Daily Bible Verses

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    …

‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
…

At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. (Luke 10:21) 

As its Greek root form mu (closed eyes or lips) implies, mysticism is pointing to something that is somehow hidden and cannot be easily seen or talked about

As children of God, we…

May you be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God

 https://www.thefuelcast.com/library/2025-02-10-pauls-prayer-for-the-ephesians-part-3-live-full-lives-r25 

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’  (John 20:19)

Richard Rohr says: “For the great mystics, God is always experienced as abiding in their own soul and, in seeming contradiction, as totally transcendent and mysterious at the same time! God is both intimate and ultimate, no…

https://www.thefuelcast.com/library/2025-02-5-psalm-29-r25 

1 Ascribe to the Lord, you heavenly beings,
    ascribe to the…

[They[ Do not cry out or shout aloud,  or make their voice heard in the streets; 
But faithfully they bring true justice  refusing to be wavered or crushed, 
until true justice is established on earth.  —Isaiah 42:2–4 

Richard Rohr identifies the elusive nature of prophetic leadership:  

The normal power systems of our world worship themselves and not God. For that reason, prophets almost never hold official positions, like…

The king gave a banquet lasting seven days. […] The garden had hangings of linen, fastened to silver rings on marble pillars. […] There were couches of gold and silver. Served in goblets of gold, the royal wine was abundant. […] On the seventh day, when King Xerxes was in high spirits, he commanded that Queen Vashti be brought before him, in order to display her beauty. But Queen Vashti refused to come.  ESTHER 1:5, 6a, 7, 11–12

Margaret …

There appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.  Luke 13:11–13 

Nadia Bolz-Weber considers how healing can be a painful process:  

I found myself wondering if it hurt ……

17 One day while he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem were sitting nearby, and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. 18 Just then some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a stretcher. They were trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, …

I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-18)

https://www.thefuelcast.com/library/…

“Lord, I believe,”  (John 9:38)

Disability rights activist and author Amy Kenny challenges the implications of Jesus’ healing of “the blind man” in John 9, whom she refers to as Zach or Zechariah, which means “God remembers.” 

Zach is so much more than his blindness…. Structurally, the focus [of John 9] is not on the physical but on something deeper and richer that Jesus offers to Zach. It is true that Jesus cured people’s bodies as part of his ministry, but…

“Your faith has saved you” (Luke 7:50)

Richard Rohr offers one way we might understand the exorcisms Jesus performed:  

When a person has a constantly changing reference point, they have a very insecure life. They will take on any persona, negative or positive, and become incapable of much personal integrity. This is the celebrity-obsessed world in which we are living today. The biblical tradition uses the language of “having a demon” to describe such…

Awake, my soul!     Awake, harp and lyre!      I will awaken the dawn. (Psalm 57:8)

https://www.thefuelcast.…

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

 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. (Luke 18:1)

https://www.thefuelcast.com/library/2025-01-3-elijah-part-1-keep-on-r3.2

14 ‘You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand,…

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…

You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. People do not light a lamp and put it under a bushel basket; rather, they put it on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so they may see your good works and give glory to…

I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in them will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. —John 15:5  

Richard Rohr understands Jesus’ vine and branches metaphor as an illustration of mutual indwelling: Christ in us and us in Christ.  

The motivation, meaning, and inherent energy of any action comes from its ultimate source, which is the person’s foundational and core vantage point. What is their real…

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…

4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, (Galatians 4:4) 

Richard Rohr reflects: 

Since the very beginning of time, God’s Spirit has been revealing its glory and goodness through the physical creation. Christians believe that this universal Christ presence was later “born of a woman under the law” (Galatians 4:4) in a moment of chronological time. This is the great Christian leap of…

Pray constantly (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Breathe in the breath of God 
Breathe out your cares and concerns 
Breathe in the love of God 
Breathe out your doubts and despairs 
Breathe in the life of God 
Breathe out your fears and frustrations 
We sit quietly before the One who gives life and love to all creation 
We sit in awe of the One who formed us in our mother’s womb 
We sit at peace surrounded by the One who fills every…

3:13 Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews – young and old, women and children – on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.

8:7 …

“Your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).

Jim Finley describes how God knows each of us intimately because we are “hidden with Christ in God”: 

When God created you, God did not have to think up who you might be. God … eternally knows who you eternally are and are called to be from before the origins of the universe. 

Who God the [Creator] eternally contemplates you to be in Christ the Word is who you are before you were ever born…. There…

‘The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them’ (Romans 14:3–4).

Sometimes there can be friction between those of us who count calories and those of us who don’t, because both groups can be tempted to look down on the other group. 

When speaking to the divided Roman church on this very topic, Paul said: ‘The one who eats everything…