Category: Spring

For What?

To Whom?

Monday, October 14, 2024

For an old, mobile, barely sufficient camper?

For the mountains?

For the roads to get there?

For signs to guide one on the road,

and through each day?

Psalm 150:6

Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Hallelujah!

Jude 1:25

… to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

During a flood, we showed up after church to help people living along the water to sandbag, in an effort to save the community’s properties. Our sons asked why we had to go. We lived 10 miles away.

We answered that it was us paying rent for the air we breathe.

So we breathe, still today.

And rightfully so we are asked to give thanks in so many ways, to ‘pay rent for the air we breathe’ in so many ways.

Thanksgiving.

A harvest festival of thanks.

A life pattern condensed into one day’s holiday and celebration.

Every day is a day to give thanks.

This holiday is a time to take stock again: Do we give thanks everyday, even for the things we think we do not owe thanks for?

Do we give thanks, by contributing even in ways, we may think we do not need to contribute or even give thanks?

For what, today, can we remember to give thanks?

To whom, today, can we remember to give thanks?

Is it with a word,

a phone call,

an email or text,

or a hug

and a prayer?

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.

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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?

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.

Return,

Repent, Believe the Good News

Friday, December 29, 2023

Our Well Worn Paths, Beckon,

But God Calls For Us To Turn,

And See Anew.

Deuteronomy 30:2-3

… and return to the Lord your God, and you and your children obey him with all your heart and with all your soul, just as I am commanding you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, gathering you again from all the peoples among whom the Lord your God has scattered you.

Mark 1:15

… saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’

…

Words of Grace For Today

We think all too often that we do not need to repent and return and believe anew the Good News.

But

in this in between time

we remember

humbly

that

we need start each day

with confession,

followed by repentance,

Then returning to God

and believing anew

the Good News,

That

promises us that God is eagerly waiting for us to repent, return and believe anew.

Another day

A new beginning

again.

Left to Beg

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

We Can Do As Much To Bring the Rains, As We Can to Bring Evil It’s Due.

Psalm 34:16

The face of the Lord is against evildoers, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

Romans 12:12

Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Well, would it be so already today, that the remembrance of evildoers were cut off from all creation!

But it is not so, and will not be so, in spite of any and all efforts we may spend and waste toward that end.

So

We are left to rejoice in hope, be patient in our sufferings, and persevere in our prayers that Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead,

and in the meanwhile we pray as beggars, for we have nothing else, God resuscitate us from the dead, that we might live the few short days we have left on this blessed and condemned earth (blessed by God and condemned by us all.)

Another day, full of challenges, full of blessings, full of waiting and letting God do God’s new things with and to us, and full of our efforts to answer God’s call and sending us into the world to be God’s grace

for all.

Another day.

Another ….

Gifts

And Promises

Forever … or Not.

Saturday, September 9, 2023

Everything Points To …

Psalm 105:8

He is mindful of his covenant for ever, of the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,

Romans 11:29

for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

…

Words of Grace For Today

God remembers and does not revoke God’s promises for us, for more than thousands of thousands of generations.

God does not revoke the gifts given, nor the call to us to share those gifts, the requirements of life abundant, with others.

But we surely can deny those gifts in us and the call given to us.

And from that immense dismay, hurt, sorrow, and destruction have covered each generation.

Let us pray today that God will guide us to share the gifts with those in need, so that our hearts may know the peace that surpasses all understanding.

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?

Compassion

From the Highest One

to the Lowest Ones

Sunday, August 6, 2023

God’s Compassion Is Spread,

Like Sprays of Cloud,

To All People,

Through Us.

Psalm 22:5

To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.

James 5:11

Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

Words of Grace For Today

God knows we get a lot of grief, ridicule, and judgment from other people, and that we hand out more than a fair share of it to others.

Compassion may flow occasionally from us and to us, though anyone with eyes to see and hearts to know will know full well that there is not enough compassion in the world, nor in any single human’s life, not since the beginning of time, nor to the end of time.

God walks with us, saves us, redeems us, and sends us out to share God’s mercy and compassion with others. God models compassion in Jesus’ life many times, also when he seeks private time to grieve John’s death at Herod’s hands and sword … and then a huge crowd intrudes on his solitude and grief. Jesus has compassion on them, teaches them (in Mark) and heals them (in Matthew- and teaches and heals them in Luke).

The Spirit inspires us to be compassionate with all people. It’s not like we can do it on our own.

So where, when, how will the Spirit bring compassion to people today, through us?

Sweet Jesus?

Or Christ Crucified!

Wednesday, July 12, 2023

You Can Call It What You Want.

It’s Still A Rabbit, and Always Will Be,

Until It’s a Meal.

Some Things Are Obvious,

When We Aren’t Playing Games On Ourselves.

Joel 2:17

Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep. Let them say, ‘Spare your people, O Lord, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples, “Where is their God?” ’

Titus 2:14

Christ it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.

Words of Grace For Today

‘There’s enough sugar in that bowl to power a train from here to Toronto.’

That could be said of a lot of breakfast bowls.

It won’t make it true.

But it could be said, given how much sugar is packed into cereals these days.

It is as if the cereal companies and us eating them are trying to make our worlds a little sweeter … any way we can

even if it makes us foolish and fat, over-feeding our frenzy for sweetness.

These efforts of our may well be sublimated attempts on our part to make up for our inability to set ourselves right with God and God’s creation.

The only answer for that un-rightness is in God’s own work to reach us, so Jesus, the Christ, is born, teaches and reaches out to us hoi-poloi, heals us of every ill, equips us with unimaginable gifts, and sends us out to share those with other people, others of the masses of hurting humanity, so desperately trying to set themselves right with

…

well, many don’t even know what with.

The ‘priests can cry in between vestibules and the altars’ all they are won’t. Such are their efforts.

The people will none the less cry “Where is their God?”

For it is all too easy to let God’s works go unnoticed, if we are on the train to ‘making the world sweet’ for ourselves.

We do not need to share more ‘sweetness’ with others.

We can share God’s gifts that heal our every ill, give us renewed life, and set us on a mission like no other.

It’s not Mission Impossible, though sometimes it is a mission unimaginable, like reaching out with kindness to the very enemies who would do us in.

Eating cereal for breakfast with berries is simple. Cutting the grass may be needed. Sharing God’s gifts … well that’s out of this world and sometimes seems crazier than anything else we’ve seen or heard of

unless we read of the saints, who have done it all before.

Memories

That Rot, Trying to Earn God’s Good Graces

Saturday, July 8, 2023

Among the Weeds, See the Beauty?

Around the Beauty, See the Weeds and Thorns?

Amid All That is Life, See God’s

Generous Gifts!

Proverbs 10:7

The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.

Hebrews 6:12

… so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Words of Grace For Today

In the Kingdom of God there must be rewards.

There is so much written and spoken about how we are rewarded for our good works and our good work for others.

Ahh, there is the rub.

It’s all an illusion.

We are nor rewarded by how we live or do or think or believe.

The causation direction is all messed when we talk about how we earn our reward from God.

God rewards us first – when we certainly do not deserve it- and then we get to respond.

We inherit, not as reward, but because God is generous with steadfast, unconditional love.

So how are we going to go into this day?

Fretting how we will get ahead?

Working hard to earn God’s good graces?

Or

Thankful for all we are given that we have not and cannot earn, and sharing those same gifts with others?