Dark and Light – Page 6

Grace

Worth A Go?

Friday, May 26, 2023

We Leave A Mark,

How We Live Determines What Kind of Mark,

Fleeing and Best Forgotten

Blesses and Remembered.

Daniel 9:14

So the Lord kept watch over this calamity until he brought it upon us. Indeed, the Lord our God is right in all that he has done; for we have disobeyed his voice.

Romans 3:26

… it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.

Words of Grace For Today

If one sees the fires, floods, droughts, earthquakes, rising oceans, melting polar caps, sinking foundation through the not-so-permafrost, violent storms and winds, tornadoes and hurricanes, as God’s answer for our collective sins, then certainly one cannot claim that we do not deserve them and even more.

These symptoms of climate change are consequences of sins, sins of excess and privilege far too many of us have enjoyed much too much as others struggle just to survive.

God though is not like us, tit for tat, revenge and Rache, an eye or more for an eye! God is loving, gracious, forgiving, and life-giving (if we want to live as God created us to live).

So it is each day, instead of seeing calamities great and small as God’s answer to our sins, we can confess our sins and make right (as right as we can) what our sins have cost others (and ourselves), and change – yes it’s nearly impossible but God made us able to change or we’d have been extinct long ago – and change not just our clothes but our hearts, minds, and souls.

What to change to?

See Jesus’ grace, healing, teaching, and love?

Try that as starters

and main meal.

No desserts, though until the next life, and then what a feast!

Worth a go, eh?

Welcomed

Even When One Is

A Burden?

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

The Refugees Can Come At Anytime,

By Land, Sea, or Air,

in Cold, Heat, or Storm.

Will We Welcome Them?

Deuteronomy 5:32

You must therefore be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn to the right or to the left.

Matthew 22:37-39

He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” ’

Words of Grace For Today

The runners who alerted the neighbouring communities of the coming floods and fires trickled back to Julius’ community, bursting at the seams of their expanded hunting camp. All but the one who went to the furthest community. She did not return for months. They found out she had stayed to help that community prepare as best they could for the water and flames that could wipe out the community. Her advice and their efforts are a whole story in and of themselves.

The surprise, a bit unwelcomed, was that the closest community saw little hope of saving their homes and fields, so they followed the young man who had alerted them, all the way back to the hunting community. Already bursting at the seams in their camp, having spent days expanding it to accommodate all of them instead of just a small hunting party, they people starting to complain and cry in uproar that it was not fair to be take such advantage of by these people. The New-Iblers, as they called themselves, were a sixth the number of Julius’ community. As they waited patiently just outside the hunting camp Julius met with a pair of their leaders.

The request was that the New-Iblers be able to make a separate camp not far away and share protection, resources, and work with Julius’ community. Just as Julius was about to respond, welcoming them, a trio of his community members arrived, protesting to the New-Iblers that they would bring such trouble and burden to them. There simply was not room, nor resources, to accommodate the visitors. Even a new camp would make this hunting camp nearly useless in the future for hunting, marking the human presence so wide that wildlife would avoid the area.

Julius listened. When the intruders were done complaining, he reminded one how the community had come together to help his family when their house caught on fire, building him a new home. Another Julius reminded how when her family’s garden had failed, everyone in the community had donated generously to them so that they had more than enough produce for the coming year until the next harvest. Someone had even investigated why the garden had failed while others had not. And then helped the family rescue their garden from the worms that had multiplied so fast there, so that it continued to produce even to this day. They others he reminded of how the community had helped each of them. They he reminded them how they had all helped others in the community.

Remember the ancient wisdom from the old texts: “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ ”

No one could tell what those bringing the complaints of the community were thinking. They waited. Sometimes it takes time to take in wisdom that is not easily welcomed.

Lost,

Lost in the Desert

Then

Brought to the Feast

Monday, May 15, 2023

It May Not Be Dry,

But It’s Bleak.

Bleak Winter Cold and Blah.

Or is it blessed peace?

Psalm 107:2-8

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, those he redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to an inhabited town; hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress; he led them by a straight way, until they reached an inhabited town. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind.

Matthew 8:11

I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven …

Words of Grace For Today

Getting lost is common enough and most often resolved easily, if one admits to being lost. Not all of us can be Daniel Boones who are never lost, just a might bit confused of one’s whereabouts.

But being lost, knowing it, and admitting it is the first step to getting help being found again, being set right, being led to the feast.

That’s why we start worship with confession of our sins, so that we know God leads us onward to the feast of life!

Those who would mock us for being lost, are most lost of all people. For they not only do not know they are lost, but they think that by mocking others they can make their own situation more secure. Such it is certainly not.

