Daily Bible Verses

Surely the darkness shall cover me, 
and the light around me become night … 
the darkness and light are both alike to You. 
—Psalm 139:11–12

Barbara Holmes (1943–2024) writes about the challenges and healing power of darkness: 
As an African American woman, I wear darkness as a skin colour that I love. It is a reminder of African origins, hidden in my genes, but not accessible through memory. Without darkness, I would not be! I entered the world from the…

 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it 

There is a part of the soul that stirs at night, in the dark and soundless times of day, when our defenses are down and our daylight distractions no longer serve to protect us from ourselves. What we suppress in the light emerges clearly in the dusk. It’s then, in the still of life, when we least expect it, that questions emerge from the damp murkiness of our inner…

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 

https://www.thefuelcast.com/library/2025-07-14-the-dead-sea-struggles-r25 

‘When he broke the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given; they cried out with a loud voice, “Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long…?”’   Revelation 6:9–10

Images of war, injustice and suffering in the world continue to horrify us. Have we forgotten the lessons of the past? How long, sovereign Lord?

Since the Fall, sin and evil have been part of the human condition. The…

 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 1 Tim 6:7

https://www.thefuelcast.com/library/2025-07-11-generosity-ms-r25 

Even though I walk     through the darkest valley
I will fear no evil,     for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, …

Your patient endurance will win you your lives” (Luke 21:19)

Spiritual transformation is often thought of as movement from darkness to light. In one sense that’s true, while in another sense, it’s totally false. We forget that darkness is always present alongside the light. We know the light most fully in contrast with its opposite—the dark. Pure light blinds; shadows are required for our seeing. There is something that can only be known by going through…

This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah” (Luke 11:29).

Richard Rohr

Soon after I moved to New Mexico in the late 1980s, I began my studies for what would become the men’s rites of passage. I read everything I could on why every ancient culture deemed it necessary in to initiate the male. It seemed that no culture assumed that men would grow up naturally, because nothing in…

The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai:  ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.’ (Jonah 1:1-2)

Shmuly Yanklowitz: What does it mean to protest? Protesting expresses the opinion that there is something wrong with the…

https://www.thefuelcast.com/library/2025-07-18-what-do-you-seek-r25

¹ In you, Lord my God,  I put my trust.

² I trust in you;  do not let me be put to shame,  
nor let my enemies triumph over me.

³ No one who hopes in you  will ever be put to shame,…

“What right do you have to get angry?” (Jonah 4:9)

Following his preposterous marine adventure, Jonah grudgingly obeys God’s instructions and warns the people of Nineveh that their wickedness is about to be punished. But then the impossible happens.  
The Ninevites listen to Jonah’s warning, take it seriously, and repent. And God, seeing their penitence, changes God’s mind and shows them mercy. In other words, Jonah preaches a sermon, and his congregation responds to it!…

34 ‘Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 …

‘Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.’ REVELATION 2:10–11

How do we make sense of world events? How can we have hope in a world at war, surrounded by injustice, persecution, and suffering? What is God’s plan to intervene? The book of Revelation is essential reading for all Christians as we seek to understand the world around us and our place in God’s salvation history. 
…

But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, ‘Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to…

‘They also will answer, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or ill or in prison, and did not help you?”
 ‘He will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” (Matthew 25: 44-45)

Some…

‘Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.’
COLOSSIANS 4:6

Paul’s attempts at conversations about Jesus have landed him in chains. So you could be forgiven for wondering about his evangelistic approach, whether a combative attitude has led to his predicament. But as Paul concludes this letter from prison to the fledgling Colossian community, he appeals to them to combine a wise lifestyle with grace-laced…

Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew’s house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus’ followers. “What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and misfits?”  Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a…

Unless I see the mark of his nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and put my hand in his side, I will not believe. (John 20.25)

While there are many who believe whose life has not been complicated by unbelief, there are also many others whose path to faith has passed through a great furnace of doubts

The fact is that doubts can be overcome provided three factors are present. 

Doubt must be honest doubt

Not all doubters…

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:35)

All of us must face and embrace the urgent need for deep social change - change that begins within, then spreads like ripples on a pond, and finally becomes a tsunami of love-inspired change.  All human beings, made in the image of God have the capacity to be good and to insist on good; to care for others and insist on being cared for; to stand up for the…

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2

Relationships of mutual concern are rooted in both love and trust. These are people we know will hold our hearts with care. We’re prone to forgive them when they make mistakes, and we hope they’ll do the same for us. We feel accountable to one another. We want to share with them our important moments, both the hardships and the joys. We thrive when we’re together.…

The foundation of Jesus’ social program is what I will call non-idolatry, or the withdrawing of our enthrallment from all kingdoms except the kingdom of God. This supports a much better agenda than feeling the need to attack things directly. Nonattachment (freedom from loyalties to human-made domination systems) is the best way I know of protecting people from religious zealotry or any kind of antagonistic thinking or behavior. …

‘I am saying this so that no one may deceive you with plausible arguments.’   COLOSSIANS 2:4

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul expresses a deep pastoral concern: that believers should not be misled by teachings that sound great but are ultimately false. ‘I am saying this,’ he writes, ‘so that no one may deceive you with plausible arguments’. It’s a timely warning. Then, as now, Christians face a barrage of persuasive voices – some subtle, some less so – that…

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.  (Matthew 9v10)

https://www.thefuelcast.com/library/2025-06-23-around-us-part-2-get-close-r25

The community of believers was of one mind and one heart. None of them claimed anything as their own; rather, everything was held in common. Acts 4:32

The book of Acts is all about the early community of Jesus’ followers that formed after Jesus’ ascension. Communities of followers of the Way—as they’re called—start to form and what we find in Acts 4 are descriptions of what started to happen in these communities. Another way to say it is that this is what it looked like when people…

The Joy of the Lord is your strength (Nehemiah 8v10)

Joy deep in the heart of experience of God. 

Joy not related to, dependent upon, or derived from, any circumstances or conditions of life

Strange quality of awe in this joy, but a reflection of the deep calm water of the spirit out of which it comes. 

It is primarily a discovery of the soul, when God makes known God’s presence, where there are no words, no outward song, only the Divine…