Perspective – Page 21

The Cries

Of the Persecuted

Tuesday, May 16, 2023

Jail Deserved.

Jail Undeserved.

Same Grace Response from God.

Psalms 107:10-15

Some sat in darkness and in gloom, prisoners in misery and in irons, for they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High. Their hearts were bowed down with hard labour; they fell down, with no one to help. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress; he brought them out of darkness and gloom, and broke their bonds asunder. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind.

Matthew 5:10

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Words of Grace For Today

Some earn their persecution, punished in jail. Some inmates do not; they are not in jail because they are guilty of a crime, but because someone lied, and not a little.

Others are persecuted because they stood up for their faith: for righteousness, for justice for others, to stop abuses, to exercise love for others.

God hears the pleas of all these; all persecuted for their faith or for their own wickedness, or simple because someone else is wicked and framed them, lying to the police and the courts.

God hears the pleas of us all.

God answers with mercy. The wicked are forgiven. Those persecuted for their faith are saved and blessed yet again.

God desires more than anything else for us sinners to repent, to turn to God and live out the forgiveness God offers us, extending that same forgiveness to others.

Quite the plan God has, to bring us all in, to come home, to live with Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God each day, and with other sinners (some of whom are saints at the same time.)

Home today.

Sounds good.

Sounds wonderful.

Sounds like the most abundant life can get.

Give Us

A Break

Sunday, May 14, 2023

The Trees May Look Goners,

and the Sky Dark

with a tiny sliver of a moon,

but that Moon Reflects

the Light of the World.

All is not lost or dark.

Daniel 6:19-24

Then, at break of day, the king got up and hurried to the den of lions. When he came near the den where Daniel was, he cried out anxiously to Daniel, ‘O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God whom you faithfully serve been able to deliver you from the lions?’ Daniel then said to the king, ‘O king, live for ever! My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths so that they would not hurt me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no wrong.’ Then the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God. The king gave a command, and those who had accused Daniel were brought and thrown into the den of lions—they, their children, and their wives. Before they reached the bottom of the den the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces.

John 10:27-28

My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.

Words of Grace For Today

“If one is awake at all, one knows that there is more that goes wrong in life than goes right.” So goes the ‘wisdom’ of those who propagate fear in order to control others, whether it’s politicians or just your local neighbourhood kid out to make her way among the other kids.

Jesus knew (it’s not that great a secret) that fear is the deadliest enemy to living a good life, a life abundant and blessed. In so many ways he taught with words, healing, and example how to live free of fear.

Not that living free of fear frees one from what can take life from us, but why help all that evil life-sucking stuff get to us sooner than it may anyway. Let evil have to work the full routine if it’s going to get us.

Now the writer of Daniel took another tack. We like this one. The enemies plot and succeed in getting the king (against his wishes) to throw our good Daniel into the den of lions to be eaten. Gruesome end, to say the least. But then God intervenes and frees Daniel not only from fear but from the beasts that are to be feared. The king celebrates and then deals with those who forced him to toss Daniel to the lions. He has them thrown to the lions and for them and their families there is no rescue. The lions ‘overpowered them and broke all their bones.’ At least we are spared the bloody details.

But that is not how God works, as the mountain of evidence to the contrary shows so well. Evil, whether it is a company of schemers and plotters who would have us thrown to the lions, or the neighbourhood kid out to run the other kids her way, or the politician who would create fear in order to win elections, or the lawyers, judges, ex’s and other criminals (liars they are) who create lies and punishments for obvious lies, – evil seems to win.

Exactly to that appearance Jesus speaks: it is not a win for them. It is a loss. A loss of decency. A loss of good life. A loss of truth. A loss of honour. A loss of blessings. A loss of one’s soul to the Devil. As for us who suffer the evil efforts of others: we win again, not because of what we do or do not do, but because of what God does for us.

God blesses.

God protects us.

God shows us how to live, even when evil seems to conquer all around us, and how to live free of fear and filled with joy.

God shows us how to leave the battle with evil to God’s power, the power of love in weakness, suffering, and even death – to which God responds with eternal life for us.

No one can take from us what God gives us. And that is the win of a lifetime. Greater a win there is not.

Weeping & Pain

Overcome by God’s Promises

Friday, May 12, 2023

Fire & Smoke

May Colour Our World and Steal Breath From Us,

Doch God Promises Life

Abundant

Jeremiah 31:9

With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back, I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

John 16:22

So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

Words of Grace For Today

That life is filled with pain and sorrow, difficulties and failures, enemies and losses is no surprise for anyone with their eyes open.

