verseoftheday

Sunday Psalms; Psalms 16:5, 7-8 CSB [5]  Lord, you are my portion and my cup of blessing; you hold my future. ... [7] I will bless the Lord who counsels me - even at night when my thoughts trouble me. [8] I always let the Lord guide me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Psalms 16:5, 7-8 CSB This song wrestles with the concerns in David's life. And it includes 3 things that David does in the midst of turmoil and uncertainty: 1. Reminds himself that God holds his future securely. No matter what, look up, our future is secure. 2. When his thoughts "trouble" him he looks outside himself to God's truth for counsel - when our thoughts race or we're stuck, look to God's truth to shift things. 3. He lets the Lord guide him. Inviting our God into that decision making space isn't always easy, but it seems to be a choice that David makes. Hiw can I choose that today? How can we let the redemptive strands of this song shape our choices today, be ou...

Mark 9:9-10 NLT As they went back down the mountain, he told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept it to themselves, but they often asked each other what he meant by 'rising from the dead." Mark 9:9-10 NLT Peter, James and John had just experienced something on the mountain with Jesus that radical,  extraordinary, supernatural. And Jesus was talking about rising from the dead. Yet more radical, extraordinary and supernatural talk. They couldn't fully grasp it, grasp the meaning of it, and Jesus was right there.  It's no wonder that we might struggle to grasp what Jesus went through, what "rising from the dead" means, making sense of God becoming human and dying to defeat death and rising from the dead into Life, Life that we are invited into too... Maybe we're not supposed to be able to grasp it all, make sense of it all, and leave room for mystery...room for faith...and that's OK... #gos...

Friday! Proverbs! Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment. Wisdom will multiply your days and add years to your life. If you become wise, you will be the one to benefit.  If you scorn wisdom, you will be the one to suffer. Proverbs 9:10-12 NLT This word "multiply" is about abundance. It may not mean more, but better. More abundant days. That's what we're invited into when we stand on the foundation of Wisdom, on the knowledge of who our God is. Let that foundation underpin our choices in this moment, this hour, today...in taking the next step...knowing that we have a firm foundation beneath us. What does this Proverb invite us towards today? #proverbs  #wisdom #somethingtochewon #itsaheartthing #takethenextstep 

That's why the inheritance comes through faith, so that it will be on the basis of God's grace. In that way, the promise is secure for all of Abraham's descendants, not just for those who are related by Law but also for those who are related by the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us. Romans 4:16 CEB Paul is writing to the early church in Rome, and actively removes barriers based on religion, ethnicity, where people have come from, religious expectations, and places everyone together on the basis of faith.  Standing securely on God's Grace. When we feel a bit wobbly in who we are, what the future holds, what our past might be shouting at us, we get to come back to this firm foundation: God's Grace. Freely given. Because He Loves. Because He Loves Us. God's Grace. Freely given. Because He Loves. Because He Loves Us. And as we come back to this foundation, my hope is that 2 things can happen, we get to put down something that is a burden, and somethin...

For the Scriptures tell us, "Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith." When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned. But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.  Romans 4:3-5 NLT Our being right with God has 2 components: 1. We're people, the object of God's love. 2. We put our faith in God.  Believe Him. Paul even uses a very modern example of the transaction that we make with society, employers, bosses, employees where we trade our labour and energy for income, and reminds us that faith in God is NOT like that.  Belief, faith counted Abraham as righteous. Right. OK  Accepted  Acceptable  And Paul reminds the church in Rome it's the same for them, the same for us. There is no transaction.  And in this space we get to experience Grace. Grace that steps towards, that makes a way.  What does that invite us i...

Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice spoke from the cloud, "This is my Son,  whom I dearly love. Listen to him!" Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.   Mark 9:7-8 CEB Peter, James, and John had been given a glimpse of something bigger, mysterious, powerful, deeper. A glimpse behind scenes. Behind the story that they were living in, they got a glimpse of the Bigger Story that holds it all... Behind the life that Jesus lived, there was more, there is more.  Sometimes with one another we get a glimpse into a person's inner story, or understand the bigger story of their life, and here Peter, James, and John get the curtain pulled back on something way bigger, a relationship, a reality, that must've been hard to grasp and understand. I read this account and don't understand it.  We are invited just like our brothers 2,000yrs ago were invited to glimpse, a Bigger Story, big enough to hold us, all that we might wreslte with...

Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and brought them to the top of a very high mountain where they were alone.  He was transformed in front of them, and his clothes were amazingly bright, brighter than if they had been bleached white. Elijah and Moses appeared and were talking with Jesus.  Peter reacted to all of this by saying to Jesus, "Rabbi, its good that we're here. Let's make three shrines - one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He said this because he didn't know how to respond, for the three of them were terrified.   Mark 9:2-6 CEB Six days after Jesus had been telling them about his death, asked them that question "who do you say that I am?", Jesus takes just three of his team to the mountain where they experience something mind blowing! We hear from Peter because we all respond to things differently, Peter is the one who says things out loud and wants to act, to move, to do something. James and John were terrified too. ...