Responded With …

Sunday, October 13, 2024

Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press: taken near Cremona, AB sourced 09 Oct 2024 https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/northern-lights?cmp=newsletter_CBC%20Edmonton_1646_1737656

Sometimes

Just Let

Yourself Be

Awestruck

Leviticus 10:3

Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘This is what the Lord meant when he said,
“Through those who are near me I will show myself holy, and before all the people I will be glorified.” ’And Aaron was silent.

Romans 5:1

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

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Words of Grace For Today

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And Aaron was silent.

What a response to such a marvellous statement:

Through those who are near me I will show myself holy, and before all the people I will be glorified.

Hearing good news we usually respond with something loud, a whooop, a full bodied laugh, a noisy smile, a word of thanks, a statement of wonder, a word of thanks.

But, the mouth piece for Moses who does not know how to speak, Aaron, chooses instead of words (which is his specialty)

silence.

S I L E N C E

…

What would it be like if all people, knowing

since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ

responded – instead of with

all the foolishness and spins and lies and conspiracy theories and hatred and, and, and, which trouble our world so much –

What if we all responded

with silence?

…

What’s that you say?

…

S I L E N C E

…

awestruck

S I L E N C E

God

Sunday, October 6, 2024

Even Our Grandest Views of God’s Beautiful Creation,

Pale Compared to

God’s Love

Made Visible in Us Loving Each Other,

Even Our Enemies.

Isaiah 40:15

Even the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as dust on the scales; see, he takes up the isles like fine dust.

Romans 3:29

Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,

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Words of Grace For Today

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The muck we get ourselves into is most often rooted in our forgetting or rather refusing to remember

that God is Almighty, Omniscient, Onmipresent, and all the other Everythings that God is, Divine, Immortal, All Loving ….

and we think we can get by without God

all on our own.

Thankfully God planned for that

and waits for us to repent, and turn back to God, ask forgiveness (which is already promised and given) and be renewed with the power of the gifts given to us in our baptisms,

even today

no matter what you did yesterday or before.

For God waits

as long as it takes,

for each and every one of us to humbly ask God for forgiveness,

so that we can all be renewed in God’s great, generous, gracious love

by giving the same to others in need.

Or Not to Grouse

Saturday, October 5, 2024

Always, There’s Colour in Our Days.

Seldom A Grouse,

or Reason to.

Jeremiah 14:21

Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake; do not dishonour your glorious throne; remember and do not break your covenant with us.

Romans 11:2

God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?

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Words of Grace For Today

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how do we know God has not abandoned us?

There’s a landscape that I often see and take photos of. It’s not unlike the landscape painted by the fictional painter Povel Wallander. He painted it, and only it, over and over again, even when he tried to paint something else: a hill, trees of dark outlines with whiter bark, on a background of the north, mostly grey tones, sometimes with a grouse. Sometimes not. These landscapes tell a story about life, but only part of the story. There’s much to be filled in.

The photos that I take, which remind me of Povel’s grey landscapes, seldom show only the grey tones of our north. Most often they burst with colour and light in every season. Only the winter photos show more grey, but even they are pulled towards blues and remind me of taking a familiar jazz piece and putting a new riff into it.

We know that God has not forsaken us because,

even if we think there is much to grouse about,

there are always full colours in our days,

and new riffs in our nights.

Solitude or Not

Blessed

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Is This The Promise or

The Curse,

The Bleak or

the Peaceful

Solitude?

Psalm 18:49-50

For this I will extol you, O Lord, among the nations, and sing praises to your name. Great triumphs he gives to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his descendants for ever.

Revelation 15:4

Lord, who will not fear and glorify your name? For you alone are holy.
All nations will come and worship before you, for your judgments have been revealed.

