Bible Verse for Today

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

—James 4:7-8 (KJV)

Thoughts on Today's Verse...​

James always packs a lot of truth into short messages. Let's focus on the center of this call to holiness: "Submit yourselves, then, to God. ... Come near to God..." Let's draw our hearts closer to God. When we come into...

 

For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.

—1 Thessalonians 4:7-8 (KJV)

Thoughts on Today's Verse...​

The call to holiness is easy to ignore in a world that lives by very different standards than God's will revealed in the Scriptures. Satan gets us to compare our lifestyle with those around us, deluding us into devaluing our sins. However, the issue is not...

 

And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

—Galatians 4:6-7 (KJV)

Thoughts on Today's Verse...​

The first vocalizations of many babies are the syllables "ab-ba, ab-ba, ab-ba." Not surprisingly, in Jesus' day, abba was the tender name babies used for their physical fathers. When God saved us, he gave us his Spirit. The Holy Spirit blesses us in many ways. One of the key blessings is the Spirit's work with us in...

 

Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

—Colossians 4:5-6 (KJV)

Thoughts 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, we must hear the LORD's warning about choosing our words carefully...

 

But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law...

—Galatians 4:4 (KJV)

Thoughts 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 law, the religious politics, and the frailties of mortality. Our Father bought our freedom at the terrible cost of his Son's...

 

For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication.

—1 Thessalonians 4:3 (KJV)

Thoughts 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 apart for...

 

With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

—Ephesians 4:2-3 (KJV)

Thoughts 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 truth. The Spirit reminds...

 

Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.

—Psalm 4:1 (KJV)

Thoughts 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 my prayer. Have you been there? I surely have, and I regularly hear from folks...

 

He must increase, but I must decrease.

—John 3:30 (KJV)

Thoughts 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 complete and perfect in their conformity to...

 

Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways. For the froward is abomination to the LORD: but his secret is with the righteous.

—Proverbs 3:31-32 (KJV)

Thoughts 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 centuries ago? Let's not let any person, real...