Grace is the foundation of God’s restorative justice. Richard Rohr writes:
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The Hebrew prophet Ezekiel affirms the unique and rarely understood notion of grace. Midway through the book, God speaks: “I am going to renew my covenant with you; and you will learn that I am Yahweh, and so remember and be covered with shame, and in your confusion be reduced to silence, when I have pardoned you for all that you have done” (Ezekiel 16:62–63).
Here, the Jewish people had not even asked for or…59 ‘“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will deal with you as you deserve, because you have despised my oath by breaking the covenant. 60 Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. 61 Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both those who are older than you and those who are younger. I will give them to you as daughters, but not on the basis of my covenant with…
moreThe heavens declare the glory of God;
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the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
…‘Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.’ (John 13:14–15)
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Lord Jesus,
Thank you for your servant-hearted love that led you to the cross.
Thank you for showing us, your church, how we should love and serve one another.
Open my eyes to see the needs of those around me, so I can love and serve them.
I pray for churches around the world who are…Read Psalm 61, NIV
Hear my cry, O God;
listen to my prayer.From the ends of the earth I call to you,
I call as my heart grows faint;
lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
For you have been my refuge,
a strong tower against the foe.I long to dwell in your tent for ever
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and take refuge in the shelter of your wings…Read Psalm 13
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
How long, LORD? Will you forget me for ever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?Look on me and answer, LORD my God.
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Give light to my eyes, or I…Read Psalm 88.6–18
You have put me in the lowest pit,
in the darkest depths.
Your wrath lies heavily on me;
you have overwhelmed me with all your waves.You have taken from me my closest friends
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and have made me repulsive to them.
I am confined and cannot escape;
my eyes are dim with…Psalm 33.6–15
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,
And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.
He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;
He lays up the deep in storehouses.Let all the earth fear the LORD;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to…
morehttps://www.thefuelcast.com/library/2026-02-25-jesus-visits-martha-and-mary-r26
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the…
morePsalm 104.24–30, NKJV
O LORD, how manifold are Your works!
In wisdom You have made them all.
The earth is full of Your possessions –
This great and wide sea,
In which are innumerable teeming things,
Living things both small and great.
There the ships sail about;
There is that Leviathan
Which You have made to play there.These all wait for You,
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That You may give them their food in due season.
What You give them they gather in;
You open Your hand,…Estelle Frankel, a teacher of Jewish mysticism, describes how the story of Exodus reveals our human preference for what is known, even if something new may be better for us:
All freedom journeys require an open mind—a mind that is not conditioned by past knowledge and experience, but open to possibility. Questioning opens the doors of our imagination, enabling us to consider alternatives to the status quo. Unless one is capable of imagining another possible reality, one cannot free…
moreBlessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy (Matthew 5v7)
- Mercy is the bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to the hope of being loved forever, despite our sinfulness. We see God’s mercy supremely in the life of Jesus. (Pope Francis)
- The gospel merciful are… those who put themselves under another to support them, to be sensitive to them, even to feel sad with them. (Frederick Bruner)
- whereas grace is a loving response when love is…
Psalm 48, NIV
Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise,
in the city of our God, his holy mountain.Beautiful in its loftiness,
the joy of the whole earth,
like the heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion,
the city of the Great King.God is in her citadels;
he has shown himself to be her fortress.When the kings joined forces,
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when they advanced…Psalm 1
Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the LORD,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither –
whatever they do prospers.Not so the wicked!
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They are like chaff
that the…The poet paints a vivid image of the natural world. But there’s more going on here than meets the eye. The references to sea creatures, the stormy wind and the depths are nods to pagan mythical figures: Tiamat, the divine sea monster; Baal, the storm god believed to control the weather and ‘the depths’, a code word for the forces of chaos.
The poet lists these scary characters with a wry smile. They’re neither gods nor demons, but simply part of nature. They depend on their…
more- Psalm 46 includes three selahs – a written direction, which scholars suggest is a musical interlude - a pause.
- When we pause, we give ourselves space to hear the voice of our heavenly Father saying, ‘be still, and know that I am God’ (verse 10).
- The ‘knowing’ described here in the Hebrew is the kind gained through seeing. In verse 4, the writer sees a city, a ‘holy habitation’ sustained by a ‘river’ – a prophetic glimpse of heaven also found in John’s vision in…
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God…
morehttps://www.thefuelcast.com/library/2026-02-23-the-parable-of-the-good-samaritan-r26
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’
30 In reply Jesus said: …
moreRichard Rohr describes how Moses gradually learned to trust in God’s love:
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According to the book of Exodus, “The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a person speaks to a friend” (33:11). And yet the Exodus text also demonstrates how coming to the point of full interface is a gradual process of veiling and unveiling. God takes the initiative in this respectful relationship with Moses, inviting him into a greater intimacy and ongoing conversation, which allows…https://www.thefuelcast.com/library/2026-02-20-the-mission-of-the-seventy-r26
Luke 10
1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2…
more5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
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and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him…“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7).
The desert elders have meant so much to me, and the really great thing is that even before I quite understood them, I loved their stories. My favorite story is about Abba Moses of Egypt. Somebody sent a message to him and said, “We need you to come to the elders’ gathering because there’s someone who has committed a sin, and we need you to help us make a judgment about his behavior.” He just said…
more“But who told you that you were naked?” (Genesis 3:11)
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Richard Rohr reflects on God’s tenderness towards us, even when we make decisions that harm ourselves or others:
Alienated people stop trusting that reality is good, that we are good too, and that we belong — to God and to one another. By eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam’s and Eve’s eyes were opened to a split universe of suspicion and doubt.
Adam and Eve offer the perfect…Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (Revelation 22v1-2)
Richard Rohr identifies in Revelation, the last book in the Bible, a “return to the garden” for all of creation:…
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Daily Bible Verses
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