Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation may spring up, and let it cause righteousness to sprout up also; I the Lord have created it.
2 Corinthians 9:10
He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
Words of Grace For Today
After a cold hard-frozen winter, the thaw of spring arrives giving respite for hearts and bodies. As the cool spring days lengthen melting the snow pack, the ground thaws and seeds await the soft May rains and warm sun to germinate, we anticipate the new growth of wild and cultured seeds into plants to provide food for the many creatures of the earth, including us humans.
We trust that God will provide, in these days, throughout the whole earth, enough warmth, sun, and soft rain to feed the 7.4 billion humans who inhabit the earth. Climate change challenges the growth of enough to feed us all, though even in the many years when there is enough to feed everyone, we fail to distribute the food to all so that no one goes hungry. Indeed millions starve each year!
Food to eat is essential to life.
As we see each day, food is not enough. Food is not even the most essential thing for life. Much more essential is that we live in God’s blessings and respond to God’s Grace with justice based on truth, loving words and actions based on righteousness, and unconditional love for all people (a love that reflects God’s grace for us sinners).
Often our work, on Christ’s behalf in this world, is often described with images of seeds sprouting, growing, and producing a harvest to feed all people.
So it is that, while we give our greatest will and efforts towards fulfilling Christ’s call to reflect God’s love for us in our efforts for all people, we know that we cannot complete this work on our own. In fact, just as the seeds do not exist, nor can they begin to germinate, until God provides warm sun and sufficient moisture (not to mention that in previous years the harvest must have produced enough to provide seeds for the new spring.)
So we pray, God, creator of all that is, plant in us the seeds of righteousness, that with the warmth of Christ’s Light and the moisture in the Holy Spirit’s breathing into us, your Word may grow in us, and that our lives (our thoughts, words and actions) may reflect what we cannot even see on our own, namely your love and grace for all people.
But you do see! Indeed you note trouble and grief, that you may take it into your hands; the helpless commit themselves to you; you have been the helper of the orphan.
Mark 9:22
It has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.
Words of Grace For Today
When I hear this ‘cast him into the fire and into the water [that place where uncreation bubbles up to border on and at times consume creation], to destroy him’ I think of the guy yesterday who jumped in front of me. The corner of No Frills where the milk coolers are was congested with at least 6 different people. So I stood a good 2 metres short of the pack, waiting patiently for them to move on. A few were visiting so it took a while. That’s when the guy came up from behind me and wedged his way less than a foot from me past me and another customer waiting to get at the cooler. The guy was an obese bear of a middle aged man. He quickly worked his way to the coolers, but then dwaddled getting his milk jug as if they had been moved since the last time, as if he could not find the right shelf of 2% which is always all the shelves behind door 2. Then he peered into the coolers dwiddling in the corner a few extra minutes before finally leaving.
I paused a bit, not too long, considering the other customers waiting politely behind me. When I stepped into the corner to door 1 to get skim milk it was clear the jerk had dwiddled to leave the air filled with flatus expelled through the anus, an aerosol that could be full of Covid virus.
The news is all full of Covid 19 fourth wave in Canada, fuelled by the Delta variant and 39 times more infecting the unvaccinated, though vulnerable (otherwise health compromised – read old or ill or young) vaccinated are still among those in hospital, ICU, and the morgue.
This jerk’s antics are a clear demonstration how aerosols hang in the air, filled with Covid virus, waiting to be breathed in, and how impossible it is to avoid doing so, except by staying in total seclusion … without milk.
The passage from Mark is not about this at all, of course. Covid 19 did not exist when Mark wrote his account of Jesus’ ministry. This passage is about the ‘demon’ who inhabits a young boy, which casts him into fire and water to destroy him.
Taken with the Psalm one could point to our work done to help alleviate the trouble and grief of the helpless and of the orphan. This is the work of the saints. Our courts commit themselves to taking the ‘best interests of the children’ as the first priority in family court … though they certainly do not! Quite the opposite. The courts commonly sacrifice children to be raised by the most dangerous of possible parents (most favoured are birth mothers, no matter the indications that the birth mother is a clear and present danger to the children!) Apparently the courts want more clients (criminals) in the next generations, which is the result of these dangerous parents’ parenting.