Often in the midst of the worst that life serves up for us, it is challenging to remember that God intended us to enjoy life by giving help to others. God did not intend for life to be an endless party, ignoring ours’ and others’ needs. God did intend that life should be rewarding, joy-filled, and filled with vitality of mind, body, and spirit.

So God promises that though today we may have pain and sorrow, God has not forgotten us. God has claimed us as God’s own people and become a father & mother to us all.

What God promises no one can take from us.

That is reason enough to give every bit of effort we have into sharing the goodness of life with others.

Sour Grapes:

Tossing ’em Out?

Or Waiting to Save ‘em?

Thursday, May 11, 2023

Are the Sour Grapes Worth Saving?

Isaiah 65:8

Thus says the Lord: As the wine is found in the cluster, and they say, ‘Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it’, so I will do for my servants’ sake, and not destroy them all.

John 3:16-18

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Words of Grace For Today

While fires rage, and smoke billows and spreads turning sunsets and skies red, and sunrises muted, and people coughing, sneezing and wheezing, eyes watering, where do we turn for help?

Do we think that God has turned against us? It is not hard to turn that corner and blame our creator for the mess we are in. Climate change! Well surely (we could say) God knew that would happen and could have made things better for us all! But No! God turns against us and will destroy us, by fire or ice, by flood or drought, by raging storms or shifting earth. Surely God is out to get us and destroy us all, whether we are innocent or not!

God knew we might say these things, as often humans have through history. So God sent Jesus, God’s own son, to show us that God intends for us and all that world to be living blessings for all around. God does not wish to destroy us, though we may certainly deserve nothing else.

God is like the good vintner who sees the potential in each cluster of grapes, and allows the good to grow, and hope that the bad will ripen into something quite usable, if only vinegar.

So God hopes for us, too. God hopes that we might be saved from ourselves and all evil.

How that changes every day, eh?

Crying!

Crying To God

Or Languishing Away …

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Even The Animals There Were Barely Alive,

Starving Like the People.

Isaiah 50:2

God spoke:Why was no one there when I came? Why did no one answer when I called? Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? By my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water, and die of thirst.

Matthew 8:2

… and there was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.’

Words of Grace For Today

When Julius travelled to the south, climbing the steep cliffs and crossing the miles of barren rock, he found (as he had heard he would) a community of people so poor and poorly prepared for anything that would come their way that it astounded everyone who saw their community that they had survived this long.

Julius stopped at house after house offering to help heal anyone who was sick, to share words of encouragement, to offer advice on how to prepare better for the winter yet to come, and more desperately to increase their food stores if just a bit. Yet at every house he stopped at, he was told that he could not help them, that they would have to make do such as life was for them. He could move on if we knew what was good for him.

So he moved on to the next house, and the next, and the next, and …. After finding almost every house in the community he turned back north for the journey home that would take him through two nights.

He reached the barren rocks and stopped for that first night. As he setup camp and started to prepare for his light meal, such as it was, for he was nearly out of food himself, unwilling to take anything from such a poor community, a voice called out.

He stopped, surprised and then astounded as one of the community he’d just visited cried out to him to help them. He went, met the person, and heard that a house outside the community, a house he had not found was over-filled with people all sick, cast out of the community. The wanted to be healed, if he could take the time to help them.

So he went.

He saw even in the dark of night with the few lights from burning torches.

He diagnosed them with a simple malady of fungus.

He showed them how to grind up the root of a plant that grew nearly everywhere around them, to boil it in a tea. Within a day they would notice a difference as they started to heal. They scoffed at him and told him he must leave to that he did not become sick, too. They insisted.

So he left, camping not far away.

The next day as he was a short ways across the barren rock plateau, he heard a cry again.

He turned to see a young boy of about 11 running towards him. He stopped. The boy who he’d noticed among the sick, already had started to heal. Then the boy danced towards him, knelt in front of him, and begged him to allow him to come with him.

After a long conversation Julius sent the boy back home, instructing him to help the others. He also promised that he would return before the harvest, and then each year at least once, and begin teaching the boy to be a wise healer for his own people, and anyone who was in need.

The Kingdom

Not of this world, but in it.

Tuesday, May 9, 2023

Even as the Light of Warmth Burns For Us During Cold Days,

So God Rules Even When We See Rampant Injustice.

Daniel 2:44

And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall this kingdom be left to another people. It shall crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand for ever;

Luke 22:29-30

and I confer on you, just as my Father has conferred on me, a kingdom, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Words of Grace For Today

What can we hope for? While reports of injustices against other people receive from most a shrug of the shoulders (if even that), the cries for help rise from new and old corners: the newly homeless, wildfire evacuees with nothing left at home, drowning victims of illegal immigrants, volcano or flood or storm or drought displaced, the innocent and cruelly convicted, the victims of unjust wars and conflicts, the victims of spousal abuse (both men and women) … and the children, always the children.

