verseoftheday

But I am trusting you, O Lord, saying,  You are my God! My future is in your hands.  Rescue me from those who hunt me down relentlessly.  Let your favor shine on your servant. In your unfailing love, rescue me. Don't let me be disgraced, O Lord, for I call out to you for help. Let the wicked be disgraced; let them lie silent in the grave. Psalms 31:14-17 NLT Can you hear the choir singing about wanting the wicked to die, to lie silent in the grave? Who hasn't had those thoughts sometime? Can you here the choir singing about needing rescue and realising that's what I need now too?  Can you hear the choir singing about shame and disgrace and crying out with them to our God... Would you have them repeat: "In your unfailing love, rescue me." "In your unfailing love, rescue me." Rescue me from my thoughts, my nightmares, fears.  Help me to live in the truth of your unfailing love, even when, especially when I can't feel it, rescue me from the lies that se...

I am scorned by all my enemies and despised by my neighbors - even my friends are afraid to come near me. When they see me on the street, they run the other way. I am ignored as if I were dead, as if I were a broken pot. Psalms 31:11-12 NLT Ever had this happen? Or some variation of it? I know that person saw me and crossed the street, went down another aisle in the supermarket, looked away to avoid eye contact. I've had it happen.  And I've done it.  And David's written it into his song as he has experienced it too, from 3,000 years ago we have not loved one another that well at times.  Sometimes it's self care, and we can learn to do that with grace and love too.  Yet we follow Jesus, who didn't look away, who didn't walk away, who walked towards.  He sees the broken pot in all it can be and picks up the broken parts and starts the restoration.  The putting back together. And he calls us to follow. To follow Him. To see those who believe they are broken p...

Sunday Psalms; For the choir director.  A Psalm of David.  O Lord, I have come to you for protection;  don't let me be disgraced. Save me, for you do what is right.  Turn your ear to listen to me;  rescue me quickly.  Be my rock of protection, a fortress where I will be safe.  I entrust my spirit into your hand.  Rescue me, Lord, for you are a faithful God.  ...you have seen my troubles, and you care about the anguish of my soul.  ...Tears blur my eyes.  My body and soul are withering away. Psalms 31:1-2, 5, 7, 9 NLT This is a Psalm, a song to be sung by the choir, a song for the community, a song for us.  And scattered through it are connection points. Things that connect us to David, to God, and to what might be going on for us at some point in our lives.  As you read this Psalm, this song, what phrase jumps off the page at you? Small phrases that you can pray back to God, hold in your heart... "You care about the anguis...

When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child.  But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. 1 Corinthians 13:11-12 NLT What interesting pictures! How differently we see the world as children, how as we grow and change, everything changes.  And the idea of a puzzle mirror, a warped mirror, a mirror that doesn't reflect accurately.  What do we see when we look in a mirror? Usually just ourselves right?  Paul is saying that not only does our view of the world change when we love like this, but so does our view of ourselves.  When we love and are loved with patience, kindness, with never-giving-up love, we see everything differently, even ourselves.  "But then". But when? Yes there will be face-to-face, kanohi ki te kanohi, with Love, with our God one day, and this will all be clear.  However Paul talks of this l...

Friday! Proverbs! People may cover their hatred with pleasant words, but they're deceiving you.  They pretend to be kind, but don't believe them. Their hearts are full of many evils.  While their hatred may be concealed by trickery, their wrongdoing will be exposed in public. Proverbs 26:24-26 NLT Oh.  Does this mean I can't trust anyone? Is everyone deceptive and pretending? What does this say about me? Am I deceptive?  Yes sometimes I am :/ Sometimes my actions, words, the things I dwell on, don't match my values.  This proverb also contains a warning. A warning that people's heart and intention can be masked behind the right words.  Over time it's actions that count. Actions that betray the heart.  "They pretend to be kind" because they actually want something.  We don't want to believe that people are deceptive, that they pretend, but when I examine my own heart, I find those things there.  So is there any hope? Hope for us? Yes there alw...

Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. 1 Corinthians 13:9-10 NLT This is a sobering reminder that even the smartest and most learned, those who pronounce so clearly that they see the whole, have complete understanding, actually don't. We are all limited in some way.  These verses also tell us that there's more to come.  That we will know, will understand in new and expanded ways.  There is more.  It implies that the limitations we currently experience will be removed, or maybe we will be able to live in the fullness of how we were created, what we were created for.  There is more.  #corinthians #thereismore #onedayallwillbemadenew

Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless.  But love will last forever! 1 Corinthians 13:8 NLT Those things that are valued as spiritual, that our culture agrees are markers of spiritual health, those things that others might see and hear, won't matter in the eternal story. Somehow, what will matter is Love.  The love that never gives up and draws us to God, the love that is patient and waits. The love that is kind.  The love that refuses to be angry. The love that never gives up. Somehow, that's going to matter.  Forever.  Zig Ziglar once said: "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing". Our God is Love. So for Him, that is the main thing and that's that.  For me, there's all kinds of competing stuff going on, but maybe today we can allow love to be the main thing in more and more of not just what we do, but who we are and who we are becoming. #corinthians #lovewins #youareBeloved #themainthing