verseoftheday

Friday! Proverbs! Wisdom will rescue you from the evil path, from people who twist their words.   Proverbs 2:12 CEB  This word translated "twist their words" is "tahpukah" which includes a meaning of deceit, if breaking covenant. This opens the door to a deeper level, the spiritual nature of relationships between people. There's more to each of us than mind and emotions and body, we are spiritual beings.  And we need Wisdom. As this Proverb reminds us, that there are those who would lead us on paths away from God, those who twist and use words and ideas to take us away from the freedom, love and shalom that exists in relationship with our God. Wisdom will rescue us.  That's quite an idea! Something to chew on this Friday morning! "May we allow Wisdom in, to show us those who might be leading us away from you, those who twist and deceive, rescue us from our own ability to deceive ourselves, keep us close to Your love, walking in Your path for us, finding...

So Christ has truly set us free.  Now make sure that you stay free, and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law. ... But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love. Galatians 5:1, 5-6 NLT Paul's letter is trying to not just set the Christians in Galatia straight, but to set them free! They were being held down by some particular cultural practices. Makes me wonder what mine are...good things that become The Thing, like going to church every Sunday... When a Good Thing becomes The Thing, we've lost the freedom we have in Jesus. And then Paul wraps it all up with this: "What is important is faith expressing itself in love." Faith expressing itself in love. How am I going to do that today at home, at work, studying, holidaying, recreating, what...

Galatians 4:12-15 NLT You did not mistreat me when I first preached to you. Surely you remember that I was sick when I first brought you the Good News. But even though my condition tempted you to reject me, you did not despise me or turn me away.  No, you took me in and cared for me as though I were an angel from God or even Christ Jesus himself.  Where is that joyful and grateful spirit you felt then?  I am sure you would have taken out your own eyes and given them to me if it had been possible.  Galatians 4:12-15 NLT While Paul is a bit over the top with the eyes thing, something significant has shifted in his relationship with these people. Paul's response is not to hide from it or ignore it, but to restate the truth he has been teaching (that hasn't changed), and to name the problem: "Something has changed here and I don't think it's me. You were full of care for me and full of joy and something has changed" His letter already stated that he understands wh...

Galatians 4:8-12 NLT Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world? Galatians 4:8-12 NLT What gods do we end up being slaves to? What our culture tells us,  the "shoulds" that come from our upbringing, our peers, the place we live and the messages that we consume, the voice in our head, "success", and then there's our coping mechanisms, the things we turn to, our small or big addictions, all promising something. But now that we know God, or as Paul puts it "should I say now that God knows you", we're invited to challenge all that inner noise and all those external voices, and allow the freedom we have in Jesus to give us room to be ourselves, to breathe, to rest, to find ourselves again. In Jesus we don't swap one kind...

Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves an inheritance for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father had. They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set. And that's the way it was with us before Christ came.  We were like children; we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles of this world. But when the right time came,  God sent his Son,  born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out,  "Abba, Father." Now you are no longer a slave but God's own child.  And since you are his child,  God has made you his heir.  Galatians 4:1-7 NLT This part appears to be written to Paul's Jewish readers cos th...

Sunday Psalms: S. Samek. Sustain me according to your word so I can live! Don't let me be put to shame because of hope.   Psalms 119:116 CEB This word for "live" is "chayah" which has this meaning if being alive, revived, restoring life.  What is it that drains us of life? Shame.  These psalms and songs aren't written to an individual, but to a community, and it's in the context of relationships with others that shame appears, and it's in community that we are restored and healed. Revived. Restored. In this verse God's word is "imrah", what is said. What does God say about you and to you? He says that you're made for relationship. Made in His image. Made to create and flourish in the place God has made. Made to be known and loved by Him David says we are fearfully and wonderfully made. What God says speaks Life and sustains, revives, removes shame. And He calls us to be his hands and feet in this world, to speak life, to sustain and...

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,  so that everyone who believes in him won't perish but will have eternal life. God didn't send his Son into the world to judge the world,  but that the world might be saved through him.   John 3:16-17 CEB Our God's Big Story is not one of judgment, it's Love. Love that enters in. Love that steps towards. Love that makes Itself small. Love that wraps us all in. Love that saves. The Big Story is enough to hold all our Stories, to hold our hopes and dreams and sorrows and losses. God's Big Story accepts us, says we are Enough, wanted, loved. When we get lost in the language of judgement whether it's the words of others or our own internal talk, the "shoulds", the "I should do/give/serve/attend, & do that more/better" that isn't what Jesus is saying.  He stooped down, joined us, not to judge, but to Love.  We are His Beloved. Rest in the Big Story today. #weareBeloved  #rest #shalom #sabba...

