Hope – Page 2 – This Life

Epiphany!

New Year’s Resolution Worth Making (an eye opener)

Saturday 6 January 2024

Finding Our Way Through the Brambles of Life,

Alone?

Psalm 25:12

Who are they that fear the Lord? He will teach them the way that they should choose.

Matthew 2:12

And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Going a different way.

I suppose New Year’s resolutions are the imagination and statement that one will go a different direction going forward.

The three wise men, being warned in a dream, take a different route on their return home after presenting gifts to the child Jesus.

How many times are we going to try to ‘go it a different way’, forward or back, and it will be merely another futile attempt, a classic demonstration that we are not quite in complete control of our lives, not even when we make choices to become better people.

Thank God,

like the dreams sent to the three wise men, like the Law given to the people new to the Wilderness on their way to the Promised Land, like the Prophets sent to guide the nation Israel and it’s people overrun by more powerful neighbours, like the science that can tell us the consequences of our actions (like burning fossil fuels in the extreme we have and still do, and seemingly cannot stop doing),

God does send us notice and guidance.

But that is never enough.

We need to be convinced that 1. God will forgive us our failures (or else we are frozen by guilt past, present and especially future), 2. God will renew our spirits so that we can possibly do something right and good, and 3. God will help those, who we harm and those of us who are harmed by others, to heal.

A New Year’s Resolution worth making each year:

We will pray: God help us to accept forgiveness and boldly go out to do your work in this precious creation, and help us all heal from all the harm we’ve done and is done to us.

And then go boldly into the days’ ‘breach’, so to speak, bringing God’s grace to bear on others’ lives.

Left to Beg

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

We Can Do As Much To Bring the Rains, As We Can to Bring Evil It’s Due.

Psalm 34:16

The face of the Lord is against evildoers, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

Romans 12:12

Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Well, would it be so already today, that the remembrance of evildoers were cut off from all creation!

But it is not so, and will not be so, in spite of any and all efforts we may spend and waste toward that end.

We are left to rejoice in hope, be patient in our sufferings, and persevere in our prayers that Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead,

and in the meanwhile we pray as beggars, for we have nothing else, God resuscitate us from the dead, that we might live the few short days we have left on this blessed and condemned earth (blessed by God and condemned by us all.)

Another day, full of challenges, full of blessings, full of waiting and letting God do God’s new things with and to us, and full of our efforts to answer God’s call and sending us into the world to be God’s grace

for all.

Another day.

Another ….

Wishing!

Wishing But Left Waiting

Monday, December 18, 2023

In Midwinter We Can Wish For the Golden Light Of Summer,

But There Ain’t Nothing We Can Do To Make It Come.

Daniel 2:21

He changes times and seasons, deposes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.

Luke 1:52

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly….

…

Words of Grace For Today

Not just a few people whom I have known more than deserve the wish that Jesus would come to judge them, cutting through all their lies and false rumours and self justifications for the evil they work against others. Then they would be stopped in their tracks and their victims would be restored to life as it was before they so destroyed them with lies and abuse and all kinds of evil.

For while these abusers and evil doers are still all too active in their evil doing, they have long since ceased to live, for their spirits have been taken by the Evil One, and they walk as shells in motion without heart and soul.

Jesus come!

But

There is nothing in that wish,

not for those wishing it,

nor nothing that stops the evil nor restores the victims.

So we wait.

So we wait and can do nothing to bring Jesus’ judgment and healing.

For there is nothing to be done to stop the evil doers and their evil, nor to restore their victims.

So we wait.

So we wait, so oft impatiently, for there is no other hope for things to be made right.

So we wait, and pray: come Lord Jesus, come!

…

until we remember that through forgiveness God heals the victims of evil, and the perpetrators as well.

So we pray, come Lord Jesus, come! Forgive us, heal us, and if you must, forgive those who still work evil against so many victims, helpless to defend themselves, except that they rest in your presence

here already today,

for while there is nothing to do to bring Jesus to come,

we can recognize Jesus is already here,

among us,

healing us,

even when we cannot pray that our abusers would be forgiven,

even when we hope the Holy Spirit would bring our abusers to amend their lives.

