Made All That More Visible by the Wonderful Light,
So May the Light of Christ Make Obvious
the Fog of Evil and False Convictions
That Abound, Also Here!
Psalm 126:3
The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced.
Ephesians 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Words of Grace For Today
Every day the only way to survive, after the evil that has been focused on me to bring about my undeserved destruction, is to remember that the Lord has done great things for me, and I rejoice!
Fridays, we remember all those people who are falsely accused, harassed by the police soliciting false reports about them, fabricating evidence, and falsely convicted by judges who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20) We especially pray for men who are falsely accused by their spouse or partner, for there seems to be no end to the false charges and convictions based on obvious lies by women about good, honest men.
We pray that the Light of Christ will come to bear on each false conviction and those that brought it to be, that God’s justice will come to be for the falsely convicted and come down on all those that contributed to the false conviction and the destruction of their lives.
We pray, that as it is for me it will be for all those falsely convicted: that God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. And that those heavenly places will be where we are now on this planet earth.
I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay!
Romans 15:5-6
May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Words of Grace For Today
Most times when the disasters of life coming knocking on our doors, we seek solace and assistance from our families, if they are any good, and we have been any good to them.
When the biggest disasters hit, though our families may be there to help us, it is to God that we turn and cry ‘hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay!’
We hope that in all our times and in all our ways we will learn to ‘live in harmony with’ our family, so that when we need them or when they need us, together we will be the hands and arms of God which can offer them help and deliverance, for all in need.
Our prayer for this day, and every Thursday, is for all our families, that the God of steadfastness and encouragement will bring us through each day safely, keep our hearts and minds at peace with ourselves and with each other, and inspire us to see God’s goodness in each other and to be that goodness ourselves, with gratitude for all God gives us each day.
We begin by remembering who we are; we are poor and needy, as each day begins … and only God gives us more.
The Lord is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation.
Matthew 11:25
At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.
Words of Grace For Today
We all have places to go, if not that we actually go, then places to which we wish we could go.
Some of us dream of seeing the greatest man-made wonders: the great wall of China, the pyramids in Egypt, and in space the ISS. Or the wondrous features of earth: Siberia’s expanses, the ice shelves of Antarctica, the tundras of north Canada, the Grand Canyon, or … we each have our own list.
Many of us, though, have lesser places to go. Some of us must go on regular trips for business or family, and others of us have options to go places (or we wish we had the option.)
As we travel and others travel, we remember how powerful God is, that at God’s wrath the earth quakes. We remember that the greatest truths of God’s creation God does not reveal to the people who proclaim themselves ‘wise and intelligent’. Rather God reveals the greatest truths to the supposed ‘infants’ of this earth, the supposed ‘foolish’, ‘guilty’, and ‘outsiders’.
Today we remember all these travellers, supposed wise and God’s own children, and pray that God will accompany each traveller, on the way there, and on the way back, so that all travellers will live well before and after each trip that must be, and each trip that we choose to make.
We, also, pray that together we will remember how our trips cost the earth in CO emissions, and all of us a bit of our future, and a bit more for our future generations.
God, be merciful to us, as we poison the very earth you created for us to live on, as we travel to and fro.
Do not let your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake; why should God be angry at your words, and destroy the work of your hands?
Colossians 2:18
Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking.
Words of Grace For Today
Sunday rest.
Monday work and remember the children.
Tuesday work and remember all the men who are abused by women.
Oh, you say, that is not how the world is. Men abuse women and kill them.
Yes, we’ve come a long way recognizing how some men, very few men, abuse women with violence that eventually and inevitably leads to the man violently killing the woman, or psychological demeaning until the woman feels so worthless that she kills herself. And we have recognized the signs, and coaxed and coached abuse women away from their abuser (which is very hard to do since the abuser’s abuse captures and makes the abused think she needs the abuser’s presence and approval), and provided safe places for abused women to recover their sense of self, their voice, and their assurance of their own worth … and a vision of life without the abuser.
And many women and men have gone beyond that to assume and punish all men for the abuse done by a few, which only turns the tables on the men. Now the women and men become ardent, unrelenting, unabashed misandrists, theirs is the destruction of innocent, good people (men), and the lies that are told about innocent men mushroom into a cloud over society from which no one can escape.
