Some call them \u201cLife Verses\u201d while others give then different names \u2013 these Scripture verses that one discovers in the tough times of life; that become more than just daily Bible verses.\u00a0 I was fifteen years old, laying in a Houston Hospital bed with a broken second vertebrae of my neck and a broken future, when God gave me Romans 8:28, \u201cwe know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a\u00a0 young adult, in the midst of a ministry crisis, God gave me Proverbs 3:5-6, \u201cTrust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall\u00a0direct your paths.\u201d<\/p>\n
As I was retiring from my Seminary faculty position, I asked God for a new retirement verse, and He gave me Psalm 71:17-18, \u201cO God, You have taught me from my\u00a0youth; and to this\u00a0day\u00a0I declare Your wondrous works. \u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Now also\u00a0when\u00a0I am\u00a0old and grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to\u00a0this\u00a0generation, Your power to everyone\u00a0who\u00a0is to come.\u201d<\/p>\n Last week, with new medical discoveries that dictated life and ministry changes, I asked God for another verse to get me through the uncomfortable and unwanted changes ahead. The very next morning, the chapter in my online Bible Reading Group was Isaiah 41.\u00a0 When I got to verses 9-10, I paused to weep. \u201cYou\u00a0whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest regions and said to you, \u2018You\u00a0are\u00a0My servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away: Fear not,\u00a0for I\u00a0am\u00a0with you; Be not dismayed, for I\u00a0am\u00a0your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.\u201d<\/p>\n Later that morning I made my first of many upcoming visits with my Cardiologist. As I listened to his plans for my future, I thanked God, not only for the verses of the day, but for the timing of my new \u201clife verses.\u201d<\/p>\n That same morning, a good friend and colleague posted on social media, \u201cIt\u2019s not about decoding hidden messages\u2014it\u2019s about obeying a revealed one.\u201d A new message\/life verse had been revealed to me.\u00a0 Just as with all previous \u201clife verses,\u201d non of which needed to be decoded, I will obey.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some call them \u201cLife Verses\u201d while others give then different names \u2013 these Scripture verses that one discovers in the tough times of life; that become more than just daily Bible verses.\u00a0 I was fifteen years old, laying in a Houston Hospital bed with a broken second vertebrae of my neck and a broken future,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-morning-manna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3688,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3687\/revisions\/3688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}