And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord.
.
Titus 2:11-12
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly.
…
Words of Grace for Today –
…
It’s easy to think the world is lost.
The present times of turmoil and uncertainty do not promise a better future, if a future at all, for us.
With whatever time we have,
God gives us the gifts of the Holy Spirit
to leave behind impiety and worldly passions (like the economy’s foundation of greed)
so that we can reflect
the goodness God has made us capable of embodying
to other people,
Making these days, short as they always are for each of us,
It is he who remembered us in our low estate, for his steadfast love endures forever.
.
Ephesians 6:19-20
Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.
…
Words of Grace for Today –
…
What the English translates as ‘low estate’ one German translation has as ‘unterdrückt’, ‘suppressed’ (as in suppress one’s anger) or ‘oppressed’ or ‘repress’ or literally ‘pressed down’.
In Mexico and other Central American and South American cities built on hills, the rich have built fantastic estates on the highest hills, not unlike one sees around L.A. The lower one descends down the hillsides (the direction the refuse and excrement flows) into the valleys, the poorer the houses become until in the valleys, in the dreck, one finds the shanties of the poorest.
While enjoying the ‘good times’ of living high on the hills it is more difficult to recognize that all goodness comes from God, and not one’s wealth, fame, or station in life. In the bottom of the valleys of life, where goodness is hard to see, when one recognizes goodness it is much easier to recognize that it comes from God. Still the challenges of life ‘on the top’ and ‘underneath’ can either drive one away from God or towards God.
As we struggle through life’s challenges, it is as if (regardless whether we live on the hilltops or in the valleys) we struggle to exist, as though we were pressed down to the bottom of life, where one misstep leads to death.
Here Jesus finds us, in the low and lower and lowest levels of existence as it becomes survival instead of existence.
Here Jesus finds us, or the reality is, God was with us all along, all along the hard road of life that became ‘low estate’ or poverty or barely surviving. What may change is we become newly aware that God walks with us, so we say ‘Here Jesus finds us’ meaning, even here we are or become aware that God is with us, and
and God loves us, with all the glory and blessing of divine, unconditional, all-powerful love,
and, as we are forgiven, revived, and given new life (though not often pulled out of our ‘low estate’), and newly equipped to give testimony to God’s love …
and as God does all that for us, Jesus sends us out
to share that same glorious blessing of divine love with everyone, with words only when necessary.
We, having been ‘pressed down’ just as olives are pressed down to make precious olive oil, become priceless treasure in God’s Kingdom, life savers for those in greatest need.
…
So –
How’s your day going so far?
Up on the hills?
Down in the valleys?
Do you see God walking with you?
Are your ready to share the wonders of God’s love with others?
Let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
.
2 Corinthians 5:20
So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
…
Words of Grace for Today –
…
If the wicked want to forsake their ways, I’m not going to stand in their way. Are you?
Or would anyone, really?
So let them!
Of course it takes more than letting them, before the wayward will return to God,
us being among them.
We need to be inspired by the Holy Spirit,
working through other people, circumstances, wonders, miracles, signs
or whatever it takes
so that we know
we CAN return to God
and expect that God will not do us in,
for God is ready with pardons unending.
God does the work of reconciling our lives with God.
Now if only someone would reconcile the the bank account for me at their cost . . . .
He was yelling right there at the top of his lungs,
“What’s Wrong?!
Everything!”
Lamentations 1:20
See, O Lord, how distressed I am; my stomach churns, my heart is wrung within me, because I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword bereaves; in the house it is like death.
.
John 4:29
The woman said: Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?
…
Words of Grace for Today –
…
We make so much trouble for ourselves, giving us cause for so many lamentations, and agreements with the passage from Lamentations.
We wait with great expectation worn weary into apathy for the One who can save us from everything.
It is so easy to scream or resign or fight, because our world economy sings only one tune: that of powerful greed.
Greed feeds us selfishness, insatiable hungers, and a callous disregard for all creation. As greed permeates everything around us, it is difficult to sing the songs of God’s Kingdom. Each day we need new images to jostle our hearts, minds, and imaginations to recognize God at work around us, and in us, and through us for others. We need to be reminded that Jesus is our song each day on this wonder-filled journey. Otherwise, drowned in greed-fed-fears, we only ramp up the heart-and-mind-stopping panic around us.
How can we find freedom from greed? How can we find a blessed tomorrow from today?
Encountering a man ranting and raving loudly in the woods where people come to camp for free, I asked, “What’s the problem?” The guy stopped a second before screaming, “Everything!”
What is your Everything? At the checkout till they keep asking: “Is that everything?” with a wink, I respond “No, the universe is a big place and I can’t afford everything. I’ll just take these few things, thank you.”
