Author: T L

On Watch,

Getting Us To Plant and Build

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Goodness in Our Time

Join the Circle

…

of Life.

Jeremiah 31:28

And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord.

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Titus 2:11-12

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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It’s easy to think the world is lost.

The present times of turmoil and uncertainty do not promise a better future, if a future at all, for us.

With whatever time we have,

God gives us the gifts of the Holy Spirit

to leave behind impiety and worldly passions (like the economy’s foundation of greed)

so that we can reflect

the goodness God has made us capable of embodying

to other people,

Making these days, short as they always are for each of us,

the best days of life on earth,

ours.

Things That Go Bump

In the Night

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Can Be Deadly

God Knows

And Brings the Light.

Daniel 2:22

He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with him.

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John 17:25

Jesus prayed: Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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In the cold dark of night

intruders, hollering, laughing, snickering, partying drunk and high,

on an adventure, the think,

enter the meadow, my home, such as it is.

Home Invasion, almost, as threatening.

What they do not know

is what is hiding in the cold dark, out there.

…

Skunks meandering after a meal of mice.

Coyotes laying in wait for whatever moves slowly.

Lynx, the hunter predator that silently stalks its prey, including vulnerable humans.

…

Life treats us similarly.

Venture into the cold dark,

into the dark of human sloth, scheming, striving, or revenge,

into the dark of the soul, where past sin accumulates a semi-truck overwhelming load of dark-matter, where regret rules and all hope is lost,

into the dark of the valley of misery, disease, and death,

venture into the cold dark,

and one is likely going to lose it all, entering the vortex that sucks one down, down, down forever …

unless

God sends the light into the cold darkness.

Caught in the darkness? Pray for the light to come, and soon.

Pressed Down

In Chains

Monday, July 7, 2025

Of Low Estate.

Here God Loves Us and Calls Us

to Speak Boldly of That Love.

Psalm 136:23

It is he who remembered us in our low estate, for his steadfast love endures forever.

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Ephesians 6:19-20

Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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What the English translates as ‘low estate’ one German translation has as ‘unterdrückt’, ‘suppressed’ (as in suppress one’s anger) or ‘oppressed’ or ‘repress’ or literally ‘pressed down’.

In Mexico and other Central American and South American cities built on hills, the rich have built fantastic estates on the highest hills, not unlike one sees around L.A. The lower one descends down the hillsides (the direction the refuse and excrement flows) into the valleys, the poorer the houses become until in the valleys, in the dreck, one finds the shanties of the poorest.

While enjoying the ‘good times’ of living high on the hills it is more difficult to recognize that all goodness comes from God, and not one’s wealth, fame, or station in life. In the bottom of the valleys of life, where goodness is hard to see, when one recognizes goodness it is much easier to recognize that it comes from God. Still the challenges of life ‘on the top’ and ‘underneath’ can either drive one away from God or towards God.

As we struggle through life’s challenges, it is as if (regardless whether we live on the hilltops or in the valleys) we struggle to exist, as though we were pressed down to the bottom of life, where one misstep leads to death.

Here Jesus finds us, in the low and lower and lowest levels of existence as it becomes survival instead of existence.

Here Jesus finds us, or the reality is, God was with us all along, all along the hard road of life that became ‘low estate’ or poverty or barely surviving. What may change is we become newly aware that God walks with us, so we say ‘Here Jesus finds us’ meaning, even here we are or become aware that God is with us, and

and God loves us, with all the glory and blessing of divine, unconditional, all-powerful love,

and, as we are forgiven, revived, and given new life (though not often pulled out of our ‘low estate’), and newly equipped to give testimony to God’s love …

and as God does all that for us, Jesus sends us out

to share that same glorious blessing of divine love with everyone, with words only when necessary.

We, having been ‘pressed down’ just as olives are pressed down to make precious olive oil, become priceless treasure in God’s Kingdom, life savers for those in greatest need.

…

So –

How’s your day going so far?

Up on the hills?

Down in the valleys?

Do you see God walking with you?

Are your ready to share the wonders of God’s love with others?

Is Reconciling


The Bank Account Simple,

Sunday, July 6, 2025

Compared To Reconciling One’s Life With God?

God doesn’t freeze our accounts with God

but the banks … well . . .

Isaiah 55:7

Let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

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2 Corinthians 5:20

So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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If the wicked want to forsake their ways, I’m not going to stand in their way. Are you?

Or would anyone, really?

So let them!

Of course it takes more than letting them, before the wayward will return to God,

us being among them.

