verseoftheday

Friday! Proverbs! Proverbs 9:1-3 NLT [1] Wisdom has built her house; she has carved its seven columns. [2] She has prepared a great banquet, mixed the wines, and set the table. [3] She has sent her servants to invite everyone to come. She calls out from the heights overlooking the city. Proverbs 9:1-3 NLT The invitation is here. Everything is ready, laid out like a great feast. And all we have to do is accept. Step towards.  I wonder what stops me stepping towards God's Widsom? Sometimes it's the myth that it's all about the rules, it's restrictive. Sometimes it's my own heart. I know best. I'll decide.  Can you imagine the builder of this house, the preparer of the food who has carefully laid it out, and is now calling people in, to see them walk by. To choose something else. To choose a second rate counterfeit, to choose junk food in a cardboard box over the great banquet and the table set and waiting. And even when we do, He still loves us. And keeps inviting...

Mark 8:8-9 NLT [8] They ate as much as they wanted. Afterward, the disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover food. [9] There were about 4,000 men in the crowd that day, and Jesus sent them home after they had eaten. Mark 8:8-9 NLT It seems that when Jesus fed people there was not "just enough", there was an abundance. Leftovers. And it was the disciples that did the cleanup, the collection of the the surplus, the abundance. Maybe Jesus was pointing them towards a Kingdom of abundance. They came to him with scarcity and he supplied abundance.  It seems that Jesus wanted them to see something, and it's about more than food. It's in Jesus Kingdom that what we really need gets met, and gets met with abundance. These people needed food and Jesus supplied with abundance. What does our world need? And as Kingdom representatives are we, the Church, supplying? Food. Clothing. Housing. Care. Connection. Healing. Hope. Faith. What are "we" supplying in abunda...

Mark 8:5-6, 8 NLT [5] Jesus asked,  How much bread do you have? Seven loaves, they replied. [6] So Jesus told all the people to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves, thanked God for them, and broke them into pieces... ... [8] They ate as much as they wanted.  Afterward, the disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover food. Mark 8:5-6, 8 NLT Seven - 7 - is a number that seems to be about completeness, wholeness. And we see it repeated here in this story: 7 loaves found. 7 loaves blessed. 7 loaves broken. 7 baskets of leftovers. I wonder what Jesus is telling us here? Does he want us to go back to 7 days of creation, blessed, broken, and one day made new, in abundance. Maybe it's about us, his people, the "church", found, blessed, broken, and restored. Maybe it's about Him. Broken. Looking forward to Easter. And the Abundance that will flow from that, the way, the invitation into reconnection with His Beloved. Us. As we sit with this story today...

Mark 8:1-5 NLT About this time another large crowd had gathered, and the people ran out of food again. Jesus called his disciples and told them,  "I feel sorry for these people. They have been here with me for three days, and they have nothing left to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will faint along the way. For some of them have come a long distance." His disciples replied, "How are we supposed to find enough food to feed them out here in the wilderness?" Jesus asked,  "How much bread do you have?" Mark 8:1-5 NLT Mark Ch6 doesn't seem all that long ago. In Ch6 Jesus miraculously multiplied the small amount of food that the Disciples located and fed a massive crowd. And it seems like they're in a similar situation. And the Disciples seem to have forgotten, because they ask "how are we supposed to fix this?" And Jesus appears patient and steps thru the same process with them. When we come back to Jesus with the same things, the same ...

When the very bottom of things falls out, what can a righteous person possibly accomplish?   Psalms 11:3 CEB I keep this quote in the front of my journal and return to it regularly when it all seems too much: "Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief; Do justly now. Love mercy now. Walk humbly now. You are not obliged to complete the work. But neither are you free to abandon it." Perkei Avot 2:16 Rabbi Tarfon The ethics of our fathers. And this one from Jesus: "I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me.  Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.  But take heart,  because  I  have  overcome the world." John 16:33 NLT When we lose heart, look up, look out, remember that we don't have to fix it all, but work with God in it, and we are held in a Bigger Story, where it might not seem like it, but Jesus has already overcome. #redemptivestrands #hopeishere #weareBeloved  #allwillbeandisbeingmadenew

Sunday Psalms; When the very bottom of things falls out, what can a righteous person possibly accomplish?   Psalms 11:3 CEB  This song asks one of those Big Questions - in v1-2 it paints the picture of a world where evil is winning, and then asks "what can I do in the face of all this?" We have variations on this around our powerlessness to change anything in what we think are meaningful ways... And what does David have to say? But the LORD is in his holy temple.  The LORD!  His throne is in heaven. His eyes see - his vision examines all of humanity.   Psalms 11:4 CEB David asks us to look up. To open again our eyes of faith and remind ourselves of the Big Story that we are in. And our God does see. And He does care.  And His Justice will prevail.  [6] God will rain fiery coals and sulfur on the wicked; their cups will be filled with nothing but a scorching hot wind  because the LORD is righteous!  He loves righteous deeds.  Th...

Mark 8:1-3 CEB In those days there was another large crowd with nothing to eat. Jesus called his disciples and told them, "I feel sorry for the crowd because they have been with me for three days and have nothing to eat.  If I send them away hungry to their homes, they won't have enough strength to travel, for some have come a long distance." Mark 8:1-3 CEB This story places us as an insider, in the small group, hearing Jesus heart for the crowd, turning our mind to the problem Jesus saw, the people Jesus saw. But if I'd been there that day, I'd most likely be in the crowd.  One of many who had been listening to Jesus teaching for 3 days. One of many who had run out of food. One of many facing a long walk home on an empty stomach. One of many with no idea that Jesus saw me, saw my situation, and was doing something about it. In the Big Story Jesus has seen us, seen our situation, and done something about it. And the Cross is central to that.  The Empty Tomb is cen...