Hovering Overhead

Protection? … or Drones!

Friday, March 28, 2025

What Do We Hear/See?

See the Drone Threat, Or Is It The Moon Reflecting Christ’ Light?

Isaiah 31:5

Like birds hovering overhead, so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it, he will spare and rescue it.

Matthew 10:6-7

but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.”

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Words of Grace for Today –

…

Hovering overhead these days,

one thinks of drones, loaded with missiles of destruction used against targets, against enemies, against … too often, innocents.

Who protects them, and us

from Drones – including the metaphorical drones of crazy voices threatening our very lives, livelihoods, sovereignty?

Reset one’s mind to hear/see first the promise long ago given, that God will protect us, that God will bless us, that God will walk with us even when the way is troubled with our earthly demise, laden with minefields of unknown threats and disasters.

Knowing God’s love

unconditional love

for us

and for our enemies,

and remembering it first,

then

the drone threats are

nothing

in comparison to the blessings God already pours out on us, so we have so much to share with others.

Fear not.

Move with the Light,

The Kingdom of God is here!

Singing and Saying

To Be Known and Loved

Sunday, March 23, 2025

By God – Nothing Is Greater.

See the Light? The Light Sees You!

Psalm 59:17

O my strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love.

Acts of the Apostles 26:22

To this day I have had help from God, and so I stand here, testifying to both small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would take place:…

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Words of Grace for Today –

…

We all have a basic need to be seen, known, and loved for who we are, just as we are, warts and all.

When we accept that God sees, knows and loves us, just as we are

Then life becomes very interesting, very challenging, very rooted, and wildly unpredictable,

for God not only sees, knows and loves us, but also

sends us

to engage all kinds of people, to see them, know them, and to love them as God does.

Engaging with others does change us at our roots, and gives us a little better view to God’s perspective on us (all people), our lives, on this planet, and on the entire universe.

Singing and Saying what the prophets and Moses did …

Singing and Saying what God does in the past, today, and promises to do in the future …

Singing and Saying like that reflects that when we engage with others, actually keeping silent and listening intently, there is nothing predictable about where, how, and why God will take us today and all our tomorrows,

only that God’s love will always be there, as God walks right beside us into and through it all.

Yep, that brings us to Singing and Saying, all day and all night long.

Come All Who Thirst

Eat and Drink

Tuesday, March 18, 2025

No Money Required

Have No Fear.

All Points To God With Us,

Even The Shadows.

Jeremiah 16:19

O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge on the day of trouble.

2 Timothy 1:11-12

For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him.

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Words of Grace for Today –

…

God is our strength, stronghold, and refuge. The strength God gives us is none other than what fuels our lives: living water and nourishing food, freely given.

The invitation is repeated in the Old Testament Reading for this coming Sunday (Isaiah 55:1-9)

Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
and you that have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

As Paul wrote, we entrust our very lives to our loving, gracious, and generous God.

Though we suffer, we need not be ashamed. The world’s ways are not God’s ways. Always taking, taking, taking giving so little in return, leaving so many to suffer at the hands of those who greedily hoard the necessities of life for themselves.

There is no shame in imitating Jesus, generous, gracious, and loving of all, even one’s enemies.

When the days of troubles descends upon us, from within and from outside, we need not fear. Fear leads to panic. Panic leads to chaos. Chaos leads to loss, suffering, and death. No, we need not start down that deadly path. For our God is not distant. For our God is not impotent. Our God is omnipresent, even with us, and omnipotent. Creator of all. More powerful than the most destructive forces within ourselves, within others, and around us in the universe.

God is our strength, our stronghold, our refuge. God calls, come all you who are thirsty and hungry and afraid … come, eat, drink, and be comforted, for as God spoke to Julian:

“Sin is necessary, but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

[Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, ed. M. L. de Mastro (Garden City, NY: Image, 1977), 124.]

One God

One Big Mess –

Friday, March 14, 2025

Us

Oh God, Guide Us, From Darkness

to Light.

Zechariah 14:9

And the Lord will become king over all the earth; on that day the Lord will be one and his name one.

Romans 10:12

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him.

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Words of Grace for Today –

…

God is One.

And we are always one big mess.

Individually and collectively.

Look at the mess in and around us today. It just keeps getting more and more chaotic. The world around us keeps getting fractured into more and more competing fragments of hearts and minds, and bodies.

Yet

God is One.

As we have come to believe, for we cannot know, nor change God.

And only by the work of the Holy Spirit can we know anything true about God.

And this we know: God is generous to all, without distinction.

So open your minds.

Open your hearts.

Open your spirits.

