Hello, good people. Welcome to daily biblerefresh with

doctor Brad Miller, brought to you by voice of

god daily.com. This is a daily

reading of the scriptures. We take the scriptures

selected from the revised comma lectionary. We're in year

c, the epiphany season, and we give you a reading of the

Trimble that is both understandable, relatable, and

applicable. We make it, understandable

by reading the New Testament lesson only from

the message interpretation or translation of the

bible. We make it relatable by offering you a couple of points to ponder,

applicable by giving you an action step with prayer,

and we we're done in less than 10 minutes.

Let's read our scripture for the day. It's from Acts chapter 8 verses

18 through 24, reading from the message.

When Simon saw that the apostles were merely laying on hands

confirmed confirmed by the Holy Spirit, he pulled out his money

and excited and said, sell me your secret. Show

me how you did that. How much do you want? Name your

price. And Peter said, to hell with your

money and you along with it. Why, that's unthinkable.

Try to buy God's gift. You'll never be a part of what God is

doing by striking bargains and offering

bribes. Change your ways, and now

ask the master to forgive you for trying to use God to make

money. I can see this is an old habit with you. You reek

with money lust. Oh, said

Simon. Pray for me. Pray to the master

that nothing like that will ever happen to me.

Well, we have a scripture here that's really about, not

the Trimble and money. It's an age old story, and it's about some people

trying to commoditize the commodification,

if you will, of sacred spaces, and that's what acts

chapter acts chapter 8 is really about. It's about the intersection

of money, power, and spirituality. Here's a couple of

points to ponder. There is such a thing as spiritual capitalism,

and Simon's attempt to purchase spiritual power reflects

a modern tendency to commodify everything,

including the sacred. From prosperity gospel to

wellness industry spirituality, we continue to struggle with the

commercialization of faith, and this is a

passage that speaks to this, and it challenges to examine where

we've turned spirituality into a marketplace

transaction. Another point,

it's about power and privilege. Peter has harsh

has a very harsh response, and it isn't just about

money. It's about the abuse of privilege and

power. Simon sought to buy his

way into spiritual authority rather than doing

the hard personal work of transformation.

And this really mirrors contemporary issues of

trying to find the easy path, issues where wealth and

status are used to bypass authentic

engagement with justice and community work.

You just can't buy it. One more point, it's

about transformative justice. Notice

that Peter's strong words and the

story ends with the possibility of change

though. Progressive Christianity emphasizes

transformation rather than punitive justice.

Simon's request for prayer shows that even though

even those who are caught basically red handed trying to exploit

others can choose a

different path, and the option is there.

Here's your action step for the day,

conduct a sacred audit audit. That is examine

your relationship with money and spirituality. Where

have you treated sacred things as commodities? Maybe look at

your own spending patterns or your own spiritual practices, and

choose an area in your life where you can

decommodify your spiritual your spiritual life.

Perhaps by leaving a

transactional mindset for a moment or 2

and be guided more by a relational mindset.

Think about what you can do to apply your life

to justice work and not just buy something to try

to appease a guilty conscience.

We're gonna have a prayer here in just a moment. We

do have a Trimble study resource for you that I want to offer you as

a resource. It's the ABC C

Trimble study guide. You can find it at

voiceofgoddaily.com. It's right there in our show notes

along with the transcription of today's of today's episode.

I've just offered to you as a gift, the C 123 Trimble

study guide will make studying your Trimble as easy as 123,

and I hope that you'll take advantage of it. Let's pray.

Oh God, the divine source of all, of all,

of all things. We confess our tendency to turn

everything into a transaction, to seek shortcuts

to transformation, to buy our way out of discomfort.

Help us recognize where we've commodified the sacred,

where we tried to purchase what we can only be freely given. Guide us

toward authentic relationship with you and others. Free us from the

marketplace mentality that pervades our world and show us

how to use our resources for justice, not for

spiritual status or power. May we find grace in the journey of

transformation even when it challenges our comfortable

patterns. Amen.

Well, it's been good to be with you here on the daily

biblerefresh. My name is doctor Brad Miller. It was my pleasure and

privilege to be with you every morning. We come to you

from at voice of god daily.com. Hope

that you join us again tomorrow and invite someone else in your

circle to join us as well. Until that time, remember that

God's loyal love doesn't run out. His

merciful love hasn't dried up. It's created

new every morning.