So with our prayers and our work as God’s voice, hands, and feet we say, “have pity on us and help us” You are the one who can take our trouble and grief into your hands. Do so now, for among the most vulnerable are the children (who cannot be vaccinated yet at all!)
Our future is at risk. There are so many idiots, jerks, antiscience idiots, anti-vac idiots and covidiots abundant enough to put us all at risk, to put the vulnerable at risk, to put our children and our future at risk.
You, Oh Lord, are the only one who can take our trouble and our grief into your hands, and heal us of these idiots and their destruction of life and future.
God With Us is a promise of an evening of great delight!
All is Well, All is Well , All Manner of things are Well.
Isaiah 52:12
For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rearguard.
John 14:3
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.
Words of Grace For Today
There are many reasons to run.
There are many reasons to run away.
There are many reasons to run for one’s life …
and to run fast, as fast as one can run.
When God promises to be with us, the reasons to run do not disappear, though we can be a whole lot less stressed, and have a whole lot less panic in us that rises into our throats, which panic leaves us only a choice to fight, flee, or freeze.
Instead when God promises to be with us, when God promises to be our rearguard, we can think clearly, without haste, for we can trust that God leads us in paths of righteousness.
When everything goes belly up, when the proverbial stuff hits the fan, we can trust that God has our backs. More than that we can be assured that when it seems that God leaves us, in fact God prepares a place for us, a place to call home, where God’s plan for us is always sure, even when we lose track of how God is with us.
Home, with God at our side, before us, behind us, promising to walk every step with us. Home, where our hearts are loved unconditionally by God.
Then, we can be at home where God brings us. No one can chase us away, and our enemies will be dealt with by God. We walk calmly through every hour, knowing that justice will be done by God. No lies, no deceit, no gaslighting, no false reports, no false arrests, no false testimony, no false convictions, no cover up. God sees everything, knows everything. For God a lie is seen and always remains a lie. For God the truth is always known and it always remains the truth.
Home, safe in God’s hands. Home where truth and beauty bring breath and life no matter the challenge. Home. Home in the wondrous creation God created for us to enjoy. Home safe and sound. Home where no one can chase us away and no evil can rule over us. Home.
Or is it hope based on God’s gifts, that winter will be blessed in all ways?
Or is it just what would be?
…
It is certainly God’s gifts, God’s presence, our help and shield.
Psalm 33:20
Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and shield.
Romans 8:24
For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?
Words of Grace For Today
What do you hope for?
I hope for justice based on truth, which will require that those who lied and gaslit me and their lies come into the light; meaning either their sins be confessed or their sins be exposed, from my ex, to the girls in and out of court, the lay pastor Anne, the church council, the wealthy people who control the church, the RCMP including Murphy, Ward, Jones and Jensen, the lawyers and prosecutors and especially the judges that lied about the testimony provided, the evidence presented, and all the evidence they refused to hear, all to make irrational rulings, convictions and denials on appeals.
This has not been seen, or even a speck of light shone on this corruption and barbarism hiding in plain site as a perversion of a system of law, as justice in Alberta, and as the Grace that the church is supposed to exercise for all people.
That is my hope.
That is my first hope among many things I hope for. The others are mostly for myself and my families: health, security, meaningful work and future dreams that provide purpose for today. Yet everything else pales in comparison to my primary hope for the great, good, and gracious impact this coming to light would make for so many people.
It is still waited for, for apparently only God will make it right, only God as my help and my shield will bring this evil mess to light. As long as the guilty perpetrators still breathe God provides them time for the amendment of life. That would be a victory for God in so many ways. It would be a step toward health for so many people in the family, the community, the church, the courts, and in the province … and far beyond.
So we wait for God to act.
…
What do you hope for?
