Making Way

Through uncharted, turbulent waters

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Where Will Our Journeys End?

Buried in Cold Graves?

Or …?

Isaiah 43:16

Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters,

John 14:3-4

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

We try to make our way through the days ahead, not knowing what will come for sure, for the future, though it repeats the past often, is not at all predictable, not at all.

Only God can part the waters of the Red Sea for the rag-tag group running for their lives from Pharaoh’s army. Only God can part the water of the future’s chaos to show us the greatest and only security there is for our lives: that God walks with us into each new day. God walks right there along side us through all the frightful unknowns and challenges, the temptations and our failings, and the offering of joys and small triumphs. Hearing God’s footfalls beside us give us courage like none other.

For we know, that, no matter how circuitous and daunting our paths may turn out to be, the end of our journey will be at home with Jesus.

Smarts

Or Smart-ss, or rather Wisdom?

Thursday, March 21, 2024

Finding Our Way,

Following the Path of …?

Daniel 2:21

He changes times and seasons, deposes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.

1 Corinthians 1:30-31

He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

Oh, we try!

We try to be as smart as we can, but

the results are often that we are just pretending, having missed the boat on wisdom and instead having jumped aboard the ship of fools.

God, by comparison to our futile efforts, gives some great capacity for knowledge and others for wisdom. Seldom do the two overlap, but when they do …

Then we enjoy pearls of wisdom that are precious, and never do they call attention to the one so gifted, but rather point to the giver of everything, especially wisdom, – God our Creator, Saviour, and Sustainer.

To give God thanks, pointing to all things evil and life ending for others, is a sign of true evil and foolishness.

To give God thanks, and point to God for all things good, this is a sign of true wisdom.

Let us pray today we may be gathered in by the Holy Spirit in the second category, able to share all we are and have with those in need.

Treasure That Fear?

Or Mix It With Love?

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Lynx Prowl Here.

Fear and Love

Allow One to Live On Here

Isaiah 33:5-6

The Lord is exalted, he dwells on high; he filled Zion with justice and righteousness; he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure.

Acts of the Apostles 9:31

Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

Fear is a great motivator. Some say it is precisely what brings people to seek refuge in totalitarian, fascist rulers, enter Putin and Trump and a host of others not so obvious, (and a long long long list from history) but well on their way to being rulers, not leaders,

and rulers that should be feared rather than embraced! But

what can we do?

Pray and vote, and hope.

As for God, often fear is seen as our appropriate attitude towards the Almighty who judges everyone and condemns more than a few.

But that gets us nowhere in life other than in the same old rat race trying to make our way to goodness and God’s good graces.

Thank God it ain’t that way God put it together for us.

God comes and gives us (as gifts, fully gifts) life, forgiveness, healing, and renewal …

each day.

So Luke adds, the ‘comfort of the Holy Spirit’ and

Martin Luther speaks of ‘fear and love God, so that ….’

Always not just fear, for it paralyzes us and leaves us not so much freewilled beings, but instinctual ‘reptilian’ reactionaries, by fear reducedd to choosing between freezing, flighting, or fighting. Usually not the best options, though sometimes it is.

For those times, let fear motivate us, we pray.

But for all others, let love be the stronger companion of fear,

also this day.

Being First

To Throw Deadly Stones

Sunday 4 February 2024

The Fullness of Life is Only

a Not-Stone’s-Throw Ahead

Isaiah 50:8

… he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me.

John 8:10-11

Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, sir.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’]]

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

It’s so common that there is no story in it: people gather in mobs (virtual now, or hidden across communities as always, and in physical mobs) to ‘throw’ the deadly stones to kill off their neighbour they have judged to be sinful beyond the pale.

In fact the lynching mobs are seldom accurate and hardly ever just.

