Category: Morning

Razing

Hell-Raisers?

Friday, June 30, 2023

Solitude,

Morning Fishing,

Until the Hell-Raising SkiDoos

Blow It To Bits

Jeremiah 20:11

But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they will not prevail. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonour will never be forgotten.

Luke 17:5

The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’

Words of Grace For Today

As a departing word a couple I’d just met wished me health and well-being. I thanked them wholeheartedly. They were kind people. There’s not enough of that kind of folk.

I know too many people who would rather be wished wealth and hell-being, and more and more of it, since they orient their lives towards all the wealth they can get, legally or illegally or blatantly criminally. They want the wealth so that they can continue to raise as much hell as possible, taking all the pleasure from every day that they can steal, usually from others, but also from their own health and well-being.

Being anywhere near those kind of people is dangerous. Even if they do not target you, you are going to fall victim for their greedy progress through life, leaving a ‘scorched earth’ behind them, all too often with lots of people getting burned. These kind of people are persecutors of so many people, many more unintended victims of the wide swatch of destruction they leave in their wake.

We can understand then when Jeremiah celebrates that God will put those who persecute him to shame, letting them stumble and fall into dishonour. Life would be so much better, we could easily think, if God would take all those hell-being-ers and give them a quick exit of shame out of this world.

Yet God doesn’t do this for us. Instead God calls us to forgive these destroyers of life. God wants to be able to rejoice at their repentance. Even when we cannot imagine they even see their sins yet alone consider repenting, God continues to give them breath and hopes. When God hopes, surprising things happen.

But for us to tolerate these hell-being-ers and suffer their destruction that seems to know no bounds?! How can we do this.

Once again we cry with the disciples: “LORD, INCREASE OUR FAITH!”

Comfort

Like Money Cannot Buy

Monday, June 26, 2023

The Water and Sand May Go On,

But We Will All Die!

So What To Do Today?

Psalm 23:4

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me.

2 Corinthians 4:8-9

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;

Words of Grace For Today

God knows life throws some pretty tough curve balls at us. For many it doesn’t matter how we swing at ‘em, we ain’t going to hit ‘em. Even the balls we manage to hit seem to be pop flies, or snagged in the outfield by some swift-footed crook – ooppps, I mean fielder.

This has not been different for as long as humans can remember time through writings and stories told.

How then is the Psalmist able to write “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil?”

How is Paul able to write, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed?”

Many people of all time have sought solace from the incoming bombs and disasters of life, by accumulating wealth and using it.

But let me ask you, “Do you really think you will be happier after you spend money on something?”

Yes, sure, you can go out and buy a ‘bomb shelter’ to protect you from the nuclear war going on outside your doors, but it won’t do a thing to save your life when the nuclear bombs start exploding, no matter how far away they are or how deep your shelter is built.

Spending money on bomb shelters and anything else to protect ourselves is almost all mere illusion and delusion. Death is coming and it will get us all, no matter what we do.

The only real way to deal with the ‘bombs’ of life is, as the Psalmist notes, to recognize that God is with us, and that God protects us as we need to be protected … not as we would like to be, but as God knows we need to be.

With that we can face each day, assured and resilient. God will have God’s way with us.

And that can be exhilarating but it need not be filled with fear.

Take a breath. Trust that God walks with us. And onward ….

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!

The Rock

Sends the Unseen

Saturday, May 27, 2023

What Are We To Do

When The Morning Sun Hides

It’s Warmth and

Life-Giving Rays?

Deuteronomy 32:4

The Rock, his work is perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God, without deceit, just and upright is he;

1 John 3:24

All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.

Words of Grace For Today

As Julius and his community worked and waited and struggled to survive in their hunting camp, overfilled by themselves and their many guest, not only the New Iblers, Julius opened Sotorous’ journal and found this passage, an old passage that Sotorus had copied from the time when the earth held nearly 8 billion people and wars and climate change started to displace people:

While our worlds turn upside down on us, through wildfires, smoke, floods, droughts, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, melting polar ice and permafrost, or through conflicts (personal and geopolitical), or through loss of health, homes, security and peace, or death, how are to know that all is well with us and the world.

