Category: Spring

Rest,

Rest Easy

Sunday, June 4, 2023

A rose,

beginning to bud,

bringing God’s beauty

to be seeable.

Psalm 145:17

The Lord is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doings.

Philippians 1:6

I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.

Words of Grace For Today

While the world churns out trouble,

and we each and each contribute enough ourselves,

God is our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, just in all judgements, not biased by lies or deceptions to gain undeserved advantages while stealing life from others. God sees all. Knows all, Judges all. And if our sins are not bound then we can count on God’s grace to save us.

But …

When they are bound, then who knows, for God will judge also knowing that we had warning and time for the amendment of our lives. What then does a just judge do?

For us blessed by God to be God’s own children, we trust that God will carry to completion the work that God has begun in us, to redeem us, sanctify us and equip us to be God’s emissaries of Good News on earth.

For us, life is all about seeing what God has in store for us; like a rose beginning to bud, God is about bringing great beauty and wonder into our worlds. Do we have eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to celebrate it?

Inherit

This Mess!?

No *&^! Thanks?

Saturday, June 3, 2023

The Beauty of Creation

Messed Up

By Climate Change=Wildfires=Smoke=Can’t See,

And Can’t Breathe!

Zechariah 9:9

Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Matthew 5:5

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Words of Grace For Today

The world seems to be totally messed up.

Lies take the day.

Fake news creates convictions that there is no climate change, just normal evolution. (Really!?)

Politicians that believe their own lies and fake news.

And middle classes that think the fake news politicians are going to actually work for them, and not the special interests and big businesses that support them in exchange for decisions that favour their businesses, or hide the reality of their raping the planet and our future.

The meek shall inherit this!

As one of the meek I will say a resounding, “No Thanks! Keep your messes and give us the New Jerusalem without you or your messes!”

(Maybe that is too much for a meek response?)

…

and then even this sometimes meek and sometimes not so meek person gets to remember that what appears to be a total mess is not beyond God salvaging great good from, and us inheriting it just may be the best thing this world will ever see, other than that God came as a meek saviour, riding on the foal of a donkey. Not the ride for a great leader, eh?!

But exactly the ride for God. For God would show us that great rides, great pomp and ceremony, wild parties of excesses, and shows of great power, force, and privilege, and not even the joys of wondrous comforts in life … all this is not what God created us in creation to be able to experience.

God created us to be able to give. To give life to other people. To restore, protect, use sustainably, and enjoy all of creation.

I guess us meek people (and the not so meek among us) can celebrate today all that God gives us, as we share it with as many people as we can.

When It All Hits

The Proverbial Fan …

Friday, June 2, 2023

Red Beauty?

Or Fire Burning Us Out?

Or Smoke

Taking Our Breath Away?

Haggai 2:9

The latter splendour of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts.

Colossians 3:15

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.

Words of Grace For Today

When, though one knows one has done everything possible to make things right, it all hits the fan and gets blown to bits, one has to ask, why?

Happens to all of us, some more than others, always too often.

So how do we proceed through our days, having this happen to us, and knowing it will surely happen again?

Shall we resign, capitulate, and end our days in despair?

Shall we rise up to fight more viciously than ever imagined – hard for pacifists to fight, yet alone viciously – but shall we abandon being pacifists all together and fight like everyone else, and be more vicious now so that we can win, finally!?

Shall we plod on, actually or pretending not to notice how others run us over like bugs on the road of life?

Thankfully God knew it would be like this for us.

God sent Jesus and the Holy Spirit (all God, Three in One, anyway) to demonstrate life on earth for us, and to guide us with God’s power of self-sacrificial love through all that comes our way.

This provides an unwavering peace, the peace of Christ, that we can claim for ourselves at all times, in any circumstance, no matter who stands against us.

Further, though we may fear the result of all the things we have lost as we move forward in our days breathing, God promises that what is taken will be not only replaced (better than insurance of any kind) but that what we receive will be of far greater value. God’s gifts are always greater and more precious than any thing could be.

Today, ask for peace. It is ours. Trust God’s promises, they are sure. Never are we bereft of life’s best and most precious. God sees to that.

One Day

One Day At A Time

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Waiting …

Waiting …

Waiting …

for the New Day

Of Hope Colours.

Psalm 30:11-12

You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you for ever.

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Words of Grace For Today

Hope.

Hope lives despite the current circumstances that provide no basis for believing that things will get better as time progresses.

Hope.

Hope is that our mourning (for all that once was is now gone, and all the dreams of what could be have vanished with the setting sun coloured by smoke from fires that have burned so much) will be turned to dancing, that our despair (at how the world treats everyone as if we were all commodities) will be turned to joy overflowing, that the gloom of deceit (that steals the healing power of love from us all) will be turned to peace in our hearts and in our lands.

Hope.

Hope fuels the world, and it does not contribute to pollution, deprivations, or global warming.

Hope.

Hope seems too far to achieve, or climb to, or build it from the debris that remain.

Hope.

With grateful hearts, even in the deepest of our despair, we know that hope is ours, not because we possess it, but because God sends the Holy Spirit to give it to us fresh, like the morning dew in the mountain meadow as the sun rises between the green slopes lining the horizon.

