Dark and Light – Page 2

Chains or Freedom?

God says, “I Love You”

Sunday 7 January 2024

Freedom! To See The Light

Clearly, Brightly

Through All Obstacles!

Exodus 14:13

But Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again.

Acts of the Apostles 26:29

Paul replied, ‘Whether quickly or not, I pray to God that not only you but also all who are listening to me today might become such as I am—except for these chains.’

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Words of Grace For Today

…

John Baptizes Jesus with water, God enters the event, forever to be remembered as Jesus “was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Such it is spectacular when God reveals to all whose Jesus is, and who that makes him: God’s Son, and Our Saviour come as a human to teach, heal, and sacrifice himself to save the world and demonstrate God’s love for the world.

So also God sends the Holy Spirit in our baptism to claim us, cleanse us, renew us, and equip us to be God’s workers on earth for all people.

In the fall of 2002 Minnesota’s respected senior senator, Paul Wellstone, died in a plane crash along with his wife, daughter, three campaign workers, and the two pilots. Out of that came an example of a wonder: Shortly after the crash, someone hung a banner of a well-known quote of one of the deceased aides, Mary McEvoy, over the entrance to the building where she had worked. Her words challenged, “What would you do if anything were possible and you knew you could not fail?”

McEvoy’s question evokes a freedom for living in the face of chaos, a freedom we receive in baptism, when God’s Voice claims us as beloved children.

Never free from sin, but always forgiven and renewed for life as God’s workers in creation, we can choose to life out of the freedom the Holy Spirit offers us each day,

or not?

What will it be today?

Between

Between Times

The Beginning

Wednesday, December 27, 2023

In the Darkness of the Between Time,

The Light of Christ Shines

Brightly.

Isaiah 44:6

Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.

Matthew 6:9

Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

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Words of Grace For Today

Between Christmas and New Years is always a time between.

Between the past and the future, and not quite the present,

sacred, set aside

set aside for reflection on what really is.

In the beginning is always God,

and our response to God can always begin with remembering how sacred and hallowed God’s name is, a reflection of God.

For God is not far off, nor so buried within us that we cannot know God, as much as our finite, limited, human brains will know the infinite, unlimited divine.

Thus

we begin each day

praying God’s thanks

begging for mercy and forgiveness

singing God’s praise

and

celebrating Jesus’ presence with us

even this day,

the third day of the Christmas twelve.

Boxing Away

Boxing Day Failure

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

One Day In and

Our Memory of Jesus

is More Faded

Than the Morning Moon

Setting

Isaiah 60:16

You shall suck the milk of nations, you shall suck the breasts of kings; and you shall know that I, the Lord, am your Saviour and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

2 Timothy 1:9b-10

This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

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Words of Grace For Today

Boxing Day

brings to the fore the obvious

necessary

failings of Christmas.

It’s when the commercial xmas takes over, crowds rush to the stores, sales and stock are piled high and wide, and money flows like smoke from a huge, hot wildfire.

Many retail stores turn a profit only because of the huge boost in December, and particularly on Boxing Day. Large stores turn extreme profits on this day, adding to the wealth they collect for stock holders and executives with huge bonuses.

Year after year, we attempt to remember that God is the sole source of our well-being. That God is the only source of a life worth living.

Christ comes as an infant, a sign that God’s true power is not in force or wealth or in possessing or possessions accumulated, but rather in the love that is pure, true, and steadfast.

We gather with small candles lit in the darkness and sing our faith on our sleeves of God’s wonders for us all, and then …

we run to the store the second day of Christmas to spend and get and possess all that we can.

What a huge failure we all are.

Our only rescue is in God’s Grace. God’s forgiveness.

So much for sucking life from the nations of the kings of the world. All that is is poison for our souls.

Pause, amid the hectic, and remember

God’s goodness in the simple, pure gifts of love

that sustain us each day.

Christmas!

Blessed Christmas!

Monday, December 25, 2023

The Light At Noon,

Is Enough To Show Us

God’s Bright Love.

Isaiah 38:14

Like a swallow or a crane I clamour, I moan like a dove. My eyes are weary with looking upwards. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security!

Luke 2:11

… to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.

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Words of Grace For Today

Blessed Christmas,

May we not get lost in our efforts,

and let God’s wonders wash over us,

transforming us

and our views

or this world

with love.

Not to Come Up Short,

Remember!

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Remember How God’s Grace

Lights Up Our Lives and

God’s Whole Creation!

Psalm 103:2-3

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits— who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,

1 John 4:10

In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

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Words of Grace For Today

As the days get shorter and shorter and the darkness longer and longer, it is time to remember:

remember how hard we’ve all worked to get where we are.