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Words of Grace For Today

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“These words and mysteriously similar paraphrases of them have been found in the writings of 50 hermits, spanning time from years before Christ, likely around the times of Jeremiah and Isaiah, all the way through to these recent years. And even more mysteriously from the writings of a hermit found just last year, that seem (according to the experts who date paper, ink, and other things) to be from 500 years in the future:

I never chose to become a hermit. It’s just after the betrayal and suffering caused by ones who professed to love me, this is where I ended up. Alone. It’s not that I don’t like the solitude. It is holy, sacred. It feeds me well as God provides in many and various ways. Most remarkably I’ve come to know that I am never alone, really. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit never part from me, walking through each challenge of surviving as I age, each provocation and threat by people who do not understand solitude as a gift or who believe the lies spread far and wide by my betrayers.

I have learned to be thankful for the little things: Clean air. Fresh water. Simple food. Clothing. Protection from the elements. Labour that is purposeful even though I seldom see any results. Most of all that there are a few people (very few really) who I still can safely love, who love me, with whom I communicate.”

When we know that God shows steadfast love toward us, then alone or in the multitudes, we can find peace, and

know that God walks with us

each day.

…

Where is God today for you?

Do you see, taste, smell, hear, and sense God walking right there …?

Living by the Sword

In a Word

Monday, September 30, 2024

Like the Clouds Pouring to the Sunset-Horizon,

So People Have Died Unnecessary and Early Deaths

at Our Hands.

Second Samuel 2:26

Then Abner called to Joab, ‘Is the sword to keep devouring for ever? Do you not know that the end will be bitter? How long will it be before you order your people to turn from the pursuit of their kinsmen?’

Matthew 26:52

Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.

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Words of Grace For Today

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As Jesus and many others have said:

‘Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.’

But that is not the problem for most people.

The problem is that those who live by the sword

have helped thousands of millions to their unnecessary and early deaths.

The truth is

that there are lots of ways we help others to their unnecessary and early deaths,

starting with ignorance and apathy,

a cruel or unthinking word,

an action to ‘protect our interests’

while decimating others’ interests and lives directly.

…

How not to particiapate in this popular project?

Compassion.

Thoughtfulness.

Prayer.

All that Jesus directed us to with the greatest command:

to love our neighbour as ourselves.

…

And how will we do that today,

in a new

and newly effective way?

…

That is every day’s challenge, now isn’t it!

Before ‘Yet’

And ‘Job answered’

Friday, September 20, 2024

What Came Before All This?

Summer?

Nighttime?

Injustice?

Hope?

Job 9:1-9

Then Job answered:
‘Indeed I know that this is so; but how can a mortal be just before God?
If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand.
He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength—who has resisted him, and succeeded?—
he who removes mountains, and they do not know it, when he overturns them in his anger;
who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble;
who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars;
who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the Sea;
who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south …?

1 Corinthians 8:6

… yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

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Words of Grace For Today

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There’s something before ‘yet’.

Is it important?

There was something before Job answered.

Is it important?

Context sometimes is everything.

Our context is simple to adduce:

God created everything and can do anything and everything.

We are creatures who live a short time, often suffering greatly,

even at our best when we love, it always ends in suffering the loss of love

or our life.

How can we pretend to take on God?

Yet

(there it is again)

Yet, we do so often,

So often to make good through and through fools of us,

like the ant that tries to escape from the anteater’s tongue.

Or like the mouse that tries to free itself from the trap.

Or the young bird that tries to fly through a window.

Or a person who tries to speak as if God.

What will we do today?

Live humble lives before our Creator?

Live futile lives trying to be our own godlets?

Choose

Or Follow Christ?

Thursday, September 19, 2024

Spirit Rises, Or Man-made Plane Goes Down?

Psalm 143:2

Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.

Luke 7:48-50

Then he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’ And he said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’

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Words of Grace For Today

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So many try to be good enough for God, but it is hopeless,

and it is a futile way to try to live well

and happy.

How wondrous it is

to be given faith

that makes one well

and does so by bringing one to realize one’s sins can be forgiven.

What are you going to do today:

Count your good works for all to see and hear of them, as if to prove you are good enough?

Have the faith given to you active in your heart, mind, and soul

assuring you that your sins are forgiven

and you can get on with being alive

living out that forgiveness

for others in need?

A choice?

Or is it

God?

Twinkle Twinkle

Little Star,

Who is Going to Come to Save Us All, From So Far?

