in Chief. jd.walt@seedbed.com.