Month: October 2023

Facing God

Friday, October 20, 2023

Seeing God is Not Like Seeing through Thick Fog.

Exodus 33:11

Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then he would return to the camp; but his young assistant, Joshua son of Nun, would not leave the tent.

John 15:15

I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.

…

Words of Grace For Today

The tradition was that if one saw God, one would die from the experience of such awesome power.

Then Moses spoke to God on Mount Sinai, returning with a face as white as a ghost.

Along comes Jesus, God’s son, and God as well. People encounter him in everyday settings. Twelve disciples, and probably more, follow him around the countryside, seeing him heal people’s illnesses and despair, teach with authority, and command even the wind and the sea.

Mostly they are, as the Gospels report, only somewhat aware that Jesus is God. Then he calls them not servants but friends, friends to whom he has revealed what God the Father has told Jesus. That’s a lot of divine disclosure.

And we inherit all that, through the Scriptures’ witness and the witness of Christians who have gone before us, teaching us, healing us, disclosing God’s Word to us.

That would make a huge number of people our friends, sharing in the information given Jesus by God.

I am always suspicious of people who I barely know who call me friend, for my experience is they are not about giving to me as their friend. They are about taking everything I might entrust to them, and abusing it and me with it.

That does not distract from the friendship that I have experienced many times from people I do not know, who are Christians, generous, gracious, and welcoming as Jesus was for all the terribly good sinners of his day (and all days since.) True friends do not use it as a demand, an opener and pry bar into one’s life, an avenue to use others to get ahead. True friends are about giving, and giving generously so that others can life, and live well.

That’s how we see God face to face, in the receiving of grace from strangers and in the giving of grace to everyone, even strangers.

God’s Kindness,

And Then What?

Thursday, October 19, 2023

Our View Of Wonder Is Not in Nature, Wonderful As It Is.

It is God Given.

First Samuel 2:30

Therefore the Lord the God of Israel declares: “I promised that your family and the family of your ancestor should go in and out before me for ever”; but now the Lord declares: “Far be it from me; for those who honour me I will honour, and those who despise me shall be treated with contempt….”

Romans 2:4

Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

…

Words of Grace For Today

Listening to CBC’s Ideas: Astrophysicist Hubert Reeves on The Origins of Us (the Big Bang Theory), a popularizer of science little known in the English world, but famous in France, who died Friday, 13 October 2023:

The world began with a bang.

A very big bang, a theory that is ‘proven’ by 10 things that it predicts, which have since been discovered to exist.

We have messed it up royally.

God is kind, dealing with us with forbearance and patience.

So what then?

Snippets for the conversation with Reeves:

The universe is strange, more strange than we think, more strange than we are able to think.

Our way of thinking does not need to reflect reality. Reality is very counterintuitive.

We think in an operational way, that provides for our survival.

What is the power of our way of understanding the world.

We have limited intelligence.

There is no guarantee that our way of thinking is able to go the profoundest depth of the universe.

Our way of thinking is operational. There is no guarantee when we apply it to the universe. There is no guarantee that we can understand everything.

Can we understand at least that God’s kindness, forbearance, and patience is exercised for us for a purpose: that we will find our senses, and confess, and repent.

For while there is no proof that we know everything, and especially everything about the universe, we can know God’s Grace, and respond with humble confession and repentance.

That is not so far out in the universe that we cannot get around to God’s kindness leading us to repentance and understand it well,

or well enough to trust God will be patient with us as we figure it out.

A day’s task.

Every day’s task.

The Meek and the Poor Say

Wednesday, October 18, 2023

The Days of Autumn Redeem Much!

Psalm 140:13

Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name; the upright shall live in your presence.

Luke 6:20

Then he looked up at his disciples and said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God….’

…

Words of Grace For Today

Well, the meek, who will inherit the earth, have taken a good look at it and said, ‘no thanks!’

