verseoftheday

Romans 12:1-2 CEB So,  brothers and sisters, because of God's mercies, I encourage you to present your bodies a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to God.  This is your appropriate priestly service. Don't be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what God's will is - what is good and pleasing and mature.   Romans 12:1-2 CEB Paul uses the priestly connection, priestly metaphor here, placing his readers, Christ followers, as priests.  Priests who have access to the Holy of Holies, access to the presence of God, who bring sacrifices, who atone. But it's all shifted - we're not to bring a lamb or a bird or some other token or symbol, but ourselves.  Our whole self. This is more than an intellectual or spiritual exercise, it's a physical one too.  What we do matters. A priest brings a sacrifice to atone, hoping it is good enough, pure enough, enough. In Jesus the atoning h...

Romans 12:1-2 CEB So,  brothers and sisters, because of God's mercies, I encourage you to present your bodies a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to God.  This is your appropriate priestly service. Don't be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what God's will is - what is good and pleasing and mature.   Romans 12:1-2 CEB "So", "therefore", "summing up what I've been writing to you about" - this famous passage of Paul's letter does not sit in isolation from all that he has written up to now, all that he has been saying about new life being found in Jesus, about freedom from the law, his heart for those who don't know or have rejected Jesus, all of the last 11 chapters. So. Brothers & sisters. The word here is "adelphous" which in different contexts means family, brethren, whanau, those joined together by a covenant, an inclusive ter...

Romans 11:33-36 CSB Oh,  the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God!  How unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways For who has known the mind of the Lord?  Or who has been his counselor?  And who has ever given to God, that he should be repaid?  For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be the glory forever.  Amen. Romans 11:33-36 CSB Paul has been wrestling in this letter with being Jewish, God's chosen people, who have also rejected Jesus, and how out of that faith has come to Gentiles, the rest of us who aren't Jewish- and this is his conclusion to all that: How great our God is. We can't expect to figure Him out completely, we can't outgive Him, counsel Him, or fully know Him. And that's OK. We get to sit with mystery, uncertainty, doubt, not knowing, and being able to hold to what is known, what is True, that it's our God who made the way for us to be right with Him, and we are in fact, dearly ...

Sunday Psalms; Psalms 36:5-10 CSB Lord,  your faithful love reaches to heaven,  your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,  your judgments like the deepest sea.  Lord,  you preserve people and animals. How priceless your faithful love is,  God!  People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They are filled from the abundance of your house.  You let them drink from your refreshing stream. For the wellspring of life is with you.  By means of your light we see light. Spread your faithful love over those who know you,  and your righteousness over the upright in heart. Psalms 36:5-10 CSB David's psalm starts and ends with his concern about someone who's words and actions are evil and this person holds no fear or dread of God. And this middle part is David's response - a beautiful reflection of who God is, of where refuge is found in someone Bigger, in a Bigger Story. When this world seems too much, wh...

The lips of the righteous feed many,  but fools die for lack of sense. Proverbs 10:21 CSB Can we see Jesus in this Proverb? His are the words of the Righteous One who not only feeds us, but saves us! But the second part of this Proverb, Jesus is the opposite, the antithesis - it's not for a lack of sense, of "leb" of heart, of will that he died, but because of his heart (that is for us), and it was an act of His will. I wonder if there's somewhere that our heart, our leb, our will, is encouraging us to act today, somewhere where we have power? It may be self care, rest, reflection, creation, advocacy, care, connection...or perhaps it's those words of goodness that get to nourish someone (and maybe that someone is you?). #proverbs #wisdom #somethingtochewon #itsaheartthing #invitation  #speaklife 

Friday! Proverbs! [21] The lips of the righteous feed many,  but fools die for lack of sense. Proverbs 10:21 CSB Mmm at first glance this seems straight forward...until we discover that word translated "sense" or in some versions "wisdom" is our old friend "leb", the heart, the inner essence of who we are, the will, the wairua. So fools die for lack of heart! So this is not literal but its all figurative of something... For me (today anyway) it seems to be saying that if our words speak life into the world, they need to come from a place of life, a heart that is beating life... If my words are simply AI generated, soaked in Reels or other people's thoughts and ideas, then this Proverb is saying that's a path towards something in us dying...what do you think? God's vision of our thriving is our fully aliveness- not perfection, but aliveness. How can we get our hearts pumping with more of that today? #proverbs #wisdom #somethingtochewon #itsahear...

Romans 10:13-15 NLT For "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him?  And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him?  And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent?  That is why the Scriptures say,  "How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!" Romans 10:13-15 NLT Paul's heart is for his people who are caught in their rules based religion and is writing to the church in Rome to invite them in some way to become the "beautiful feet of messengers who bring Good News". Perhaps the invitation to us is to join in, to in some way become a messenger of hope, of faith, of Good News. How could that look for us, for me? To be part of the redemptive story... #letters #redemptivestrands  #messengers  #sent