Each day is another day to be humble and ask God to save us from the dry deserts of our lives, from the smokey hours downwind from wildfires of evil, from the arrogance that would bring us to mock other’s being lost.

The feast after all is not for those who are never lost. The feast is a grand celebration of all those who were once lost, and now are found …

by great mercy

and love.

Enemies?

Feed my enemies? Really!

Sunday, May 7, 2023

Stuck On

Getting Rid Of

The Deadwood in Life,

Living in the Light?

Proverbs 25:21-22

If your enemies are hungry, give them bread to eat; and if they are thirsty, give them water to drink; for you will heap coals of fire on their heads, and the Lord will reward you.

Luke 6:35

But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

Words of Grace For Today

When we go through life keeping a ledger, even just sort of in our heads, of good things we’ve done balancing out the bad things we’ve done, working to tip the balance towards the good in order to be pleased with ourselves, well then ….

Then we will of course do good to those who can return the favour, and we will lend a hand to those who will help us in return.

But if we are followers of Christ then that all changes.

For we do not need to keep a ledger and tip the balance towards good so that God will accept us, bless us, and give us life abundant. No, God, already long before we recognized our own sins, accepts us, forgives us, blesses us and gives us life abundant. Then not only do we do good for those who can return the same to us, lending as we are able, we also do good especially for those who cannot or will not return good to us or others.

The truly needy, will always find a way to return goodness to others as they can. They understand what it is to be in need, on the edge of surviving. And our enemies, who may choose to return evil for the good we do them will only demonstrate their refusal of God’s blessings yet again. How that ends for them is in God’s hands, though one cannot expect it will be great, just as when we refuse God’s acceptance, forgiveness, blessings and abundant life we can expect that it will not go well for us.

So how will we live today: trying to balance the ledger that God has already washed away in the waters of baptism,

will we give our all as God has givens us so abundantly to do?

With out choices this day, which world do we choose to live in?

Answer

My Cry!

Saturday, May 6, 2023

When It Is All Darkness,

Getting Darker,

To Whom Do We Turn?

Psalms 18:6-7

In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because God was angry.

Mark 4:38

But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’

Words of Grace For Today

As he travelled, studying and practising healing on those who came to him desperate for help, Julius came across this fragment of writing.

Last night the river rose another 2 meters. It’s now 6 meters over flood levels. Both bridges to town are covered and the only way to town is up the point of the valley’s junction, up and across the prairie fields (through two cattle fences -but that is much better than up the old railroad grade winding up to the prairie) to the road to the power station. Then back towards town, but then further away to reach the road that goes across the top of the dam and finally on 39 into town, all told more than 45 minutes instead of the usual 5 minutes. The yard, the old house, the drive and the well are all flooded. If tonight the river rises again even another meter this house will flood like all the neighbours have already in the last two weeks. What will we do then? Will we have power? Will the house wash away? Will we be washed away as well? It’s been so many days now, each with a new report of it getting worse with new threats and new losses. I’ve cried for help so many times. I’m out of voice to cry.

Julius knew this had been just the beginning of the angry climate. Now they were fortunate to live in a place high enough and stable enough that threats were infrequent, only 50 or so a year. One neighbour of their community had fled from an area not even that far away, a community called Fisigner, when a river had flooded and taken 10 homes in the first hour. Everyone left had run. They had looked for other survivors whenever they met other people, or as Julius travelled about, but there were no news of any Fisigner survivors.

Julius thought, what could they do if, when the called to God to be saved, God answered with anger and more violent storms and floods and wildfires and earthquakes. Then he remembered how Jesus woke from his resting in that fishing boat with Peter and the others. The seas had churned and threatened their very lives, yet Jesus was calm. He spoke and the water and the wind were calmed.

Julius decided he would remember that as God’s answer to their pleas.

Valuable

All

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Some See

The Dark Night

Stealing Away The Day,

Some See

The Moon Setting,

Some See It All,

Including All the Holy People

On Earth

Leviticus 19:2

Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

Ephesians 1:12

so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Julius spent all his spare time after he decided to become a healer learning from anyone everything they knew about healing. It was not insubstantial, and the wisest words he learned were spoken by one who took in people suffering from inexplicable illnesses. Their bodies functioned completely normally, sometimes better than most. But their minds were in various states of jumble and seemingly malfunctioning, at least according to what everyone else expected.

