Marianne's FLASH💥DEVOS Podcast

Isaiah 55:2-3 Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Listen, so that your soul may live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you. + The default setting for life--work, eat, distract, repeat--yields disc...

Isaiah 55:2-3 Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Listen, so that your soul may live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you. + The default setting for life--work, eat, distract, repeat--yields disc...

Luke 13:24-25 “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’” + Jesus welcomes us in mutual trust and surrender--as brother, sist...

Matthew 9:27-29 Two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “ Do you believe that I am able to do this?" + These men respected the power and possibility of restoration with Jesus. “Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘ According to your faith let it be done to you .’” Do others see faith as a po...

Hosea 14:9 Who is wise? Let them realize these things. Who is discerning? Let them understand. The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them. + When scripture claims “The way of the Lord is right,” it’s safe to follow the metaphor where it leads. Your awareness, discernment, and faith matter. There’s a map, good directions. Let the Wayshower lead. Y...

Luke 18:1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. + Jesus gave us stories with truths tucked inside, oddly familiar once-upon-a-time creations that shed light on real life. Parables help us think when moral dilemmas and crises strike. We wonder what’s worth doing and how to respond. If Jesus gave up when life got hard and hateful, what par...

Isaiah 30:15 God, the Master, The Holy of Israel, has this solemn counsel:“Your salvation requires you to turn back to me and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves. Your strength will come from settling down in complete dependence on me—The very thing you’ve been unwilling to do.” + Isaiah prophesied in the 8th Century B.C. Yet overscheduling, independence, and personal accomplishment still r...

1 Corinthians 2:10-11 The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. + Resurrection is one of “the deep things of God” that we know to be true by observing nature’s cycles of life and death. Repeating patterns spiral inward and outward thro...

Psalm 39:4-5 “Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure. + Would you ask God to open your book of days? My life patterns land best in worlds I couldn’t have imagined. Allow wisdom to guide you now. An end wi...

Luke 4:28-30 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. + Jesus could sidestep cliffs and walk through chaos. Mobs still can’t stop how he changes the world. When Jesus says,...

Ezekiel 33:31-32 Their mouths speak of love, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice. + One can yearn for authentic faith and yet fall short. Community helps us embody change. After a time outsiders will wonder, “Hmm...

Thanks for joining me during these first six months of Flash💥Devos. My Thank-You gift today is an article I wrote about my first international mission trip when our family traveled with a team to Haiti three years after the earthquake of January 12, 2010. I am still being discipled--and disciplined--by the people and circumstances we encountered there. I pray that you, too, can meet people whose...

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “someb...

Daniel 10:17-19 “How can I, your servant, talk with you, my lord? My strength is gone and I can hardly breathe.” Again the one who looked like a man touched me and gave me strength. “Do not be afraid, you who are highly esteemed,” he said. “Peace! Be strong now; be strong.” + God approaches, reaching through scripture and angels, visions and circumstances. The assurance of the God who gives us bre...

Song of Solomon 2:10-12 My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away, for behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land. + Love called the world into being with an extraordinary invitation. Come away today to listen, admire beauty, and...

Matthew 5:3, 6, 9 “ Blessed are the poor in spirit… Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice… Blessed are the peacemakers…” + These were Sister Dorothy’s last words as she blessed her murderers. Even today, this cousin I never met invites me into the kingdom. Sister commented, “There are things you do because they feel right and they make no sense and they make no money and it may be th...

Ezekiel 33:14-15 And if I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ but they then turn away from their sin and do what is just and right— if they give back what they took in pledge for a loan, return what they have stolen, follow the decrees that give life, and do no evil—that person will surely live; they will not die. + If we can love others yet choose not to, we commit evil, an injustice....

Colossians 1:9-11 We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and pa...

Acts 9:17 Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” + What a gift to have people in our lives who deliver the word of God. Saul received a loving touch, a benediction, and an action plan for a lifelong faith journey. How can others support your...

Matthew 17:20 “ Because you’re not yet taking God seriously ,” said Jesus. “ The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of faith, a poppy seed, say, you would tell this mountain, ‘Move!’ and it would move. There is nothing you wouldn’t be able to tackle .” + Seed catalogs are gardeners’ bibles. Where do you find directions for light, cultivation, and your personal spiritual harvest? You can...

Ezekiel 32:10 I will cause many peoples to be appalled at you, and their kings will shudder with horror because of you when I brandish my sword before them. On the day of your downfall each of them will tremble every moment for his life. + God asked Ezekiel to voice this warning to Pharaoh, a warning for all who lead with oppressive force and impunity. We need not live in fear as these leaders sho...

Thanks to everyone who has been praying in community with me this year on Flash💥Devos. I feel so grateful for your presence! My January 2025 Thank-You gift is this article about how prayer invited me into a new world of connecting with the Divine as well as with others. I pray that my experiences give you hope for change in your own life. Check this post on my Substack page to see the original ph...

Luke 1:76, 78-79 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High… because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” + Give thanks when you hear how and why you are called to live. Let “the tender mercy of our God” allow everyone to grow...

Colossians 4:17-18 “See to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the Lord.” I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you. + In prison and on papyrus, Paul poured out his heart to disrupt evil with Christ’s love. I honor how Paul’s writing still shapes our faith. Can you write or draw about what holds your conscience captive? Shine God’s mercy...

Job 19: 7-8 “Though I cry, ‘Violence!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice. He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; he has shrouded my paths in darkness.” + Job’s lament parallels the stories of migrants and refugees today who flee suffering and social terror. They find pathways through darkness that teach us about risking everything to live. Pray that God’s loving light...