verseoftheday

Stop listening to instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge. Proverbs 19:27 NIV Does this proverb point us to Jesus? He had public ministry, talked to crowds, wherever he went people gathered to listen, to be healed. He had his team who he journeyed with, lived with, taught.  And then he would disappear. Go up to the mountains, wander off alone, to spend time with his Father.  So that he did not stray, would not get lost, not get picked off by the enemy, Jesus kept listening to instruction.  He quoted the Old Testament. Psalms. Isaiah.  Alone with the Father. This was Jesus habit.  I want to follow Jesus, and this seems like one of the simplest, easiest, low cost things that I can do to follow Him. So that I don't get picked off by the enemy, get lost, stray, I can choose to spend time alone with my Heavenly Father. #proverbs #wisdom #Godsgym #habits

Friday! Proverbs! Stop listening to instruction, my son,  and you will stray from the words of knowledge. Proverbs 19:27 NIV We're always listening to something. To someone. There's the culture, the place, the people we live with, work with, study with, the books we read, the images we consume, the expectations of those around us, the people we ask, the messages from the media we consume... then there's our own thoughts and the weight we put on what we hear... We're always listening to someone. Our enemy is called the father of lies.  And he is subtle. He weaves truth with lies, and touches on our desires. What we want. What seems good. In the things we hear, there are lies. A stray gets isolated, picked off, lost. Lost because we stop listening to the source of truth.  God's word doesn't always tell us what we want to hear, but His word is true. And became flesh. Lived with us. Embodied grace. Washed feet. Jesus voice is the one we need to hear, seek out, keep ...

And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them. Mark 10:16 NIV Jesus hugged the kids. Blessed them. The text doesn't say how he did this, but there's a bunch of parents with their young children, there's the disciples trying to shoo them all off, and there's Jesus. Maybe he's standing up and he bends down to pick up each child. Given the situation I think he is on his knees, stooped down to their level, and wrapped these kids in his arms, hugs them, blesses them, let's them totter off. And Jesus takes his time. These children are important to Jesus. They're small, and he made himself small. Jesus is giving his disciples (& us) an object lesson in love (that this is how we too should be). God bends down, makes himself small, comes with open arms, to bless, to speak life, to the small. There's no condemnation here, no waiting til you're good enough, no test, simply God bending down,  kneeling,  with us, arms open wi...

When Jesus saw this, he grew angry and said to them,  "Allow the children to come to me. Don't forbid them, because God's kingdom belongs to people like these children." Mark 10:14 CEB This week I saw a clip of Justin Bieber talking about the gospel and his faith.  The disciples were deciding who fitted and who didn't fit into the Kingdom, who was worthy to come and see Jesus, that these children didn't fit. Jesus got angry at that. Don't get in the way of people coming to me, don't let your bias, your estimation of value, of importance get in the way.  I can be more like the disciples than I want to admit. I want to learn to see people more like Jesus does, the "important" in this world and the small, those with a voice, and those who do not.  Especially those who don't. #gospelofmark #wordsofJesus #heartsurgery #lovelikeJesus #upsidedownkingdom

People were bringing children to Jesus so that he would bless them. But the disciples scolded them.  When Jesus saw this, he grew angry... Mark 10:13-14 CEB What was the problem with bringing the kids? Children were not as important in the culture as ours are  Children had no power.  If you're building a kingdom, building a ministry who's got time for the small, the powerless, the voiceless, the less important? Jesus does. He got angry. His anger was not like mine, because it's usually about me, how I'm not being treated as I think I should be. Jesus was angry because the small, the powerless, the voiceless, the less important, were being mistreated.  My anger is often about me. Jesus anger here is an expression of love for the other. The other.  Them. The small, the vulnerable, the voiceless, the powerless, the less important. Love them. #gospelofmark #lovelikeJesus #lovepeople

Jesus answered,  "What did Moses command you?" They said,  "Moses allowed a man to write a divorce certificate and to divorce his wife." Jesus said to them,  "He wrote this commandment for you because of your unyielding hearts." Mark 10:3-5 CEB Jesus is using their theological question designed to trap him, to reveal their own hearts. This word is sklerokardia. A dry, hard unyielding heart. It's like the ground in my back yard. Dry. Unyielding. The grass is dying. You can't dig into it. If this is what your heart is like it's safer for a couple to be divorced - the law is an act of grace for the person in the relationship with less power when the person who's heart should be soft towards them, who should be a place of flourishing is hard, dry, unyielding, dying. I wonder where Jesus would say my heart is like that? A shower of rain does not soften hard ground, and a flood doesn't fix it. It needs consistent steady rain. Just like the Ph...

The Son is  the image of the invisible God,  the one who is first over all creation... Colossians 1:15 CEB Not only is Jesus God shrunk, reduced, confined in a body just like ours, he is first, the sovereign, the preeminent, the originator of all creation. He was not just there at creation, Jesus was the agent of it. And  He was born into his creation as a helpless baby, who could do nothing for himself, completely dependent on Mary and Joseph. He made himself small. And didn't just come and visit, didn't just get a taste of what it's like to be human and then zip back, he became one of us. Human. He entered in to the creation. He's not some faraway deity that has to be sacrificed to, to be made happy somehow, he is near. He knows.  He knows what it is to be human. He knows us. He knows me. He knows you. #crazylove #upsidedownkingdom #known #dearlyloved #sunday #worship #thisisourGod