Author: T L

A Burning Fire Shut Up In My Bones

God’s Call to Deal With the Crap of Life

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Sharing the Mystery of Christ

Pristine Bush?

That’s Full of Crap.

Jeremiah 20:9

If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.

.

Colossians 4:3-4

At the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison, so that I may reveal it clearly, as I should.

…

Words of Grace for Today –

…

Away for a few days (a family gathering, a dance, a strained ankle needing recovery) I returned to find everything as I left it in my camp: all the work to prepare for winter still left for someone to do, and since there’s only me, it’s left for me to do.

Thankfully no one came in (as sometimes past threatened and done) to steal, damage, or destroy the camp.

All’s well!

Until I find tracks where there should be none; unidentified until I find a dozen or so cow pies on the grass. The adjacent grazing land was bought by a new owner and the cows are grazing it. Some obviously got out and spent a few days and nights eating the green grass around the camp. The pies are prime breeding grounds for flies, both bothersome and unhealthy … and most unpleasant are the little, nearly invisible ones that dive bomb in, bite and escape leaving a sting behind. One is not much, but a hundred within a minute or so becomes shockingly painful.

So the next morning in the cool I clean them all up into the wheelbarrow and haul them far away where they’ll do no harm, dump them and clean out the wheelbarrow and the shovel. Back at the camp I find one cow pie that I missed. I shovel it into the wheelbarrow, but I leave it for later to dump, since I may have missed more.

Always, always, always there’s someone else’s crap to clean up.

…

God sent Jeremiah out to warn the people that God was tired of cleaning up their crap, that God was going to leave them to the mercy (or no-mercy as it was) of their enemies.

Jeremiah tried in many ways to avoid this unpleasant calling, but could not.

…

Jesus sends us out to proclaim the mystery of Christ, God’s love for all people. Jesus came to pay the price for all our crap, to free us from it and all that flies wildly free from it.

Are we ready to deal with the crap that will be thrown at us if we engage in this calling?

Given the Wilds of Climate Change

We Need Jesus to Do More –

Than Walk On Water

Friday, September 12, 2025

We Need God to Stabilize the Water Everywhere!

Storms A’Brewin’

Proverbs 3:25-26

Do not be afraid of sudden panic, or of the storm that strikes the wicked; for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.

.

Matthew 14:26-27

But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

…

Words of Grace for Today –

…

it’s just fine to deny that we are the cause of climate change.

Just go a head and bury your head in the sand,

so you can carry on blithely, making it so much worse for us all.

Now if we’d followed Jimmy Carter’s plan for 20% solar power, started in 1979,

(adapting it in each country, like our own, eh?)

We’d not be in the such terrible grips of climate change with smoke and wildfires and drought and floods, and storms so wild we’ve never seen the likes of them.

…

But wishing doesn’t make it so.

And only lots of action, guided by wise thoughts (dreams and prayers as well),

will make our future a bit better than

the even worse it is each year

because

we

did

nothing

when

it

counted

the

most.

…

Now our actions

or in-actions

count

again

the

most.

Just A Word Or Two

On Our Behalf

Thursday, September 11, 2025

Hoping It’s a Good Word, Eh?

If God Can Bless

This Water Rat (Some Call Them Beaver) Environment

With Loons,

God Can Bless Us All.

Ezekiel 12:25

But I the Lord will speak the word that I speak, and it will be fulfilled. It will no longer be delayed; but in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak the word and fulfill it, says the Lord God.

.

Galatians 3:8

And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you.”

…

Words of Grace for Today –

…

Lots of words flying around. Lots of chaos flying around.

Lots of weapon drones flying around, making chaos and

threatening a war of wars … again.

But God spoke first,

long ago,

and

it will be so:

Even the Gentiles, and those creating chaos and war, and threats of great war,

even these

God invites to the table.

God … how patient God is! Especially with all those that create such evil,

…

not to mention with you

…

and, yeah, with me, too.

(Now if only that were the meaning of this MeToo thing; spoken by abusive ones – male and female.)

But thankfully God has spoken, and it is Grace, Grace, Grace for us all.

It Ain’t Easy

And Only One Thing Is For Sure

Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Rising and Setting, All A Wonder.

Smoke Gets In Our Eyes, Noses, and Lungs, Giving Us Beautiful Sunsets.

Nehemiah 9:32

“Now therefore, our God—the great and mighty and awesome God, keeping covenant and steadfast love—do not treat lightly all the hardship that has come upon us, upon our kings, our officials, our priests, our prophets, our ancestors, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until today.

.

Romans 8:38-39

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

…

Words of Grace for Today –

…

Life is full of crap, hardships, disappointment, loss, great cause for despair and resignation and sorrow, … and death.

