Signs That Accompany

Our Sharing God’s Word

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Do We Even Know What They Are?

As far as our eyes see, to the horizons and back on their reflections in water, can we see inside events and recognize God’s Signs

…

of steadfast Love

Psalm 89:2

I declare that your steadfast love is established forever;
your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.

Mark 16:20

And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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I’ve never thought of the sky being firm, but rather gaseous and quite movable, moved by wind that brings all kinds of weather and skies over and down upon us.

But there you go: a different time thought of them as firm, and actually as firmaments, a barrier/border that kept the chaos of al pre-creation void at bay, allowing the earth to exist with good order, from morning through noon, to sunset, through night and again to morning’s new beginnings.

As earth still moves us through morning, noon, sunset, night, to new beginnings, and we share again and again the Words of God’s Works, Promises and Steadfast Love, being ourselves the deeds thereof as well, do we ever consider that we could notice God’s Signs.

Oh, the highway has all sorts of signs, which we must learn in order to earn the privilege of driving on them. The seasons have all sorts of signs of what might blow in next, challenging or easing the struggle to thrive or perhaps just to survive. The faces of others bear all sorts of signs, of emotions, of struggles past and present, of hope unreasonable, of joy founded and sorrow unbearable.

But!

But do we take time to recognize the signs of God’s Work around us and among us and in us?

If you take time and give a bit of effort to it, what Signs could you see today?

What Signs of God’s Works, Promises, and Steadfast Love?

Glory Hallelujah

(ours or God’s)

Monday, May 18, 2026

Seekin’ a Step Up for Our Own, or …

Letting God Shine Through Us!

Psalm 115:1

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.

John 7:18

Those who speak on their own seek their own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing false in him.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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It’s all okay to take on each day’s challenges, feeling overwhelmed, and working like everything depends on one’s own success.

It’s okay, but futile and in the end just senselessness.

To live (aware and counting on and trusting the gifts the Holy Spirit gives us) is the greatest adventure we can ever know.

Whether one faces enemies’ attacks, or others’ diseases, depressions, and perversions, or the struggle to have the basics for life …

Whatever one faces

the only way to actually face it all and live through it (not escaping some side road to a half life or less) is

to trust God’s promises

and with all one is and does and speaks and writes

to give God praise, to turn any and all glory towards God’s

in thanks

for life

and breath.

We sing hallelujahs, in thanks.

Eyes Seeing

Truth and Singing

Monday, May 11, 2026

Seeing Beyond The Horizons of Life

Where Heaven and Earth Meet

First Samuel 2:2

There is no Holy One like the Lord,
no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.

Revelation 4:8

And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and inside. Day and night without ceasing they sing,
“Holy, holy, holy,
the Lord God the Almighty,
who was and is and is to come.”

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Words of Grace for Today –

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The troubled waters of these times, like most of history for most humans who ever lived, are full of change, and not towards the better.

We’ve enjoyed peace.

Well, some of us living in the privilege and comfort afforded a small percentage, have enjoyed peace,

while most live in the chaos of wars, conflicts, displacement, refugee camps, job loss, food insecurity and and and.

But now climate change robs more and more of the ability to live where their people have lived for centuries even millennia. Even the most isolated have more trouble finding clear air, sufficient water, dry land, or or or.

While we struggle more, and fear even more and more the coming state of our worlds,

the one solid foundation of our lives and our hope is God.

The four winged creatures, with eyes all around, and even eyes inward (which see what we cannot) respond always

giving God praise in song.

So we

in our troubled times and fear filled days

can pause at least

to sing

for in song

we see inwardly what we otherwise cannot see:

the pure joy of being God’s creatures on this ever changing planet.

By The Skin Of Our Teeth

Rescued

Thursday, November 27, 2025

Again

Still Waters Will Always Be Stirred to Shocking Tempests.

Psalm 81:7

In distress you called, and I rescued you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah

Matthew 14:30-31

But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

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Words of Grace for Today –

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Trials and Tests

come each day,

some small, some big, some hidden until they are done, some like walls that seem we cannot get past.

Some blow the waters, once calm, into tempests unimagined.

And

Are

Afraid.

…

Still

God reaches out and pulls us to safety

again.

And again.

And Again.

Trusting

What is Worthy of Trust

Wednesday, November 5, 2025

Will It Be So?

Enjoy, All That Is.

It Will All Change.

Soon.

