A NEW - and different - KIND OF DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Devotional Bible reading - intentional and ongoing interaction with Scripture - can bless, encourage, and strengthen our spiritual lives. Such predictable encounters provide recurring reminders of God's involvement in and vision for the world. Without planned visits to its pages, however, the Bible is a book we hear about only from others, likely in worship or Sunday school settings. Devotional reading fosters reflection and feeds the soul. TRANSLATION: It's a good thing!


But it can also be a time consuming thing. If the thought of regular rendezvous with Scripture appeals to you, but you're not sure you have the time or discipline to make them happen in your life, we invite you to check out our new daily devotional called "ONEverse" that  debuted May 1, both on our website and Facebook page.


Every day, ONEverse offers a single verse from somewhere in the Bible, Old Testament or New, along with a few comments, observations, and/or questions created by our pastor, Bill Coley.  The mission of ONEverse is to encourage and challenge you in your spiritual journey, and to do so in a way that won't ask for much of your time. Some verses will remind you of your place in God's family. Other verses will hold a mirror up to your life and invite you to engage in honest self-evaluation. All verses will have the potential to bless.


You might wonder about the context of the single verses this devotional will present - after all, surrounding verses almost always deepen our understanding of individual verses. That's a great point to which we have three responses: 1) the ONEverse verses are chosen in part because they speak for themselves, or because their obvious meanings don't conflict with nearby verses; 2) Bill Coley's comments usually refer to surrounding verses; 3) we include a biblegateway.com link to the New Living Translation of the larger passage of which each verse is a part.


We intend for ONEverse to be a quick but thoughtful addition to your day. Check it out!

before your first oneverse

Every day ONEverse introduces you to or reminds you of a single verse from the Bible, either the Old or New Testament. The verses, hand-picked by our pastor, Bill Coley, variously inform, challenge, encourage, and strengthen, while holding you accountable for the grand potential God has planted within you. Here's one way to make the most of your ONEverse experience:


1) BEFORE ANYTHING! Take ten seconds to be quiet before God, to ask God to open your heart and mind to the verse and accompanying content you're about to read.


2) Read the verse at least twice. What does it say? What do you notice about it? How might it apply to your life, family, friends, community, and/or world? (Not every verse will apply to your specific circumstances!)


3) Read and reflect on the accompanying notes and questions. 


4) Ask yourself, what's the word God has for me today through this ONEverse?


5) For additional insight into the verse, read the larger passage in which it resides by clicking the provided link.

November 24, 2024: proverbs 3.29

𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗦𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗥:

Today’s walk around our “neighborhood” stops next door, or perhaps across the street or around the corner. But for this entry, specific distances don’t actually matter, accessibility does.


Yesterday we considered the most spiritually plausible application of the “love your neighbor as yourself” command found both in the Old Testament and in the words of Jesus: “Neighbor” means someone with whom you share a faith—a member of your church or some other church; we are called to love anybody who’s a member of the Body of Christ, for that person is our “neighbor.” Today’s verse takes us outside the Body and into our physical neighborhoods, the spaces near where we live, yes, but, I contend also our workplaces, vacation spots, and shopping destinations. Today’s verse spotlights those who live close to us, but these days, we “live” in a variety of environs, only one of which is our residence.


What’s significant about today’s verse is that it expands the reach of the “love your neighbor” directive. Any comfort experienced by the thought that we only have to love people in our church, or who at least are Christians just as we are, evaporates when our love’s recipient list includes people regardless of our respective spiritual backgrounds. If we can reach ‘em, we gotta love ‘em, is today’s message.


Deuteronomy 22 begins with instructions seemingly grounded in the nearby neighbor model. It is a person’s responsibility to return a neighbor’s ox, sheep, goat, donkey, clothing, or anything else his or her neighbor seems to have lost. That sounds like next door neighbor talk, but the second verse of the chapter extends the reach of the instruction to include people who don’t live nearby. People who find belongings lost by someone who does not live in the neighborhood are to keep them until the owner comes looking for them. TRANSLATION: The “neighbors” we are to love can live anywhere.


What about a dollar bill you find lying on the sidewalk as you walk the dog? How about a can of soup you find in a shopping cart abandoned in the grocery store’s parking lot? Must we seek out their owners too? Good questions. Lots of Bible texts create such practical challenges, and the truth is none of us will master them all. What matters far more than ethical perfection here, however, is big picture awareness. The people we encounter on walks, in stores, and through social media are our “neighbors.” Not in the way the people next door are, of course, but our biblical marching orders call us to treat them as something other than strangers or aliens.


Political rivals are our neighbors (good luck with that in modern America!) People we’ll never meet are our neighbors. You and I are neighbors, even though our contact may be limited to this collection of written words. “Love your neighbor as yourself” refuses to allow us to overlook each other . . . or anyone else. So, howdy neighbor!


Tomorrow, a special—and probably controversial—addition to the “neighbor” directory.             


𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲 - 𝗧𝗢𝗗𝗔𝗬'𝗦 𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗘 𝗜𝗡 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗫𝗧: 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs%203.27-30&version=NLT