Three Favorite Scripture Verses

Anne at Imprisoned In My Bones has tagged me in the lastest blog MEME.  The theme is "Three Favorite Scripture Verses." The rules are:

1. Write a post on your three favorite verses from the Bible and why you like them.
2. Link back to this post.
3. In your post tag three other bloggers to carry this theme forward, link to you and tag additional bloggers.

I was tempted to cheat by using chapters instead of verses, but as I followed the trail everyone else was good enough to follow the rules (well most used multiple verses at a time, but not chapters) so I better too.

The first one is going to look like I am cheating because I am going to use some verses that aren’t part of the three to explain why I love the first so much.  Plus, this isn’t being graded, right?

1.      Revelation 4:8b, 11b, 12b, 5:13b

Day and night they never stopped singing:

Holy, Holy, Holy
is the Lord God, the Almighty;
who was, and is and is to come

You  are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you made the whole universe;
by your will, when it did not exist, it was created

Worthy is the Lamb that was sacrificed
to receive power, riches, wisdom,
strength, honor, glory, and blessing.

The reasons I love this verse:

A.     Isaiah 53:4-5
Yet it was our infirmities that he bore; our sufferings that he endured . . .
but he was pierced for our offenses,
crushed for our sins,
upon him was the chastisement
that makes us whole,
by his stripes we were healed.

B.     John 10:17-18
The Father loves me,
because I lay down my life
in order to take it up again.
No one takes it from me;
I lay it down of my own free will,
and as I have power to lay it down,
so I have power to take it up again;
and this is the command I have received from my Father.

C.     Revelation 21:3-7
Then I heard a loud voice call from the throne, ‘Look, here God lives among human beings.  He will make his home among them; they will be his people, and he will be their God, God –with-them.  He will wipe away all tears from their eyes; there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness or pain.  The world of the past has gone.’
Then the One sitting on the throne spoke, ‘Look, I am making the whole of creation new.  Write this, “What I am saying is trustworthy and will come true.  Then he said to me, ‘It has already happened.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.  I will give water from the well of life free to anybody who is thirsty; anyone who proves victorious will inherit these things; and I will be his God and he will be my son.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ!  By your cross and resurrection you have redeemed the world!

2.     John 19:26-27
Seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, this is your son.’  Then to the disciple he said, ‘This is your mother.’  And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

While the gift of himself in the Eucharist is probably the biggest gift, after salvation itself, and the gift of the Holy Spirit is right there too, as it is God giving us God, the gift of Mary to be our Mother is so humbling and overwhelming at times to me, how gracious, loving, and wise Jesus was to do this, even as he hung on the cross in the final moments of his agonizing sacrifice for us.
Mary as my mother, our mother, so wonderful that words cannot express with any success how grateful I am to Jesus for this gift, and to the Father and Holy Spirit for the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth, mother of God, and my mother.

3.      Romans 8 may be my favorite chapter, at the moment, but like I said I am trying hard not to cheat.  So I’ll go with Romans 8:26b-28 first from Jerusalem Bible which I like because it uses the word “groans”

The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness, for, when we do not know how to pray properly, then the Spirit personally makes our petitions for us in groans that cannot be put into words, and he who can see into all hearts knows what the Spirit means because the prayers that the Spirit makes for God’s holy people are always in accordance with the mind of God.  We are well aware that God works with those who love him, those who have been called in accordance with his purpose, and turns everything to their good.

 Second from the RSV-2^nd Catholic edition because seems to indicate Spirit is praying for us all the time according to the will of God

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.  And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.  We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.

I just find it reassuring that when I am struggling, and even groaning myself vocally or internally,  the Holy Spirit is interceding for me in accordance with the will of God.  Also I find it reassuring personally that as I do love God very much, and pray that he will help me to love him more, that I can take confidence in knowing my omnipotent, all-loving Father will work everything for the good of me and those who love him.   

Thanks for the tag Anne!

And now I tag the following bloggers:
Two additional as I think I over-reached tagging Sister Mary Martha and Fr. John Bartunek:


Author at Do Not Be Anxious
Ebeth at A Catholic Mom Climbing the Pillars


--- Completed
Danya at He Adopted Me First
--------- Pending tags ---------
Sister Mary Martha at Ask Sister Mary Martha

Fr. John Bartunek at Catholic Spiritual Direction