For today’s Friday Five, list your five favorite passages/verses from the Bible and tell us something about why you love them.

1. One of my fave verses has always been Micah 6:8. “He has told you, O mortal, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.” I love it for a variety of reasons. It was our seminary senior class verse. I love it because it reminds me of how I should treat others.

2. Psalm 30:11-12 “You have turned my mourning into dancing;you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.” I love the entire Psalm but these two verses pack such a punch and remind me that there is hope; hope in the one who promises to never leave us or forsake us. Last January when the Haiti happened in Haiti, my small group at the Diaconal Ministry Formation Event and I listened to Ben Larson’s musical version of this verse as we grieved his death.

3. 2 Corinthians 4:7 “But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.” My fave Christian artist is Jars of Clay. I love that this famous band used this verse to create their name. It reminds all of us that no matter what God has the power not us.

4. Psalm 139:14 “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.” Working with youth, Special Olympics, etc, I see how youth and others are affected by how they dress, what others think of them, etc. I like this verse because it proves that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” and that God created us and loves us for who we are. Such a beautiful reminder for everyone of us. Through the waters of Baptism, God calls and claims us as God’s precious children!

5.Romans 14:8 “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lords.” This has become one of my new favorite verses. What a great reminder for us each and every day!