verseoftheday

My child,  eat honey,  for it is good,  and the honeycomb is sweet to the taste.  In the same way,  wisdom is sweet to your soul.  If you find it,  you will have a bright future, and your hopes will not be cut short. Proverbs 24:13-14 NLT Do you get the stance of the writer of this proverb? "My child..." I don't think this is written to children but is coming from someone who is approaching the end of their life, with a heart that is full of love and care for the reader. "My child, as I look at you I just want you to hold some of the big things that I've learned and know, and here's one. Consuming wisdom like you would honey, as a treasure and gift from God, that is going to change your life, change what you hope for, change you.  Change you for good.  Allow wisdom in, just like honey, allow it in to those inmost parts, where it brings nourishment, and healing, and hope.  Arohanui my child" #proverbs #wisdom #somethingtochewon

Friday! Proverbs! My child,  eat honey,  for it is good,  and the honeycomb is sweet to the taste.  In the same way,  wisdom is sweet to your soul.  If you find it,  you will have a bright future, and your hopes will not be cut short. Proverbs 24:13-14 NLT I harvest my honey straight out of the pantry, but what if I had to go and find it? Search for it. Find a way to extract it without getting stung. In our modern world it's almost like a lot of wisdom is right there available with a few clicks...or is it? Does wisdom = information? Knowledge? Does wisdom = what someone else has learned? Their experience? Today I read an article about living more simply written by someone who experimented by wearing the same clothes for 100 days. She shared what she had learned.  I gained some wisdom from reading her story, but not as much as if I lived it out.  This proverb was written in a world where sweetness was hard to find, where the goodness of the honeycomb was not readily available, it to

Again he said, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you." Then he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." John 20:21-23 NLT In the middle of the resurrection story is this commission: "Peace be with you". This is repeated by Jesus so must carry some particular meaning. "As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you." Where or to what is Jesus sending them? Jesus breathed on them.  What was that like? Did he do that individually (like a hongi?) or some big breath over everyone? Was it like when God breathed Life into Adam? Didn't the disciples receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, yet they do here as well? The word here for "receive" is "lambano" which places weight on the choice of the receiver to accept. Did they get to choose to accept the HS? Can they now forgive sins like Jesu

"My Lord and my God!" Thomas exclaimed. Then Jesus told him,  "You believe because you have seen me.  Blessed are those who believe without seeing me." John 20:28-29NLT I don't know about you, but there's a bit of Thomas in me.  If only Jesus was right here, there'd be no room for doubt, all my questions would be answered, I'd get him to heal the people in my circle...having Jesus right here would be important for me.  It would help me. I think Thomas's story is here to help us be OK with wanting walking-around-Jesus to be here with us. And at the same time brings faith front and centre.  Faith makes it not about me, but about the one I put my faith in.  Faith lifts our eyes beyond our circumstances, lifts our gaze to God's Big Story.  Jesus says; blessed are you who believe.  Blessed are you who see by faith. Blessed are you who long to see me face to face yet live in the here and now of this world. Blessed are you who can hold doubt and mys

Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them.  "Peace be with you," he said.  Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don't be faithless any longer. Believe!" John 20:26-27 NLT It would be just a wee bit unsettling to have Jesus just appear inside a locked room don't you think?  Imagine being Thomas, so strong in his need to experience Jesus last week, so adamant that he needed to touch the wounds to believe, to believe his friends, and to believe in the resurrection.  Suddenly, Jesus is just there.  In the room.  And he's looking at me.  Talking to me.  It's all a bit much...what's he saying "here give me your hand, touch the scars..." It seemed so outrageous that Jesus could come back from death, and I really needed to see it for myself, and here&

That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! "Peace be with you," he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. John 20:19-20 NLT Who were the disciples afraid of? The Romans? No, they were locked away in fear because of their own people.  Images of people in the Ukraine locked away in fear this week come to mind. Some of them Russian speaking.  Their neighbours. Today in NZ we remember and honour those who gave up their lives for us, for our country, for a greater good in the world. And at the same time stand against war and the conflicts that rage between people.  We don't want anyone to have to be locked away in fear.  And neither did Jesus. His words to those locked away in fear "peace be with you". And as he spoke he showed them the impact of how he had absorbed the world's sin and carries its wounds.  Jesus i

