Talking to God

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

While I Wasn’t Listening, God Was, Sending Light Into My Summer-Winter

Deuteronomy 9:26

I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Lord God, do not destroy the people who are your very own possession, whom you redeemed in your greatness, whom you brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

Romans 8:32

He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?

Words of Grace For Today

Trusting that God listens is huge.

It means we recognize through history how God has helped people, and in our lifetimes, us.

So we can turn to God and trust that God listens.

Doesn’t matter what we say really.

As Jeremiah knew

O, God, you know!

God knows everything, even before we say anything, or even think a thing.

So why bother God?

Sometimes, it helps to unload.

Always it helps to recognize who made us,

who saves and redeems us,

who renews our life,

and who is always there for us, loving us even when we screw up big time.

As for those who cannot trust God, one has to wonder how they get by … until one recognizes the mess the world is in, which in large part is their part of trying desperately to make it right for themselves before it’s too late.

That always leads to shtako, big time.

As God has done for people in the past, God does for people now, and will in the future, and

we are some of those people,

Thank God.

Hey!

Hey You,

Yes, You!

Listen Up!

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

I stopped listening and then next minute this happened: winter.

Isaiah 48:17

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for your own good, who leads you in the way you should go.

Luke 10:39

She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying.

Words of Grace For Today

Sometimes we just need God to send someone to remind us that we have stopped listening, if ever we did.

And then everything goes to hell real quick for us.

But there is hope, when God sends someone.

Of course we have to listen.

And then we do not, most of the time.

So are we stuck in hell, separated from God?

Time will tell, right.

Or we can trust that God always sends someone again,

and again

and again

and again ad finitum

until we listen

for our own good.

Morning Dew

Monday, August 28, 2023

The Morning Drips Fresh From Imperfections, Too.

Second Samuel 23:3-4

The God of Israel has spoken, the Rock of Israel has said to me: One who rules over people justly, ruling in the fear of God, is like the light of morning, like the sun rising on a cloudless morning, gleaming from the rain on the grassy land.

Matthew 11:29

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Words of Grace For Today

Rulers dominate to make their wishes realities, with people falling into line to make it happen.

Leaders inspire and listen to the people they lead, bringing the best tomorrows into today, for all peoples.

God rules.

But not by dominating.

Rather with gentleness and humility (if we can imagine the all powerful God being humble!), guiding us to life unequalled in blessings.

So each new morning, with sunshine on the grass moist from the night rains or clouds dark over parched lands or cold gripping even one’s breath in a stranglehold [and all things of mornings], we

can smile

breathe

and

hope again

that this day will

bring love and wonders

to play and dance through our hours

until the night falls fully over the grass, trees and dirt

that is our home.

Eh you say again?

And God answers with a fresh smiling breeze of sunshine warm on our hearts.

Breathe And

Take Stock

Sunday, August 27, 2023

It May Look Bleak, Until We Remember How God Has Walked Every Step With Us To This Blessed Time.

Deuteronomy 2:7

Surely the Lord your God has blessed you in all your undertakings; he knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.

John 1:16

From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

Words of Grace For Today

When the frenetic struggles overload our senses and memories, limiting our ability to make choices fully informed, it’s good and difficult to

stop

and

take

stock

of

the

whole

picture

of what God

has done and still does for us each day:

giving us breath and bread, longings and love, health and hope,

among so many other gifts

we certainly do not deserve.

While we may wish for more, God has and will always provide us enough to find our way home

to Jesus and all the saints.

Another day on the journey there.

Amazed at how much God has done for us.

The Message:

The Lord Knows Us

Every Nook and Cranny

Thursday, August 24, 2023

Think We Can Hide Out There?

Think Again.

God Knows All About Us!

Isaiah 49:3

And he said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’

Acts of the Apostles 10:36

You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all.

Words of Grace For Today

Bonhoeffer wrote Who am I? Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine. … and he ended with:

Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine!

That is for all of us the most determinative thing to know about ourselves, that God knows us!

God knows us, every nook and cranny, all our good past-present-future, and all our terrible, hidden, denied, covered up, destructive acts and wishes and thoughts. It can be more than scary to think God knows all that! It can be downright debilitating, making us want to give up entirely,

EXCEPT

God demonstrates again and again, not only that God knows us inside and out. God shows us over and over again that God also loves us, as we are!

Knowing that God loves us, makes us able to love ourselves, and to love others (even though we never are very good at knowing ourselves or knowing others completely).

