verseoftheday

Mark 6:39-40 NLT [39] Then Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups on the green grass. [40] So they sat down in groups of fifty or a hundred. Mark 6:39-40 NLT There were a LOT of people. There was a TINY amount of food. It seems that Jesus wanted his team to experience the impossibilty. To sit with the Impossibility. To face the Impossibility and follow Jesus anyway.  And Jesus took his time, waited. Waited for everyone to get into groups and settle. Wait for the Impossibility to sit with his team. He knew he was going to miraculously make a way, but his team didn't. What they did was act in Faith.  God, the Eternal, Creator of everything, becoming a person, a baby, entering into the story with His creation. Impossibility. Fully God. Fully human. Impossibility. Love me. Accept me. Adopt me. Know me and do it anyway. Be enough to cover all I've done. Have Grace for me. Forgive me. Love me. Impossibility. Have a Bigger Story that we're part of. Impossib...

But Jesus said,  "You feed them." "With what?" they asked. "We'd have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people!" "How much bread do you have?" he asked.  "Go and find out." Mark 6:37-38 NLT The disciples have already assessed that the task is impossible. They don't have the money, the time to earn the money, or the food to feed all these people. Too much. Too big. Impossible. And Jesus asks them to go check anyway.  And what is the response? Mark 6:38 NLT They came back and reported,  "We have five loaves of bread and two fish." It seems that this seemingly tiny amount, this "drop in the bucket" of what is needed is enough for Jesus.  And perhaps there's a small shift in the disciples from "this is impossible" to this is what we do have. There was a seed of something. And there's times I wonder if that is what Jesus is looking for in me..."how can I love ...

Mark 6:35-37 NLT Late in the afternoon his disciples came to him and said,  "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the nearby farms and villages and buy something to eat." But Jesus said,  "You feed them." "With what?" they asked.  "We'd have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people!" Mark 6:35-37 NLT We're a long way from anywhere, there's a crowd, it's late in the day, and the disciples felt responsible and wanted to do the best they could... They had no money, no resources. No options. Jesus said "you feed them". Sometimes what Jesus asks makes no sense when lined up against our logic, thoughts, ideas. My response to "you feed them" would be just the same as the disciples... Have you ever had a nudge from the Spirit to do something, go somewhere, reach out, give, serve, love in a way that makes no sense, that is beyon...

Sunday Psalms; Psalms 5:3, 7-8, 11 NLT [3] Listen to my voice in the morning,  Lord.  Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly. ... [7] Because of your unfailing love, I can enter your house;  I will worship at your Temple with deepest awe.  [8] Lead me in the right path,  O Lord... Make your way plain for me to follow. ... [11] But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; Psalms 5:3, 7-8, 11 NLT As we look for the redemptive strands in this week's song, these jumped out... David shares how he gets to chat with God. And he does something that I don't often do - waits. Waits expecting to hear.  David gets to go to the place where God in his day restricted Himself to meet people. Our opportunity is so much greater as we no longer have to find a temple where God meets people, He is with us. Just like David in this song we get to seek direction and refuge in YHWH. Two things we need as we navigate this life - direction and refuge. What do you...

When Jesus arrived and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he began to teach them many things.  Mark 6:34 CEB This word "compassion" is "splagchnizomai", it is a deeper yearning, a physical reaction, a gut reaction. Jesus felt deeply for these people. They had already gathered, looking for something, looking for someone, like sheep looking for their shepherd. And Jesus response is deep, personal.  When we are lost, rudderless, lost sight of our Shepherd, Jesus compassion is towards us, His heart is for us, just like it was for those people. If Jesus is compassionate towards me, even in my lostness, uncertainty, need, what is He inviting me towards today? What opens up? Perhaps knowing we need a Shepherd is the most important step of faith there is... #gospelofMark #GoodNews  #invitation  #faith #JesusistheGoodShepherd

Friday! Proverbs! My son,  keep your father's command, and don't reject your mother's teaching.  Always bind them to your heart;  tie them around your neck. When you walk here and there, they will guide you;  when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you wake up, they will talk to you. Proverbs 6:20-22 CSB Words of truth, encouragement, life, don't literally speak to us, protect us, watch over, or guide, but they're great pictures to sit with. Imagine Jesus words keeping watch as we sleep: "Take heart, I have overcome the world" When we have a decision: "Come follow me" Or Paul's words when we feel overwhelmed: "Nothing can separate you from the love of God" Keep looking for, holding, memorising, writing down these nuggets of gold, these redemptive strands of Grace that we have been given, and let them protect, guide, watch over and speak... What do you need today? #proverbs #wisdom #somethingtochewon #invitation  #truthtore...