How arduous the journey has been.

How competitors and enemies have taken possibilities and resources from us, leaving us with so much less.

And still we have come out okay, or so we say.

For we could have gotten more if we’d been like our enemies, vicious, uncaring, unscrupulous, deceptive, and downright dishonest about anything and everything that would give them an advantage, damned by the cost to others.

But we did not.

Some would say we suffer now because of it.

They are right of course.

Kindness, honesty, and fairness are always rewarded with suffering, even being cast out and labelled as abominations.

But remember

remember

that we have come so far by God’s Grace alone,

and this day we survive only by Grace,

and living in God’s Grace is more wondrous than all the advantage our enemies have stolen from us, as we have worked to save the most vulnerable from destruction and disaster.

Remember

That we live in the love of God for us, enabled only by that love to be anything good at all, and able to love others, creation, and God above all.

Short days, long nights.

Remember

God’s love shines brightest in the darkness.

Oil

Thursday, December 14, 2023

Too Often,

Dark

is as Bright as Our Days Get,

Until …

Psalm 97:11

Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.

Matthew 25:1-2

Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. …

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Words of Grace For Today

I’ve never been sure about the bridesmaids.

Not in Jesus’ parable, nor in real life for that matter.

What are they up to, anyway?

Meeting the Bridegroom in the dark, needing lanterns, not being admitted if their lanterns have run out of oil.

I understand not wanting to wait in the darkness.

But waiting?

…

Though it is what life is like for us always, waiting, waiting, waiting for salvation,

for God to save us since we’ve left ourselves no avenue for hope, other than God. (Not that there ever was any other avenue. We just like to think at first that we can find our own way out of trouble.)

So we wait for Light and Joy to dawn,

from the darkness,

not unlike the days growing shorter ever more

and more

until we barely see the sun all day.

Waiting

waiting

for rescue.

Do we really need to bring extra ‘oil’ with us for our ‘lanterns’?

Cannot the Light of Christ guide us?

Let us hope so, because I’m short of oil already,

as you are probably, too,

even if you do not realize it yet.

So another day begins,

begging

God

for

mercy.

Resting

Resting in God’s Peace

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Like the Moon,

We Reflect Christ’s Light in the Darkness,

Spreading Living Colours For All.

Genesis 2:3

So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.

Philippians 4:7

… and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

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Words of Grace For Today

There are times in our lives, more as we age, where we do not have what it takes to make it through a day, and we suffer.

Sometimes it is thirst, or hunger, or danger because we do not have proper clothes or shelter.

(Yes, many have not experienced that, yet, for the assured, protected, and luxuries way of life that many live – which is far beyond a dream for most people – can be taken or disappear without warning or cause, such are the realities of life on earth, especially when others are evil enough to take them from us, and more and more people are able to do just that!)

Sometimes it is a matter of having the ability to think clearly enough to make it through the day. Our thoughts are muddled. Our memories tainted or lost. Our decision making capacities escape us. Out of fear or failure we freeze, fight, or flee, or even act, and those actions or lack of actions place us in more danger than before.

Sometimes, though it is much worse. This happens to people the world over. Has happened-Happens-Will happen to people through all time, past and future. Standard of living does not make one immune, in fact the higher one’s standard of living the more likely it will overwhelm one, so ill equipped one becomes at dealing with such tragedies: we lose our spirit, or our spirits darken to the point we do not see the Light of God, not at all, not at all.

This darkness of the heart invades also our minds and our bodies and can literally kill us, or maim us to such a degree we might as well be dead … and may wish that were possible.

Into this darkness, like the Advent Wreath’s candles growing in number and brilliance each week against the increasing darkness of our days, the Light of Christ comes into our hearts,

into our bodies,

rejuvenating our spirits,

and giving us more than enough light to share with others,

become

instruments of God

spreading the Light of Christ to those

caught in the darkness,

unjustly denigrated and cast out by others,,

forgotten,

until

…

until

the Light of Christ

brings them and us God’s Peace,

and

proves their preciousness,

our preciousness,

to God

once

again.

Another miracle, whether we are ready to see it or not.

The Light of Christ

Guiding …

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Into Our Darkness,

Jesus Enters as an Infant

and Shines!

Isaiah 60:20

Your sun shall no more go down, or your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.

John 1:14

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

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Words of Grace For Today

Hiking in the coastal forests, up and down hills, the tree canopy covering any view of the sky or the ocean or the mountains further inland, we came upon a lake. It was not a sandy shore. Rather the only access to the water was down a slope of a huge rock that stretched at least 20 meters wide and 40 down to the water. It was growing dark but we rested. The two young boys romped a bit. I, the only one of us parents with navigational skills, explored further for where the trail picked up. There was not a trace.

