Category: Perspective

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.

So

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.

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.

Oil

Thursday, December 14, 2023

Too Often,

Dark

is as Bright as Our Days Get,

Until …

Psalm 97:11

Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.

Matthew 25:1-2

Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. …

…

Words of Grace For Today

I’ve never been sure about the bridesmaids.

Not in Jesus’ parable, nor in real life for that matter.

What are they up to, anyway?

Meeting the Bridegroom in the dark, needing lanterns, not being admitted if their lanterns have run out of oil.

I understand not wanting to wait in the darkness.

But waiting?

…

Though it is what life is like for us always, waiting, waiting, waiting for salvation,

for God to save us since we’ve left ourselves no avenue for hope, other than God. (Not that there ever was any other avenue. We just like to think at first that we can find our own way out of trouble.)

So we wait for Light and Joy to dawn,

from the darkness,

not unlike the days growing shorter ever more

and more

and more

until we barely see the sun all day.

Waiting

waiting

waiting

for rescue.

Do we really need to bring extra ‘oil’ with us for our ‘lanterns’?

Cannot the Light of Christ guide us?

Let us hope so, because I’m short of oil already,

as you are probably, too,

even if you do not realize it yet.

So another day begins,

begging

God

for

mercy.

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.

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,

as

we

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.

Dead Man Walking

and Dead Woman Walking

No More

Saturday, December 9, 2023

Many or Few, Our Steps Will Not End With Death.

Psalm 30:4

Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name.

John 5:25

Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

…

Words of Grace For Today

‘Dead man walking’ refers to those on death row in particular as they walk their last few steps from their cell to the execution room. It also is used by extension to describe those who are targeted to die soon for their ‘misdeeds’.

It is a hell of a term,

not least of all because every human alive is walking their last steps alive on earth. Some have a few decades of walking, some a few years, some a few weeks, some a few days, some a few hours, but we are walking towards our deaths.

Jesus turns the meaning of that hellish phrase around. Those who are dead will be called some day to walk again. Properly we should say it’s dead people not only walking again but living again,

and living most fully,

in the grace and light of God.

For this God promises also us all, even those who still walk our few remaining steps, so that we need not fear death.

For death will not have the final say. Neither will the devil nor those who seek our deaths.

Already today then we sing and dance and praise God for the life abundant God has given us for this day, as yesterday, as every tomorrow.

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.