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

…

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

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.

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

…

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.

For Some, Maybe.

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

You May Well Be The Only Glimmer of Hope For So Many This Day!

Psalm 65:11-12

You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness.
The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy

Acts of the Apostles 14:17

God has not left us all without a witness of God’s doing good—giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filling you with food and your hearts with joy.

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Words of Grace For Today

…

The bounty that God provides reaches the tables of some, but not all people. Not by a long shot.

Millions will not have enough to eat today, as for days or years before and so it will be for days or years to come.

Yes, the land produces enough food to feed all the 8 billion plus people on earth.

But

we do not distribute it fairly, to all people. We do not even distribute it unfairly to some people; they get next to nothing. We distribute it cruelly. For people who go hungry, and without sufficient water, know that there are places on earth where people get plenty to eat and have more than enough water for each day.

What do we do about it?

What can we do about it, today?

Start by giving God sincere thanks for everything that keeps us alive, including food and water.

Then pray that God will forgive us our sins.

Then start paying attention to how one can help distribute food to those without enough: food bank donations and volunteering, soup kitchen contributions and volunteering, political awareness and actions focused on encouraging and supporting politicians who work to distribute food equitably, who work for food security for everyone!

Then end the day with thanks to God for all that one can do, for all the people one has been able to help,

and for all the people still waiting for enough

to survive

another

day.

Who

Will Rescue Us?

Monday, September 16, 2024

And The Skies Run Red With Their Blood,

As God Lets Evil

Take Itself To It’s Own Bloody Death?

Isaiah 50:7

The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame

Matthew 14:30

But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’

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Words of Grace For Today

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The OT reading for this Sunday Jeremiah 11:18-20 overlaps in theme with this verse:

It was the Lord who made it known to me, and I knew;
then you showed me their evil deeds.
But I was like a gentle lamb
led to the slaughter.
And I did not know it was against me
that they devised schemes, saying,
“Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,
let us cut him off from the land of the living,
so that his name will no longer be remembered!”
But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously,
who try the heart and the mind,
let me see your retribution upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.

…

So it is time to ask:

And who is out to get you?

By guile and deceit

in secret

and hidden ways

so that those uninitiated to such devious ways will not see or suspect or ever know

of the evil that is worked against you?

Oh, you say, there is no such effort made against me.

But then how would you know?

And what is all this about polarization of peoples, infiltration of social media to effect election outcomes, hate created fear motivating voters, world domination by fascist dictators, war hungry leaders hiding in war their failing support at home, the economy played for the benefit of the already rich to get richer and the already poor to get poorer (if there is such a thing for many) and for the middle class to sink, sink, sink closer to poverty?

Are these not already a few powerful manipulating what can be to send us closer to our deaths?

Are you paying attention?

…

But God is with us. And we will see our enemies destroy themselves.

Today, Come

Home

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

In the Darkness Look Not Out There Far Away,

But Close By,

For There Your Home Is Ready, Waiting,

Just for You.

Deuteronomy 33:27

He subdues the ancient gods, shatters the forces of old; he drove out the enemy before you, and said, ‘Destroy!’

John 14:1-2

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

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Words of Grace For Today

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Driving out the enemy and destroying it,

sounds like finally all will be set right.

Until

we realize that we are that enemy, we are the ones creating false gods, and giving our lives in worship of them, so that

if-when we destroy those enemies,

that in us that would so worship other than our God

will be destroyed.

Are we ready

for that!?

But do not let our hearts be troubled, for by Grace alone, God will save us

and

give us a home

like none other,

especially prepared and reserved for us,

where love flows freely

and all ills are cured

and we are finally

set free from our own sin.

Ready?

Start today living in that place already prepared for us.

Answer the invitation to Come

into the heart of God’s love for each of us.

Good Words

& Deeds

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Dark Shadows Cross Our Paths.

Do We Trust the Word That All Is Well Ahead?

Psalm 105:1

O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name, make known his deeds among the peoples.

Romans 10:17

So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.

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Words of Grace For Today

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The Word

created in the beginning

and

continues to create every minute thereafter

always faith grows or dies from what one hears (and reads – a kind of hearing from others).