This woman, or was she a man, it was hard to tell really, said clearly that what people most needed to hear was that they were valuable and held in great esteem for just being who they were. After all it is from the ones we expect the least that the most unexpected discoveries and advances are made. She took him around to meet with her guests as she called them. Seth heard voices and sometimes exploded in frustrated anger at everyone around. But they had learned, and he had learned, that these would pass, and he could easily go or be taken to a safe space and throw his fits there. During those fits ideas would come to him, sometimes with stark clarity, sometime muddled, and he would record them as best he could. Often his ideas were obvious insights into how they could all improve their living in this Kur, as they called it, and old word for a place of curing and healing.

Zephania sat most of the day, seemingly staring into space. She would say she really did not know time, yet the images she drew and the words she used to describe their Kur, the world around them, the whole planet, and parts of the universe, even the settlement in the Andromeda galaxy that no one had heard from for as long as anyone knew, were astounding. Though she seemed not to be present, she was even more present than anyone else. When they needed to remember something from the days at Kur, they would ask her and she could recount everything in exact detail, even things they knew she had not witnessed with her own eyes.

They started to record as much as they could, especially the information from the AndromedaB Settlement as they called it. Lots of that was gibberish to them.

Julius asked to read the records. He was amazed at the details about healing that her record contained. He learned more reading Zephenia’s journal than anything else.

From that day onward, whenever Julius met with people, he began by telling them how valuable they each were, and how much they could contribute to help everyone live better lives. He started using an old word, “You are holy.”

Offering

Living Sacrifices,

Ourselves! (not others.)

Saturday, April 29, 2023

At Sunrise,

Even When Storms Are a’Brewing,

Nothing Need Deter Us

God Sends Us

To Bring Hope+ to All.

Deuteronomy 26:10-11

So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.’ You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.

1 Timothy 6:17-18

As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share,

Words of Grace For Today

Fundamental to life abundant is to give it all away, every last breath we have, and of course every thing, and all the rest.

God always gives us enough.

Not enough to feed our endless covetousness, lusts, greed and thirst to make our own lives at the cost of others.

God does, though, give us enough to satisfy God’s desires for us: to live and live well.

This is how God created us to live.

Today, how else would we try to live, when as God intends brings joy, contentment, trust, and hope to the core of our being?

Seeing

Seeing the Unseeable

Seeing the (Seeable) Saints

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Can We See Beyond The Obvious,

The Roadblocks,

The Hopelessness?

Psalms 112:4

They rise in the darkness as a light for the upright; they are gracious, merciful, and righteous.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

Words of Grace For Today

It is one thing to know that others are fighting against one, working to take everything from one, even life itself.

It is a whole other thing to have those closest to you, turn and take advantage of ‘knowing you best’ in order to steal even life itself from you. For then, not only do the enemies possess the most private information about you, they have thus ripped one’s heart and foundation of life right out of you, robbing you of the ability to trust any other person. Then it becomes clear that this was their intention from the start. It was not to share the best of life with you, but to steal the goodness of life from you and to make you as miserable as they had been all along. Perhaps they hoped to enjoy the goodness of your life by stealing it from you, but such joy of goodness is never possible through such treacherous evil. So they continue to find their next victim, and the next, and the next ….

God planned for this, too.

God’s Spirit, by grace alone, created saints in every generation before us, people who despite all efforts to rob the goodness of life from them continue to trust God’s promises, and they lived as they chose (aided by the power of the Holy Spirit) to be gracious, merciful, and righteous.

God’s Spirit rescues us who can no longer trust anyone or anything, sends not only the Spirit to guide us, but saints of these generations, to show us how to trust by seeing what cannot be seen: God’s faithful love and presence with us

each

step

our

days.

…

Our enemies may have destroyed us by all worldly measures, but we live blessed in so many ways that we can only give God thanks and praise for,

for

too

are

made

saints

these

days.

…

And we see what cannot be seen.

We trust beyond experiences that have robbed us of all ability to trust.

We live abundantly.

Waiting

Waiting,

Looking and Waiting

Monday, April 24, 2023

In The Deep Cold and Drear of Winter,

We May Wait for and Look for Spring,

but when hope is destroyed,

can we wait and hope

for life to return to our hearts?

Psalms 130:6

… my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.

Jude 1:21

… keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

Words of Grace For Today

How in the chaos of this world, where truth is sacrificed by everyone every minute, or so it seems, can we find the patience to wait for and look for something better?

What I trusted was the foundation of life here in this country, is blown to bits and shambles. Lies were spread like wildfire rumours, devouring truth, leaving angry accusations levelled at me. It mattered not that they were false rumours, for they were taken up as a call to war against an enemy with more lies added at every turn (even by those entrusted to protect us all from evil), and I was made to be for so many self-righteous people the face of that enemy, though I had lived my life standing quietly and effectively against such enemies and against such lies, rumours and false accusations against others.

