From my deck this evening:
Hallelujah!
You who serve God, praise God!
Just to speak his name is praise!
Just to remember God is a blessing—
now and tomorrow and always.
From east to west, from dawn to dusk,
keep lifting all your praises to God!
(Psalm 113:3 Msg)
In peace I will both lie down and sleep,
for You, Lord, alone
make me dwell in safety and confident trust.
(Psalm 4:8)
It is vain for you to rise up early,
To retire late,
To eat the bread of painful labors;
For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.
(Psalm 127:2)
Hear my cry, O God;
Give heed to my prayer.
From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint;
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
For You have been a refuge for me,
A tower of strength against the enemy.
Let me dwell in Your tent forever;
Let me take refuge in the shelter of Your wings.
(Psalm 61:1-4)
“…and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”
(Revelation 5:8)
God keep our land glorious and free.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
(Isaiah 43:2)
The day started yesterday with a call for help from a friend with a flooded basement. It ended with a call from my son who let me know he and his family had escaped from High River, Alberta, which is now under water, and finally making contact with my brother who is trapped in his home near the edge of the raging Cougar Creek in Canmore, Alberta. His wife and our elderly father are on the other side of the washed out TransCanada Highway.
Our daughter also called. She and her family are caught on the other side of washed-out roads and are not sure how to get home.
I am in Alberta visiting another son and family, watching news reports of submerged towns and washed-out highways, and realizing my husband is on the other side of the Continental divide -and a lot of missing asphalt. I have no idea how or when I can get home.
We live in a land-locked place at high elevation, one of the least-likely places in the world to flood, or so you would think.
But the rains came down.
We are thankful that so far we know of no loss of life, although one person is missing from my son’s neighbourhood and we pray for her. The loss of property and damage is tremendous though. Some of that property, like the property in Canmore, was very expensive. My brother was musing about a property’s value if that property has been mostly swept away, as some of the lots on his street have been.
Can we ever really say we own anything?
That’s the thought I am left with this morning. How much of our time and energy and focus is spent on things which can be swept away?
Sometimes I think that God, in His mercy, shakes us up so we will not settle on foundations that can be swept away. In the light of eternity how trivial wood and plaster and paint on a patch of grass seem.
The message I hear in my heart today is: Don’t settle. There is a much firmer foundation available to you.
So as the children’s song says,”So build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ and the blessings will come down.”
Your overflowing goodness
You have kept for those who live in awe of You,
And You share Your goodness with those who make You their sanctuary.
You hide them, You shelter them in Your presence…
(Psalm 31:19, 20 The Voice)
There is not one blade of grass,
there is no color in this world
that is not intended to make us rejoice.
-John Calvin
There are roses blooming deep in the forest today. They bloom whether anyone recognizes their beauty or not. They are simply an expression of a Creator who is not on a budget.
And God is able to make all grace abound to you,
so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times,
you may abound in every good work.
(2 Corinthians 9:8)
You have taken account of my wanderings;
Put my tears in Your bottle.
Are they not in Your book?
Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call;
This I know, that God is for me.
In God, whose word I praise,
In the Lord, whose word I praise,
In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
(Psalm 56:8-11)
Charis: Subject to Change 