Time of Day – Page 2

Hear the Lion! Mercy Me!

Wednesday, September 14, 2022

We Fear the Waters That Will Flood and Drown Us,

And God Sends

the Mist Covered Waters of Life

to Revive Us!

Psalms 81:8

Hear, O my people, while I admonish you; O Israel, if you would but listen to me!

2 Timothy 4:17

But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.

Words of Grace For Today

God does not give up on us.

While we wander away and ignore all God would give to us as wisdom, putting ourselves first and leaving others to fend for themselves against hopeless odds, God still cries for us: Hear, O my people while I admonish you! If you would be listen to me!

When we tune our ears to hear God’s Word to us each morning, noon and night, it is full of surprises what we will hear. We thought we’d hear God condemning us and or others for all the dregs of sin we toss around, at each other and at the planet.

We thought we’d hear God demanding reparations.

We thought or rather fully hoped we’d hear God giving it to our enemies with lots of ‘smote keys’.

Doch, God is prodigious with love, forgiveness, and mercy, especially for the likes of us, great sinners that we are. Ready to deny it at moment’s notice.

And God is prodigious with love, forgiveness, and mercy for our enemies that we think are so much worse than we are.

Well, they may well be by some scale of measurement of terribleness, though that scale is useless or even hugely damaging in God’s world.

So God is merciful to us all, each as we require to hear that we are invited back to the table at the banquet. All of us ‘saved from the lion’s mouth’ as it were.

In All the Moments After …

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

In the Dark, We Learn to See the Light.

Psalms 118:14

The Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Words of Grace For Today

On this side of disaster, destruction, and demise (unearned but foisted on us by our enemies that claimed to be our family) we breathe and know it is a miracle.

We see the sun rise, and know it is a miracle.

We see the grass grow, the pine trees fill with acorns, the chicks grow to mature ducks and geese, and we know it is a miracle.

We work hard to prepare for the hard winter predicted ahead, and see the resulting piles of wood, completed repairs and improvements, and we know it is all wonder-filled miracles.

For God has become again and again our salvation, our breathe, and our hope.

So we would hope for you, that you would know the miracles that God works wondrously in your days, and thus find peace in the Holy Spirit’s power to transform the worst of the worst into blessings unending.

16 Tons?

Monday, September 12, 2022

Pilot or Passenger

Every Flight,

Every Life,

Has A Beginning

That many others have made possible.

Psalms 78:3-4

[Remember the glorious acts of God,]
things that we have heard and known,
that our ancestors have told us.
We will not hide them from their children;
we will tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done.

Matthew 10:8

Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.

Words of Grace For Today

While living a life, self-sustained and self-determined, no great mishaps interrupting one’s plans and trajectory, it is all too easy to forget so much.

How one’s ancestors worked so hard to bring us to the beginning we were given as a gift.

How God provided for their survival in wondrous ways.

And how at each turn in our own lives, God is there, walking with us, calling us, blessing us, begging us to return to God.

Then disaster strikes. Small or huge, particular or general. And our self-sustained life is no longer possible, as if it ever were that.

Then we will only survive if we remember what our ancestors have taught us about God’s great blessings, and we return to God.

What then?

Simple: Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.

One day awaits us each morning, filled with opportunities to remember, to return, to serve others with the love that cures, raises, cleanses, and casts out.

It’s not 16 tons and deeper in debt to the company store, but it is that each day we receive more than we can possible give back, and we live blessed to be deeper and deeper in debt to God for all the blessings poured over us. It is impossible to repay that debt, and it will never be called. Miracles and wonders.

Chips Down? (or up?)

Saturday, September 10, 2022

When All Is Burned Up And Goners,

To Whom Shall We Turn?

Daniel 6:11

The conspirators came and found Daniel praying and seeking mercy before his God.

Romans 12:12

Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.

Words of Grace For Today

Lots of things to do when the chips are down, or up for that matter.

Like pray and seek God’s mercy, though like Daniel it may cost more than you can imagine!

Like rejoice in hope, which if the chips are up I would guess that’s a lot easier. I won’t really know. Not much time spent in my life with the chips up.

Like be patient, even if you are suffering. Of course to panic while one suffers is to let the suffering consume one, which has a whole other depth of pain to it, so being patient, calm, and looking for a reasonable way out of the hell-hole one’s been tossed into … well that is really the only thing to do.

