Welcome to "Four Pockets," a simple way to highlight some of the cool/provocative/inspiring lines and ideas in this coming Sunday's Bible readings.
Following an offhand suggestion that Martin Luther made in 1526, I collect these little sayings into one of four pockets, as a way to reflect on them. The pockets are: brokenness, grace, love, and encouragement. They're not fixed categories, just helpful lenses through which to listen to scripture.
The Bible readings in many churches this week will be these:
Genesis 2:18-24, Psalm 8, Hebrews 1:1-4 & 2:5-12, Mark 10:2-16.
What lines catch your attention? These are the ones I'm focusing on this time around:
Brokenness
“It is not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18)
“Because of your hardness of heart [Moses] wrote this commandment for you” (Mark 10:5)
Grace
“Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs” (Mark 10:14)
“He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word” (Hebrews 1:3)
Love
“Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate” (Mark 10:9)
“And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands of them, and blessed them” (Mark 10:16)
“For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father” (Hebrews 2:11)
“O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8:1 and 9)
Encouragement
“It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Hebrews 2:10)
“Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger” (Psalm 8:2)
“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:3-5)
Following an offhand suggestion that Martin Luther made in 1526, I collect these little sayings into one of four pockets, as a way to reflect on them. The pockets are: brokenness, grace, love, and encouragement. They're not fixed categories, just helpful lenses through which to listen to scripture.
The Bible readings in many churches this week will be these:
Genesis 2:18-24, Psalm 8, Hebrews 1:1-4 & 2:5-12, Mark 10:2-16.
What lines catch your attention? These are the ones I'm focusing on this time around:
Brokenness
“It is not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18)
“Because of your hardness of heart [Moses] wrote this commandment for you” (Mark 10:5)
Grace
“Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs” (Mark 10:14)
“He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word” (Hebrews 1:3)
Love
“Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate” (Mark 10:9)
“And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands of them, and blessed them” (Mark 10:16)
“For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father” (Hebrews 2:11)
“O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8:1 and 9)
Encouragement
“It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Hebrews 2:10)
“Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger” (Psalm 8:2)
“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:3-5)