So the poor, who have the Kingdom of God, have taken a good look at what they have, and have said, ‘If this is it, what’s it worth anyway? How about some clean air and water, nutritious food, enough clothing and sufficient shelter, meaningful work and love? Then throw in some food security, and real security, and peace, and justice, and equity!’

Well, some of the poor, anyway, and by far not most of them.

Many more have given God thanks! Thanks for every little thing that makes for life and love and joy and hope.

It’s not that the rich have more and so they always give more thanks, nor that the poor have so little so we either have nothing to be thankful for, or that we are thankful for even the smallest of things good.

But having been on the wealthy side, and now on the poor side of life, I can tell you that being poor has taught me to say thanks to God for more and more of the things that I used to take for granted.

I guess knowing how to and actually giving God thanks makes the Kingdom of God more visible.

So here it is: the Kingdom of God, in this blessed hermitage beside a lake, with the hard cold of winter coming, after the wildfires, smoke, heat and bugs of summer. Autumn is a lovely time, with many fewer bugs, no more wild parties or crazy campers next door, cool temperatures for working hard in, and plenty of dead wood to collect to feed the wood stove so that the cold hard winter days are still warm inside the insulated tarps.

If, out of 365, 60 or more days are like today, then I see things are real good.

If there is a balance in life at all, then these days of autumn convince me that the balance has tipped in my favour, if just every so slightly.

But I’ll take what I get, with thanks, love, joy and hope … hope that life will continue as well far into the future.

…

Answer 10

The map of North America of the Wildfire Smoke that has taken our breath away this past summer … and it’s all clear across Canada, with a few spots in of light smoke west, south, and south east across the US. Only a few areas are bad enough to be noticed. None are more intense than the light blue.

Get Up!

Get Going, The Devil Is A’Coming!

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

So Idyllic,

until

storms decimate the beach

and all within a half kilometre!

Psalm 91:11-12

For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.

Matthew 2:13

Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’

…

Words of Grace For Today

If only we knew when to get up and run from danger

in time to make it to …

well where can we run to nowadays.

Earthquakes threaten so much of the earth. Island paradises are either disappearing under ocean levels rising or conflicts raging or can be decimated by hurricanes stronger and more numerous each year. Coasts and shores can flood without warning! Wildfires can rip through any wooded area. Tornadoes, derechos, and plough winds, or droughts or torrential rains can get most anywhere else.

And still the greatest danger is not from storms and climate change induced extremes. The greatest danger, as always in human history, is from other humans set on getting what they want or working to keep what they have.

We all need angels to guard us

and fearless hearts

assured of God’s mercy,

if not to save us from disasters and evil humans,

then to help us recover and live again.

…

Answer 9

Just Air,

Clear Air, Blue and White with Clouds, for that I am thankful everyday, as I breathe

in

and

out.

And Live!

Mercy

Mercy Me!

Monday, October 16, 2023

That’d Be Us,

Smoking As We Go Down,

If God Were Not Merciful!

Psalm 103:10

He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.

Ephesians 4:32

… be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Well, a week of giving thanks for being able to take photos, and lots of other things is great, and it continues not least of all for Mercy.

Mercy me where would we be without mercy!

Since God does not make us pay all our debts, huge and impossible as they are, why are we not so gracious with those whose debts are small and owed to us?

Tender-hearted is a great start to every day, and every challenge. It gets us further than most any other effort on our part.

So God is merciful, and we, well not so much. God is tender-hearted, and we try but end up not so much, right?

And the world around us, with wars, lies, corruption, and lack of care for those without, is what we get!

Starting everyday remembering to be thankful for God’s mercy and tender-heartedness towards us is a great start. And then …?

What are you thankful for today?

Can you see all that you can be thankful for, clearly enough?

…

Answer 8

Wood, that provides heat and cooking in the winter, without which I would be a might bit chilly and more.

Thanks Ten

Sunday, October 15, 2023

What Is It?

Proverbs 29:7

The righteous know the rights of the poor; the wicked have no such understanding.

Luke 14:13-14

But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’

…

Words of Grace For Today

A week of giving thanks for being able to take photos.