God would have us be God’s own who are as generous to all without distinction.

Found, Favoured

and Sent

Thursday, March 13, 2025

Out of Darkness

into Brilliant Light, God Calls

and Sends Us …

Genesis 6:8

But Noah found favour in the sight of the Lord

1 Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

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Words of Grace for Today –

…

God chooses us, favours us,

and oh, we could celebrate ourselves into oblivion with such great pride!

But

God does not choose and favour us that we may be made important in our own eyes or in the eyes of the world.

God chooses us, favours us, and then sends us out to proclaim with our deeds God’s mighty acts of saving us miserable sinners caught in the deep darknesses of our own making.

In the Light, by God’s grace alone, we see

God’s Wonders

so clearly contrasted to our own miserable attempts to make things right.

The greatest wonder is that God chooses to save us from the darkness.

Remember.

Re- member.

All that God has done for us, so that we can share it all with others.

Enter

The Light of the World

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

See the Light

of the World!

Zechariah 2:10

Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! For lo, I will come and dwell in your midst, says the Lord.

Matthew 21:10

When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, ‘Who is this?’

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Words of Grace for Today –

We seldom see God entering our lives.

First because we seldom see God.

But most of all because God is always in our lives, we just don’t see.

Many would say: open your eyes.

But that is not something we can do when it comes to seeing God. It’s not our choice. It is a gift from God, given to us by the Holy Spirit.

We can choose to sing.

And sing God’s praises we should, can and have many reasons and opportunities to do so,

breathing

waking to a new day

laying down to rest

working hard

basking in the bright sun

feeling the fresh breeze on our face

enjoying a nutritious meal

being able to give to others what they most need, including the joy of being alive.

Putting It All In Play

For the best friend of us all.

Wednesday 5 February 2025

Even the Beauty and Wonders of the World,

Do Not Compare to

the Love Jesus Gives Us.

Isaiah 50:6

God’s Servant said:

I gave my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
from insult and spitting.

John 15:13

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

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Words of Grace For Today

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Jesus puts his life on the line. Puts it all in play.

Not just for his friends,

but for everyone, past, present, future.

Thank God,

or we’d be looking for a way, and impossible way, to get in God’s good graces.

…

It’s no fun having insults and abuse tossed at one, physical abuse – hitting- and psychological abuse – lies, manipulations, gaslighting, and more lies – tossed at oneself and around the community, destroying one’s reputation…

except

God’s Truth will out.

The abusers will be outed, and our salvation will be made clear to all, and all that we have laid down to protect others will be recognized, will save others, will be known to be good.

This is love in action for others, for the children, for the lost, outcast, despised, abused.

And Aaron

Responded With …

Sunday, October 13, 2024

Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press: taken near Cremona, AB sourced 09 Oct 2024 https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/northern-lights?cmp=newsletter_CBC%20Edmonton_1646_1737656

Sometimes

Just Let

Yourself Be

Awestruck

Leviticus 10:3

Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘This is what the Lord meant when he said,
“Through those who are near me I will show myself holy, and before all the people I will be glorified.” ’And Aaron was silent.

Romans 5:1

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

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Words of Grace For Today

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And Aaron was silent.

What a response to such a marvellous statement:

Through those who are near me I will show myself holy, and before all the people I will be glorified.

Hearing good news we usually respond with something loud, a whooop, a full bodied laugh, a noisy smile, a word of thanks, a statement of wonder, a word of thanks.

But, the mouth piece for Moses who does not know how to speak, Aaron, chooses instead of words (which is his specialty)

silence.

S I L E N C E

…

What would it be like if all people, knowing

since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ

responded – instead of with

all the foolishness and spins and lies and conspiracy theories and hatred and, and, and, which trouble our world so much –

What if we all responded

with silence?

…

What’s that you say?

…

S I L E N C E

…

awestruck

S I L E N C E

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.

Words, Words, Words

Destructive, Precious Words?

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Words can point us to the Light,

the Light destroys

and gives LIFE!

Psalm 19:14

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Luke 2:19

But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.

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Words of Grace For Today

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Words,

Words.

It’s just words, right?

Words given weight over our lives,

when there is no such need.

It’s just words, right?!

Right!

…

Except –

What we say and write can be more powerful than the worst weapons on earth, or the best physicians with the best medicines and procedures.

Words

reflect the thoughts and hearts of us all,

of us few,

of us too few, who actually know how to think clearly.

What we say and write can be most powerful.

Sure –

Words can destroy.

And then –

Words can heal a broken heart.

Words can heal a broken mind.

May we find the words that give life amidst all the evil that permeates creation and us.