Hope.

Hope is fresh, also this day, and our hearts overflow with thanks.

For without hope all would be lost, and the first to to be lost is always truth followed by love.

Hope.

Hope arrives, uninvited, colouring our hours, again this day.

Faith

God’s Gift

Thursday, May 25, 2023

When the Sun Don’t Shine

But a Tinge

of Orange

All Around,

Then What?

Micah 5:1-2

Now you are walled around with a wall; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the ruler of Israel upon the cheek. But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.

1 Timothy 3:16

Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is great: He was revealed in flesh, vindicated in spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory.

Words of Grace For Today

In times of trouble, in desperate times when all hope is drowned by the fires of time eroding like tsunamis burning the coastlands of all inhabitants and buildings, when our lungs burn with the smoke of fires about to consume us, when our feet are already soaked by the waters that will drown us, when the earth continues to shake after all our buildings are rubble, after missiles still explode with more arriving though there are no more cities left on earth, when life withers away, when love grows cold, where all laughter is lost …

Then what ARE we to do?

God knows these times will come in every generation.

God knew we needed more than what we could see or know or demonstrate to be true.

So

God gives us faith,

Faith in the saviour who will rise from the least of us all, a saviour who speaks not to the realities that we cannot change (for conquering enemies or oppressive rulers only makes way for other enemies and other cruel rulers).

No, God gives us a saviour who lives as one of us, teaching, healing, and showing us how to live lives of peace, joy, hope, grace, and love … even as the evil of the world swirls around us.

Jesus lived.

Jesus lives.

By faith we can live as well, even in these days.

Working

The Other Way

By Peace

Friday, May 19, 2023

We Learn Best to Live By the Example of the Best of Days:

at Peace.

First Samuel 17:47

… and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.

Luke 10:5

Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!”

Words of Grace For Today

When Julius had calmed the community enough to put things into action, and sent their own runners up river to survey what was what with the ‘flood surge’ coming their way, every able bodied person worked to create a berm that could hold back some water. Then they moved their livestock to the highest ground away from the river. After that was done in a few hours, they all packed everything they needed and could take with them and retreated to their hunting camp. It was the first time many of them had been there. Not everyone hunted or needed to, since most of their food they grew and produced themselves. Those new to the camp were amazed how rustic yet functional it was, though it hardly could house them all. They set about expanding it, at least on a temporary basis so there was protection for everyone, protection from the weather and from the wild animals that lived here. It was after all a hunting camp.

Someone suggested that they should hunt down the animals nearby, to make it safer for them. Wiser people explained they needed the animals to live on, even here. So they implemented a better plan where they could live in peace with the wild animals and with each other. The latter soon proved to be the more difficult plan to achieve as disagreements rose and flared between people as they started to realize how short the resources here would be.

Julius worked harder than ever in his life to treat the ill and calm the nerves of those caught in the conflicts. He was glad that years before he learned to enter every house and conversation blessing people with peace.

Oh, he thought, that more people would orient themselves so, each morning, noon, and night.

Bronze

… and Better

Saturday, May 13, 2023

Better Than Green Forests

Against Raging Wildfires,

God Provides Protection

Against All Enemies

and

All Their Weapons

Jeremiah 15:20

And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am with you to save you and deliver you, says the Lord.

Hebrews 4:16

Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Words of Grace For Today

Times of need abound for all of us except a few misfortunate too-rich people who never have a need at all. That’s got to be a dull and boring life, to say the least … unless they use that luxury to meet others’ needs, maybe?

It is in our times of need that we learn how desperately we need God, and perhaps we know enough to turn to God and ask for help, for mercy, and for grace that we may live.

Then, though we may seem to be a people made of clay from the feet up, God makes us like impenetrable walls. At one time that may have been solid bronze walls, but with nuclear bombs and chemical/biological weapons bronze is not enough. Still God makes us impervious to all our enemies and all their weapons they would use against us, most of all the psychological weapons that would manipulate our apprehension of reality so that we are afraid.

When God is for us, no one can destroy us, nor destory us.

This is the beginning of each new day: God walks with us and protects us. We have nothing to fear and everything to give to those in need.

Moving into this day with a small jig of joy, a graceful gift from God.

Weeping & Pain

Overcome by God’s Promises

Friday, May 12, 2023

Fire & Smoke

May Colour Our World and Steal Breath From Us,

Doch God Promises Life

Abundant

Jeremiah 31:9

With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back, I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

John 16:22

So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

Words of Grace For Today

That life is filled with pain and sorrow, difficulties and failures, enemies and losses is no surprise for anyone with their eyes open.

Often in the midst of the worst that life serves up for us, it is challenging to remember that God intended us to enjoy life by giving help to others. God did not intend for life to be an endless party, ignoring ours’ and others’ needs. God did intend that life should be rewarding, joy-filled, and filled with vitality of mind, body, and spirit.

So God promises that though today we may have pain and sorrow, God has not forgotten us. God has claimed us as God’s own people and become a father & mother to us all.

What God promises no one can take from us.