So we wait, and pray

our thanks that Jesus is already come, is here, and will come again to judge both the living and the dead.

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.

…

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.

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 ….’

…

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.

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.

…

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.

Fear

And love

Monday, December 4, 2023

God Can Burn It All Down,

or Light a Fire Under Our Lazy Butts.

Which do we need today?

Isaiah 41:10

… do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.

Matthew 21:15

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’, they became angry ….

…

Words of Grace For Today

Fear can grab us without notice.

If we often let ourselves stay there, then the path for fear (one of the Devil’s favourite tools) is slick and becomes more and more travelled, more and more often without any reasonable cause.

Especially if we, like the chief priests and scribes, hold on to power by dominating others with fear fuelled by deception, corruption, manipulations and/or false gods or words supposedly of God.

Fear can rip our clear thinking minds right out of us, pressing us down into anger, anxiety, and panic … which keep us from thinking straight or being able to recognize what is real around us. We react to false fears as easily to real fears, always with disaster, whether we freeze, run, or stand ‘our ground’ to fight.

All a waste of time, energy, and life.

God’s word so often calls us to not be afraid.

God knows we have enough real reasons to be afraid.

Yet, God promises us that God walks with us, and therefore even when there are real reasons for us to be afraid, we not need fear. Instead we can participate in Jesus’ reign throughout all creation, wherein love, sacrificial love, is more powerful than anything that could threaten us.

Love carries us, even into and through death.

So there is no reason to fear,

unless we turn from God, and then we rightly fear God.

When we realize that God has turned to us, again and again with steadfast love and mercy, forgiving us, renewing us, equipping us, and sending us out to share the power of sacrificial love with all creation, then

well, we still fear God, for God is all-powerful, able to end us and all creation in the blink of an eye. Yet we also love God, for God has given us and does now give us and always will give us life, precious blessed abundant life.

So we breathe, and sing and dance in praise and thanks for all God is and does for us.

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.

…

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.

From Dark

to Light

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

The Way To the Light

Seems To Cross Thin Ice,

So We Hesitate …

and then it is dark again.

Psalm 119:130

The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.

Ephesians 5:8

For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light ….

…

Words of Grace For Today

Moving into the Light should be a simple thing.

Just choose your steps on the path towards the Light, right?

But

the devil has also sorts of false lights,

luring us into dead

ends.

Of course, the Light of Christ requires more than just walking,

it requires right hearts and minds and spirits,

all which we are completely incapable of attaining on our own,

if ever,

really!

We need Christ to show us the way,

and even then

we need the Spirit to transform our hearts, minds, and spirits so that we can follow.

And still we fail.

So Christ comes

into our darkness

and brings the Light

to guide us

onward.

So we hope we will live in the Light

…

but we know from the past we will choose to wander

back into the darkness all too soon (like right now)

and

Christ will need to come again

and again

and

again … ad infinitum.

Visions and Realities

Friday, November 24, 2023

Visions of Grace,

Brighter in the Darkness of Our Realities,

Than the Moon on a Clear Winter Night.

Zechariah 13:9

And I will put this third into the fire, refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’

Revelation 21:3-4

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’

…

Words of Grace For Today

The day is coming, when …

The day is coming, when will it come?!

The day is coming, when death will be no more, mourning and crying and pain will be no more!

When will it come!!?

That is a vision of God’s promises brought to completion for us all.

Meanwhile the realities we face are obvious:

It is as if we are in the smelters cup, over the fire, dross (which we have so dearly accumulated and attached ourselves to) is burning off, and we are poured into moulds of things precious and of use …

well,

of use to God, and maybe not to our worldly ways of evaluating things.

The realities of our daily lives are challenging to say the least, just to survive

God’s saints

pulled and pushed and cajoled and seduced by temptations to trust not in God’s good graces, but rather in our own efforts to secure life for ourselves.

Thank heaves we have visions

of God walking with us,

among us,

working for us,

completing some of the Promises God makes each day,

also this day.