Matthew 5:3-12

3 The good life belongs to those who are hopeless, because they’ll hit the jackpot as the heavenly regime is established.

4 The good life belongs to those who grieve, because they will be comforted.

5 The good life belongs to the disenfranchised, because they will be in charge.

6 The good life belongs to those who crave for justice and right living, because they will be fed until they are full.                          

7 The good life belongs to those who show mercy, because they will get what they’ve given.

8 The good life belongs to those who are pure to the core, because that purity will enable them to see God.

9 The good life belongs to those who make peace, because they’ll be recognized as God’s children.

10 The good life belongs to those who are harassed, because they stake their lives on what’s right, for they feel right at home in the heavenly regime.

11 The good life belongs to you when you’re mocked, harassed, and slandered, because you’re aligned with me. 12 Cheer up and let the joy flow, because you’re racking up reward points in your heavenly account. Remember, you’re in the company of the ancient prophets who were also mistreated.

Ephesians 5:15-33

15-16 There are two ways that you can live your life—wisely or foolishly. It’s that simple. And in these evil days, it is especially important that you choose right. Take advantage of every single opportunity to exercise wisdom. 17 Don’t be an ignoramus but grow in your understanding of the Lord’s agenda. 18 Don’t fill up on booze—that leads to out-of-control living and ultimately a wasted life. Instead, fill up on the Holy Spirit. 19 When you do that you’ll be living worship-filled and honor-filled lives. For example, together you’ll be making music to the Lord—singing songs from the heart—hymns—praise choruses. You’ll even be singing the ancient psalms from the Bible. 20 In a way that honors the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, your mouths will continually gush forth unlimited gratitude aimed at God the Father. 21 Furthermore, your respect for Christ will spill over to define your relationships with each other. You’ll be yielding to the needs and preferences of others—not because you’re a wimpy pushover but because you respect the presence of Christ in them.

22 An example of this yielding can be seen in the way husbands and wives treat each other. Wives prioritize the needs of their husbands—just as they would for the Lord. 23 For in a sense the husband leads his wife in the same way Christ leads the church. He sacrifices to save the body. 24 In that spirit, wives yield to their husbands just as the church yields to Christ.

25 Husbands, you also illustrate the offering of Christ when you love your wives and sacrificially yield to them. 26-27 Christ sacrificed in order to make the church stand out. His message is an industrial-strength soap with incredible whitening powers—powers that he used to wash her up so that the church radiates with pure holy dazzle. 28-31 Likewise, that’s how a husband treats his wife—with the same kind of love and sacrifice. 

You love her with the same energy you put into loving yourself. For when you love her you ARE loving yourself. That’s the nature of being one. Remember that saying in Genesis 2:24? A man leaves behind the tight connection he has with his parents to form an even tighter connection with his wife. And the two become one. 

So when you feed and nurture your wife you are feeding and nurturing yourself. This illustrates how Christ loves the church—which is his body—and of which we are a part.

32-33 Thus you can see that marriage is an important picture, demonstrating the relationship between Christ and his church. This makes it all the more important for you husbands to love your wives and for you wives to respect your husbands.

Genesis 1:24-31

 

Then God said, “Let the earth produce all the diverse kinds of animals: the domesticated critters, the reptiles, and the wildlife.”

And it happened according to his spoken command. 

25 God made all sorts of animals -- wildlife, domesticated, and the creatures that crawl on the ground. God made them all! And God concluded that the animals were good and life-giving.

26 Once again God spoke, “Let’s make humanity -- the people -- in our image. That way they can be like us and thus be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the domesticated animals, all the crawling things on earth -- and even the earth itself.”

27 God created humanity in his own image, in the divine image he created them -- both male and female.

28 At his word, God then blessed them with the ability to reproduce and multiply with such virility that they’d master all the earth. He told them to “take charge of the fish, the birds, and all the other animals crawling around on the ground.”

29 Then God blessed them further saying, “I am giving you all the seed-yielding plants and the fruiting trees for food. 30 To all living animals -- the wildlife, the birds, and to critters crawling on the ground -- I am giving all the green leafy plants for food.”