One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he replied, "I won't believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side." John 20:24-25 NLT Thomas. Makes you wonder if he was a twin or there was someone who looked just like him. Thomas. Prepared to voice his thoughts with his crew.  I bet there was a robust conversation that day with Thomas, describing in detail what the disciples had experienced with Jesus becuase he was very clear about what he wanted to see.  Nail holes. Wounds. Thomas held his ground. He wanted to see what the others had seen.   He wasn't kicked out, there's no suggestion he was belittled, but was allowed to hold his doubt.  (I wonder how good I am at that, allowing people to hold their doubts and questions?) When we have doubts, questions about Jesus, stuff we just d

Rescue those being taken off to death, and save those stumbling toward slaughter. If you say,  "But we didn't know about this", won't he who weighs hearts consider it? Won't he who protects your life know?  Won't he repay a person according to his work? Proverbs 24:11-12 CSB This proverb includes 3 questions; and those questions are insights into who God is: He weighs hearts (OK not literally, He is interested in our motives. And He knows me) He protects your life (even when we don't feel protected, in the long run, the Big Story, my life is safe with Him. My life is valuable to Him) He will repay. Justice is who God is (and Jesus who stepped in and paid the price for me. Some days I get this, and yet often miss the enormity of it. That God, while we were still enemies, became the way by entering death for us. For me.) And the bit before the questions...He is a rescuer.  Which prompts my question: why?  Why is God even remotely interested in rescuing anyon

Friday! Proverbs! Rescue those being taken off to death, and save those stumbling toward slaughter. Proverbs 24:11 CSB Who is it that needs rescuing?  Is this about people going to war?  About someone on death row? Is it about spiritual death? Rescue those being taken off to death, and save those stumbling toward slaughter. If you say,  "But we didn't know about this", won't he who weighs hearts consider it? Won't he who protects your life know?  Won't he repay a person according to his work? Proverbs 24:11-12 CSB This proverb is about injustice.  It's about someone in my orbit, my community, my whanau, my church, who is being mistreated, abused, hurt, and I'm looking away.  I'm making excuses.  I don't want to see.  This is an OG (or is it just OT) version of the Good Samaritan story in Luke 10 where 2 people looked away and walked on by, where their fear, their stuff, their religion, was more important than another person's suffering.  &

As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord!  Again he said, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you." John 20:20-21 NLT Can you imagine the tears and the laughter, the touching the wounds, the hugs and the talk and the incredulity, the shock giving way to a new reality...the slow realisation of the enormity of what was going on, what had happened...Jesus was alive, brought back from death, the things he said about himself remembered and being understood in a new way...and the scars...this actually happened...and as their thoughts slow down, and the noise in the room subsides... "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you". Jesus' resurrection was the end of the beginning, for the disciples in that room that day, and for us.  One day we too will be face-to-face with Jesus, touch his scars, and there'll be laughter and questions and if ther

That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them!  "Peace be with you," he said. John 20:19 NLT "Peace be with you." Jesus' team are meeting locked away in fear. "Peace be with you." And Jesus turns up with this greeting/blessing/welcome/Haere mai "Peace be with you." The things that you're afraid of, that have you locked away in here, I've dealt with. "Peace be with you." Yes the Jewish leaders still are against you, yes the Roman government can still do what they did to me and end your life, yes you can still get sick or old or have a car accident, and at the same time, I'm here. "Peace be with you." Something fundamental has shifted.  "Peace be with you." And now you get to live in the light of this new thing.  "Peace be with you." May we accept Jesus greeting today, and live in

She turned to leave and saw someone standing there.  It was Jesus, but she didn't recognize him. "Dear woman, why are you crying?" Jesus asked her.  "Who are you looking for?" She thought he was the gardener.  "Sir", she said, "if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him." "Mary!" Jesus said.  John 20:14-16 NLT Have you ever wondered why Mary thought Jesus was the gardener? Not a mourner, not security, not someone tending the graves or digging one.  But a gardener.  Jesus who created the first garden, stayed up all night in the garden before his death, now wandering around so at home here he looks like a gardener. Maybe he was pulling some weeds on the way by.  Mistaken for the gardener Jesus has just saved the world, come back from death itself, and yet here he is, holding space for Mary, seeing her tears,  and knowing her name. This is resurrection life.  Our saviour who holds space for us