Knowing that we can love ourselves and others is liberating.

Knowing others do love us is marvellous, if entirely suspect, at times.

Knowing that God loves us is everything!

And of us miserable sinners (actually we are rather good at sinning) God brings us to be those who bring God to be glorified, by us and others, awestruck by God’s works for us all.

Tasting

What Does Life Taste Like, Anyway?

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Can We Ever Taste The Trees Up Close,

The Cold Fog,

The Distant Shore,

The Clear Moon?

As God’s Works For Us!

Isaiah 63:7

I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord, the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, because of all that the Lord has done for us, and the great favour to the house of Israel that he has shown them according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

1 Peter 2:3

if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Words of Grace For Today

We can observe 93 billion light years of universe, though we estimate the universe is more than 7 trillion light years huge.

Why did God create all this?

Before creation it was only void, emptiness, and we can anthropomorphize that God easily could have been lonely. But lonely for such small creatures so capable of evil as us? Really!

The earth’s diameter is only about 13 km, and it’s circumference is 40,000 km. In other words from here to the opposite side of the earth is only 13 km, straight down through the core and back up. Or we can travel from here to the opposite side and back in about 40,000 km. That’s only 42 billionths of one light year. In other words we live our whole lives within 42 nano seconds of a light-year.

Why would God create the entire universe, just for us to exist? Or did God? Maybe we were an afterthought, or a mistake, or a side-effect. (The juries would then be out on whether we are a good side-effect or a bad side-effect or even a deadly side-effect.)

Like a medication that tastes bad but is supposed to do us good, except it turns our stomach so that we cannot hold it down: Maybe that is the kind of side-effect we are in God’s plans for the universe?

Except

when we have tasted how marvellously good God is to us, forgiving us, loving us, renewing us, and sending us out with a purpose grand enough to take more than all the life we have to give, then

we, small as we are, can do none other than go out

recounting the gracious acts of God for us,

for us all.

So it is we go out also into this day, whatever it may bring.

Follow?

Follow, Obey … ?

Hope Like Hell

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

Can We See The Way

That God Calls Us To,

This Day.

Deuteronomy 13:4

The Lord your God you shall follow, him alone you shall fear, his commandments you shall keep, his voice you shall obey, him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.

1 Corinthians 10:13

No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.

Words of Grace For Today

Follow, Obey, and Live!

It’s great to follow a wonderful leader.

One who give us good life in following!

If only we can find one, identify one, and know with surety that we are not wrong.

Is it possible not to be wrong?

Can we be 100% sure of anything?

Not at all.

Not at all.

The question for us always is, since we cannot

since we cannot so much …

Then there is only trust.

Trust that God will provide all that we need,

trust that God is and always will be faithful,

So that we can meet the challenges of each day,

especially today?

Green

Growth?

Monday, August 21, 2023

Rain Brings Green Growth

or?

Jeremiah 24:7

I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord; and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

Colossians 4:3

At the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison

Words of Grace For Today

Green.

Green growth.

Green growth of life

Green Spring rains

Green Spring rains cleansing

Green Spring flowers, grasses, trees, …

Green Spring sprung rains renewing what was once dying.

Green Spring sprung rains renewing .dying .. hope for life to continue well

or

Green growth of envy and moulds.

Envy and moulds that cover and choke spreading spores that can destroy us from the inside.

Green.

Will we grow green to renew hope in us and around us?

Yellow

Bright Shiny Yellow, Or?

Sunday, August 20, 2023

Can We See The Light?

Can We Be The Light?

Genesis 1:3

Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.

Ephesians 5:9

for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.

Words of Grace For Today

Yellow,

Coward,

Denying Reality,

Shaded from Courage

and Love Gone Forever.

Yellow

Light and Warmth

Of Hope-filled Reality

that looks courageously forward

into the future of love, hope and faith.

which

will we be a part of today?

RED

Red Fried

Blood Red?

Saturday, August 19, 2023

See The Fire

That Will

Destroy Us All?

Jeremiah 12:3

But you, O Lord, know me; You see me and test me—my heart is with you. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and set them apart for the day of slaughter.

Ephesians 4:15

But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

Words of Grace For Today

The day of slaughter,

violently terrible

and deadly

bloody

red.

Red Roses,

Red Enough.

red

of passion

that transforms

life from meaninglessness

chaos, void, and … confusion

to purposefulness, order

fullness, and …

wisdom.

Seeing red?

Which red do we see today?