Being Exalted or Halted

In God’s Good Time

Thursday, April 10, 2025

Meanwhile, Serving With Humility

Living the dream,

solitude

surrounded by green pastures

beside still waters.

First Chronicles 29:12

Riches and honour come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might; and it is in your hand to make great and to give strength to all.

1 Peter 5:6

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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I prayed, God give me a billion dollars. (It used to be for a million but with inflation, well you know….)

God answered, “In a minute.”

Nothing happened. I’m still as poor as ever. So I asked a wise person why God did not follow through with God’s good promise.

The wise person said, “God will in God’s good time. For God a billion years is like a minute, and a minute is like a billion years. In a billion years your billion dollars will be yours in heaven. It’ll be worth a dime today, and worthless in heaven. God always keeps God’s promises.”

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Oh, it’d be great, wouldn’t it, to be great

With riches and honours beyond number!?

God calls us,

not to make ourselves great,

not in anyway,

but rather to serve others

so that even the poorest

have the basics of life,

blessed life,

life abundant.

That can cost us everything.

It did Jesus.

It did numerous saints who have gone before us.

It will us

if we serve Jesus, by humbly serving others, as the Spirit guides and equips us.

In God’s good time.

In God’s good time God gives us wonders upon wonders to enjoy each day.

Scorning the Proud

Friday, March 21, 2025

Favouring the Humble

Like grass, we are fragile and yet God’s greatest when we serve others.

Proverbs 3:34

Towards the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he shows favour.

Luke 22:24-26

A dispute also arose among them as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest. But he said to them, ‘The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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We have our ways in this world of recognizing who is the greatest among us.

Oh, they are the charmers and spinners, the powerful and wealthy, the famous and infamous.

Lent is a yearly journey to remember that God sees the us differently in this broken world.

God favours the humble and scorns the charmers and spinners, the powerful and wealthy, and the famous and infamous alike.

Jesus shows us again God’s perspective as we turn, as we repent, away from ways that do harm and cause suffering to God’s ways of serving one another by seeing, knowing, and loving each other as God sees us, precious all.

Good Soil

Open Ears, Receptive Hearts, Active Hands

Sunday 9 February 2025

Grow, People, Grow Love,

With Joy and Hope

Ezekiel 3:10

He said to me: Mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears.

Matthew 13:23

But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.

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Words of Grace For Today

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Receive and hear …

Oh, if it were just so simple for us to choose to be good soil for the Word of God …

Though too often, we choose so simply and thoroughly to turn our ears and hearts from God’s Word, to live out our lives as if other words could give us the goodness of life.

God gives us ears that hear, and hearts that receive God’s Word. We cannot choose to have these ears and hearts. Nor can we choose to take to heart what we hear and be those who live out God’s Word for others, so that they see God’s Word alive in our words and actions, hearing God’s Word with open ears and hearts.

We can, as we too often do, turn from being what God created us to be. We can choose to be deaf, blind, and dumb, really stupid, about what life is, and what is good in life.

For there is nothing more blessed than to be the ones who plant seeds of grace, love, and hope in the world for others to encounter.

So we pray, may we be your ears, hearts, and hands in this troubled world. Forgive us when we turn away. Forgive us for our frequent stupidity. Forgive us our hard hearts, deaf ears, and dumb tongues. Save us. Renew our hearts, ears, and tongues, that we can find joy in this life amidst all the challenges that come at us, day after day.

Uncovered Through and Through

By The Sharpest Scalpel!

Tuesday 4 February 2025

An Oil Lease, Cut Through the Woods, Reclaimed, Growing Free Again.

Like Us.

Jeremiah 23:29

Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?

Hebrews 4:12

Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

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Words of Grace For Today

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Cut to the quick of life, by God’s truth.

Unable to hide in half-truths or full out lies.

Exposed for what we are by what we think and secretly dream of.

The chaff of uselessness burned away quicker than a fleeting thought.

Judged.

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What else can we expect from God’s Word?

…

Until the story of Jesus living, loving, dying, rising, forgiving us, renewing us … and walking with us through every day … holds our hopes up to the Light,

and pulls us, blessed, into another day

come what may

joyous

thankful

for it all

from God’s good hand.

Before ‘Yet’

And ‘Job answered’

Friday, September 20, 2024

What Came Before All This?

Summer?

Nighttime?

Injustice?

Hope?

Job 9:1-9

Then Job answered:
‘Indeed I know that this is so; but how can a mortal be just before God?
If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand.
He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength—who has resisted him, and succeeded?—
he who removes mountains, and they do not know it, when he overturns them in his anger;
who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble;
who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars;
who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the Sea;
who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south …?

1 Corinthians 8:6

… yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

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Words of Grace For Today

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There’s something before ‘yet’.

Is it important?

There was something before Job answered.

Is it important?

Context sometimes is everything.

Our context is simple to adduce:

God created everything and can do anything and everything.

We are creatures who live a short time, often suffering greatly,

even at our best when we love, it always ends in suffering the loss of love

or our life.

How can we pretend to take on God?

Yet

(there it is again)

Yet, we do so often,

So often to make good through and through fools of us,

like the ant that tries to escape from the anteater’s tongue.

Or like the mouse that tries to free itself from the trap.

Or the young bird that tries to fly through a window.

Or a person who tries to speak as if God.

What will we do today?

