Category: Holy

Dwelling In

Or Letting The Word

Monday, March 31, 2025

Dwell In Us

Some Can Choose Where to Live.

Most Live Wherever They Can.

Only God Can Bring the Word to Dwell In Us.

And Bless Us Where We Live.

Psalm 145:10

All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your faithful shall bless you.

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Colossians 3:16

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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With Gratitude, always Gratitude

for all God has given to us, all God has done for us, for life, and forgiveness, and renewed life

again and again.

Thus we give thanks always, in every way, reading, meditating, singing, and always sharing God’s gifts with those most in need.

But

contrary to popular un-wisdom,

we cannot dwell in the Word

to any good result.

Confession starts our daily relationship with God,

and we must confess,

not that we have sinned and will do better, not that our efforts will make a difference.

No.

We confess

that we cannot. We have tried and tried and tried and always failed. Only God can bring good out of us. We confess we cannot.

We cannot dwell in God’s Word.

We pray that God’s Word will dwell in us, written on our hearts, etched in our minds, and emblazoned on our foreheads.

Only God can do this.

We cannot.

We cannot dwell in God’s Word.

We pray, God dwell in us

today.

God’s Holy Temple

Defiled

Saturday, March 29, 2025

All Creation Holy and Defiled

All Is Holy,

All Of It,

Wonders And All

Habakkuk 2:20

But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him!

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Mark 11:17

He was teaching and saying, ‘Is it not written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”? But you have made it a den of robbers.’

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Words of Grace for Today –

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So often we think of God as being there,

over there,

in that place,

that one holy place,

or one of many holy places.

Like churches, Temples, etc.

We make rules of how we are to behave in those special, holy places.

Good rules and traditions of hallowed places of prayer, worship, singing, giving thanks, feasting, welcoming all and sharing with everyone.

Which frees us to behave otherwise in all our places.

And that we are so good at that even in those special hallowed places we have behaved horrendously.

But!

God is everywhere in all creation.

All our places are first and foremost God’s places.

Our behaviour in ‘holy places’ as well as everywhere, should be governed by our following Jesus example, and the example of many, many saints who have gone before us, and who walk among us even today.

Reverence, prayers of gratitude, prayers of intercession, and acts of selfless love, acts of justice, acts of bringing equality to all.

Keeping God’s hallowed places holy, means keeping all creation holy, us included.

Blameless, Pure And Holy

Not Quite

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Not at all!

not even the snow is perfect, all crumpled up with chunks

Genesis 6:9

These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God.

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1 Peter 1:15

Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct;

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Words of Grace for Today –

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Ah to be blameless, pure and holy,

but that would be to be not human.

So how was Noah attributed with being blameless.

How can the writer of 1 Peter call us to be holy as Jesus is holy?

Wishful thinking,

the kind that so many people have latched on to, chasing an unreachable dream,

and then using that dream to condemn others so the condemner appears (to themselves anyway) to be better than the condemned,

when

all are equally sinful in God’s eyes, far from pure, holy, or blameless.

…

Yet Jesus offers us the gifts of being reckoned by God as he was: pure, holy, or blameless,

which is not our record, but Jesus’.

Nothing to brag about or be proud of, just

a whole lot of humility and thanks for that,

again,

always.

The Problem

Is not strange to us.

It is us.

Sunday, September 29, 2024

Like the trees all bent, and the flowers in bloom,

we are all equally part of God’s Creation.

Leviticus 19:34

The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Colossians 3:11

In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!

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Words of Grace For Today

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That guy or thing from outer space, that alien, we’re supposed to welcome him-it, right?

Even when we cannot understand him-it?

Even when he-it wants to destroy us?

I’m not so sure about that, but thank God, we are not likely going to have to deal with aliens in our land any time soon, eh?

Immigrants that are so different from us, refugees who have been reduced to something other than normal by the trauma they have survived, strangers from other countries with strange looks and even stranger customs – well those we have to deal with.

There’s a huge problem with treating them just like ourselves, though. The economy just cannot provide for them as it provides for us.

And therefore so many of the comfortable, privileged, and wealthy (those not struggling to have clean air, water, nourishing food, sufficient shelter) say categorically that those strangers, those refugees, those immigrants are a big problem.

‘We have an immigrant problem, a refugee problem, and an temporary immigrant worker problem!’

Or so they say.

The real problem is us, though.

We have a comfort, privilege, wealth problem.

We have too much while so many other people on earth have far too little,

and we don’t want to give it all up

just to help a few others. (Well, billions others, really)

We are strangers to God’s Word:

The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself …

and

there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free ….

We have forgotten that we or our ancestors all were at some time aliens, immigrants, refugees, and strangers. (Some of us are still a bit odd, a bit strange, come to think of it.)

…

The solution to our refugee, immigrant, temporary immigrant worker, and stranger problems is to put a refugee, an immigrant, a temporary immigrant worker, a stranger in charge of the the problem and give them the authority and means to solve the problem.

The solution to our comfort, privilege, wealth problem is …

Well, it’s scary, because it will eliminate all comfort, privilege, wealth

and everyone will enjoy or suffer equitably the resources we have and can produce for each other.

No one is an alien, not here.

We are all a bit strange,

Strange to the Word of God that would have us live completely equitably, fairly, justly, and compassionately towards one another.

…

The problem is not strange to us, it is us, as we continually try to live as strangers to God and God’s Word.

