Category: Mountains

Turn Away?

Surely NOT Us!

Ah, But Really?

Monday, June 19, 2023

No Credit Given at https://www.wionews.com/science/direct-from-star-wars-tatooine-like-planet-discovered-that-orbits-twin-stars-604080 13 Je 2023

How Many Suns?

How Many ‘gods’?

Ah, If Only We Admitted

How Many ‘gods’

We Turn To?

Jeremiah 17:13

O hope of Israel! O Lord! All who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be recorded in the underworld, for they have forsaken the fountain of living water, the Lord.

Revelation 21:6

Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.

Words of Grace For Today

We humans have made up commandments and rituals and criteria to convince ourselves WE have followed God and deserve to enter heaven: St. Peter, Open the Gates!

But

it is all self-deception.

Worse, we turn our commandments and rituals and criteria as the basis of judgment against others who have not complied and followed our ways, which we claim are God’s ways.

So we condemn them, damning them to hell,

and we ‘save’ ourselves, sending us to heaven

or so we think.

Truth is our commandments and rituals and criteria are not God’s. Our judgments are not God’s. And St. Peter ain’t opening the gates for us. Instead the devil is. And the Devil gleefully welcomes us into what he has made to look exactly like what we conjured up our ‘heaven’ to look like, … which is totally separate from the essence of God, namely grace, mercy, and unconditional love. The Devil doesn’t wait for us to die, either. Forget that delayed ‘reward’ idea. It’s now and forever

unless

God intervenes with grace, mercy, and unconditional love, saving us from ourselves and our judgments of others.

We have all turned away from God. We have all forsaken God and God’s good ways for us.

We can only beg,

beg for grace,

beg for mercy,

beg for unconditional love

to save us.

Thankfully God has plenty of grace, mercy, and unconditional love for us all. God asks that we exercise that same grace, mercy, and unconditional love for others. So much for our commandments and rituals and criteria by which to judge others, and deceive ourselves.

Ah, mercy me!

Can we abandon our commandments and rituals and criteria for God’s grace, mercy, and unconditional love, also this day? By the Holy Spirit working in us, why not!

Cursed Days?

Doch, Blessed.

Friday, June 9, 2023

Threatened By Smoke,

Yet My Days Are Wondrously and Remarkably

(and inexplicably)

Clear!

Yours?

Deuteronomy 23:5

Yet the Lord your God refused to heed Balaam; the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you.

2 Peter 3:15

and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him,

Words of Grace For Today

Now it is not great when one’s enemies join together to give voice to and worse to effect a curse against one continuing to live in peace and even to continue to breathe at all.

God does not work magic to save us. Sometimes it may indeed seem that God barely works at all. Yet God does work and work grace and blessings for us.

Because God walks with us, we trust that any curse spoken or attempted against us will be turned into a blessing, just as God turned Balaam’s curse into a blessing. Thus living and breathing will continue to be wondrous for us.

Today also, each challenge is not our undoing, but cause for us to give thanks, for as many challenges as we face, God gives us the ability to overcome them.

So we live, content, giving God thanks for everything that provides life for us, most of all, God’s presence each day.

One Day

One Day At A Time

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Waiting …

Waiting …

Waiting …

for the New Day

Of Hope Colours.

Psalm 30:11-12

You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you for ever.

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Words of Grace For Today

Hope.

Hope lives despite the current circumstances that provide no basis for believing that things will get better as time progresses.

Hope.

Hope is that our mourning (for all that once was is now gone, and all the dreams of what could be have vanished with the setting sun coloured by smoke from fires that have burned so much) will be turned to dancing, that our despair (at how the world treats everyone as if we were all commodities) will be turned to joy overflowing, that the gloom of deceit (that steals the healing power of love from us all) will be turned to peace in our hearts and in our lands.

Hope.

Hope fuels the world, and it does not contribute to pollution, deprivations, or global warming.

Hope.

Hope seems too far to achieve, or climb to, or build it from the debris that remain.

Hope.

With grateful hearts, even in the deepest of our despair, we know that hope is ours, not because we possess it, but because God sends the Holy Spirit to give it to us fresh, like the morning dew in the mountain meadow as the sun rises between the green slopes lining the horizon.

Hope.

