Hello, good people, and welcome to daily bible

refresh brought to you by voice of God daily. I am

doctor Brad Miller and here to bring you the daily bible refresh where

we look to offer a fresh perspective of a daily

reading of the scriptures. We read from the revised

common lectionary. Year c is where we're at right

now. Year c, we're in the epiphany season. We like to

make the Bible understandable, relatable, and applicable.

Understandable by reading from the new testament version, a reading for

this day only from the message version of the Bible,

relatable in as in as much as we give you a couple of points to

ponder, to think about from the scripture, and applicable in as

much as we give you a action point,

something that you can apply to your life. We have a prayer and we

do all of this in less than 10 minutes. Our re

reading for the day is from Ephesians

5:15 through 20, reading from the message.

Don't waste your time on useless work,

mere busy work, the barren pursuits of

darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are.

It's a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do

in the darkness where no one will see. Rip the cover off those

frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ.

Wake up from your sleep. Climb out of your coffins. Christ

will show you the light. So watch your step.

Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get.

These are desperate times. Don't live carelessly,

unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the

master wants. Don't drink too much wine that

cheapens your life. Drink the Spirit of God,

huge drafts of Him. Sing

hymns instead of drinking songs. Sing songs from your heart

of Christ. Sing praises over everything,

any excuse for a song to God the Father, in the name of our

master, Jesus Christ.

Wonderful reading of scripture from Ephesians. It's about living mindfully.

It's about, living with intention. It's about being

aware. It's about being waking up, being being alert about the

reality of the meaningfulness of the world around us. Let

me give you a couple of points to ponder. One of them, it has to

do with the conscious being a conscious person

living in an unconscious world. Remember how

this passage starts? It starts with watch your step and

use your head. In a modern context, we

might say this speaks to the importance of being alert, of being critically

aware of the systems and structures around us rather

than sleepwalking through life accepting

everything at face value. We're called to be thoughtfully

engaged persons, engaged citizens if you

if you will, who examine and question the status

quo. We are all about having an

awareness that social injustice does exist in the world.

There are environmental concerns which are real and there

are systematic in inequalities in our world

which need to be addressed, and we are called to do something about

those things. Another point, it's about

transformative community. The text here from Ephesians

speaks of moving from darkness to light. So that's not

about judgment, but that is really about transformation.

In Christianity, this can be understood as moving from isolation

to community, from ignorance to awareness, from

apathy to engagement. The emphasis on singing

together. Ain't that cool? That part there. It's about sharing a

community vibe, if you will, and suggest that spiritual growth

spiritual growth isn't just an individual thing, it's a

communal thing. It is where our voices blend together. It is

collaborative. One more point, spiritual

sobriety and mindful living. It's interesting

how the writer of Ephesians talks about wine here. The contrast

between wine and the spirit isn't about a strict prohibition,

but about choosing consciousness over numbness.

In our modern world we often sometimes people talk about, you know,

checking out, whether that's through substance abuse

or maybe endlessly and mindlessly scrolling on your phone

or a consumer culture kind of a thing,

or just busy, busy, busy, busy, busy work and not really getting

anywhere. The text from Ephesians here today invites us to

choose a presence, being engaged,

being fully aware and alive in the moment, and our

and understanding our role in creating

positive change. Here's your action step for the day.

Identify one sleeping area

of your life. Perhaps it's just mildly

consuming something. Maybe it's overeating or over drinking or

overdoing television or Internet stuff.

It is about also examining your life.

Do not be passive with your life about

those personal things or do not be passive

about accepting injustice in our world. So choose

to wake up. Spend a few

minutes, maybe 15 minutes researching some area

of injustice or some area where you know these things are just not

right. Maybe you wanna write something in a journal, record something about it,

or maybe have a meaningful conversation with someone about what you can do

where you wake up from a slumber and

do something about some area, which

actually you can do something about.

Before we have our closing prayer, I wanna remind you to lift up that we

have a resource for you, a free resource that you

that can help you with your bible study. I just know that I can. I

put this together a couple years ago. It's the ABC 123

Bible study guide and what it does, it simply makes by reading the

Bible and studying the Bible as easy as ABC

123. You can find it at our show notes at voiceofgoddaily.com.

It's our free gift to you for the daily

Bible refresh. Let's pray. Divine

God, Spirit of love and justice, wake us up to the reality of our

world and our role within it. Help us to move

beyond any busyness to meaningful action, beyond

unconscious living to purposeful engagement. Give us

courage to examine our lives, wisdom to choose consciousness

over comfort, and strength to work for positive change.

May we sing songs of justice and hope,

not just with our voices, but with our lives, in a

spirit of love and community. Amen. Well, it's

been great to be with you. My name is doctor Brad Miller, and you've been

listening to the daily Bible refresh.

Remember, I'll be with you again tomorrow morning, bright and early, so I hope that

you'll join me. Until then, remember that God's loyal

love doesn't run out. His merciful

love hasn't dried up. It's created

new every morning.