John 7:37-39 We are baptized with Holy Spirit to shine God’s light in the world.

 John 1:32–33

And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 

The most important person of the Trinity that Jesus brought into this world is the gift of Holy Spirit. With His birth, death and resurrection believers in Christ would baptize us in Holy Spirt. He is within us to comfort, guide and protect us from the evil that seeks to kill, steal and destroy us. He is always within our reach we just need to allow more of Him in our lives. Carla

John 7:37-39

37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. NKJV)

On each day of the feast, the people came with palm branches and marched around the great altar. A priest took a golden pitcher filled with water from the Pool of Siloam, carried it to the temple, and poured it on the altar as an offering to God. This dramatic ceremony was a memorial of the water that flowed from the rock when the Israelites traveled through the wilderness. On the last day of the feast, the people marched seven times around the altar in memory of the seven circuits around the walls of Jericho. Perhaps at the very moment that the priest was pouring water on the altar, Jesus’ voice rang out: If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.

As the Scripture has said: The reference is not to a single passage, but to the general emphasis of such passages as Deuteronomy 18:15; Is. 58:11; Zechariah 14:8. In contrast to the small amount of water poured out each day during the feast, there will be a river of water coming out of those who believe in Christ. Not only will they be satisfied themselves, but they will also become a river so that others may drink and be satisfied (verse 39). 

John explains that Jesus was speaking of the Holy Spirit who would satisfy personal thirst and produce a perennial fountain for the satisfaction of others. The Holy Spirit would come after Jesus’ crucifixion and ascension. Jesus prepared His disciples for this in the Upper Room. The NKJV Study Bible

On the last day of the feast Jewish tradition prescribes additional rituals for the final day of the festival—the culmination of their weeklong prayers for deliverance (according to the Babylonian Talmud Sukkah 53a).

If anyone is thirsty is a subtle appeal to imagery of messianic deliverance associated with the Feast of Tabernacles. Jesus makes the point that He is the source of life—a claim that only God could make. This would have provoked His opponents, but it brought comfort to His followers.

The festival came to be a celebration of God’s future restoration of Israel and the extension of salvation to the nations. Jesus’ invitation draws on those expectations of future ideal reality under the rule of the Messiah.

Numerous Old Testament passages represent salvation metaphorically as a life-giving source of water. The closest source for this quote is Zechariah 14:8. Jewish tradition viewed Jerusalem as the center of the world and referred to it as the “navel of the earth,” so Jesus’ words about the source of this water may parallel “Jerusalem” as the source of the water. Old Testament visions of God’s future salvation for His people included the image of the Spirit being poured out on all believers. Faithlife Study Bible

Isaiah 55:1

“Ho! Everyone who thirsts,

Come to the waters;

And you who have no money,

Come, buy and eat.

Yes, come, buy wine and milk

Without  money and without price.

John 4:10–14

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water…

Acts 2:33

Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear

“However mean your life is,” wrote Thoreau, “meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names.” Mean, or unexpected, or confusing, or exasperating.
Well, I’m glad to say that life’s meanness does not have to be disheartening to me. On the contrary. I can lift my head, open my eyes, and see an invitation.
And yes, I have a voice.
With that voice, I can hate. Or I can build.
Yes. Inside every one of us—in our DNA—we have the tools that we need, to navigate these unpredictable times. Yes, the “tools” to be builders—the empowerment to draw upon mercy and compassion—to create (“build”) places of sanctuary, and healing, and grace, even where cruelty and callousness are real.
Yes. I can set up chairs for inclusion and reconciliation.
Chairs for community and hope and courage.

So. Let’s begin with Clarissa Pinkola Estes' reminder; "Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely." Sabbath Moments

Matthew 7:7-11 All good gifts come from God! Faith, hope and love and the greatest of these gifts is love

 Matthew 7:12

Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. 

With a loving Father in our lives nothing is impossible…absolutely nothing. In all that we do include Him and He will direct our path. In unison with Father, Son and Holy Spirit we are promised redemption and inclusion in His plans to redeem the world. Go out and shine His light into the darkness that we now live in. Pray for His will to be done on earth as it is in His Kingdom. Carla

Matthew 7:7-11

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! 

Ask is the  first of three commands in this verse. Jesus’ followers are to ask for what they need.  In each of the three statements here, Jesus’ point is the same: When God’s people pursue something—by asking, seeking, knocking—He responds in faithfulness and generosity. This verse emphasizes the need for an authentic relationship with God. The Greek verb used here for seek, zēteō, indicates looking for something or trying to find something. God is still the one who allows for this action to take place. Will give him a snake is the rhetorical questions in Matthew 7:9–10 and sets up the comparison in verse 11 between earthly fathers and the heavenly Father.

Jesus compares sinful humanity with a holy God. Jesus argues from a lesser principle to a greater one. Human parents know how to give their children good things; by comparison, the heavenly Father can do abundantly more for His children. Faithlife Study Bible

The phrase the Law and the Prophets echoes 5:17. This so-called “Golden Rule” is the practical application of Leviticus 19:18: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The NKJV Study Bible

John 15:7

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 

James  1:5–8

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind…

1 John 3:22

And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. 

