Friday May 15 | MOTHER |

Faith – mother – LIGHT; seeing nurture as promise |

Babies have no challenges with believing that the source of food and warmth will always give.  Mother’s milk and the comforting warmth of her body endure to the end.  A mother will always call her son or daughter her “baby”. Sons and daughters know that their mothers will nurture them on demand and without invitation, even when sons and daughters have their own families.

Hope – mother – LIGHT; trusting gestation |

We can easily underestimate the 9 months between conception and childbirth, especially if we are males, and I am sure that the purveyors of ungodliness have drummed up a gestation period for the realm of spiritual life. That spiritual gestation period is bound to be fantasy and nonsense, because the wind, like God’s Spirit, blows where it wishes and its origin, direction, and destination are unknown. So how, on God’s green earth are illiterate people like most Muslims, most Jews, and most Christians (and even those who see themselves as reformers) of the 19th and 20th centuries going to gain the trust of literate people in the 21st century?

Love – mother – LIGHT; embracing care |

Mothers are where God turns on the megalamp.  You name the mother and a little meditation will bring us to the traffic lights of heaven’s priorities. Do not be deceived by the annual fluff on Mother’s Day. Many people have no recurring or ever-increasing memo of their mothers. Even if the mother child relationship goes south the mother has made her mark by embracing the light of caring.

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

To say that there is a cult of Mary is a moronic giveaway.  Do you think that the companions of Jesus recognized the humanity of Israel’s God without explicit recognition of Mary?  Or do you suppose that the early believers took notice of Jesus’ divinity without explicit recognition of purity?  It has to be said that holiness was housed in a vessel prepared for the purpose.

PREGNANT BY THE HOLY SPIRIT

But when he had thought this over, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. (Mat 1:20)

THE CHILD IS LORD (YAHWEH)

for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (Luk 2:11)

SALVATION IS VISIBLE AND TANGIBLE

For my eyes have seen Your salvation, (Luk 2:30)

Taking the eyewitnesses’ testimony as absolutely reliable the Word of life delivers food and warmth.  The company of the lady Mary is inevitable.  Through her son’s death Mary becomes the mother – grand and great – of every believer. Some Christians dare not call her mother of God because they have dug a ditch and can’t get out of it

Wednesday May 13 – WISDOM

Faith – WISDOM –  LIGHT; seeing reverence |

What could possibly bring a wise person to conclude that wisdom and light are  comparable to foolishness and darkness?  Was that sage seeing what Paul saw arising from his experience, namely, that the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the sight of God. (1 Corinthians 3:19a)?

Then I saw that wisdom surpasses foolishness as light surpasses darkness. (Ecclesiastes 2:13)

We know that the ancients acted like they saw something other than what God predicted. They rebelled against everything except their own pride of pedigree. Men, not just Moses’ contemporaries, do not like the light because it exposes their ungodly deeds.

Hope – WISDOM – LIGHT; trusting unfolding |

Few persons would argue that the helplessness and despair of human life are the bread and butter of advancement and progress. The quickest path to a conclusion about human expectations is for us to ask what was the experience of people to whom faith was the test of the relationship with God.

Love – WISDOM – LIGHT; embracing guidance |

Not even love, on full display, convinces the unteachable.  Look at how Israel turned against Moses, a man who loved the Hebrew people to the extent of offering himself so they can live, when Yahweh was considering destroying the rebellious and faithless people. Guidance is the chosen pathway of God, not compelled obedience.

A scoffer does not love one who rebukes him; He will not go to the wise. (Pro 15:12)

Death – WISDOM –  LIGHT; becoming teacher |

When the Lord Jesus Christ began to talk to people about being born again, and that there is a spiritual component to what he called the kingdom of god, they were shocked; some were completely scandalized.  They stumbled and fell.  The primary interests of God’s kingdom stand up when the spirit brings them to the individual’s attention.

Sin, righteousness, and judgment

“And He [the Holy Spirit], when He comes, will convict the world regarding sin, and righteousness, and judgment: (Joh 16:8)

If  the sages of the ages could see us now, they would laugh and wonder how could the generation with so much history to help them avoid falling catastrophically into the ditch.

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)

Shared using AndBible: Bible Study. (https://andbible.github.io)

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!”