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

As the Sun Rises Across the Land,

Do You See It Rising

For You, Too?

Numbers 24:17

I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near—a star shall come out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel.

Revelation 22:16

‘It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.’

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Words of Grace For Today

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To know God

Yet not know that God is near

Is a hopeful

but frustrating experience

shared by so many through all the generations.

Thus hope that carries many generations is that salvation may yet come

sometime,

or ‘next year in Jerusalem’ perhaps,

or in the wildernesses that our lives have become,

all tangled with comforts, luxuries, and excesses

that we’ve forgotten how wonderful the fresh morning chill is when

it is countered by the warmth of a wood fire,

together promising another wonderful day,

not too cold, and not too hot,

not too wet, and not too dry,

not too windy, and not to close,

not too anything, and not too everything;

The perfect day awaits.

Did you even notice?

As the sun ascends

and hearts give thanks

and blessings are celebrated

and computers have updated

and a wonderful, promising day has begun.

Did you even notice

the star

out thar’

promising

a Saviour

so close

already?

Who

Will Rescue Us?

Monday, September 16, 2024

And The Skies Run Red With Their Blood,

As God Lets Evil

Take Itself To It’s Own Bloody Death?

Isaiah 50:7

The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame

Matthew 14:30

But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’

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Words of Grace For Today

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The OT reading for this Sunday Jeremiah 11:18-20 overlaps in theme with this verse:

It was the Lord who made it known to me, and I knew;
then you showed me their evil deeds.
But I was like a gentle lamb
led to the slaughter.
And I did not know it was against me
that they devised schemes, saying,
“Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,
let us cut him off from the land of the living,
so that his name will no longer be remembered!”
But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously,
who try the heart and the mind,
let me see your retribution upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.

…

So it is time to ask:

And who is out to get you?

By guile and deceit

in secret

and hidden ways

so that those uninitiated to such devious ways will not see or suspect or ever know

of the evil that is worked against you?

Oh, you say, there is no such effort made against me.

But then how would you know?

And what is all this about polarization of peoples, infiltration of social media to effect election outcomes, hate created fear motivating voters, world domination by fascist dictators, war hungry leaders hiding in war their failing support at home, the economy played for the benefit of the already rich to get richer and the already poor to get poorer (if there is such a thing for many) and for the middle class to sink, sink, sink closer to poverty?

Are these not already a few powerful manipulating what can be to send us closer to our deaths?

Are you paying attention?

…

But God is with us. And we will see our enemies destroy themselves.

Thanks

For the flow?

Sunday, September 15, 2024

Welcome to Paradise,

is it the Wilderness?

Deuteronomy 6:10-12

When the Lord your God has brought you into the land that he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, houses filled with all sorts of goods that you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you have eaten your fill, take care that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

John 6:32

Then Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.

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Words of Grace For Today

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Poverty is a wonderful lesson in humility,

or so they say,

Those who are not poor.

Thankfully the food bank is a steady and good supply of most basic foods and some others,

actually some very odd food that I’d never try or eat if I didn’t get them there.

Take Cookies and Cream Oatmeal.

A treat in a breakfast food.

Well I suppose they’ve made and sold lots of sugar cereals for decades, so why not this, too?

With

all

this

food

I easily forget

how hard it was

before

the food bank.

Not that I forget (life is too hard) how much God provides.

Every morning I thank God for everything that keeps me alive, and it’s more than just enough.

Lately there’s been so much meaningful labour

it’s hard to keep up

as winter is coming

and autumn is not that long

And there’s still wood to start collecting.

But,

little by little

a thing here and a thing there gets done

and

I start to think

I may even be ready, for winter,

‘God willing and the creek nor rising’.

So today

first the thanks,

then the celebration,

then the meal

then

flat out work

if the rain is not too much or

the smoke too thick.

And how is your day shaped? With thanks, remembering who supplies all that keeps you alive, celebration, meal, and work?

Or is it something else.

Whatever, may it be blessed,

and may you remember who blesses it,

even if you live in the land ‘flowing with milk and honey.’