Today, a prayer from Amy Carmichael (1867-1951):
Before the winds that blow do cease,
Teach me to dwell within thy calm;
Before the pain has passed in peace,
Give me, my God, to sing a psalm.
Let me not lose the chance to prove
The fullness of enabling love.
O love of God, do this for me:
Maintain a constant victory.
Before I leave the desert land
For meadows of immortal flowers,
Lead me where streams at thy command
Flow by the borders of the hours,
That when the thirsty come, I may
Show them the fountains in the way.
O love of God do this for me:
Maintain a constant victory.
Grace and peace,
Ron
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Someone would scatter seed ...
Hear the words of Jesus:
"The kingdom of God is as if
someone would scatter seed on the ground,
and would sleep and rise night and day,
and the seed would sprout and grow,
he does not know how.
The earth produces of itself, first the stalk,
then the head, then the full grain in the head.
But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle,
because the harvest has come."
God is the just-in-time God.
He watches us sow ideas and possibilities and real seeds, too.
He encourages us to do this very thing.
The seeds take root and grow in ways that we don’t understand,
but which we marvel to watch.
Our part was only to plant the seed; it’s not like we really
did anything powerful ourselves.
God does the real, and sometimes mysterious, work.
Yet, even though we don’t understand how it happens,
when the time of need comes, the time of harvest comes.
Then we find that God has transformed the seed into a harvest
that provides just what we need.
God is the just-in-time God.
He also said,
"With what can we compare the kingdom of God,
or what parable will we use for it?
It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;
yet when it is sown it grows up
and becomes the greatest of all shrubs,
and puts forth large branches,
so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."
Remember, when earlier this week we spoke of the cedar tree
which God would form from the sprig of an old tree?
Doesn’t this language about the mustard bush sound familiar?
Is Jesus taking an idea that is literally king-sized and making it
more the size that a real person could understand and feel
comfortable with?
Jesus compares the kingdom to something that
doesn’t seem significant to world, does it?
Does the kingdom of God seem significant to our world today?
Feminists scoff at the power structures that the word kingdom
even implies as being irrelevant now.
The rugged American individualist laughs at the need for
a community or kingdom, because doesn’t everyone know
that the existence of the individual is all that is truly significant?
Atheists ridicule the idea of God, much less that a group of people
should think that they are being gathered together as a people.
Yet this seemingly insignificant thing has a strange power,
and even attraction. Mustard adds a spice to life,
a unique scent and flavor not found elsewhere.
This bush provides sustenance, too.
The leaves of the mustard plant were used to prepare
delicious meals, even in the time of Jesus.
And in this plant, there is again the hope of peace
in the natural order: the differing birds finding a place to nest.
The kingdom brings all of these things.
With many such parables he spoke the word to them,
as they were able to hear it;
he did not speak to them except in parables,
but he explained everything in private to his disciples.
May we spend time with God’s word in meditation and prayer
so that God may reveal to us how his word can shape us
as it shaped his first disciples.
Grace and peace,
Ron
Mark 4:26-34 – NRSV
"The kingdom of God is as if
someone would scatter seed on the ground,
and would sleep and rise night and day,
and the seed would sprout and grow,
he does not know how.
The earth produces of itself, first the stalk,
then the head, then the full grain in the head.
But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle,
because the harvest has come."
God is the just-in-time God.
He watches us sow ideas and possibilities and real seeds, too.
He encourages us to do this very thing.
The seeds take root and grow in ways that we don’t understand,
but which we marvel to watch.
Our part was only to plant the seed; it’s not like we really
did anything powerful ourselves.
God does the real, and sometimes mysterious, work.
Yet, even though we don’t understand how it happens,
when the time of need comes, the time of harvest comes.
Then we find that God has transformed the seed into a harvest
that provides just what we need.
God is the just-in-time God.
He also said,
"With what can we compare the kingdom of God,
or what parable will we use for it?
It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;
yet when it is sown it grows up
and becomes the greatest of all shrubs,
and puts forth large branches,
so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."
Remember, when earlier this week we spoke of the cedar tree
which God would form from the sprig of an old tree?
Doesn’t this language about the mustard bush sound familiar?
