verseoftheday

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...

May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory. Romans 15:5-7 NLT Paul is writing to a church where there was lots of unacceptance going on - remember all that dialogue about food and holy days - there was clearly disharmony, impatience, unacceptance of difference.  (Some care here - this is about difference among believers, not tolerance for abusive behaviour, harm, violence, or seeking justice. It's about difference). Where do those things (disharmony, impatience, unacceptance) show up in my life in relation to my church community? Where do these things show up in my heart? Paul invites us to step towards harmony, towards patience, towards acceptance of difference, so that...

Send out your light and your truth;  let them guide me.  Let them lead me to your holy mountain,  to the place where you live. Psalms 43:3 NLT This psalm, this cry, this prayer was answered 1000 years later, not with an event, not with something, but with a person. God sent out His Light and Truth, embodied in all the limitations and frailities of being human. It is Jesus who becomes our guide, snd through Him, we get to go to that "holy mountain", that place where our God lives. Jesus is The Way, the Light, and the Truth, and in him our story, our life is safely held. #psalms #songs #redemptivestrands #hopeishere #weareBeloved 

Sunday Psalms; Declare me innocent,  O God!  Defend me against these ungodly people.  Rescue me from these unjust liars.  For you are God,  my only safe haven.  Why have you tossed me aside?  Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies?  Send out your light  and your truth;  let them guide me.  Let them lead me to your holy mountain,  to the place where you live.  There I will go to the altar of God, to God - the source of all my joy.  I will praise you with my harp,  O God,  my God!  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 43 NLT Two things can be true at the same time: The writer of this song is under pressure, lost in grief, sadness and despair. And holds hope in our God, asks for guidance, for light in the darkness from the source of light. We can be under pressure, lost in ...

The way of the Lord is a refuge for the blameless,  but it is the ruin of those who do evil. Proverbs 10:29 NIV When we look for Jesus in this Proverb, where do you find him? Jesus said "I am the way", he is our refuge. Just as Jesus didn't turn up to free his people from the immediate oppression of the Romans that they were looking for, he didn't "fix" their situation, and being the way, our refuge, may not look how we want it either.  Our situation may not be "fixed".  It might not change at all. Jesus life, death, resurrection was opening up the way to restored connection with our God, and that place is our refuge, is safety, as our story is held in the Big Redemptive Story. How is our God speaking into your story today? #proverbs #wisdom #somethingtochewon #itsaheartthing #takethenextstep 

Friday! Proverbs! The way of the Lord is a refuge for the blameless,  but it is the ruin of those who do evil. Proverbs 10:29 NIV So if Proverbs is not a weapon to point at others, but insight into our own hearts, what does this Proverb invite me to consider about me? This "do evil" at the end is the word "aven" which is found 78 times in the Bible and seems to cover "moral perversity, interior deceit, outward oppression, ritual idolatry, and the emptiness that attends each" (thanks Biblehub) So this Proverb is inviting me to consider the things I do, consume, how I deceive myself, oppress others, worship or value things above God, and the "emptiness" that goes with those things. They promise so much, and deliver so little. So maybe this Proverb today is inviting me to step away from something (some choice, some thought pattern) and towards something ("the way of the Lord - the way of YHWH). Step away from. Step towards. What is the Spirit i...

May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:5-6 NLT Is this why we sing in church? Why singing is such a feel good thing when people get together, because we get a glimpse of the "one voice" that Paul encourages here.  In our culture that seems more intent on difference, Paul invites us toward connection. He has been writing about differences that divide (can I eat this food or not) and invites us to be held in the Big Story of Who God Is, and who Jesus Is, and in that story it is less about difference, and more and more about connectedness. What is one thing we can do today to step towards another? To connect? In some small way? What is the Spirit prompting today? #letters #itsaheartthing  #loveoneanother #connection