We lose all and any sense of orientation that there is an order and rhythm to life that we can rely on, waking in the morning, and sleeping in the evening.

The creation story that begins in Genesis 1 has a rhythm to it, as it lays out the rhyme and reason that God creates the universe, our world and all that is in it: God calls it good.

What are we to do when we no longer sense or can find that rhyme and reason, that rhythm of each day and night, and God’s presence and purpose to create a universe and life in it that is good?

We are helpless on our own.

God planned for this, too.

God let it be written again and again that God is not a God filled with deceit and scheming against us. If only we could hear those words and trust them. But even that kind of trust is gone.

What are we to do?

There is nothing we can do. It not only appears that way, it really is that way.

And we do not need to do anything.

God sends the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. It is the work of the Spirit that allows us at any time in our lives, to sense God’s rhyme and reason, God’s rhythm and order, God’s Grace and Love.

When all sense of any order is gone from our lives, it is not up to us to make it right. God will do that.

God will do that.

God wills that God’s Spirit will do that in us.

So we live each day, that we have a sense of God’s rhyme and reason, filled with thanks and praise.

So when that order is gone, we wait and hope beyond hope that God’s purpose and order for our lives will be given to us again.

So we pray in our chaos: help us God!

Trusting that all will be well, all will be well, all manner of things will be well.

Julius read this to the gathered community on their day of rest.

Led by the New Iblers and God’s Spirit the community responded in a cacophony of voices: “Help us God! Help us God! Help us God!”

Julius ended with: “This the Spirit shows us: All will be well! All will be well! All manner of things will be well. – Let us give God’s Thanks.”

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.

The Kingdom

Not of this world, but in it.

Tuesday, May 9, 2023

Even as the Light of Warmth Burns For Us During Cold Days,

So God Rules Even When We See Rampant Injustice.

Daniel 2:44

And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall this kingdom be left to another people. It shall crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand for ever;

Luke 22:29-30

and I confer on you, just as my Father has conferred on me, a kingdom, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Words of Grace For Today

What can we hope for? While reports of injustices against other people receive from most a shrug of the shoulders (if even that), the cries for help rise from new and old corners: the newly homeless, wildfire evacuees with nothing left at home, drowning victims of illegal immigrants, volcano or flood or storm or drought displaced, the innocent and cruelly convicted, the victims of unjust wars and conflicts, the victims of spousal abuse (both men and women) … and the children, always the children.

We can hope and work to create a just world, a just kingdom where we rule and provide justice for all. Though this has been clearly demonstrated to be mostly a futile effort. For if we rule, we will rule unjustly like all others. And whatever our efforts may be we can never eliminate injustices in our lands or on this earth. We humans are too perverted towards sin and doing others harm to be able to overcome all that we do against each other.

We can and should still work to bring justice where we can, little as that may be. One case at a time.

We can and should look to God’s promises that God’s Kingdom is already arrived on earth. We may not see it for all the injustices of all kinds in every corner. Yet God has established God’s rule, since the beginning of time.

Trusting God’s promises gives us courage to take on injustices, and keep working even when it seems we make no progress.

Already we feast at Jesus’ table.

Already we enjoy peace that surpasses all understanding.

Already God has judged those who need to be judged.

Thankfully we do not need to be, nor will we ever be able to, judge the 12 tribes or anyone else. Fortunately that is God’s work, and we can trust God to do it right.

This is another day in God’s kingdom, where God rules, and we work as God’s servants to share life abundant with as many people as we are able.

Abandoned?

Abandoned

To Wonders of Wonders

Thursday, April 27, 2023

The Wonders of Wonders

Surround Us

Each New Day.

Isaiah 44:21

Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you, you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.

Romans 11:1

I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

Words of Grace For Today

When Covid, on top of deceptions and lies, on top of deteriorating health, on top of life decaying into old age, leaves one feeling abandoned …

and who cannot identify with that reality when no one is there or here, or anywhere …

the only saving grace is to know and trust that God has not forgotten us, that God has not rejected us.

For the beauty of the world still surrounds us.

The celebration each morning still reflects the light of Christ in the Eucharist.

The provisions for survival are still possible.