So what are we going to do about that!

Today! Of course.

Everything

Is Good!? NOT AT ALL!

Friday, September 27, 2024

Some Things, Some Moments, Some People,

Maybe,

But Everything is Good?!?

Com’on, Get Real!

Isaiah 65:18

But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.

1 Timothy 4:4-5

For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, provided it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by God’s word and by prayer.

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Words of Grace For Today

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Who can say that everything is good!?

Evil abounds.

Rottenness corrupts even the strongest parts of creation, and people most of all.

(Maybe we are the weakest part of creation?)

So how can all be good?

Except neither writer says everything is good.

Both say that what God creates is good.

Then we go and mess it up, making it evil.

So how to not do that?

Probably, given all that is written and experienced through the ages, that is not possible.

Yet today we have the possibility of giving God thanks,

and in giving thanks we help somethings retain their goodness that God created,

even the goodness that God created in us.

So give thanks

for All that God

has created good!

Choose

Or Follow Christ?

Thursday, September 19, 2024

Spirit Rises, Or Man-made Plane Goes Down?

Psalm 143:2

Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.

Luke 7:48-50

Then he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’ And he said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’

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Words of Grace For Today

…

So many try to be good enough for God, but it is hopeless,

and it is a futile way to try to live well

and happy.

How wondrous it is

to be given faith

that makes one well

and does so by bringing one to realize one’s sins can be forgiven.

What are you going to do today:

Count your good works for all to see and hear of them, as if to prove you are good enough?

Or

Have the faith given to you active in your heart, mind, and soul

assuring you that your sins are forgiven

and you can get on with being alive

living out that forgiveness

for others in need?

A choice?

Or is it

God?

Who

Will Rescue Us?

Monday, September 16, 2024

And The Skies Run Red With Their Blood,

As God Lets Evil

Take Itself To It’s Own Bloody Death?

Isaiah 50:7

The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame

Matthew 14:30

But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’

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Words of Grace For Today

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The OT reading for this Sunday Jeremiah 11:18-20 overlaps in theme with this verse:

 It was the Lord who made it known to me, and I knew;
  then you showed me their evil deeds.
 But I was like a gentle lamb
  led to the slaughter.
 And I did not know it was against me
  that they devised schemes, saying,
 “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,
  let us cut him off from the land of the living,
  so that his name will no longer be remembered!”
 But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously,
  who try the heart and the mind,
 let me see your retribution upon them,
  for to you I have committed my cause.

…

So it is time to ask:

And who is out to get you?

By guile and deceit

in secret

and hidden ways

so that those uninitiated to such devious ways will not see or suspect or ever know

of the evil that is worked against you?

Oh, you say, there is no such effort made against me.

But then how would you know?

And what is all this about polarization of peoples, infiltration of social media to effect election outcomes, hate created fear motivating voters, world domination by fascist dictators, war hungry leaders hiding in war their failing support at home, the economy played for the benefit of the already rich to get richer and the already poor to get poorer (if there is such a thing for many) and for the middle class to sink, sink, sink closer to poverty?

Are these not already a few powerful manipulating what can be to send us closer to our deaths?

Are you paying attention?

…

But God is with us. And we will see our enemies destroy themselves.

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.

God’s Reach

Into And Around Us

Thursday, November 16, 2023

For Our Darkest Times,

God Works the Greatest Wonders

Light in our Nights of Dread.

Jeremiah 32:40

I will make an everlasting covenant with them, never to draw back from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, so that they may not turn from me.

1 John 4:9

God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.

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Words of Grace For Today

If we live thinking God does not matter, doing neither good nor bad, then our days will be more than dark. They will be desperately hopeless.

So that we do not fall into that despair, God works many wonders in and around us, in every generation.

Jeremiah reports that God makes a new covenant, an everlasting covenant (one that is valid still today!), so that God will always do good for us, and so that we will fear God and not turn from him.

Luther put it well that fear alone of God is miserable; one needs also the love of God so that one fears and loves God in all things.

Even when we have feared and loved God most of our lives there is no guarantee that we will be fully assured of God’s love in the next moment, facing the next awful challenges, challenges that threaten our very lives and the lives of those we love.

So that even then we can remember God’s good works for us, God sent Jesus to live among us, to live out a story that we tell even today, and a story that will be told until there are no more humans to tell it: Jesus came to live, teach, heal, and die for us in order to demonstrate blatantly how much God loves us.

When we remember how much God loves us then we can also remember to love God,

and then life is not so miserable,

for there is hope

for tomorrow

and beyond.

All Ears?

And No Brains?

Monday, November 13, 2023

All Eyes, Yet Totally Blind to the Light!

Is that us,

like many on earth these days

(as always?)

Isaiah 50:5

The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backwards.

John 10:16

I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

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Words of Grace For Today

Sometimes we know we ought to not just pretend,

pretend to hear what is said to us,

to actually listen to

God’s Word.

On our own it is next to impossible.

Thankfully the Holy Spirit opens our ears, hearts and minds to hear, really hear, listen to and understand

God’s Word.

Like Love the Lord with all your heart, mind and strength. And love your neighbour as yourself (especially your enemy.)

Now that’s a word for every day, worth every little bit of effort we can give to listening, and then

pray like mad the Holy Spirit will enable us to actually hear it,

and live it.

That’s when things get beautiful

no matter how ugly people make the world around us and across the globe.