How can I wait for and look for God to fix this unfixable chaos that has left me so far in debt I will never see my way clear of it, even as I live as frugally as possible, off the grid in the bush (freaky hot in the summer and hellishly cold in the winter), heating with a rebuilt wood stove, insulated by tarps cast off pieces of foam held in place by cast off pieces of lumber, a door rescued for reuse on its way to the landfill, all built, repaired and held together by ropes and duct tape and lots of wood screws – constantly needing repairs and replacement.

And then I read with new eyes from centuries past poetry, psalms, prayers and literature. People have sighed, plead, and cried aloud for help from much worse betrayals of self and goodness and civility and honesty and love and hope. My life goes on with blessing abundant in the peace of life beside a small lake in the relative quiet of the bush (though fighter jets landing at the nearby base shatter ear drums and peace at all hours, and the nearby oil installation – an old, ear splitting loud electricity generator growls and pounds on and off for days on end, and bush parties in the summer — all this noise when it disappears for hours or days or even weeks makes the quiet, peace, and solitude then so much more noticed and vibrant.)

What chaos and destruction we humans have wrought on others, and on ourselves. It is not that we have not and do not continue to work to bring a just order and peace to bear on this chaos. Many give their all towards such efforts from large and even world-wide to small and personal. Many work outside any lime light, go completely unnoticed during their active efforts, and are forgotten even before they die. For every step forward it seems at least a step is taken backwards. Here we ended slavery of black people. But the world around even today, people are still enslaved. Even here people are held in bonds that control all choices and steal away all fruits of their labours.

Where is our hope?

my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.

As the sun rises each morning the Holy Spirit creates hope where there is no reason or evidence for it.

The greatest burden we each bear is that (if only we were honest with ourselves) we all participate, blindly perhaps, enjoying the benefits of this continuing slavery, and contributing to the chaos that consumes life at every turn, stealing bits and pieces of life from others, and even finally their lives — all so that we can live on, as it were.

For this burden steals life from us, either in our acknowledging it, or worse in our trying to deny its weight in our lives. We try to swim and still we sink into the chaos. We try in so many ways to try to convince ourselves we can fix it and save ourselves.

keep yourselves in the love of God.

It is futile.

At best we can beg God to keep us in God’s love, save us, free us, and guide us to

look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

Today,

Another day begging God

Receiving from God

Thanking God

Sharing God’s blessings

whether we are so fortunate to live off the grid in the bush or in the tumult of the city.

Short

Of breath?

Saturday, April 22, 2023

All Things Die, Even Us. That Is Not The End?

Psalms 39:5

You have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing in your sight. Surely everyone stands as a mere breath. Selah

2 Corinthians 5:1

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Words of Grace For Today

The ‘fountain of youth’ is a the blatant example of how we strive to reach beyond our own limits. Life is short and we would like to live forever, or at least longer, much longer, with good health.

No one really wants to live on in an increasingly vegetable state for decades and centuries longer than one would otherwise have lived.

So we strive to maintain our health as long as possible, and wish that we could find ‘the key’ or ‘the keys’ to give us better health: a pill, a surgery, a diet, an exercise, a meditation ….

The gift God gives us is a life, in today’s terms in Canada, which can last at most just over a century, and for most of us about 8 decades. (79.49 years for men and 83.9 years for women (so https://www.cpp.ca/blog/what-is-the-life-expectancy-in-canada/).

As if the gift of life were not enough, we yearn for more, and some of us do more than yearn. Some of us go to great extremes to have more life and more from life for ourselves at cost to others, even as far as taking the goodness of life from others, even taking life itself from others (as in killing for organs to transplant) in order to lengthen our own lives.

Yet God gives life as we receive it: blessed.

Normal for us is to fear the loss of life, not only the end termination in death, but the loss of abilities while we live on and on and on. Perhaps the worst example is Alzheimer’s from which one fades in and out of remembering even one’s own identity, while, in one’s more lucid moments, fully knowing the loss of memory will return.

The healthy, God-given response to that very legitimate fear, is to accept death in all its forms and trust that God planned for that, too. God planned for that by promising us that we will live on even after death, and not in the imperfect-dying manner in which we live now, rather in the perfect way that God makes possible at our creation (well limited by our sinfulness – greatly limited): eternal, perfectly healthy, and gracious: living in peace, with joy, and loving one another as God loves us.

Life remains short for us all (though longer than almost all of our ancestors). Life is nonetheless blessed!

Certainly, specifically because it is short we have the opportunity of recognizing that life is blessed.

So how do we choose to live this day:

Will we continually complain that life is short and that we slowly lose our health with age, all the while striving to live longer and better?

Will we live out the blessings that God pours so freely on us, and share them with others?