verseoftheday

Sunday Psalms; Declare me innocent,  O God!  Defend me against these ungodly people.  Rescue me from these unjust liars.  For you are God,  my only safe haven.  Why have you tossed me aside?  Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies?  Send out your light  and your truth;  let them guide me.  Let them lead me to your holy mountain,  to the place where you live.  There I will go to the altar of God, to God - the source of all my joy.  I will praise you with my harp,  O God,  my God!  Why am I discouraged?  Why is my heart so sad?  I will put my hope in God!  I will praise him again -  my Savior and my God! Psalms 43 NLT Two things can be true at the same time: The writer of this song is under pressure, lost in grief, sadness and despair. And holds hope in our God, asks for guidance, for light in the darkness from the source of light. We can be under pressure, lost in ...

The way of the Lord is a refuge for the blameless,  but it is the ruin of those who do evil. Proverbs 10:29 NIV When we look for Jesus in this Proverb, where do you find him? Jesus said "I am the way", he is our refuge. Just as Jesus didn't turn up to free his people from the immediate oppression of the Romans that they were looking for, he didn't "fix" their situation, and being the way, our refuge, may not look how we want it either.  Our situation may not be "fixed".  It might not change at all. Jesus life, death, resurrection was opening up the way to restored connection with our God, and that place is our refuge, is safety, as our story is held in the Big Redemptive Story. How is our God speaking into your story today? #proverbs #wisdom #somethingtochewon #itsaheartthing #takethenextstep 

Friday! Proverbs! The way of the Lord is a refuge for the blameless,  but it is the ruin of those who do evil. Proverbs 10:29 NIV So if Proverbs is not a weapon to point at others, but insight into our own hearts, what does this Proverb invite me to consider about me? This "do evil" at the end is the word "aven" which is found 78 times in the Bible and seems to cover "moral perversity, interior deceit, outward oppression, ritual idolatry, and the emptiness that attends each" (thanks Biblehub) So this Proverb is inviting me to consider the things I do, consume, how I deceive myself, oppress others, worship or value things above God, and the "emptiness" that goes with those things. They promise so much, and deliver so little. So maybe this Proverb today is inviting me to step away from something (some choice, some thought pattern) and towards something ("the way of the Lord - the way of YHWH). Step away from. Step towards. What is the Spirit i...

May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:5-6 NLT Is this why we sing in church? Why singing is such a feel good thing when people get together, because we get a glimpse of the "one voice" that Paul encourages here.  In our culture that seems more intent on difference, Paul invites us toward connection. He has been writing about differences that divide (can I eat this food or not) and invites us to be held in the Big Story of Who God Is, and who Jesus Is, and in that story it is less about difference, and more and more about connectedness. What is one thing we can do today to step towards another? To connect? In some small way? What is the Spirit prompting today? #letters #itsaheartthing  #loveoneanother #connection

(A letter from Paul to the church community in Rome) We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this.  We must not just please ourselves.  We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord.  For even Christ didn't live to please himself. As the Scriptures say, "The insults of those who insult you, O God, have fallen on me." Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God's promises to be fulfilled. May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. Romans 15:1-5 NLT What do you hear of Paul's heart that resonates with you today? The otherness orientation? The call to those "strong" in their faith and practices? The encouragement to be patient with one another? That we can all be followers of Jesus and see s...

But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me,  and through each night I sing his songs,  praying to God who gives me life.  "O God my rock," I cry,  "why have you forgotten me?  Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies?" ... Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God!  I will praise him again - my Savior and my God! Psalms 42:8-9, 11 NLT Sadness and distress held at the same time as hope and praise. Crying out to God and crying at what is going on at the same time. Feeling lost, and hopeful, at the same time. The writer of this psalm does not allow their circumstances to shift their faith in our God one inch. Trusting in the redemptive story in circumstances that are sad and distressing can be a tough ask. Perhaps that is why this Psalm is here, to show us it can be done, that it is part of being human, and has been for thousands of years, and to remind us that we can trust in the Redemptive Story, we...

As the deer longs for streams of water,  so I long for you,  O God.  I thirst for God, the living God.  When can I go and stand before him?  Day and night I have only tears for food,  while my enemies continually taunt me, saying,  "Where is this God of yours?" Psalms 42:1-3 NLT If you've ever tried to find words for God's silence in suffering then it's OK to borrow this song... The redemptive strand is here though, that even in the distress, the waiting, the tears, the writer has not lost sight of who our God is, has not lost hope in the Big Story.  My prayers are often focussed around changing my circumstances, this psalm, this song, invites me to cry to God in my circumstances.  This might seem a small shift, but this is what we're invited towards...to express our raw honest heart towards our God... He saw it fitting to publish this cry in the middle of our Bible, so my cry, your cry, our cries are OK too... Because? Because we are in fact...