She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, "They have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!" John 20:2 NLT Mary was with others in the pre dawn darkness, and when she found the unexpected, she went looking for people who needed to know, who might be able to help her find Jesus. Community. We're in this together.  We were never designed to go through this life alone and Mary M is showing the way here.  Not sure who the "they" is - could be the government or the Jewish leaders - but she is still looking for a dead Jesus. Running. Trying to make sense of what she's seen. Asking the people she knows were closest to Jesus. Sometimes that's the best we've got when were faced with a difficult or confusing situation - find the people who have been closest to Jesus and tell them what's going on.  We're in this together.  It's Ok to put a hand up, to

Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. John 20:1 NLT I wonder what prompted Mary that Sunday morning, while it was still dark, to go to the tomb? What did she expect to find there? In the dark? Maybe she couldn't sleep, maybe something was stirring in her spirit to go and seek Jesus, that something was going on, that something Jesus said stuck with her and in the dark, in the early morning, she went to find Jesus. And Mary got to see that everything had changed, the stone had been rolled away.  Don't wait for the daylight to go and look for Jesus, don't wait until you've got yourself sorted, come as you are.  And just like Mary, we'll see that the stone has moved, death is no longer in charge, Life has broken out. Resurrection. Sometime in the night, Jesus came back, was brought back, from death, to life.  And everything has changed. Resurrection. And this is

Simon Peter asked,  "Lord, where are you going?" And Jesus replied, "You can't go with me now, but you will follow me later. "But why can't I come now, Lord?" he asked. "I'm ready to die for you." Jesus answered, "Die for me?  I tell you the truth, Peter - before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me. Dont let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Fathers home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? John 13:36-14:2 NLT Peter is so "out there" and lets us know what's happening in his head. His heart and intent is right there with Jesus wanting to make a difference, wanting to save the saviour.  Yet, just like me, he won't make it to the end of the day without not meeting his own commitment to Jesus. With Peter it's a big "out there" thing, for me it mig

"Dear children, I will be with you only a little longer. And as I told the Jewish leaders, you will search for me, but you can't come where I am going. So now I am giving you a new commandment:  Love each other.  Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.  Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." John 13:31-35 NLT "You lot, who bring all your differences, your ethnicity, your backgrounds and experiences, all your goodness, your mistakes, your potential, your arguing and all your missing the point & not quite gettin me. You lot.  I love you.  I've taught you, served you, washed your feet, and shown you what love looks like, and if you watch a little longer you'll get how big and wide and deep my love is for you. And as that sinks in, choose to love one another in the same way, no matter what shape the world is in, or how the world wants to shape you, love one another like I have loved you.  It won't be pr

Then he began to wash the disciples feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.  John 13:5 NLT This is so close. So personal. Jesus with a bowl of water, going from person to person.  My guess is you're not going to wash 12 people's feet with the same water, that after each person Jesus is discarding the dirty water and coming back with clean.  I wonder how long this took? An hour? Two hours?  Foot washing may not have been unusual but it was not the teacher, not the masters work.  Jesus is flipping the world upside down.  Becoming a servant.  "No", Peter protested, "you will never ever wash my feet!" Jesus replied, "Unless I wash you, you won't belong to me." John 13:8 NLT Typical Peter happy to blurt out what others might be thinking!  Yet Jesus is saying there's something deeper going on here. Deeper than the external work of servanthood and foot washing.  Jesus is doing a servants work as a picture of what is going to happen ne

Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father.  He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end.  It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God.  So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples' feet, drying them with the towel he had around him. John 13:1-5 NLT What would you do if you knew you only had one or two days left on this earth? Jesus knew.  He loved his team (even though one was going to let him down in a big way). And on that day Jesus washed feet. He took up the position of the servant. The server. Jesus stooped down.  And served. Not for adulation or praise or reward, but this is

