Grains of Sand

Google Images The ice covered by a thin layer of fresh snow made drivers and pedestrians cautious this morning. I have a short hill to climb on my way to work and since I’ve fallen on that hill a couple of times, I was planning on taking extra care on the way up. A city plow/sander was working on the other side. He crossed the street and just as I started up the hill, the driver beeped his horn. I stepped off the sidewalk to let him by. He rolled to a stop beside me, opened his window and said: “Better let me go first; I have sand.” I thanked him. “Better let me go first; I have sand.” On that last night before Jesus went to the cross, He tried to explain to His disciples what was going to happen. But the struggle to understand, or perhaps to accept what He was telling them, was too much. At the end of John 16, Jesus finally says, “ I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father ” (vs. 28). They GOT that. It would take the disc...

Google Images I was still living in Medellín, Colombia when, in March, 1983, a 5.5 magnitude earthquake struck the city of Popayán, some distance to the south of us. As earthquakes go, a 5.5 isn’t all that significant, but the city was made up of old buildings without much support. The result was devastating for the city’s inhabitants. But most traumatizing was the destruction that took place in the cemetery. The movement of the earth was so forceful that graves were opened and caskets popped to the surface and opened, exposing the bones of the dead. They stayed dead. We wouldn't expect anything else. But in Matthew 27:50-53, something amazing happens in the midst of the trauma of Jesus’ death. It’s seldom commented on, probably because no one can explain it, but there it is. “ And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs brok...

Google Images When Jesus was betrayed, he was taken before the priests to be judged. John 18:14 has this to say about one of those men: " Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people ." Little did he understand the significance of what he said. Some men die as they have lived—selfishly. But only One man died to make it possible for every other man to live. THE POTTER The cart lurched, throwing Abel off his stride. He stumbled but kept his grip on the shafts between which he walked. He pulled to the right, willing his shallow crate on wheels to slide as easily out of the rut as it had sliding in. Romans tax us to death and they can’t even fix the roads . How often had Abel heard his father mutter that complaint under his breath as he had carted earth back to their hovel? Well, the old man was gone and now it was his son’s turn to haul the rusty-red dirt. With the cart now securely back on the t...

Reading: John 11, 12 I love the story of the raising of Lazarus. It’s just full of little side stories, trails that lead us off to lessons and insights. The relationship between Jesus and these three siblings, Martha, Mary and Lazarus, is unique in the Gospels. John remarks that: “ Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus ” (11:5) so it blew everyone’s mind that He didn’t hurry to Bethany the moment He got the news that Lazarus was sick. Martha, the strong one, was likely looking after all the arrangements and entertainment of the people who came to commiserate with the sisters after Lazarus was buried (11:19). When Jesus did arrive she rushed out to meet Him before He even got to the house. They had a significant theological discussion before she took Jesus to the tomb where her brother has been laid to rest. “ Jesus wept ” (11:35), writes John. I wonder why. Jesus knew what He was about to do. Perhaps He was feeling the pain of His dear friends who had suffered this tr...

“ I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life ” —John 5:24, NIV. My mother used to tie me to the clothesline. No, she didn’t tie me with clothesline, she simply attached my harness to the clothesline. This allowed me the freedom of the backyard and kept me from wandering out to the street. If she could have trusted me to stay in the yard I’m sure we could have done well without the harness or the clothesline; but she couldn’t. I was a wanderer. I know that because the story is told of the first (and last) time mom gave me the freedom of the yard and I ended up in the middle of the street in front of our house. The only thing—humanly speaking—that saved me from certain death was the quick action of my big brother who rushed out and hauled me back to the safety of the sidewalk. He crossed me over from “death to life” in the physical sense. I thought about that incident ...

Welcome to MONDAY MANNA, hosted by Joanne at An Open Door . Go on over for more perspectives on the verse for today. We tend to think of God's will as a comfortable thing. God wants us to be happy, doesn't He? We ask for rescue, relief, restoration, relaxation, or recovery when we pray, and then dutifully tack on "your will be done" on the end, crossing our fingers in the hope that His will is the same as ours. Then we get to a verse like this one from Isaiah 53:10 and our theology takes a nasty tumble. " Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand " (NIV). The verse refers to the mission of Christ and His death, and while the latter half is full of promise for a positive outcome, we wish we could skip the first part. We have a hard time wrapping our minds around a loving Fathe...

Christmas Memories 5 Today marks the anniversary of my mother's passing. But please don't think this post is going to be a "downer." On the contrary, though that Christmas some eighteen years ago was the worst Christmas my brother and I will ever experience, it morphed into perhaps the best one anyone could have planned. I didn't have the same plans that God did for that Christmas. My father had passed away three months earlier, and my greatest desire was to make this first Christmas without dad a good one for mom. The baking and gifts that I planned to take north with me were done when I got the call to tell me that mom had suffered a massive heart attack. I wondered if I would make it home in time to see her. All night on the bus (the only way I could make the trip north just days before Christmas) I willed the driver to go faster. When I arrived at the hospital direct from the bus station, mom actually looked good. By the afternoon, she was failing and shortly ...

Hebrews is the most amazing book. Take these two verses for example: " Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sin of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him " —Hebrews 9: 27, 28. HUGE theology in two verses. Man's state: Destined to die . The question of sin and its consequences: Judgment The introduction of the Saviour: Christ The remedy for our sins and their consequences: The sacrifice of the perfect for the imperfect. The efficacy and finality of that sacrifice: It will not be repeated. The second coming and its purpose: The final piece to our salvation. Our posture: Waiting for Him—not for judgment but for completion. The Gospel in a nutshell. One of the wonderful things about Scripture is the ability it gives us to find an explanation of the Gospel throughout its pages. From Genesis to Revelation we find illus...