If you had to pick two, and only two, passages from Scripture to inspire you as to how you ought to live your life, which would they be?
Why two? I thought it would be good to allow an opportunity to choose a passage from the Hebrew Testament and the Christian Testament. However, if your two favorites are from one Testament, that's fine, too.
My two:
Micah 6:8
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
Luke 10:27 (or Matthew 22:37)
He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.’
Image from Wiki.
A Bible handwritten in Latin, on display in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. The Bible was written in Belgium in 1407 AD, for reading aloud in a monastery.
For me it would be "Because I live, so shall you live also." from John,
ReplyDeleteand the plea of the Father of the possessed son in Matthew "I have faith! Help me when faith falls short!"
and Psalm 146
"Do not put your trust in princes...."
ReplyDeleteThat's appropriate for this moment in history. All your choices are good. I'd give you A+, except that you noted three selections, and I asked for two. I'll make that an A. :-)
What do you do with your students who turn in more than you ask for, Counterlight? Give them extra points or fewer points?
OT Isaiah 43:1b -- Fear not for I have redeemed you - I have called you by name. When you pass through the waters I will be with you, and through rivers shall not overwhelm you; and when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, the flame shall not consume you.
ReplyDeleteNT Romans 8:38-39 -- nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ
Ann, your choices are on my rather long list of favorites.
ReplyDelete"Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me." - Epistle of the Andrews Sisters to the Troops 19:42
ReplyDelete"Aye, aye, aye I like you very much!" - 1 Brazilians, 19:49
Seriously. How do you decide?
"Be still and know that I am God," I guess, though I can't give you which psalm, and, from faulty memory, "My soul longs for the Lord as a deer longs for the water brook."
Though, at times, I find the most helpful verse to be from Job, though again with faulty memory to rely on, and the voice in reverb and shaking the Earth of my imagination:
"Declare! Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth?!"
Mark, the two passages I chose come to mind often, and if I actually lived the words, I'd come pretty close to following Jesus.
ReplyDeleteI understand. Those are the passages that tend to stick with me. I guess, whereas yours are more directly instructive, mine bring me again and again to consider my relationship to and with God.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's the instructive bit which has got me pondering. When I saw this last night my instant thought was that I would have picked the same two passages as Mimi. I thought, "I can't say that, that's just really boring of me," so I left it and tried to think of others. The problem with that though is that there are obviously many verses that I love or that make me think, or both, but if it comes to the basic "How do you live your life" bit, I'm not sure I can go past Mimi's choice.
ReplyDeleteMimi, not trying to suck up to you or anything. That was my honest reaction.
Matthew 6:25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink," or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?" (also in Luke 12:22-23)
ReplyDeleteI try, and sometimes succeed, but mostly try.
Romans 8:14 "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God."
I like all of the 8th chapter of Romans, it says a lot about how we and the rest of creation are still in process, but 8:14 reminds me that God speaks to ALL people.
Mother Amelia - Matt 6 - consider the lilies of the field - I did a funeral one time and the person had been a gardener and chose this passage for her funeral
ReplyDeleteAnn, I also did a funeral for a woman who just loved that passage. The whole passage is a reminder to me to travel this life a bit more lightly that I tend to. Moving around doing interims helps to shed some of the baggage.
ReplyDeleteMy wv-skinest. Just add an "i" and that's how I'd like to live. In a skiniest possible way.
I'm cheating slightly, but I'd choose Psalm 8, from start to finish. I had this printed on my ordination cards in 1985.
ReplyDelete(Word verification for this post was rev ionai. Quite apt I thought)
Cathy, the two passages seem rather obvious to me as instructive, so I wouldn't have thought you were boring.
ReplyDeleteAmelia, your passages are on my long list of favorites, too.
Tom and I are in great need of a paring down process.
SR, Psalm 8 is lovely from start to finish.
The WV are beginning to spook me a little. So often, they seem to have meaning.
Job 1:20
ReplyDeleteJohn 3:17
And the favorite verse of my best friends in Te3xas is Isiah 43:1 and I think that one has stuck with me too. So, that's a third for me. Sorry.
Lindy, excellent choices, but you, like Counterlight, will lose points for not following directions. :-)
ReplyDeleteAbout the Job quote, do you act it out? If so, please have someone do a video next time.
hiya Mimi, I don't mean liking those passages is boring - far from it - I mean the fact that I couldn't come up with anything original.
ReplyDeleteCathy, I know what you meant. YOU are not boring, either, luv.
ReplyDeleteawwwww, thanks, Mimi!! Neither are you. Aren't we fabulous!!
ReplyDelete