So the lions are hungry, the gates are closed, you are their only prey. Best be calm because lions will attack sooner if you trigger their hunting instincts by showing fear. Being calm has a slim chance of communicating to the lions that they’d be better off not attacking at all. It can be done, or at least it is reported to have been done, if by no one else, then by Daniel.

Of course there are many different kinds of real life, metaphorical lions. They’ll kill one as viciously, slowly, and painfully as the African kind.

Which brings us back to prayer. That really is the attitude to take in all matters, chips up or down. Giving thanks for all God’s blessings, chips up or down. Begging for mercy, chips up or down. And asking for guidance to the next day, chips up or down.

There’s always a ‘Nebuchadnezzar’ or two out there. Always a emperor or two (wanna be’s are worse) out there.

That means there is always plenty of opportunity to hope, endure, and pray.

There’s always plenty of reason to give thanks. If for little else, then that every hell-hole comes to an end when it’s filled in. One hopes one is not part of the fill.

Today it’s another 24 hours chocked full of opportunities, challenges, suffering, and blight. Pray for a portion of joy to endure it with gratitude. Then work like the dickens to make things better for everyone.

Singing Amidst the Going to ‘Hell in a Hand Basket’

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Life Throws Lots of

Curve Balls.

God’s Light Still Shines

On Us.

Psalms 84:2

My soul longs, indeed it faints
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh sing for joy
to the living God.

Matthew 18:20

For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.

Words of Grace For Today

Devastation.

Unjust wars taking foreign lands, causing millions exile and thousands death.

Extreme heat, storms, rains and floods, droughts, earthquakes, and you name the new extremes of climate change.

Illnesses old returning in force, new ones racing through the 7 billion people plus on earth.

Corruption in courts, cops, and councils.

Violence next door and at home.

Lack of housing, clean water, food security, adequate clothing, employment opportunities.

Selfish and destructive strivings, yearnings, and desires.

The world is going to ‘hell in a hand basket’ quickly enough. Why do we have to help it along it’s way so effectively?

How are we to deal with all this?

We need to understand the root causes and work to end or at least mitigate them!

We need to work to mitigate the ‘downstream’ effects on so many lives as much as we can.

We need to get our own ‘houses’ in order, our own hearts, minds, and souls in order, except that is impossible without God cleaning, organizing, and renewing us from the inside out.

This God does through Jesus, the Christ, moving us from thinking we can earn our way forward, to relying wholly on God’s grace each day anew. God heals our weary, embattled souls.

For this we give God thanks, as we gather, knowing God is present with us always, also where we gather. God listens, so we beg and pray for help and healing and resolution and mitigations, and freedom from destruction from without and from within.

Because God not only promises us exactly that healing, but also pours it over us prodigiously each day, we return God thanks in our songs of joy.

The world may be going to hell in a hand basket quickly enough. We do our part to impede this progress as we are able and we trust God that Evil and Hell will not triumph in the end; not in our lifetimes, and not in the time of humans in the universe.

On with the day’s work that promises to be enough or more for the precious time given to us.

Mercy Me, Now Ain’t We All One of Them?!

Tuesday, September 6, 2022

Stumped, Cut Off, Dead:

That’s Us and All Creation,

Until/Unless

God Has Mercy On Us.

Daniel 9:9

To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him,

Luke 15:1

Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him.

Words of Grace For Today

We would like to believe that we are good people.

Honesty escapes us when we fall into the trap of not just liking to believe, but actually lying to ourselves and convincing ourselves that we are good people.

God looks down on the devastation that we have collectively brought down on the earth and, seeing into the future, sees a void as bleak as it was before creation. God is angry and sends a dry, life-sucking wind across all we have done, drying it of all water and life and hope, until it is returned to the dust of what it was before we were created.

So it is with all we humans do. We undo the creating that God does. God sees it, and burns it away, back to as it was before we existed.

Thankfully that is not the end of the story of our lives on earth.

God sees us with mercy.

God sees us with mercy, forgives us, and welcomes us in to God’s Kingdom, not because we deserve it, but because God ‘don’t create no junk’ and we are precious to God, every last one of us!

God sees us with mercy and sets the table for us in celebration that we are found, and carried back home.

God sees us with mercy and Jesus sits with us ‘tax collectors and sinners’ at the table.

So it is we get to eat each day, and celebrate with thanks all that is, all that we can do, and all God does through us to welcome in every last lost soul.

Now ain’t we all one of them!

Amazing this Mercy God has for us. It’s not at all what we expect of each other. It is what makes life so precious and wondrous.