Matthew 18:19

“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 

Matthew 21:22

And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

In my memory I’m back in southern Michigan, the son of a brick mason. I’ve been on countless constructions sites. Most of them as a hod carrier (mixing mortar, lugging bricks). So many days eager to quit. And hearing my father’s words, “Son, build this one like you’re building your own.” (Twenty-six years ago, my father helped me build my house on Vashon Island.)
Here's the deal: We forget, or we do not see, that we make a difference, with every nail we hammer, each board we choose, each brick we mortar, each window we put in place.
And here’s the deal: because we live in a culture of bluster and ado, we forget that we can make a difference. So. More often than not, the wrong people get all the attention. (Okay, my confession, I forget that I can make a difference, one nail at a time.)

I’m with David Orr here, “The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind.”

Here’s to the restorative power of small gestures… one nail at a time.

We are, all of us, builders.
We are, all of us, about the business of building places and spaces for human dignity and inclusion.
Building spaces for kindness and compassion and mercy.
Building spaces for justice and hope.
Building spaces for resilience and confidence, and courage and safety and wellbeing. But this is important. This parable is not meant to scold us into making a difference. It’s a recognition that we have been created and are able to do so. This is not about bootstraps and will power and consternation. This is about letting the language of our (replenished and not overwhelmed) heart speak. Letting the light inside—the Imago Dei—spill.
Yes. Inside every one of us—in our DNA—we have the tools that we need, to navigate these unpredictable times. Yes, the “tools” to be builders—the empowerment to draw upon mercy and compassion—to create (“build”) places of sanctuary, and healing, and grace, even where cruelty and callousness are real.

When I live from overwhelmed, I react, I live fearful, and I give in to cynicism. No wonder the first to go are my courage, and my ability to laugh. Which is not good considering that they both come from the same muscle in our heart. As builders, this is abundantly clear: We are connected. Every single one of us.

“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality,” Martin Luther King Jr. reminds us.

Receiving his induction into TV’s Hall of Fame, Fred Rogers tells the audience, “We are chosen to be servants, it doesn’t matter what our particular job.” SABBATH MOMENTS

Love God.

Love a neighbor.

Be a neighbor,

and let us not complicate things

by arguing about the specifics.

You know what it means to do love

because some time or another

you have been on the receiving end of love...

If you want the world to look different

next time you go outside,

do some love.

Do a little or do a lot,

but do some,

and do not forget to get some for yourself...

Just do it,

and find out that when you do,

you do live and live abundantly,

just like the man said.

Barbara Brown Taylor

Psalm 42:11 Our Hope is in God alone!

 Matthew 26:38

Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”

The things of this world will one day pass away. What remains will be the love that we have shown to God and others. How disappointed God must be in the violence in the world today. Our only hope is in the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. We love others because He first loves us. Carla

Psalm 42:11

Why are you cast down, O my soul?

And why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God;

For I shall yet praise Him,

The help of my countenance and my God. NKJV)

The psalmist asks these troubling questions in faith, for he remembers that God is his Rock, his protector and foundation. He cannot help but hope in Him in the middle of difficult circumstances. The NKJV Study Bible 

The way to forget our miseries, is to remember the God of our mercies. David saw troubles coming from God’s wrath, and that discouraged him. But if one trouble follow hard after another, if all seem to combine for our ruin, let us remember they are all appointed and overruled by the Lord. David regards the Divine favour as the fountain of all the good he looked for. In the Saviour’s name let us hope and pray. One word from him will calm every storm, and turn midnight darkness into the light of noon, the bitterest complaints into joyful praises. Our believing expectation of mercy must quicken our prayers for it. At length, is faith came off conqueror, by encouraging him to trust in the name of the Lord, and to stay himself upon his God. He adds, And my God; this thought enabled him to triumph over all his griefs and fears. Let us never think that the God of our life, and the Rock of our salvation, has forgotten us, if we have made his mercy, truth, and power, our refuge. Thus the psalmist strove against his despondency: at last his faith and hope obtained the victory. Let us learn to check all unbelieving doubts and fears. Apply the promise first to ourselves, and then plead it to God. Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

Psalm 43:5

Why are you cast down, O my soul?

And why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God;

For I shall yet praise Him,

The help of my countenance and my God.

Psalm 42:5

Why are you cast down, O my soul?

And why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him

For the help of His countenance.

What really matters!

I know I’m not the only one who feels overwhelmed.. Or discombobulated. And yes, a bit alarmed. But this I am learning: when life gets precarious (hard-hitting), it is easy to forget (overlook) that inside every one of us—in our DNA—we have the tools that we need, to navigate unpredictable times. Yes, the “tools”—the empowerment to draw upon mercy and compassion—to create places of sanctuary, and healing, and grace.

