Tuesday May 12 War

Faith – war – LIGHT; seeing courage in conflict |

Not even the armies of the greatest power on earth could be allowed to keep people in bondage when Yahweh orders their release. Moses was in his best form when he said “Chill out and see Yahweh’s salvation”.  How many people do we know who would take no action against an attacking army?  There is Israel’s uncommon courage in the face of existential threat.

But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will perform for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again, ever. (Exo 14:13)

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Hope – war – LIGHT; trusting endurance |

The release of Abraham’s descendants, 400 years after the promise to Abraham, is graphic evidence of God’s providence. We do not know what the oral tradition of the promise looked like, but we know that, in the end, God I responded to the cry of his people on the Egyptian oppression.

Then God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. (Gen 15:13)

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And the Lord said, “I have certainly seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their outcry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. (Exo 3:7)

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Love – war – LIGHT; embracing reconciliation |

Love appears in the ancient narrative without mushy love talk, but love’s dimensions are unmistakable.  Reconciliation is never one-sided but needs to end in a new status, not necessarily something one had before.

7. “The Lord did not make you His beloved nor choose you because you were greater in number than any of the peoples, since you were the fewest of all peoples, 8. but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deu 7:7-8)

The armies of the world fight to make new realities; they contend for territory, for control of people’s lives, and they seek to establish their reputation as supreme, but God swears to liberate people from Egyptian power.  He has shown that he is capable of reducing any superpower to rubble.  Who else can make wars end?

Death – war – LIGHT; becoming silence after struggle |

Which warrior does not go to war in order to win?  Prayer warrior, civil rights warrior, religious reformers,  activists for the rights of freed slaves, all struggle to change the world. The customary follow up to war is partying, parades, and a lot of primping and strutting.  Christ takes the unusual step of sitting down in silence and near perfect rest. If warfare sat at the top of Christ’s agenda then the cross marked the point where the soldier checked out.  Beautiful golden silence.

Monday May 11 2026 – Evening

Faith – night – LIGHT; seeing lamp in darkness |

Do not be deceived: a full moon is no match for the sun either at dust or dawn. The featured full moon of eternal life establishes the maximum light. The light in our darkness does not come from the moon, even when the daylight fades.

Hope – night – LIGHT; trusting stars |🔭

We have become aware that the countless twinkling little lights of our night sky are siblings to our sun.  They are so far away we get no heat from them.  When night falls and the moon is new and  we are content to wait for the full and waning moon  to light our night.  At least, we tell ourselves, the seemingly innumerable little twinklers bring light to our eyes, though they provide nothing for our feet.

Love – night – LIGHT; embracing intimacy |

No one dares to talk of moonlight illuminating the day even on the day when timing is perfectly aligned with a full moon. What is Mount Sinai compared to Mount Zion Calvary?

Death – night – LIGHT; becoming veil of mortality |

With the moon under her feet, the mother is resplendent.  Lesser light is still not light for anyone’s feet, especially in the daytime.

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; (Rev 12:1)

Sunday May 10, a Light and Photograms

Faith – day – LIGHT; seeing dawn as resurrection |

If light is not to be measured in smiling faces and safe and secure families then to what end does humanity embrace pride of place in the stream of divine goodness? Faith transforms things radically.  The dawn is light returning. Resurrection is returning to a standing state.

Hope – day – LIGHT; trusting illumination |

It is legitimate for people to hope for equity and justice in the world, even though seems to rest on the humanitarian commonwealth, on the vested interest in the global institutions.  The parade of light is not always something that we can always trust. Some people’s enlightenment includes brutal and hostility to humanity.

Love -day – LIGHT; embracing warmth |

Death is cold because the body’s heat dissipates. The fire of life goes out when the blood stops moving.  The organs stop working when oxygenated blood no longer arrives.

Death – day – LIGHT; becoming dusk’s paradox |

Light started writing remarkable sentences on the first Sunday after Christ died. You can find the Sunday photograms in John’s gospel, chapters 20 and 21.  Here is one.

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and yet she did not know that it was Jesus. (Joh 20:14)

Days and nights are central to the plot of divine intervention, but nothing of a ritual nature should be expected to stand up or stand out when the world’s light arrives.  At dusk on the full moon of Nisan approximately 2000 years (give or take 3) ago a 30-something  year-old man from Nazareth laid down his life, and since then a tomb just outside Jerusalem has become a camera with untold light.  Look how many believers there are: people who accept God’s extraordinary love gift!  Dead in the darkness of the tomb on Saturday, back to the light of life on Sunday.

Friday May 8 |  MOTHER

Faith – mother – LIGHT; seeing nurture as promise

A mother is an awesome link a chain should be eager to affirm and celebrate.  The honour is latent in womanhood. Faith as mother-light

Hope – mother – LIGHT; trusting gestation |

The risk of dying from the process of carrying a baby to full term is probably not negligible.  Women who contemplate being mothers should be aware that there are forces poised to destroy their child, even as soon as they are born.

Love – mother – LIGHT; embracing care |

So many women feel themselves aglow on Mother’s Day and we are delighted to tell the costliness of motherhood without the help of males and with the help of males. Blessed all you married; and bless you all single!