We need to be inspired by the Holy Spirit,

working through other people, circumstances, wonders, miracles, signs

or whatever it takes

so that we know

we CAN return to God

and expect that God will not do us in,

for God is ready with pardons unending.

God does the work of reconciling our lives with God.


Now if only someone would reconcile the the bank account for me at their cost . . . .

Is He The One?

The One To Save Us

Saturday, July 5, 2025

From Ourselves?

Right there.

He was yelling right there at the top of his lungs,


“What’s Wrong?!

Everything!”

Lamentations 1:20

See, O Lord, how distressed I am; my stomach churns, my heart is wrung within me, because I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword bereaves; in the house it is like death.

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John 4:29

The woman said: Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?

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Words of Grace for Today –

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We make so much trouble for ourselves, giving us cause for so many lamentations, and agreements with the passage from Lamentations.

We wait with great expectation worn weary into apathy for the One who can save us from everything.

It is so easy to scream or resign or fight, because our world economy sings only one tune: that of powerful greed.

Greed feeds us selfishness, insatiable hungers, and a callous disregard for all creation. As greed permeates everything around us, it is difficult to sing the songs of God’s Kingdom. Each day we need new images to jostle our hearts, minds, and imaginations to recognize God at work around us, and in us, and through us for others. We need to be reminded that Jesus is our song each day on this wonder-filled journey. Otherwise, drowned in greed-fed-fears, we only ramp up the heart-and-mind-stopping panic around us.

How can we find freedom from greed? How can we find a blessed tomorrow from today?

Encountering a man ranting and raving loudly in the woods where people come to camp for free, I asked, “What’s the problem?” The guy stopped a second before screaming, “Everything!”

What is your Everything? At the checkout till they keep asking: “Is that everything?” with a wink, I respond “No, the universe is a big place and I can’t afford everything. I’ll just take these few things, thank you.”

…

Our times are as tumultuous as any. It’s difficult to tell who is or will be a threat. Southern neighbours are now irrational and unpredictable. Last year’s extreme weather keeps becoming this year’s norm. Wildfires wipe out homes, communities, and livelihoods, and disrupt even more lives with deadly smoke, planting time-bombs in our lungs and blood. It’s difficult to tell what is safe, what is sure to be lost, and where one can take even a short rest from the tumult. We do know that our future, like a wild rapids, is going to be more difficult, dangerous, and full of surprises from new directions.

Yet God knew all this would be so in our times, as God has known about every time in the past, and knows about every time to come. God created us with the only real security for life in this universe: God’s own assurance that, come what may, God is with us through it all. And God sent God’s own Son to save us from our own sins and the evil that permeates the world. Each day God calls us to allow ourselves to be dandled in safety on God’s lap in this New Creation. Each day the Holy Spirit sends us out to share the wonders of God’s steadfast love with all who need it. And in the end, God will call us home, to sing our thanks again, for we are home, home with the saints in light, home at last, home at last.

And that is our Everything.

The Last Hope

For Life Lost

Friday, July 4, 2025

Where Will You See It?

Waves Come In and Go Out

Washing Us Free.

Psalm 119:114

You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word.

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John 6:40

This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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How do you find that precious slice of time-place-tempo-song that gives you

everything to live for,

that gives you hope,

for another day, week, year, decade?

In the lives of those who have found a way to move from desperate-despair-loss-end

to become someone for someone, and maybe for a few more than one or two, maybe even for us all?

In the words that inspire one to dig deep?

Or in the faces of sounds defying the obvious end, despite the great loss getting into tomorrow from here?

Or in the safety of laughter and joy with children not yet stained by the short-harsh-brutish?

…

in the turmoil that is inevitably life,

the only hope for all kinds of life is

…

knowing that God is with us, for us, and

more than eager to redeem us, renew us, and give us renewed life each day.

Plans of Mice and Men and Women

Steps to Life

Thursday, July 3, 2025

Holy Spirit Guided

Colouring In Between the Lines of Life:

Greedily gobble it all up,

or give it your all, today.

Proverbs 16:9

The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps.

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Colossians 3:17

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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We’d like to think that we can plan and set goals, work hard according to our plans, and reach our goals … and thus make life worthwhile.

We’d like to think that as we are executing our plans and reaching our goals, God directs our steps … and thus makes life worthwhile.

BUT

always that big butt gets in the way.

The rear-end of reality

that the plans and goals and executions we undertake, and even the goals we reach and celebrate

are

ALL

meaningless.

And God does not direct our steps along our planned paths.