“We met Jesus, yesterday,” Monica tells me. “It was our usual Tuesday morning, and we were driving the streets of Reno giving out food and water to the homeless.  It is a regular charity project by the Helping Hands of St. Theresa of the Little Flower Church. In the recent past the Homeless were congregated in large groups; so, it was easy to find and administer to them, but now due to new regulations and Police pressure, they were scattered, making it a game of hide and seek.
Find them we did, and were down to only one last serving, just as we prepared to drive on, a middle-aged black man rode up on a rickety bicycle. We offered him our last dinner and water, which he readily accepted. Great! We had completed our work. Wait, another man, filthy, disheveled, hobbled over to us. ‘Sorry, we just gave out our last food,’ we apologetically told him. The man on the bicycle said, ‘My brother looks like he needs this more than I do,’ and offered his food to the man. It could have been a bible story of a past event, but it was a today happening. We met Jesus, yesterday.” (Thank you, Monica Armanino)
And I received this note from Joyce. “Your Sabbath Moment reminded me of one my dad, a United Methodist minister for over 50 years, used to use during Advent season. It is a poignant one. Always makes me cry. So, the pageant was taking place, and the children portraying Mary and Joseph were trudging up the center aisle of the sanctuary toward the ‘inn’. The boy playing the innkeeper met them and told them he had no room… they would have to move along. ‘Mary’ and ‘Joseph’ turned and began slowly making their way elsewhere. Suddenly, the boy playing the innkeeper called out, ‘Wait! You can have my bed!’” (Thank you, Joyce Gingrich)

My friends. Let us embrace the invitation to affirm that compassion and mercy are real. Let us listen with our open heart, and let us see one another with mercy and compassion, and let us find the strength and hope to rise together, in love and understanding.
I can tell you my heart needs stories that remind me (and assure me), that compassion and kindness and mercy and inclusion are real.
Because what really matters, is how we treat one another.

So. How do we choose to say “yes” to this invitation?
This heartfelt story comes to mind. Glenn Adsit and his family spent years as missionaries in China. During the Communist regime change, they were under house arrest. One day a few Chinese soldiers came to their house, and said, “You can return to America.”
The Adsit's were celebrating, when the soldiers told them, “You can take only two hundred pounds with you.” Well, they had been in China for years. Two hundred pounds? They found the scales and started the family arguments. Each—wife, husband and the two children—had an opinion. Must have this vase. Well, this is my new typewriter. What about my books? What about my collection? And they weighed everything, took each item off the scales, weighed and re-weighed until finally, right on the dot, they had two hundred pounds.
The soldier asked, “Ready to go?” “Yes.”
“Did you weigh everything?” “Yes.”
“You weighed the kids?” “No, we didn't.”
“Weigh the kids.”
And in a moment, the special vase, the new typewriter, the collections, all of it, became “trash.”
Secondary. Just stuff.
Using this story to nurse regret is a waste of time. But the story (and its permission to hit the pause button), invites me to hear the crucial question for me (and for us) today: “Did you weigh the kids?”
Which begs the question: How do we measure—how to we carry and honor—what really matters?
We begin here: Our wellbeing—befriending our scattered and wounded self—is not about our reactions to life, but about choices we make from the inside out. About where we tether our identity and worth.
And this I know: it cannot be in stuff that we buy, collect, store, or carry. And it cannot be in the “stuff” of productivity, or accomplishments. Or, in the “stuff” we clutch in the lines on our resume.
And it cannot be about the “stuff” of position, or power, or control.

This story is about how we navigate. The choices we make. For this I am grateful: it helps to ask, and to honor, the right questions. This week, we’ll be making space to do just that.
You see, as long as success is measured by keeping score (weighing or honoring the wrong stuff), we lose track of our well-being that comes from the inside—the self-compassion and others-compassion that makes us human, and therefore, glad to be alive.
As I often say, this isn’t an assignment or a strategy.
It’s not about stuff. Gratefully, I continue to learn. To find success (which we equate with some version of being powerful or huge) doesn’t necessarily mean that you gain health.
Let us not forget what really matters.
In other words, what do we “pack”?
What do we carry with us?
Today, I choose Empathy and kindness.
I choose Integrity and Decency.
I choose Courage and Hope.
I choose Peace and gratitude.
Think of these values as our personal GPS, silently pointing us toward the path that truly matters, to make our world a better place. Count me in. But life does get downright noisy, and those core values can get submerged under day-to-day anxiety, and “societal” expectations.
Back to choices, and what we “pack”. Recently, I read that “someone becomes beautiful when they choose empathy over judgement, gentleness over harshness, and understanding over pride. It appears in small, quiet moments, checking on a friend who is hurting, offering help without being asked, listening with genuine care, or forgiving when it would be easier to hold onto anger.”

A shout out to all the people who were a part of our event in Reno at Little Flower Church. It was a great day of replenishment and renewal.
I returned home to the PNW to new blossoms on so many of our Cherry trees. And I’m looking forward to visiting and walking the University of Washing quad, smiling big, enjoying the iconic Yoshino trees. Sabbath Moments

Quote for our week…

“Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good. If it doesn't, it is of no use.” Carlos Castaneda

John 11:1-45 Even though He knew that He would raise Lazarus He felt their sorrow and Jesus wept.

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.