Grains of Sand

Pixabay Here's where we are going as we travel through 1 Peter: Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go on from strength to strength till each appears before God in Zion.  —Psalm 84:5-7 Here's the next part of how we are going to get to our destination: I recently embarked on an archiving course. In preparation I bought a few books that looked like they might help me navigate my way through something I know very little about. I also confess that keeping track of important things in my life is not something I do well and I can certainly use some guidance on how to do a better job at that. One author used a fascinating illustration when discussing how vital it is to keep track of the important stuff. Apparently someone at NASA erased a huge chunk of the original video that had been taken duri...

Pixabay Sigmund Brouwer tells this story in his beautiful book, The Carpenter's Cloth . " During Jesus' time there was one way a carpenter let the contrator know a job was finished. A signature, so to speak. "Imagine a hot afternoon in Galilee. Jesus has completed the final pieces of a job he has worked on for several days. The hair of his strong forearms is matted with sawdust and sweat. His face is shiny with heat. He takes a final—and welcome—drink of cool water from a leather bag. "Then, standing to the side of his work, he pours water over his face and chest, splashing it over his arms to clean himself before his journey home. Wth a nearby towel, he pats his face and arms dry. "Finally, Jesus folds the towel neatly in half, and then folds it in half again. He sets it on the finished work and walks away. Later, whoever arrives to inspect the work will see the towel and understand its simple message. The work is finished. "Christ's ...

Google Images The early chapters of Acts describe a church on fire, where thousands of people came to faith and new believers were added daily to that number. This new movement must have distressed the establishment to no end. They thought they had stamped out any possibility of these Christ-followers gaining momentum when they crucified their leader. Equally amazing to those who watched was the community that grew up around these professions of faith. Acts 5 tells us: “ All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all .” We like the multiplication the believers but tend to race over the division of goods. But that’s a subject for another time, though I can hear the pundits clamoring to tell me that that was a different time, a different place, a different culture and we c...

" Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing many come from the Lord " —Acts 3:19. As soon as I read the verse for this morning, an old song from my Sunday School days flooded my mind. If I remember the words correctly it goes like this: " Gone, gone, gone, gone, Yes my sins are gone, Now my soul is free, And in my heart's a song. Buried in the deepest sea, Yes, that's good enough for me. I shall sing eternally, Praise God, my sins are gone. Gone, gone, gone, gone, Yes, my sins are gone. " Every once in a while I contemplate just how high the water level on that sea rose when Jesus tossed my sins into it on that day when I asked him to forgive me. If I sinned once a day, every day of my life (and I know it is more than once a day!) and I lived until I was 85, he would have had to toss in over 31,000 sins (math isn't my strong point, but you get the picture). Now multiply that by the number of people who ha...