And once again, it happened according to his spoken command.

31 God surveyed the entire creation -- including the people and animals -- and declared that they were extremely good and life-giving.

That is what happened on the sixth day.

Matthew 6:9-13

Pray like this:

Our Father, even though you’re in heaven we honor you here and now as the one and only.

10 Establish your reign on earth so that everything is done here in your way and according to your heavenly standards.

11 Please, give us exactly what we need to get through the day.

12 Don’t keep track of all the ways we have wronged you; we will do the same for those who have wronged us.

13 Protect us from thinking and doing things that are inconsistent with you and your practices. Rescue us from the Devil as he pitches his agenda.

2 Timothy 3:14-17

But you need to keep doing the things that you learned -- the things which were imprinted onto the core of your being as you were taught by some very solid teachers. 15 Since early childhood your life has been steeped in the holy writings that have shaped you into a wise person and led you to trust Christ Jesus for your salvation. 16 All parts of scripture are God-breathed and are useful for teaching truth, for revealing our mistakes, for correcting those mistakes, and for our character development. 17 Through scripture those who belong to God are fully equipped to do good.

Luke 16:1-13

Jesus told a story to his apprentices, "Once upon a time a certain wealthy tycoon caught wind of the fact that his live-in estate manager was abusing the company credit card -- big time. 2 So he summoned the manager to his office, read him the riot act, and told him they were doing an audit on the account.

3 “The manager could read the writing on the wall and fell into a deep funk. 'I'm too old to do manual labor and I can't afford to take an entry-level position. Besides, who'd hire me?' he mused. 4 But suddenly he got an idea that involved ingratiating several customers so they'd feel obligated to house and care for him once he was fired.

5 “One by one, the manager sent for the people who owed his boss money. To the first he said, ‘Remind me of how much you owe.’ 6 The man replied, ‘$900,000.’ The unscrupulous manager told him, ‘This is your lucky day. The boss needs to add some tax write-offs so I've decided to reduce your debt to $450,000.'  7 Then the manager said to another, ‘How much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘$100,000.’ The manager fed him a similar story and wrote off $20,000 of this man's debt.’

8 “Now, you're probably thinking that the boss was infuriated when he found out about the shenanigans of his crooked manager -- but he was surprisingly amused by his resourcefulness.

"So," said Jesus, "isn't it interesting that the worldly people are more motivated and resourceful as they milk their relationships than are the people who are agents of the light. 9 Listen up, you should be developing and leveraging relationships so that once everything you have in life is gone you'll find a warm welcome into eternal homes.

10 “Note the principle of continuity. The person who can be trusted with small matters can be trusted with more responsibility. Likewise, the person who cuts small corners and is untrustworthy in the little things will end up doing the same if he's ever given charge over more. 11 IOW, if you are untrustworthy in the way that you deal with the wealth that belongs to the world, who'll trust you with the riches that really matter? 12 If you've been untrustworthy with someone else’s property don't expect them to give you property of your own. 

13 Likewise, a domestic servant can realistically only serve one household and boss. If you try otherwise you'll be constantly comparing them and end up loathing one while you love the other. Your loyalties will be divided and you'll be committed to one while you're detached from the other. You simply can't serve God while you're a slave to building your financial portfolio.”

Psalm 1:1-6

 A very discerning person is truly happy because he doesn’t listen to the free advice offered by vile and wicked people. Likewise he doesn’t keep company with those who major in sin or allow the jaded cynics to influence him. 2 Instead, these men and women are so in love with GOD’s instructions that they spend their days and nights chewing on scripture. 

3 In this way they are like trees that have been planted next to a stream of water -- evergreen trees which are reliably fruitful. Success is theirs in all that they do. 

4 Such is certainly NOT true for the wicked! These people are like lifeless dry dust blown in the wind. 5 And that’s why these reprobates won’t have a leg to stand on when they’re hauled into court to face justice on the day of judgement. The same goes for sinners when they try to be seated in the congregation of decent people. There won’t be any place for them to sit!

6 The Lord is intimately involved with right-living people as they make their way through life. But the wicked traveler will find the pathway charcterized by wreckage and destruction of their own doing.