Is Jesus taking an idea that is literally king-sized and making it
more the size that a real person could understand and feel
comfortable with?
Jesus compares the kingdom to something that
doesn’t seem significant to world, does it?
Does the kingdom of God seem significant to our world today?
Feminists scoff at the power structures that the word kingdom
even implies as being irrelevant now.
The rugged American individualist laughs at the need for
a community or kingdom, because doesn’t everyone know
that the existence of the individual is all that is truly significant?
Atheists ridicule the idea of God, much less that a group of people
should think that they are being gathered together as a people.
Yet this seemingly insignificant thing has a strange power,
and even attraction. Mustard adds a spice to life,
a unique scent and flavor not found elsewhere.
This bush provides sustenance, too.
The leaves of the mustard plant were used to prepare
delicious meals, even in the time of Jesus.
And in this plant, there is again the hope of peace
in the natural order: the differing birds finding a place to nest.
The kingdom brings all of these things.
With many such parables he spoke the word to them,
as they were able to hear it;
he did not speak to them except in parables,
but he explained everything in private to his disciples.
May we spend time with God’s word in meditation and prayer
so that God may reveal to us how his word can shape us
as it shaped his first disciples.
Grace and peace,
Ron
Mark 4:26-34 – NRSV
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Ambassadors for Christ ...
This week we have spoken of kingdoms and kings, and of God’s power over crowns and countries. God chooses to work alongside humanity through history toward an end we can imagine, but which we do not yet understand fully. What is God up to in all of this? Sometimes we wish that God would just give us a special pair of glasses, ones that will let us see things from a heavenly perspective. Maybe a really tiny angel (you know, one of those small enough to fit on the head of a pin) could sit on our shoulder, not to tell us what to do, but to help us hear the kingdom perspective in the conversations around us.
Perhaps Paul can help us out:
For the love of Christ urges us on,
because we are convinced that one has died for all;
therefore all have died.
And he died for all,
so that those who live might live no longer for themselves,
but for him who died and was raised for them.
There is something convincing about the love of Christ, something convicting about the willingness of Jesus to share in our humanity. Even though we can’t altogether see it, or understand it, the confrontation of death by Jesus Christ fascinates us. The creator of life, the eternal, chooses to share in human death. When Jesus experiences death, something happens that takes away the power and permanence of the death that is the separation from life with God. Jesus restores communion between God and God’s people.
From now on, therefore,
we regard no one from a human point of view;
even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view,
we know him no longer in that way.
Before we imitated Jesus, we had a glimpse of who he might be, and a hope for what he might do. Now that we have mimicked his death, and his victory over death, we are in conversation with God. Since his word and his Spirit now shape who we are, our perspective changes radically, much more than a new “pair of glasses” could hope to change our vision. How we hear the events happening in our presence is no longer from the “human point of view” either. How we see Jesus, and how we hear his word, has changed forever.
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation:
everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ,
and has given us the ministry of reconciliation;
that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,
not counting their trespasses against them,
and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
So we are ambassadors for Christ,
since God is making his appeal through us;
we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
So, now that we can see things from a heavenly point of view, what is our challenge? It is to help others see Jesus, too. Why? Because if they see Jesus, then they can be reconciled to God, too. God restored fellowship through Jesus, and he still does this. Yet now God works through the Jesus that is in us. The new creation in us, the reconciled human in us, now must imitate the ministry of Jesus in a way similar to the way that we have imitated the mission of Jesus. We are ambassadors of the kingdom of God to people who find themselves citizens or captives in all sorts of other kingdoms, kingdoms which do not bring about fellowship with God. When we deliver this message of reconciliation, God can and will bring about restored relationships to those around us.
Yet this is slow work. Even when a person sees the way to God, it takes a lifetime to learn to walk the pathway to God. Let’s learn to be patient with others beginning this walk in the same way that Jesus has been patient with us.
Grace and peace,
Ron
2 Corinthians 5:14-21 – NRSV
Perhaps Paul can help us out:
For the love of Christ urges us on,
because we are convinced that one has died for all;
therefore all have died.
And he died for all,
so that those who live might live no longer for themselves,
but for him who died and was raised for them.
