verseoftheday

Now a man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.  Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair, and it was her brother Lazarus who was sick. So the sisters sent a message to him:  "Lord, the one you love is sick." John 11:1-3 CSB This is a long account that starts with a message about a sick person and ends with death threats and Jesus going to ground and hiding away.  At the beginning is this most human of stories, a story repeated again and again in our lives and the lives of those we care about, beautifully wrapped up in 7 words: "Lord,  the one you love  is sick." People caring about those they love and getting a message to Jesus.  Those people who are on our hearts today, those in need, those not well, let's get a message to Jesus today. Lord,  The one you love is... #lovepeople #pray

Paul,  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope: To Timothy, my true son in the faith.  Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 1 Timothy 1:1-2 CSB Paul gives a snapshot of who he is, wraps in Timothy, the person he is writing to, and then gives this beautiful blessing: Grace,  mercy,  and peace  from God the Father  and Christ Jesus our Lord. The word for peace here is "eirene" and it carries the meaning of one, of  peace, quietness, rest. Peace of mind.  Because of Grace, because of God's mercy, we can have peace.  Oneness. Peace of mind.  Seems hard when all we might be listening to is negative stories, the world pushing in, my own negative thoughts. But Paul says start with Grace. Add mercy. It's God's story and He is entering into it in a humble, sacrificial, beautiful way, to meet us, to make a way to reconcile.  He has stepped towards us. Grace and mercy. Because He is love, and

Paul,  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope: To Timothy, my true son in the faith.  Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 1 Timothy 1:1-2 CSB Paul wraps Tim in to his whanau here. Reminds him that no matter what circumstances he finds himself in, no matter what pressure he might be under, no matter how lonely he might feel, Timothy has someone who has his back, will fight for him in the spiritual battle, and in life. Paul was an apostle which kind of puts him on a different level from the rest of us, and calling someone your true child in the faith feels a bit presumptuous or something, but maybe there's someone who needs to know that you have their back, that you're on their team, they're in your heart, they belong, they're whanau. Who needs to hear that from you? When Jesus said he would leave the 99 safe and go to find the lost 1, when he said he was the way, when he said he is comin

Don't move an ancient boundary marker that your ancestors set up. Proverbs 22:28 CSB Why do I even need to be told this? Because my heart can be so sneaky that my desire for more will just crib a bit off you, make that deal a little sweeter for me, take an advantage wherever I can. It really is a heart thing.  Jesus moved the boundary markers, not in his direction, but in ours. Paul in Philippians 2 describes him as a servant. Serving us! Have I ever been tempted to sneak the boundary marker in my neighbours direction?  Every time we give without expecting or wanting anything in return, every time we reach out, step towards encourage someone without our own agenda, every time we sit and listen without having to speak or fix, every time we wait with or wait for someone who is hurting, suffering in some way, every time we serve with contentment, give joyfully, we are moving the boundary marker towards our neighbour.  May we find a way today to nudge a boundary today. #proverbs #wisdo

Friday! Proverbs! Don't move an ancient boundary marker that your ancestors set up. Proverbs 22:28 CSB Sure. No problem.  In our modern age of surveyors and land titles what does this proverb matter? Deuteronomy 19:14 says that the ancient boundaries were put there by God, and 27:17 pronounces a curse on anyone who moves them. God's view of land was something more important than a commodity to be carved up and bought and sold, that His intentions for His people are connected to the land. Connected to a sense of place and belonging.  What relevance in our modern world though is this instruction?  If I move a boundary marker it's not likely I'm doing it to make my land smaller, but to make mine bigger.  A land boundary marker affects not just me, but my neighbour, when my land gets bigger, my neighbours gets smaller, so implied here is this is me being sneaky and gaining something at my neighbours expense, taking something I have no right to. Perhaps moving the boundary l

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope:  1 Timothy 1:1 CSB I don't write a lot of letters, but they usually start with "Hi", "Hello", "Happy birthday" or "Kia ora". When we meet people we try to place them in some way, ask where they're from, what they do. Or we place them or ourselves by our whakapapa, the places and people who are part of our story. And that's what Paul does in 19 words.  "No matter what else you may have heard about me, this is the important stuff: God's called me. I'm doing his work. Jesus is my boss. And my hope." What jumps out at you from Paul's placement statement? For me it's "Christ Jesus my hope". Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus, had a miraculous healing, completely turned his life around, been through life threatening situations, been hurt and abused, planted churches, wrote half the Bible (Ok maybe not half