The only thing that is for sure, that is good,

– there are so many things that are downright ugly, and evil which one can count on –

is that God loves us, and will not let us go it alone.

So it is,

that the most important good thing in life is 100% guaranteed

to be steady as a rock

for us.

Makes it possible to endure the crap, hardships, disappointment, loss, great cause for despair and resignation and sorrow, … and even death.

And more than enduring,

through it all we live blessed to see great beauty, goodness, and wonders,

each day.

Taking It All In

Leaving No One Behind

Tuesday, September 9, 2025

See the Light, Guiding Us Home.

First Samuel 12:22

For the Lord will not cast away his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.

.

Acts of the Apostles 11:18

When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”

…

Words of Grace for Today –

…

God’s mercy is endless, and unfathomable. We do not deserve it, Jew, Gentile, or whatever else we would be or be called.

The education policy to ‘Leave No Child Behind’ was not first spoken of or acted upon in the educational setting.

God was first out the gate with it

for us all.

And why?

Just because it pleased God to do so, to have people that return God’s love, to have a great host of saints to guide us into the future that God has readied for us.

God’s mercy is endless, and unfathomable, we cannot understand the depths that God goes to to bring us home.

The Learning Curve

Yearning Enough

Sunday, July 13, 2025

To Go Out As The Sun Goes Down

To Pray: God Save Us!

Isaiah 26:9

My soul yearns for you in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

.

Mark 1:35

In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.

…

Words of Grace for Today –

…

Oh that it were so.

Or so.

So that we could climb the steep curve to learn justice.

And that we could make justice be equal for all, and life be abundant for all, and all be able to enjoy the basics of life, and …

well, that God’s will were on earth as it is in heaven!

We yearn for lots of things,

but our greatest, rightest, most worthy yearnings are that God’s judgments to be applied for all on earth,

for we trust God’s mercy and abounding steadfast love, to forgive when we need it, and when do we not need it!

Yet

so much interferes

each day

so

we seek the calm of the approaching dark to beg God

to come

and save us

also this day

and this night.

God Listens

Which May Be Good

Saturday, July 12, 2025

Or Not

For God Sees Through Us To Our Core.

Isaiah 49:8

Thus says the Lord: In a time of favour I have answered you, on a day of salvation I have helped you; I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages.

.

2 Corinthians 6:2

For he says, “At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.”

…

Words of Grace for Today –

…

When the whole world seems to be falling apart at the seams and between,

Words of assurance come from on high:

God listens, and helps us.

What a blessing.

Of course, sometimes we’d prefer that God would not be listening in on our lives.

So

Blessing or Curse?

Depends, eh?

…

Though the greatest blessing is to know that God is with us and for us, at all times, and even in those times when we’d prefer God were not listening, God forgives us, frees us from the shame and all else.

Wonders of wonders.

Armaments and Ordinances

Blow the Enemy Sky-high

Friday, July 11, 2025

Leaving Holes In the Fabric Of Life.

Life is Fragile,

and Home is as Well …

even if it’s more than tarps.

Psalm 119:52

When I think of your ordinances from of old, I take comfort, O Lord.

.

2 Corinthians 5:1

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

…

Words of Grace for Today –

…

Oh so many have taken, do take and will always take comfort in human ordinances, for with their power they can blow their enemies into oblivion, and who does not (at least in passing) wish to do that to those infuriating [deleted expletive] irritants (meaning one’s enemies.)

Yet God provides a different kind of ordinance, one that guides one to live well.

These are harder to trust and take comfort in, for they ask self sacrifice from us, and unconditional love for our enemies.

The upside is they do not put holes into the fabric of life. Instead they heal what is broken, and offer life to the downtrodden.

And

when our enemies use their destructive human ordinances to blow our homes sky-high, then God still has a home waiting for us,

and God will welcome us home.

Reasons to Follow

Abound

Thursday, July 10, 2025

For God Is God, After All

Creating us to live well

wherever our paths take us.

Leviticus 22:31

Thus you shall keep my commandments and observe them: I am the Lord.

.

John 14:23

Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

…

Words of Grace for Today –

…

There are ample reasons to follow God’s commandments.

They are guides for living life as God created us to live.

Why not live well?

How better to live than to live as one is created to?

For a spider trying to be a fly does not do well.

Nor a coyote trying to be a whale.

Nor a person trying to be a god.

…

Following is good,

it’s just not what saves us

morning, noon, and night of each day.

Only God’s Grace demonstrated in Jesus’ sacrifice to save us can do that.

Knowing we are saved, makes following the commandments possible.

We are not trying to prove something.

We are living out what has been given to us a gift:

Life Abundant.

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.

.

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.

…

Words of Grace for Today –

…

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.