Psalm 119:6

Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.

Luke 8:15

But as for that in the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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Bear Fruit.

In other words: be good, do right, be just, do good.

Tall order for humans who are caught in being bad, doing wrong, being unjust, doing bad.

Hearing (well we can do that), holding it fast (well that’s more quesionable, our grasp is always wavering), having a good and honest heart (well we all fail that one) and bearing fruit with patient endurance (bomb.)

So how are we to live.

Last week the forecast came out: snow Wednesday evening to Thursday, enough to cover and put to rest thoughts of a snow free fall for a few more weeks.

So into high gear I went, working as many hours as the sun provided light (and a few more) and (more limiting) how much energy my body could exert.

Now if such focus (at expense of lot of other things, mind you) were available for weeks on end I’d have more than enough wood for the winter.

As it is, it’s kind of touch and go. Lots of the wood in the stacks will either burn real fast (it’s about as good as sawdust) and some is so wet it may not burn at all, until after the coldest of winter (which may pull some moisture out of it, hoping).

…

No matter.

The fore cast now calls for freezing rain, followed by sleet and then ice, followed by close to a foot of snow.

All gathering wood from the woods will cease: no traction for the truck and not enough umph any more in the body. So what’s in will have to do, though I’ll add bits and pieces as I can still.

The sun shines. The temperature is a pleasant 3⁰ above. The wind is calm. The sun shines clear.

It’s hard to believe in a few hours the firm grasp of winter’s snow will grab this browned grassy area, and hold it for months to come until Spring springs.

….

Trust.

Trust it will be so, even if it will make things tougher.

But focused me it did. To use the time available for what will not be possible later.

So Trust.

Trust the Word.

For what life is may not be what we hope for,

but God’s Word is that it is GOOD.

In the end it will work out for us,

Jesus has a home waiting for us.

And those we love will be better for it.

Thank God.

Do Not

Be Afraid!

Thursday, October 16, 2025

Blessings Promised

Lots of water

between here and

the coming storms.

Genesis 26:24

And that very night the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not be afraid, for I am with you and will bless you and make your offspring numerous for my servant Abraham’s sake.”

Ephesians 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

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Words of Grace for Today –

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“Do not be afraid.”

Always, “Do not be afraid.”

But …

well, there’s plenty of reasons to be afraid.

Seasons change,

and with climate change, the wild storms are now ferocious, focused on destroying us

…

it seems.

…

Morning

Rising moon sliver cannot dent the not quite frozen dark.

Innumerable stars pierce the black void around dancing magnetic streams.

Dew drenched grass waits increments of snow piling on.

Ferocious winds wait, catapults loaded.

Biting cold looms over the horizon.

Already the monster chews it’s bright orange flames turning wood to ash & light & heat

Ever slowly boiling the pot for morning coffee & the day’s tea.

All is well

…

For now.

…

Thank God for all the blessings (as promised each day through the generations) that have kept us alive

until now.

And a home waiting

when that last day comes

our way.

Gone Degenerate and Wild

Will Anyone Plead for Us?

Friday, October 10, 2025

Surely Someone?!!

Sunset Glory.

The Colours Are Not Real.

But God’s Blessings Are!

Jeremiah 2:21

Yet I planted you as a choice vine, from the purest stock. How then did you turn degenerate and become a wild vine?

Romans 11:2

God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?

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Words of Grace for Today –

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If we are at all honest with ourselves we know that we have at least taken the good vineyard God planted in us and chosen to bring in wild weed seed, and degenerative thoughts, words, dreams, and deeds,

to much so that they choke out life in and around us.

…

Elijah, as powerful as he may be, cannot save us.

Thankfully, God has not rejected us and deserted us to ourselves and all the evils we dream up.

Instead

God sent Jesus to save us

and save us he did and does

each day.

…

Thus we may live this day

as the ones God blesses,

all in order that we share those blessings will all.

…

Breathe.

The Spirit

Always in and around us, for life.

Betcha Can’t

Betcha God Can!

Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Thwarts and All Cannot Stop God’s Love

Canoe at 72?

Possible.

Be Saved Yet Again?

For God All Is Possible!

Job 42:2

Job to God: I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Luke 1:37

For nothing will be impossible with God.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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Trusting that God will not be stopped, that all things are possible for God, is the first good half of trusting God.

The other half is knowing, from experience (one’s own and those of the God’s people since the beginning of time) that God intends good for us, that God indeed loves us like we can only dimly imagine possible.

