Daily Bible Verses

1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:
² Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³ I thank my God every time I remember you. ⁴ In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy ⁵ because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to…

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.
—Philippians 2:5–8

Brian McLaren shows how Jesus as the image of God changes our understandings of who God is: 

The implications of the Philippians 2 passage…

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. While there are certainly things we are against, we must…

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is…

The 2024 Happiness Report observed data on six areas which are said to create happiness. These six areas related to the average amount of money received by individual citizens, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity and corruption.  From a global and historical perspective we have much to be happy about in the UK in the 21^st Century. 

However, Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount (Luke 6.20-20) declared:
Happy are you poor; the Kingdom of God is yours.
Happy are you who are hungry now, you will be filled!
Happy are…

‘Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice!’  PHILIPPIANS 4:4
 
Holy Spirit, remind me in every circumstance today, whether difficult or pleasant, to rejoice in the Lord.

Rejoice in the Lord! In Paul’s world and culture, rejoicing would have meant public celebration. The people of Ephesus, Philippi, and Corinth used to organise great festivals and games to celebrate their gods. Surely the followers of the Lord Jesus have far more reason to celebrate exuberantly than crowds…

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely…

⁶ In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.

‘Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.’  PHILIPPIANS 4:8
 
Holy Spirit, please make me aware when I am feeding my mind with anything unhelpful. I choose to focus on what is noble, right, pure, and lovely.

We have choices about what fills our mind. Our culture often encourages a toxic diet of all that is wrong in the…