Category: Verse of the Day

A verse of the day from the Bible presented in Eugene Peterson’s contemporary version called The Message. Accompanied by a personal reflection.

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“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also!”

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also!”  

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June 29, Psalm 51:12

“Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean, scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life. Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing. Don’t look too close for blemishes, give me a clean bill of health. God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life. Don’t throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me. Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails! Give me a job teaching rebels your ways so the lost can find their way home. Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God, and I’ll sing anthems to your life-giving ways. Unbutton my lips, dear God; I’ll let loose with your praise.”

Psalm 51:12 MSG – A verse of the day from the Bible presented in Eugene Peterson’s contemporary version called The Message. Accompanied by a personal reflection below.

David’s optimism is contagious, don’t you think? His energy is palpable.  This is how you cultivate a personal relationship with God, your heavenly father — you express yourself honestly; you tell him you need him; you ask him to do for you what you can’t do for yourself; you promise to love him back; you commit to being willing to learn and to change; you praise him to one and all.  Are you doing all that and more, gentle reader?

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June 28, 1 John 3:18

“My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.”

1 John 3:18 MSG – A verse of the day from the Bible presented in Eugene Peterson’s contemporary version called The Message. Accompanied by a personal reflection below.

Do you suffer from “debilitating self-criticism”, gentle reader?  You might have a good case for it, you know, but do you really wish to dwell in it?  John recommends a work-around for it:  practice real love, he says.  It’ll make you feel better and will get your mind off yourself. When you use your time and energies to give of yourself to others, you are practicing love, and in doing so, you are reflecting God’s love, even as you are helping yourself!  Now is that not a win-win for all?  And if there’s still any doubt about it, continue reading the verse, there is much to reflect on in the line, “For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.”  May it be that we are reminded of this every day.

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June 27, Proverbs 12:1

“If you love learning, you love the discipline that goes with it— how shortsighted to refuse correction!”

Proverbs 12:1 MSG – A verse of the day from the Bible presented in Eugene Peterson’s contemporary version called The Message. Accompanied by a personal reflection below.

This verse has to be one of many gems within the book of Proverbs, wouldn’t you say?  The author says that correction is part of instruction and learning.  One can’t learn unless one is willing to be instructed, many a time the instruction being in the form of a correction.  That’s just how it is, folks, so get your chips off of your shoulders, and be ready and willing and able to listen to correction.  And not just listen, nay, but to act upon it.  Because refusing correction is tantamount to not learning, and not having a love for learning.  Do you concur, gentle reader?

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June 26, Hebrews 10:23

“So let’s do it—full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.”

Hebrews 10:23 MSG – A verse of the day from the Bible presented in Eugene Peterson’s contemporary version called The Message. Accompanied by a personal reflection below.

“Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out.”  That is exactly what I needed to hear today.  I think I might be running out of ways to show my love and appreciation to those around me.  But there’s really no such thing as running out of inventive ways, is there?  Not if you are determined to want to love.  Here’s hoping the desire to be inventive in all endeavors of loving our neighbor as ourselves never runs out.

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June 25, James 4:7

“So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet.”

James 4:7 MSG – A verse of the day from the Bible presented in Eugene Peterson’s contemporary version called The Message. Accompanied by a personal reflection below.

Some down-to-earth advice from James, the down-to-earth, no-nonsense apostle of Jesus.  Do this, do that, don’t do this, don’t do that is James’ advice.  I would add that it’s great to take all of his advice, but if you should slip and fall, don’t beat yourself up over it.  Instead, just pick yourself up and carry on.  See to it that you learn from your fall, make amends as and how you will, and try to make the best of every thing that you have been given.  That last line is actually very well-said: “Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet.”

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June 24, Proverbs 22:4

 

“The payoff for meekness and Fear-of- God is plenty and honor and a satisfying life.”

Proverbs 22:4 MSG – A verse of the day from the Bible presented in Eugene Peterson’s contemporary version called The Message. Accompanied by a personal reflection below.

Humility and love of God are the two recommendations that Solomon is making here.  I said love of God, by the way.  Here’s hoping you reap that payoff, gentle reader!

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June 23, Psalm 88:1-9

“1-9 God, you’re my last chance of the day.
    I spend the night on my knees before you.
Put me on your salvation agenda;
    take notes on the trouble I’m in.
I’ve had my fill of trouble;
    I’m camped on the edge of hell.
I’m written off as a lost cause,
    one more statistic, a hopeless case.
Abandoned as already dead,
    one more body in a stack of corpses,
And not so much as a gravestone—
    I’m a black hole in oblivion.
You’ve dropped me into a bottomless pit,
    sunk me in a pitch-black abyss.
I’m battered senseless by your rage,
    relentlessly pounded by your waves of anger.
You turned my friends against me,
    made me horrible to them.
I’m caught in a maze and can’t find my way out,
    blinded by tears of pain and frustration.”

Psalm 88:1-9 MSG – A verse of the day from the Bible presented in Eugene Peterson’s contemporary version called The Message. Accompanied by a personal reflection below.

So, you think you’re feeling bad?  Well, join the club.  You are not alone in your misery, and can perhaps find some comfort and solace in the knowledge that many before you have traversed that way.  And have lived to tell it!  Here’s David telling the Almighty just how wretched he feels and for God to do something about it.  “Take notes on the trouble I’m in” he says, as if God needs this information.  “I’m caught in a maze and can’t find my way out” he says, as if God isn’t aware of his condition.  But here’s the beauty of David’s lament:  he cries out to God with an underlying confidence that God is indeed aware of it all, and will, in fact, take care of things.  But in the meantime, it doesn’t hurt to pour one’s heart out to a God whom you know, cares for you.  Do you do like David does, gentle reader?