Jesus shouted to the crowds,  "If you trust me, you are trusting not only me, but also God who sent me. For when you see me, you are seeing the one who sent me.  I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark." John 12:44-46 NLT On the week of his crucifixion, Jesus returns to a theme from the early days of his ministry - that Jesus is God with skin on. And here again is his heart for us - he has come to save the world.  But something has shifted, as often Jesus is recorded at speaking to the crowds, but here he is shouting. There's an urgency here. Jesus time is short, and he wants people to know who he is, that salvation is found in him, that the world is a dark place, and that he is the light.  Light in the darkness.  When we're lost, light in the dark, when we can't see the path, light in the dark, when hope seems lost, light in the dark, when we're waiting, light in the dark. Bec

But despite all the miraculous signs Jesus had done, most of the people still did not believe in him.  Many people did believe in him, however, including some of the Jewish leaders. But they wouldn't admit it for fear that the Pharisees would expel them from the synagogue. For they loved human praise more than the praise of God. John 12:37, 42-43 NLT The week before Jesus death, the week before the first Easter, all the signs had been seen, miracles done, and still only some believed in Jesus. And some were afraid of what those in power might say or do. And some just loved the praise of people more. And as I sit with the responses of the people on that week before Easter, there are strands of them in my own heart.  Belief, doubt, fear of what others think of me, what they might say or do, and the desire to be accepted. To belong.  We all want to be accepted.  And yet the desire to be accepted by people they were missing Jesus who was right there in front of them.  In wanting the pr

...let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us.  Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us,  keeping our eyes on Jesus,  the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.  For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross,  despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself,  so that you won't grow weary and give up. Hebrews 12:1-3 CSB When our strength seems small, when our hands drop, the writer to the Hebrews says look at Jesus, look to Jesus, and choose to stay in the "race".  To run with endurance means cutting some things out, cutting things away that tangle us up and slow us down.  And keep our eyes on Jesus. Jesus the pioneer. We choose to follow the pioneer. Jesus the perfector of our faith, we choose to rest in what he has done. Have you ever wondered what the "joy that lay before him" is that Jesus held as he went to the

If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Proverbs 24:10 ESV Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said,  "Sit here while I go over there to pray." He took Peter and Zebedee's two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. He told them, "My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, "My Father!  If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine." Matthew 26:36-39 NLT Jesus day if adversity was upon him. His hands did drop. His strength didn't seem enough because of the enormity of what he was facing, and he asked his team to journey with him. To enter in with him. And he prayed to his (and our) Heavenly Father.  Perhaps more accurately Jesus was giving away his strength. Giving it away so that all the s

Friday! Proverbs! If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Proverbs 24:10 ESV Thanks Proverbs. I'm doing the best that I can and now you're coming at me for not being enough :/ This word "faint" is "raphah" and it carries lots of meaning; to lose courage, to abandon, to sink, to drop your hands.  When faced with adversity, a tough time, loss that feels overwhelming, problems that seem insurmountable, then this proverb does reflect my reality. My hands do drop. My strength does seem small.  This proverb gently challenges our current culture that says not only that you can be anything you want, but you have to do it all yourself. It's all on you. No wonder our hands drop.  Because we're made for community, we're not made to do this alone, to try and carry everything on our own. We need one another, and that's OK.  On my own my strength is small, but with you, things change, together, our gifts and strengths multiply, as we

He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. So don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. Colossians 2:14-16 NLT Here's the clues to what was going on in the place that Paul was writing to. People setting themselves up as deciding how you're good enough for God.  People making rules that determine your righteousness, your right standing before God.  And Paul says go back to the cross.  At the cross all of that system that kept people from relationship with God was smashed.  What does that mean? It means that you can be fully you.  Pastor Trey says it like this: "I have grown in the belief that being fully me is what I'm called to do, and that I will find my provision as I live in authenticity. So I talk