Another day, another miracle or a million.

Remember Me?

Monday, September 5, 2022

Even When Others

See Only a Tiny Reflection

of Who

We Really Are,

God Does Not Forget Us.

Isaiah 49:15

Can a woman forget her nursing-child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.

Hebrews 13:6

So we can say with confidence,
‘The Lord is my helper;
I will not be afraid.
What can anyone do to me?’

Words of Grace For Today

Will we be remembered, as we go through life, will anyone remember us when disaster strikes?! When we die, will anyone bother to remember us? When so many lies are repeated and spread like wildfire about us, creating a made-up monster that has our name, and otherwise has nothing to do with reality and our part in it, will anyone bother to remember who we really are?

When the worst comes at us, we can say with confidence that

‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?’

The day before us will have challenges, but we will not be forgotten for who we really are, for God does not forget anything. God knows us, gathers us in, forgives, renews, blesses, and sends us out to share God’s grace and blessings with all people.

God remembers us. Today is a good day to be remembered! (and forgiven.)

Blessed Assurance

Sunday, September 4, 2022

God Sees All, Hears All, Loves All

Psalms 22:20

Deliver my soul from the sword, my life from the power of the dog!

1 John 5:15

And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him.

Words of Grace For Today

There is little that is more deflating than to have people create a lie about oneself, and to be silenced for years and decades, as everyone refuses to hear the truth. Instead, silenced, one is imprisoned, left bereft, scorned, and ostracized.

We need not fear that God treats us this way. Exactly the opposite, God listens, knows the truth, and allows no false accusations live before God and anyone willing to listen.

Knowing that God hears us, provides all we need for life abundant, and allows no ‘dog’ have any power over us, we enter every new day, with an unexpected and surprising assurance and courage.

We know that all there is that is required for life.

We get to offer our ears and hearts to those who others have also silenced and ostracized.

Today is another day for eyes, ears and hearts open.

As The Sun Rises…

Saturday, September 3, 2022

It’s a New Day. What Will We Make of It?

Deuteronomy 29:28

The Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, fury, and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as is now the case.

John 17:26

I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.

Words of Grace For Today

God’s anger, fury, and great wrath have been held responsible for all sorts of misfortune.

That is the If-Then perspective evident in the Deuteronomic passage for today. The truth behind it is that faith in God, or not-faith in God, will not save us from disaster. Sometimes there is nothing that can save us from such disasters.

Climate change brings plenty of disaster to plenty of our doorsteps these days. There is nothing we can do to stop climate change. Maybe we can slow it’s rate of increase, but only slightly. It’s effects are with us for decades if not centuries and millennia! We may be able to mitigate some disasters, but certainly not even most and definitely not the worst.

How do we live in such times?

As always, we start by confessing our sins, our inability to earn God’s favour, and our total dependence on God for all things good. In the end we trust Jesus will bring us home after our deaths. In between we give our all fearing and loving God, loving our neighbours as ourselves, and loving even our enemies, as we share all God gives us with those in need, which is pretty much everyone. Physical needs are many, and spiritual needs endless.

So we live, loved and loving. How else?

When Is Enough Enough?

Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Looking and Seeing, In the Haze Everything Is Unclear.

Psalms 130:7

O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.

2 Corinthians 9:8

God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.

Words of Grace For Today

Everyday we set our eyes on something. If we are fortunate we have the opportunity to set our eyes on a goal or more goals for the day, that may eventually lead to an achievement some future day, or solve a problem or challenge that sits like a heavy cement barrier in our path forward.

When we only see our own challenges, problems, and limitations our horizons shrink day by day until we live in a haze, barely able to see life as God gives it to us.

Into this all too often deep haze, Christ comes to shine the light of life with a great power to redeem on all that we are and all that the world is around us, with all the other people in it. Then the haze begins to lift. As we lift our heads and eyes and hearts to see others’ challenges, problems, and limitations, and respond with empathy, love, care, and mercy, then the light begins to shine on our visions of each day.

We can see that God gives us more than enough. We have plenty to share with others to help them see the light, the steadfast love of God, shining in through the haze of their troubled days with a great power to redeem.

In the blessed moments of wondrous light we can see our hopes for each day expand beyond our own small bubbles to include all the grandeur of God’s creation, and the spectacular gifts God has given us through other people, and the blessed possibilities God offers us through God’s steadfast love and great power to redeem it all and us all.

In the Light, We See What We Missed Before.