That’s seemingly impossible:

loving such miserable sinners as us,

mere blips in time,

vulnerable to

the smallest

bugs,

and so capable of

ugly and hateful destructive things

against the earth that supports life for us all,

towards people different than, and especially those so like, us,

and even to ourselves!

Yet there it is to see: God loves us, forgives us, and does the impossible:

God gives us life, and then renews life for us when we botch it so badly.

Deliver Us!

Send Us

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

to deliver us all.

As We Get to Reflect Christ’s Light

to Strangers and Friends Alike.

Psalm 79:9

Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake.

Luke 24:46-47

Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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Psychology professor Gillian Sandstrom was a lonely graduate student in Toronto when she … and a woman who ran a hotdog stand on her way to university around 2007 would wave hello and smile at each other. Their interactions were so small that Sandstrom uses air quotes to even describe them as a “relationship.”

And yet “it really meant something much bigger than it seemed like it should, and it made me feel like I belonged there,” said Sandstrom.

From https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/micro-relationships-and-talking-to-strangers-1.7636486?cmp=newsletter_CBC%20Edmonton_1646_2029080

In the drudgery and loneliness of life God finds us.

Most often God uses another person, intentionally reaching out to us,

and even more often another person unintentionally reaching us

exactly where it hurts so much we barely can describe the pain.

…

Psychology professor Gillian Sandstrom was a lonely graduate student in Toronto when she began what she calls “a tiny, tiny micro-relationship.”

Today there is a whole surge of people recommending that interacting with strangers is exactly what we are missing in the technology driven and ‘stranger danger’ driven world we’ve created.

…

In the drudgery and loneliness of life God finds us

and sends us out to share the Good News, even with strangers.

We need not start, nor should we start by mentioning Jesus’ name or forgiveness or sacrifice and atonement for sins, or even sins.

We start by being the saints God makes us, acknowledging, sharing, addressing, listening, smiling, thanking the stranger for being.

In that interaction God will bless them, and us,

and maybe we will have opportunity to demonstrate and explain that Jesus makes us possible to be

today’s saints

just a bit

for

them.

Water Flows

Living Water Flows

Monday, September 22, 2025

Through Us

Like Foam, Stuck

In The Weeds Of Life.

Psalm 111:3

Full of honour and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever.

Philippians 3:8b-9

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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When I take a shower, the water is pulled from the camper’s 30 gallon water tank, which now after nearly 45 years, probably only holds 25 or so. Since a shower takes about 10 gallons, it’s a bit dicey getting water throughout the shower unless I first refill the camper’s tank from the bigger 275 gallon holding tank. If I take a shower without enough water in the camper tank … Let’s just say it’s uncomfortable trying to fill that tank with soap in my eyes. So before I shower I open the valve on the bigger tank, which has a hose connected to it, which at the other end is connected to the filler connection on the camper.

Water flows out for the shower.

Water flows in to refill the camper tank.

All is well.

Jesus’ sacrifice for us does not simply fill us up when we empty ourselves living sinfully in this world.

No! Jesus provides a different solution for our tanks, and we are showered not with righteousness earned by our compliance with the Law, or dedication to living as Jesus did.

No! Jesus provides the living water that satisfies all our thirsting for life, life as we were created to live it. That valve is always open, flowing over us, overflowing through our lives to all those around us.

Then come the challenges of life, and we might struggle with them as usual. Or we can recognize that we are made different in our baptisms, by the living water that we are submersed in, which flows over us, which washes away our sins, which provides the water needed for growth. The living water carries us with God and our struggles become God’s, and God’s joy becomes ours, and God’s call becomes the priority for each our days.

Until we forget.

And then the living water of Jesus’ hard won forgiveness for us washes over us again and still into our ‘tank’s’, our lives, freeing us to recognize again the change the Holy Spirit makes in us, equipping us to live and deal with all the challenges of life differently.

We see, instead of unending reasons to despair, great cause to celebrate in all that has been done for us, by so many people, by so many saints working God’s blessings for us.

Then we know as Paul did, that

For Jesus sake we have suffered the loss of all things, and we regard them as rubbish, in order that we may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of our own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, given to us by the Holy Spirit, founded on the righteousness from God based on faith.

And we can praise God with the Psalmist, being examples that God walks with us, and his work is full of honour and majesty, and his righteousness endures forever.