verseoftheday

Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and head across the lake to Bethsaida, while he sent the people home. After telling everyone good-bye, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Mark 6:45-46 NLT Immediately after what? Feeding 5,000+ people, everyone having as much food as they needed. There was more than enough. Love the way NLT version says of Jesus "after telling everyone goodbye"... Jesus sent his team off in the boat and then stayed around saying goodbye. To 5,000 people. This is Jesus just interested in people, encouraging, loving on people, being kind. He cared for his team. He cared for the people. And then he went up into the hills to pray. He cared for himself. Those things all looked different, but Jesus knew what he needed. What self-care does Jesus example invite you into today? #gospelofMark #GoodNews  #invitation  #weareBeloved  #selfcare

Friday! Proverbs! Proverbs 6:23-26 CEB The commandment is a lamp and instruction a light; corrective teaching is the path of life.  [24] They guard you from the evil woman, from the flattering tongue of the foreign woman.  [25] Don't desire her beauty in secret; don't let her take you in with her eyelashes,  [26] for a prostitute costs a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts for a man's very life.   Proverbs 6:23-26 CEB Yikes! I wonder how often this proverb and passages like it have been used to tell a story about women, what they're about, about men, how easily manipulated...but what if this is all a metaphor to get our attention, to get us thinking about what it is that captures our hearts? No married woman is hunting for me, but my social media feeds are hunting for my attention, doing everything they possibly can to pull me into their orbit. Advertisers telling me what I "deserve". And then there's the things that are not on the Path of Life that m...

3 John 1:4-5 CEB [4] I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are living according to the truth. [5] Dear friend, you act faithfully in whatever you do for our brothers and sisters, even though they are strangers.  3 John 1:4-5 CEB Gaius had been caught acting faithfully not just towards his friends, not just towards people he knows, acting faithfully towards strangers.  This is living according to the truth. It costs me nothing to smile at a stranger, to say hello to someone I don't know, to be kind. Sometimes it will cost me something, to let that driver in, to wait for a stranger, to slow down, to show someone how to do something...I think this is about living with integrity to our values. Gaius got caught doing that.  Sometimes it takes supernatural love to act faithfully towards the people we know - lean into our God's resources, His deep well of love, and see where He is inviting us to live faithfully today...to be the redemptive strand... #lettersf...

3 John 1:3-4 CEB I was overjoyed when the brothers and sisters arrived and spoke highly of your faithfulness to the truth, shown by how you live according to the truth.  I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are living according to the truth. 3 John 1:3-4 CEB Remember this is a personal letter to a person named Gaius, so let's keep it personal...I wonder what John's people would report back to him about me? Would they have found me "living according to the truth"? Before we start beating ourselves up for not doing enough, there's no list here, no standard, just a noticing and an encouragement. John is looking to be an encouragement, an encourager. In a way he's reflecting God's heart...noticing and encouraging...so easy to miss the ways and places we are "living according to the truth", but our God doesn't. That is our offering, our worship.  Living according to the truth. What does that idea invite you into or towards tod...

This letter is from John, the elder. I am writing to Gaius, my dear friend, whom I love in the truth.  Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit. 3 John 1:1-2 NLT Amongst the history, the poetry, the gospel accounts, the letters to churches, we get a couple of personal letters, to individuals... Small stories. Where personal connection is important. Where caring for one another's well being matters. Where we hope for the good for one another. Who needs to hear from you today, that you're thinking of them, hoping that they're OK? Who needs to know that you care about their spirit, their spiritual well-being? And what does this little intro in this short letter tell us about the heart of God? It's in our Bible for a reason... Maybe it's because this letter is personal, and our God is personal.  Maybe it's because John reached out to his friend, just like God reaches out to us, why Jesus entered the sto...

Mark 6:42-43 CEB [42] Everyone ate until they were full. [43] They filled twelve baskets with the leftover pieces of bread and fish.  Mark 6:42-43 CEB Ever notice this little miracle? Where did the 12 baskets come from? 12 disciples. 12 baskets of surplus. What was Jesus telling his team here? What was he pointing towards? What is his message for us? Maybe it's this - "I am more than enough. The problems of this world, the problem of death, the 'What happens when I die', the big questions, can you see here in the Impossibility of creating out of 5 loaves and 2 fish not only has this huge crowd been fed, but you now have a problem of what to do with your basket of surplus food. I am more than enough." What do you think this was all about for the disciples? For us? For you? #gospelofMark #GoodNews  #invitation  #Jesusismorethanenough #weareinaBigStory #weareBeloved 

Sunday Psalms: Psalms 6:2-3, 7-9 CEB Have mercy on me, LORD,  because I'm frail.  Heal me,  LORD,  because my bones are shaking in terror! My whole body is completely terrified!.. My vision fails because of my grief;  It's weak because of all my distress. ... ... the LORD has heard me crying!  The LORD has listened to my request.  The LORD accepts my prayer. Psalms 6:2-3, 7-9 CEB Not sure we'll be singing this song in church anytime soon, but if we've ever felt frail, ever cried so much we can't see, then this song is for us. This song comes from a place of deep hurt and loss. And there's a redemptive strand here that we can find... David who wrote these expressions of despair, also knows that the LORD, YHWH, Yahweh, the Eternal, the Self-existant, has heard his crying. Yahweh has listened. Yahweh has accepted his prayer, his tears, his cries.  Our prayers don't have to be eloquent, with the "right" words or tone, but are OK being raw and real (an...