verseoftheday

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

Romans 10:8-13 NLT ...And that message is the very message about faith that we preach:  If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord  and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,  you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced." Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. For "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Romans 10:8-13 NLT Shame, guilt, doubt, have I done enough, am I good enough, if God knew what I am really like there's no way I'm good enough... Paul continues in his letter writing to the church in Rome sharing his love for Jewish people and wanting them to be able to step around the rock of their own "self salvation project" (as Tim Keller describes it). ...

Romans 9:32-33 NLT ...Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him.  They stumbled over the great rock in their path. ... "But anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced." Romans 9:32-33 NLT Never be disgraced, (the word here is "kataischuno" which means) disgraced, humiliated, shamed. Disgraced. Humiliated. Shamed. Perhaps of all the things we fear, these are the things we fear most.  We know what shame is, and there's no way we can stand before God in shame, so we have to do more, obey more, be more right, more righteous... But Paul says here that is the great rock in the path that we tumble over, that trips us up. Paul invites us back to righteousness by faith, by trusting in God, by allowing us to be fully human, and Beloved.  We get to put the shame, the fear of shame, the fear of disgrace, the fear of not being enough, the fear of rejection by our God down, because in Jesus we are fully accepted and ...