What do you hope for that is unseen?
Will it bring life, health, and grace to bear on many, many people. Or will it simply set a small thing (maybe a huge thing) right in your own life … in your body, mind, or spirit?
Still it is what you hope for … and wait for God to bring to be.
Hope is exactly what God gives to us when God saves us sinners, redeems us, renews life in us, and sends us out into God’s good creation among God’s people to be instruments of God’s grace for all. Hope gives us the heart and mind and soul to see beyond the material things, beyond the human things, and beyond the evil that permeates and perverts life so thoroughly. Hope is the vision of seeing God in all things, in all times, in all places, and in all ways.
God created and is present with us always, promised so in our baptisms. Hope is God’s gift to us, by which we see God present.
Thus we fear
…
and love God
…
and trust God
…
to bring all sin to light, and to perfect all life in us as the saints God makes us to be.
Where will you see God today? For what will you wait for, trusting God’s promises? What will you hope for, so that you can live as God’s Grace for all people this day?
Thus says the Lord: Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for there is a reward for your work, says the Lord: they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
Luke 18:7
Will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them?
Words of Grace For Today
Words of hope fill scriptures: God will come to the aid of those downtrodden, those driven into poverty, those dealt injustice and abuse, and those ostracized with lies and gaslighting.
These are not events that happen elsewhere or at other times. These evil things done to good people take place in this place and time. Corrupt individuals (some known as the wealthiest community leaders) are recruited by corrupt police to file false reports about situations they create in order to lie and denigrate good people. Corrupt police lie about what they have reported to them in order to make good people look guilty. Corrupt pastors cooperate in creating false reports about honest, innocent and good people in order to gain favour with corrupt church and community leaders. Corrupt lawyers pretend to defend the innocent, though they do just enough to make it look like a plausible defence while leaving room for false convictions of their innocent clients, from whom they take tens of thousands of dollars in fees – all to ‘throw them under the bus’, the financial ruin part and parcel of the means used to ruin innocent, honest people.
Even though the evidence does not make out the charges, corrupt judges abound in the courts, and testimony that exonerates the accused is removed from the transcripts (as judges are allowed to edit the court transcripts), and even then testimony is falsified in their judgments at crucial points in order to make convictions possible.
In a word, barbarism rules! Here and now barbarism rules!
Because the courts command armed police and sheriffs and the entire penal system, which is staffed for the most part by bullies and more than a few totally corrupt guards and staff, most people either are naively and intentionally unaware of the injustices done to so many innocent people. Or people who are fully aware of the injustice, keep quiet so as not to attract attention to themselves, hoping not to be the next victim of the barbarism.
…
God’s chosen people have no such choice.
And God does not abandon God’s chosen people. God comes to our rescue soon and very soon. God brings us out of the land of this barbarism and establishes justice here and now for all people, by the work of God’s chosen, the many good, honest, and outspoken people who dedicate their lives to bringing justice and truth to bear on this barbarism that corrupts not just individuals, but the very foundation of civilization.
Soon and very soon.
Yes, soon and very soon, those who are so corrupt, who habitually undermine true justice, our enemies will be exposed and removed, so that God’s will may be done among us, through us.
David and all Israel were dancing before God with all their might, with song and lyres and harps and tambourines and cymbals and trumpets.
Philippians 4:4-5
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.
Words of Grace For Today
When one surveys through memory how God has exercised great grace and steadfast love for our ancestors and for us in this time and place, there is only one response that we can engage in:
We sing and dance before God with all our might.
And we work each day to let our gentleness be the mode of our lives, gentleness that is born of enduring great suffering, and still receiving great grace and deliverance by God’s hand, for God is always near.
So we sing with all our hearts, minds, and strength, singing the old, old story of Jesus and his love.
This is the dance that celebrates everything that is good in creation: God’s grace and love for us all. There is nothing better possible than this in all our lives.
Then Job answered the Lord: ‘See, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.’