Meanwhile many men are caught in their abuser’s trap, just as women are also. They have lost their voice, their woman has robbed them of their sense of self, of all their friends, of all contact with reality as they are blamed for so many things each day, small at first, the huge things, that the man has had nothing to do with. And the end is the same as for women: some women abusers are violent and they eventually, inevitably kill the abused man who is so worthless she sees him as not even human. More women psychologically beat the voice, worth, and hope right out of the man until he withers into self-loathing and finds no way to go on, so he kills himself. Men with a even a small tendency for violence use a gun, those with none use other means like poison.
When the courts are involved, like the rest of society, there are precious few who even think it’s possible for a woman to abuse a man if the woman is not beating the living daylights out of the man, and even then they are more likely to charge and convict the man – even though it is the woman violently beating up the man, and the man only tries to save his life. When the abuse is psychologial the courts most likely convict the man of come kind of harassment or psychological abuse (even though it’s the woman who is the abuser, if they would only open their eyes to the possibility!)
The rest of society is not unlike the courts, blaming the man for being abused: ‘what kind of a man are you to let a woman treat you like that!’ ‘No real man could ever be abused by a woman. Look at her. She’s half a foot shorter, and 50 pounds lighter (though so much stronger physically, if they’d only look.)’ ‘You’re not a real human if you let her treat you like that. You must have it coming. You’ve done something terrible to her.’ ‘Hey, man, it’s your fault for staying with her. Anyone with sense would have left long ago.’ And so go the blaming of the man for the woman’s abuse.
In the end everyone loses, no one more than the children, who learn to lie to protect themselves, who learn that courts and cops and church people are all corrupt, who learn never to tell the real truth about who is doing what to whom, because they will be made to pay if they do.
So we remember Tuesdays all the men abused by women.
And we pray that we will not be led astray by our words or others’ words of deceit.
And we pray that we will not be caught up in the ‘human way of thinking’ so that we ignore men who are suffering, and whose suffering will always end in death … unless someone or some miracle intervenes.
Keep back your servant also from the insolent; do not let them have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.
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
There are so many ways to ruin one’s own life, and the life of those around one, so many ways.
We pray that God will save us from these many ways,
and that we will trust God’s forgiveness each of the many times we still mess up lives, and
that we will trust God’s forgiveness for each of the many times each other person messes up lives, even our life.
That is difficult to do, when those that mess up one’s life do it with great authority and clear intention and dark guile.
That is even more difficult to do when the lives the others mess up are the children’s lives, especially when it is done with great authority and clear intention and dark guile.
Therefore we pray that God will help us not become insolent, or judgmental, or arrogant, or … well there are so many ways to be that will lead us to ignore God’s Grace.
So we pray, each day, that we will rely on God’s Grace to guide us, especially as we deal with those who would mess up our lives and the lives of the children … and
that children so messed with, will come to know and trust God’s generous Grace and steadfast love for them and for all people.
We have done our work, sacrificed all that we have, in order to protect the children, and those with great authority and clear intention and dark guile have brought our efforts and sacrifice to naught.
Now all that is left is to trust God’s Spirit to find a way to show the children a life that is filled with Grace, forgiveness, love, and hope; a life that is not fully dependent on money, power, or fame; a life that depends only on God’s will for us.
Today, there is work to do. God’s work to bring Grace, forgiveness, love and hope to bear on so many lives that are lived so foreign to all goodness from God.
Alas for those who go down to Egypt for help and who rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord!
Hebrews 2:1
Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.
Words of Grace For Today
Rest.
Today instead of looking to ‘Egypt of might and horses many and chariots strong’, not even when these things of might, many and strength in our lives are carried by so many and various ways of working, of securing money, favour, and power, of being our own people, today
yes
today
we rest.