So he departed again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. Many came to him and said, "John never did a sign, but everything John said about this man was true." And many believed in him there. John 10:40-42 CSB People met Jesus, and everything that John had said about him lined up with the reality.  John wasn't the saviour, or the miracle worker, but he was pointing to Jesus. May that be our witness, my witness too, may what I do and say be as accurate a picture of Jesus as possible, so that others might say that too: everything he said about Jesus was true.  It's getting more difficult to ask people to church with restricted numbers, but Jesus wasn't found in church here. Church is not needed for someone to meet Jesus, just people like John who are making a way, making space, being open and representing who Jesus is well. And we can leave the saving to Jesus. #belikeJohn #loveotherswell

Then they were trying again to seize him, but he escaped their grasp. So he departed again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. John 10:39-40 CSB Could Jesus have stayed and kept arguing? Perhaps even have won some of them over to believe in him? Kept using his power to keep himself safe? Yes I'm sure he could have, but at least for the short term putting a boundary in place was better.  Jesus while moved with compassion for people, he also gave himself space.  Maybe there's something  in this for us, to be OK with having boundaries, to having space, especially from those who have their own agenda, are toxic towards us, want us to conform to their view of us. Jesus had superpowers that we don't have, and still decided that a boundary was better.  Are there people, places, activities, that we would be better off "crossing the Jordan River" from? After those confrontations with the Jews, the threats, the opposi

Then they were trying again to seize him, but he escaped their grasp. John 10:39 CSB Jesus was having a convo with the Jewish leaders, and they didn't agree with what he had to say. In v 31 they were preparing to stone Jesus, kill him with rocks.  In v 33 they tell us why - blasphemy - claiming to be God.  This was not just some heated theological discussion going on here, they'd already seized him at least once, a group of men prepared to kill another becuase of who he claimed to be, becuase of his words.  Words matter. Ideas matter. Jesus told them don't just listen to my words but see what I've been doing, my life speaks of who God is. But for this group of people their ideas were the ones that should prevail.  I don't think Jesus breaks their grip with strength, does a runner becuase he's stronger and faster, he shows them that he is God by just walking away from their grasp. A miracle worked not just in front of them, but in them.  A group of people had Jes

Don't agree to guarantee another person's debt or put up security for someone else.  If you can't pay it, even your bed will be snatched from under you. Proverbs 22:26-27 NLT With the benefit of our place in history we can glimpse Jesus in this proverb.  Jesus knew the price that he would pay for guaranteeing our debt. There's a vulnerability in losing your bed, having no where to sleep, and Jesus knew that too (see Matthew 10). Jesus knew there was a greater price to pay, and paid it.  He was the only one who could.  And as a result, we are set free.  Free from the debt my sin creates.  I don't always "get" that, don't always grasp the grace of that, the love that is woven into what Jesus did, but that doesn't make it any less true.  On the other side of truth is freedom.  Freedom from having the burden of being enough, being good enough, because my forgiveness, your forgiveness, ours, does not depend on us.  Everything was snatched from Jesus, ye

Don't agree to guarantee another person's debt or put up security for someone else.  If you can't pay it, even your bed will be snatched from under you. Proverbs 22:26-27 NLT Some feedback on this proverb yesterday included other areas where we take on responsibility, or the debt of others.  That might be someone else's emotional debt, trying to rescue them from their feelings and what's going on for them by taking it on myself.  And then there's parenting where we don't want to see our children hurt or fail so we take on all the responsibility for them (while at the same time knowing that failure isn't fatal and some of our own most important growth happened in those times).  In Mark 10:17 Jesus meets a young man who has a question for him. Shortly after this meeting Jesus is going to go to the cross to take on all this man's debt, take full responsibility for his sin into himself, yet in this account, Jesus in his humanity let's the young man l

Friday! Proverbs! Don't agree to guarantee another person's debt or put up security for someone else.  If you can't pay it, even your bed will be snatched from under you. Proverbs 22:26-27 NLT This proverb is all about thinking carefully before you agree to be part of a financial deal involving someone else. You might actually have to pay up, and are you prepared for that? The likelihood of having to pay seems small, so we kind of write off the potential consequences quickly and jump in.  It's just practical wisdom. And I wonder if it has a wider application in our lives. Maybe it's alcohol, drugs, the things we consume on the internet, food...I can convince myself easily that there won't be any consequences, any price to pay for me.  Or at a deeper spiritual level...I don't need Christian community, I can get by without opening my Bible...the consequences seem so small or unlikely or far away in the future... This proverb encourages me to think that there a