Friday! Proverbs! Discretion will guard you;  understanding will protect you.   Proverbs 2:11 CEB Some interesting words here: "mzimmah" is discretion, plans, purpose.  Ever thought of these things as protection? Up to now Proverbs has been telling us about the importance of Wisdom, so maybe these things, discretion, plans, purpose, are to protect us from un-wisdom. "tabuwn" is understanding, intelligence, insight, skill. Applying these things to not only our situations, but our inner world too, our thoughts and emotions, they can protect us from some of the unhealthy thinking that we have about ourselves. (Or is it just me with some stubborn inner critic?  This proverb invites me to plan for it- do these thoughts come when I'm tired? It invites me  be purposeful, knowing the Truth, reminding myself of what is True (which isn't always my thoughts) Where abouts in our lives could the purposeful and intentional application if Wisdom make a difference? What wo...

Galatians 3:29 CEB Now if you belong to Christ, then indeed you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:29 CEB So now the promises God made, the covenant, has been expanded and we're all included. By faith in Jesus we all now whakapapa to Abraham.  Paul couldn't be clearer to his readers that the distinctions that they were being taught to maintain between Jews whose bloodlines traced back to Abraham, and "Gentiles" who didn't, those distinctions are swept away. We're all included in God's promises. We're all heirs now.  All included. There's a release from the burden of the law.  There's letting go of things that are no longer needed to make them right with God. As we sit with those ideas today, what is it that our God might be inviting you to let go of today?  Something that's a barrier to wholeness with Him? What could He be inviting us to release today? #letters #Galatians  #faithinJesus #fullyalivenes...

Galatians 3:26-29 CEB You are all Gods children through faith in Christ Jesus. All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek;  there is neither slave nor free;  nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Now if you belong to Christ, then indeed you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:26-29 CEB Paul sweeps away all the differences between those who might read or hear this letter read to them. Paul dismantles the social and religious barriers that people everywhere and in every time put up.  What about us? "Them" & "us" is so easy right?  People who look like me, think a bit like me, agrees with me, does Church how I like it...and Paul reminds me that there is no "them". There's only us.  Only us. #letters  #Galatians  #faithinJesus #fullyaliveness #weareBeloved  #thereisonlyus

You are all God's children through faith in Christ Jesus. All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  Galatians 3:26-27 CEB It would seem that in the church Paul was writing to there was a lot of energy going into judging if someone was a what we would call a Christian - God's children. It's not ethnicity or religion or what rules we've kept or haven't kept, but faith in Jesus. That's it. Have you put your faith in Jesus? Then we're clothed with Jesus, He is our uniform, our marker, our protection, our comfort. It's faith in Jesus that gets us clothed & covered. I have this inclination to add things to Faith in Jesus, an "and" or "but" or a "then you must", but Paul is asking me here to resist that. Faith in Jesus. This not only leads to a radical acceptance of others, but the really radical acceptance of ourselves, in all our humanness and limitations and frailties. Faith in Jesus is e...

Psalms 119:105-112 CEB N. Nun Your word is a lamp before my feet and a light for my journey. I have sworn,  and I fully mean it:  I will keep your righteous rules. I have been suffering so much - LORD, make me live again according to your promise. Please,  LORD,  accept my spontaneous gifts of praise.  Teach me your rules Though my life is constantly in danger,  I won't forget your Instruction. Though the wicked have set a trap for me,  I won't stray from your precepts. Your laws are my possession forever because they are my heart's joy. I have decided to keep your statutes forever, every last one.    Psalms 119:105-112 CEB This is the whole segment of Ps 119 (remember there's 22 segments, each one representing a letter of the Hebrew alphabet). The thing that jumped out was the intentionality: Even though - I will. Even though - I will. The psalmist "even though" will be different to ours, the invitation is the same: To choose to stay in the ...

Sunday Psalms; Psalms 119:105-107 CEB N Nun Your word is a lamp before my feet and a light for my journey. I have sworn, and I fully mean it:  I will keep your righteous rules. I have been suffering so much - LORD, make me live again according to your promise.   Psalms 119:105-112 CEB This beautiful idea of the lamp & light is actually written in the context of suffering, of affliction, of being stuck, down, depressed.  When we're in darkness is when we need light.  When everything seems black we need a lamp, to get a glimpse of the next step. It's there that we need the reminder that there still is light, that it exists.  The word "anah" carries this meaning of afflict, oppress, depress, and to respond. And the reposnse is what the psalmist is doing here: coming back to what is True. When it feels like we're stuck in the dark, the world is against us, we need something solid, a path, and light to get us there.  Here's 2 of mine: Ephesians 1:4-14 G...

