Is There A Balm In Gilead?

For it is desperately needed

Monday, June 2, 2025

here and now.

Like Grass, We Dry Up,

And Die,

except Jesus brings the Water of Life

Jeremiah 8:21-22

For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt,
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of my poor people
not been restored?

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Luke 19:9-10

Then Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house, because you too are a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

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Words of Grace for Today –

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Always we humans have had cause to cry:

is there no balm in Gilead,

pleading really, is there no balm here for us and all these people in our time.

…

So much illness.

So much injustice.

So much loss.

So much sorrow.

So much death.

So much grief.

…

To these cries, God answers with Jesus, living among us, a human, who will heal many, teach with great wisdom, and sacrifice his own life that all people may live.

We do not need so seek Jesus out.

For Jesus came to seek out and to save the lost,

which is all of us,

whether we know it or not.

There is a balm in Gilead,

and here and now,

for our every ill.

What a life Jesus offers us, to fully live, healed

and then sent to share the Good News

that God is for us,

for us all!

Thanks be to God.

A Child To the Barren

Brings Promises to Give the Child Up.

Sunday, June 1, 2025

Is that right?

Is that us?

Looking away,

for something better

than God’s Blessings?

First Samuel 1:11

She made this vow: “O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.”

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Luke 1:57-58

Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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God’s Grace Flows to all people, though it seems to flow to some more than others.

So when women of old were childless, bearing children the utmost mark of being blessed (things have changed, eh?), it was often that women, thirsty for recognition by their families and communities, would promise all sorts of things to God if God would give them a son (and sons were the only children that seem to mark the mother as blessed, too – and that’s certainly changed, thankfully!)

The most extreme sacrifice would be to give up the child so that the child would serve God his life-long.

Something seems off here.

Did the woman want a son to raise and love?

Or did the woman making such a promise want first of all to appear to be blessed in other people’s eyes, in their husband’s eyes? The son then was really not important?

Or was it the ultimate sacrifice, offered in exchange for being blessed?

Does God work that way?

If I sacrifice what I want most will God give it to me so I can give it away?

Or

is it not that God already gives us blessings upon blessings and asks in return that we give them away to other people to enjoy the blessings, and thus learn to give God thanks?!

Was not John a great gift to Elizabeth, in her late years? And was John not dedicated to serving God, and did not John lose his life in that service? And did not John live a blessed life, if a difficult life?

Being blessed is certainly no guarantee of an easy life.

It would, according to biblical accounts, be exactly the opposite. Being blessed is a guarantee that challenges, trials, and suffering will come our way.

So do you want to be blessed this day?

Of course, since the other alternative is to be cursed, which may be an easy life, but a useless life.

Which is really not living at all.

So we pray:

Bless us God, each day.

Walk with us through the challenges ahead.

Breath

Smoke

Saturday, May 31, 2025

Justice

Smoke Obscures Everything Good,

From Here

to The Furthest Shore

Psalm 112:5

It is well with those who deal generously and lend, who conduct their affairs with justice.

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1 Timothy 6:18-19

They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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I woke to smoke that took my breath away, so thick and acrid did it dig into my soul.

I sought desperately for that breath that would take that smoke away.

And I could not find it

for hours.

So it is when others deal injustice to us,

filling courts and communities with lies about us.

Injustice is like smoke that takes our breath and life away, grinding us to desperately seek that truth that will take away the injustice and bring us freedom to live

and breathe

and work

and be at peace

with life.

So destructive is injustice.

So destructive are the lies.

So good are the truths that support good deeds, giving life

that is really life

to all.

Righteous

Suffering

Friday, May 30, 2025

Rejoicing

Hot Hot

or

Cold Cold

The Way is Always Challenging

Psalm 5:12

For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover them with favour as with a shield.

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Acts of the Apostles 5:41-42

As they left the council, they rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonour for the sake of the name. And every day in the temple and at home they did not cease to teach and proclaim Jesus as the Messiah.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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The Way of following Jesus, of going where God sends us and how the Holy Spirit guides us, with righteousness, wonder, and grace for all people,

The Way of following Jesus is never without risks and challenges.

Only when we trust that God shields us from final death, giving us new life each day, and everlasting life after death itself, can we proceed confidently into and through each day, meeting all challenges as Jesus would have us,

with kindness and honesty,

with music and dance,

with joy,

even

when

it’s

tough

going

forward.

Words

Music

Thursday, May 29, 2025

and Dance

Where Will We Sing And Dance

Next?

Leviticus 26:6

And I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one shall make you afraid.

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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.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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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.

In the Days to Come ….

Oh, That It Were Already Today

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

When Peace Prevailed Everywhere

.

.

.

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A Canada goose and a bald eagle battled in Burlington, Ont., on Feb. 23. Photographer Mervyn Sequiera captured the fight and posted it on his Instragram account @msequeiraphotography. (Mervyn Sequeira)

God Does Not Save Us From Our Trials,

But In Our Trials.

Isaiah 2:2-4

In days to come …

nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

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Hebrews 12:14

Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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The World is in chaos, again, or rather still.

