verseoftheday

Now He had to go through Samaria. John 4:4 AMP One of my favourite verses in the Bible, 'cos it's like saying "I have to go to that cafe". I can actually get coffee anywhere, and Jesus didn't have to go there. If there was a "have to" it was you have to avoid Samaria. But Jesus had to go there because he had to meet someone there. The person he had to go and meet was a Samaritan woman. For a Jewish Rabbi it doesn't get much worse than that. Unclean. Unworthy. That was the person Jesus had to meet. Jesus stepped over the cultural and religious boundaries, and stepped towards the person he had to meet. Jesus steps towards. Towards me. Where I am, when I feel unclean, unworthy, He steps towards. Towards me And towards you And He brings words of Life and of Hope. No matter what is going on for you today, Jesus steps towards With Hope With Life #loveinaction #itsalovestory #hopeiscomingforyou #lovecoffee

But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it - not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it - they will be blessed in what they do. James 1:25 NIV Interesting place to end 2018...at the end of the year we often look back at the good, the bad, the ugly. The things we got right, and maybe some things we wouldn't do the same way again! James says yes look back. But look back at what God has said, how He has revealed himself in his Word, and in the person of Jesus. And look forward and live out what God says. Choose. Choose to follow God's design for us to thrive and flourish. Here's a few things I look back on in 2018: Our God is good. He doesn't do things the way I want, when I want. He does use the things we go through for good if I let him His Big Story is a Love Story. His Word is a lamp and a light. If I want to see in the dark, walk the journey He has for me I need that. #theWordjustliveit #Godsgym #itsal...

Friday! Proverbs! The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord . Proverbs 16:33 ESV I don't know if Solomon threw this in as a brain teaser to close off the chapter or what... We get to roll the dice, but God  already knows the numbers that will come up! The only way this works is that we have free choice, and, at the same time, God knows the outcome. I don't know how that works, but it seems that it's true. We have free will. Yet God is sovereign. When life seems unfair, we can be assured that God is in control, that His purposes will be worked out, that we're not alone in this, we're part of His Big Story...and that means you're dearly loved. His Big Story is a Love story. According to Solomon here,  next time you roll a dice, He knows the number! #proverbs #wisdom #somethingtochewon #GodsBigStory #itsalovestory #dearlyloved

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" (which means "God with us"). Matthew 1:22-23NIV Not only is Jesus the God who saves, but he is God with us! No longer a God no one can see without being consumed, no longer a God who meets in the temple that must be purified, with priests as intermediaries, no longer with the power to create the universe...but born the same way we all were, a vulnerable baby, just like us, completely dependent on his parents...why on earth would God do that? Why would Jesus take that humbling, reduction? To be born in a barn. Because He loves. Us. Jesus the saviour is God with us. #christmas #itsalovestory #sunday #worship #thisisourGod

All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. Isaiah 53:6 NLT In the days before multi media, video clips & projector screens an old preacher had a hand made wooden box, like a miniature shipping container, with a single door at each end. And in that wooden box were hand carved sheep. When he opened one door, he'd take the sheep out and they'd wander off The word ALL was painted on the inside of the door. We're all the same. We've all wandered off. I can't recall all the other things in the box, but there was a hand made wooden cross. And when he opened the other door on the box the word ALL was painted. Because Jesus died for us ALL. It's a simple story really. God entered his creation to make a way, to be the way for ALL. Not the "good" or the great, the popular, the successful, but for ALL. No matter who you are. No matter what you've done. ...

