One of our baptismal promises asks, 'Do you put your whole trust in his grace and love?, and to be honest, doing so is not always that easy. Far too often we have questions or doubts, both about His ability and about His willingness. And we have this hesitancy both about His help and His leading. These are issues raised in today's Scripture passages and meditations. Can Jesus really help us--and, is He willing to do so? And, can Jesus be counted up to lead us forward, to guide us, especially in conditions or situations that seem strange and more than a wee bit bewildering and scary?

Today's meditation is perhaps a kind of wake-up call, a reminder when we get forgetful or complacent about it, of just how very incredible our God is, and why we should always give Him our praise, worship and obedience. I hope this meditation finds you healthy and happy and proves to be of inspiration to you.

Some time ago, there was a widespread fashion around Christian circles that centred on the slogan, 'what would Jesus do?' While certainly quite proper and well-intended, especially in terms of our discipleship and obedience in following Jesus, it 'could', however, on occasion, miss the mark somewhat. For instance, very few, if any of us, will ever walk on water or feed the 5,000 or enter Jerusalem on a donkey or die on a cross. So, maybe more to the point is the question, 'what would Jesus want us to do?'

This meditation deals with human needs, and emphasizes that we need to listen and pay attention to the needs around us, but perhaps even more importantly, to what the Scriptures say. They are the ultimate guide to knowing what Jesus would want us to do.

Some time ago, there was a widespread fashion around Christian circles that centred on the slogan, 'what would Jesus do?' While certainly quite proper and well-intended, especially in terms of our discipleship and obedience in following Jesus, it 'could', however, on occasion, miss the mark somewhat. For instance, very few, if any of us, will ever walk on water or feed the 5,000 or enter Jerusalem on a donkey or die on a cross. So, maybe more to the point is the question, 'what would Jesus want us to do?'

In this one, we see that Jesus paced Himself, that is, He didn't burn Himself out trying to say 'yes' to all needs and demands. He set out some much needed boundaries for Himself. Now, just what those boundaries might be for each of ourselves is totally individual, something that each of us will have to check out with God. God can tell us just what we should 'take on' and what we shouldn't.

Today's meditation focuses on our need to listen up, to pay attention to what God is saying and to where He is leading.

Today’s meditation, while directly looking at John the Baptist, speaks of the need, not just to listen, but also to follow, and to follow even in the small, seemingly insignificant things (seemingly insignificant at the times, but not necessarily in God's overall plan and scheme).

In some ways, I have been on an unnatural 'high' of late, a kind of unnatural frenzy, you might say. Part of it has had to do with moving into a new home and all that this entails, and part of it has to do with the death of our beloved Monarch, Queen Elizabeth. I have to confess that I have been glued to the TV coverage rather a lot lately, and was, indeed, up to watch her funeral early this morning. One of the things a commentator mentioned was how many people, but especially the royal family, will experience something of a let-down, something of a diminishment of energy and get-up-and-go, as a sequel to all this busyness. I suspect that this will also be the case for other people as well. And for myself too, once my condo sells and once our local memorial service for the late queen is over and done with.

So, I think that today's message on ways to find encouragement in the little, everyday things of life is probably quite pertinent, and quite needed. Anyway, I hope you find it helpful.

Much is said today about historical wrongs and injustices, so much so that it can often seeming overwhelming, even demoralizing, and often seems devoid of any prospects of any tangible, practical and lasting solutions. This is a situation and question that I have tried to address in today's meditation. I hope you find it helpful.

One of the chief ways that the enemy of our souls tries to work in our lives, and in our world, is to convince each of us that we don't really matter in the long range scheme of things, that what we do or say or think doesn't really have an impact or influence. But actually the opposite is true: each of us has a unique assortment of contacts, experiences and gifts, unique to ourselves and not replicated by anyone else on earth. That means that we can have an impact that no one else could ever have.

Sometimes we feel overwhelmed, sometimes by bad things happening to us, problems and issues and such like, and sometimes just by the pressure of events and responsibilities. It is good to know, therefore, that God loves us and cares for us and is always there to help us. And doubly good to know, that His help doesn't depend upon, or wait upon, our efforts to get our houses in order, or on our past mistakes and sins and errors in judgment. He is there to help, anyway.

Today's Scripture reading and meditation call to mind two people who have been aware of, and relied upon, God's guiding, protective and providential care all through their lives, our psalmist and our late queen and monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. I find both of them to be wonderfully inspiring--and challenging.

Right now our television coverage is filled, for a large part, with expressions of appreciation, praise and adulation for our late monarch and queen, Queen Elizabeth II, and, as far as I am concerned, this is most proper and appropriate. However, this sets up, for me at least, a challenge and a contrast. Should we not give all the more praise and adulation, plus our devotion, worship and obedience (especially the latter) to the King of Kings, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? I suspect that we do not do so, or at least, not always. This is what I see as a challenge.

Jesus' raising of his friend Lazarus from the dead caused quite a stir in Jerusalem and environs. Here was evidence that couldn't be refuted. Or could it? If he was put 'out of the picture' as it were, the ruckus and publicity might die down and things might get back to normal, at least for those in charge of the nation.

Even today we have a problem with 'evidence', whether it is in the public sphere of government or the law or medicine, or in our private lives. The evidence for Jesus and for faith is pretty solid, but yet there are many who refuse to accept it or deal with it. However, the evidence of changed lives, lives lived for God and for His people, is pretty irrefutable, as we have come to learn from the example of our late Queen. May we all, you and I, be some of that irrefutable, public evidence as well.

I think that probably most of us have had, at some time or over, a time of 'quiet (or perhaps, not so quiet) desperation. Here the example of David, fugitive and on the run from King Saul, is most helpful. He really is quite desperate, having run out of options, and so he turns to God in faith for the help that he is sure that God will give. May we, you and I, do likewise.

Often something that is a problem for us humans is that we don't like to be told what to do. We resist that when it comes from outside sources like government, sometimes even when it comes to friends and family, and even, yes, even at times when it comes from God. We hate to be held accountable for our actions.

And yet, today's Scripture reading and meditation highlight someone, namely King David, who was willing to be held accountable for his outrageous behaviour when it came to Bathsheba and her husband. The prophet Nathan confronted him about his adultery and murder and David not only admitted it but also asked God's help in dealing with it. Truly, he was willing to be accountable, and in this, I think that he serves as a good role model for all of us. See what you think.

Our psalmist today, in the opening words of Psalm 139, relates how intimately God knows us, yes, even with the things that are hidden from public view, even those things hidden to our own selves. So, how does this make you feel? My meditation for today touches on this, and on several of the feelings that this might arouse.

As for me, knowing that God knows me intimately and still loves me and cares for me, is most reassuring--and humbling. And so, I want to live up to, and live into, that love.

One of the invitations to Holy Communion in The Book of Alternative Services says "Taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are they who put their trust in him."

This is perhaps the message of John 11 and the raising of Lazarus from the dead. No wonder many of the people who attended this miracle put their trust in Jesus. They had tasted something of the goodness and power of God.

Psalm 50 picks up on what surely should be our response to the goodness and power of seeing God, namely our full and earnest devotion to Him, a heart-felt giving of ourselves over to Him.