Hello my friend Dr. Brad Miller here with the Daily Bible Refresh.

This is your daily reading of the Bible from a progressive point of view.

In a bit I will read the New Testament lessons selected from the Revised Common Lectionary for this very day.

The reading is understandable.

I use the message version relatable.

Please listen to the points to ponder and applicable with action steps you can take.

We pray and are done in less than 10 minutes.

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Here's today's reading.

Reading today from the Gospel of John 12 verses 20 through 40 from the Message A grain of wheat must die.

There are some Greeks in town who had come up to worship at the feast and they approached Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee.

Sir, we want to see Jesus.

Can you help us?

Philip went and told Andrew and Andrew and Philip told Jesus and Jesus answered, time's up.

The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Listen carefully.

Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat.

But if it's buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over.

In the same way anyone who holds on to life does it as it destroys that life.

If you let it go reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal.

If any one of you wants to serve me, then follow me.

Then you'll be where I am, ready to serve at a moment's notice.

The Father will honor and reward anyone who serves me.

Right now I am shaken and what I'm going to say, Father, get me out of this.

No.

This is why I came to the in the first place.

I'll say, father, put your glory on display.

And a voice came out of the sky, I have glorified it and I'll glorify it again.

Please listening crowd said thunder.

Others said an angel spoke to him.

Jesus said, the voice didn't come for me, but for you.

At this moment the world is in crisis.

Now Satan the ruler of this world will be thrown out.

And I, as I am lifted up from the earth, will attract everyone to me and gather them around me.

He put it this way to show them how he was going to be put to death.

And voices from the crowd answered.

We heard from God's law that the Messiah lasts forever.

How can it be necessary, as you put it, that the Son of man be lifted up?

Who is the Son of man?

Jesus said, for a brief time still, the light is among you.

Walk by the light you have, so darkness doesn't destroy you.

If you walk in darkness, you don't know where you're going.

As you have the light, believe in the light.

Then the light will be within you and shining through your lives.

You'll be children of the light.

Their eyes are blinded.

And Jesus said all this.

Then he went into hiding all those God signs he had given them.

And they still didn't get it, still wouldn't trust him.

This proved that the prophet Isaiah was right.

God, who believed what was preached, who recognized God's army outstretched and ready to act.

First they wouldn't believe, then they couldn't.

Again, just as Isaiah said, their eyes are blinded, their hearts are hardened so that they wouldn't see with their eyes and perceive with their hearts and turn to me, God, so I can heal them.

Well, that ends the reading.

Thank you for joining me here today.

The Daily Bible Refresh.

I've always appreciate you spending some time with me deep into the Scriptures.

Let's get into some points to ponder about this passage here today.

First, it says, right now, I am shaken.

So let's just think about that just for a second.

This is Jesus saying this, the one John has been building up since chapter one as the Word made flesh, the light of the world.

And he says plainly, I am shaken now.

Not I have the peace that passes understanding.

Not, oh, I got this handled.

He's shaken.

And he doesn't hide it.

He speaks it out loud in front of a crowd.

Now, progressive faith holds on to this moment because it gives us permission to be honest about our own fears, about our own spiritual failures.

So many of us were taught that doubt and trembling meant something wrong with our faith.

But Jesus himself stands here knowing exactly what's coming and says, I'm shaken.

Now, that's not weakness.

That's the most courageous kind of honesty there is.

Naming your fear, then choosing your purpose.

Anyhow, no, this is why I came in the first place, is what he says when I do my cancer related podcast.

I talk with people who are shaken to the core by their diagnosis.

Scared, uncertain, overwhelmed.

And the bravest thing they do isn't pretending they're fine.

It's saying, I'm terrified And I'm still going to show up for treatment and to do what I need to do.

That's the Jesus move right there.

You don't have to stop shaking to keep walking.

Second point to ponder is this.

It's about the grain of wheat.

This image is so simple and so devastating at the same time.

A seed that stays intact, that refuses to be buried and nurtured, that clings to its current form once it do, it just stays a single grain forever.

But a seed that lets itself be buried and surrenders its shape, that dies for what it was.

It becomes a harvest.

And Jesus is talking about his own death.

Yes, but he's also talking about a whole way of being in the world.

That is, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life.

But if you let it go reckless in your love, you'll have it forever.

And this is where progressive faith really leans in.

So hear this.

Because this challenges every system built on accumulation or self preservation or hoarding, whether that's wealth or power or status or even our tightly held certainties about God.

The kingdom moves forward through release, not control, through letting go, not hanging on.

My wife and I have been through many seasons of letting go.

We let go of our lives in many ways when we became young parents, when our kids grew up, we let them when they left our homes and started their own lives, and they started their own amazing lives.

And every single time, what came back was richer than what we released.

That doesn't mean that letting go was painless.

It was very painful indeed.

The seed still has to be buried, but the harvest only comes through surrender.

And I kind of love this detail in this conversation we're having here today because some it says the Greeks, who are the outsiders, the non Jewish visitors were saying, we want to see Jesus.

And Jesus responds by talking about seeds dying and light shining, as if to say, you want to see me?

This is how you'll see me if by letting go in the burial and the new life that follows.

See, the way you see Jesus isn't through theological gatekeeping, is through the fruit that grows when love is poured into the ground.

So when my wife and I take hikes in wooded trails, we walk over fallen trees and leaves and seeds all the time decomposing, covered in moss.

And that's the way they are returning to the earth and growing right out of those fallen trees and trunks and leaves and seeds.

What do you see?

New saplings, new life punching up through the forest floor.

The forest knows what Jesus is teaching here.

Death feeds Life, letting go is the beginning, not the end.

So here's your action step, your one thing for today.

What are you gripping so tightly that it can't grow?

Maybe it's a version of yourself that you need to let go because you should outgrow it.

Maybe it's a grudge, maybe it's a plan that isn't working, but you can't stop forcing it.

Maybe it's a certainty about God that's become too small.

So today, open your hand just a little.

You don't have to throw it all away all at once.

Just loosen your grip enough to let God do something new.

Name it even quietly to yourself.

I'm letting go of whatever this is.

And then trust the soil.

We're going to come back and have a closing prayer.

But before we do, just a reminder and we've got a gift for you.

It's called the ABC 1, 2, 3 Bible Study Method.

You can pick it up at our website, voiceofgoddaily.com let's pray.

God, we're gripping so hard today.

Our plans, our identities, and we need to.

We need to have it all figured out.

We're trying.

We're holding on with the white knuckles because letting go feels like dying.

And honestly, Jesus said it kind of is.

But he also said this is where life comes from.

So give us the courage of a seed, oh God.

The willingness to be buried, to surrender our shape, to trust that what grows from our letting go will be more than we could have produced by holding on.

Thank you, God, for a savior who admitted he was shaken.

That means more than us than you know.

It means our trembling hands and racing hearts and middle of the night fears don't disqualify us.

They make us honest.

Help us be shaken and still show up.

Help us to walk in whatever light we have today, even if it's just a sliver, even if darkness is pressing in.

We want to be children of light.

We want to see Jesus not in some abstract theological way, but in the real gritty seed, in the ground way, grow something beautiful out of what we release today.

We trust the soil.

We trust you.

Amen.

My friend, I am delighted you chose to join me for today's reading.

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My name is Dr. Brad Miller, and I'll be right here tomorrow with your daily Bible refresh.

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Remember, God's loyal love doesn't run out.

His merciful love hasn't dried up.

It's created new every morning.