What are you thankful for today?

A feast, it was on Thanksgiving. Was it for you as well. A simple feast of inexpensive foods, shared, with laughter, stories, and news.

Do we provide likewise for the poor, the lame, the blind, the outcast and all who cannot repay us?

Or what?

Can you see it clearly?

Answer 7

The impact wrench graciously loaned to me, which literally puts the screw to so many challenges and helps hold the camp together and make repairs to all that falls apart, which is too many things, people excluded.

Thanks Nine

Saturday, October 14, 2023

What Is It?

Job 17:3

Lay down a pledge for me with yourself; who is there that will give surety for me?

Romans 8:34

Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.

…

Words of Grace For Today

A week of giving thanks for being able to take photos.

Though we mess up our lives and the lives of so many other people, on a more than regular basis, we are not left to be condemned to the garbage pile of life.

Christ intercedes for us and in that the greatest surety is provided for us: God’s own promise to deliver us from all evil, even that of our own making.

So what are you thankful for today?

Can you see clearly the snippet of what I am thankful for?

Answer 6

The ‘monster’, the woodstove that I rebuilt with heavy a heavy duty liner and stove top to cook on, which not only provides a cook space like a crockpot, good for slow cooking and boiling water for coffee and tea, but it keeps things from freezing in the winter, especially the water tank and me.

Thanks Eight

Friday, October 13, 2023

What Is It?

Daniel 4:32

You shall be driven away from human society, and your dwelling shall be with the animals of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like oxen, and seven times shall pass over you, until you have learned that the Most High has sovereignty over the kingdom of mortals and gives it to whom he will.

1 Peter 5:6

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Thanksgiving Week started the Friday before, why not?

So I am thankful for these things shown in photos this past week and a day.

Can you tell what they are?

Four days later the answer will be shown here.

A week of giving thanks for being able to take photos.

Too often we think how great we are,

forgetting, as Martin Luther said, we are at best beggars,

beggars all,

beggars always.

What are you thankful for today?

Can you see it clearly?

Answer 5

A water tank which provides enough water that I can, when it does not freeze, wash well with water flowing, a small, precious thing.

Thanks Seven

Thursday, October 12, 2023

What Is It?

Psalm 109:26

Help me, O Lord my God! Save me according to your steadfast love.

Matthew 14:30-31

But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’

…

Words of Grace For Today

Thanksgiving Week started the Friday before, why not?

So I am thankful for these things shown in photos this week.

Can you tell what they are?

Four days later the answer will be shown here.

A week of giving thanks for being able to take photos.

We often try to do great things and then realize we’ve ‘bitten off more than we can chew’, that we have gotten ourselves up a creek and lost our paddles. We can be thankful for God’s steadfast love that saves us, again and again,

and again.

What are you thankful for today?

Answer 4

A simple thing, a door, to come through to get inside. For years I did not have one, so I am always reminded of how good simple things are, if we just but notice.

Thanks Six

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

What Is It?

Isaiah 25:4 (– 5)

For you have been a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat. When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rainstorm,

(the noise of aliens like heat in a dry place, you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds; the song of the ruthless was stilled.)

2 Corinthians 4:11

For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Thanksgiving Day is done. And still we give thanks for days. Why not?

Thanksgiving Week started the Friday before, why not?

So I am thankful for these things shown in photos this week.

Can you tell what they are?

Four days later the answer will be shown here.

A week of giving thanks for being able to take photos.

The blasts of winter at these latitudes are never like blasts of heat, hardly ever rain, and if then it’s ice. But those who speak ruthlessly against us and others abound at all latitudes.

From all that endangers us, God gives us refuge and offers us to little deaths so that others may find refuge as well.

Christ is in us, and we know how that ended for him, right? For this we were created. For this we are redeemed. There is no better life.

What are you thankful for today?

Answer 3

This rain barrel converted into a water hauler has made so many trips, bringing clean, life-giving water to my camp.