Hello, good people, and welcome to, daily

bible refresh with doctor Brad Miller. That's me,

and we come to you courtesy of voice of god

daily dot com. Where we offer you a daily

reading of the holy scriptures from

the revised comma lectionary. We're in year c

in the epiphany season. We like to make our Trimble reading

every day understandable, relatable, and applicable.

Understandable because we read from the new testament lesson only from

the message interpretation or translation of the

Trimble. Relatable and in that, we offer you a couple of points to

ponder and applicable, and we give you an action step. We have a

prayer, and then we do all this in less than 10 minutes.

Today's reading is from the gospel of Luke chapter 11 verses

33 through 36.

Reading from the message. No one lights a lamp then

hides it in a drawer. It's put on a lamp stand

so those entering the room have light to see where where they're

going. Your eye is a lamp lighting up your whole

body. If you live wide eyed in wonder and

belief, your body fills up with light. If you live

squinty eyed in greed and distrust, your body is

a musty seller. Keep your eyes open,

your lamp burning, so you don't get musty and

murky. Keep your life as well lighted

as your best lighted room.

Wow. That's an illuminating

scripture, if you'll pardon the pun. It's really about

living wide eyed. It's the practice

of radical openness. And Jesus

uses this metaphor of light to challenge

our way of seeing and being in the

world. Here's a couple of points to ponder about this

passage of scripture. There is the politics of

visibility. Jesus's words about not hiding

light speaks to importance of making visible

what systems of power often try to

some people often try to keep hidden.

In the context of what we talk about in our day and age, this

causes us to illuminate injustice,

amplify marginalized voices, and shine

a light on environmental destruction.

That is that living wide eyed means refusing to look away

from uncomfortable truth. Here's another point to

ponder. We're talking about going beyond a scarcity mindset.

The contrast between wide eyed wonder and squinty eyed greed

challenges our culturals our culture scarcity

mentality. Christianity is really about recognizing there is

enough for everyone when resources are justly

distributed. Wonder and generosity are acts of

resistance against capitalism's messages of scarcity and

competition. One more point to think about.

This has to do with embodied enlightenment. This

passage connects spiritual enlightenment with

a bodily experience. It says your

body fills up with light. This is a holistic

view which affirms that spirituality isn't just a mental

or emotional thing, but it is physical and it is social.

It is engaged with community and it

validates embodied wisdom and challenges

mind body dualism that is often characterized

theological thinking. Here's your action step for

for today. Practice wonder walking.

And just take a short walk, 5, 10, 15 minutes,

and walk slowly through your neighborhood, or through the mall, or

some someplace in your town, and intentionally

look to notice what goes unnoticed.

Notice signs of beauty and wonder and color, and also

signs of darkness or injustice.

You might even want to take your cell phone with you and take a

few photos of it or write something about it or maybe do

some artistic expression about it or share your observations

online or in some other way.

Focusing needs where there is focusing on

illuminating or providing light in your community.

We're gonna pray in just a second, but I wanna let you know we do

have a resource for you that can help you go deeper in the scriptures if

you choose to. It's called the C 123

Trimble study guide. We provide it at our website

voiceofgoddaily.com. It's a simple way

that you can go a little deeper into the scriptures. ABC

123 Trimble study guide. Let's pray.

Oh, God, you are our source of light and life.

Help us to keep our eyes and hearts wide open even when it would be

easier to look away. Free us from the grip of scarcity

thinking that make us clutch light tight tightly and live

narrowly. Illuminate the places within us that have grown

musty with old fears and inherited prejudices.

Guide us in shining light in what needs to be seen

while maintaining wonder at life's beauty. May our bodies, minds, and spirits

be filled with your transforming light and make us agents of

illumination and change in a shadowy world.

Amen. Well, my name is doctor Brad Miller. It's been good

to be with you here on the daily Trimble refresh. So

join my day. I hope that it isn't yours. If it is, would

you share it with somebody else in your life? Invite them to join you on

the daily bible refresh. You can find us at

voice of god daily dot com.

Until tomorrow morning then, friends, remember that god's love doesn't

run out. His merciful love hasn't dried up.

It's created new every morning.