We can hope and work to create a just world, a just kingdom where we rule and provide justice for all. Though this has been clearly demonstrated to be mostly a futile effort. For if we rule, we will rule unjustly like all others. And whatever our efforts may be we can never eliminate injustices in our lands or on this earth. We humans are too perverted towards sin and doing others harm to be able to overcome all that we do against each other.

We can and should still work to bring justice where we can, little as that may be. One case at a time.

We can and should look to God’s promises that God’s Kingdom is already arrived on earth. We may not see it for all the injustices of all kinds in every corner. Yet God has established God’s rule, since the beginning of time.

Trusting God’s promises gives us courage to take on injustices, and keep working even when it seems we make no progress.

Already we feast at Jesus’ table.

Already we enjoy peace that surpasses all understanding.

Already God has judged those who need to be judged.

Thankfully we do not need to be, nor will we ever be able to, judge the 12 tribes or anyone else. Fortunately that is God’s work, and we can trust God to do it right.

This is another day in God’s kingdom, where God rules, and we work as God’s servants to share life abundant with as many people as we are able.

Fire!

You Want A Fire!

No!!

Say It Ain’t So!

Monday, May 8, 2023

*CTV Photo https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/alberta-to-give-wildfire-update-friday-morning-1.6385732*

Forest On Fire Wipes Out Everything In It’s Path,

With Nothing To Stop It!

Exodus 3:14

God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’ He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “I am has sent me to you.” ’

Romans 8:31

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

Words of Grace For Today

Tinder dry brown grasses and dead wood in the forest lay bare waiting. The snow had melted quickly in the last week until none was left anywhere. And then the fools would cause havoc, along with lightening strikes that could come at any time, so charged was the atmosphere. And more than a few wildfires had already run through communities less prepared and protected than Julius’, built as it was between two rivers east and west, with bare ground kept bare forming fire-stopping strips on the north side. The sheer rock cliffs up to the plateau of bare stone extending for miles on south completed their protected area. Still, inside their own fields and woods everyone still had to be extra careful. It had been so hot lately thankfully no one thought of even starting fire, not for anything.

In the waking hours Julius smelled smoke from a fire. He knew it started yesterday on the far side of the river, so they were safe. But the smoke had left his nose plugged and his throat dry through the sleeping hours in the dark. So he got up to check the horizon. It was all clear. And it was cool, downright chilly at 7⁰ with a slight breeze. It would warm up. But now Julius was chilled, so he the idea came to him, maybe a fire this morning.

Then all sides and voices in his mind and heart started to through out their various exclamations. What, with these dangerously dry conditions!! Well, it is in a protected stove and a chimney with a top to deflect any sparks downward. But consider everyone! What if it gets away from you! Just one spark and the whole community could be burned to the ground. Houses gone. Crops gone. Trees gone. Food stores gone. The summer and winter storms would level everything! Where would they go? Would anyone survive? Remember the Fisigners! Only one family survived, and that by sheer luck that they ran the right way! But food must be prepared. It’s been three days without proper food. He would invite others to come and cook on his fire if they wished to share the fire. His setup was a bit better than most. That’s for the good of the community! Really! You’re just cold! Yes, I am cold. And I am old! And the cold hurts, for which there is no cure except heat, so there will be a fire. Now quiet all, for I must not make a mistake or it could all go really wrong too quickly to stop. And it was quiet.

Then, having decided, he started a fire to boil water for his breakfast and then to heat up a mix that would be meals for him for the next few days. Today, a bonus, would be a hot meal.

As he prepared his breakfast hot drink, his neighbours started to show up, knowing they were welcome to use Julius’ fire, for the invitation was an open one to all to come and share all he had, especially a ‘safe’ fire in just these kinds of conditions.

As each came, they placed their water or food on the stove, and shared a blessing with Julius: May God who is, be with us always. To which he responded: If God is for us, who is against us?

Valuable

All

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Some See

The Dark Night

Stealing Away The Day,

Some See

The Moon Setting,

Some See It All,

Including All the Holy People

On Earth

Leviticus 19:2

Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

Ephesians 1:12

so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Julius spent all his spare time after he decided to become a healer learning from anyone everything they knew about healing. It was not insubstantial, and the wisest words he learned were spoken by one who took in people suffering from inexplicable illnesses. Their bodies functioned completely normally, sometimes better than most. But their minds were in various states of jumble and seemingly malfunctioning, at least according to what everyone else expected.