Galatians 3:26 CEB You are all God's children through faith in Christ Jesus.  Galatians 3:26 CEB The Galatian Church had false teaching creeping in & Paul was standing against it. He was reminding the Galatians that it's not bloodline that makes you right with God, and it's not some strict adherence to the law either, but it's faith in Jesus. No matter what our story includes the work Jesus did for us is enough. No matter what our bloodline, where we were born, brought up, whether we even know who our parents are or not, no matter who we are, it's faith in Jesus that makes us right with God. Does that seem too easy? And yet there were people who literally walked around with Jesus, saw the miracles, who didn't put their faith in Him. It can be difficult to give up my faith that if I just do enough, am "good" enough, give up my faith in me and place it in Jesus.  In our churches there is quite an emphasis on "making a step of faith" or that...

Friday! Proverbs! For the Lord gives wisdom;  from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly, guarding the paths of justice and preserving the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart,  and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; Proverbs 2:6-10 NRSV This is the middle of a long piece of writing about Wisdom, still seems to be part of the introduction to the Proverbs themselves. This passage reinforces the source of Wisdom, and repeats what Wisdom can do in the life of a community or a person. The heart of God is revealed not in that Wisdom will become something pleasant for us, but in what we will understand: Righteousness  Justice Equity Good paths. These ideas are bigger than me, bigger than my life, but speak to "us", God's heart for People, for us to live in community, together...

Galatians 3:24-25 NLT Let me put it another way.  The law was our guardian until Christ came;  it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian. Galatians 3:24-25 NLT The law was our guardian. The CEB version uses the word custodian. In the Greek Paul uses "paidagogos" which means guardian, tutor, instructor, someone in charge of a young person's morals and life choices. This is not a word about power, command, demand, but includes care, nuture, wanting the best for someone, and now the law has been absorbed into faith in Jesus. Now it's faith in Jesus that cares, nurtures, wants the best for us.  Faith in Jesus is our guardian, our custodian, our tutor, instructor.  Somehow, God is in us. Faith in Jesus is our foundation on which Life grows and flourishes, the foundation on which we can grow into that fully aliveness that we were created for...that you were created ...

Galatians 3:21-22 NLT If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it. But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God's promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.  Galatians 3:21-22 NLT Paul continues to repeat his themes in different ways. The law is not wrong, not broken, but we aren't perfect, we're human, and trying to obey the law as the way to make us right with God doesn't get us to the fully aliveness that believing in Jesus does.  It doesn't get us to freedom. The opposite of freedom is captivity, oppression, constriction, holding down, holding back. Freedom that comes from faith in Jesus, that he is who he said he is, that it's his redemptive work that makes us right with God leads us to freedom. To shalom. To peace. To flourishing. Because nothing can separate us from God's love, not our ability or inability, not our achievements or failures. We're Beloved. Jesus actio...

Galatians 3:11-12 NLT So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law.  For the Scriptures say,  "It is through faith that a righteous person has life." This way of faith is very different from the way of law, which says, "It is through obeying the law that a person has life." Galatians 3:11-12 NLT Why is this important for us today? Surely we're not like the Galatians thinking life comes from completing the requirements of the law? There are parts of us that do though right? We judge others and we definitely judge ourselves. My inner critic seems to enjoy telling me I'm not doing enough, not doing what "they" are doing, and as a result I'm not good enough, not enough. And the answer is do more, be better. Paul says life, "zao", to be fully alive comes not from the law, but from faith.  This fully aliveness comes from knowing we are Beloved, accepted, wanted, in all our humanness, and that comes from fa...

But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say,  "Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God's Book of the Law." So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law.  For the Scriptures say,  "It is through faith that a righteous person has life." Galatians 3:10-11 NLT This appears to be the root of the problem that Paul is trying to address with the Galatian Church. They're being taught some kind of hybrid gospel that continues to emphasise the law, the rules, keeping all the rules all the time, perfectly, is the way to be right with God. We can't. None of us can. Why is this such a problem in the church in Galatia?  For the same reason it's a problem for us, it's what Tim Keller called our "self salvation project". We are tempted in different ways in our own cultural setting to believe we can do it oursel...

Psalms 119:97-104 NLT Mem. Oh, how I love your instructions!  I think about them all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are my constant guide.  Yes, I have more insight than my teachers, for I am always thinking of your laws.  I am even wiser than my elders, for I have kept your commandments. I have refused to walk on any evil path, so that I may remain obedient to your word. I haven't turned away from your regulations, for you have taught me well. How sweet your words taste to me; they are sweeter than honey. Your commandments give me understanding; no wonder I hate every false way of life.  Mem. This part of the psalm reads like everything is a wee bit exaggerated...does he really think of God's law all day? Is he really wiser than his enemies and his elders and have more insight than his teachers? This reads like a teenagers overexcitement! Overexcited in a good direction tho! Maybe its an NZ culture thing but maybe we're a bit underex...

