Category: Verse for the day

“As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you.” —John 15:9 The love of the Father for the Son Jesus is immensely powerful. God’s love for Jesus is explosive, powerful, creative, healing, regenerative, wild, unmeasurable, and beyond human control. Furthermore, Jesus loves each of us with that same love; He loves us “as the Father has loved” Him (Jn 15:9). If we truly experienced and realized how fully God loves us, we would be gloriously transformed. “For our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29). God’s love has unfathomable power, like an avalanche that sweeps up all in...

“My Father has been glorified in your bearing much fruit.” —John 15:8 We are God’s branches, and we are to bear fruit for Him. Thus, the fruit we bear is not ours. For example, I have six children. All are adults, and five are married and live on their own. I had to let these five children go. They were my responsibility for two decades, and were ripening in my home under my care. Ultimately, however, these children belong to God, and they are His fruit. Over and over, we branches repeat this cycle. We remain attached to Jesus, the...

“We must undergo many trials if we are to enter the reign of God.” —Acts 14:22 Being beaten with stones to the point of death for your faith in Jesus is most definitely a trial and a hardship. Yet getting back up and twice going back into the same town which tried to kill you gives your witness for Jesus a credibility which no one can deny (Acts 14:20, 21). St. Paul’s tough love was encouraging beyond measure. What tough love Paul displayed in heading right back into town and then right back out on mission. When someone who has...

“Anyone who loves Me will be true to My word.” —John 14:23 We may think we love Jesus. So we look at a beautiful sunset, raise our voice to the heavens and say, “I love You, Jesus.” But then we proceed to spend the rest of the night in behavior which offends the mercy and holiness of God. If we want to love someone, it is best not to make assumptions, but to learn from the beloved how they wish to be loved. Would such behavior be the way Jesus wishes to be loved? It’s best to learn from Jesus...

“We must undergo many trials.” —Acts 14:22 At the close of the very first Christian missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas instructed their disciples: “We must undergo many trials if we are to enter into the reign of God” (Acts 14:22). Trials, in fact, many trials, are a given for a disciple, although Jesus gives a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light (Mt 11:30). Life is hard. This is not the Lord’s idea. He did not make original sin, “death or mourning, crying out or pain” (Rv 21:4; see Wis 1:13). He will eventually abolish all these...