1 Corinthians 15:9-10
For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
Words of Grace For Today
Job answers God, ‘I lay my hand on my mouth.’
Anyone who has read Job even a bit knows that Job does not ‘lay his hand on his mouth.’ Quite the opposite. Job is an example of one who speaks clearly, desperately and angrily at God. A good example Job is, too, in this way; an example that shows we can throw everything at God, everything that is in our hearts and on our minds, no matter how desperate or angry it may be.
The second half of that lesson is in the verses above. After Job has thrown everything at God, Job is more than ready to listen to God. Job does keep quiet. And God gives him an earful (which is more like a whole body-ful and a lifetime-full.)
Job knows God is the One great enough to handle all his pain, all his suffering, all his anger, all his frustrations. Remember Job has, through no fault of his own (though his enemies and even friends continually tell him it must be his fault – not really good friends) Job has lost all his livestock, his workers, his home, his wife, and his children. Job has lost everything and his health is failing. He is very near slipping into his grave. To put it in perspective, the view of how most people viewed misfortune was that when someone suffered a loss of any kind, it was because that person or that person’s parents had sinned. Job’s losses are so great that it seems so obvious to people that Job must have sinned greatly. The book of Job, in part, is the story that corrects that view. Just because one suffers, does not mean that one has sinned in a way to deserve that suffering.
The story of Job and that lesson needs to be repeated often, for the lesson is hard to learn and even harder to remember. Even in Jesus day (John 9:2) the disciples ask Jesus ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ And in our day, we so often dismiss the poor, the disadvantaged, the outcasts, alcoholics, addicts and co-addicts, the falsely accused and convicted because we think in some way or another or even directly, they have reaped the rewards from their own sinful living.
In this way we try in vain to build some protection for ourselves, some false barrier between us and the disasters that have taken these people down. Truth is, though, we could all be taken down. When an innocent person like myself can be falsely accused, the police invite so many people to make false reports, the lay pastor and church leaders create false scenarios and make false reports, even banning me from church, the lawyers invite false testimony, plenty of people provide outright lies under oath, and even the judges lie about the evidence in order to convict me (and the judges did not lie about peripheral things, they lied about the key evidence that exonerated me, and created false evidence needed to convict me) … when all this happens to an innocent person, then the truth is simple: there is no justice available to anyone (not even my false accusers) and anyone can be convicted of anything at any time. We live in a country where the courts are easily able to be no less than barbaric and cruel. It is one of the signs that our societal contract is shredded at it’s core. There is no protection for anyone, and all continues on it’s merry way as if the justice system were actually just because we are all too afraid (rightfully so) to admit that there is no justice system, there is only an institutionalized system of bullying people, whether they have broken the law or not.
Like Job, we need to take this to God, in all the horror that it is for us all, and then listen to God’s response.
Paul provides us an example of how we prepare to listen to God’s response. Though he writes and is listened to by many people as an authority, a messenger from God, Paul does not become a bully over others. He remains humble, knowing his place and knowing God’s place in his life. God walks with him. He remembers always that though he worked harder than any of [the other apostles] … it was not [Paul who did this blessed work of sharing the old, old story of Jesus and his love], but the grace of God that is with [him]. Paul remembers clearly the days when he persecuted the followers of Jesus, and even organized the stoning of Stephen.
Paul knows his place. Paul knows God’s place. Paul counts on God to keep God’s promise to walk with him, no matter the suffering that comes his way, .. and the suffering comes in spades.
Paul and Job are examples for us, to bring everything to God, and to count on God to keep God’s promise to walk with us, no matter what.
Job recovered, and regained more than he had lost. It rarely works that way in life. More often we come to the end of our suffering by the release of death, and being called home – as Paul was, like so many other martyrs for Christ.
When I think of your ordinances from of old, I take comfort, O Lord.
1 John 1:1-4
We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us— we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
Words of Grace For Today
It is a fine line between living fully alive and appearing to live though one is in all ultimate matters dead.
It is the line between a) giving God control of all that we are and have, or b) taking (well, assuming one is taking) control of what is God’s.