But now thus says the Lord... "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine..." Isaiah 43:1 ESV Redeem. gain or regain possession of (something) in exchange for payment. We're now in God's possession. Nothing can snatch us away...so we have no reason to fear. We can't be rejected. We can't be lost. Failure is not fatal or final because we have been accepted by God. His heart is for us. And the payment? The cross. Jesus was rejected so we won't be. Jesus was lost so that we can't be In what seemed to be the most epic fail of all time... the price for our redemption was paid. Once and for all. For all time. Because He loves. He knows your name... #dearlyloved #childrenofGod #itsalovestory #redeemed #nofear

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, :Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side..." John 20:26-27 NIV Mysteries. When Mary first met the resurrected Jesus, he said "don't touch me", a week later he says "touch me!" His body is clearly physical yet he enters the room without opening the door... What happened to Jesus berween "It is finished" & "Peace be with you"? Mystery. Is this what our ressurected bodies will be like? Still carrying our scars but not burdened with them? Mystery God has left some things vague & mysterious... and some things crystal clear... like... all of this is for the object of His Great Love. Us. #dearlyloved #easter #mystery #itsalovestory

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6 NIV Its our self orientation, our desire to rule ourselves, our self-ishness, thats what leads us astray...the desire to be our own god, or to make one in our image, one we can control, who does what we want... we want to go our own way... & that separates us from God. To restore that relationship someone had to pay. Forgiveness is costly. Think of a time when you've truly forgiven someone who's hurt you, caused a loss... It's costly...  you've absorbed their sin against you. And that's what was laid on Jesus on the cross...He absorbed all our sin - for all of us... #easter #goodfriday #itsalovestory #dearlyloved

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:4-5 NIV By His wounds, we are healed. #easter #itsalovestory #nothingmoretosay

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV Easter. Hot cross buns, chocolate, time off work or study or at least you get double time! But it's so easy to miss what it's really all about...which is in two small words here... So That Jesus became sin for us, absorbed it all into himself on the cross (no wonder he didn't want to go there) So That we can be right with God. It's not our work, but a gift. Easter is a love story. Love that caused God to hatch his plan to redeem the world. Love that took Jesus too the cross And love that kept him there, to make a way... to be the way... for us So That We can be right with God #itsagift #itsalovestory #easter #dearlyloved

...the news of his arrival spread quickly throughout the whole area, and soon people were bringing all their sick to be healed. They begged him to let the sick touch at least the fringe of his robe, and all who touched him were healed. Matthew 14:35-36 NLT We all know someone we'd love to see healed. Imagine the clamour and the crowds...just to get a touch. Some touched him and went on their way, & others would have looked in His eyes and really got it. Seen the love that bought God to earth. I think Jesus knew it was temporary. Healing of today's pain. Today's hurt. Tomorrow there could well be something new... he was happy to heal today...but in his humanity knew he wouldn't be there tomorrow - but this was a taster of the new kingdom where all pain and hurt is swallowed up...consumed finally by the love that took Jesus to the cross #love #itsalovestory #taster #onedayallwillbemadenew

"Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means 'God is with us'". Matthew 1:23 NLT For 42 generations God had been working from the outside...His presence was so powerful people couldn't survive it, heaven met earth only in the Holy of Holies...but now...at the first Christmas, it all changed. God shrunk himself, humbled himself, made himself "nothing"...a baby in a teenage single mother in a tiny backwater town where nothing good ever came...and in that moment God is with us. Jesus says I'm going to enter the story in a new way, I'm going to know what it's like to be you and I'm going to be with you on this journey... I'm not just going to make a way but I'll be that way...this is a love story and this is the best way I can show you that I love you. #with #christmas #everythingchanges #promisesofhope #love #itsalovestory

...Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God... sent out to preach his Good News. God promised this Good News long ago through his prophets in the holy Scriptures. The Good News is about his Son... Romans 1:1-3 NLT Everything I've got to say to you is framed by the "big story"...it's not something new I've made up but goes back to Creation, the Fall, Redemption & Restoration... it's all about Jesus. He was there in the beginning & he not only made a way, he is the way. Why does Paul start here? Because our story is part of this Big Story, & we forget & put ourselves in the middle... when life seems to fall apart, when it makes no sense, when it's just unfair...we need to remind ourselves we're part of the Big Story #jesusatthecentre #itsalovestory