Words from a Branch

  Lord , do not rebuke me in your anger   or discipline me in your wrath. Have mercy on me, Lord , for I am faint; heal me, Lord , for my bones are in agony. My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord , how long? Turn, Lord , and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love. Among the dead no one proclaims your name. Who praises you from the grave? I am worn out from my groaning. All night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes. Away from me, all you who do evil, for the Lord has heard my weeping The Lord has heard my cry for mercy;   the Lord accepts my prayer. All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish; they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame. Psalms 6 ESV             This is a short psalm, a short prayer. A prayer and a song asking for help in a time of weariness and weakness ...

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God. Mark 10:27             Salvation is difficult. Jesus has just had a conversation about salvation with a rich young ruler. Not only was the young ruler rich, but he had also managed to keep the whole law. He had it all. He appeared the ideal candidate for entry into the Kingdom. The disciples are astonished to see him sent away unable to fulfill the last requirement which is also the greatest. On the outside this man had it all, but on the inside, he was a wretched idolater. He loved something more than he loved Jesus. So that an obviously impossible thing, to fit a camel through the eye of a needle, is more easily accomplished than for the rich young ruler and those like him to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.             How then can anyone enter the Kingdom? It ...

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matthew 6:34 ESV             Humans wisdom has its limitations. Even where wisdom might succeed it is frustrated by other aspects of human finitude. That is to say there must and shall come times when we say of necessity, “I do not know what else I might do.” Our unnatural nature of sin, which demands self-reliance as a point of pride, despises such admissions. It is easy to give ourselves over to endless anxiety, and fretting over situations trying to find some way of controlling the outcomes. It is easy to spend today trying to guess what tomorrow will bring in order to be ready for it.             Where wisdom fails faith takes over to give us peace and rest. In faith there is room for love and patience and gentleness which have no home in the...