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.

jULY 26, 2024: Romans 5.6

[OUR REVIEW OF BIBLICAL GRACE CONTINUES]

𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗦𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗥:
Utter helplessness requires grace. Partial helplessness doesn’t; neither does occasional, infrequent, or unpredictable helplessness. But utter helplessness does, especially when “helpless” describes one’s capacity for self-defense against a charge of sin in the first degree.

Among the big ideas the Apostle Paul nominates in his masterwork New Testament letter to the Romans is that we’re all broken, wounded creatures, people unable, on our own, to get right with a holy and perfect God. Were it not for God’s sending Jesus to die for us, we utterly helpless ones would have to add “hopeless” to our “utterly” confession. But God did send Jesus . . . at just the right time . . . so we helpless have hope.

Had we earned God’s goodness—by perpetual generosity, kindness, loyalty, and obedience, for example—we might have been able to call it our owed wages. But the only wages Paul identifies to the Romans is the “wages of sin,” which is death, so God’s goodness is instead grace.

As noted in yesterday’s entry, grace authentically received produces humility, a fact nowhere in the Bible more vividly displayed than in Romans 5, where grace saves us from divine condemnation. Utterly helpless people are at their most defenseless in the face of heaven’s sentencing guidelines. Without grace—undeserved good, in this case in the form of Christ—we’d be lost, adrift and separated from the God who made us. With grace, we are forever safe.

Imagine standing in a courtroom before an imposing judicial bench, when enters a black-robed judge who rises to a chair high above you. The judge stares intensely at the charging documents, the indictments alleging your faults and failures as supported by the evidence arrayed in the jury box. After a few moments of review and as you recoil deeper into dread and shame, the judge reads aloud a summary of the charges, but strangely does not then ask for your plea. After a brief additional pause, the judge dismisses the charges and sends you home . . . free, forgiven, and utterly helpless no longer.

That’s your and my future. That’s grace.

𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲 - 𝗧𝗢𝗗𝗔𝗬'𝗦 𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗘 𝗜𝗡 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗫𝗧:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans+5&version=NLT