The Psalmist takes comfort in God’s ordinances from of old. All good and well, except the Psalmist takes comfort not because they are a gift from God or God has guided one’s life to goodness or that God has convinced the Psalmist of his/her own sins and with mercy saved her/him from those sins. No, the Psalmist, with as much arrogance as one can have, takes comfort in God’s law because the Psalmist claims to have kept them all and has the audacity to burn hot with indignation at the wicked who do not keep God’s law!
That’s faith based on hate for others, a total miscomprehension of one’s own place among the worst of sinners, and an attempt to take on God’s role as judge – and turning that role into one of condemning others! Hate-based faith is widespread, unfortunately. It has fuelled, does and always will fuel strife, conflict, and outright wars … and it has nothing to do with God’s communication of reality in many and various ways, and most clearly through Jesus, the Christ’s story, the old, old story of Jesus and his love.
The writer of 1 John puts it more correctly, more life-giving, and without a hate base, if confusedly with so much Johannine imagery of life, light, Word, beginning of time, abiding, revelation, eternal life, fellowship, and complete joy.
How else do we humans speak about that which exceeds our language and our knowing and anything that is of our comprehension?
The meaning of life is simple, using Johannine imagery: it is to live in complete joy, given to us by God, and brought full circle by us sharing it with others. It is to live in fellowship with Jesus, the Light of the World from before time to beyond time. It is to live eternal life now, sharing that life with all other people. It is to recognize one’s place as God’s humble creatures, given the gift of eternal life that is only a gift for us if we share it, testify to it, and include others in that gift.
The meaning of life has nothing to do with judging others, or claiming one’s ability to follow rules, laws or ordinances. The meaning of life is to recognize God’s truth in all things: Grace and Love make life possible. Hot indignation consumes life … for all people.
God, we pray, save us from hot indignation and the arrogance that would have us claim we are better than others, especially our enemies.
Give us the wisdom and patience, the courage and character, and the love and hope instead to endure the injustices that our evil enemies work against us … so that one day they may encounter your truth in our testimony about your Grace: the old, old story of Jesus and his love. On that day our joy will indeed be complete.
Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the Lord.
1 Corinthians 2:4-5
My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
Words of Grace For Today
God speaks to us in many and various ways.
Prophets reported their dreams, many waking dreams, that they knew were God speaking to them. They warned the people (usually the kings and rulers, but also the common folk) of the sin and evil of their ways and God’s response of ruin and exile. They encouraged the people in ruin and exile to have courage, for God would not leave them abandoned. The warned kings and rulers of God’s people and their enemies of the destruction that would come because of their foolish, proud, arrogant, and stubborn ways of trying to find their own way without or against God!
These words remain as they have been collected and recorded. They are warnings, cautions, and encouragements still for us today.
Even so these words, from dreams and prophetic wisdom given by God, most always work from the power of might that can destroy one’s enemies.
There were many false prophets, people who spoke their dreams as if they were from God, and the dreams and the prophets were not from God at all. Even when the words were wise, or wise of a sort, they were not from God.
Jeremiah compares these false prophets to the straw that is left after the wheat is harvested. They do not bear good fruit, though until the harvest they support the good fruit of grain that feeds the people.
Straw is nothing like wheat in its value and ability to sustain life. Straw is laid down to absorb the excrement and urine from animals in a barn or barn yard. Wheat is ground to make food for people or maybe mash for young animals or as a nutritious supplement for animals. Wheat feeds. Straw once used is set out to rot or to be burned.
So the words of false prophets, even those alive today, are worth little but to absorb crap, and attract crap they do until the dung heap in politics and on the internet starts to rot and stink to high heaven.
Precious are the words from God, as wheat is precious. They give life.
How can we know the difference? Sometimes it is a challenge and we are duped into believing false words of false hope … that drive us further from hope!
