My love obsession with the Message Bible stems from the books no nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is take on scriptures within the more traditional Bibles. Tonight’s reading was no different. Often times I take my God given free will as an opportunity to do whatever my heart and flesh desires. It is reminders like this that jolt me back to reality, I am not here to live for myself and my pursuit of all things Earlina ultimately leads to my pain and destruction. I pray you can relate.

19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom. (Galatians 2:19-21 MSG)

Love is the motive,
Earlina