Category: Snow

From On High –

God’s Own

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

and Chills

Dropping Ice On the Dandelions.

As easy as saving some souls

for God.

Psalm 89:27

I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.

.

Matthew 6:11

Give us this day our daily bread.

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Words of Grace for Today –

…

A cool

T-storm

Dumps

Ice-snow

on the grass and camp.

…

Then hard & short rain

Pounds down.

…

As

I,

Already chilled,

start a fire in the wood stove.

…

What a wonder after

Heat & Smoke

enough to put an end to all work and all goodness

this last week!

…

Temperature

drops from 17⁰ to 8⁰ in minutes.

…

When God drops from on high

down into our world, there’s no telling what wonders will meet us.

…

Jesus came into the world to save it

and us.

…

Greatest wonder ever.

Wonder how God can save even the worst of us.

But then that’s like dropping the temperature in us from evil to good in a few minutes.

Piece of cake,

Or Daily Bread for us all.

Trust God’s work, relax, no worries, chill out.

God’s got this.

A Child To the Barren

Brings Promises to Give the Child Up.

Sunday, June 1, 2025

Is that right?

Is that us?

Looking away,

for something better

than God’s Blessings?

First Samuel 1:11

She made this vow: “O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.”

.

Luke 1:57-58

Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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God’s Grace Flows to all people, though it seems to flow to some more than others.

So when women of old were childless, bearing children the utmost mark of being blessed (things have changed, eh?), it was often that women, thirsty for recognition by their families and communities, would promise all sorts of things to God if God would give them a son (and sons were the only children that seem to mark the mother as blessed, too – and that’s certainly changed, thankfully!)

The most extreme sacrifice would be to give up the child so that the child would serve God his life-long.

Something seems off here.

Did the woman want a son to raise and love?

Or did the woman making such a promise want first of all to appear to be blessed in other people’s eyes, in their husband’s eyes? The son then was really not important?

Or was it the ultimate sacrifice, offered in exchange for being blessed?

Does God work that way?

If I sacrifice what I want most will God give it to me so I can give it away?

Or

is it not that God already gives us blessings upon blessings and asks in return that we give them away to other people to enjoy the blessings, and thus learn to give God thanks?!

Was not John a great gift to Elizabeth, in her late years? And was John not dedicated to serving God, and did not John lose his life in that service? And did not John live a blessed life, if a difficult life?

Being blessed is certainly no guarantee of an easy life.

It would, according to biblical accounts, be exactly the opposite. Being blessed is a guarantee that challenges, trials, and suffering will come our way.

So do you want to be blessed this day?

Of course, since the other alternative is to be cursed, which may be an easy life, but a useless life.

Which is really not living at all.

So we pray:

Bless us God, each day.

Walk with us through the challenges ahead.

The One And Only

Rock Saves Us

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Again

On a Hot, 30⁰C+ Day, The Snow Looks Great!

On Any Day Of Challenges,

God’s Grace Welcomes Us In,

to a cool, life-giving hope.

Psalm 18:31

For who is God except the Lord? And who is a rock besides our God?

.

2 Corinthians 1:9-10

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us; on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again

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Words of Grace for Today –

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Since we keep on sinning in old and rarely in new ways, God keeps saving us, again and again.

We have reason to give God thanks many times each day.

We have reason to hope to a future formed by God, and not ruined by those who try so hard these days (as each day has had many someones ready to ruin it).

That hope does not crumble, like shale.

Rather God gives us hope that is as solid as granite or marble, even more sure than matter existing in the universe, more sure than we can wrap our hearts and minds around.

Try squeezing a piece of granite or marble.

And then trust God to be more solidly for us, for us all.

Blameless, Pure And Holy

Not Quite

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Not at all!

not even the snow is perfect, all crumpled up with chunks

Genesis 6:9

These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God.

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1 Peter 1:15

Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct;

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Words of Grace for Today –

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Ah to be blameless, pure and holy,

but that would be to be not human.

So how was Noah attributed with being blameless.

How can the writer of 1 Peter call us to be holy as Jesus is holy?

Wishful thinking,

the kind that so many people have latched on to, chasing an unreachable dream,

and then using that dream to condemn others so the condemner appears (to themselves anyway) to be better than the condemned,

when

all are equally sinful in God’s eyes, far from pure, holy, or blameless.

…

Yet Jesus offers us the gifts of being reckoned by God as he was: pure, holy, or blameless,

which is not our record, but Jesus’.

Nothing to brag about or be proud of, just

a whole lot of humility and thanks for that,

again,

always.

What Is It?

Heard and Seen

Saturday, March 22, 2025

Can You Hear It?

See the Light,

Hear the Holy Water,

The Free Feast,

Life Abundant

Broadcast to All.

Joel 3:1

For then, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,

.

Acts of the Apostles 2:33

Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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Something has happened, is happening, will happen …

What is it?

It happened when God restored the fortunes of Judah and Israel.

It happened after Jesus was exalted at the right hand of God, having received the promise of the Holy Spirit, when Jesus poured out something that the readers of Luke’s saw and heard.

What is it?

Whatever it was, we know that God is still doing it in our midst, and that God will continue to do it in our midst, so that we can hear and see it as the early followers of Jesus did.

What is it?

It is tied to the restoration of fortunes for God’s people, to Jesus’ return from life and death on earth to sit at God’s right hand, and to Jesus receiving the gifts of the Holy Spirit as promised.

What is it?

It sounds like … It looks like … It could be ….

But the texts don’t give that information, though the fuller texts could.

What is it?

Perhaps our experience with God will inform us as well.

Ah, and that must be it!

You see it, right? You hear it, right?

Knowing God as

The Unknowable

Wednesday 26 February 2025

The Wind blows the snow where it will.

God works as God will.

Trust God’s Graciousness

Isaiah 40:13

Who has directed the spirit of the Lord, or as his counsellor has instructed him?

John 3:8

The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

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Words of Grace For Today

…

So many times we want or desperately feel we must get control, control of an uncontrollable in our lives. So we grasp

grasp

grasp

and think that we can twist

reality

so that we can control God

to be as we need God to be.

But

God remains beyond our control, or our ability to predict.

We can only trust the testimonies of so many saints who have gone before us that God is always gracious and merciful, and abounding in steadfast love.

May that also be enough for us today.

Learning

As We’re Made To

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Learning About Shadows In The Snow,

We Can Do.

About God’s Commandments,

Not.

Psalm 119:73

Your hands have made and fashioned me; give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.

2 Thessalonians 2:15

So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter.

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Words of Grace For Today

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To learn God’s commandments,

The God that made and fashioned us,

it not

merely to read the commandments, and perhaps memorize them, and then be able to regurgitate them for another person.

To learn God’s commandments, the commandments of the God who create us,

is to

know them by heart, mind and soul

so that, like muscle memory,

they become second nature

to our dealings with others

and all we do

as we traverse

the life that God created us to live.

Holding to traditions may seem to help,

but

to actually learn God’s commandments

is something so far beyond anything

we are capable of,

so that we must recognize

only as the Holy Spirit makes us able

can we learn (know, and do, and have embedded in our being)

anything about God

and anything good.

So we pray each day:

with thanks for everything that keeps us alive,

for forgiveness for all our sins,

and that we may do what is good and what is necessary,

which is to trust that the Holy Spirit will be with us through it all,

giving us what we need

to do what is good and necessary each day,

even today.

Especially today.

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.’

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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,

by

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.’

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Words of Grace For Today

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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.

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Words of Grace For Today

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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.