There is something convincing about the love of Christ, something convicting about the willingness of Jesus to share in our humanity. Even though we can’t altogether see it, or understand it, the confrontation of death by Jesus Christ fascinates us. The creator of life, the eternal, chooses to share in human death. When Jesus experiences death, something happens that takes away the power and permanence of the death that is the separation from life with God. Jesus restores communion between God and God’s people.
From now on, therefore,
we regard no one from a human point of view;
even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view,
we know him no longer in that way.
Before we imitated Jesus, we had a glimpse of who he might be, and a hope for what he might do. Now that we have mimicked his death, and his victory over death, we are in conversation with God. Since his word and his Spirit now shape who we are, our perspective changes radically, much more than a new “pair of glasses” could hope to change our vision. How we hear the events happening in our presence is no longer from the “human point of view” either. How we see Jesus, and how we hear his word, has changed forever.
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation:
everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ,
and has given us the ministry of reconciliation;
that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,
not counting their trespasses against them,
and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
So we are ambassadors for Christ,
since God is making his appeal through us;
we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
So, now that we can see things from a heavenly point of view, what is our challenge? It is to help others see Jesus, too. Why? Because if they see Jesus, then they can be reconciled to God, too. God restored fellowship through Jesus, and he still does this. Yet now God works through the Jesus that is in us. The new creation in us, the reconciled human in us, now must imitate the ministry of Jesus in a way similar to the way that we have imitated the mission of Jesus. We are ambassadors of the kingdom of God to people who find themselves citizens or captives in all sorts of other kingdoms, kingdoms which do not bring about fellowship with God. When we deliver this message of reconciliation, God can and will bring about restored relationships to those around us.
Yet this is slow work. Even when a person sees the way to God, it takes a lifetime to learn to walk the pathway to God. Let’s learn to be patient with others beginning this walk in the same way that Jesus has been patient with us.
Grace and peace,
Ron
2 Corinthians 5:14-21 – NRSV
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Victory to the king ...
It has been the habit of God’s people to pray for their king.
Imagine Israel singing this psalm for David or Solomon:
The Lord answer you in the day of trouble!
The name of the God of Jacob protect you!
May he send you help from the sanctuary,
and give you support from Zion.
May he remember all your offerings,
and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices.
Selah
May he grant you your heart's desire,
and fulfill all your plans.
May we shout for joy over your victory,
and in the name of our God set up our banners.
May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.
Now I know that the Lord will help his anointed;
he will answer him from his holy heaven
with mighty victories by his right hand.
Some take pride in chariots, and some in horses,
but our pride is in the name of the Lord our God.
They will collapse and fall,
but we shall rise and stand upright.
Give victory to the king, O Lord;
As I hear this psalm,
I hear it as a prayer for our king:
For Jesus, the ruler of the kingdom of heaven.
Read the prayer again,
and imagine what it will be like for God to hear this prayer,
For God to bring the answer to this prayer for our king.
Imagine what it will be like to see these things come to pass.
May God bless his people until the day that Jesus comes again.
May the Lord bless you and keep you until then,
Ron
Psalm 20 – NRSV
Imagine Israel singing this psalm for David or Solomon:
The Lord answer you in the day of trouble!
The name of the God of Jacob protect you!
May he send you help from the sanctuary,
and give you support from Zion.
May he remember all your offerings,
and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices.
Selah
May he grant you your heart's desire,
and fulfill all your plans.
May we shout for joy over your victory,
and in the name of our God set up our banners.
May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.
Now I know that the Lord will help his anointed;
he will answer him from his holy heaven
with mighty victories by his right hand.
Some take pride in chariots, and some in horses,
but our pride is in the name of the Lord our God.
They will collapse and fall,
but we shall rise and stand upright.
Give victory to the king, O Lord;
As I hear this psalm,
I hear it as a prayer for our king:
For Jesus, the ruler of the kingdom of heaven.
Read the prayer again,
and imagine what it will be like for God to hear this prayer,
For God to bring the answer to this prayer for our king.
Imagine what it will be like to see these things come to pass.
May God bless his people until the day that Jesus comes again.
May the Lord bless you and keep you until then,
Ron
Psalm 20 – NRSV
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
God chooses ...
Hear the word of the Lord:
Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel.