This woman, or was she a man, it was hard to tell really, said clearly that what people most needed to hear was that they were valuable and held in great esteem for just being who they were. After all it is from the ones we expect the least that the most unexpected discoveries and advances are made. She took him around to meet with her guests as she called them. Seth heard voices and sometimes exploded in frustrated anger at everyone around. But they had learned, and he had learned, that these would pass, and he could easily go or be taken to a safe space and throw his fits there. During those fits ideas would come to him, sometimes with stark clarity, sometime muddled, and he would record them as best he could. Often his ideas were obvious insights into how they could all improve their living in this Kur, as they called it, and old word for a place of curing and healing.

Zephania sat most of the day, seemingly staring into space. She would say she really did not know time, yet the images she drew and the words she used to describe their Kur, the world around them, the whole planet, and parts of the universe, even the settlement in the Andromeda galaxy that no one had heard from for as long as anyone knew, were astounding. Though she seemed not to be present, she was even more present than anyone else. When they needed to remember something from the days at Kur, they would ask her and she could recount everything in exact detail, even things they knew she had not witnessed with her own eyes.

They started to record as much as they could, especially the information from the AndromedaB Settlement as they called it. Lots of that was gibberish to them.

Julius asked to read the records. He was amazed at the details about healing that her record contained. He learned more reading Zephenia’s journal than anything else.

From that day onward, whenever Julius met with people, he began by telling them how valuable they each were, and how much they could contribute to help everyone live better lives. He started using an old word, “You are holy.”

Sotorus and Julius

Finding the Generations’ Blessings

Monday, May 1, 2023

So Much Technology Obscures and Distracts Us

From Seeing Clearly the Moon

And Jesus’ Light

Under Which All Generations Have Lived

(well almost all.)

Daniel 4:3

How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his sovereignty is from generation to generation.

Hebrews 12:28

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe;

Words of Grace For Today

Sotorus’ journal lay before Julius. As he read, through his young eyes he began to recognize how many generations had lived, struggled to survive and flourish at times, and died. Among them were Sotorus’ father, Peter, Peter’s father, Isaac, and Isaac’s sister, Galilea, and their parents, Sotorus’ great-grandparents, Doug and Dawn. He read of their first venture into another galaxy to find a planet where humans could thrive. Yet it ended with an emergency evacuation and then a 2^nd settlement at another planet, though his ancestors had returned to earth with the human population reduced by 90%.

In each generation Julius read how his people had oriented themselves by Jesus’ Word and Light. It had not been simple or naive. It was as great a challenge as any.

Yet as he had learned as a young child already, Jesus walked with his family, and with him. They were mystics, people said, able to see God and God’s works in the common every-day wonders that God provided to them all.

Julius that day before his 13^th birthday started to form, what would guide him through the challenges of his life, a foundational understanding, an orientation for life, and a purpose for his own life. He would honour his ancestors and their work to help others with their life’s work. He would strive to give life abundant to all people. Little did he know what other people would make that cost him, and what joy and pain, love and hatred, hope and despair that would bring him.

So he started to realize, as his ancestors had in every generation, that life is full of possibilities, full of challenges, and always filled with God’s presence.

He thought (as we might also): What will our days be like this, another ordinary and extraordinary day in Easter?

Orienting

Ourselves

Sunday, April 30, 2023

Through the Thick of Life,

Christ’ Light Orients Us

To Life Abundant,

by giving life to others

Genesis 28:16

Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’

Luke 24:32

They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’

Gospel for Today: John 10:1-10

‘Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.’ Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So again Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.’

Words of Grace For Today

Jacob wakes and is convinced (after his struggle with the angel) that God is in this place, and he did not notice.

The disciples on their way to Emmaus walk along with a stranger who opens their eyes to the truth, from the scriptures and all of life. Yet they do not recognize this person, not until he shares bread and wine with them and in the eating the recognize that this is Jesus, risen from the dead.

Many times in life we do not recognize God or God’s works, as we are so engaged in trying to ‘fix’ our own lives, and to compensate for our sins and the sins of so many people around us, and who have gone before us.

On this, the Good Shepherd Sunday, we read that Jesus is the door, a door that is always open to us all, each and every one of us, though we certainly do not deserve such a welcome in the flock of Jesus. We also read that Jesus has the voice that we recognize, sometimes not in our busy minds and hearts, but always in the foundation of our being.

By this voice, by this Word, our lives can be oriented. Orient, the East.

Martin Luther called it the ‘morning land’.

As by the sunrise of each morning we orient ourselves for the day, so by Jesus’ Voice and Word, by Jesus’ Light rising out of every darkness, we can orient ourselves, not by our own strength, but by the power of the Holy Spirit working in us.

Thus oriented for this day, we have plenty of work ahead of us, sharing all Jesus’ openness to us sinners, God’s grace, and the precious gifts of the Holy Spirit to share with so many people.