Daily Bible Verses

A leper came to him begging…, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” —Mark 1:40–41 

Walter Brueggemann emphasizes that we are all in need of Jesus’ healing touch: 

Jesus touched him. He put his strong hand into the sore skin. He risked touching the contagious skin and thereby making himself, as well, socially unacceptable and ritually impure. He risked all of...

And the king will answer them, “Truly, I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.” —Matthew 25:40

Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis reflects on how we are called to love imperfect people imperfectly:

This is the kind of love Rabbi Jesus was talking about. If they’re in prison, if they’re hungry, if they’re naked, if they’re lonely, if they’re a stranger, a widow, a child, if they’re an outsider, if they’re last, they...

But who can discern their own errors?       Forgive my hidden faults. 
Keep your servant also from wilful sins      may they not rule over me. 
Then I will be blameless,      innocent of great transgression. 
May these words of my mouth       and this meditation of my heart 
be pleasing in your sight,   ...

3 ‘Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck...

For 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 Cor 13:12)

https://www.thefuelcast.com/library/2025-01-22-what-we-dont-understand-r25 

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

“people who are turning the whole world upside down” (see Acts 17:6)

An essential aspect of Franciscan spirituality is what Richard Rohr calls “the integration of the negative.” Rather than insisting that God values perfection or an idealized morality, Francis of Assisi intuited, through the example of Jesus’ life and death, that God could be found in all things, even those our religion and culture urge us to reject. 

I...

Jesus taught them, “But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” —Matthew 5:44 

Richard Rohr describes how loving our enemies is a practice of “integrating the negative,” accepting what we find unacceptable within ourselves: 

Our enemies always carry our own shadow side, the things we don’t like about ourselves. We will never face our own shadow until we embrace those who threaten us (as...

And you will know the truth , and the truth will set you free  (John 8: 32) 

Based on some thoughts of spiritual teacher Mirabai Starr

One of the things it means to be fully human is to bow at the feet of your everyday existence, with its disappointments and...

But let justice roll on like a river,
    righteousness like a never-failing stream!

https://www.thefuelcast.com/library/2025-01-17-elijah-part-3-our-voice-r25

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. (Matthew 5:15)

Archbishop Romero (who was murdered while leading worship by the authorities in Argentina) said:  

A Christian community is evangelized in order to evangelize. A light is turned on in order to give light. “People do not light a candle and put it under a basket,” said Christ. “They light it...

Then Moses said to the Israelites, ‘See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills – to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver, and bronze,  to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts.’  (Exodus 35:30–33) 

Dr John Dennison from London...

33 He told them still another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about thirty kilograms of flour until it worked all through the dough.’

Richard Rohr describes why role models and personal examples often inspire change more effectively than right ideas and beliefs:  

Correct ideas and church mandates cannot cause the kind of change that the soul needs. The...

36 ‘Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?’

37 The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’

Jesus told him, ‘Go and do...

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. For this reason, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you…. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.   2 Timothy 1:5–7 

Rev. Yvette Flunder encourages us to use our own gifts in the service of others:  

Paul is...

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see

Frederick Buechner says: 

A CRAZY, HOLY GRACE I have called it. Crazy because whoever could have predicted it? Who can ever foresee the crazy how and when and where of a grace that wells up out of the lostness and pain of the world and of our own inner worlds? And holy because these moments of grace come ultimately from farther away than Oz and...

Some of the things we do are mundane and unseen. and get little monetary reward or recognition 

Am I being a good Christian if I am not seen doing it? Am I really fulfilling my God-given potential? 

What does it look like to be a faithful disciple of Jesus whilst focused entirely on caring for others? 

Luke 1:38, ‘Behold, the handmaid of the Lord’ (KJV). In other translations, it’s ‘Behold, the servant of the Lord’. ....

Jesus sent out the twelve with the following instructions: “Go and 7 proclaim this message: “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” ...

28 One of the teachers of the law asked Jesus, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’ 29 ‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord...

20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’

THE QUESTION is not whether the things that happen to you are chance things or God’s things because, of course, they are both at once. There is no chance thing through which God cannot speak—even the walk from the house to the garage that you have walked ten thousand times before,...

The heavens declare the glory of God;
    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,
  ...

‘A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’ 
John 13:34-35

...

But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Cor 12:9) 

https://www.thefuelcast.com/library/2025-01-10-elijah-part-2-wilderness-r3.2