Grains of Sand

Exodus 28, 29 is a tedious read There are some passages in the Old Testament which many of us avoid simply because they seem totally foreign and totally irrelevant. You might be able to make an argument for that except for one “small” detail—God made sure that the information was recorded for us as part of His infallible Word, as part of the “ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness , so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work ” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17, emphasis mine). Exodus 28, 29 (in case you really don’t feel you can manage the perseverance to read it yourself) is all about the special clothing the high priest and the other priests were to wear in the performance of their duties, and the ritual surrounding their consecration as priests in the service of the Lord. “Special” hardly seems to sufficiently describe these garments. Exodus 29:29 says: “ Aaron’s sacred garments… ” or as the ESV pu...

There are so many oddities in life. Years ago the mission organization I worked for sent me to the Urbana conference near Chicago to represent them at, what is, the largest mission conference in the world. It's a gathering of young people from college and university campuses across the States and Canada. Mission agencies make contact with thousands of possible recruits for overseas service. The competition (though I am sure most agencies wouldn't like to think they are "competing" with each other) is fierce. I stood at our display and talked to whoever came by to ask questions. One young lady stopped to talk for a bit and then went on her way. Sometime later she came back and made an odd request. She asked if it was okay if she just stayed with me for a while because I had been the only mission representative who hadn't tried to sign her up to go somewhere and to do something! In the shelter of my display she could rest from the cacophony of voices. I was ...

Traditionally in Ireland, January 6th is known as Little Christmas. It is also widely known in the rest of the world as the Feast of the Epiphany. It is the traditional end of the Christmas season. In some parts of the Spanish-speaking world, Christmas Day is strictly religious, and gifts are exchanged on the feast of the Epiphany. I didn’t know what Epiphany meant until just this week. This date represents the appearance of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi. The Jews were expecting a Messiah, but they were NOT expecting that their Messiah was also coming to provide a means by which the Gentile world could also enter into the Kingdom of God. While Mary and Joseph were fulfilled their obligations in the temple in Jerusalem, it is likely that just a short distance away, King Herod was fuming as he sat in his throne room waiting for some foreign visitors to the region to return to him with news about a so-called newborn king. After the birth of Jesus, several strange...