To Pray or Not to Pray

Or not to be able to Pray

Sunday, September 1, 2024

Can We Pray For the Weeds Of Life To Be Beautiful?

Psalm 90:1-2

A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.

Lord, you have been our dwelling-place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Mark 11:22-23

Jesus answered them, ‘Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea”, and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

it is a wonderful thing to be able to pray.

it is an even more wonderful thing to know that God will take our prayers and make it so!

What of all the people who cannot pray?

What can we give to them

from all the blessings God has given us as stewards in this fragile creation,

if not peace, love, and hope?

Generational Wealth

Or Wealth Eternal?

Friday, August 30, 2024

Ready to Share Even This?

Psalm 33:11

The counsel of the Lord stands for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

Ephesians 1:11

In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will,

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

When the ‘wealth for generations’ is denied so many people, while it is assumed as a right by others,

it is not hard to feel left out of life.

Yet the core to living abundantly is not in one’s possesions, but in what one has to give to others: grace, love, and hope

and help.

These God provides to us in our inheritance as God’s own children, adopted through Jesus’ redemption, demonstrated to us in our baptisms.

So how will we live today, concerned for our wealth, or lack of generational wealth?

ready to share the greatest inheritance with others,

grace, love, and hope

and help

not matter what comes our way?

You Know Who

Needs the Light

Monday, August 26, 2024

When the Light Is About To Disappear …

Psalm 56:13

For you have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from falling, so that I may walk before God in the light of life.

Mark 5:41-42

He took her by the hand and said to her, ‘Talitha cum’, which means, ‘Little girl, get up!’ And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

If you are in a foreign country where the government is not at all friendly to your own country, and you are there working with the ‘alternative’ hope for the people, their church … and people go missing all the time … having an arrogant, unpredictable, and violent bully-cop, who has it out for you, point at gun mere inches away at your face is a sure way to convince you your life is likely going to come to an end.

The outcome that shakes one to the core is to have that cop’s partner kill him with an equally violent bullet to the head, and then tell you that you are protected.

Seeing evidence that this protection, though never again seen in person, has continued through one’s life is mind boggling.

Certainly, one gives God thanks with the words of the Psalmist, I will render thank-offerings to you. For you have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from falling, so that I may walk before God in the light of life!

These kind of deliverances are rare. Many people would hope they would be more common, as countless people loss their lives to violent bullies.

The kind that all of us need at one time or another in our lives, and for most of us quite frequently in our lives, is a deliverance from the enemy within our own hearts, minds, and souls. This kind of enemy drags us through the dirt and darkness of life more efficiently than lead poisoning … from a bullet at close range. This enemy of life is self-created. Oh, sure, circumstances contribute to the darkness of life in endless ways. Yet we are not bound to llow the inevitable challenges of life grow out of control until we succumb to the hopeless darknesses of complacency, lethargy, and despair.

From these enemies of life, we all need deliverance all too often.

So Jesus says also to us this day, “Come, Get Up!” Inviting us to walk in the light of life.

See, the light is right there. Just walk into it, and bask in the steadfast love of God …

and then get our butts in gear, to provide that light to all people, especially …

well you know who.

The Stinking Filth

Of Our Pasts

Saturday, August 24, 2024

The Winds of Adversity Will Lay Us Flat, Broken

Zechariah 3:4

The angel said to those who were standing before him, ‘Take off his filthy clothes.’ And to him he said, ‘See, I have taken your guilt away from you, and I will clothe you in festal apparel.’

Luke 15:22-24

But the father said to his slaves, “Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” And they began to celebrate.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

‘Pulling the least dirty shirt from the closet’

so goes the Johnny Cash song, not of a great day, but of a drunk’s morning after a binger of a night.

We’d all like to think we are not that bad off.

But, each in our own way, are at least much worse off, when it comes to being able to dress for our morning audiences before God, our judge.

…

The Good News is that Jesus comes each morning (each moment) and invites us to take off all that filth and dirt of the previous dark times, and to put on a festive robe, befitting a king. Then Jesus invites us to the banquet with him, as one of God’s own children.

Our God, judge of all, is steadfast in love for all God’s creatures.

How will we start our day: in a filthy shirt from the dirt of our pasts, or in festive clothing offered to us by our Saviour, Jesus?

Forever

And Ever??

Sunday, March 24, 2024

it may seem the horizon of life goes on forever

past the moon setting orange and down ….

First Chronicles 17:27

… therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue for ever before you. For you, O Lord, have blessed and are blessed for ever.

Matthew 25:34

Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…”

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

Ahh, the hubris that would make a human think their kingdom could continue without end!

If ever there were a true saying about everything in life it is simply, “this too shall pass.”

Only God continues without end.

So we know, our sufferings

and our joys

shall pass.

Until one day God gathers us into the home created for us.

Meanwhile there’s much to be done to surrender our wills to God’s

and work to give the essentials

of life to the millions

starving, who face

sure death

today.

The Whole Shooting Kaboodle-dom!

Not for us! But for Christ!

Friday, March 22, 2024

Just When We Thought

It Was All Ours!

We Pass Away Into Oblivion.

Psalm 102:26

They will perish, but you endure; they will all wear out like a garment. You change them like clothing, and they pass away;

Colossians 1:16

… for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

We’ve taken dominion over the earth

and darn near ruined it into being an inhospitable wasteland, wherein we cannot survive much longer, or maybe we’ve crossed over the point of no return and it’s a done deal.

Our error, made new each day, is to assume God made it all for us.

But

God created it all for Christ!

Even us.