Come,  let's worship and bow down;  let's kneel before the Lord our Maker.  For he is our God,  and we are the people of his pasture,  the sheep under his care. Psalms 95:6-7 CSB Here in the middle of this song we get this beautiful invitation to gather together. The psalmist uses the picture of sheep, not scattered, not alone, but together under the care of the great shepherd.  Safe. The people of his pasture seems to acknowledge who's world we live in. And together we bow down.  Together we worship. Not a lot of bowing down in my church when we meet together to worship. Not a lot of kneeling down. Quite easy to write that off as a cultural thing, that I'm bowing down in my heart, or raising holy hands inside, and yes it is a heart thing, and worship is not all about a set of rituals, but I wonder if we resist bowing down because our hearts are not quite there? We are an embodied soul and what we do with our bodies does matter.  No matter how we express it, let's a

For the Lord  is a great God,  a great King  above all gods.  The depths of the earth are in his hand,  and the mountain peaks are his.  The sea is his;  he made it.  His hands  formed the dry land. Psalms 95:3-5 CSB It seems that the psalmist here is looking for the most powerful things, the biggest and most expansive things that are in his experience. The power of Kings and the power that the gods seem to have over people. Whatever it is that goes on inside the earth. I wonder if he had ever seen a volcano or a lava flow? The height of the mountains  The expanse, the power, the wonder, of the sea. Everything he attributes to Yahweh, to God.  The psalmist is grounding us the best way he can in God's world. Placing us firmly in God's world. May we today, Plant ourselves In God's world. May we today Open our eyes To his creation To his beauty To what he has made And see Him in it. Know that  We are part of it May we today See the power The height The depth The expanse  Of Go

Come,  let's shout joyfully to the Lord,  shout triumphantly to the rock of our salvation! Let's enter his presence with thanksgiving;  let's shout triumphantly to him in song. Psalms 95:1-2 CSB In the midst of all the noise and the shouting and the praise to God, in the midst of the crowd raising it's collective voice, in the midst of the emotions and stirring of hearts, there's a still point. Thanksgiving. A heart of thanks. A heart of gratitude. I'm not sure that I have cultivated this well in my own life. I can focus on what I don't have so easily. I can find the negative without any effort.  Today I'm choosing to start with Thanksgiving. For the psalmist the focus is on God, so that's where I'll start too.  Jesus summed up the whole of the Old Testament with Love God and Love people, so that will be next, thankful for the people He has graciously put in my life.  Start in the stillpoint of Thanksgiving. Of gratitude.  #thanks #psalms #psalm9

Come,  let's shout joyfully to the Lord,  shout triumphantly to the rock of our salvation! Psalms 95:1 CSB Shouting seems to have its place in our culture. When I'm angry. During the haka. And when we used to win rugby or cricket matches... But in church? In worship? Sometimes when we're singing we can let those emotions roll and shouting God's goodness  happens...but David is calling us here to shout.  Shout with joy  Shout with triumph Not about anything that we have done or achieved, not about anything that is even going on in our lives, but it's about who God is.  When we really let our minds consider the Lord, Yahweh, the rock of our salvation, then it may well lead to shouting. Fortunately for us the Psalms are songs, so shouting out in song is OK! I have a collection of songs on Spotify called Battle Songs. Songs I need sometimes to shout about and to God. It's OK to do that.  The psalmist says to get those battle songs, victory songs, Thanksgiving songs

"If I am not doing my Father's works, don't believe me.  But if I am doing them and you don't believe me, believe the works.  This way you will know and understand that the Father is in me and I in the Father. John 10:37-38 CSB Jesus isn't interested in some intellectual argument, he's saying look at my life. Take your blinkers off and look at my life. Put your biases aside and look at my life. Put your agenda aside and look at my life. As we do that today, we see Jesus who is moved with compassion, who acts, steps in, steps towards, brings healing and hope.  He's the same today, and calls us to simply follow him. Be moved with compassion. Take action. Step in, step towards, bring healing and hope.  May our lives tell the gospel, so that when the world, the culture, those around us want an answer, it's not our words but our life that tells the story.  Yes we mess it up, get it wrong, don't paint the accurate picture that Jesus does, but it's abo

Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered,  or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared. Proverbs 22:24-25 NIV I wonder if the writer of this proverb wrote it today, what might be included in things that can snare us, snare our soul, our personhood.  Would it be the influence of social media on our lives, on what is important, of what beautiful looks like, the danger of not measuring up to some social ideal? Would it be the ideas of our age, how they can capture us into thinking they are the only way to live, that their values are paramount? Would it be the normalisation of violence and abuse in our homes? Would it be the belief that change is not possible, that hope is not real? The world is a complex place and this proverb acknowledges the challenges, and quietly reminds us that we do have the power to choose.  The power to choose who we spend time with, to limit time with those people who are toxic, to ask for help. We get to