Death – mother – LIGHT; becoming portal to Immortal’s life |

Men and women having relations is a thing that is going to go away, permanently.  If your mama’s not an angel I have a soft spot for you, and since my mama (like all other believing mothers) becomes an angel without conceptions enjoying the life Christ promised, I say for mothers, especially Mary, “Sound the trumpet, break the bread and lift the chalice, roll out the barrels, dance in the streets, jubilate!”

Thursday May 7 2026

Faith -VOX DEI LIGHT; seeing divine word |

Moses reported that certain ones of Israel saw God and lived to tell the tale.  We dare not forget that the outstanding interaction was God speaking to humans. The voice of God causes tremors.  Up against the voice of God’s infinity we shake in awe. Hearing  the voice’s consoling tone we get lit. There’s a video.

9. Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, 10. And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. 11. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink. (Exo 24:9-11)

In the final analysis hearing from God was the chosen manner for interacting with God.  Even after thousands of years of listening there is little to show that flows from this Sinai encounter.

Hope – VOX DEI LIGHT; trusting utterance |

“But the eyes of the wicked will fail, And there will be no escape for them; And their hope is to breathe their last.”. Job 11:20

Sometimes hope appears as the end – closing entry – of an experience. Hope is not always the solution to life’s pressing problem(s).  Exiting the world is the popular avenue for relief. Mentally lazy and foolish persons do not value life itself as a priority.

Love – VOX DEI LIGHT; embracing echo |

You would think that the Bible is literally full of the expression “I love you” because we are told “God is love”. So where is God’s voice saying that desired phrase?  Nowhere, except to make an argument.

“Since you are precious in My sight, Since you are honored and I love you, I will give other people in your place and other nations in exchange for your life. (Isaiah 43:4)

David alone engages in this love talk

“I love You, Lord, my strength.” (Psa 18:1)

Death – VOX DEI LIGHT; becoming final word |

Loved to death! The expression addresses that infinite and satisfying connector to God. Life’s pole star is love.  They say there is no desire, planning, or praise in the underworld (afterlife or death) but we can be certain that God’s voice has meaning for the dead of every type. Those above ground hear him calling them to come to him and acquire life, and those dead and buried will hear the call to rise.  These calls to light are not just devotional ideas, rather they are the invitation to life style and habit and attitude. 

Wednesday May 06

Faith – WISDOM –  LIGHT; seeing reverence

Since Christ is life, why should he not be wisdom?  What faith allows us to see elicits “wows” .  Even so, reverence is not often clothed with irrepressible joy,  Should it not be?  Even our unbelief highlights the need for reverence.

Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: (Rom 11:20)

Hope – WISDOM – LIGHT; trusting unfolding |

Our eyes and minds are perpetually dealing with the ricochet off the walls of our present circumstances and the expectations of our hearts. We even complicate matters by including the ricochet from our past. We ought to be more like the farmer, who plants his seed, and waits patiently. 

Love – WISDOM – LIGHT; embracing guidance |

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! (Rom 11:33)

What do you suppose brings Paul to exclaim about the extreme wealth of God’s wisdom and knowledge?  Here it is:

For God has shut up all in disobedience, so that He may show mercy to all. (Rom 11:32)

When love is in the picture people are happy to wrap their arms around leadership. A-Grade guidance cannot be contrived.

Death – WISDOM – LIGHT; becoming teacher |

Here we get to see the butterfly recalling being a caterpillar. The aged and learned are expected to have been taught, earning the right to teach. 

6. And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land: and Joseph’s brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth. 7a. And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them. 8. And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him. 9a. And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them. (Gen 42:6-9)

Death becomes the teacher.  Jacob, who was sure Joseph was dead, was going to see his caterpillar son from Canaan now the head honcho in Egypt.

Tuesday May 5 2026

Faith – war – LIGHT; seeing courage in conflict

It should not surprise us that faith leads to peace with God, and peace properly defines the ways of wisdom. Picture Moses, acquainted with both the oppressive reality of the Hebrews living in Egypt and the power and prestige of being an Egyptian prince. Conflict was the oven in which the faith of Moses found its wings.  Few people can claim to have lived in that intersection.

Hope – war – LIGHT; trusting endurance |

When hope appears the hopeless have been known to resist, as happened when Moses announced the mission Yahweh gave him. The oral tradition reminded the suffering Hebrews that Abraham’s God was as real as the cruel bondage in which they found themselves.

Love – war – LIGHT; embracing reconciliation |

I do not know if Yahweh’s warfare began with the death of all the firstborn of Egypt, but I do know that love forced every household, every animal grouping to take notice. I also know that when the Egyptian army began pursuing the fleeing Hebrews God’s love did not allow for any harm to come to the Hebrew people. Let us say that his friendship with Abraham got the better of him.

Death – war – LIGHT; becoming silence after struggle |

Death follows life.  If eternal life was involved in the Exodus experience we might say that Israel had to die – death in the desert was near total –  to experience the promised Land. In Christ’s death a major problem was resolved, and, contrary to popular opinion, his own victory was never up in the air.