Episode 762
The Message of John: Radical Incarnation and Everyday Divinity | Ep 762
Radical Incarnation and Neighborhood Spirituality
Welcome to "The Daily. Bible Refresh" where Rev. Dr. Brad Miller delves into a fresh, enlightening approach to understanding scripture through the daily Bible refresh. Today’s discussion revolves around an impactful reading from the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verses 10-18, using The Message interpretation. This episode presents critical insights into experiencing divine light in our everyday lives and encourages listeners to embody spirituality in their communities.
Key Takeaways:
- Radical Incarnation and Embodied Spirituality: Rev. Dr. Brad Miller explores the concept of radical incarnation, emphasizing that God's presence is not a distant, abstract idea but a tangible reality in our everyday lives. He discusses how the divine light, embodied through Jesus, has moved into our neighborhoods. This understanding shifts the focus from searching for God in sacred, far-off places to finding Him in the ordinary spaces of our lives—in our homes, workplaces, and daily activities. By recognizing and embracing God's presence in every aspect of life, listeners are encouraged to experience a more personal and integrated spirituality.
- Authentic Self and Divine Connection: This episode makes a profound distinction between the identities we inherit and our true selves as children of God. Rev. Dr. Brad Miller asserts that our authentic identities are not defined by societal expectations or traditional roles but by our divine connection to God. By embracing this divine identity, individuals can express their true selves and live more meaningful lives. This takeaway encourages listeners to reflect on their own identities and to seek authenticity through their spiritual relationship with God, rather than conforming to external pressures and inherited identities.
- Abundance Over Scarcity: Dr. Miller challenges the prevalent scarcity mindset in society and highlights the endless abundance of divine love and grace. The scriptural passage underscores the concept of generous abundance—gift after gift after gift—suggesting that divine resources are inexhaustible. This perspective fosters a sense of hope and generosity, prompting individuals to share their blessings and resources rather than hoarding them. Listeners are encouraged to adopt a mindset of abundance in their spiritual and communal lives, understanding that God's grace is always sufficient and available for everyone.
Action Step: To apply these insights, the episode suggests practicing neighborhood incarnation—seeing God in your everyday environments and expressing the holy within your community. Whether in a coffee shop, school, workplace, or volunteer setting, listeners are encouraged to recognize and document how God's light illuminates their lives and the lives of those around them.
Resource Highlight: Don't miss out on the free resource, the ABC 123 Bible Study Guide, available at voiceofgoddaily.com. This guide makes Bible study simple and engaging, helping you dive deeper into scripture with ease.
Join Rev. Dr. Brad Miller in this transformative journey of seeing and experiencing God in the light of everyday life and be inspired to live out your true, divine self. Tune in tomorrow for another enriching episode of "To Be Encouraged."
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The "Daily Bible Refresh" is presented each day by Rev. Dr. Brad Miller who has a goal of speaking a bit of the bible into two million ears (one million people) in three years (2025-2028).
He is the author of "The A, B, C-1,2,3 Bible Study Guide" Free to you by clicking HERE.
Brad served as a local church pastor for forty years and has a background in radio and podcasting. Moreover, he is a life-long student of The Bible.
He believes in the words of Jesus that “scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21)
The "Daily Bible Refresh" is available seven days a week by 6:00 am ET. The episodes are no longer than ten minutes long and are...
- Understandable: A reading from the New Testament (usually the Gospel) selected from the Revised Common Lectionary using "The Message" translation.
- Relatable: You will have a couple of "points to ponder" from the text which will relate to your life
- Applicable: Every episode includes a way you can take action based on the reading
- A recommended resource to help you go deeper in biblical study and spiritual direction.
- A prayer for your day.
A companion resource to the Voice of God Daily Podcast is the “ABC Bible Study Guide” available by clicking HERE.
The "Daily Bible Refresh" is available every day at VoiceofGodDaily.com on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all major podcast directories.
You can help Dr. Brad attain his goal of getting a bit of the bible into two million ears by subscribing to "Daily Bible Refresh" on Apple Podcasts, leaving a five-star rating, and writing a review. More importantly please share with your network of family and friends about the "Daily Bible Refresh".
Please make listening to the "Daily Bible Refresh" a part of your daily life.
Remember… “All scripture is God-breathed and useful”(2 Timothy 3:16)
Transcript
Hello, good people, and welcome to the Daily
Speaker:Bible Refresh brought to you by Voice
Speaker:of God Daily. I am doctor Brad Miller
Speaker:and indeed this is the Bible study where we come
Speaker:to you every day to bring you a fresh approach to reading the
Speaker:scripture from the revised common lectionary.
Speaker:We're in year c, and this is this particular
Speaker:reading for the 2nd Sunday after
Speaker:Christmas prior to epiphany, which is January
Speaker:6th. So we read the scripture in a way that is
Speaker:understandable. So we read it from the message interpretation of the
Speaker:Bible, which is and we also read only the new
Speaker:testament reading for this particular day. We make
Speaker:it relatable by giving you a couple of points to ponder to
Speaker:think about, and we make it understandable and applicable into your
Speaker:life and, by giving you an action point. We're for
Speaker:prayer, and then we send you on your way in
Speaker:less than 10 minutes or so. Our reading for the day is from the
Speaker:gospel of John chapter 1 verses
Speaker:10 through 18, reading from the
Speaker:message. The life light
Speaker:was the real thing. Every person every person
Speaker:entering life, he brings into light.