Distances were hard to gauge but we’d parked one car about 5 km further down the coast where the trail crossed near the edge of a small coastal town not far from our home. The other we left where we’d started hiking mid to late afternoon in a spot, one of many along the 186 km long trail, where one could drive, park, and jump on the trail for a shorter or longer hike, instead of taking the whole 186 in one long, multi-day hike.

But there was no trail to follow, not in either direction around the lake, nor back in any direction where we’d come. Cell phones were a new thing and I had one with me, but there was no service, not for the last kilometre or so.

Finally I hiked back to where there was service, called a friend, and even he had no clue where the trail went. He’d not be on this section enough to know where we were.

So I headed back in growing darkness, mountain lions frequenting the area as well as bears, navigation with a flashlight in spots where I needed to see, and walking in the dark where I could save battery power. This was long before LED’s so the flashlight would last maybe another half hour. …

Life has many such experiences, where serious darkness overwhelms us, where we lose the path forward, where danger could be just around any bend, behind any tree.

That darkness is the darkness of the soul.

That’s the darkness that God sent Jesus to be born as one of us, to live among us teaching and healing, and to save us with the sacrifice of his life. The light of Jesus’ life, teachings, healings, and death shines bright in every darkness, guiding us onward even when we become lost in the darkness, overwhelmed with the evil around us, alone against those that would lie and serve the devil in so many ways, in order to destroy us.

Thank God for that light!

Thank God each morning, noon, and night for that light.

…

in the dark the trail approached that big lakeside rock, winding it’s way around the steep uphill side of it and the hill that extended above it to the right. I needed the flashlight to find my way through a darker patch, unsure if there were rocks I would stumble on, and there

to my left on a tree was a trail marker, pointing to the left, down and back around a switchback, down to a creek with rocks to step across it and a clear trail that headed around the lake on that side.

I backtracked, continued on the ‘wrong’ trail to the lakeside, collected the other three, and in the dark we wound our way around that lake, through the trees as the moon rose lighting our way past more lakes and through more trees, until we arrived at the car, parked and waiting for us.

Adopted

Undeservedly so.

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

God Guides Us On Our Challenging Path to the Light of Christ,

and Calls Us to Share It and Everything

With Everyone.

Psalm 65:4

Happy are those whom you choose and bring near to live in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple.

Galatians 4:4-5

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.

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Words of Grace For Today

Happy are those.

Happy are we, as some of those, as we are, who are adopted by God as children. God has chosen us and taken us in when we least deserve anything good. God has given us bounty beyond bounty of things good. Nothing can take that from us.

God calls us to share all this with everyone we encounter, the promise, the reality, the reception of gifts, the challenges, the call to share it all.

God help us, for the tasks are as impossible as the gifts are astounding.

How can we but dance and sing our thanks and praise for all God has given us, including the answer to the age-old question: what is the meaning of life?

Which is none other than to share all we have with those in need.

God help us if we don’t. God help us to do this, each day.

Looking Forward to …

Sunday, December 3, 2023

Looking To the Stars,

To the Future,

As God Promises ….

Zechariah 1:17

Proclaim further: Thus says the Lord of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity; the Lord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.

Luke 2:25

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him.

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Words of Grace For Today

Signs of the times have always pointed us to the end of times just around the corner. Yet if we imagine the future, are today’s signs of the times so different? Can we not rest assured that God has a long future planned for us all?

Looking 1000 years into the future, trusting God’s promises we can envision Xaria and Ishra Delopier of Glaxton. They will live a day’s travel at 10 times the speed of light from the nearest planet with cities on it.

News will reach them each hour of conflicts and disasters, and diseases. On the first Sunday of Advent news will arrive of another sun gone nova, consuming all it’s planets and the people on them, and the following messages filled with fears that the end of all time has arrived.

At midday Xaria and Ishra will gather for a meal with the refugees they will have taken in the previous weeks. In the first week of Advent they will first thank God remembering God’s work for their ancestors through so many generations, for the Holy Spirit’s presence with them each day, and God’s promise that Jesus would return to bring peace throughout the universe. Together they will end with, “Come Lord Jesus, be our guest. Save us again this day, from disasters, conflict, and disease.” Then they will all return to tending to the drones farming their planet to provide for their own growing numbers and for many people who will buy food from them.

What are we doing today?

Do we wait looking forward to the consolation of the world, assured the Holy Spirit rests on us?

Today is another day to wait, looking forward to all God’s promises for us and all creation.