verseoftheday

Mark 10:38-40 NLT But Jesus said to them, "You don't know what you are asking!  Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink?  Are you able to be baptized with the baptism of suffering I must be baptized with?" "Oh yes," they replied, "we are able!" Then Jesus told them, "You will indeed drink from my bitter cup and be baptized with my baptism of suffering. But I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left.  God has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen." Mark 10:38-40 NLT This is a sobering statement from Jesus. Not sure I'd be too keen on sticking with Jesus if he said that to me! I wonder what Jesus was talking about here? Having to face death? Was it specific for James & John? Does it flow down to us too as followers of Jesus? One thing that is clear is that there is a deeper story at work, a deeper conversation and work of the Father that goes on. Isn't this what faith is,...

Mark 10:35-39 NLT [35] Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came over and spoke to him.  "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do us a favor." "What is your request?" he asked.  They replied, "When you sit on your glorious throne, we want to sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left."  But Jesus said to them, "You don't know what you are asking!  Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink?  Are you able to be baptized with the baptism of suffering I must be baptized with?" "Oh yes," they replied, "we are able!" Mark 10:35-39 NLT It's too easy to look at James and John  and blame them for a poor attitude, poor motivation. But we're not them.  We're not living in their culture, their shoes, their story.  I wonder what I would be thinking if I'd left my business, my family, to travel around with this Rabbi who is now famous, ...

Sunday Psalms; Psalms 30:1, 6-7, 11-12 NLT [1] I will exalt you, Lord, for you rescued me.  You refused to let my enemies triumph over me. ... [6] When I was prosperous, I said, "Nothing can stop me now!"  [7] Your favor,  O Lord, made me as secure as a mountain. Then you turned away from me, and I was shattered. ... [11] You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing.  You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, [12] that I might sing praises to you and not be silent.  O Lord my God,  I will give you thanks forever! Psalms 30:1, 6-7, 11-12 NLT There's a story beneath this song of David's. Read the whole song and there seems to be an underlying drama or event in David's life he is reliving in this song. A story that included enemies, illness of some sort (stress related?), prosperity - and believing that prosperity would save him - loss, and a return to God who may not have changed David's circumstances, but shifted things in him th...

The wealth of the rich is their fortress;  the poverty of the poor is their destruction. Proverbs 10:15 NLT The story Jesus told recorded by Matthew in Ch16 of his Gospel account of the rich young man who asked Jesus what good thing he needed to do to get eternal life. The conversation led to Jesus inviting this person to give away his wealth, and to follow Jesus. And at that moment anyway, he couldn't do it.  His wealth had moved from being a fortress, to being a prison, a barrier to the fully aliveness that Jesus was offering.  His wealth made him poor.  Welcome to the upsidedown Kingdom... Jesus invites us to follow him - I wonder what I'm holding on to today that stops me from stepping towards fully aliveness with Him? #Proverbs  #wisdom #somethingtochewon #itsaheartthing #takethenextstep 

Friday! Proverbs! The wealth of the rich is their fortress;  the poverty of the poor is their destruction. Proverbs 10:15 NLT Two interesting ideas to sit with here: How do I see wealth as a fortress, protection, buffer? And the only way I get to think this way is from a place of wealth... If I can afford a flu vaccine I can create a buffer against illness for example. If I can afford a car I can take my child to the school I choose... And the second part? If I can't afford to heat where I live in winter my health will pay. Poverty eats people up. (And yes we can spiritualise this and look at as a spiritual poverty - but I don't think this is the idea here) Where or how am I involved in flipping this Proverb? Is this what followers of Jesus are called towards, those with less, to even things up, to challenge systems that hold people down? What do you think as we sit with this Proverb today? #Proverbs  #wisdom #somethingtochewon #itsaheartthing #takethenextstep 

And I am convinced  that  nothing  can ever  separate us  from God's love.  Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,  neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow - not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below - indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39 NLT My hope today is that you can feel the redemptive strands wrapping around you and holding you.  As we sit with Paul and feel his conviction from 20 centuries ago, may it be our truth too. Paul is clear that he has considered the spiritual world, his inner landscape, and the outer creation, and there is nothing in any of those spaces capable of separating him from God's love. While there may be things to fear and struggle with in all those realms, there is nothing, no thing, that can separate us from God's Lo...

Romans 8:35-38 NLT [35] Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love?  Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?  [36] (As the Scriptures say, "For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep".)  [37] No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. [38] And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from Gods love... Romans 8:35-38 NLT Paul's answer is clear and unequivocal- he is convinced that even though his circumstances, the story he finds himself in is trying to convince him that he is not loved, Christ's love is greater than his circumstances. The redemptive strand of God's Bigger Story holds. Nothing. No thing can separate him from God's Love. And this is not some personal redemptive story, but ours too. Our God's Love is Enough. We have been redeemed, made rig...