verseoftheday

At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o'clock.  At about three o'clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Eli,  Eli,  lema sabachthani?" which means  "My God,  my God,  why have you abandoned me?" Matthew 27:45-46 NLT Not only abandoned by his friends and family, his community and the State, the human Jesus experienced all the worst that humanity can experience. And the divine Jesus, experienced abandonment from the Eternal, the relationship that had been Forever. Yet God. Yet God was at work bringing about a redemptive story, a victory over all the abandonment stories, especially the biggest of them, death itself. Saturday can seem dark. It is.  And it's not the end. Not the last word.  #lovewithoutmeasure #redemptivestrands #hopeishere

Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him. When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified - one on his right and one on his left. Jesus said,  "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing." And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.   The crowd watched and the leaders scoffed.  "He saved others," they said, "let him save himself if he is really God's Messiah, the Chosen One." The soldiers mocked him, too, by offering him a drink of sour wine. They called out to him, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" A sign was fastened above him with these words: This is the King of the Jews. One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed,  "So youre the Messiah, are you?  Prove it..." Luke 23:32-39 NLT Mocked and ridiculed by the Empire, the crowd, religious leaders, even by one of the men suffering in the s...

Mark 8:34-37 NLT Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said,  "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?" Mark 8:34-37 NLT When Jesus asks a question, it's worth sitting with, and here he asks the crowd 2 questions: What do benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? The word "soul" is the same word translated as "life", "psuche", psyche, soul, the inner part of us. Jesus is asking us about our inner life and what's most important - the outer life that others can see? Or the inner life, the "who I am" part of me? "Is anything worth more than your soul?" Jesus. Easter give...

Mark 8:34-35 NLT Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said,  "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.  If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it." Mark 8:34-35 NLT What is this "life" that Jesus is talking about? The word here is "psuche", from which we get the word psyche, or soul. Biblehub defines it this way; 1. soul, inner being or life 2. (literally) breath 3. (figuratively) the heart's desire, the drive or passion of one's soul (i.e. that which brings satisfaction to one's being) Jesus seems to be inviting us to give up our life, our inner life, our desire, our breath, to him. And by doing that, we won't be diminished or lessened, but we somehow be made fully alive... And at Easter Jesus modelled that by giving up his life.  Why? Because it seems he think...

Mark 8:34 NLT Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said,  "If any of you wants to be my follower,  you must give up your own way,  take up your cross,  and follow me." Mark 8:34 NLT In Mark's account Jesus had been talking with the Disciples about rejection, suffering, death and ressurection, and here he is launching into a teaching to the crowd to "take up your cross" if they want to follow Jesus. Perhaps Jesus was trying to tell the crowd there's a lot more going on here than people getting healed, some kind of celebrity Rabbi thing. Maybe the clue is in the phrase before "take up your cross", which is "give up your own way". I'm not good at giving up my own way. But maybe this Easter we are being invited like this crowd was, like the disciples were, to put something down of our "own way". What could that be? #gospelofMark #GoodNews  #invitation  #easter

Romans 3:23-24 NLT For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard.  Yet God,  in his grace,  freely makes us right in his sight.  He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.  Romans 3:23-24 NLT Yet God. Yet God. Yet God. It was our God who IS Love chose us. Yet God. He stepped towards us. He made a way. In His Grace. Freely. He chose us.  We can wonder why all we like, but we don't have to make sense of Love. Love is.  Love acts. Love acts for the Beloved. This is the Easter story, the redemptive strands that flow from our God through the Cross to bring us Life and Hope. Grace. Freely. Something to chew on right here today...Beloved. (I wonder how I can freely express a tiny piece of the Grace I have received towards this world, towards someone, towards me, today) #letters #Easter #yetGod #redemptivestrands #hopeishere #weareBeloved 

Sunday Psalms; Psalms 14:1, 7 NLT [1] Only fools say in their hearts, "There is no God." ...  [7] Who will come from Mount Zion to rescue Israel?  When the Lord restores his people, Jacob will shout with joy, and Israel will rejoice. Psalms 14:1, 7 NLT This is a bleak psalm/song.  There's days, maybe weeks, months, when our world is bleak.  If that has been or is your experience, then maybe this psalm/song while written 3000 years ago in a different culture and language tells us we're not alone in how we feel or experience life. David starts by it seems reminding himself of Truth, that even when God is silent, seems distant, when the world is bleak, don't take from that that there is no God.  And then right at the end, the strand of hope, the redemptive strand we're looking for; "When the Lord restores his people..." Restoration will arrive. We get the benefit of reading this after the first Easter, knowing that Jesus death is the way of restoration,...