John reports that Jesus says he will Leave Us Peace. What a promise!

On the 8th of May Germany’s 2nd TV service (ZDF) broadcast the Worship Service for the 80th Anniversary of the End of WWII in Europe, a memorial of being liberated. In the service the Germans remembered, with thanks for the end of war in 1945, yet still with endless guilt, for war did not just break out. It was begun by Germany’s Nazi Party. Even more, they remembered the efforts made to rebuild for decades after hostilities ceased. And they gave thanks for the prosperity and peace that Europe has enjoyed since.

Meanwhile violence, destruction, and death in Ukraine, just 100s of km east, remind us all that the lack of war is not ever guaranteed.

But peace in this world, which they celebrated, is more than just the lack of war. This peace is also to have institutions that honour all people, freedom to worship as one chooses, and a social contract wherein all are free to speak their mind, but no one is free to harm others, not even with words. Where justice is striven for earnestly by all, for all. Yet, nothing can guarantee peace.

Here in Canada, as the US has thrown chaos and fear at the world order, as global powers grow in strength and threat, and as extremist militias and failed states create chaos in our world, we must remain vigilant, and continually strive for those things that make for peace in our world, our nation, our province, our communities, and in our homes. Ignorance and apathy, fake news and heated rhetoric, extreme ‘solutions’ and the status quo can have no place in our lives, if we wish peace to continue, if we hope to avoid the complete loss of prosperity that we have enjoyed for many decades. Peace requires work and sacrifice to give it to the next generations. That work begins with each of us.

Yet, John reminds us that peace in this world, peace that we must work for every day, is not the kind of Peace God offers us. God offers us a more powerful, more life-changing, more effective kind of Peace. It is the Peace that the Holy Spirit gives us and teaches us to share with all people.

This Peace is already here today. Trust it. Live it. Share it.

The One And Only

Rock Saves Us

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Again

On a Hot, 30⁰C+ Day, The Snow Looks Great!

On Any Day Of Challenges,

God’s Grace Welcomes Us In,

to a cool, life-giving hope.

Psalm 18:31

For who is God except the Lord? And who is a rock besides our God?

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2 Corinthians 1:9-10

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us; on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again

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Words of Grace for Today –

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Since we keep on sinning in old and rarely in new ways, God keeps saving us, again and again.

We have reason to give God thanks many times each day.

We have reason to hope to a future formed by God, and not ruined by those who try so hard these days (as each day has had many someones ready to ruin it).

That hope does not crumble, like shale.

Rather God gives us hope that is as solid as granite or marble, even more sure than matter existing in the universe, more sure than we can wrap our hearts and minds around.

Try squeezing a piece of granite or marble.

And then trust God to be more solidly for us, for us all.

God Chooses

Spirit Over Power or Might

Monday, May 26, 2025

And Look What God Does!

Putting Light Into Our Lives!

Zechariah 4:6

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.

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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.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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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.

Wonders upon wonders.

Take time today to notice God’s great works.

Giving a Helping Hand

When and To Whom Needs It

Sunday, May 25, 2025

Freely

Troubled Waters Will Find Us All!

Deuteronomy 15:7

If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbour.

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James 2:14

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you?

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Words of Grace for Today –

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Life has it’s challenges. Never ending challenges. Kind of like the rain lately. But the rain reduces the risk of wild fires and their smoke that steal days from us, now and at the end of life.

Life has it’s challenges. We never know when we will succumb and end up in great need, even on the street among the growing numbers of homeless people who just a few months ago had homes.

So, out of rational expediency we ought to help those in need, and not just a little but systematically. Building systems that help everyone in need. So that when we end up there, there will be help for us.

Even more so: the greatest challenge in life is to recognize the purpose for one’s life that enlivens one’s days each day, and builds resilience against grief and diseases ravages and faster healing from them as well. The one and only purpose in life that provides those blessing is the act of reaching out to and helping those in greatest need.

Give a helping hand. It not only won’t kill you, it’ll give you life!

Good News

God Knows You Inside and Out

Saturday, May 24, 2025

Bad News

God knows you inside and out,

like each stick of wood in a pile.

First Kings 8:39

In heaven your dwelling place, forgive, act, and render to all whose hearts you know—according to all their ways, for only you know what is in every human heart.

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John 1:47-48

When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

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Words of Grace for Today –

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The Good News: the poor will receive a gracious bounty from the rich!

The Bad News: the rich will lose a great bounty to the poor.

It all depends on one’s perspective and circumstance.

God knowing us all is great if we are perfect.

But none of us is!

So God knowing us is really bad news for us all.

Except God is gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love!

So God knowing us, warts, sins, abominations and everything evil, is not bad news.

Unless we want to hang on to our warts, sins, abominations and everything evil.

God’s Good News is not that anyone loses anything good. Everyone loses everything evil. Everyone wins, it’s just some us us (part of each of us) wants to hang on to the familiar if destructive part of our selves.

How does God know us?

It is not important!

It is life-giving to know, even knowing us, God forgives us, loves us, and makes us whole again. Sinner-Saints each day anew.

What news!