Amen ❤️❤️
There is nothing quite like pulling into the Condo complex and having to wait for the local herd to make room for me. Only this time the way being blocked was to our front door! Living in the midst of such majestic creatures makes me thankful for the living reminders of our living God.
Today we laid to rest one of the pillars of our church. He was also a major part of our Valley’s conservation effort. At the Columbarium as we placed his ashes, I read the following from Job 19:25 — For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth…
The story of Job is a challenging one. Job has lost everything, including his family. When his friends come to “comfort” him (tongue firmly planted in cheek) they are about as useful as a bicycle is to a fish! The friends seem to be focused on what terrible “sin” Job had committed to allow such a horrible thing to happen. As if God wipes out your family for some sin!
Now Job had wrestled with what was going on and at one point (Job 3:1) he actually cursed the day he was born! So the friends and their advice or so-called support were pretty much worthless! Job had hit bottom. Yet as the dialogue and processing unfolded Job moved from the pit of despair to actually making an incredible confession of faith. I know that my Redeemer lives!
When we consider the discussion between the Sadducees and Jesus, something else comes to mind. The Sadducees ask Jesus about marriage in the afterlife (which by the way, they don’t believe in!). The Leverite marriage where the poor woman is married to her brother-in-law (like in Tamar’s story that was the subject of one of my sermons this past summer (Tamar’s Story).
As I have reflected this week on the two passages for tomorrow, I have realized something. How often do we put God in a small box of our own making? And how often does that small box look like a coffin?
Every time we try to shove God in a box or limit God’s possibilities and potential to change lives, we miss the point. God is a God of the living! God is not limited by our small theology or belief systems. God is the God of the living! And to quote Job, I know that my redeemer lives!
May we spend more time on how to share the love and light of Christ instead of limiting God to our limited imagination! Our God Lives! May we also live!
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
A long and exhausting day of errands
Yet in the midst of it all
To spend time with my sweetheart
What a blessing indeed
Music soothes the soul
To spend the evening with a dear friend
To listen to his music and be with other friends
Such a blessing indeed
And now, as our eyelids grow heavy
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
Great food for thought, Jake… especially as the second anniversary of my Mom’s death is quickly approaching…
I invite you to wonder along with me about a mystery that Christians profess: the resurrection. We live. We die. And in some way we live again.
— Read on jakeowensby.com/2019/11/08/what-happens-when-you-die/
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
Thank you for a time of study and reflection
Thank you for a time of Stephen Minister Training
Thank you for a time of fellowship
Thank you for an excellent Budget meeting
Thank you for safe travel down and up the mountain
Thank you for time to relax at home
Thank you Lord, for your many blessings
Now as my eyelids grow heavy
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
“We tend to neglect our ancestral heritage in our culture, but in other cultures remembering the ancestors is an intuitive and essential way of beginning anything new. We don’t recognize the tremendous wisdom we can draw upon from those who have travelled the journey before us and whose DNA we carry in every fibre of our bodies.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Sacred Seasons: A Yearlong Journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year – A Self-Study Online Retreat
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
Thank you Lord, for this ministry
Thank you for the co-laborers I share this ministry with
As one parishioner is released from Hospital
I pray for another who is in Hospice Care
Thank you for your presence in the Valley of the Shadows
I also pray for the family who will soon lay their beloved to rest
Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust
Yet even at the grave we say
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia
I thank you for friends who are family
For an evening of fellowship, music, laughter, and love
Now as my eyelids grow heavy
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
A day of meetings, ministry, medical appointments
A time of reflection and prayer
An evening of wonderful music with dear friends
For the gift of friendship I thank you, Lord
Now as my eyelids grow heavy
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
“There is much wisdom in the Celtic calendar with beginning the day the night before. The feast days always start with vigil, at dusk prior to the day. In the lunar calendar the New Moon is when the moon is in darkness, that is the start of the cycle again. In the wheel of the year, the new year begins at Samhain which is November 1st. So day, month, and year all begin in the space of holy darkness.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Dreaming of the Sea – A Women’s Discernment Journey through the Story of the Selkie: An Online, Self-Study Retreat
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
In the midst of meetings and ministry
In the midst of the busyness of life
Another family walks through the Valley of the Shadows
For these dear people and for so many others
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