The Lord said to Samuel, "How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons."
Samuel said, "How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me."
And the Lord said, "Take a heifer with you, and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.' Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you."
Samuel was wise, but still he suffered; his protégé Saul, now the king, was not to keep the throne. Saul’s hard-headed disobedience has cost him the favor of God. The very thought of it makes Samuel sick. When the Lord sees Samuel’s depression, he knows just what is required: he gives Samuel something tangible to do. The task brings an odd response from Samuel. Broken one minute because his favored man is no longer to be king, he shows fear the next moment at the thought that his pet might find out that he was anointing a new king. Yet he remains obedient.
Samuel did what the Lord commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, "Do you come peaceably?" He said, "Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice." And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
Neither being wise, nor being the servant of God, is a guarantee of perfect vision. Samuel does not see that others fear him as a mighty prophet much more than he fears them. Neither does even the mighty Samuel have adequate vision to understand exactly what kind of person God seeks to be the next king.
When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, "Surely the Lord's anointed is now before the Lord."
But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart."
Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, "Neither has the Lord chosen this one."
Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, "Neither has the Lord chosen this one."
Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, "The Lord has not chosen any of these." Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your sons here?"
And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep."
And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here." He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome.
The Lord said, "Rise and anoint him; for this is the one." Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.
It is so difficult for human beings to anticipate what God can and will do with people over the course of their lives. Yet we are so quick to make judgments about people and what their relative merits are. Here God chooses the pretty boy, the youngest son, the shepherd son, the son with no status, the son with limited inheritance, the son the father didn’t even respect enough to bring in for Samuel’s line-up.
Which only leads us to wonder: which disrespected sons will rise from tending the animals in our pastures to find places of spiritual importance in the kingdom of God?
Think about it. Pray about it, too.
Blessings,
Ron
1 Samuel 15:34-16:13 – NRSV
Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel.
The Lord said to Samuel, "How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons."
Samuel said, "How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me."
And the Lord said, "Take a heifer with you, and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.' Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you."
Samuel was wise, but still he suffered; his protégé Saul, now the king, was not to keep the throne. Saul’s hard-headed disobedience has cost him the favor of God. The very thought of it makes Samuel sick. When the Lord sees Samuel’s depression, he knows just what is required: he gives Samuel something tangible to do. The task brings an odd response from Samuel. Broken one minute because his favored man is no longer to be king, he shows fear the next moment at the thought that his pet might find out that he was anointing a new king. Yet he remains obedient.
Samuel did what the Lord commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, "Do you come peaceably?" He said, "Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice." And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
Neither being wise, nor being the servant of God, is a guarantee of perfect vision. Samuel does not see that others fear him as a mighty prophet much more than he fears them. Neither does even the mighty Samuel have adequate vision to understand exactly what kind of person God seeks to be the next king.
When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, "Surely the Lord's anointed is now before the Lord."
But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart."
Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, "Neither has the Lord chosen this one."
Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, "Neither has the Lord chosen this one."
Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, "The Lord has not chosen any of these." Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your sons here?"
And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep."
And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here." He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome.
The Lord said, "Rise and anoint him; for this is the one." Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.
It is so difficult for human beings to anticipate what God can and will do with people over the course of their lives. Yet we are so quick to make judgments about people and what their relative merits are. Here God chooses the pretty boy, the youngest son, the shepherd son, the son with no status, the son with limited inheritance, the son the father didn’t even respect enough to bring in for Samuel’s line-up.
Which only leads us to wonder: which disrespected sons will rise from tending the animals in our pastures to find places of spiritual importance in the kingdom of God?
Think about it. Pray about it, too.
Blessings,
Ron
1 Samuel 15:34-16:13 – NRSV
Monday, June 15, 2009
A noble cedar ...
When we were young, many of us learned a little poem to help us understand both the beauty of poetry, and its frequent subject, the wonder of nature:
Trees
Joyce Kilmer
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
A tree, for Kilmer, is both substance and symbol of God’s power. Yes, only God can make this beautiful, powerful, worshipful form of life. And in both Kilmer’s poem and the pages of scripture, the tree stands as a symbol of God’s greater, broader, and deeper powers.
