Category: Uncategorized

Contentment

H​ow easily we get discouraged. It is human. It is far more natural than optimism. Weeds don’t need to be planted they grow without urging, natural to our fallen world. In the same way the troubles of life will come, whether we encourage them or not. This can be extremely frustrating and disheartening.

A​s often as these weeds of life crop up we must learn to pass these off to God. To rely on His strength. Trust His guidance and not continue to grasp control like a drowning man.

This sermon was remarkably on point and worth sharing.

Thought provoking video

I came across this video on YouTube. I am sharing it as I found it worth pondering. Perhaps, we should all spend some time evaluating the choices we made over the last couple of years.

Maybe a bit of self reflection and honesty about how we may have contributed to the problems we have all faced would be a good thing. Maybe this would be a step towards healing?

Shameless advertising

A group of readers of this blog have been joining me for a bible study. It is a digital deal with people from various locations. Last year we jumped around and just looked at different passages, with the underlying theme of courage.

This year we are studying Romans.

If you are interested in joining it isn’t too late yet. You can email me at roberta.davis@silverword.ca for more information.

Do not worry

I was not a worrier when I was young. I had endless confidence in God’s guidance. I felt anxious about the future sometimes, but not to a point where I would consider it consistent worry.

After suffering many blows from life and having to face difficulties, I now worry. I will worry about the most outlandish things. I expect bad things to happen.

My friends, some Christian and some not, who buy into the new age teachings tell me that by expecting bad things I invite these sufferings into my world. That if I had positive energy and positive focus bad things wouldn’t happen. That is not only rubbish, but it also puts the responsibility for the bad things on the person suffering them. It is victim blaming.

No, I don’t need to channel my positivity to dig my way out of a worry pit. I need to read what Jesus said. I need to focus on His words. I need to trust God.

Matthew 6: 28-34   “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I’m back

Sorry for my absence. I’m sitting here, listening to instrumental hymns and wondering what I can say for myself.

I have been tired. Life can wear us down sometimes. It doesn’t help to dwell on the negatives and I am determined to start writing again.

For the moment a flute sweetly playing the tune to the Old Rugged Cross in the background is my inspiration. That really is all we do need to focus on – the cross. The most undistinguished and yet transformational moment in all of history. No act that any human has ever committed has ever had the impact of this one act by Jesus.

Be it Napoleon, Genghis Kahn, Alexander the great – no one has ever transformed the lives of the future generations the way Jesus did. The grass and trees grow over the sights of great battles. The world goes on spinning and moving at the halls of monumental movements.

But Christ did something in that moment of defeat and suffering. He offered hope. He bridged the gap between God and man and created a hope beyond what we see before us here on earth.

Join me and dwell on ‘That Old Rugged Cross.’

God goes with me

I had a hard week. It seems the older I get the more I resent the time change. I resent it in the fall, but it’s easier to take. In the spring it tosses my whole world around. This year was the worst. Likely because of the schedule I’m keeping, I felt it more this year.

All week I felt like I was typing with my fingers in the wrong space. oy yitmrd piy ;olr yjod/ – oops, there, now my fingers are in the right spot.

It can also feel like this when I forget that God is close to me. When I feel like I have to fight the battle on my own, I forget God is with me. Something is just not right. Everything is slightly off. Like a hungry tired child I can’t even figure out what is wrong.

Yesterday, I took several naps and had a really good night sleep. That seems to have fixed most of the issue I was having with the time change.

Today, I am reading my Bible – that should help remind me that I am not alone. Not ever!

Joshua 1:9 ” Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Holiness of God

It is easy to feel discouraged. The world whispers to us; you don’t have enough, you aren’t enough, you are a failure. We hear the whispers. We see it in the mirror when that pair of pants no longer fits. We see it in the chair we cover with a blanket to hide the rip. We see it in the happiness of others when we are mourning. We are not enough.

When we feel this way its easy to feel unloved and defeated. But, we are seeing ourselves through the eyes of the world. We are making what we could achieve, what we could be, an idol. We are constructing an idea of “success” crafted with the tools of man.

God sees us through His eyes, not the eyes of the world. He values our heart and our soul. He sees what the world cannot. The rip in the chair is invisible to Him. Why? Because it’s truly irrelevant, and He knows that. He alone has the power to say to a mountain ‘move’ and it moves. He alone can breathe the breath of life into a stone.

Why do we satisfy ourselves with a vision created by man? Why do we languish in the goals and fears of men? We have access to the creator of all!

Take a moment, sit and reflect on His greatness. Be still and silent before him.

Habakkuk 2: 18-20 “Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman? Or an image that teaches lies? For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak. Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’ Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it.” The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.

Starting over

I was amazed how quickly my six year old son could wear out a pair of jeans. The knees would go first.

The fabric begins by looking a little worn. Then a small tear would appear in the middle of the knee area. That small tear would soon be a full fledged rip. Sometimes I would patch the rip. Then the other knee would go. Sometimes the hem at the back of the leg would also fray. Depending on how long the pants were. The constant wear of walking, fraying the fabric. Even the back pockets would sometime tear – not sure how this was happening, but it would.

At some point I would look at the jeans and decide there was no point continuing to patch them. They would be tossed in the rag pile and I’d have to go buy a new pair of pants.

This has been happening to our society. We have been experience this wear and tear on the social fabric for years. We’ve acknowledged the problems and patched them where we could. The handling of the Covid crisis was a major and violent rip in the social fabric. This was possible because the threads holding up our society were already shockingly week.

It is time to go back to the beginning to start over. We need to stop trying to figure out how to save this pair of pants and rethink the whole thing. Go back to the beginning. Go back to the Creator, the Word, the Spirit. We need to establish what is most important and begin to elevate that. We need to throw our weight behind our values.

Here is a good place to start. When asked to say which is the greatest commandment, Jesus responded.

Matthew 22: 37-40 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Never alone

Remember the old 1950s song, “I’m just a lonely boy, lonely and blue.” It was way before my time, but the tune is as familiar to me as many from my own childhood. Is that how we all feel right now?

I have always been on the outside of the group. When I was young I was on the outside because I am a Christian. When I’m with a group of Christian friends I’m the outsider, because the path I take is not conventional. When I’m around the Moms from school, I’m an outsider as I don’t have the same values and status. I always seemed out of step with the people around me.

Sometimes I feel like I’m on a raft adrift on my own. No one understands and no one cares. But both of those assumptions are wrong.

First, I suspect most people understand. I don’t think I’m the only one who feels like the outsider. I suspect most people feel this way a lot of the time. That is why family and friend groups are so important, we all crave belonging.

Secondly, I am not alone. Jesus left the 99 to search for the lost sheep. He not only came to earth to save me, He is going ahead of me to prepare a place for me.

I am not alone.

And neither are you.

John 14: 1-4 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
You know the way to the place where I am going.”