…
Our times are as tumultuous as any. It’s difficult to tell who is or will be a threat. Southern neighbours are now irrational and unpredictable. Last year’s extreme weather keeps becoming this year’s norm. Wildfires wipe out homes, communities, and livelihoods, and disrupt even more lives with deadly smoke, planting time-bombs in our lungs and blood. It’s difficult to tell what is safe, what is sure to be lost, and where one can take even a short rest from the tumult. We do know that our future, like a wild rapids, is going to be more difficult, dangerous, and full of surprises from new directions.
Yet God knew all this would be so in our times, as God has known about every time in the past, and knows about every time to come. God created us with the only real security for life in this universe: God’s own assurance that, come what may, God is with us through it all. And God sent God’s own Son to save us from our own sins and the evil that permeates the world. Each day God calls us to allow ourselves to be dandled in safety on God’s lap in this New Creation. Each day the Holy Spirit sends us out to share the wonders of God’s steadfast love with all who need it. And in the end, God will call us home, to sing our thanks again, for we are home, home with the saints in light, home at last, home at last.
Then God said to Jacob, “I am God, the God of your father; do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again; and Joseph’s own hand shall close your eyes.”
.
Luke 18:28-30
Then Peter said, “Look, we have left our homes and followed you.” And Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not get back very much more in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”
…
Words of Grace for Today –
…
The rise of dictators around the world, and most disruptive, to the south, has any thinking person on edge.
The threats are like those in many times in the past. None of those times were good times for most people. Of course there were a few who made tremendous fortunes on the backs of everyone else. But it’s hard to see how any good person today would follow that path, though plenty are poised to try, if not already in action, to ‘fleece’ us all for their gain.
The immediate economic threats are clearly felt as we look for food, clothes and shoes, transportation (even vehicles for some), and shelter (even apartments and houses for the lucky ones), all at prices that we can afford. No honest person says things are going to get more affordable. The effort is to stop the rate of increasing un-affordability! Drop that on our heads and the response is almost always FEAR. Fear for ourselves, and greater fear for our children, and all the following generations.
The breakdown of good order in society adds to the triggers of fear. More and more the police are found to be bullies or white supremacist-racists or misogynists or misandrists, as are prosecutors, lawyers and judges. Even churches seem to be led by those faithful to something far from the Gospel of Jesus the Christ. The less than faithful can be found in all religious institutions.
…
If we follow Jesus …
If we follow Jesus then we recognize we were created and given great gifts (everything we are and have, including the unmatched gifts of the Holy Spirit – given at our baptisms) so that we can share them with those most in need … the world ‘round.
Which means we already have no claim to any security of possessions, place, privilege, or reputation. Instead our security is founded only in that God will be with us and …
Well, even though we have reason to fear for our survival in the future.
We already know the future will be harder than the present.
But God always offers us peace
in knowing God gives us life, not to enjoy comforts and false security offered by possessions, place, privilege, or reputation.
God gives us life so that we may expend it
giving life to others.
And in the end
God will be with us and bring us home.
Fear not.
Purpose given, the best possible security demonstrated each day, the only ending worth anything.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord rescues them from them all.
.
Mark 13:11
When they bring you to trial and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say; but say whatever is given you at that time, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.
…
Words of Grace for Today –
…
Sometimes God sends the most unlikely person to rescue us from ourselves, from our enemies, from all that ails us, and all that ails society.
But what are we going to say when our trial starts?
Senator Stackhouse had lots to say. Not much had much to do with anything. It was a filibuster after all.
I wonder how many Minnesotans even have met their own Senator Stackhouse.
He didn’t have much influence, or power, or political smarts, but he kept being elected to the senate for decades. Who knew if at 78 he would be alive to be elected again.
He was kind of an old curmudgeon. Kind of dependable that way, at least.
Then came the much needed omnibus bill for children’s health care. It started at 2 billion, and kept getting added to, for who was going to vote against child health care? It grew to over 6 billion, if I remember correctly.
Lots of horsetrading went into getting enough votes to support it’s passage through both houses. It was closed by the committee, and sent to the senate for a vote.
Senator Stackhouse had asked for a meeting with the White House, to get his little bit added to the bill. Sneezing from a head cold he asked for just a few hundred million for autism support, research, and care around the country. Laudable. But a bit late. The bill had just been closed. It was Friday. A recess waited. Everyone waited
to head off to a needed break, or
a family gathering for a milestone birthday,
or a long awaited trip to be renewed by nature,
or ….
It was noon by the time the vote was ready to be called on the floor of the Senate.
That’s when he started.
Started a filibuster.
Old Minnesotan, curmudgeon Stackhouse started a filibuster.
