Daily Bible Verses

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Nonviolence teacher Ken Butigan understands God’s love to be at the center of nonviolence. 

Our true calling is to love one another as God has loved us. When we take this seriously, we are transformed into lovers who care for all beings. In practical terms this means resisting the tendency of the violence system to divide the world into various enemy camps. A fundamental…

The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment;
    he stretches out the heavens like a tent
and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.  He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind.  
He makes winds his messengers,
    flames of fire his servants. - Psalm 104:2-4

Dear Heavenly Father,

One glance at a sky full of clouds and I can see your majesty and grandeur.  What a…

13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

https://www.thefuelcast.com/library/2024-09-18-overflow-with-hope-r3

“forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”  

Brian McLaren identifies how prayers of petition help us to experience forgiveness:   

Since being wounded or sinned against is a terribly common experience, I suspect we need to pay more attention to it. In fact, being wronged is directly linked in the Lord’s Prayer to the reality of doing wrong; we pray, “forgive us…

The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” Matthew 20:28

I’m not called to die on a cross. But I am called to do last night’s washing up without expecting a medal.
Simon Martin from London Institute for Contemporary Christianity writes:  

The latest season of one of my favourite shows, …

35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’ 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 …

9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.  10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.…

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing. 

Many of us pray similar words of Jesus when we say, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”

When we pray this when we meet for Gathered Worship and in our personal prayers, sometimes we are not challenged by these words, but at other times we are struck how hard it is to forgive someone who has deeply offended and hurt us…. It is difficult to let go of the past and be present now to…

“Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.” —Luke 23:34 

Author Megan McKenna considers Jesus’ ability to forgive and how we are called to the same:  

We were created to be the friends of Jesus, the friends of God, friends with one another…. And so, we begin this journey of becoming, this way of being in the world guided by Jesus’s own words and actions that we will repeat over and over again in all our relationships and in…

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
    He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
    he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,…

¹ You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, ² in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. ³ We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. ⁴ But…

23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you.
    You have held my right hand.
24 You will guide me with your counsel,
   …

Give thanks to Yahweh,^[a] for he is good,
    for his loving kindness endures forever.
…

Heavenly father
lead us not into the temptation of taking it out on other people when we are suffering ourselves. 

³⁸ Then there were two robbers crucified with him, one on his right hand and one on the left.
³⁹ Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads 
^40 …

Heavenly Father
Give us grace today to

⁴ When Yahweh saw that he came over to see, God called to him out of the middle of the bush, and said, “Moses! Moses!”
He said, “Here I am.”
⁵ He said, “Don’t come close. Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing on is holy ground.” 
…

Heavenly Father
Give us grace today 

2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be healthy, even as your soul prospers. 

3 For I rejoiced greatly when brothers came and testified about your truth, even as…

Heavenly father
give us grace today

⁵⁰ Jesus cried again with a loud voice, and yielded up his spirit.

⁵¹ Behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split. ⁵² The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the…

Heavenly father
give us grace today to celebrate all that is good in you and in the world.  

47 Save us, Yahweh, our God,
    gather us from among the nations,
    to give thanks to your holy…

Heavenly father
give us grace to direct our difficult questions to you today in a way that it honest and real

⁴⁵ Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.
⁴⁶ About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lima sabachthani?”…

Heavenly Father
Give us grace today to open our eyes to see your work in the world. 

² Yahweh’s angel appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middle of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. ³ Moses said, “I will go now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.”…

Heavenly Father
Give us grace today to truly love our close friends.

1 The elder to Gaius the beloved, whom I love in truth.

Heavenly father
give us grace today to know what to say and what not to say. 

¹¹ Now Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, saying, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
Jesus said to him, “So you say.”
¹² When he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he…

⁵ Trust in Yahweh with all your heart,
    and don’t lean on your own understanding.
⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make your paths straight.

Heavenly father
give us grace today to show loving kindness to those in distress

44 Nevertheless he regarded their distress,
    when he heard their cry.
45 He remembered for them his covenant,
…