The difference is in the power in the words. The power of might that can destroy is not the power of God’s word. The power of God’s word is what God does with our lack of might, our lack of character, our lack of integrity, our lack of goodness, our lack of faith, our weakness of the most miserable kinds.
The power of God’s word is that it addresses our weaknesses and failings with grace, with mercy and kindness, with forgiveness and renewed life. God’s power is made known in how God gives abundant life to even the greatest sinners and the most horrible people. God’s power is made known in the sacrifice that God makes, giving the life of his own son over to the power that would destroy life. God makes this sacrifice in order to communicate to us (in Jesus’ story) God’s love for us, and the lengths that God goes to in order to offer us grace, and acceptance, and renewed life, and a home with all the saints of all time.
Welcome home! This is where the treasure of the fruit of the vine, the kernel of wheat, and the heart of love and hope is made real by God’s love for us. This is where there is food enough for all and a feast for every soul no matter how bruised or beaten. This is where everyone is actually welcome. It’s not just an empty phrase of a congregation looking for like-minded self-righteous people to fill the pews and pay the bills, but hating and condemning those who are different.
Whoever you are … this home is built not with power and might, cement and wood, furniture and cupboards. This home is built on the power of God’s mercy, grace and enduring kindness.
I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil.
John 6:68
Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.
Words of Grace For Today
When one thinks of ‘spoils’ that one may find, which are of great value, one thinks of the ‘spoils of war’ or something similar, where great destruction has been wielded against people. The aftermath leaves things ruined, and among the ruins there are valuables, valuables that the destroyers did not find, or at least did not take with them. Then the passing of time has covered over the mess of ruins, valuables included, until …
We came upon a small mound in the far corner of the woods. That is I, with a camera, made this find. Good that I had a witness or it would not be believed, even by me. I walked, the camera working it’s record-taking of the beauty and devastation that would be uncovered. Then the whole mound circled and nothing unusual discovered I discounted it all as an ant colony since the place was crawling with them.
I walked on, only 4 metres, to find my foot disappearing into the ground, and then my leg and then all of me as the camera was not recording anything, and my mind was racing with self-preservation thoughts, until I came to a soft landing, sort of, given the circumstances with my head a good foot under ground level. I looked about after I felt enough to know I was not hurt from tip to toe. Before me was a doorway built of rocks moulded (that’s the only way to describe how exactly they were fit together) into an arch. Under it a cavern opened up under that ‘ant colony.’
Cautiously I probed forward, the camera providing light and recording at first nothing but rock walls and a void ahead. Then ….
I cannot disclose the treasure I found, for it’s value is ancient, beyond compare, and priceless. This was obviously the spoils of something like war, taken before the destruction and hidden in safety never to be retrieved, or taken after the destruction and hidden to be collected later. But there was no later for those who knew of it.
I’ve been homeless for years now. The wealth in this treasure will provide for me a home more marvellous than all my dreams. Though late in years I will do all that I could dream of and still be able to do yet more, for money will be no obstacle now for me.
Even so this discovery is only what it is. It does not compare to the treasure that God provides in Jesus and Jesus’ story of God’s love. This is an old, old story, which was given to me when I was not even a quarter year old, and which has given me life, a home (even when I was homeless), fed me, given me a career, a defence against all my enemies (oh, how many and how foolish they have been), and provided wisdom beyond my years from early in life. Most precious it has provided me with forgiveness for my sins, giving me the possibility of living in God’s truth, by grace alone.
While the enemies are attacking again, like the ants that never seem to be defeated entirely no matter what one employs, my defence is sure. My defence is God’s Word given to us in Jesus Christ. What more could anyone need. For when under attack or at peace we know God’s Promises are for us. There is nowhere else we need to turn to for life abundant. Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.
This eternal life (which started for us long ago in this life on earth) is a treasure more priceless than anything in all of creation. It is a treasure which a camera can record only glimpses of on rare occasions. Thus my camera keeps searching, taking me along, to record the spartan glimpses of God’s greatest treasure: forgiveness and renewed life bringing us to eternal life all our days on earth and beyond.