Speaker:He was in the world. The world was there through him, and
Speaker:yet the world didn't even notice. He came to his own people, but
Speaker:they didn't want him. But whoever did want him, who believed he
Speaker:was who he claimed and would do what he said, he
Speaker:made to be their true selves, their child
Speaker:of god selves.
Speaker:These are the God begotten,
Speaker:not blood begotten, not flesh begotten, not sex
Speaker:begotten. The word became flesh and blood and moved into the
Speaker:neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one of
Speaker:a kind glory like a father, like son,
Speaker:generous inside and out, true from start to finish.
Speaker:John pointed him out and called out, this is the one, the one I
Speaker:told you was coming after me but, in fact, was ahead of
Speaker:me. He has always been ahead of me. He has always had the
Speaker:first word. We all live off of His generous
Speaker:abundance, gift after gift
Speaker:after gift. We got the basics from
Speaker:Moses, and then this exuberant
Speaker:giving and receiving. This endless
Speaker:knowing and understanding, all of this came through Jesus,
Speaker:the Messiah. No one has ever
Speaker:seen God, not so much as even a glimpse.
Speaker:This one of a kind God expression
Speaker:who exists at the very heart of the father has made him
Speaker:plain as day. What a
Speaker:what a tremendous passage of scripture on this
Speaker:2nd Sunday after Christmas. It's all about kind
Speaker:of it's all about experiencing a divine light in your
Speaker:neighborhood. And as we reflect on this passage of scripture,
Speaker:I would like you to think about this this reading for John is
Speaker:very poetic, about the poetic incarnation
Speaker:or the coming of God into reality, into our world
Speaker:through Jesus, and whose divine
Speaker:presence of god is right here in our midst.
Speaker:A couple of points to ponder and think about. One of them is that
Speaker:this is radical. We might call it radical
Speaker:incarnation. That is that God moved
Speaker:into our very neighborhood. God is with
Speaker:us, and this beautifully captures
Speaker:the revolutionary nature of incarnation. It isn't
Speaker:about some distant far off thing, God who's woo
Speaker:wooing out there in the heavens somewhere,
Speaker:about something distance, but it's about real life right here, right now.
Speaker:It's about God's presence in the ordinary parts of life, the everyday
Speaker:spaces of your life and mine.
Speaker:Our approach to Christianity like this embraces
Speaker:this, what we may call, embodied spirituality. It becomes part of the
Speaker:body. Finding God not just in a at a church or
Speaker:some sacred place, but in a garden, in your car,
Speaker:in playing with your kids, in
Speaker:speaking against some injustice in your community, or in a
Speaker:neighborhood party or with dinner with friends.
Speaker:In the mundane and the difficult at all things, God is
Speaker:there. Now the point to think about is our true
Speaker:selves versus an inherited identity. That is John makes a
Speaker:distinction here between identities we inherit, you know, the blood
Speaker:begotten, flesh begotten, and so on, and our authentic
Speaker:child of God selves. This speaks
Speaker:to an understanding of a chosen
Speaker:identity and authentic self expression,
Speaker:and it really tells us that our true selves emerge
Speaker:not from expectations of others or of society
Speaker:or any traditional roles, but from embracing our
Speaker:divine connection. One more thing here that I think is
Speaker:important that has to do with the comparison of abundance over
Speaker:scarcity, because the this text here speaks about abundance,
Speaker:generous abundance, and gift after gift after gift.
Speaker:And this challenges a lot of the scarcity mindsets that are in our world right
Speaker:now, and it's in our religious world, and it's in our society politically
Speaker:and no otherwise. And, progressive theology
Speaker:emphasizes that divine love and grace are inexhaustible.
Speaker:It's a resource we can never run out of. The pie
Speaker:is never short. It is always there. There's always enough pie
Speaker:to go around. There, especially
Speaker:when the resources are shared and not hoarded
Speaker:by selfishness. Here's your action step.
Speaker:I want you to practice what we might call neighborhood incarnation, that is seeing
Speaker:God in your everyday life, and choose some way
Speaker:that you can express and understand the
Speaker:holy within your life and see it in your
Speaker:immediate community. See it in the coffee shop you go to. See
Speaker:it at your school. See it at your workplace. It
Speaker:might mean see it in a place where you volunteer.
Speaker:See it in a place how you care for your community,
Speaker:or simply try to be present to the needs of somebody else.
Speaker:And you might even want to document this, write it down or record it, and
Speaker:see how God's life light
Speaker:illuminates your life.
Speaker:Before we pray, I wanna mention to you about a resource we have available to
Speaker:you. I put it together for you. It's called the ABC
Speaker:123 Bible study guide, and it really just makes studying your
Speaker:Bible as easy as ABC in 123. You gotta check it out. So you
Speaker:just go to voice of god daily.com. That's our website, and you can
Speaker:get a free copy of it right there. My name
Speaker:is, doctor Brad Miller, and it is always a joy to be with
Speaker:you here on the daily Bible refresh.
Speaker:I'll be with you again here tomorrow. Until that time,
Speaker:we've just please just remember that God's loyal love doesn't run
Speaker:out. His merciful love never dries up, is
Speaker:created new every morning.
