verseoftheday

Mark 8:34-35 NLT Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said,  "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.  If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it." Mark 8:34-35 NLT What is this "life" that Jesus is talking about? The word here is "psuche", from which we get the word psyche, or soul. Biblehub defines it this way; 1. soul, inner being or life 2. (literally) breath 3. (figuratively) the heart's desire, the drive or passion of one's soul (i.e. that which brings satisfaction to one's being) Jesus seems to be inviting us to give up our life, our inner life, our desire, our breath, to him. And by doing that, we won't be diminished or lessened, but we somehow be made fully alive... And at Easter Jesus modelled that by giving up his life.  Why? Because it seems he think...

Mark 8:34 NLT Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said,  "If any of you wants to be my follower,  you must give up your own way,  take up your cross,  and follow me." Mark 8:34 NLT In Mark's account Jesus had been talking with the Disciples about rejection, suffering, death and ressurection, and here he is launching into a teaching to the crowd to "take up your cross" if they want to follow Jesus. Perhaps Jesus was trying to tell the crowd there's a lot more going on here than people getting healed, some kind of celebrity Rabbi thing. Maybe the clue is in the phrase before "take up your cross", which is "give up your own way". I'm not good at giving up my own way. But maybe this Easter we are being invited like this crowd was, like the disciples were, to put something down of our "own way". What could that be? #gospelofMark #GoodNews  #invitation  #easter

Romans 3:23-24 NLT For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard.  Yet God,  in his grace,  freely makes us right in his sight.  He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.  Romans 3:23-24 NLT Yet God. Yet God. Yet God. It was our God who IS Love chose us. Yet God. He stepped towards us. He made a way. In His Grace. Freely. He chose us.  We can wonder why all we like, but we don't have to make sense of Love. Love is.  Love acts. Love acts for the Beloved. This is the Easter story, the redemptive strands that flow from our God through the Cross to bring us Life and Hope. Grace. Freely. Something to chew on right here today...Beloved. (I wonder how I can freely express a tiny piece of the Grace I have received towards this world, towards someone, towards me, today) #letters #Easter #yetGod #redemptivestrands #hopeishere #weareBeloved 

Sunday Psalms; Psalms 14:1, 7 NLT [1] Only fools say in their hearts, "There is no God." ...  [7] Who will come from Mount Zion to rescue Israel?  When the Lord restores his people, Jacob will shout with joy, and Israel will rejoice. Psalms 14:1, 7 NLT This is a bleak psalm/song.  There's days, maybe weeks, months, when our world is bleak.  If that has been or is your experience, then maybe this psalm/song while written 3000 years ago in a different culture and language tells us we're not alone in how we feel or experience life. David starts by it seems reminding himself of Truth, that even when God is silent, seems distant, when the world is bleak, don't take from that that there is no God.  And then right at the end, the strand of hope, the redemptive strand we're looking for; "When the Lord restores his people..." Restoration will arrive. We get the benefit of reading this after the first Easter, knowing that Jesus death is the way of restoration,...

Mark 8:29-32 NLT Then he asked them, "But who do you say I am?" Peter replied,  "You are the Messiah." But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead.  As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. Mark 8:29-32 NLT Peter got it.  Got who Jesus is. But didn't get it all. Because Jesus for what seems the first time is unpacking more of his mission, or perhaps it's the "how" his messiahship will actually work, not the way Peter wanted or expected. Peter is the voice (& often the doer) of the things others want to say or do. He just says out loud what the others may well be thinking - "you're the Messiah, saving us doesn...

Friday! Proverbs! [9] Instruct the wise, and they will be even wiser. Teach the righteous, and they will learn even more. Proverbs 9:9 NLT This Proverb is suggesting a cumulative effect of wisdom and learning. That wisdom and learning get multiplied in some way. Hoe does this Proverb land when we are the person doing the teaching, the sharing, giving the instruction? "Instruct the wise,  and they will be even wiser.  Teach the righteous,  and they will learn even more." I'm wondering how this lands differently when I am the receiver of wisdom, when I am being taught...how well am I allowing the cumulative impact of wisdom to shape me, my heart responses? Where is wisdom building on wisdom in me? Where am I getting wisdom? #proverbs  #wisdom  #somethingtochewon #itsaheartthing #takethenextstep 

Romans 3:21-22 NLT But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. Romans 3:21-22 NLT Paul has spent some time telling the church in Rome that none of us can keep the law in it's entirety all the time. The law can't make us right with God. It can help us see where sin has a grip on us and where we might want to focus, but making us right with God? Nup. It's faith in Jesus. That's it. Faith in Jesus changes everything. Does part of us want to add something? A "yes but..." or "yes and..."? How about today we just sit with this Truth that Faith in Jesus is enough... #letters #redemptivestrands #faithinJesus #hopeishere #weareBeloved