Galatians 3:8-9 NLT What's more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would make the Gentiles right in his sight because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said,  "All nations will be blessed through you."  So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith. Galatians 3:8-9 NLT Right from the beginning our God always included everyone. Paul is writing to people who believed they were special because they could whakapapa to Abraham. And Paul is saying no, take another look, God's heart snd intent was way bigger than bloodlines.  There is no "better than" in God's economy, there is no "them", there's only us. There's only us. #letters #Galatians  #faithlines #freedominJesus  #thereisonlyus

Friday! Proverbs! My child,  listen to what I say, and treasure my commands. Tune your ears to wisdom,  and concentrate on understanding. Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. Search for them as you would for silver;  seek them like hidden treasures. Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God. Proverbs 2:1-5 NLT Tune your ears. Concentrate. Cry out. Ask. Search. Seek. Wisdom and insight, understanding God, these things take more than turning up at church and listening to a sermon, more than glancing at a Bible verse on our way through breakfast. This is couched in the language of invitation, of a good parent encouraging their child onto a path where they know is thriving and flourishing. A path that may not seem as attractive as other options in the short term, but the path that every good parent would want for their child: Insight. Understanding. We're invited to tune our ears...it's like going into the bush and ...

Galatians 3:5-7 NLT I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law?  Of course not!  It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ. "In the same way, Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith." The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God. Galatians 3:5-7 NLT Paul quotes Genesis 15 to his audience because the old way is gone, the children of Abraham are no longer contained in bloodlines but in Faith lines.  Our inheritance is from a Faithline to God. It's no longer about the family you were born into, the laws you've followed, what you've done, it's about faith in Jesus and what He has done. We get to rest in the Faithline. Interesting to sit with this on Waitangi Day and think about nations and peoples and the history of the place we are in, the stories that bind us together, and the Big Story that contains us all, and welcomes...

Galatians 3:1-3 NLT Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you?  For the meaning of Jesus Christ's death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. Let me ask you this one question:  Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses?  Of course not!  You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?  Galatians 3:1-3 NLT This seems to be the heart of Paul's concern for the Galatians, they put their faith in Jesus, and then went back to putting their faith in their ability to obey the rules. To be good enough in their own actions. The Gospel, the Good News of Jesus says that we're beloved.  Let's start there. Our faith in Jesus makes us right with God. How we then live is in response to those 2 gifts of Love & Grace. We are Belove...

Galatians 2:20 NLT My old self has been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.  So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God,  who loved me  and gave himself for me.  Galatians 2:20 NLT Paul has just explained about how just keeping all the rules, just thinking that was what God wanted, did not lead to Life. Trusting in the rules, in his own ability to keep them, has been abandoned for trusting in Jesus, trusting in His Love that leads to Life, that trusting in our God who Loves Us changes everything and we get to discover, little by little, the way that we have lived to please others, to meet our culture or society expectations, even our church's expectations, does not always lead to Life. Paul acknowledges too our embodiedness. That we are an embodied soul, that our physicalness is an intrinsic part of who we are (no less important than our mind, or spirit). What is the freedom in Jesus that this letter migh...

Sunday Psalms; Surround me with your tender mercies so I may live... Psalms 119:77 NLT When the world seems empty; Surround me with your tender mercies so I may live... When all seems lost; Surround me with your tender mercies so I may live... When it seems I'm at the end of my resources; Surround me with your tender mercies so I may live... When I can't see a way; Surround me with your tender mercies so I may live... When it makes no sense; Surround me with your tender mercies so I may live... When things are good; Surround me with your tender mercies so I may live... When there is plenty; Surround me with your tender mercies so I may live... When I am loved; Surround me with your tender mercies so I may live... Whatever is behind me; Surround me with your tender mercies so I may live... Whatever today holds; Surround me with your tender mercies so I may live... Whatever is in front of me...surround me with your tender mercies so I may live... #sunday #worship #psalms #psalm11...

Galatians 2:15-16 NLT "You and I are Jews by birth, not 'sinners' like the Gentiles. Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law.  And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law.  For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law." Galatians 2:15-16 NLT Paul is telling the readers of his letter who are hearing from false teachers just what he told Peter when he was off track too: Our religious heritage won't make us right with God. Obeying all the rules won't make us right with God. These things are attractive and can seem attainable.  It's faith in Jesus that makes us right with God. Not which church we go to, how often we go, how we were baptised, what we give, how we serve, whether we've made good choices or terrible ones, it's faith in Jesus that makes us right with God. Faith in Je...