Friday! Proverbs! Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered,  or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared. Proverbs 22:24-25 NIV Good advice. And this proverb reminds us that we are influenced by those we spend time with, influenced in ways we may not have considered - our emotional responses. The warning about getting yourself ensnared is literally snaring your soul. The word for soul here is "nephesh"; a soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite, emotion. It's the emotional centre of who we are is at risk of being trapped by someone else's way of responding. So be careful who you spend lots of time with. It's really difficult when we don't have a choice, when that person is our boss, a parent, teacher. We can't always just manage our time with them, so being aware of the influence of others is a good start.  Putting in boundaries for ourselves, asking for help to do that, he

They replied, "We're stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God." John 10:33 NLT What an insight into how we humans are...they didn't seem to be able, or willing, to ask themselves the question "what if Jesus is who he says he is?". What if he isn't being blasphemous but honest? Way back in John 1:46 they already had an idea that Jesus couldn't be the Messiah becuase of where he was from. Their cultural ideas were clouding their view of Jesus.  It can be really hard to step out of our culture to see Jesus. Our cultural ideas of Church, worship,  community, or even of what Jesus looked like (see Isaiah 53:2). These people wanted to keep Jesus in a box of their own making, so much so that they wanted to stone Jesus right there. They were judge, jury, executioner.  Sometimes in this complex world I can lose sight of the simplicity of the gospel, of what Jesus said, and the truth of who he is.  Matthew 22:34-40

Again the Jews picked up rocks to stone him. Jesus replied,  "I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these works are you stoning me?" "We aren't stoning you for a good work," the Jews answered, "but for blasphemy, because you - being a man - make yourself God." John 10:31-33 CSB This group of people were crystal clear that Jesus had claimed to be God. Interesting that they were willing to accept the miracles and signs as being from God, things that a person could do - in John 9 it was a person who was born blind. That person didn't have his sight restored, because he'd never had it. Jesus created sight in him. This is a taste of becoming a new creation in Jesus. Anyhow it seems that the Jews could somehow accept that Jesus works were God working through someone, not God at work, right in front of them. They couldn't accept Jesus claim that he was the son of God, the Messiah they'd been waiting for, looking for. 

"My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.  No one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all.  No one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.  I and the Father are one." John 10:27-30 CSB What jumps off the page (or more likely off the screen) for you from these verses? Maybe it's that Jesus knows us.  Or that we have this thing called eternal life. Maybe it's this intertwining of God the Father and Jesus...for me today it's safety.  No one can snatch us from Jesus' hand. No one can snatch us from the Father's hand.  Implied in that is there are people or forces at play who want to, who are trying to, tear us away. But they cannot.  We're kept safe not through our effort or strength or work, but Jesus'.  We are safe in him. Safe. Safe. #truth #truthtorestin

Then the Festival of Dedication took place in Jerusalem, and it was winter. Jesus was walking in the temple in Solomon's Colonnade.  The Jews surrounded him and asked,  "How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." "I did tell you and you don't believe," Jesus answered them.  "The works that I do in my Father's name testify about me." John 10:22-25 CSB This sounds like an unfriendly press conference. Jesus surrounded, facing the questions, because several times we've heard of these guys arguing amongst themselves, not sure what to believe about Jesus.  Is he who he says he is? Because if he is, if he is the Messiah, we need to get on his team.  And Jesus response? I've told you who I am. That hasn't changed, so I'm not going to argue that with you.  And. Look at what I've been doing. That's my testimony.  What I say and what I do have integrity, they say the same thing.  I wond

Don't rob a poor person because he is poor,  and don"t crush the oppressed at the city gate,  for the Lord will champion their cause and will plunder those who plunder them. Proverbs 22:22-23 CSB When this proverb talks about the poor who comes to mind? When it mentions the oppressed who pops up? Who are those stuck at the city gate who can't get in and be part of society? The very fact that I can think that I'm "in the city" and that there are poor relative to me, that there are those in the margins relative to me, shows me that at least in some ways, in some areas of life, I am privileged. And it can be so fleeting. Status, health, wealth, whatever it is that gives me that privilege can go so easily. Jesus came to usher in a new kingdom, an upside down kingdom where the things that separate us are removed, demolished.  Where love rules. Love for God, and love for those around us.  Where oppressive systems are flipped. #proverbs #wisdom #somethingtochewon #l

