Category: Grace

Hurry

Hurry and Come Down

(Me?! But I Worked So Hard to Get Up Here!)

Tuesday 16 January 2024

From the Ur-Waters of Precreation,

to the Storms of Today,

God Claims Us.

Isaiah 43:1

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel:Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.

Luke 19:5

When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.’

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Words of Grace For Today

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How hard we all work to get where we are!

Like Zacchaeus we may have taken advantage of others, but the work was not easy and the price we paid, over and over again, was not nothing.

It’s cost us so much, really.

Then Jesus calls us, “Come Down. Hurry!”

God formed us, named us, and claimed us, and

did God ever intend for us to climb so high up where we’ve gotten,

on the backs of other people

paying the price with our hearts

minds

and souls?

Coming Down can be harder than climbing up. It’s not easy. It’s hard to give up what we think we’ve earned.

Down with Jesus, breaking bread with him, celebrating the goodness of life, we see again how far we’ve wandered away from God’s love and life

given to us in the beginning.

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The beginning of each day

each minute.

Fear

And Love

Monday 15 January 2024

No Matter the View,

Far or Near,

God Deals With Us ….

Psalm 147:11

… the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.

Romans 8:15

For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’

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Words of Grace For Today

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God, the Almighty, – if we recognize the power God can wield – rightfully strikes fear into our hearts.

And, so many people attempt to strike as much fear into other people’s hearts … all so that they can force their will on others … always to detriment of the one striking fear and to the detriment to those who fear.

We have more than enough reason to be fearful of these people, and of the future yet to unfold for

so much in our recent past promises worse days ahead.

God works to save us from such fear and worry,

saving us

and all creation

so that we might

live, blessed and capable of working within what is, not what is not that is so fearful, and with God’s greatest blessing as our basic mode of being for ourselves and with others:

love.

God is to be feared, but even more-so to be loved, for God loves us with a steadfast and unending love that is more powerful than all the fear of all time stacked up together against us.

Such is God’s power

to be used

wondrously

each day.

Do Right

(if we can.)

Sunday 14 January 2024

Make No MIstake,

Most of Life is This Clear,

as Our Choices Are,

As wELl,

make no mistake?

Isaiah 56:1

Thus says the Lord: Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed.

Matthew 3:14-15

John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he consented.

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Words of Grace For Today

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How to do what is right, when so many people stand in the way of anyone doing right, for they have turned truth upside down, hidden it under the foundations of their straw houses, and gone on to create their own ‘truth’.

Only by the power of the Holy Spirit can we do right,

but it’s a nice piece of advice

to keep in mind

if and when

we think

we

are free to choose.

For Doing Right gives others life, and makes obvious the false ‘truths’ that so many people live out in their lives.

Thanks to God that the Holy Spirit gives us the awareness that we are made free

free to choose

to do right

free to share

all that life is

free to give

thanks to God

for all that is good.

Guests?

We Are All Guests

Some Desperately Need Homes, NOW!

Friday 12 January 2024

globalnews.ca/news/10213526/edmonton-rowland-road-homeless-encampment/

“Edmonton police officers and city crews could be seen at a homeless encampment in the area of 95th Street and Rowland Road on Tuesday morning [9 January 2024]. Police and cleanup crews were met with resistance from people who live in the camp and from advocates who showed up to support them.” Global News

Psalm 119:19

I live as an alien in the land; do not hide your commandments from me.

[or another translation: I am a guest on earth.]

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.

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Words of Grace For Today

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Just because we know that we have a home waiting for us

after life

even if the earth is destroyed

even if the universe is destroyed,

does not give us an excuse to destroy

life

the earth

this universe!

These are gifts from God

to be treasured.

Life to be lived with integrity, kindness, and mercy for others.

The earth to be used and guarded from destruction so that future generations have a better earth to live on.

The universe to be explored and admired and guarded from destruction of all kinds, because this is our home now

And God said life, the earth, and all the universe are Good.

So we ought to keep it all that way.

Instead of bulldozing tent cities, the last, most secure place for many people who find themselves homeless in the cold of winter and the heat of summer,

How about making a home for them as well,

a good, safe, nurturing home

on earth?!

Fire

Of Life

Thursday 11 January 2024

Fire,

The Destroyer, Saver, and Refiner!

