Grains of Sand

Pixabay The media seldom reports on the persecution of Christians around the world. If we search the internet for information on the subject we come up with a number of organizations that speak for those who, for the most part, are not able to speak for themselves. The  Bible League Canada  estimates that there are as many as 100 million Christians suffering persecution.  Open Doors USA  says that 1 in 9 believers experience some form of persecution. One site posts that every day some 300 people are killed for their faith in Jesus. Perhaps the best known agency,  The Voice of the Martyrs , offers a variety of ways by which those of us who know little of being persecuted for our beliefs, can help those in places where being a Christian is a death sentence. The pilgrims of Peter's day understood persecution in a way that few of us can. In 1 Peter 4:12 to 19, Peter encourages them to rejoice in their suffering. What an odd thing to say! " Dear friends,...

Pixabay There are so many questions that need to be answered. Well, perhaps “need” is not the right word. I “want” to know, but whether or not I ever find the answers to my questions will not change the course of history one iota. For example, as I arrive at Genesis 43 and 44, I have to hook on to something that happened in Genesis 42—something I wish I knew more about. The “boys,” Israel’s sons, return to Canaan after their first foray into Egypt to buy food. The Pharaoh’s right-hand man, Joseph (unrecognized by his brothers) has insisted that when they next return they are to bring their younger brother back with them. He has taken Simeon as hostage against their return. When Israel is told about the deal he is adamant that Benjamin will not go to Egypt with his brothers. Reuben, the oldest, steps in to guarantee that he will bring back the boy (42:37). He says that Israel may kill his two sons if he doesn’t do as he has promised. Nice! He doesn’t offer his own life but those of ...

Pixabay Remember...His discipline. I still carry it around. "It" is a piece of belt off some kind of farm machinery. My parents used it as the last resort in disciplining us as children. They only used it on our derrières, and very rarely at that. I remember how it stung. It probably seems odd that I should still be carrying it around after all these years. But it reminds me of the statement from Revelation 3:19: " Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline . So be earnest and repent. " In fact, the Scriptures mention God's discipline in several places., particularly in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 12:5: " And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, 'My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline , and do not lose heart when he rebukes you...' " Hebrews 12:7: " Endure hardship as discipline ; God is treating you as his children. For what childr...

Pixabay, Public Domain “ …your rod and your staff, they comfort me ” (Psalm 23:4) The wooden spoon, the belt, the ruler, the “board of education applied to the seat of learning;” whatever it was that was once a symbol of a just reward for bad behaviour, never seems comforting at the time. I didn’t get spanked often, but I had a healthy respect for that piece of belt that my father used on us when all else failed. Today it is not “politically correct” to use these kinds of methods. It’s a shame. While abuse is never acceptable, there is a world of truth behind Solomon’s statement: “spare the rod, spoil the child.” In fact, he goes so far as to say that lack of discipline is a sign of lack of love (Proverbs 13:24, 22:15, 23:13, 14). We often liken the rod and staff mentioned in Psalm 23 to instruments of punishment. Sometimes they are instruments of discipline, but more often than not, they are weapons of protection and means of guidance. That is why they are described as being of “c...

Google Images Most of us have been told many times not to be judgmental. Often that warning comes with this quote from Matthew 7:1: “ Do not judge, or you too will be judged .” So we don’t say anything to anyone about anything. But in the context of this verse we get a different message. From verse 3 on, we read that Jesus said that we are to help our brothers and sisters to see what doesn’t glorify God in their lives, (which requires judgement) but only after we have examined our own lives. When we do that we might discover that our faults are bigger than the ones we are pointing out in them. “ Why do you look at at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your bother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, FIRST take the plank out of your own eye, and THEN you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye ” (7:3-5, emphasis ...

“ There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins ” —Ecclesiastes 7:20, NIV. Last night I watched the beginning of a televisions series called The Borgias. Though I haven’t read up on the subject recently and I am certain a lot of fiction has been added to the facts, history doesn’t deny that these leaders of the church in the fifteenth century (or any other century) was unholy men dressed up in holy clothes. Before I began to watch the movie I had been at church facilitating a discussion on evil and suffering.   The movie left me with that age old question prompted by the discussion: Why? Many of the saints of Scripture asked God, Why? Someone commented last night that it was too pat an answer to say that evil and suffering exist because we live in a broken world, and that we need to focus on fact that there is another world, a better world that is to come. It was a good thought. But the inescapable truth is that our world is broken, we broke ...