Hope is fresh, also this day, and our hearts overflow with thanks.

For without hope all would be lost, and the first to to be lost is always truth followed by love.

Hope.

Hope arrives, uninvited, colouring our hours, again this day.

Not AGAIN!

Monday 23 January 2023

The Ideal, Which Sadly Exists Seldom:

A Church and

The Rock,

And Christ’s Light

Psalms 25:20

O guard my life, and deliver me; do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.

Matthew 7:25

The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.

Words of Grace For Today

It’s snowing again, and whether, due to weather, the house falls is not really an issue, since the flakes are teeny, but after a few storms and 3 feet of snow like we have now, though some has melted into ice, the weight of all that gathered on the tarps may just put the tarps on the ground and ‘the house will fall.’

So we cry again in the drabness of yet again more days of snow, deliver us!

We take refuge but the rains and snows continue to fall, the winds will blow hard, it will beat on the house we have built.

Then our only hope will be the house that God has built for us, built on the Rock, Peter, the Church of Jesus the Christ.

But it’s been corrupted as well, so we are left, in the teeny flaked snow falling on tarps that we have to clear by hand, waiting for the sun to shine to give solar power so we can write more gratitude-filled words, words of grace.

Stand by

for better weather and the light.

(But there’s still work to do today, so have at it, with all we’ve got, as we wait for the light.)

Just Plain Soaking Wet In …

Thursday 15 December 2022

Ah, we think we are so free,

so high on creation

…

until

we tumble

into the powder all wet

…

with God’s blessings.

Psalms 133:1-3

How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord ordained his blessing, life for evermore.

Romans 12:4-5

For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.

Words of Grace For Today

Wherever and however we live, we live among other people, sometimes with other people, many times in spite of other people who would do us in given the smallest opportunity.

It is a witness to God’s grace given to us, which sustains us each day, when we work to live in harmony with all people, even those so misguided people who think our demise is their gain.

For this God created all of us, to live among and with all sorts of people with different abilities, characteristics, habits, viewpoints, faiths, colours, genders, and everything, including kinds of brains (from neurodiverse to super intelligent to average to simple) … even to mystics and on to profoundly spiritually blind.

It’s a challenge at best. Our demise at it’s worst.

And when we recognize we can only succeed by God’s Grace, it is the sweetest blessing in all the universe, a blessing that God pours out freely on us all.

Some of us just put on supposedly impenetrable ‘raincoats’ to shed God’s blessings so that we can go our own ways.

Even then God’s blessing bounce and splatter everywhere, soaking us all also from the bottom up, underneath all ‘protection’ we don.

So it is, we, God’s children, often in spite of ourselves, live in an uneven harmony, singing an odd tune to God’s melody, tripping all too often as we dance through life.

Where to today? To which melody?

Soaking in God’s blessings regardless!

Rain With A Chance of Lava

Wednesday 7 December 2022

The Outsider.com Provides This Sighting

Isaiah 5:22-23

Ah, you who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant at mixing drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of their rights!

Philippians 4:8

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Words of Grace For Today

We get used to somethings in life that keep repeating themselves everyday.

Like there being many who are ‘heroes in drinking wine’ and many who ‘acquit the guilty for a bribe’ and ‘deprive the innocent of their rights’ for these are the ways of those lost to addiction and care little for their responsibilities to provide justice for all people. These ‘heroes’ proceed easily through each day, corrupting justice without batting an eye, because it is done routinely, regularly, expectedly so. Expectedly so except by the innocent who are condemned to suffer the injustice of being called criminals they are not. Expectedly so except for the victims of crimes who see the guilty parties walk free. Expectedly so even by the children of God, for we are not blind to evil, and we do not support it, so instead the injustice is turned against us, easily so.

In Hawaii the usual forecast is for temperatures around 21⁰, sunny with a little wind. Occasionally the forecast shifts to rain for a few hours, a warm rain before it shifts back to sunny and pleasant.

So these days when the forecast is for: Cloudy with a chance of Lava, it catches people’s attention.

The big one, Mauna Loa volcano, is erupting spewing out smoke and gases and liquid, freeky-hot-melt-everything-it-touches lava. The eruptions go on and on and are a spectacular site. Tourists flock to catch a glimpse of the upheaval.