What is a miracle is that when Jesus steps in

those so eager to throw the first weapon of death

step away

for Jesus and his followers have always had a way of making reality come into focus

for us all

especially when we surely do not want that focus to reveal

how sinful are and how much evil we have perpetrated on undeserving others,

– as if condemning and punishing them, by shunning, by exile, or by death,

could ever free us from our sins.

– as if somehow putting them on a more terrible rung than us on the ladder of evil-good would somehow make us less evil and somehow good, or at least good enough!

The result of our oh so common ‘stone throwing’ is that our own sins increase and the Devil consumes more and more of our souls

until there is nothing left of good in us.

…

Our only hope then (as always) is that God will forgive us.

Are we again too proud to be forgiven, for accepting forgiveness requires an admission of guilt.

That admission is only possible when we trust the promise God makes in so many ways: to forgive us and renew us and return us to the fullness of life (where stone throwing is not even considered an option.) From within God’s Grace we take on the burdens of forgiving others, in order that they may (also) receive the fullness of life as a gift.

Dismal, Desperate Visions

Of Renewed Creation

Monday 22 January 2024

Hungering For

Creation Renewed,

As Fresh As New Snow

Covering Every Past Evil

Isaiah 45:8

Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness;let the earth open, that salvation may spring up, and let it cause righteousness to sprout up also; I the Lord have created it.

2 Peter 3:13

But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

While the reality of everyday life is quite dismal, more so for many than for us, even the poor and homeless in Canada, for war and famine are things very few of us struggle with and many across the globe face that and worse …

So dismal is life, as it can be seen by any set of eyes, for travails is something humans are always able to create no matter their circumstances, good or bad …

So dismal is life when all is going so well and nothing is satisfactory, for we humans always dream of more, and more and more until we out dream the possibilities of being anything at all …

So dismal is it all

that the vision of water pouring down from on high on the parched earth and into our parched hearts, bringing blossoms and crops to grow in abundance, abundance to feed all our hungers and pains of dreams unmet …

that the vision of showers raining down righteousness and justice for all so that no more do any suffer the evil of lies and greed of others, stealing life out from under us …

that the vision of God bringing from this old creation, so corrupted by our collective and accumulated evils that we have a hard time finding the goodness God declared was there when God created it from the void and chaos – God bring from this old creation a new creation, a creation good from the beginning to the end, untainted by our sins and evils done to others …

that the vision of God’s hand extending into our lives and making things right is so yearned for and dreamt of that we are like the parched land starved for more than 40 years …

So dismal is it all and our God given vision of God putting it right almost takes our breath away …

and then we realize that God has already accomplished this

and this dismal world is already redeemed and made new by God’s mercy and steadfast love, so clearly demonstrated in Jesus’ life, healing, death and resurrection, that

we can only remember now

to breathe in the fresh air

that has renewed what

we saw as so dismal

and made it new

wonderfully

new.

Maker

Maker Glue

Saturday 20 January 2024

Even the ‘glue’ that holds snow

to the branches

under the bright sun

in the c.c..co..cold.

Jeremiah 10:12

It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.

Colossians 1:17

He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

To the tiniest piece of physical reality (a quantum is it now?) to the greatest galaxies turning about themselves and in themselves,

and also here on earth as we twirl moving around the sun,

each held in place in relation to the rest by

gravity and …

well held in place by far more complex physical and sub- and meta-physical things than I can name

–

all this God created

and God holds it together.

So also God created each of us, our hearts, minds, and spirits,

holding us together as we breathe and live and move and hope and love and

…

and everything we do and are.

This day again we pray in thanks for all things that keep us alive, especially for the Grace of God that gives us life and hope

and everything.

Orphans

Not Ever.

Wednesday 17 January 2024

Walking Alone,

No More.

Hosea 11:3

Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them.

John 14:18

‘I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

Orphans.

Orphans and bastards disowned by both parents.

Orphans and bastards and others set to the side by society

left homeless, without a country

without an inheritance or past or future.

God knows there will always be way too many of these in all generations.

God promises that, once God claims us as children, God will not abandon us.