2 John 1:13 CEB Your chosen sister's children greet you. This is the final sentence of John's letter.  It's personal. John's noticed, connected, heard, and passed on the love to the receiver of this letter. Who can I be connecting with today, and what can I notice and pass on that is going to encourage and build that person up? John joins up the strands from the people he is with to the person he is writing to.  We're connected.  You're important. In our world that seems to value big engagement with lots of people, John invites us back to the small, the personal. How can I reflect that today? #lettersfromJohn  #invitation  #small

I have a lot to tell you.  I don't want to use paper and ink, but I hope to visit you and talk with you face-to-face, so that our joy can be complete.   2 John 1:12 CEB 2,000yrs ago John appreciated written communication, yet knew that face-to-face is better. I wonder what he would make of our modern communication mediums... Let's not lose the joy of face-to-face, kahoni te kahoni.  It's sharing words, and more. It's being in the same space, and more. It's communicating ideas, thoughts, experiences, needs, and more. We are spiritual, emotional, physical, emotional creatures, and to commune, to connect fully, deeply, all of us needs to be engaged, and as good as letters are, as good as our screens are, those mechanisms miss something. (And yes sometimes they are the only available or safe way to communicate). How can we choose face-to-face a little more today? What makes me hesitate, hold back from face-to-face? What potential joy am I missing? #lettersfromJohn  ...

2 John 1:10 NLT [10] If anyone comes to your meeting and does not teach the truth about Christ, don't invite that person into your home or give any kind of encouragement.  2 John 1:10 NLT John writes these words in the same short letter where he encourages his readers to "love one another". Love does not mean there are no boundaries. Love does not mean making ourselves vulnerable to harm. Love does not mean everyone who wants to gets to enter into our circle. Remember who this letter is written to - a (most likely) single mum with children. Someone with less resources than others to stand against those with an unhealthy agenda. It's one thing having someone turn up at your church teaching things about Jesus that aren't true, but I wonder what John would make of our world, where we are bombarded with messages about life, what's important, how we should live, what success looks like, what we should think, and how those messages line up with the truth about Jesus...

[6] Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning. [7] I say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world. They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real body. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist.  2 John 1:6-7 NLT John joins this idea of Love, what Love is, and loving one another with the truth that Jesus was both God and a person and came in a body like ours. Why's that important? No doubt even in John's lifetime there were people saying Jesus was a myth, questioning how does God become a person. Jesus being like us means he understands what it is to be us. What it is to experience joy, happiness, sadness, loss, rejection, to feel pain, to be abused, powerless, unheard, left out, left alone. He knows. And he stayed. Because He Is Love. And He Loves Us. He came to redeem us, to redeem this world, His creation. Because Love. Love is a person. #lettersfromJohn #redemptivestrands  #...

Sunday Psalms; Offer sacrifices in the right spirit, and trust the Lord. Many people say,  Who will show us better times? Let your face smile on us, Lord.  You have given me greater joy than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine. In peace I will lie down and sleep,  for you alone,  O Lord,  will keep me safe. Psalms 4:5-8 NLT At the beginning of this song David is under personal attack, and at the end it seems like its the world he is living in isn't great- "who will show us better times?" David's solution? Keep the faith, even when it seems that the world is against you. Keep being faithful even when the harvest is poor. Because our peace, lasting peace, peace that transends this life and overlaps into eternity, that peace is found in our God. Trust Him to hold your life no matter what others say, what the world around us says. The redemptive strands can be picked up again and again when we "offer sacrifices in the right spirit, and trust the L...

2 John 1:5 NLT I am writing to remind you, dear friends, that we should love one another. This is not a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning.  2 John 1:5 NLT When we're finding the Bible a bit hard to understand, when faith seems complicated, when church isn't working, when relationships are challenging, John invites us back to the simplicity of the command to love one another. (This does not mean that everyone is safe, that there aren't people to maintain distance from, that there is no accountability or calling to truth - to love one another is not just one person doing something for another, it's reciprocal, mutual, relational, healing, hopeful, redemptive, held in the framework of God's love for us.) Love One Another is about relationship.  And it's what our God is about. How can I embrace this today? #lettersfromJohn  #redemptivestrands  #loveoneanother

Friday! Proverbs! The Lord hates six things; in fact, seven are detestable to him:  -arrogant eyes,  -a lying tongue,  -hands that shed innocent blood,  -a heart that plots wicked schemes,  -feet eager to run to evil, -a lying witness who gives false testimony, -and one who stirs up trouble among brothers. Proverbs 6:16-19 CSB What are we noticing here? The things our God hates move from the inside to the outside, from the heart to schemes, from eager feet (again a heart thing) to moving towards evil. There are some key metaphors: - eyes - tongue - hands - heart  - feet There's something about connecting these parts of ourselves with our heart/mind/will and our actions. And third thing is that these are all connected to our choices. My choices. What I look at, say, do, dwell on, direction I take, they all have an element of choice. The redemptive strand here is that Proverbs is pointing these things out, giving us the opportunity to see where we have choice...

[4] It made my heart dance for joy when I found some of your children following the way of truth, just as our Father from above has instructed us.  2 John 1:4 FNVNT (Second Letter from He Shows Goodwill 1:4 FNVNT) This word of encouragement from the Apostle John to this (probably) single mum, shows that John's heart was for people. He noticed. In the first few verses he greeted, recognised, reminded and affirmed her. And now is this deep and beautiful encouragement. If John knew you, was writing to you, my guess is he would take the same approach, he would notice and affirm and find a place of deep and beautiful encouragement. Because his heart is reflecting our God's heart. We don't know how the person on the receiving end of this letter was feeling or thinking about themselves, about life, but when someone else sees us, acknowledges, encourages, then it speaks as a reminder that we are loved, that we do matter. Perhaps the invitation today is to be like John and notice, a...

