Things

For Life

Friday 19 January 2024

No Matter How Many Planes We Have ….

Proverbs 30:8

Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that I need,

1 Timothy 6:7-8

… for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

The things of life are many,

but the things necessary for life are far fewer:

clean air, clean water, nourishing food, adequate clothing, sufficient shelter, meaningful labour, and love (the ability to love others and that others love us.)

All these are things that we receive as gifts from God, added to the gifts of life (given to us at birth) and the Holy Spirit (given to us at baptism), forgiveness and renewal (given to us each day as God promised us and made clear in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection).

We have since the beginning of time fooled ourselves into thinking that we possess many things in our lifetimes, and that these things make a great difference in our lives, for ourselves and among other people.

But

all that we think we possess are really only things entrusted to us by their owner, God. So many things God entrusts to us, that we will be good stewards of them, giving life to as many people as possible, with our voices, hands, and feet, working, working, working

working out God’s love and mercy, grace and generosity, forgiveness and renewal for all people.

What works against life for all people are lying and falsehoods.

If only we could leave them out of life!

Like all people, what we really need is

everything God gives us

to share.

Fear

And Love

Monday 15 January 2024

No Matter the View,

Far or Near,

God Deals With Us ….

Psalm 147:11

… the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.

Romans 8:15

For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

God, the Almighty, – if we recognize the power God can wield – rightfully strikes fear into our hearts.

And, so many people attempt to strike as much fear into other people’s hearts … all so that they can force their will on others … always to detriment of the one striking fear and to the detriment to those who fear.

We have more than enough reason to be fearful of these people, and of the future yet to unfold for

so much in our recent past promises worse days ahead.

God works to save us from such fear and worry,

saving us

and all creation

so that we might

live, blessed and capable of working within what is, not what is not that is so fearful, and with God’s greatest blessing as our basic mode of being for ourselves and with others:

love.

God is to be feared, but even more-so to be loved, for God loves us with a steadfast and unending love that is more powerful than all the fear of all time stacked up together against us.

Such is God’s power

to be used

wondrously

each day.

Fire

Of Life

Thursday 11 January 2024

Fire,

The Destroyer, Saver, and Refiner!

Which is it today for you?

Isaiah 48:10

See, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tested you in the furnace of adversity.

Colossians 4:2

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

An easy life, without many challenges, just interesting events that turn out wonderful, with an ability to help others without taking too much trouble to do good …

is that what we wish for?

Baptized in water, by the fire of the Holy Spirit, with God’s Word (the same Word of such power that in the beginning this Word created all that is out of chaos), we might wish for an easy life.

This is certainly not that, for which God has saved, freed, and renewed us.

Instead it is the furnace of adversity that God sends us into, each day, that we may not only be saved, freed and renewed, but that we may also offer God’s Word to others

with our voices, feet, and hands.

It would be impossible to enter into the fray

and remain as God saved us to be, ambassadors of Hope, Love, and Grace,

if we do not also each day begin, continue, and end with prayers of thanksgiving for all God gives us

to share

with the most desperately needy, hungering, and thirsting people on earth.

A small task each day it is not,

and that with the fires of adversity lapping at our feet, hands, and breath.

Crying

For Help

Weeping With Thanks

Thursday, December 28, 2023

What Wonders God Works, As the Sun Rises, Beginning a New Day!

Psalm 104:14

You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for people to use, to bring forth food from the earth,

Ephesians 5:20

… giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

…

Words of Grace For Today

People in desperate situations hope that someone will make a difference, help them, provide the basics of life and security.

Trapped on an island overrun by the enemy in a world wide war, the doctors and nurses and voluntold helpers (having found their way to the camp of the resistance fighters) have bound up patients for months or is it already years with old strips from old clothes. Everyone is malnourished if not starving. Everyone’s clothes are tattered and torn. Uniforms for soldiers cannot be required since no one has them. Spotty communications begging for supplies bring at most ‘Stand bye.’

Then, wrangling with all sorts of resistance from the infighting and egos of the top generals and admirals, a small group of 4 soldiers disembark from a submarine in rubber boats and paddle through the surf. Met by members of the resistance, more rubber boats are dispatched from the sub with supplies. Not enough, but something.

Visiting the ‘hospital’ the new soldiers still in black dyed fatigues cut open the new ‘plastic’ sealed packages of sulphanilamide, a new antibiotic and dressings. Weeping with joy and relief the doctor orders the nurses and helpers to take off all the bandages on the patients and to pour the sulphanilamide on and cover them with new dressings. Patients with fatal infections now have a chance at life.

(paraphrased from W.E.B. Higgins’ Behind Enemy Lines)

Ahh the immense tears-of-joy outpouring when assistance arrives for those subsisting as they irritate the enemy.

How many more people on earth this day could cry ‘Would that assistance were brought here!?!’

And we carry on, giving thanks for all that we have, all that keeps us alive, and all the blessings each day that come our way. It may not be supplies, clothes, and food, or shelter sufficient to stand the new normals of weather wind heat and cold, but it is all we need to know joy.

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.

…

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.

The Short Version

Saturday, December 23, 2023

Colour Your World Whatever Colours You Wish,

But If It Isn’t Coloured With God’s Love,

It’s Nothing.

Hosea 6:6

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings.

Romans 13:10

Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Love is the short version of all the law.

Love of God, along with fear, for that is proper and right.

Love of neighbour, for that brings us to do right by them all.

Love of enemy, for that saves us from hate, and provides hope for the lost souls of this world.

Love of self, for that is to reflect God’s take on us.