Which is it today for you?

Isaiah 48:10

See, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tested you in the furnace of adversity.

Colossians 4:2

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.

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Words of Grace For Today

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An easy life, without many challenges, just interesting events that turn out wonderful, with an ability to help others without taking too much trouble to do good …

is that what we wish for?

Baptized in water, by the fire of the Holy Spirit, with God’s Word (the same Word of such power that in the beginning this Word created all that is out of chaos), we might wish for an easy life.

This is certainly not that, for which God has saved, freed, and renewed us.

Instead it is the furnace of adversity that God sends us into, each day, that we may not only be saved, freed and renewed, but that we may also offer God’s Word to others

with our voices, feet, and hands.

It would be impossible to enter into the fray

and remain as God saved us to be, ambassadors of Hope, Love, and Grace,

if we do not also each day begin, continue, and end with prayers of thanksgiving for all God gives us

to share

with the most desperately needy, hungering, and thirsting people on earth.

A small task each day it is not,

and that with the fires of adversity lapping at our feet, hands, and breath.

Hey You!

Ya, You! You know who you are!

Wednesday 10 January 2024

Do We Dare Depart From the Worn Path of Evil,

and Follow the Light of Christ?

Psalm 34:14

Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

Romans 14:19

Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual edification.

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Words of Grace For Today

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Depart from Evil …

Well to depart one must first be engaged in it, right?

So, you out there, who are engaged in evil, you know who you are, depart from it!

It does you no good!

It destroys other people, as you intend, and even beyond what you intend. And it also destroys the goodness of life for you yourselves, blind to that as you may be. But the Devil has your hearts and souls wrapped up like a hot sauced enchilada. One bite into your way of life and it’s curling sweats, gasping for breath, grabbing for water that does no good, (not even fruit juice can help against the Devil’s hot sauce) and then it’s lights out ….

Oh, you may still be breathing, but it’s the fire of the Devil that consumes everyone around you and yourself.

The only escape is to depart from Evil and seek peace so diligently that it becomes one’s life’s pursuit.

Well, that won’t work either.

The only escape is God’s Grace promised of old, promised to each of us in our baptisms, and demonstrated most clearly in the life, healing, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God’s own Son.

Thankfully, we receive that Grace each morning, noon, and night (and all moments in between!) Therefore we are able to purse peace and what makes for mutual edification, mutual among all people!

What a day God has open for us today?

Dare we step into it?

Paying Light

Forward

Monday 8 January 2024

With Whom, Caught in Darkness,

Can We Share The Light of Christ?

Isaiah 9:2

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them light has shined.

Hebrews 6:7

Ground that drinks up the rain falling on it repeatedly, and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.

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Words of Grace For Today

In 1666 the Black Plague hit Herxheim, DE killing many inhabitants. The village was quarantined and food became scarce! The neighbouring villages delivered bread to the borders of the quarantined village, which saved many from starvation.

In thanks the villagers swore each year to return the gifts, delivering a wagon full of bread to the neighbouring villages. They have kept this tradition for more than 355 years.

Of course, the bounty of the land (blessed by God) provides food for most of the world (if only we would distribute it fairly and generously it would be more than enough for everyone.)

More important for life than food, is the love and care that we provide for one another. The Herxheimers knew they were loved by their neighbours, and each year the return that love in a small way with their wagon of bread tradition.

What can we do today to provide for those most in need the bread of life, food, and more importantly love?

To whom do we owe our survival because of the gifts of food and love they have given us?

How will we offer thanks, to God, and to people, and

Is it not most precious and needed if we ‘pay it forward’ to those most in need, sharing the Light of Christ with those caught in darkness, instead of returning gifts to those who have plenty (also more than plenty of resources to enjoy light)?

Chains or Freedom?

God says, “I Love You”

Sunday 7 January 2024

Freedom! To See The Light

Clearly, Brightly

Through All Obstacles!

Exodus 14:13

But Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again.

Acts of the Apostles 26:29

Paul replied, ‘Whether quickly or not, I pray to God that not only you but also all who are listening to me today might become such as I am—except for these chains.’