He couldn’t last long could he?
No Way!
Recipes, manuals, rules for card games.
On he went, standing, not leaning, not yielding the floor, not drinking or eating, not being excused to use the washroom,
just talking.
The news cycle deadlines came and went. The press corps waiting. The senators, long since drifting back to their offices, waiting. The White House staff waiting.
News giving background on Stackhouse.
Everyone waiting.
Waiting.
An assistant to an assistant, noticed something in the background photos of Stackhouse standing with his grandchildren.
Staff wrote email,
email to explain why they would be late
then that they would not make their flights.
Then that the last flights had come and gone.
So had connections by train and car.
Everyone waiting.
Supper came and went.
Stackhouse had stood and talked for more than 7 hours, going on 8. That poor old curmudgeon with a head cold kept talking, not yielding the floor. Holding up the vote, the news, the win for the White House and for Congress, and for the people and for children.
Then that assistant put it together. Only six grandchildren stood in those photos. Stackhouse had seven grandchildren. And background information revealed that one grandchild had autism.
Suddenly the picture of Stackhouse changed. The White House, even the president, made calls to other grandparent senators and got them, by point of order, to ask to join the filibuster by way of asking questions.
And Stackhouse got sit and rest and then stand again to give information about autism. Not the fake stuff that raises fears, but the real science, such as it was in that day. For this was decades ago.
People understood there would be no way to stop old Stackhouse because he wasn’t fighting for himself or just an idea. He was fighting, word by word, minute by minute, hour by hour, head cold and all, for one of his grandchild, and all the other grandchildren like his, with autism.
The White House called the committee, opened up the bill, since the news deadlines were missed already. They added the few hundred million for autism support, research, and care around the country.
The bill presented again to the Senate, the filibuster ended. The vote was taken. It passed both houses.
People missed a piece of their lives, but in the end everyone won.
I wonder how many Minnesotans, or even US citizens, knew Senator Stackhouse, or even knew of him. Had they heard of his filibuster?
Wouldn’t it be something if that was how politicians did business, with heart. Except maybe without the waste of piling on so many useless things that had nothing to do with children’s health care to such a bill.
Wouldn’t it be something to see cross party support emerge when it really counts, for the people who are kept from speaking for themselves.
Like immigrants, foreign workers, like … well we know there’s more of ‘them’ than get to speak.
…
Of course, Senator Stackhouse is a fictional character, along with the rest of the story, created by Aaron Sorkin and others, for the 2nd Season of the West Wing, 2000.
Wouldn’t it be something even if there were more fictional characters written like Senator Stackhouse and President Bartlet, and Josh and Sam, and Leo and C.J., Toby and Charlie, and all the others who made The West Wing one of the greatest television shows of all time.
Wouldn’t it be something if a lot more people lived their lives more like these characters, and less like the current president?
And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
.
Revelation 14:7
He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”
…
Words of Grace for Today –
…
How right it is that we should tremble with fear before God,
and out of fear obey all God’s commandments, worshipping him along with all of creation.
But
We fail at that miserably, so to demand it of us is futile.
We can, with these attempts to earn God’s favour, only fail and live filled with guilt, regret, and sorrow, a walking death if ever there were one.
To love God, as well as to fear God, now that is a different thing.
For we can only love God, after we realize that God first loves us, unconditionally.
Out of love we can strive to follow God’s commandments, and worship God with all creation.
We will fail.
But we do not live filled with guilt, regret, and sorrow,
for we trust God always loves us, forgives us, and renews full life in us.
…
Fear and Love God.
For God loves, and forgives, and gives us new life.
And I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one shall make you afraid.
.
Luke 11:20
Since it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you.
…
Words of Grace for Today –
…
The chaos of words that fill our worlds is astounding, overwhelming, debilitating. So many of the words are evil. They are neither true nor kind.
God’s Word is both true and kind.
We need to speak it often, and clearly, amid the chaos of noisy words.
Better is that we put the true and kind words, words pointing to God’s Word, to music and sing them clearly, enchantingly, wondrously.
Best is that we not only sing kind and true words plainly for all to hear, but we also dance through our lives to them. For our steps speak even more loudly than our mouths can ever.
When we sing and dance God’s Word, then peace surrounds us, a gift from God, and the Kingdom of God has come into our midst, with power to heal our every ill.
He said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.
.
Luke 1:35
The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.
…
Words of Grace for Today –
…
It’s too easy to try by might or power to make one’s way through life.
Or to try by manipulation or deception.
Or to try by simple surrendering to the most expedient evil.
God works by the Spirit.
God works in us by the Spirit as well.
And what God is able to do, even with us sinners, mortal and fickle and selfish and, and, and.