This letter is from John, the elder. I am writing to the chosen lady and to her children, whom I love in the truth - as does everyone else who knows the truth - because the truth lives in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy, and peace, which come from God the Father and from Jesus Christ - the Son of the Father - will continue to be with us who live in truth and love. 2 John 1:1-3 NLT What a way to start the year...greetings, recognition, reminders, and affirmations. A greeting and recognition of the person this letter is written to. The greek word is "kyria" which is also a proper name, Cyria, so this may be her name. No mention of a husband, but there is of her children, so maybe a single Mum - seen, acknowledged, loved. And a reminder. Reminder that this truth lives in us, in the community we have with one another, and it is eternal.  We are in a Big Story too. And the affirmation that Grace,.Mercy, and Peace, the source of which is our Heavenly Father are ours th...

Luke 2:48-50 CEB When his parents saw him, they were shocked.  His mother said,  "Child,  why have you treated us like this?  Listen!  Your father and I have been worried.  We've been looking for you!" Jesus replied,  "Why were you looking for me?  Didn't you know that it was necessary for me to be in my Fathers house?" But they didn't understand what he said to them.   Luke 2:48-50 CEB There's more than just the usual intergenerational misunderstanding going on here, it's 12 years since the Angels, the Wise Men, the prophecies, and maybe normal life was taking over...but Joseph and Mary didn't get what Jesus was about or doing.  If they didn't, then its not surprising that we don't always get what God is about, what He's doing, what He's up to.  And that's faith right? Trusting God even whenit'ss not clear, when we dont get it, when ordinary life is so...ordinary...It's OK not to understand the God of the Universe...

Sunday Psalms; But you, LORD,  are my shield!  You are my glory!  You are the one who restores me.   Psalms 3:3 CEB David, the King, was on the run because his own son, Absalom, was intent on killing him. His world is in turmoil. Upsidedown. And in the middle of that upsidedownness, David declares his faith in who God is. His faith in the Big Story that he is in (however things turn out with Absalom). David dials down his own position and power - his glory, his honour, is not found in his title, wealth or any other measure, but in God.  His hope of restoration lies with our God. When our life is in turmoil, the upsidedownness of everything seems overwhelming, perhaps David's choosing to draw on the redemptive strands of our God's character and heart for him, can be a path that we can follow too... #upsidedownness  #songs #redemptivestrands  #weareBeloved 

Luke 2:44-48 CEB Supposing that he was among their band of travelers, they journeyed on for a full day while looking for him among their family and friends. When they didn't find Jesus, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple. He was sitting among the teachers, listening to them and putting questions to them. ... When his parents saw him, they were shocked. His mother said,  "Child, why have you treated us like this? Listen!  Your father and I have been worried. We've been looking for you!" Luke 2:44-48 CEB Imagine being in a community where you wouldn't worry about your 12yr old child's well-being because your people would care for your child just as you would. But Jesus wasn't with his friends or cousins. It seems that he was left behind. And his parents spent 3 days searching the city for him. 3 days. You can picture Joseph and Mary trying to make sense of the prophecies, the angels, the promises, and no...

Friday! Proverbs! The Lord hates six things;  in fact, seven are detestable to him:  (1) arrogant eyes,  (2) a lying tongue,  (3) hands that shed innocent blood, ... Proverbs 6:16-17 CSB This list of things that Proverbs describes that our God stands against, are anti-God, must be things that God isn't.  It's easy to use Proverbs as a weapon, to accuse or label others, but Proverbs is about finding the way of wisdom, of life, it's about the heart, mine, yours, ours.  And it's full of metaphor. Arrogant eyes. Eyes aren't arrogant, they're just that part of my body that receives visual information aren't they? Arrogant eyes. My tongue doesn't tell lies by itself, I do that. Hands that shed innocent blood - I haven't taken anyone's life... The word here for "hands" is "yad" and it is used literally and figuratively- it means an open hand (not closed) and is about direction and use of power. Proverbs invites us to sit with these p...

Luke 2:41-43 NLT Every year Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. [42] When Jesus was twelve years old, they attended the festival as usual. [43] After the celebration was over, they started home to Nazareth, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. Luke 2:41-43 NLT But Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His whanau had packed up and were heading back to Nazareth. And Jesus stayed behind. Seems like a small thing. Everyone else in Jesus community was heading to Nazareth, except him. As we step into a new year, our media will be full of people and messages enticing, encouraging, drawing us into, big changes. Grand gestures.  Sign up for this challenge, change your life - for some this is all too much.  The way of Jesus is an invitation into the small.  An invitation to stay in "Jerusalem" a bit longer.  When everyone else seems to be heading off to new directions, new adventures, new "life", and if it all seems a bit much, it's not You,  it...