So that’s our place, not rulers but servants.

And once we surrender to that truth,

then Christ shares the blessings of life with us,

first and foremost the blessing of being blessings for others.

Today, Come

Home

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

In the Darkness Look Not Out There Far Away,

But Close By,

For There Your Home Is Ready, Waiting,

Just for You.

Deuteronomy 33:27

He subdues the ancient gods, shatters the forces of old; he drove out the enemy before you, and said, ‘Destroy!’

John 14:1-2

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

Driving out the enemy and destroying it,

sounds like finally all will be set right.

Until

we realize that we are that enemy, we are the ones creating false gods, and giving our lives in worship of them, so that

if-when we destroy those enemies,

that in us that would so worship other than our God

will be destroyed.

Are we ready

for that!?

But do not let our hearts be troubled, for by Grace alone, God will save us

and

give us a home

like none other,

especially prepared and reserved for us,

where love flows freely

and all ills are cured

and we are finally

set free from our own sin.

Ready?

Start today living in that place already prepared for us.

Answer the invitation to Come

into the heart of God’s love for each of us.

Deceitful Brooks

Or People Gone Amok?

Saturday, March 9, 2024

*https://www.thecrossingresort.com/icefields-parkway.htm*

The Saskatchewan Glacier in Banff National Park melted by more than 10 metres in the past year, researchers say. By the end of the century, most of Saskatchewan Glacier will be gone, researcher says.

CBC 17 Oct 2021

Jeremiah 15:18

Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Truly, you are to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail.

Ephesians 3:11-13

This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that God has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him. I pray therefore that you may not lose heart over my sufferings for you; they are your glory.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

The glaciers melt, fast.

The rivers grow shallower year by year.

The prairies through which they wind suffer drought year by year.

The farmers has less water to irrigate and crops have less water year by year.

Until it just doesn’t work out anymore.

The water is like a deceitful brook, drying up when we need it most,

right?

Or can we say this fits within God’s eternal plan, that we might suffer the lack of water for some greater purpose?

Is it punishment for our sins of overtaxing the land and the water and burning so much carbon fuel and being so greedy that we always want more, more, more?

Certainly looks like it!

And how can we survive?

Many ways, some ingenious, some simple and old fashion.

But most of all we trust God, for even if it is our demise that ‘fixes’ the water’s depletion (less of us, more time for the ecosphere and water to recover) in the meantime Jesus calls us to be faithful following him, serving others in their need.

What will it be today?

Treasure That Fear?

Or Mix It With Love?

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Lynx Prowl Here.

Fear and Love

Allow One to Live On Here

Isaiah 33:5-6

The Lord is exalted, he dwells on high; he filled Zion with justice and righteousness; he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure.

Acts of the Apostles 9:31

Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

Fear is a great motivator. Some say it is precisely what brings people to seek refuge in totalitarian, fascist rulers, enter Putin and Trump and a host of others not so obvious, (and a long long long list from history) but well on their way to being rulers, not leaders,

and rulers that should be feared rather than embraced! But

what can we do?

Pray and vote, and hope.

As for God, often fear is seen as our appropriate attitude towards the Almighty who judges everyone and condemns more than a few.

But that gets us nowhere in life other than in the same old rat race trying to make our way to goodness and God’s good graces.

Thank God it ain’t that way God put it together for us.

God comes and gives us (as gifts, fully gifts) life, forgiveness, healing, and renewal …

each day.

So Luke adds, the ‘comfort of the Holy Spirit’ and

Martin Luther speaks of ‘fear and love God, so that ….’

Always not just fear, for it paralyzes us and leaves us not so much freewilled beings, but instinctual ‘reptilian’ reactionaries, by fear reducedd to choosing between freezing, flighting, or fighting. Usually not the best options, though sometimes it is.

For those times, let fear motivate us, we pray.

But for all others, let love be the stronger companion of fear,

also this day.

Fine or Coarse

They’re still grounds!

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Was it freewill that brings us to live where this is Spring time?

Psalm 121:7

The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.

John 17:15

I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

Coffee Grounds.

Coffee is wonderful, without power the choice every morning is a French Press.

Can’t do milk, so Silk in the coffee mellows the acids, cools it a tad, and makes a smooth, slightly sweetened hot boost to the morning, though not as much when I could drink caffeine and still sleep well at night.

Wonderful morning still, mostly decafe, a bit of the full power stuff, a small boost but still wonderful.

And then there are the grounds.

What a mess.

Try getting them out of the press’ screen using little to no water. Impossible.

Then if I use water it cannot be sent down the drain and where to then?

So I use a paper filter, which helps with the screen, but not completely.

The grounds still need to be rinsed out (or wiped out, but what a mess trying that is!)

And where to put all that water. Plastic bags to be emptied on to the ground is best. Still a labour-after-the-gotta-love-that-jo!

God probably has stories like that involving forgiving and cleansing our hearts. What a delight that people can love. Gave ‘em freewill to make it possible. But oh, what a headache cleaning up their choices not to love!

And no matter what kind of things you provide to make the clean up easier, they always find a way to make it so messy it’s just unbelievable! Or, since it’s God, not so unbelievable as rather

planned for.

Thank God for that, or we’d all be sunk in our own sin all the time, and our only salvation would be to be out of this world away from freewill, sin, and, then of necessity, love.

Or stay in the world and lose freewill, which would make us no more than bi-ped, smart but stupid animals, eh?!

On we go, freewilled, sinning, and saved, into this new day, trying to return God’s gifts by sharing them with others, as fine or coarse as it may turn out to be.