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Words of Grace For Today

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John Baptizes Jesus with water, God enters the event, forever to be remembered as Jesus “was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Such it is spectacular when God reveals to all whose Jesus is, and who that makes him: God’s Son, and Our Saviour come as a human to teach, heal, and sacrifice himself to save the world and demonstrate God’s love for the world.

So also God sends the Holy Spirit in our baptism to claim us, cleanse us, renew us, and equip us to be God’s workers on earth for all people.

In the fall of 2002 Minnesota’s respected senior senator, Paul Wellstone, died in a plane crash along with his wife, daughter, three campaign workers, and the two pilots. Out of that came an example of a wonder: Shortly after the crash, someone hung a banner of a well-known quote of one of the deceased aides, Mary McEvoy, over the entrance to the building where she had worked. Her words challenged, “What would you do if anything were possible and you knew you could not fail?”

McEvoy’s question evokes a freedom for living in the face of chaos, a freedom we receive in baptism, when God’s Voice claims us as beloved children.

Never free from sin, but always forgiven and renewed for life as God’s workers in creation, we can choose to life out of the freedom the Holy Spirit offers us each day,

or not?

What will it be today?

Epiphany!

New Year’s Resolution Worth Making (an eye opener)

Saturday 6 January 2024

Finding Our Way Through the Brambles of Life,

Alone?

Psalm 25:12

Who are they that fear the Lord? He will teach them the way that they should choose.

Matthew 2:12

And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

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Words of Grace For Today

Going a different way.

I suppose New Year’s resolutions are the imagination and statement that one will go a different direction going forward.

The three wise men, being warned in a dream, take a different route on their return home after presenting gifts to the child Jesus.

How many times are we going to try to ‘go it a different way’, forward or back, and it will be merely another futile attempt, a classic demonstration that we are not quite in complete control of our lives, not even when we make choices to become better people.

Thank God,

like the dreams sent to the three wise men, like the Law given to the people new to the Wilderness on their way to the Promised Land, like the Prophets sent to guide the nation Israel and it’s people overrun by more powerful neighbours, like the science that can tell us the consequences of our actions (like burning fossil fuels in the extreme we have and still do, and seemingly cannot stop doing),

God does send us notice and guidance.

But that is never enough.

We need to be convinced that 1. God will forgive us our failures (or else we are frozen by guilt past, present and especially future), 2. God will renew our spirits so that we can possibly do something right and good, and 3. God will help those, who we harm and those of us who are harmed by others, to heal.

A New Year’s Resolution worth making each year:

We will pray: God help us to accept forgiveness and boldly go out to do your work in this precious creation, and help us all heal from all the harm we’ve done and is done to us.

And then go boldly into the days’ ‘breach’, so to speak, bringing God’s grace to bear on others’ lives.

The Way

Friday 5 January 2024

God’s Wonders For Us To Share Exceed All Our Expectations

Zechariah 8:21

… the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Come, let us go to entreat the favour of the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am going.’

Acts of the Apostles 16:15

When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.’ And she prevailed upon us.

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Words of Grace For Today

Spreading the word, by example, has been the Way.

The Way of Jesus, as Christians first called themselves.

Paul continued the Way, spreading the News of Jesus to all corners where he travelled, and when people heard, he baptized them.

Now sometimes people were so thankful that, like Lydia, they offered to give what they could in return. Lydia had a home to share with Paul, and Paul stayed there while he was in Philippi.

In other places, when people heard the Good News, even before Jesus’ time, people provided the example for others: “Come,” they have said, “let us go to entreat the favour of the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am going.”

So what are we doing today, if not sharing the Good News, inviting people to entreat the favour of the Lord …

oooopps something is wrong with that.

The Good News is we do not need to entreat the favour of the Lord. The Lord has given everything to invite us, by Grace alone, to receive forgiveness, renewal, and an abundant life.

All given to us, free.

All we have to do is not turn down God’s generous love.

Of course, we are so, so good at turning down, or turning away from God.

Good thing the Good News is that God is more ready and able to forgive and renew life in us over, and over and over again.

And that is the Good News,

that we have to share with all who will listen,

and just maybe,

in return they will help out those left behind and outside the fringe of society.

Our work is cut out for us,

again this day.

Isn’t it tough being gracious, kind, loving, and honest with everyone!