Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. (Isaiah 55:1-5 NRSV)

God's generosity is in sharp contrast to the mean spirited miserliness that has been trying to masquerade as christian lately.  Of course, Isaiah is talking about more than just food here.  He's talking about taking in the good things of the spirit and drinking deeply of the living water we know as the Christ.  But if we as a nation allow children to go to bed hungry because they don't 'deserve' to be fed or because we are punishing their parents, then we have turned our back on a covenant with God.  We are eating the husks of self righteousness and greed and ignoring the good food of God's grace and love.  Let's meet at God's table this Sunday and eat and drink the good food provided.  Let's become ever more the body of Christ and a witness to this nation and the world.

Blessings!
Marilyn

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35, 37-39 NRSV)

We most need these words of Paul when we're hurting.  Paul reminds us that the death of a loved one can separate neither us nor those we love from God.  He reminds us that even when we haven't made the right choices, God still loves us; that when the world is beating us down and we feel worthless, God still loves us; that when we're in pain from injury or disease, God still loves us.  And when we remember the love of God as shown us by Jesus then we can conquer all those things that try to defeat us.  And when we see people we don't think are lovable, or who seem to have been defeated by events in their lives, or are just different from us, we need to remember that God loves them just as much as us and nothing we or they do can change that. And by remembering the love that God has for all of us and living that love we can conquer some of the big problems that we face here in Arizona, in our nation, and around the world.

Blessings!
Marilyn

Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night," even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you. (Psalm 139:7-12 NRSV)


Sometimes we don't want God to be near -- Adam and Eve tried to hide after eating that dratted apple; Jonah tried to run away when God said 'Go to Ninevah."  Sometimes we do want God but we feel like God is nowhere near us and call out like the psalm writer or Job 'where is God?'  At times like that we need the reminder from the Psalmist that we can't get away from God.  When we need God it's nice to know that God is already with us, like the air around us, whether we notice or not.  And when we want to run away or hide what we're doing from God, maybe it's good to be reminded that God is with us then as well. 

Blessings!
Marilyn