VerseVoices A VerseVisions Publication
  • An abstract painting: warm fields of amber, wheat and soft green, two currents moving together across the surface, the color settled and restful, the sense of a weight carried side by side.

    Repent

    I always heard repent in Mark 1:15 as a command to feel sorry. The word is metanoia, a changed mind, and Jesus spoke it because the kingdom had come near.

  • An abstract painting: warm fields of amber, wheat and soft green, two currents moving together across the surface, the color settled and restful, the sense of a weight carried side by side.

    Easy

    In Matthew 11:30 "easy" translates chrēstos, which means kind, good, well-fitting. Jesus does not promise a life with no yoke. He promises a yoke that is good to wear, with his own shoulder under it beside you.

  • An abstract painting: warm white light across the top, breaking over a dense field of coral, orange, teal and gold, deep blue threads rising at the left, the color of life returning at dawn.

    Risen

    In Matthew 28:6 the Greek is passive. He was raised. But this is not a stronger God rescuing a weaker one. The Son who lay in death is himself God, and the resurrection is the one God's answer to the cross.

  • An abstract palette-knife painting: a deep crimson and burgundy field below, clear teal-blue above, seams and flecks of gold leaf crossing both, divided by one resolved horizontal line,

    Finished

    I always heard the last word from the cross as a man giving out. In John 19:30 it is the word they stamped on a bill marked paid.

  • Minded

    Minded

    I read "carnally minded" as a warning about my thoughts. The Greek in Romans 8:6 is one noun, and it means the whole set of the mind, the way it drifts when I let go of the wheel.

  • An abstract painting in gold and burgundy: a coiled power reined back, taut and contained, strength held under restraint.

    Meek

    I heard "meek" as weak, until the Greek showed me it was the word for a war horse broken to the bridle in Matthew 5:5.

  • An abstract painting in warm gold and amber: luminous surging fields and textured drips, tender and urgent.

    Compassion

    I read past the strangest thing the father does in Luke 15:20, until the Greek told me what his body was already doing.

  • The Love That Has My Name On It. Mark Lawrence, 2026.

    God is Love

    I read 1 John 4:8 for years before I felt it.