…

Life as a human is so much more than we can plan.

And the only way to reach into that life and realize even a tiny bit of it, is …

to give up trying to plan and execute our way through life towards success (or the inevitable failures.)

The Holy Spirit offers gifts and guidance, and life becomes full, filled with meaning, as we strive to serve others selflessly, following Jesus’ Way, teaching, healing, and giving life to others with our daily sacrifices.

Then we are able at the end of the day, to give God thanks

for it all.

Precious as it all is

when we give it away so others may live.

Rich And Done

Or Sacrificing All Now and …

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Rich Forever

Why Wait To Really Live?

Give Your All, Today!

Psalm 138:6

For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly; but the haughty he perceives from far away.

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Luke 12:19-21

The rich will say to their soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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How people have yearned to be rich. To be able to ‘take a break’, head off on the ‘freedom 55’ train, give up deadlines for lifelines, to do what you want, when you want, where you want, and how you want, to turn ‘short, nasty, and brutish’ into ‘eat, drink, and be merry!’

But life simply does not work that way.

Life lived for oneself becomes perverse, if it wasn’t that already. And it rots from within, spreading to those around one, and affected by one. It’s living hell.

The true treasure of life is free, but not without cost. It is to live as Jesus did, giving everything to give life to others, to love one’s neighbour as oneself, even one’s enemies, and the downtrodden and outcast most of all.

To be truly rich, we only need recognize that God walks with us, blesses us, and sends us out to be that same blessing for all other people.

What’s In A Number?

158

Tuesday, July 1, 2025

42
10,000 – 1867 – 1870 – 1905 – 1986 – 2025
83.26 – 2.40

Numbers Usually Mean Something.

Can Numbers Mean Everything?

Psalm 73:26

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

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Revelation 3:7-8

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens: I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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from Wikipedia:

Canada Day, is the national day of Canada. A federal statutory holiday, it celebrates the anniversary of Canadian Confederation which occurred on July 1, 1867, with the passing of the British North America Act, 1867, when the three separate colonies of the United Canadas, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were united into a single dominion within the British Empire called Canada.

1 July 1867 to 1 July 2025, 158 years: Happy Canada Day.

Of course Alberta was not part of Canada until July 15, 1870, and then only as part of the Northwest Territories. Only in 1905 did Alberta, along with Saskatchewan, become a province. So I guess for us in Alberta we only have 150 years to celebrate as part of Canada, and only 120 as a province of Canada.

Then again I didn’t show up until 1986, so I only have 39 years, and lots of Canadians have less, reflecting their birth dates, of course.

Then again there are many people who can celebrate being here in Canada’s land spaces since at least 10,000 BCE, so call that a 12,025 year celebration. Makes one feel old just looking at that number of life years.

But that’s not for individuals, just the indigenous ancestors. This year in Canada, on average, the life expectancy is now 83.26, but we have a 100% fatality rate, still. It’s the nature of things for us, eh!

As far as the other two numbers 2.40 is the latest bill I received that I have to pay. There’s certainly lots more waiting to be paid and many, many more to come (if I live as I hope to.)

And 42, well that’s the computers’ answer to the question, “What’s the meaning of life.”

Which any thinking person knows is wrong.

It’s either chocolate or ice cream, according to some.

More serious answers come in all forms. That’s the nature of things for us thinking (at least sort of, anyway) beings.

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As for me and my household (which is non-existent anyway) I’ve noticed that God’s left a door open for us, for each and every one of us. It’s a door that no one can close in our faces.

Grace upon grace flows through Jesus’ sacrifice to save us, to rehabilitate us (daily), and to send us out to be that same Grace for others.

And that’s more than any number can contain.

Trying to Get Free

From What? From Whom?

Friday, June 27, 2025

To What? To Whom?

Made for this!

Living in the fog,

seeing the many woven webs

of humans, too.

First Samuel 2:6

The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up.

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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 Lord’s.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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So much is wasted in life trying to get free from things and people

and especially God!

The real challenge and the greatest waste is trying to be free for something or for someone,

while trying to be free from God.

But we were made to be free

from everything

except God.

We were created to be slaves to God,

and Jesus made it plain:

we are given life to give life to others.

Thus slaves to God

we are servants to one another.

Simple math.

Simple ways.

…

And the most fought against of all the wasted human efforts through all time.

What’s wasting your day away today? The same old same old?

Of have you surrendered

to Jesus’ Way

and

God’s unconditional love?

Give it a go

or rather a surrender

and life will never be the same

and

life will be oh so good,

but never easy.