And life is still possible, even peaceful, and we have learned to enjoy solitude immensely, knowing God walks with us, is for us, and protects us.

Is this not also the blessing God provides for us all?

The Reason

The Real

Renewed Reason To Celebrate

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Where Once Fishers Fished for Food,

Now Is Empty,

Dying Ice.

Jeremiah 33:10-11

Thus says the Lord: In this place of which you say, ‘It is a waste without human beings or animals’, in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without inhabitants, human or animal, there shall once more be heard the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank-offerings to the house of the Lord:
‘Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his steadfast love endures for ever!’ For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first, says the Lord.

Titus 2:11

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all,

Words of Grace For Today

How many desolate places are there these days, where no more are there inhabitants or animals to be found? Where conflict and destruction of wars have chased all living things away? Or climate change storms or earthquakes or floods or droughts or rising oceans or … (you name it) have made places uninhabitable?

How many desolate places are there these days, where inhabitants and animals are to be found? Where Covid isolation, strife among neighbours and within families, or greed for power has pitted some against others, or greed based lies have destroyed the foundations of trust, decimating all that remains of a place of safety where one used to acknowledge, converse, suffering with, mourn with, and celebrate joyfully with others?

Covid is no longer treated as a pandemic, yet long Covid has taken a greater toll than just the number of those who have succumbed to death because of Covid. And such a greater number of people all across the world have suffered irreparable damage because of the mostly sensibly enforced isolation of Covid restrictions. Elderly people in care homes, seniors with age and health issues, those suffering dementia, those already caught in the grips of addictions to alcohol, drugs, or anything else, people of all ages with compromised health, children of all ages, school age children deprived of years of learning opportunities and community with other children, extroverts of all flavours cut off from what energizes them, and even introverts and hermits driven further from others.

So many people suffer and will not recover. Others are slowly recovering, like feet that slowly recover feeling more than two years after a rather simple case of Covid early on before the variants of concern became household things.

But how does one reach out?

How does one welcome others, when welcoming them places everyone at new and unseen risks, even risk of death?

How does one carry on without contact with others, giving and receiving the simplest kinds of care?

This is not the first time we have faced such challenges. Many times in millennia gone by, we cried to God to save us,

and God brought voices of mirth and joy to ring from places so desolate not one human or animal had been found there, where before desolation took hold the hustle and bustle of life and community had been vibrant.

These are exactly the kind of challenges we face as people, for which Jesus came, lived among us, taught, ministered to and cured all that ails us, and demonstrated the power of God, not in acts of taking over worldly powers, but in the weakness of loving humans, all of us, just as we are, and showing us how the power of forgiveness gives new life to us all.

So we too, in slow recovery, will sing this day. We will sing God’s praise and pray that those lost will be found, those sick will recover, those dying will be set free to come home to Jesus.

Let the choruses ring out, and once again mark the land as blessed in all ways.

At Home

Looking To God’s Glory

Giving God ‘Omage

Monday, April 17, 2023

All Creation Turns Towards …

Jeremiah 51:50

You survivors of the sword, go, do not linger! Remember the Lord in a distant land, `and let Jerusalem come into your mind.

Ephesians 2:19

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God,

Words of Grace For Today

There are more times in human history for more people than not, who have been robbed of their homes and sent out looking for … a life.

Yet, no matter how many times we lose our homes, and even our sense of home, though we may still have sticks and stones, plastics and metal, fibres and wires around us constituting some kind of shelter against the elements and the danger of intruders into our lives, God does not lose track of us.

God calls to us, not to lose track of God’s home for us, that provides shelter from the greatest dangers of all, the evils of fear, hate, and revenge. For God has not only promised and continually demonstrated that God keeps this promise (to be with us always), God also transformed us from the heart and soul to the outer cells of our skins. God has transformed us from sinners into sinner-saints, the ones who carry God’s Word of Grace to all the creation.

Now how are we going to do that today, anyway?

Same old, same old,

or

are we ready always to step out on the new path God sets before us?

The sun rises.

All creation turns it’s face to God’s glory.

And we sinner-saints are turned as well,

to bask in God’s Grace, in the homes God gives us (some with, some without a structure on this earth.)