Don't rob a poor person because he is poor,  and don"t crush the oppressed at the city gate,  for the Lord will champion their cause and will plunder those who plunder them. Proverbs 22:22-23 CSB There's a bit more to this proverb than a moral requirement...God's heart for the poor, his heart for the oppressed, the marginalised, the vulnerable, is exposed.  The other thing that's exposed here are the systems that marginalise people and keep them there. As we sit with this proverb questions pop up like why are there people living at the margins, at the city gate, vulnerable to being plundered? What are the systems that allow that to continue? What makes it OK for society? There is hope here for those trapped in poverty, in abusive families, trapped at the margins, at the city gate.  God sees you. And He is not happy about the way people's hearts have structured things to benefit some and exploit others, use others, abuse others. Some days it would just be better

Friday! Proverbs! Don't rob a poor person because he is poor, and don't crush the oppressed at the city gate, Proverbs 22:22 CSB Why would someone rob a poor person?  Doesn't it seem like high risk, low reward? A poor person is vulnerable.  A poor person has less power. A poor person has no one to call to, or no one who will believe them, or no one will care.  Don't rob a poor person becuase you can get away with it. Who is it that's at the city gate? The vulnerable, the left out, the excluded. Excluded from society for some reason. Illness, disability, ethnicity... maybe poor choices, maybe circumstances that have been beyond their control.  But they're people.  I'm quite subtle in my crushing work. It's a joke, or joining in a conversation about someone, or a label that pops into my mind that I don't challenge.  It's in not seeing the vulnerable person in front of me, because I haven't cared enough to hear their story.  "Lord, help me

Again the Jews were divided because of these words. Many of them were saying, "He has a demon and he's crazy. Why do you listen to him?" Others were saying, "These aren"t the words of someone who is demon-possessed.  Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?" John 10:19-21 CSB Jesus was right there and they didn't get him.  His words challenged the status quo and people tried to put labels on him to explain him away.  Crazy. Possessed. But they could not deny his works.  Today in our culture Jesus can be just as divisive, maybe the labels aren't the same, but they are there. (Good person, good teacher, irrelevant etc). But what of his works?  As followers of Jesus perhaps it's our works that people will see. Our acts of kindness, of healing, of care, of justice, of feeding the hungry, clothing those who need it. When those things seem too big, it's smiling, being kind to those we live with, study with, work with. Small steps of grace.  This is

But I have other sheep that are not from this sheep pen; I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd. John 10:16 CSB I've heard some interesting views on these words of Jesus that this is an indication that there's life on other planets...but as he's talking to the Jews, and just letting them know it's time to look outside your group.  These barriers that we've created between people based on how they look, or where they come from, or what language they speak, they've got to go. Jesus' vision here is that those things we use to separate one another will be gone.  Gone. There is no "them" with Jesus, there's just us. #nolabels

"I am the good shepherd. I know my own,  and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father.  I lay down my life for the sheep." John 10:14-15 CSB One thing that's crystal clear here is that Jesus loves us. Loves you. His picture of the shepherd and the sheep, and the shepherd willingly sacrificing himself for his sheep is a picture of love. This picture says something of the deep worth that Jesus sees in us.  In you. When we feel unworthy, when we think that we're not enough, not good enough, Jesus says "I know you, I see your worth, your value, and I willingly lay down my life for you. For you. You are worth it." There's a quote attributed to Brene Brown: "You are worthy of love and belonging" This is so good.  But Brene Brown doesn't know us.  Jesus does.  And Jesus says that you're so worthy of love, my love, so worthy of belonging with me, that I lay down my life for you, because I know you.  You are enough. Res

The hired hand, since he is not the shepherd and doesynt own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming.  The wolf then snatches and scatters them.  This happens because he is a hired hand and doesn't care about the sheep. John 10:12-13 CSB Do you notice the actions of the wolf? The wolf gets a hold on the sheep and scatters them. We are made for community. Made for relationships. The wolf, the enemy, the anti-shepherd, scatters, isolates, makes us think we have to do this life on our own, in our own strength.  The shepherd brings us together, gathers, holds us together.  When there is joy and goodness and victories, celebrate together. When the weight of the world is bearing down, when hope is hard to see, we need one another more than ever, don't get isolated. That isolating is the work of the anti-shepherd.  In Matt 18 and Luke 15 is the parable of the lost sheep. The one sheep who is separated, isolated from the rest.  Jesus gathers and restores the los