But it’s dangerous. The lava, of course, is a deadly thing. The reach of the ‘smoke’ and ash is far greater, and unpredictable … and deadly. The ash is caustic. The ‘smoke’ is made up of a number of gases that are toxic to life. Breathe enough in and that’s the last one worries about breathing … or anything else.

We know that the forecast of ‘clouds and a risk of lava’ may seem humorous but that is the forecast God provides for those who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant at mixing drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of their rights!

We might well cheer and flock to see the event, like ‘lava chasers.’ The greatest risk is that we, too, will be caught in such exterminations of evil doers, for none of us are without sin.

So we pray, Lord save us and all your people from forecasts of ‘clouds and a chance of lava’, also this day.

May our lives be predictably in your hands, blessed for us and for those around us.

Stand Firm

Wednesday 30 November 2022

Heliskiing is all about not standing firm, and finding the flow.

Living faithfully we stand firm

…

and

flexible

on whatever ground we find ourselves.

Isaiah 40:29

He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.

John 6:35

Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Words of Grace For Today

Some things are a given in life. People say it’s only taxes and death, but there are plenty more givens: pain, sorrow, yearning, dreaming, hoping, losing, hunger and thirst.

God knew all this before God created us, and God provided for all that, with promises and hope that could not be defeated, because it relies on God, not on us humans. And God sent Jesus to bring living water for our thirst and nourishing bread for our hunger. Living water and nourishing bread of all kinds, for our thirsts and hungers of all kinds.

Optional in life is to believe in God’s goodness, and God’s good graces turned towards us at all times.

But for those of us who believe, life is so much more than the givens. Life is filled with all the gifts that God has given us, which more than outweigh the ‘costs’ in life to the other tragic givens far beyond taxes and death.

For those of us who believe, Cornelia Georg and Michael Kremzow have written these words and Michael Kremzow the melody to help us speak our firm faith based on God’s grace for us:

Ich stehe dazu

Listen Here

1) Ich glaube an Gott, den Herrn der Welt, der mich durch seine Hand erhält.
Er schenkt mir Leben und Verstand und ist mir täglich zugewandt.
Er gibt zum Leben, was mir nützt.
Er ist es, der mich schirmt und schützt.
Er liebt mich, auch wenn ich versag’
drum dank ich ihm an jeden Tag.

Ref: Ich steh dazu, das glaube ich.
Ich steh dazu, weil Christus mich im Leben und in Tod erhält.
Das ist mein Trost in dieser Welt.
Ich steh dazu.

2) Ich glaube auch an Jesus Christ,
der für mich Mensch geworden ist.
Sein Tod an Kreuz wird Brückenschlag,
weil er erstand am dritten Tag.
Er ist mein Herr, der durch den Tod gegangen ist
und nun bei Gott mich macht von allen Schulden frei, das ich ihm stets verbunden sei.

3) Ich glaube an den Heiligen Geist, der mich den Weg zu Christus weist.
Auch meinen Weg durch diese Welt, bin ich nicht nur auf mich gestellt,
denn Gottes Geist schenkt Gaben mir und lässt mich sehn auf Erden hier,
dass in Gemeinschaft dann bei Gott ich ewig lebe nach dem Tod.

…

Google translated refined by TL

I Stand Firm

1) I believe in God, Lord of all, who sustains me with His hand.
He gives me life and reason and hears me each day.
He gives for life all I need.
It is He who shields and protects me.
He loves me even when I fail
so I thank him every day.

Ref: I stand firm, this I believe.
I stand firm because Christ sustains me in life and in death.
That is my comfort in this world.
By Grace I stand firm.

2) I also believe in Jesus Christ, who became human for me.
His death on the cross builds the bridge, because he rose on the third day.
He is my Lord who has passed through death and now with God frees me from all sins,
so that I am always bound to him.

3) I believe in the Holy Spirit who shows me the way to Christ.
Also my way through this world.
I’m not on my own, for God’s Spirit gives me gifts
and gives me sight here on earth to see
in communion with God I live after death forever.

…

Today will be another cold, cold winter day; and a day to remember from whom comes our strength, our hope, and our courage, no matter the thirst or hunger that gnaws away at us each day.

By Grace we can stand firm

and flexible!