Category: Lake

Quietly

Running?

Thursday 8 February 2024

Quietly Wait Here,

Or

Quietly Run Here?

Lamentations 3:26

It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Hebrews 12:1-2

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

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Words of Grace For Today

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Waiting

and

Running.

Not really things that are possible at the same time, or?

Running the good race set before us, the race of sharing the Good News with everyone, using out thoughts, words, and actions to point people to God’s Grace and steadfast love.

Waiting quiet;y on the Lord for the salvation that is promised to us.

Two different things, until one realizes that the only way to run the good race (with everything we’ve got) is to know that we can only wait for salvation. Salvation is not something we run towards, or earn by running, or receive after the race is won.

Salvation is something that God gives to us in God’s own good time.

And in God’s own way.

So that we are equipped for the race.

Which we certainly cannot run on our own, not at all.

Not at all.

So we

run

and

wait.

With thankful hearts and open minds to what God will bring us to do this day.

Confess

Our Proud Sins?

Tuesday 23 January 2024

Old Photo, Old Problem:

Confessing Sins.

Psalm 25:11

For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.

Mark 2:5

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’

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Words of Grace For Today

…

There is nothing more difficult for proud, rich humans to do than to admit their guilt.

There is nothing more difficult for proud, poor humans to do than to admit their guilt.

We spend so much time trying to make it look like we are good enough.

Only when we are assured that God will forgive us are we capable of being so bold as to confess our sins.

And then, as promised God forgives us.

So what are we to do with that forgiveness?

Live lives blessed by forgiving others, maybe?

Whaddayathink today is for?

Serving

One God

Thursday 18 January 2024

The Things That Make Life

Joyous

Are the Simplest,

And Free For the Noticing

First Kings 18:21

Elijah then came near to all the people, and said, ‘How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.’ The people did not answer him a word.

Matthew 6:24

‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

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Words of Grace For Today

…

Today’s world, as it always has been, promises that if we serve the ‘godlet’ of greed, money, and power, we will live a meaningful and happy life.

That ‘godlet’ competes in most people’s hearts with their fear and love of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

and thus most people are very unhappy, dissatisfied with this life for there is never enough money to secure happiness. There is only enough money to make one deluded that happiness is just around the next corner, where more money is available.

God comes and heals us of our every ill, including our fever of chasing wealth.

Also this day,

we pray, come heal us, that we may know the joy God provides to us each day.

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.

…

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

…

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.

Wrinkles

in Time

Preciously Lived

Saturday 13 January 2024

We Make Tracks That Disappear,

Just as We Do,

Quickly Forgotten?

Psalm 39:6

Surely everyone goes about like a shadow. Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; they heap up, and do not know who will gather.

2 Corinthians 4:16

So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.

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Words of Grace For Today

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We can work all we want, as hard as we want, successfully (as we might think), gaining wealth and assets and stocks in the future (financial, power, or fame stocks, it matters not)

but we cannot know if we will be around to take harvest of all our hard work.

As each day passes our bodies (after 30 or so) stop growing and renewing themselves and slowly the process of dying takes over. While it can take 30 or so years before we are forced to notice how much dying has caught up with us, the process marches on, in step with the passing days, until

all that is left is a banana peel next to a grave and we slip away, to be food for the bottom of the food chain critters.

If we are aware of our slipping towards that banana peel moment, we may be somewhat aware of a few things more than most, yet

no one can see the flow of time in all its wonders encompassing galaxies and the tiniest parts of atoms.

We move like shadows against the cave wall, so unable to ‘see’ the full truth of life in this universe.

We live for a few years and then pass away, mere breaths in and then out by the universes billions of years.

Thankfully, amidst all our efforts to make our marks on the timelines that may even so be well forgotten so soon, God gives us purpose,

calling us

to receive great gifts, like breath, air, water, food, clothing, shelter, meaningful labours, and the ability to love and be loved.

All God asks is that we find our purpose to be to share those with others, so that no one passes through their wrinkle of time uncared for, unloved, un-valued as one of God’s creatures.

Another day, a wisp of time,

made real by love, real love.

Knowing

Knowing Power

Or Knowing God?

Tuesday 9 January 2024

Do We See the Power of Machines,

or the Beauty of Nature,

as Gifts from God?

First Samuel 2:10

The Lord’s adversaries shall be shattered; the Most High will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king, and exalt the power of his anointed.’

John 1:29

The next day he saw Jesus coming towards him and declared, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

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Words of Grace For Today

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It is one thing to recognize power that overcomes one’s adversaries with might, thunder, and violence, and then to attribute that same kind of power to God.

It is a completely other kind of thing to recognize the power that God exercises for us all.

Of course, God could exercise that power might, thunder, and violence, again and again and still not bring us to know peace or a blessed life.

Instead God, sends Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

Only when we know we are free from the guilt and destruction of our sins are we able to know peace and live a blessed life, not just for ourselves but for all other people as well.

That is the kind of power that God has and exercises,

for us all.

So with that freedom each morning, what will we do?

The Short Version

Saturday, December 23, 2023

Colour Your World Whatever Colours You Wish,

But If It Isn’t Coloured With God’s Love,

It’s Nothing.

Hosea 6:6

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings.

Romans 13:10

Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

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Words of Grace For Today

Love is the short version of all the law.

Love of God, along with fear, for that is proper and right.

Love of neighbour, for that brings us to do right by them all.

Love of enemy, for that saves us from hate, and provides hope for the lost souls of this world.

Love of self, for that is to reflect God’s take on us.

Lots of other things are demanded of us by others, others who do not love God, neighbour, enemy or self. Lots of things that are not good for anyone in the end.

So let us hope this Advent,

that we will learn again each day to love

as God loves us

steadfast

and

sure.

Perfect !??!?

Quatsch!

Friday, December 22, 2023

Knowing Our Place,

Wholly Dependent On God,

Is Obvious Living Close To

and Dependent On Nature.

First Samuel 12:15

… if you will not heed the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king.

James 1:25

But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.

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Words of Grace For Today

Wow!

As Advent is in it’s final week, and we reflect on how God works Wonders for us, though we too often distract ourselves with doing, impatient as we are for God to works wonders for us, here comes Sam and Jim to mess with our hearts and minds.

As if!

As if we could follow the perfect law!

Not a chance.

Not a chance in all creation.

We are but beggars, sinful beggars, begging for God’s mercy and forgiveness,

and

when we forget and think that we can somehow walk the line, stay perfect, follow God’s commandments,

then

we have already taken a huge leap out of God’s Grace into the Devil’s own arms.

Not that we should just give up, as if God were not merciful, having forgiven us again and again and promising to forgive us for the rest of our lives, and always and again restoring us so that we can work God’s grace for others.

Not that we should just give up and be as evil as we can be, as greedy as we can be, as selfish and destructive to others as we can be.

Trusting God’s steadfast love, we can proceed to give our best effort to do what is right and good for all people, especially the poor and outcasts, the vulnerable and sick, the elderly and the dying. We will never do that perfectly. But trusting that God will forgive us, we can proceed with confidence in God’s Grace taking on every challenge that comes our way.

So also this day, in this last week of Advent, as the daylight of each day slowly lengthens.

Blessed we are. Not proud of our gifts, but proud that God claims us as children and equips us to share all God’s gifts with others.