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.’]]

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 ….’

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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.

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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.

Delights?

or Despair?

Friday, October 27, 2023

A drab morning, snow falling, making wood collecting more difficult.

Or delight in the cool that makes working outside a bit easier

than with countless bugs looking for a meal from your skin?

Psalm 27:1

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Philippians 4:13

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Courage is hard to come by when one is down and out, beaten again and again by enemies, lies, deceptions, and others’ greed.

At times one has to agree with Thomas Hobbes when he said about life being ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’.

God answers that and all our other despairing with a simple reassurance: God is with us through it all.

Like walking in a sunset alone, still unable to do anything but despair how tough life is, ‘going it alone’ is always a recipe for struggles without end.

Like walking in a sunset with a loved one, the experience grows beyond itself to convince you two that life is a wonderful, marvellous adventure, with promise unending of things good and better.

So God walking with us through it all, turns life inside out with joy, delights, and hope.

And when God walks with us, we need not be overcome with fear of yet another enemy taking more of life from us, for even if that does happen, God will show us how to find joy and delight in all that life is for us.

Today, as the snow falls again, and then hard cold of winter is coming, the joy is in the warmth provided by a hot fire in the wood stove, held close by many insulated tarps. It may not be much, but it is as much a home as I have, and in it I find endless delight even as the challenges never cease to more than fully occupy my days.

So what will we see today? The enemies efforts or God’s Grace and delights for us?

Gentleness,

Or Arthritis, Or …

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

Like Nighttime Snow

Freezing The Pine’s ‘Green’,

Arthritis Grips One’s Thumbs

(and other parts)

Without Warning

Psalm 34:3

O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.

Philippians 4:4-5

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.

Words of Grace For Today

A low pressure area (weather) approaches and the barometer drops like lead balloons or truth entering a courtroom.

Lifting a 22’ post to vertical to be packed tight in a hole yesterday leaves me cautious with my back.

But why are my thumbs complaining so loudly. Ah, yes. The lifts, only a few inches at a time, were many over hours … and I used a small but still heavy and very sturdy tree top with many side branches to lift the post and then to support the post between lifts. The best grip (well the only workable grip) put my left thumb in a vise below one of those side branches. So today, screaming out with pain, it wants heat and it’s cool in here since I’ve cooled it down to 13⁰ with the night air to prepare for the coming heat of the day (over 30⁰).

Lots of things, aggressive things, could be done, like turbo pain relievers. But how is one gentle with pain.

Well, one is gentle with arthritis if one has any good experiences with it. Aggressive hardly ever works and is more likely to make it worse. So the coffee press is filled from the hot water pan with a cup. That task done the cup automatically gets held just a few minutes longer in that hand and then is run around the outside of the thumb to warm it. Still the pain.

So after breakfast, the coffee press always has about 3/4 cup of coffee in the bottom with the grounds that does not pour out without extreme measures and then always with grounds in it anyway, so it’s hot after the last cup is poured and it gently, carefully (it’s almost too hot to touch) serves as a heat pad, and finally the the pain subsides enough so that I can write (well type.)

And the day is good.

When it’s not one’s own body that’s screaming in pain, but another person cursing in anger, the same kind of approach works best, if one knows what is good for oneself and others. Find what soothes the pain that is behind the anger, since all anger at it’s beginning and core is pain, is being hurt.

And that hurt allowed to grow into anger. And that anger left to fester by someone who does not know what hurts them grows to nearly fill or actually overfill, the person’s every hour. And that overfill of past pain become anger gets set off with a small spark of pain way too often. And the frequent fire of anger (without any obvious cause) grows until the person is in full out rage … every hour of every day, until ….

So when you encounter an angry person it’s almost impossible to deal to any good effect with the anger that grows out of the present situation, … because, well, that isn’t the pain the person is ‘venting’ with anger or rage.

And the only way to calm the current situation is …

you got it,

with gentleness

that soothes not only the current pain but all that pain built up under the surface.

Gentleness goes a long way, everyday,

with everyone.

Even me.

Even you.

How could God not advise us to let everyone know our gentleness?

How can we exercise gentleness even today?

Or is everything a nail since we are always hammers!? (Hurts my thumb just to think that!)

Taking Ownership

(Really!??)

Monday, May 29, 2023

Who Can Say

They Own

This Tree and the Snow On It?

Haggai 2:8

The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts.

Acts of the Apostles 4:32

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.

Words of Grace For Today

That God owns the precious metals, and they do not belong to any human is quite the thought. As is the report that the early Christians were of ‘one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.’

We may wish that things were so, but even among Christians, things are given value and claimed to be owned by individuals. Oh, sure, for periods of time ownership may be shared or given over to an entity representing the whole group (as in communes like the Hutterites) but us humans always strive to have it for ourselves. It is not easy for most of us to simply share all we have, and it is even harder for us to share everything with a large group all the time. It just does not happen.

The difficulty with making a claim that God owns all the precious metals (gold and silver are just two of many) is that it starts with the premise that some metals are more precious than others. That degree of preciousness is a human construct. We are the ones who say that silver and gold, platinum and rare-earth metals are more valuable than just plain dirt and rocks. And we are the ones who give an upgraded value to concrete, sand, oil, gas, (and on goes the list).

So when we say that all the gold and silver (and all the precious metals and elements) belong to God, we start by acknowledging and giving assent to the claim that some things are more valuable than others.

Everything belongs to God.

Even we belong to God.

The rest of what is on earth is all stewardship, not ownership. But we quickly ‘forget’ that we are mere ‘renters’ on this earth.

The proper perspective is that we are stewards, providing care for what is God’s. And God has always wanted us to share with everyone, so everyone has enough to live abundantly.

We only sort of imitate that with our ‘good deeds’ and charity. If we could actually share with everyone, holding everything in common with all other people, the world would look entirely different, and we would live differently.

We pray that this day we can do another bit of imitating Christ, giving to those in need.