verseoftheday

But when I am afraid,  I will put my trust in you. I praise God for what he has promised.  I trust in God, so why should I be afraid?  What can mere mortals do to me? Psalms 56:3-4 NLT Are there places in the Bible that you go back to regularly when you feel under pressure, when you need a reset, when the ground feels shakey...this is one of mine... "But when I am afraid..." affirms our emotions, allows us to have them, expects them. "...I will..." There's a choosing here when there's things going on. "...put my trust in You" I choose to trust in someone bigger, a Bigger Story. And them at the end of this piece the song writer reminds me that it's often fear of people, what they think, what I think that they think, that is beneath my fear, so I choose to trust in our God anyway.  Do you have a "go to" passage?  Let God's word and His Spirit minister to you in the places that you need it today. #psalms #psalm56 #firstaid #weareBelo

Jesus replied,  "'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important:  'Love your neighbor as yourself.' The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments." Then, surrounded by the Pharisees, Jesus asked them a question:  "What do you think about the Messiah?  Whose son is he?" Matthew 22:37-42 NLT The religious (& political) elite in their culture were trying to trap Jesus, and Jesus uses the Bible that they knew, taking a verse from Deuteronomy and one from Leviticus and making something new, pointing to the Kingdom that was meant to be, and the Kingdom that Jesus was ushering in. And then Jesus sets his own trap, challenges the Pharisees at their own game.  But that question still stands for us: "What do you think about the Messiah? Who's son is he?" It's all good knowing our theo

For God loved the world in this way:  He gave his one and only Son,  so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,  but to save the world through him.  John 3:16-17 CSB What is it that you need to hear today? Do you need to hear that God loves you? That he made a way? That Jesus is the Way? That it's not about our effort, our doing enough, doing more, but about choosing to believe in Jesus. Faith is enough, because you're aleeady enough. Is it something about Life you need to hear?  Or that Jesus did not come to condemn, but to save.  Not to condemn, but to save.  If Jesus isn't condemning you, then maybe you don't need to either.  Today let Jesus's words speak life to those parts of you that need it most. For God loved the world in this way:  He gave his one and only Son,  so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send hi

Without question, this is the great mystery of our faith:  Christ was revealed in a human body and vindicated by the Spirit. He was seen by angels and announced to the nations. He was believed in throughout the world and taken to heaven in glory. 1 Timothy 1 3:16 NLT  If Paul still writes to Timothy about the mysteries of Jesus then it's OK if we don't always fully grasp it all either.  It's OK to have wonderings, questions, things we don't get. And the big thing at the centre of it all is Jesus, becoming a person, and entering the story as one of us. God with us. God in person. God is a person. No matter what we face today, we get to hold faith in the Big Story that there is this Life, and there is More.  More to this story (even if we can't see it now). More to come (even tho we don't know exactly what that is). We get to trust the Big Story of Jesus. #itsOKnottoknowitall #mystery  #letters #lettertoTimothy #faith 

Sunday Psalms: When Israel came out of Egypt - the house of Jacob from a people who spoke a foreign language - Judah became his sanctuary, Israel, his dominion. The sea looked and fled; the Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, the hills, like lambs. Why was it,  sea,  that you fled?  Jordan,  that you turned back? Mountains,  that you skipped like rams?  Hills,  like lambs? Tremble,  earth,  at the presence of the Lord,  at the presence of the God of Jacob,  who turned the rock into a pool, the flint into a spring. Psalms 114 What a picture the psalmist is painting of a world that has suddenly changed, and come alive. After being colonised, held captive for so long, they were brought into freedom. The freedom of their indigenous language. The barriers that held them were gone, and the world came alive, as God turned rocks and flint into pools and springs...the work that he does in us, and through us in this world, and work that one day we will see in the fully aliveness

The expert came to him. "Wisdomkeeper," he asked, "which instruction in our tribal law stands first?" Creator Sets Free (Jesus) answered him, "'You must love the Great Spirit from deep within, with the strength of your arms,  the thoughts of your mind,  and the courage of your heart.' This is the first and greatest instruction. "The second is like the first," he added.  "'You must love your fellow human beings in the same way you love yourselves.' The Law and the words of the prophets all find their full meaning in these two instructions." Matthew 22:36-40 FNVNT  #wordsofJesus #redletterBible  #loveGodlovepeople #itsaheartthing  #keepitsimple #Jesussumsitallup

Friday! Proverbs! Four things on earth are small, yet they are extremely wise: ants are not a strong people, yet they store up their food in the summer; hyraxes are not a mighty people, yet they make their homes in the cliffs; locusts have no king, yet all of them march in ranks; a lizard can be caught in your hands, yet it lives in kings' palaces. Proverbs 30:24-28 CSB I wonder why Agur (son of Jakeh) has shared these observations? And why are they in our Bible? Perhaps they are there to remind us that when we feel small in the eyes of the world, that doesn't mean we're of no value, that our wisdom doesn't matter.  In God's economy the small are valued.  Perhaps it's to remind us that unique gifts, ways of being in the world that are a little different to others, to others expectations, are OK and valued.  Perhaps its to remind us there is value in community where all are equal. Perhaps it's a reminder to look for wisdom in others even if the world bypasses