This Day

Lord, let every word we say today be filled with Your love.

Our human love is not enough to carry us this day.

It is like the roses that bloom in the Spring.

You can smell their fragrance and see their beauty from Spring until the end of Fall.

When winter comes you can’t see any roses outside;

they have hidden for a while.

Roses will come back again,

revived to glow,

renewed when winter ends and Spring arrives.

Human compassion only carries us a short way.

Like roses its beauty fades away.

it is not enough to give you the love you will need for the people you meet today.

Many live in spiritual poverty.

They have a mediocre faith or none when they could have so much more.

These people are told a half faith is okay.

You can be in the world;

you can seek the things of the spirit.

There are times I did that.

It was a way for me to try and minimize conflict with others.

It never worked

It never will.

Living life has shown me this truth.

You can try to be aloof.

You can do your best to hide away;

but what do you do when irritating people just won’t go away?

They can be like the mosquitoes that come out at night.

Those who have been bitten by them know how much a mosquito bite hurts.

The pain from them causes you to itch.

You scratch at those bites hoping it will ease the pain;

but it doesn’t end right away.

It takes a few days.

You tell yourself the suffering is for a short time.

You apply a cream that eases the pain.

It becomes easier to tolerate.

The moment cones when the itching ends.

You let out a sigh as life begins to look much better;

but did you take time to lift up a prayer to the God who was there?

How often do we not do that?

The Lord is there every time you call out to Him.

It may not seem that way, but He is.

Karen and I can testify our Father’s love has always been there for us.

There have been many times when we prayed, we have said to our Father, we are only grass.

We are not as strong as You think we are.

He listens.

He understands

He comforts us.

He calls us to rest in Him.

He says to trust that He knows the way out of whatever we are going through.

The grass withers;

like the rose it fades away.

God’s love never leave us.

In the fog of doubt we can think God isn’t there.

He’s gone away somewhere.

Please don’t believe that lie.

The darkness wants you to believe that God will not be there for you.

When you need Him most, God will let you down.

He’ll abandon you at your greatest time of need.

The enemy has a different kind of love to offer you.

It’s deceptive.

It has a string attached to it: your soul.

He’ll give you everything you crave.

Just deny God exists.

Turn your back on Him.

That’s all you need to do.

He cons you with these lies.

Half-commitment to God has its rewards.

You can have all you desire part of the time;

you receive all the Lord’s blessings the rest of the time.

It’s all an alternative fact.

It’s a lie not based in reality.

It’s a fantasy that will lead you down a dangerous path to your destruction.

It’s not worth your soul.

It never is.

The love darkness offers will destroy you inside pieces at a time.

It may be so subtle you don’t notice it.

Be aware.

The things that bring us down can look as sweet as chocolate.

It tastes so good.

What could be wrong with it?

More than you might think.

When tempted to eat the false sweetness darkness offers, please remember this Scriptural truth.

“The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:8, NASB)

God’s love will sustain you through the roughest of times.

It will.

It may not seem like it, but it does.

God’s love is never camouflaged;

the enemy’s is.

It fades into the background;

but it will come out from its hiding place when you least expect it.

Then it will work its way inside of you.

Slowly but surely it will rob you of who you are,

You may think nothing has changed, but it has.

The way you live your life appears to others as if nothing is different;

but as time passes you know there is.

You may try to deny it;

but eventually there isn’t much of the Light of God’s love left in you.

You have given yourself over to the darkness.

“The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:8, NASB)

In these difficult days for our world when there is far too much hate, indifference,

injustice, inequality, people harming one another with their words and actions, we need to ask ourselves, how much on the dark side we have gone.

Have we compromised our faith to be accepted by those with little or none?

Have any of us become like the young man in the book Screwtape Letters?

“ Screwtape,(is) a devil high in the Infernal Civil Service,(writing) to his nephew Wormwood, a junior colleague, Wormwood, who is engaged in his first mission on earth trying to secure the damnation of a young man who has just become a Christian. Although the young man initially looks to be a willing victim, he changes his ways and is ‘lost’ to the young devil.”1

“Screwtape writes: ‘Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours – and the more ‘religious’ (on those terms) the more securely ours.’”2

The flower fades, the grass withers.

Everyone dies.

This day and the rest of our days let us come before the God who gave us life, and examine how we will live.

When there is too much misunderstanding, alternative facts that are really lies, isn’t it time for more of us to live the truth – the faith we profess?

When I was a young man I thought I had the probability of a long life. Now at age 60 I know I have less years ahead of me than behind me.

