Category: Injustice

Everything is

Just the Same

Saturday, March 15, 2025

Old Story

The Blues,

from Sky to Ice

and Back.

Isaiah 62:2

The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.

.

2 Corinthians 5:17

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

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Words of Grace for Today –

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The Promises people make,

the Promises scripture makes on behalf of God,

the Promises people make to one another,

the Promises.

…

How can it all be new,

when it’s the same old, same old.

Putting creases on my face, and on yours.

Wearing my all down, down, down.

…

promises

promises

promises

…

More lines, more grief, more loss, more sorrow, more lines.

Until my face, your face, is no more, except dust.

…

So?

Not Found

Zeroed out.

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Goners

Smoke steals air

on our way to

zeroing ourselves out of life.

Jeremiah 50:20

In those days and at that time, says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and none shall be found; for I will pardon the remnant that I have spared.

.

1 Peter 2:24

He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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The order was given

by the devil’s generals

to zero us all out.

Out of shelter, clothing, food, water, even air.

Out of energy, movement, thought.

Out of time, out of hope, out of love.

…

Instead God came to zero out our sins

so that we might live free from the incapacitating chains of fear

so that we might live ready and able to give life to others

so that we might be filled with hope and love for all people.

An impossible journey made possible by the only one who made the journey to death and hell to pay for our sins of helping the generals of the devil zero out other people.

So we step forward, against all expectations

into the light of humble penance,

and hope for love that

can transform us

and

the world.

Looking Back

Trusting Forward

Monday 3 February 2025

As the shadows lengthen,

the day of life coming to a close,

remember –

blessed Light

Ezra 8:31

Then we left the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem; the hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes along the way.

2 Timothy 3:11

… my persecutions, and my suffering the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.

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Words of Grace For Today

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What memories I have, of trials, of lies, of abuse, of un-earned prison, of false judgments, of concerted efforts to destroy our reputations, of rejections, of false accusations, of being told to leave, of being forced to leave town …

of surviving, by God’s grace alone, when all else had failed,

yet being loved profoundly,

of experiencing God’s walking along with me,

of trust rebuilt from the foundations of life,

of many helping in small ways and huge ways,

of being dependent yet free,

of living the dream (hard as it turns out to be).

I’m sure you have your memories of life’s challenges as well.

Hopefully you have known and remember that God has walked with you through them, not removing them or resolving them, but equipping you to endure them to whichever end, theirs or yours, and knowing you are blessed to know life in it’s fullest and most truthful blessedness.

With the memories of God’s blessing in the past comes a hard-won trust in God’s promises for our futures.

Moving into today … all will be well, all will be well, all manner of things will be well.

Forgive

Even the Atrocities!?

Monday, October 7, 2024

1 Yr After The Attack On Israel, Is There Hope?

Photo by Saša Petricic · CBC News https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/israel-gaza-west-bank-year-war-1.7344060?cmp=newsletter_CBC%20News%20Morning%20Brief_12625_1736161 accessed 2024.10Oct07

Jeremiah 14:7

Although our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for your name’s sake; our apostasies indeed are many, and we have sinned against you.

Matthew 6:14

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you;

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Words of Grace For Today

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Sin is a hard thing to live beyond.

It has a way of haunting us,

even when we do not know it,

creeping into our fears, our nightmares, our reactions to stress, our hopes,

eating at us

like locust eat a landscaped dead, one bite at a time

times millions

like the number of our small sins.

How do we find freedom from these living, consuming, deadly haunts in our minds and souls?

…

God knew we’d need help,

so God sent Jesus, to free us with his sacrifice, so dramatic, less we miss out what God does for us,

and each day God promises to forgive us,

no strings attached!

God asks (non-binding is the request, but it completes our freedom) to forgive others as well.

Not doing so is another sin,

which eats at us again.

Are there really any circumstances – consequences of another’s sin – that cannot be forgiven?

Very definitely, and yet God forgives us for all of them, and asks us (non-binding is the request, but it completes our freedom) to forgive others these atrocities as well.

Are we up to it today?

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?

Or

Live futile lives trying to be our own godlets?

Signs?

For Some, Maybe.

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

You May Well Be The Only Glimmer of Hope For So Many This Day!

Psalm 65:11-12

You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness.
The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy

Acts of the Apostles 14:17

God has not left us all without a witness of God’s doing good—giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filling you with food and your hearts with joy.

