verseoftheday

But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me,  and through each night I sing his songs,  praying to God who gives me life.  "O God my rock," I cry,  "why have you forgotten me?  Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies?" ... Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God!  I will praise him again - my Savior and my God! Psalms 42:8-9, 11 NLT Sadness and distress held at the same time as hope and praise. Crying out to God and crying at what is going on at the same time. Feeling lost, and hopeful, at the same time. The writer of this psalm does not allow their circumstances to shift their faith in our God one inch. Trusting in the redemptive story in circumstances that are sad and distressing can be a tough ask. Perhaps that is why this Psalm is here, to show us it can be done, that it is part of being human, and has been for thousands of years, and to remind us that we can trust in the Redemptive Story, we...

As the deer longs for streams of water,  so I long for you,  O God.  I thirst for God, the living God.  When can I go and stand before him?  Day and night I have only tears for food,  while my enemies continually taunt me, saying,  "Where is this God of yours?" Psalms 42:1-3 NLT If you've ever tried to find words for God's silence in suffering then it's OK to borrow this song... The redemptive strand is here though, that even in the distress, the waiting, the tears, the writer has not lost sight of who our God is, has not lost hope in the Big Story.  My prayers are often focussed around changing my circumstances, this psalm, this song, invites me to cry to God in my circumstances.  This might seem a small shift, but this is what we're invited towards...to express our raw honest heart towards our God... He saw it fitting to publish this cry in the middle of our Bible, so my cry, your cry, our cries are OK too... Because? Because we are in fact...

Sunday Psalms; Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God!  I will praise him again -  my Savior and my God! Now I am deeply discouraged,  but I will remember you - even from distant Mount Hermon, the source of the Jordan, from the land of Mount Mizar. Psalms 42:5-6 NLT This psalm, this song, is either written by or for the descendants of Korah - who's story of rebellion against Moses  & Aaron is found in Numbers 16 - as a result the earth opened up and many of them died in that event.  When we have deep grief and loss it's OK to ask those big questions: 'Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?" It's OK to feel depleted, defeated.  And at the same time this song points us forward, choosing to put hope in our God, choosing to praise Him anyway. Our grief and loss need a Bigger Story to hold on to as we refind our moorings, and to do that we can't shy away from the questions: "Why am I discouraged?" "Why is my...

What the righteous hope for will end in joy;  what the wicked expect will come to nothing. Mishlei (Pro) 10:28 CJB When we look for Jesus in this Proverb he jumps off the page! He is the righteous one. And his hope will end in joy - the joy of being united with people! The pictures we are given of Jesus as the the bridegroom, the Good Shepherd, reconnecting to what he has been separated from - us.  We are Beloved. And the end, the outcome, the next thing, is joy. A new heaven, new earth, tears wiped away, justice, restoration, reconnection, all things made new.  Jesus is the Righteous Hope that ends in joy, and He is our Hope, because, crazy at it seems, we are Beloved.  #proverbs  #wisdom #somethingtochewon #hopeishere #weareBeloved 

Friday! Proverbs! What the righteous hope for will end in joy;  what the wicked expect will come to nothing. Mishlei (Pro) 10:28 CJB Easy to apply this Proverb to others and put myself in the "righteous" category, but if Proverbs is an invitation to look at my heart and my motivations, then it gets me thinking about the range of motivations that float around in me...and how some of the things I put worth on, value, work for, won't last. "Hopes that end in joy" is an invitation to a deeper reflection on what really matters. It seems that I can have both sides of this Proverb at work in me, so today I'm wondering about my trajectory...is my heart, where I put my time, effort, resources, love, increasing on the side of expectations that will come to nothing, or increasing little by little in hope that ends in joy... What are you sitting with today from this Proverb? #proverbs  #wisdom #somethingtochewon #itsaheartthing  #trajectory  #takethenextstep 

I know and am convinced on the authority of the Lord Jesus that no food, in and of itself, is wrong to eat.  But if someone believes it is wrong,  then for that person it is wrong.  And if another believer is distressed by what you eat,  you are not acting in love if you eat it.  Don't let your eating ruin someone for whom Christ died. ... For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will approve of you, too.  So then,  let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up. Romans 14:14-19 NLT Paul is still going on about the food - this must've been a hot topic in the church community at the time! When we peel that topic back though, we hear Paul's heart for his community: 1. Be others oriented.  Notice what is important to others, consider others, make choices that take ot...

So why do you condemn another believer?  Why do you look down on another believer? Remember,  we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For the Scriptures say, "'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will declare allegiance to God.'" Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God. So let's stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall. Romans 14:10-13 NLT Don't know what was going on in the church in Rome but Paul spends a lot of time on this "looking down" on others, seeing other believers as "less than" and tells them to just stop it. Stop it because we all get to stand in the same way before God. Stop it, and choose to live in ways that don't trip others up - now that's a bit of a challenge in our increasingly individualistic culture - that I might need to look at my lifestyle and choi...