Category: Verse for the day

“Do you still not understand?” –Mark 8:21 When I heard today’s Gospel ending with the above question, I had to respond, “No, Lord, I still do not understand.” Often we are lost in the flood of misunderstanding. Therefore, the Lord recommends that we rely not on our own understanding (Prv 3:5-6). God reminds us rather to rely daily on His mercy and His providence. This is life in the Holy Spirit, to follow the Spirit’s lead (Gal 5:25). We may not know the future, but we know Who holds the future. We may not know everything, but we do know...

“I must avoid Your presence.” –Genesis 4:14 In accepting Abel’s sacrifice and rejecting that of Cain, God must have manifested His presence to Cain and Abel in some way. How else could Cain have known that God accepted Abel’s offering and not his own? (Gn 4:4-5) Perhaps God sent fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice, as He did with that of Elijah (see 1 Kgs 18:24ff). Perhaps God simply appeared or sent an angel to communicate His acceptance of Abel’s sacrifice. It’s incredible that God’s presence did not induce Cain to repent. In Scripture, the holy ones often fell...

“A leper approached Him with a request, kneeling down as he addressed Him: ‘If You will to do so, You can cure me.’�” –Mark 1:40 Leprosy in the New Testament is sometimes symbolic of such spiritual conditions as unforgiveness, anger, bitterness, resentment, hatred, self-hatred, and other sins. Leprosy can appear as a scab (Lv 13:2). A scab is a wound that has closed and is beginning to heal. Scabs often itch. We are tempted to pick at them, re-open the wound, and lose the healing already received. Are you “picky”? Are you itching to say something to a certain someone?...

“He will strike at your head, while you strike at His heel.” –Genesis 3:15 Satan used food to alienate the human race from the Lord (see Gn 3:6). Jesus made His flesh real food (Jn 6:55) to give us an intimate communion with the Lord in which He lives in us and we in Him (see Jn 6:56). Satan seduced Adam and Eve to sin and by this fall seriously wounded and disordered human nature. Jesus even became sin (2 Cor 5:21) and gave us a new nature (see Jn 3:3, 5) by which we can be adopted sons and...

“Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the Lord God had made.” –Genesis 3:1 Never get into a conversation with the devil. Refuse to speak to him. “He is a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44); he’s a fallen angel, superior to us in intelligence. You’re a fool to talk with the accuser, adversary, and liar. That’s the mistake Eve made. The devil initiated the conversation, but “the woman answered the serpent” (Gn 3:2). It wasn’t long before Eve thought God was depriving her of opportunities. She put faith in Satan’s lies and...