verseoftheday

But before I come, I must go to Jerusalem to take a gift to the believers there.  For you see, the believers in Macedonia and Achaia have eagerly taken up an offering for the poor among the believers in Jerusalem. They were glad to do this because they feel they owe a real debt to them. Since the Gentiles received the spiritual blessings of the Good News from the believers in Jerusalem, they feel the least they can do in return is to help them financially.  As soon as I have delivered this money and completed this good deed of theirs, I will come to see you on my way to Spain.  Romans 15:25-28 NLT Right from the earliest days of the New Testament Church seeing the poor, seeing their need, stepping towards that need and giving has been part of the church story. Whether it is our time, resources, gifting, skills, money, giving to a need is an invitation that is always open to us. Paul shares their motivation to give - it's not compelled, they wanted to. They also banded tog...

My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else.  I have been following the plan spoken of in the Scriptures, where it says, "Those who have never been told about him will see, and those who have never heard of him will understand." In fact, my visit to you has been delayed so long because I have been preaching in these places. Romans 15:20-22 NLT Paul is crystal clear about his call, his mission. A little further on he places an expectation on the audience of this letter, the church in Rome, to fund this mission. What about me? If I don't have this big crystal clear mission, does that make me some kind of second rate Christian? We aren't all Paul. We can't be. Paul needed the ordinary, everyday Christians, and never said "be like me". His call was to love. To really love. To take risks in loving others, in looking for ways to accept rat...

Sunday Psalms; Wake up,  O Lord!  Why do you sleep?  Get up!  Do not reject us forever. Why do you look the other way?  Why do you ignore our suffering and oppression? We collapse in the dust, lying face down in the dirt. Psalms 44:23-25 NLT If you've been in distress, lost, alone, wondering what God is up to, wondering if He even is there, then this psalm from the descendents of Korah (who's whole community perished - see Numbers 16) may express some of what you are experiencing. The sons of Korah did not join the rebellion & this Psalm is where they're at this point in their lives; Questioning God. They feel tossed aside, dishonored: [9] But now you have tossed us aside in dishonor. You no longer lead our armies to battle. Psalms 44:9 NLT They don't believe they are to blame at all: [18] Our hearts have not deserted you. We have not strayed from your path. Psalms 44:18 NLT And yet, at this moment, here they are. Questioning. Hurting. And the redemptive str...

The righteous will never be shaken,  but the wicked will not inhabit the land. Proverbs 10:30 BSB When we look for Jesus in this Proverb, he is right there. As a baby with his family on the run. As a child in the temple teaching. As a carpenter working with timber. Teaching the sermon on the Mount. Being rejected by his family, being in that mental and spiritual anguish in the Garden, facing the power of the Roman Empire in silence, and facing death itself...so that wickedness, evil, and it's effect, will not inhabit the land. Jesus is the Righteous who knows what it is to be human and to be shaken by events in this life, and is the divine who will never be shaken, who we can trust to make all things new, the only one who can make this place uninhabitable for "wickedness", uninhabitable for evil, uninhabitable for death itself... #Proverbs #wisdom  #somethingtochewon #itsaheartthing #speaklife 

Friday! Proverbs! The righteous will never be shaken,  but the wicked will not inhabit the land. Proverbs 10:30 BSB The wicked certainly do live in the land so this Proverb must be inviting us to consider it in a different way... Perhaps in the Big Story only the "righteous" will remain. And if we look at Proverbs as a way of seeing into our own hearts, what does this Proverb open up? The righteousness, the goodness that is iny heart, thoughts, motivations, desires, and the wickedness, the "anti-God" that dwells there too.There will be a day when that will not "inhabit the land", the inner landscape of my heart. For today, this hour, this minute, we can hold to the idea here that the righteousness, goodness, truth, love that is in us, will remain, and will prevail... #Proverbs #wisdom  #somethingtochewon #itsaheartthing #speaklife 

I am fully convinced, my dear brothers and sisters, that you are full of goodness. You know these things so well you can teach each other all about them.  Even so, I have been bold enough to write about some of these points, knowing that all you need is this reminder... Romans 15:14-15 NLT Paul's letter to the church is uplifting and affirming, and then there's this "even so". Even so. I wonder what Paul would notice as strengths in my church, and what his "even so" would be? I wonder if Paul was writing to me, what he would notice as strengths, and what his "even so" would be? We're not great at noticing strengths and encouraging ourselves in our own strengths. Perhaps allowing Paul in to my life, what would he affirm me in? What about you? What would Paul encourage you in? And then is this gentle invitation to consider "even so". What in my journey with our God does his invitation open up, invite me to step towards, stop avoiding? S...

I pray that God, the source of hope,  will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him.  Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 NLT This is a beautiful prayer.  Whatever is in front of you today, may this prayer of Paul's give you hope, peace, and that elusive thing called joy. The context of this prayer seems to be around conflict in the church. Conflict about food, holy days, ethnicity, and the lack of acceptance of difference. And in this little concluding prayer Paul brings his readers/listeners back to the "source of hope" and where they put their trust (hint: my trust is not in how right I think I am about an issue, but in our God).  This "confident hope" is not about whether I am right or wrong about food, holy days, Jew or not Jew, but that I can trust our God to hold my small story in His Big Story, that I can trust His Big Picture of love & grace, and that in His time and Hi...