Daily Bible Verses

Heavenly father
give us grace today to discern the difference between thankful enjoyment of the life in the world that you created, and an unhealthy focus on gratifying our pleasures

¹ Where do wars and fightings among you come from?
Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? 
² You lust, and don’t have.
You murder and covet, and can’t obtain.
You fight and make war.
You don’t have, because you don’t ask. 
³ You ask, and don’t…

Heavenly father
give us grace today to walk humbly and obediently in relationship with you

⁵ Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”? 
⁶ But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
⁷ Be subject therefore to God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

Heavenly father
give us grace today to draw near to you with a repentant and humble spirit

⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. 
⁹ Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. 
¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Heavenly father
give us grace today to be kind in our words about others.

¹¹ Don’t speak against one another, brothers.
He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother,
speaks against the law and judges the law.
But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. 
¹² Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?

Heavenly Father
give us grace to accept the gift of today without presuming on tomorrow

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city,
and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.”
14 Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow.
For what is your life? For you are a vapour that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.
15 For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.”

^{Heavenly Father
give us grace today to be humble and faithful}

^{16 But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.
17 To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.}

Heavenly father
give us grace to turn away today from anything which is fraudulent, dishonest and harmful to others

¹ Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you. 
² Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. 
³ Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire.
You have laid up your treasure in the last days. 
⁴ Behold, the wages of the labourers who mowed…

Heavenly father
give us grace to be patient today and to attend to matters of the heart

⁷ Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.
Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and late rain. 
⁸ You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Heavenly father
give us grace to not grumble against others today, but be full of patience, compassion and mercy. 

⁹ Don’t grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won’t be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door. 
¹⁰ Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of perseverance, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 
¹¹ Behold, we call them blessed who endured.
You have heard of the perseverance of Job, and have seen the Lord…

Heavenly father
give us grace to be truth tellers today

¹² But above all things, my brothers, don’t swear
not by heaven, or by the earth, or by any other oath;
but let your “yes” be “yes”, and your “no”, “no”, so that you don’t fall into hypocrisy.

Heavenly father
give us grace to pray and give thanks today whatever the circumstances

¹³ Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises. 

Heavenly father
give us grace to face up to and turn away from those things that draw us away from you today

¹⁴ Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, 
¹⁵ and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 
¹⁶ Confess your offences to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

Heavenly father
give us grace to pray faithfully today

¹⁶ The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective. 
¹⁷ Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain,
and it didn’t rain on the earth for three years and six months. 
¹⁸ He prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

Heavenly father
give us grace to help those who have wandered from the truth today. 

¹⁹ Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, 
²⁰ let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

“Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh,
    and whose confidence is in Yahweh.

For he will be as a tree planted by the waters,
    who spreads out its roots by the river,
and will not fear when heat comes,
    but its leaf will be green,
and will not be concerned in the year of drought.
    It won’t cease from yielding fruit.

¹⁰ For Yahweh says, “After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. ¹¹ For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future. ¹² You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You shall seek me, and find me, when you search for me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you,” says…

They will come with weeping;
    they will pray as I bring them back.
I will lead them beside streams of water
    on a level path where they will not stumble,
because I am Israel’s father,
  …

Deep within them I will plant my law, writing it on their hearts. Then I will be their God and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33).

Richard Rohr presents the journey of the prophets as one that ends in trusting God’s unconditional love and grace. He uses the prophet Jeremiah as an example: 

The first covenant between YHWH and Israel appeared to be bilateral: “If you obey my voice and hold fast to my covenant, you of all the nations shall be my very own” (Exodus 19:5). But the covenant that emerged in Jeremiah’s time was unilateral from YHWH’s side…

Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was. (Job 2:13)

https://www.thefuelcast.com/library/2025-01-20-bridge-r25

I know that my redeemer lives,
    and that in the end he will stand on the earth. JOB 19:25

At Christmas, we remember and celebrate the coming of Christ down to earth. Amidst the mince pies and the carols, the image of Jesus at the forefront of our minds is, understandably, as a newborn in Mary’s arms. 
It’s worthy of the hype. To quote Job, our redeemer lives and stands on the earth. For followers of Jesus today, we can take Job’s words as our own. Our redeemer has stood on the earth;…

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man; I will question you, and you shall declare to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy? … Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, so that a flood of waters may cover you…

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.   The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

As John’s Gospel opens, we have no mention of a birth,…

Happy Christmas

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 
² The same was in the beginning with God. 
³ All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. 
⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 
⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it. 

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² The same was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it. 

 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 underworld…. These questions do not call for the discovery of data; they call for the contemplation of…

⁹ The true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world.
¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him. 
¹¹ He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him. 
¹² But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name: 
¹³ who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 
¹⁴ The…

“From God’s fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” John 1:16 

Richard Rohr insists that grace is the essence of who God is.  

The goodness of God fills all the gaps of the universe, without discrimination or preference. God is the gratuity of absolutely everything. The space in between everything is not space at all but Spirit. God is the “goodness glue” that holds the dark and light of things together, the free energy that carries all death across the great divide and transmutes it into life. When we say that Christ “paid the debt once and for…

Jesus taught us to pray “Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done on earth as it is in heaven”
The kingdom of heaven is of primary importance, what happens on earth is important but is secondary.
 How does that work out in practice:

¹ On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, ² and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³ When the…

¹³ Jesus went to celebrate God’s gift of freedom (in the feast of Passover) at the place set aside for worship (the temple).
¹⁴ Instead of being a place which focused on God and His gifts, the temple was a place focussed on things to be bought and sold.
^15-17 Jesus drove out those whose primary concern was money saying “Stop turning my Father’s house into a market”

Summary:
    …

Chapter 2 so far:
¹¹Jesus has done the first of his signs and revealed his glory.

Reading:
²³ Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.^[d] 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to…

Heavenly Father, please make me aware of the signs that point me to you, and then give me grace to be changed from above so that I may see the kingdom of God.

¹ Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. ² He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
^3…

1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

5 …

4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.  (Ephesians 2:4-5)

3 Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again (John 3:3)

…

Heavenly father, please give me grace today to pay attention to the things of the spirit, as well as paying attention to the things of the flesh.  May the wind of the spirit blow in my life.

³ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, if anyone is not born from above they are not able to see the kingdom of God”
⁴ “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
^5 …

Heavenly Father give me the humility to admit that I don’t understand things, particularly if I ought to know them by now.

Jesus said  ^7 “”You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You^[c]must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of…

Heavenly Father, whenever I see the effects of humanity’s inhumanity and I seek to condemn, turn my eyes to your one and only Son, so that I believe that you are present in the very worst situations seeking to save people from destruction.

¹⁴ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,^[f] 15 that everyone who…

Heavenly Father,
give me grace to see the truth about my dark deeds
give me grace to come to the light, rejoicing that dark deeds are exposed for what they are
deliver me from the love of darkness and the fear of exposure.

¹⁹ This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds…

Heavenly Father, give me grace so that I may be generous in my affirmation of the gifts of others, and know when others must become greater, and I must become less.

²² After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. ²³ Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. ²⁴ (This was before John was put in prison.) ²⁵ An argument developed…

Heavenly father
Give me grace to be open to the truths about what is not seen
Give me grace to be open to the Spirit who you give without limit
Give me grace to walk the way of the cross, as Jesus did, trusting that this is the path of eternal life.

³¹ The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. ³² He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. …

³¹ The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. ³² He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. ³³ Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. ³⁴ For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. ³⁵ The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in…