He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. Colossians 2:14 NLT This is another picture that Paul paints for us. A judicial process. And I've been charged.  Before I'm arrested, before my trial even starts, the charges are cancelled.  Cleared. Like they never happened. And Jesus is at the centre, absorbing it all. I don't think God keeps a rap sheet of all the things I've done and thought, I can do that myself. This passage is for the person who says "I'm too bad. No one can forgive me. If you only knew me." Paul is using the analogy of the charges. Yes Jesus knows all the charges. And before anyone gets you to trial, before you get to beat yourself up, there is the Cross.  #jesusatthecentre #amazinggrace #comeasyouare #knownandloved

You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. Colossians 2:13 NLT Something has fundamentally changed.  Paul uses death to life, we have moved from death to life. And this fundamental change to our status, our identity, our core happens when we're made alive with Jesus. Alive with Jesus.  Easter has this focus on Jesus death, but Paul doesn't want us to lose sight of the fully aliveness of the resurrection. The mechanism to this fully aliveness is forgiveness.  Our sins are forgiven.  Yesterday we had the analogy of slave to free, of the slave who has been set free and now learning to live in that freedom. We have been set free.  Free now to learn to live in the fully aliveness of resurrection life with Jesus.  And one day we'll know that fully and completely.  Maybe for today it's enough to know that our status has changed. And nothing can change that back, becau

When you came to Christ, you were "circumcised", but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision - the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. Colossians 2:11-12 NLT Symbols and rituals in our physical world that represent and remind us of what has happened for us and to us in the spirit.  God has and is cutting things away. Old things buried with Jesus, and new things brought to life.  Paul says my sinful nature has been cut away, yet I still seem to have it. This "new life" is still full of my stuff, my "old life", and yet something has changed. The weight of my sinful nature has been absorbed by Jesus, and my heart direction and heart desires are slowly shifting, catching up, catching on to what Jesus has done, and is doing.  It's like who I am is slowly

For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. Colossians 2:9-10 NLT All of who God is, the eternal, creator of everything that we can see and live in, all of God's attributes are contained in and lived out in Jesus. If we want to see God, look at Jesus.  If we want to see God's heart for the marginalised, the outcast, the hurt, the vulnerable, look at Jesus. Jesus who has all power and authority, head over everything, yet chose to wash his disciples feet.  Who chose the cross.  For us. Because he loves.  Loves us.  Loves you. And somehow we are made complete in him. Even if it doesn't feel like that, when it still seems that there's all this messy broken stuff, in Jesus it's all held and all loved.  And one day we'll know exactly what this completeness is, but for now we're in the "now and the not yet", but our living hope is Jesu

After dismissing the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. Well into the night, he was there alone. Matthew 14:23 CSB Perhaps with all the isolation and restrictions the last thing you want to do is spend time alone.  To pull back. But maybe today you need permission to make some space for you.  It's OK to do that.  This happened after a big event in Jesus life and in the text Jesus heading for somewhere quiet, to be alone and uninterrupted, and to commune with the one person He was closest to.  Maybe this is for you.  Jesus created the space here by sending everyone else away. Maybe that's not practical, and the best you can do is close the door, go for a walk, find a quiet place, borrow someone else's quiet place, but it's OK to do that.  Jesus took time out.  If it's OK for him, it's OK for us.  Praying is good.  But remember that Jesus had spent an eternity in communion with the Father and that was his place.  Praying is good, but your &quo

Friday! Proverbs! A person who plans evil will get a reputation as a troublemaker. The schemes of a fool are sinful; everyone detests a mocker. Proverbs 24:8-9 NLT It's easy to fudge around the evil that people do. We sometimes have this weak grace that stops us calling the evil things we do to one another by their real names, that avoids justice, avoids accountability, avoids consequences.  But this proverb suggests otherwise. The community should recognise evil acts that people do towards others, that schemes of the heart will come to light, and be seen for what they are.  And. All of these things in this proverb are mine too.  Real Grace doesn't shy away from the sin in my heart or lessen it or justify it. Grace entered in, and absorbed it into Jesus.  And while the schemes, the thoughts, the mocking isn't gone completely, I'm a work in progress in the now and the not yet of God's redemptive story.  This proverb helps me to see me more clearly. And. Held in the g