That is reason enough to give every bit of effort we have into sharing the goodness of life with others.

Crying!

Crying To God

Or Languishing Away …

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Even The Animals There Were Barely Alive,

Starving Like the People.

Isaiah 50:2

God spoke:Why was no one there when I came? Why did no one answer when I called? Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? By my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water, and die of thirst.

Matthew 8:2

… and there was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.’

Words of Grace For Today

When Julius travelled to the south, climbing the steep cliffs and crossing the miles of barren rock, he found (as he had heard he would) a community of people so poor and poorly prepared for anything that would come their way that it astounded everyone who saw their community that they had survived this long.

Julius stopped at house after house offering to help heal anyone who was sick, to share words of encouragement, to offer advice on how to prepare better for the winter yet to come, and more desperately to increase their food stores if just a bit. Yet at every house he stopped at, he was told that he could not help them, that they would have to make do such as life was for them. He could move on if we knew what was good for him.

So he moved on to the next house, and the next, and the next, and …. After finding almost every house in the community he turned back north for the journey home that would take him through two nights.

He reached the barren rocks and stopped for that first night. As he setup camp and started to prepare for his light meal, such as it was, for he was nearly out of food himself, unwilling to take anything from such a poor community, a voice called out.

He stopped, surprised and then astounded as one of the community he’d just visited cried out to him to help them. He went, met the person, and heard that a house outside the community, a house he had not found was over-filled with people all sick, cast out of the community. The wanted to be healed, if he could take the time to help them.

So he went.

He saw even in the dark of night with the few lights from burning torches.

He diagnosed them with a simple malady of fungus.

He showed them how to grind up the root of a plant that grew nearly everywhere around them, to boil it in a tea. Within a day they would notice a difference as they started to heal. They scoffed at him and told him he must leave to that he did not become sick, too. They insisted.

So he left, camping not far away.

The next day as he was a short ways across the barren rock plateau, he heard a cry again.

He turned to see a young boy of about 11 running towards him. He stopped. The boy who he’d noticed among the sick, already had started to heal. Then the boy danced towards him, knelt in front of him, and begged him to allow him to come with him.

After a long conversation Julius sent the boy back home, instructing him to help the others. He also promised that he would return before the harvest, and then each year at least once, and begin teaching the boy to be a wise healer for his own people, and anyone who was in need.

Fire!

You Want A Fire!

No!!

Say It Ain’t So!

Monday, May 8, 2023

CTV Photo https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/alberta-to-give-wildfire-update-friday-morning-1.6385732

Forest On Fire Wipes Out Everything In It’s Path,

With Nothing To Stop It!

Exodus 3:14

God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’ He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “I am has sent me to you.” ’

Romans 8:31

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

Words of Grace For Today

Tinder dry brown grasses and dead wood in the forest lay bare waiting. The snow had melted quickly in the last week until none was left anywhere. And then the fools would cause havoc, along with lightening strikes that could come at any time, so charged was the atmosphere. And more than a few wildfires had already run through communities less prepared and protected than Julius’, built as it was between two rivers east and west, with bare ground kept bare forming fire-stopping strips on the north side. The sheer rock cliffs up to the plateau of bare stone extending for miles on south completed their protected area. Still, inside their own fields and woods everyone still had to be extra careful. It had been so hot lately thankfully no one thought of even starting fire, not for anything.

In the waking hours Julius smelled smoke from a fire. He knew it started yesterday on the far side of the river, so they were safe. But the smoke had left his nose plugged and his throat dry through the sleeping hours in the dark. So he got up to check the horizon. It was all clear. And it was cool, downright chilly at 7⁰ with a slight breeze. It would warm up. But now Julius was chilled, so he the idea came to him, maybe a fire this morning.

Then all sides and voices in his mind and heart started to through out their various exclamations. What, with these dangerously dry conditions!! Well, it is in a protected stove and a chimney with a top to deflect any sparks downward. But consider everyone! What if it gets away from you! Just one spark and the whole community could be burned to the ground. Houses gone. Crops gone. Trees gone. Food stores gone. The summer and winter storms would level everything! Where would they go? Would anyone survive? Remember the Fisigners! Only one family survived, and that by sheer luck that they ran the right way! But food must be prepared. It’s been three days without proper food. He would invite others to come and cook on his fire if they wished to share the fire. His setup was a bit better than most. That’s for the good of the community! Really! You’re just cold! Yes, I am cold. And I am old! And the cold hurts, for which there is no cure except heat, so there will be a fire. Now quiet all, for I must not make a mistake or it could all go really wrong too quickly to stop. And it was quiet.

Then, having decided, he started a fire to boil water for his breakfast and then to heat up a mix that would be meals for him for the next few days. Today, a bonus, would be a hot meal.

As he prepared his breakfast hot drink, his neighbours started to show up, knowing they were welcome to use Julius’ fire, for the invitation was an open one to all to come and share all he had, especially a ‘safe’ fire in just these kinds of conditions.

As each came, they placed their water or food on the stove, and shared a blessing with Julius: May God who is, be with us always. To which he responded: If God is for us, who is against us?