Daily Verse

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.—Colossians 4:5-6Thoughts on Today's Verse...Jesus warned us that we will answer to God for every idle word we share with others (Matthew 12:36-37). In our time when social media echoes with mean-spirited, ugly, and divisive words, […]

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.—Galatians 4:4Thoughts on Today's Verse...Wow! What a rich passage loaded with many wonderfully challenging ideas. God made history ready for the Savior, then sent his Son as that Savior. God's Son then dealt with all the difficulties of the […]

It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality...—1 Thessalonians 4:3Thoughts on Today's Verse...Sanctified sounds "churchy" and old-fashioned to many people today. However, sanctified is a powerful God-fashioned word that means to make someone or something special, holy, reserved, and prepared for God's use and glory, something or someone that is not common. We are called to be an uncommon people, holy, and set […]

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.—Ephesians 4:2-3Thoughts on Today's Verse...Effort, sweat, and dedication seem to have become the profanity of Western Christianity. To our age of grace-abusers and grace-cheapeners who don't see acts of obedient faith as necessary to authentic discipleship, the Holy Spirit reaches out with his […]

Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer.—Psalm 4:1Thoughts on Today's Verse...At first, this cry for help seems very demanding by those of us who are praying to God. Closer inspection shows that this is really a cry of desperation — Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear […]

Do not envy a violent man or choose any of his ways, for the LORD detests a perverse man but takes the upright into his confidence. —Proverbs 3:31-32Thoughts on Today's Verse...While many are seeking a cure for the rampaging violence in our cultures that is destroying lives, threatening schools, destroying nations, and making our streets unsafe, why has no one bothered to remind us what God's wise servant taught us […]

He must become greater; I must become less.—John 3:30Thoughts on Today's Verse...This ultimate formula for greatness did not take many words for John the Baptist to articulate. What's your formula? Paul told the Galatians that they needed a similar approach to greatness: Christ must be formed in them (Galatians 4:19). He told the Colossians that he expended every ounce of energy God supplied to have them become mature in their […]

[John the Baptist said when asked if he was the Christ, the Messiah:] "I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him. The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete."—John 3:28-29Thoughts on Today's Verse...John the Baptist is an incredible […]

[God told Moses to look at the Promised Land, since he was not going to cross this Jordan, then God said:] "Commission Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he will lead this people across and will cause them to inherit the land that you will see."—Deuteronomy 3:28Thoughts on Today's Verse...Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt and in the wilderness but did not get to enter into […]