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?

Skipping

Into The Day

Thursday, June 29, 2023

Learning From the Sun,

Which Even On Smoky Days,

Skips Across the Evening Waters,

Our Days Begin With Celebrations: 1, 2, 3 …

Jeremiah 8:4

You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: When people fall, do they not get up again? If they go astray, do they not turn back?

1 Timothy 1:12

I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service,

Words of Grace For Today

People fall.

People fall often, sometimes physically, more often psychologically and even more often spiritually.

Getting up again, well that is not always a simple matter.

We’d like to simply say, yes we all get back up. Well-being is restored to us and we walk tall and healthy, full of vigour and vitality.

But it just ain’t so.

Most of us walk wounded, stooped over or even crawling from day to day. And all of us will some day not ever again get up, and we hope that someone will honour us enough to lay us in a grave.

While we breathe, wounded or stooped over, we know that God walks with us and gives us strength for this day, and each new day we breathe. We do not deserve such grace. We count on such grace.

With Timothy we give God thanks, for all the strength we need God provides, and when we need added support, God carries us through the hellish days we find ourselves in, until we come out the other side into the light of love, hope, and grace.

As we can then, we take time to skip into a waltz or two step, celebrating all that God does for us, thanking God for such undeserved gifts.

After

All God Has Promised, Really?

Thursday, June 22, 2023

The Colours Of Peace Vary.

God’s Promises

Do Not Vary At All.

Thank God!

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.

1 Corinthians 1:9

God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Words of Grace For Today

I woke to take this photo of a peaceful morning after a few days or rather weeks of lots of not so much peace.

In order to get my photos off the cell phone I have to email them and often I write something short and maybe pithy since empty emails don’t do so well. Sometimes pithy ends up to be not so short, as this photo elicited a longer train of thought:

After

after smoke

after dry

after rain

after thunder & lightning

after strong winds

after obnoxious loud music from the neighbours

after it all

.

peaceful blue skies & green grass & trees & bright sun.

I’ll take it.

after an allergy pill 😐

Almost as good as a bright winter day with no bugs.”

Reality seen wonderful can too often be tempered by a bit more of reality.

The reality that God promises us is founded only on God’s good Grace and Love for us.

There is nothing that tempers that reality, for God’s Grace and Love already take into consideration all our sins, all evil, all trials and temptations, all storms and challenges of life … everything bad!

As well as everything Good!

What could we do were God to revoke God’s promises?!

What could we do were God to abandon God’s one-sided covenant with us, to be loving and gracious always?!

There is no ‘allergy pill’ to deal with the realities that God’s Grace and Love consider and deal with for us. On our own it would be a disaster, exactly what many people take life to be because they do not accept God’s promises.

What wonder it is, though, to live in the fellowship of Jesus Christ, a fellowship of imperfect and broken and ‘loud, obnoxious music’ people who are almost as bad as us 😐 !

What a wonder to wake each morning, whether it is a calm and peaceful weathered day or a stormy, raged, and ‘filled with sins that break everything in sight’ day, and to know that God is faithful and true, loving and gracious with us, healing us from all our broken hearts, minds, spirits and bodies, forgiving us all our destorying sins.

What a wonder to know that God remains God, loving and merciful.

What a wonder!

Poor

At Thinking? And Doing Right?

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

How Long Will It Be Before

No Eggs Will Hatch?

Psalm 102:17

God will regard the prayer of the destitute, and will not despise their prayer.

Philippians 4:6

Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Words of Grace For Today

The not unusual question came over the phone from a telephone support person, “Are there any other questions you have?”

I gave him a list:

  1. What is the meaning of life?
  2. How can we deal with world overpopulation?
  3. How can we solve Climate Change this year?
  4. How do we solve the pervasive problem of racism and injustice against the poor?
  5. How can we solve the huge inequality problem throughout the world that is the root cause of so many other problems?
  6. How will I ever get out of debt?
  7. What is God doing while we systematically, methodically wipe out the environment that supports life on earth?
  8. How can we finally get truth to be valued and upheld in all aspects of life, especially in our courts?
  9. Are we going to poison ourselves to death like the Romans did with lead; though we are using the likes of PFAS and so many other toxins in daily life, like gasoline?

I ended with, “Those are just a few question I have.”

The reply was, “I’m not philosophical, so I don’t have the answers.”

I chuckled as the help person did as well.

But these questions are not laughing matters.

And the truth is, whether one is philosophical or not one needs to ask them and have at least a rough outline of possible answers. That’s a basic responsibility for anyone renting air on earth these days.

In the end, whether we solve any of these or none, we all need most of to

pray.

At Sunrise

And At Sunset …

Saturday, June 17, 2023

The Sun Sets,

Through the Smoke From Wildfires.

Psalm 50:1

A Psalm of Asaph. The mighty one, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.

Luke 17:20-21

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.’

Words of Grace For Today

The sun rises.

The sun sets.

Life on earth goes on (for some of us, but for many not!)

Climate change, and other troubling developments, lead us easily to say we are seeing the end of all time, the Apocalypse, the Parousia.

Yes, climate change is human created destruction of the environment that sustains life on earth, at a rate never seen or heard of before.

But this is not a sign of the end of time. It may well be the end of life on earth as we know it. Already the severe weather of last year has become the norm for this, and it scares any sensible person about what the future may bring, for it will get much, much worse!

Even in this time, with crises of wildfires and pervasive smoke across Canada, Jesus is already with us.

Jesus is already with us.

Jesus is here, with us, suffering with us, celebrating with us, and showing us how to care for each other, the earth, our environment,

and pointing us to the mercy and grace of God which will give us renewed life each day, in such bounty that we can share it just as bountifully with everyone.

The sun rises.

The sun sets.

And God makes it so, also mercifully giving us new life as the sun rises and as the sun sets.

Holy,

Holy, Holy

And Gracious

Tuesday, June 13, 2023

God’s Grace Blossoms Full Today,

And

God Promises Grace

For Each New Day.

Numbers 14:17

And now, therefore, let the power of the Lord be great in the way that you promised when you spoke, saying, ….

Luke 1:49

… for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

Words of Grace For Today

There is always more that has gone before, and more after.

Not just in words of God’s promise, but in our lives. God has worked wonders in our past and promises many more in our futures.

So it is that each day, we give God praise, and hallow God’s name with our worship of songs, prayers, and deeds that extend God’s great works of grace to other people.

Charged and convicted of a crime that never happened, stripped of more than three times the money I had for retirement so that I can never hope to be out of debt, and left unable to even rent an apartment to live in, I have been blessed to live in a self-made camp as a mystic, a hermit, beside a lake, in the midst of nature, able to see the wonders of God each day.

God’s grace abounds. For while many would say I have lost nearly everything, precisely in having next to nothing or any prospects of ever having enough to live in a house again, I have gained full awareness of God’s grace and presence with me, through all that has been unjustly done to me, through all the challenges that the cold, heat, bugs, wild animals (worst are the two legged ones), storms, and equipment and body failures have thrown at me.

God’s grace abounds.

There is nothing

more so crucial

in all of life.