Daily Bible Verses

And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3)

The nostalgia for what has been lost remains long after childhood can impel seekers to search both within themselves and out in the world for this lost place, time and state of mind. For Thomas Merton it is the nostalgia for, or intuition of, paradise, and is a longing for a return or restoration to an original state of being which is Eden.…

He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’ (Genesis 3v10)

Dr. Brian Bantum reflects on the story of Adam and Eve as one that initiates us into the freedom of individuality and difference, for good and for ill: 
When I come back to the story of humanity’s fall I still see…

Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’ (Matthew 28:20)

Almost immediately after the protest [in Montgomery, Alabama] started we had begun to receive threatening telephone calls and letters. They increased as time went on. By the middle of January, they had risen to thirty and forty a day….
As the weeks passed, I began to see that many of the threats were in earnest. Soon I felt myself faltering and growing in fear…. One night at a mass…

Jesus said “Come, follow me” (Matthew 4:19)

What, then, does it mean to follow the call of Jesus?
History is continually graced with people who somehow learned to act beyond and outside their self-interest and for the good of the world, people who clearly operated by a power larger than their own. Consider Gandhi, Oskar Schindler, and Martin Luther King Jr. Add to them Rosa Parks, Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, Óscar Romero, César Chávez, and many unsung leaders. Their inspiring…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8vyfp0aVHk

Pray continually 1 Thessalonians 5:17

Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan  (Leviticus 25:10)

A community’s study of Jubilee and their unexpected receipt of $10,000 in a legal settlement led to a creative action on Wall Street:
We thought, “Wow, this money isn’t just for our nonprofit. This should go to folks on the…

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth (Matthew 5v5)

Jesus calls to be God-controlled. The word for meek was used of animals brought under control. For instance, it could be used of a horse broken in. In being tamed, it is still powerful and strong, but now it is useable and brought under control. Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC) said that a meek person is “neither too hasty nor too slow-tempered. He (or she) does not become angry with…

5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming towards him, he said to Philip, ‘Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?’ 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
…

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors (Matthew 6v12)

The jubilee mandate helps us to imagine what a community living life in all its fullness could look like when living justly, loving compassion and walking humbly.
—Cheryl Haw and Caitlin Collins, Jubilee, God’s Answer to Poverty

Author Kelley Nikondeha describes how Jesus encouraged his disciples to practice jubilee actions in their daily lives: 
Under the Galilean sun Jesus taught his disciples to pray…

https://www.thefuelcast.com/library/2026-02-4-hope-cc-r26 

20 We wait in hope for the Lord;
    he is our help and…

 
Observe the sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. 
—Deuteronomy 5:12–14
Theologian Cindy Lee explains how Moses and the Israelites practiced Sabbath as a liberating rhythm of life:
Work and rest are justice issues that affect our everyday spiritual formation…. We cannot rest well unless we unform our distorted practices of work. We…

30 Then Moses said to the Israelites, ‘See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills – …

God loves justice and hates robbery and wrongdoing [Isaiah 61:8].


The consequences of justice and righteousness are shalom, an enduring Sabbath of joy and well-being. But the alternative is injustice and oppression, which leads inevitably to turmoil and anxiety, with no chance of well-being.
—Walter Brueggemann, Peace: Living Toward a Vision

Shalom is communal, holistic, and tangible. There is no private or partial shalom. The whole community must have shalom or no one…

We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 1:2–3

While no church is perfect, Paul reminds us that there is such a thing as a model church (1:7) – a community of believers who bring God’s kingdom into everyday life and shape the culture around them.

Thessalonica was a thriving port city…

 Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us. —Matthew 6:11–12
 

These phrases in the prayer of Jesus or the “Our Father” on bread and debts are clearly a prayer given to the poor. Bread and debt are the preoccupations of the peasant class. How do I have food for tomorrow and how do I pay my bills? In the Old English of the King James Bible, the word “debts” was rendered as “trespasses.” It seems unchangeable now…

 “He would never speak to them except in parables” (Matthew 13:34)

Most Christians today don’t know that the early centuries of Christianity—through authoritative teachers like Origen, Cyril of Alexandria, Augustine, and Gregory the Great—encouraged as many as seven “senses” of Scripture. The literal, historical, allegorical, moral, symbolic, eschatological (the trajectory of history and growth), and “primordial” or archetypal (commonly agreed-upon symbolism) levels of a text…

6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. (1 Timothy 6:6-8) 

…

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have known sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the person of God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:14–17)

I remember my first day at Papa’s…

https://www.thefuelcast.com/library/2026-01-28-prayer-is-hard-r26

Psalm 63: 

1 You, God, are my God,
    earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
…

For we now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:12) 

Richard Rohr encourages us to read the Bible seeking an inner experience instead of authoritative answers:

The amazing wonder of the biblical revelation is that God is very different than we thought and much better than we feared. To paraphrase what evolutionary biologist J.B.S.…

‘Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep’ (Romans 12:15

Why we cry in the dark: Cinema offers a surprising way of learning to love our neighbours.
    

More than once over the past few weeks, someone’s delivered a line that tenses my chest, clenches my jaw, and brings prickly wetness to my eyes. For just a moment, I’ve escaped the anxieties of my own life, caught up in a greater story, gently moved by God’s Spirit.
…

3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them round your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Then you will win favour and a good name in the sight of God and man.
5…

Matthew 10:31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. 

https://www.thefuelcast.com/library/2026-01-16-beating-burnout-part-3-s…

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  Revelation 21:3

https://www.thefuelcast.com/library/2026-01-21-the-love-of-god-r26

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, ‘Fellow Jews and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
   and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young…