Live humble lives before our Creator?

Live futile lives trying to be our own godlets?

Twinkle Twinkle

Little Star,

Who is Going to Come to Save Us All, From So Far?

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

As the Sun Rises Across the Land,

Do You See It Rising

For You, Too?

Numbers 24:17

I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near—a star shall come out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel.

Revelation 22:16

‘It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.’

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Words of Grace For Today

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To know God

Yet not know that God is near

Is a hopeful

but frustrating experience

shared by so many through all the generations.

Thus hope that carries many generations is that salvation may yet come

sometime,

or ‘next year in Jerusalem’ perhaps,

or in the wildernesses that our lives have become,

all tangled with comforts, luxuries, and excesses

that we’ve forgotten how wonderful the fresh morning chill is when

it is countered by the warmth of a wood fire,

together promising another wonderful day,

not too cold, and not too hot,

not too wet, and not too dry,

not too windy, and not to close,

not too anything, and not too everything;

The perfect day awaits.

Did you even notice?

As the sun ascends

and hearts give thanks

and blessings are celebrated

and computers have updated

and a wonderful, promising day has begun.

Did you even notice

the star

out thar’

promising

a Saviour

so close

already?

On the Ground

In Here.

Friday, September 6, 2024

Finding Our Way On The Ground,

Or Not?

Daniel 9:18

Incline your ear, O my God, and hear. Open your eyes and look at our desolation and the city that bears your name. We do not present our supplication before you on the ground of our righteousness, but on the ground of your great mercies.

Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

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Words of Grace For Today

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On the ground.

On the ground … in the wildernesses.

On the ground … in the wildernesses where the real battles of life take place.

On the ground … in the wildernesses where the real battles of life take place …

in the hearts,

mind,

and spirits,

of every

person,

lost

not lost

in the wildernesses

that work to end us.

On the ground we know, that though we work oh so hard as we can, there is really nothing we can do to change the circumstances of the wilderness nor our selfish hearts, minds, and spirits that would survive first, and help others later, maybe.

So when we cry to our maker of this wonderful and terrible and gorgeous and cruel creation we may want to say that we deserve divine intervention to help us survive

as we are wont, of course,

but

we know that we deserve nothing and any boasting we engage in is mere delusion on our part.

So we cry on the ground of God’s great mercy, steadfast love, and unbounded grace,

please save us.

…

Just another day on the ground

in the wilderness

that is our lives.

Making Way

Through uncharted, turbulent waters

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Where Will Our Journeys End?

Buried in Cold Graves?

Or …?

Isaiah 43:16

Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters,

John 14:3-4

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’

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Words of Grace For Today

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We try to make our way through the days ahead, not knowing what will come for sure, for the future, though it repeats the past often, is not at all predictable, not at all.

Only God can part the waters of the Red Sea for the rag-tag group running for their lives from Pharaoh’s army. Only God can part the water of the future’s chaos to show us the greatest and only security there is for our lives: that God walks with us into each new day. God walks right there along side us through all the frightful unknowns and challenges, the temptations and our failings, and the offering of joys and small triumphs. Hearing God’s footfalls beside us give us courage like none other.

For we know, that, no matter how circuitous and daunting our paths may turn out to be, the end of our journey will be at home with Jesus.

Return,

Repent, Believe the Good News

Friday, December 29, 2023

Our Well Worn Paths, Beckon,

But God Calls For Us To Turn,

And See Anew.

Deuteronomy 30:2-3

… and return to the Lord your God, and you and your children obey him with all your heart and with all your soul, just as I am commanding you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, gathering you again from all the peoples among whom the Lord your God has scattered you.

Mark 1:15

… saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’

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Words of Grace For Today

We think all too often that we do not need to repent and return and believe anew the Good News.

But

in this in between time

we remember

humbly

that

we need start each day

with confession,

followed by repentance,

Then returning to God

and believing anew

the Good News,

That

promises us that God is eagerly waiting for us to repent, return and believe anew.

Another day

A new beginning

again.

Delights?

or Despair?

Friday, October 27, 2023

A drab morning, snow falling, making wood collecting more difficult.

Or delight in the cool that makes working outside a bit easier

than with countless bugs looking for a meal from your skin?

Psalm 27:1

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Philippians 4:13

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

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Words of Grace For Today

Courage is hard to come by when one is down and out, beaten again and again by enemies, lies, deceptions, and others’ greed.

At times one has to agree with Thomas Hobbes when he said about life being ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’.

God answers that and all our other despairing with a simple reassurance: God is with us through it all.

Like walking in a sunset alone, still unable to do anything but despair how tough life is, ‘going it alone’ is always a recipe for struggles without end.

Like walking in a sunset with a loved one, the experience grows beyond itself to convince you two that life is a wonderful, marvellous adventure, with promise unending of things good and better.

So God walking with us through it all, turns life inside out with joy, delights, and hope.

And when God walks with us, we need not be overcome with fear of yet another enemy taking more of life from us, for even if that does happen, God will show us how to find joy and delight in all that life is for us.

Today, as the snow falls again, and then hard cold of winter is coming, the joy is in the warmth provided by a hot fire in the wood stove, held close by many insulated tarps. It may not be much, but it is as much a home as I have, and in it I find endless delight even as the challenges never cease to more than fully occupy my days.

So what will we see today? The enemies efforts or God’s Grace and delights for us?