Lots of other things are demanded of us by others, others who do not love God, neighbour, enemy or self. Lots of things that are not good for anyone in the end.

So let us hope this Advent,

that we will learn again each day to love

as God loves us

steadfast

and

sure.

Smaller and Smaller

Sunday, December 17, 2023

The Pile of Thin Pieces, to Fill Between.

Everything provides some heat.

Numbers 23:19

God is not a human being, that he should lie, or a mortal, that he should change his mind. Has he promised, and will he not do it? Has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

2 Corinthians 1:18-19

As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been ‘Yes and No.’ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not ‘Yes and No’; but in him it is always ‘Yes.’

…

Words of Grace For Today

Out to stoke the fire, and split some short chunks of wood.

Amazing how things get smaller in the process of heating with wood.

First there is a tree, tall and strong, which dies or gets knocked over by the winds, ferocious as they are at times.

The tall and strong tree loses the ability to grow branches and the old ones are the first to break off, some when the tree comes crashing down, all 2000 to 3000 pounds of it.

Then slowly the ants and other processes eat at the tree until it is no more than dust dissolving into the dirt of the ground, unless …

unless I find it and cut off the branches that will be in the way, and sometimes cutting the log into two or three long pieces so I can pull it out of the woods.

In the yard I buck the log into short pieces, short enough to fit in the wood stove. Those full-stove-sized pieces get stacked for cold days, when I toss them into the stove, they burn producing the heat I need and end up as ash, which collects at the bottom of the stove, and from there I dump them in a pile to be used for various things.

There are all those not quite full-stove-sized pieces, which I set aside to split, or thinner sticks that I gather to cut up and stack for filler beside fatter logs.

Today those short, fat pieces were the ones I split (or chopped as it were) into pieces to cram in the wood stove to burn when I do not need the maximum heat the stove can produce. The climate change weather this winter has mostly been that kind of cold, barely below zero, not yet colder than -15⁰.

…

The Devil goes at us like I go at logs for heat, except the Devil’s purposes for us, cut into ever smaller pieces of anything good is to merely destroy every good thing God created.

Thankfully, God, knowing more force would only reduce us to smaller pieces for the Devil’s work, uses steadfast love and forgiveness to rescue us, bind us, heal us, and make us able to live out that same love and forgiveness for other people.

Another day, getting cut up smaller, but healed and sent out ….

Ready?

Ready of not, God’s working on us.

A Maze

Or

Amazing

Wednesday, December 13, 2023

The Maze of Bush Can Trap Us.

God Sees A Way Through For Us

…

Forgiveness.

Psalm 139:4

Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.

1 Corinthians 4:5

Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Too many people think they know everything.

‘If everyone would just listen to me, I could straighten them out!’

…

or so they all say.

And then go off doing all sorts of crazy things, based on lies and partial truths, and biased views of things that might have, or might not actually have, happened.

Thankfully God sees, knows, and will judge all according to truth. No partial truths, false confessions, or desperate defence strategies needed. God knows everything already.

Thankfully.

So there is that to look forward to becoming plainly evident to all those people who think they know everything,

and

actually have it all wrong.

So we can rest, peacefully, at the end of each day, and step confidently into the beginning of a new day,

assured that God not only knows everything,

but judges us with compassion and steadfast love.

Just another day in the bushes.

Gimme, Gimme

Make Meself Safe and Secure! ?

Saturday, November 18, 2023

What Will We Endure To Give

Our Enemies Peace?

Psalm 33:17-18

The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it cannot save. Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love …

Philippians 3:3

For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh ….

…

Words of Grace For Today

In what do we put our trust and hope?

In money, privilege, and might?

The war horse looks strong. It will indeed aid the killing of many enemies.

And then what?

Winning a war is never a solution. It only changes and most often multiplies the problems.

The deeds, by which we are known as followers of Christ, have always been of sacrificial love. Helping in plagues ensuring one’s own infection and death. Working as caregivers on the battlefields and in the poorest of poor areas of life. Loving one’s enemies so completely that they capitulate to join in loving their enemies, for that is life, where hating one’s enemies is death, even if one continues to walk the earth.

So in what will we put our trust this day?

Our Measure of God

As If!?

Friday, November 17, 2023

Is Our Measure Ever Any Better At Reaching the Light of Life,

than counting our steps in the snow?

Isaiah 55:8

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.

1 Corinthians 1:25

For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

…

Words of Grace For Today

That God’s thoughts and human thoughts are not the same is obvious, and quite a relief, if you think about it.

If God were to think like humans, with all the evil and shtako humans come up with, we would be in great jeapordy, and that not just as we are now from other humans (ourselves included), but from God. With God’s power that threat would be unbearable, un-survivable, and deadly, even if God did not act out the threats.

When we apply a measure to our wisdom and compare it to our measure of God’s foolishness, that of sacrificing Jesus on the Cross to save all people, if our heads are not buried in the sand or some place else, then we will quickly notice that we humans have a hard time measuring ourselves with any measure that would recognize the greatest power in what we call the greatest weakness, ie. surrendering to death our of love for those doing the killing.

And that is what is so spectacular about Jesus’ story, told over and over, from generation to generation. We start to recognize the sinfulness of our measuring the world, confessing that sin and it’s horrible consequences for all, and turn to God begging for mercy,

for mercy,

for mercy.

We are left each day begging, thanking God for God’s great generosity in forgiving us and renewing life in us (yet again, and again, and …), and learning to sing God’s melodies and harmonies of love and life abundant for all – made possible through our sacrifices.

What’s your measure for today?