We will not become orphans.

Jesus came, Jesus walks with us each day, Jesus will come again to finish the transformation of all creation to God’s will that we love God, one another, ourselves, and all creation.

A small promise fulfilled each day.

Also this day.

So what will we do with this promise today?

Do Right

(if we can.)

Sunday 14 January 2024

Make No MIstake,

Most of Life is This Clear,

as Our Choices Are,

As wELl,

make no mistake?

Isaiah 56:1

Thus says the Lord: Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed.

Matthew 3:14-15

John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he consented.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

How to do what is right, when so many people stand in the way of anyone doing right, for they have turned truth upside down, hidden it under the foundations of their straw houses, and gone on to create their own ‘truth’.

Only by the power of the Holy Spirit can we do right,

but it’s a nice piece of advice

to keep in mind

if and when

we think

are free to choose.

For Doing Right gives others life, and makes obvious the false ‘truths’ that so many people live out in their lives.

Thanks to God that the Holy Spirit gives us the awareness that we are made free

free to choose

to do right

free to share

all that life is

free to give

thanks to God

for all that is good.

New Plantings

Friday, December 8, 2023

Sometimes Finding Our Way is Difficult,

and Even Looking To Where We Have Been

Is Hard to Find.

Isaiah 43:18-19

Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Matthew 13:31

He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field ….’

…

Words of Grace For Today

We cannot see the future and know what it is for sure.

Yes, we have ideas or estimations or imaginations, but we simply cannot know the future. Lots of people would give so much to be able to know the future, but that’s because it’d be a huge advantage over all the rest of us.

So we have the past, and we spend lots of time studying the past. We even have wise sayings that tell us that if we do not study and learn from our past we are bound to repeat our failings in the future.

Then the wisdom of scriptures tell us, more than once, that we ought not to consider the things of the past, that God is doing something new, that we ought to look past our past (of sins, especially) and accept God’s forgiveness, so that we can move into a new future.

Not that we have much ability to forget the past, especially sins done against us and our own sins …

unless …

we realize we participate in God’s forgiveness whether we know it or not.

Then

with no more explanation than that God walks with us

we can leave our pasts in the past

and

embrace the future God has for us

and

for all those we forgive.

And wait for the new seeds of life to sprout in and around us,

as God grows

a new

future in and among us.

Grace

Sunday, November 5, 2023

This is Life,

To Walk Free In through the Woods, through the Snow,

and Know it is All Gift.

Especially to Be Able to Walk.

Proverbs 21:21

Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life and honour.

Matthew 6:33

But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Death

Death comes in so many ways, quick and merciful, slow and cruel, hungry and thirsty …

when so many people act from selfish motives, against anything good for others, with violence or deception, with twisted words and cruel actions, without regard for decency or rightness, even where there is not much by which to gauge what is right and what is wrong …

so even truth seems difficult to remember …

From where will we find strength to remember what counts, what is truly valuable, what speaks truth clearly enough not to be drown out by all the other voices,

and by our own pain, grief, and despair,

so that we know God’s grace, gentleness, steadfast love and … and hope for all the future days as rough as they may be.

For as we stare death in the face

we know

both the Devil’s worst

and God’s best,

a freedom and truth in the deepest, widest way,

to see Grace coming for us again

to see God’s Grace clearly coming for us again

and to see God’s all-embracing Grace clearly coming for us again

… again.

Death met by God’s Grace creates hope that is unrelenting and … undying.

That’s what Jesus give us … the

End of death

Now we can chase away our living days pursing righteousness and kindness or striving after the kingdom of God and his righteousness in order to find life and honour.

This, though is a fantasy made by people who cannot accept that life and honour, God’s kingdom and righteousness are gifts, gifts that we can never earn, nor achieve, or pursue successfully, nor come close to with our strivings.

And that is what Jesus teaches us about death, sins, and life as God’s children.

It’s all gift … all the way down.

And all the way up.

And all around.