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Words of Grace For Today

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The bounty that God provides reaches the tables of some, but not all people. Not by a long shot.

Millions will not have enough to eat today, as for days or years before and so it will be for days or years to come.

Yes, the land produces enough food to feed all the 8 billion plus people on earth.

But

we do not distribute it fairly, to all people. We do not even distribute it unfairly to some people; they get next to nothing. We distribute it cruelly. For people who go hungry, and without sufficient water, know that there are places on earth where people get plenty to eat and have more than enough water for each day.

What do we do about it?

What can we do about it, today?

Start by giving God sincere thanks for everything that keeps us alive, including food and water.

Then pray that God will forgive us our sins.

Then start paying attention to how one can help distribute food to those without enough: food bank donations and volunteering, soup kitchen contributions and volunteering, political awareness and actions focused on encouraging and supporting politicians who work to distribute food equitably, who work for food security for everyone!

Then end the day with thanks to God for all that one can do, for all the people one has been able to help,

and for all the people still waiting for enough

to survive

another

day.

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.

Walk On

Toward Justice and Love

Monday, March 18, 2024

Take a step in the right direction,

Towards the Light and Love

of Life.

Isaiah 10:1-2

Ah, you who make iniquitous decrees, who write oppressive statutes, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be your spoil, and that you may make the orphans your prey!

Matthew 7:12

‘In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.

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Words of Grace For Today

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What do we want?

What can we do?

Is it so hard to do for others, what we would want for ourselves,

and to do it first for others,

before expecting it will be done (by us or others) for us?

A small step away from injustice and towards the love that holds the universe together,

and gives life to every heart.

Ready

march

or rather walk on

by Grace alone.

Guests?

We Are All Guests

Some Desperately Need Homes, NOW!

Friday 12 January 2024

globalnews.ca/news/10213526/edmonton-rowland-road-homeless-encampment/

“Edmonton police officers and city crews could be seen at a homeless encampment in the area of 95th Street and Rowland Road on Tuesday morning [9 January 2024]. Police and cleanup crews were met with resistance from people who live in the camp and from advocates who showed up to support them.” Global News

Psalm 119:19

I live as an alien in the land; do not hide your commandments from me.

[or another translation: I am a guest on earth.]

2 Corinthians 5:1

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

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Words of Grace For Today

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Just because we know that we have a home waiting for us

after life

even if the earth is destroyed

even if the universe is destroyed,

does not give us an excuse to destroy

life

the earth

this universe!

These are gifts from God

to be treasured.

Life to be lived with integrity, kindness, and mercy for others.

The earth to be used and guarded from destruction so that future generations have a better earth to live on.

The universe to be explored and admired and guarded from destruction of all kinds, because this is our home now

And God said life, the earth, and all the universe are Good.

So we ought to keep it all that way.

Instead of bulldozing tent cities, the last, most secure place for many people who find themselves homeless in the cold of winter and the heat of summer,

How about making a home for them as well,

a good, safe, nurturing home

on earth?!

Hey You!

Ya, You! You know who you are!

Wednesday 10 January 2024

Do We Dare Depart From the Worn Path of Evil,

and Follow the Light of Christ?

Psalm 34:14

Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

Romans 14:19

Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual edification.

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Words of Grace For Today

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Depart from Evil …

Well to depart one must first be engaged in it, right?

So, you out there, who are engaged in evil, you know who you are, depart from it!

It does you no good!

It destroys other people, as you intend, and even beyond what you intend. And it also destroys the goodness of life for you yourselves, blind to that as you may be. But the Devil has your hearts and souls wrapped up like a hot sauced enchilada. One bite into your way of life and it’s curling sweats, gasping for breath, grabbing for water that does no good, (not even fruit juice can help against the Devil’s hot sauce) and then it’s lights out ….

Oh, you may still be breathing, but it’s the fire of the Devil that consumes everyone around you and yourself.

The only escape is to depart from Evil and seek peace so diligently that it becomes one’s life’s pursuit.

Well, that won’t work either.

The only escape is God’s Grace promised of old, promised to each of us in our baptisms, and demonstrated most clearly in the life, healing, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God’s own Son.

Thankfully, we receive that Grace each morning, noon, and night (and all moments in between!) Therefore we are able to purse peace and what makes for mutual edification, mutual among all people!

What a day God has open for us today?

Dare we step into it?