We rest in the Promises of God,
The Gifts of God,
The Saints of God,
The Forgiveness of God,
The Grace of God,
The Generosity of God,
The Love of God,
The Faith given to us by God,
and
The hope, that
…
that all things will be well, all things will be well, all manner of things will be well,
because,
All manner of things are already, today, by God’s Word that Creates, Sustains, and Renews,
by God’s Will, all things are already today well, quite well,
Even now, in fact, my witness is in heaven, and he that vouches for me is on high.
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Words of Grace For Today
It’s a quiet day ahead, for a cold winter Saturday, following many cold, cold days …
and not a little frustration with people who live by full disregard for truth, and who seek my death, sooner than later, but slowly so the suffering continues and they can be pleased with their sadistic efforts. It’s one thing to have one’s ex after you, it’s another to have the courts helping her. There is always more injustice than justice, more evil than good, and more death of good people (and not enough of evil people?)
How to remain hopeful that the future will be better?
…
Well, that is actually a futilely placed question,
for one cannot hope that the future will be better.
The only thing one can do is live well in the present, in the face of evil to be gracious and good. In the face of those who wish one dead, to live joyously.
The moments are not rare when the spectacular works of God can be seen here and now, they require only that one has ears to hear and eyes to see … and hearts to celebrate life with gratitude.
We have faith and hold to it as the future moves into the present and then the past. That faith is not something we conjure up or make or assemble … no in any way.
Faith is a gift … a gift freely given by God to us. Therefore it will never fail, nor succumb to evil of any kind or quantity.
Facing evil, God vouches for us saints, and there is no surer witness. More we do not need.
Therefore we see the future, not as something that need be better, but rather as more of the present gifts God gives us: that we are vouched for, and we can live gracious and gratefully and generously …
And Was Even as the Sun Set Golden Light All Over the Snow.
God is Exactly the Opposite:
Appearing Hard and Judging All,
God is Actually Gracious and Generous For All.
Deuteronomy 4:39
So acknowledge today and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.
Colossians 1:19-20
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
Words of Grace For Today
The all in one package of God
Three in One, yet all One.
Acknowledge God and take it to heart that God is God. Simple
and
yet
So impossible
for us frail, sinful humans.
The real nugget in all that we can say about God is that Jesus is God’s clear statement that God is pleasedto reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
Jesus’ story is not God making a special appeal to special people.
Jesus’ story is God making a very demonstrable appeal to all humans of all time: God wants to reconcile us all to God, no one is left out.
When God is pleased to do something so gracious and generous for all people, all people being so equally undeserving, then this is something truly awesome. It changes everything we thought we might have known about how life works.
We get to respond.
So do we respond by lying about others, framing them for our own sins and failings? Do we hide behind lies told by others, and corrupt practices, and the corruption of people in high places?
OR
Do we start to exercise God’s grace and generosity for ourselves and for all other people?
I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me.
1 John 2:2
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
Words of Grace For Today
To have enough,
Not too much,
and
not to litle,
and
to know one has enough,
and though one could use more and dream of that perhaps, to still know
that for today, this is enough:
That is the gift God gives the saints.
…
One may think that has to do with things, food, property, profitable work, toys, power, reputation … or a host of other things.
Yet, none of that is all that important: one may consider air, water, food, clothing, shelter, meaningful labour, and love more important than the others.
What we need enough of is God’s love,
and forgiveness,
and promise of renewed life.
Enough is not that we have God’s gifts and promises, but enough is to know that God provides these essentials for life for all people.
And [the Lord] said [to Moses], ‘I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name, “The Lord”;and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But’, he said, ‘you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.’
2 Corinthians 8:9
For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.
Words of Grace For Today
God saves Moses by covering Moses’ face as the Lord, in all the Lord’s goodness, passes by Moses.
For all of us God’s great goodness becomes visible in Jesus, a living human being. The greatness and goodness of God is not as we might have expected, such greatness that it over powers all evil. Instead God’s goodness becomes visible for us all in that Jesus gives up all claim to greatness, is born into poverty, lives in poverty, dies in poverty … so that we might come to know God’s greatness lies in self-sacrificial love, everything given up so that we might live, forgiven and renewed, and filled with hope … hope that all will be well, for us and for all people.
In this gift of hope God shows us all mercy, mercy that we certainly do not deserve, but without which we could not live.