Yet there are powers opposed to the power of God. There are those powers that oppress God’s people, sometimes even from within those who claim to be the people of God. Have you ever been at a place where you couldn’t speak freely? You might not be in chains, or behind locked bars, but somehow you were at a place where you couldn’t say exactly what you meant? A place where saying what you meant might have immediate and personal consequences? That’s where Ezekiel finds himself.
Once again Israel has compromised itself. Instead of trusting in the power of God, the people of God have become attracted to the power of politics, the false security of military might, and the smooth efficiency of commerce. Babylon. Yet Israel has forgotten that their God is the God who raises nations up to the heights, and lowers them into the dust. It is as if the nations were so many trees in the woods. So Ezekiel speaks of the nations as trees:
Thus says the Lord God:
I myself will take a sprig
from the lofty top of a cedar;
I will set it out.
I will break off a tender one
from the topmost of its young twigs;
I myself will plant it
on a high and lofty mountain.
On the mountain height of Israel
I will plant it,
in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit,
and become a noble cedar.
Under it every kind of bird will live;
in the shade of its branches will nest
winged creatures of every kind.
All the trees of the field shall know
that I am the LORD.
I bring low the high tree,
I make high the low tree;
I dry up the green tree
and make the dry tree flourish.
I the LORD have spoken;
I will accomplish it.
From this older cedar tree, one no longer useful, one dwarfed by its neighboring trees, God will take a sprig. This tree is from the root of Jesse, the kings of David, and after it has had enough years to bear new branches, God is going to take one of those distant branches to grow the tree of all trees. Jesus. Jesus and his kingdom.
In the limbs of this tree, Jesus restores life as he created it back in the tranquility of Eden: all kinds of birds live together in peace. His is a house of prayer and peace. The other trees, the other nations, belong to God. God will raise them up and lower them as it pleases Godself. But all in good time, all in God’s time, will God do these things. Tree work is slow work.
Peace and patience,
Ron
Ezekiel 17:22-24 – NRSV
Trees
Joyce Kilmer
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
A tree, for Kilmer, is both substance and symbol of God’s power. Yes, only God can make this beautiful, powerful, worshipful form of life. And in both Kilmer’s poem and the pages of scripture, the tree stands as a symbol of God’s greater, broader, and deeper powers.
Yet there are powers opposed to the power of God. There are those powers that oppress God’s people, sometimes even from within those who claim to be the people of God. Have you ever been at a place where you couldn’t speak freely? You might not be in chains, or behind locked bars, but somehow you were at a place where you couldn’t say exactly what you meant? A place where saying what you meant might have immediate and personal consequences? That’s where Ezekiel finds himself.
Once again Israel has compromised itself. Instead of trusting in the power of God, the people of God have become attracted to the power of politics, the false security of military might, and the smooth efficiency of commerce. Babylon. Yet Israel has forgotten that their God is the God who raises nations up to the heights, and lowers them into the dust. It is as if the nations were so many trees in the woods. So Ezekiel speaks of the nations as trees:
Thus says the Lord God:
I myself will take a sprig
from the lofty top of a cedar;
I will set it out.
I will break off a tender one
from the topmost of its young twigs;
I myself will plant it
on a high and lofty mountain.
On the mountain height of Israel
I will plant it,
in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit,
and become a noble cedar.
Under it every kind of bird will live;
in the shade of its branches will nest
winged creatures of every kind.
All the trees of the field shall know
that I am the LORD.
I bring low the high tree,
I make high the low tree;
I dry up the green tree
and make the dry tree flourish.
I the LORD have spoken;
I will accomplish it.
From this older cedar tree, one no longer useful, one dwarfed by its neighboring trees, God will take a sprig. This tree is from the root of Jesse, the kings of David, and after it has had enough years to bear new branches, God is going to take one of those distant branches to grow the tree of all trees. Jesus. Jesus and his kingdom.
In the limbs of this tree, Jesus restores life as he created it back in the tranquility of Eden: all kinds of birds live together in peace. His is a house of prayer and peace. The other trees, the other nations, belong to God. God will raise them up and lower them as it pleases Godself. But all in good time, all in God’s time, will God do these things. Tree work is slow work.
Peace and patience,
Ron
Ezekiel 17:22-24 – NRSV
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