I want whatever time God decides I will be here to be fully committed to doing His will.

How about you?

Where do you stand with God?

Are you already a Christian?

Could you have a deeper faith?

We will strive with God’s help and that of His people and mentors to do that.

None of us are guaranteed endless tomorrows.

We will eventually die.

I understand it’s a hard thing to read, but it’s true.

It was difficult for me to write this spiritual reflection.

I was brought back to the truth that when my work is done for our Father I will die.

It may seem an odd thing to say, but I’m not sad about it.

I have no fear of death. I settled the question of being willing to die if God requires it of me when I almost died 14 years ago. I loathe the process of dying. It’s awful when you die from anaphylactic shock. I have been intubated ten times for anaphylactic attacks because of an auto immune condition that has allergic triggers.

My health was much better for the last five years. It will get better again. We believe that.

We have been dealing with a landlord, who even though she was given a written list of the things I’m allergic to, uses those things.

Something changed in her character last November. From that time onwards she has been much less

careful about the cleaning chemicals she uses, and the scented products like perfume she wears.

I have had two ER visits within eight days for anaphylaxis from our landlord using a caustic chemical.

Each time has required two 0.5 mg doses of epinephrine to save my life. That’s a little more than three does of epinephrine each time. That’s a lot of epinephrine.

I commend the paramedics, ER doctors and nurses who have cared for me at Timmins & Distric Hospital in northeastern Ontario.

They did it so well.

Our landlord sent us an email yesterday stating that she has the right to do whatever she wants in her house.

She doesn’t.

My research showed me that under the Ontario Human Rights Code, a landlord is required to give reasonable accommodation for a medical disability.

We are either going to bring her before an Ontario Human Rights Tribunal or sue her in court.

In Canada, to the best of our knowledge, the law doesn’t allow for her to face a criminal charge.

It’s looked upon as a landlord/tenant issue.

She should, but we have to deal with what is.

God will move us to a safer place in His time.

The Lord of our lives says He is allowing us to suffer, because He has a larger plan that goes beyond just us.

He wants our landlord to come to Christ.

She is at a crossroads of who she believes owns her life.

We love her in the Lord, but deplore her actions.

God will get us through.

I feel a growing call in my heart to finally after many years of the unknowns of my auto immune condition being found that better health, a better home awaits us.

There is a call to my spirit that has been in formation for many years to go to teacher’s college.

Many teachers are retiring in northeastern Ontario.

They are accepting people to be teachers who have a university degree.

The program includes mentoring as you study for a university degree in education. This would allow me to become a certified teacher in the province of Ontario. That qualification is transferable to the other Canadian provinces.

I have classroom experience as you will see when you read my Linkedin profile and resume on my professional gallery.

This is a bump in the road.

We believe that.

Please pray for us.

We need God first and then our brothers and sisters in the faith. We welcome those not of any faith or religion to keep us in their thoughts. We love all people.

If we learned our landlord had accepted Christ or changed her thinking, it would be worth all the suffering she has put us through.

We pray also that this story has touched your life in some way.

If someone reading this would like us to work, do ministry work or help them, we can be reached at (705)482-8168.

Our email address is osborne2029@gmail.com

We are trained counsellors. Karen is a very good editor. We are also writers.

We can preach and teach.

I’m a trained tenor and song leader.

Karen has a B.A. in Clinical Counselling from St. James the Elder University. She is working on her M.A. majoring in Psychology and Applied Theology through SJTEU.

We are passionate about evangelism and community outreach.

God’s abiding peace and joy be with you!

Source:

1. https://www.amazon.sg/Screwtape-Letters-Senior-Junior-Devil/dp/0007461240

2. https://theinwardturn.com/10-essential-truths-from-c-s-lewis-the-screwtape-letters/

Dr. Kevin Osborne is the Dean of Psychology and President of Student Affairs for St. James the Elder University. He is s therapist, writer, poet, and singer. He helps people in their inner healing journey. Dr. Kevin Osborne lives in Timmins, northern Ontario, Canada, with his wife, Karen. She is the Registrar for SJTEU. Karen has a B.A. in Clinical Christian Counseling summa cum laude from St. James the Elder Theological Seminary (now St. James the Elder University). Karen is working on her M.A. in Applied Theology and Psychology through SJTEU. She is planning to pursue graduate studies majoring in Psychology and Applied Theology. Karen is a writer, editor, and counselor. Karen and Kevin are powned by their 21-year-old cat, Katherine, a.k.a. Her Royal Furriness, Princess Katherine of Timmins.