So Jesus calls us to share the Good News, with words if necessary, but first with acts of love and kindness, meeting people’s real needs, so that the Word spoken will already be validated by our actions.

And that is an impossible task on our own, for we always mess up our actions and motivations with self-interest and selfish concerns.

Thank God, the Holy Spirit can create faith in us, and in our thoughts, words, and deeds, so that the Good Word is heard

in our actions

and then

in our words.

Get talking after doing good!

The Smudge

Of Wonders

Saturday 3 February 2024

Oh, How We Avoid,

The Crystal Clear Lessons of Darkness,

Building Fires

That Consume Even Us.

Psalm 32:8

I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

Matthew 4:19

And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’

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Words of Grace For Today

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Life is like the Milky Way, all out of focus, hinting that something is there, with a smudge across the still night sky, dotted by tingles of light.

So I thought as I stood at 3 am, after stoking the fire, in the quiet night, mild winter air.

Oh, that life were just that peaceful and still and smudged a creamy wonder! Then I see the space station bright, moving too fast to be a star or planet.

As I wonder what else is to be seen,

I grab at my glasses, realizing they are those for working on computers, close range top, closer range on the bottom, hoping to switch them for the distant glasses.

But they are no where to be found.

So I put on the computer glasses and what was just a smudge and a few tingles, starts to ring clear against the black of night,

yet the Milky Way is now a creamier cream with more hints of tingles spotting it up for the view.

Is life this way, out of focus, even at the best of times?

This is what it is like when we follow Jesus, when God instructs us: what were mere hints at God’s greatest wonders come into focus

against a back drop of so many wonders that we cannot distinguish one from the other.

And in the still of the deepest darkness

we realize that God always finds a way to show us the miracles of weakness,

of God’s all powerful love

for us

all.

Hurry

Hurry and Come Down

(Me?! But I Worked So Hard to Get Up Here!)

Tuesday 16 January 2024

From the Ur-Waters of Precreation,

to the Storms of Today,

God Claims Us.

Isaiah 43:1

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel:Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.

Luke 19:5

When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.’

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Words of Grace For Today

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How hard we all work to get where we are!

Like Zacchaeus we may have taken advantage of others, but the work was not easy and the price we paid, over and over again, was not nothing.

It’s cost us so much, really.

Then Jesus calls us, “Come Down. Hurry!”

God formed us, named us, and claimed us, and

did God ever intend for us to climb so high up where we’ve gotten,

on the backs of other people

paying the price with our hearts

minds

and souls?

Coming Down can be harder than climbing up. It’s not easy. It’s hard to give up what we think we’ve earned.

Down with Jesus, breaking bread with him, celebrating the goodness of life, we see again how far we’ve wandered away from God’s love and life

given to us in the beginning.

…

The beginning of each day

each minute.

Paying Light

Forward

Monday 8 January 2024

With Whom, Caught in Darkness,

Can We Share The Light of Christ?

Isaiah 9:2

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them light has shined.

Hebrews 6:7

Ground that drinks up the rain falling on it repeatedly, and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.

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Words of Grace For Today

In 1666 the Black Plague hit Herxheim, DE killing many inhabitants. The village was quarantined and food became scarce! The neighbouring villages delivered bread to the borders of the quarantined village, which saved many from starvation.

In thanks the villagers swore each year to return the gifts, delivering a wagon full of bread to the neighbouring villages. They have kept this tradition for more than 355 years.

Of course, the bounty of the land (blessed by God) provides food for most of the world (if only we would distribute it fairly and generously it would be more than enough for everyone.)

More important for life than food, is the love and care that we provide for one another. The Herxheimers knew they were loved by their neighbours, and each year the return that love in a small way with their wagon of bread tradition.

What can we do today to provide for those most in need the bread of life, food, and more importantly love?

To whom do we owe our survival because of the gifts of food and love they have given us?

How will we offer thanks, to God, and to people, and

Is it not most precious and needed if we ‘pay it forward’ to those most in need, sharing the Light of Christ with those caught in darkness, instead of returning gifts to those who have plenty (also more than plenty of resources to enjoy light)?