Quatsch!
Friday, December 22, 2023
Knowing Our Place,
Wholly Dependent On God,
Is Obvious Living Close To
and Dependent On Nature.
First Samuel 12:15
… if you will not heed the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king.
James 1:25
But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
…
Words of Grace For Today
Wow!
As Advent is in it’s final week, and we reflect on how God works Wonders for us, though we too often distract ourselves with doing, impatient as we are for God to works wonders for us, here comes Sam and Jim to mess with our hearts and minds.
As if!
As if we could follow the perfect law!
Not a chance.
Not a chance in all creation.
We are but beggars, sinful beggars, begging for God’s mercy and forgiveness,
and
when we forget and think that we can somehow walk the line, stay perfect, follow God’s commandments,
then
we have already taken a huge leap out of God’s Grace into the Devil’s own arms.
Not that we should just give up, as if God were not merciful, having forgiven us again and again and promising to forgive us for the rest of our lives, and always and again restoring us so that we can work God’s grace for others.
Not that we should just give up and be as evil as we can be, as greedy as we can be, as selfish and destructive to others as we can be.
Trusting God’s steadfast love, we can proceed to give our best effort to do what is right and good for all people, especially the poor and outcasts, the vulnerable and sick, the elderly and the dying. We will never do that perfectly. But trusting that God will forgive us, we can proceed with confidence in God’s Grace taking on every challenge that comes our way.
So also this day, in this last week of Advent, as the daylight of each day slowly lengthens.
Blessed we are. Not proud of our gifts, but proud that God claims us as children and equips us to share all God’s gifts with others.