Grains of Sand

Google Images Most people who are familiar with the stories of the Bible know about Gideon and his three hundred (Judges 7). In yesterday’s post I revisited Gideon’s call to lead God’s army against the Midianites (Judges 6). The reluctant warrior might have been encouraged by the thirty-two thousand men he had command of—though the Midianites are described in the chapter as “t hick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore " (7:12). After Gideon got finished counting to, say, sixty-three thousand four hundred and fifty-two, he may have had second thoughts about just how big his army really was! And then God said: “ You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength had saved her, announce to the people… ” (7:2, 3). Anyone who was afraid got to go home and Gideon was left with 10,000 men. Logically we would have thought that ten thousand men beating a much sup...

Google Images I woke up early yesterday morning—4:00 a.m. early. Rather than try to go back to sleep I went out into the living room to spend some time reading Scripture. I’m “between” reading projects so flipped open my Bible and read the first thing that appeared. It turned out to be Psalm 145. The approach of a new year always drives the mind toward thinking about the future. This coming year, 2014, will be a time of transition for me. How, when, and what, are the questions that arise when I think of what might be coming around the next corner. But even in my rather haphazard way of choosing what to read in Scripture, God sent His Word to me. Psalm 145:13b-16: “ The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made. The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. ” Psalm 145:19:...

We clamour for release, but refuse to let go of that which weighs us down.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Couple the picture with the promise and we have a winning combination. Great picture, fantastic promise! God is good.

I love this story—at least theoretically. Elijah's been in hiding. The land is suffering from drought and Ahab is after the prophet's hide because of it. At God's direction, Elijah heads to Zarephath to encounter a widow whom God will use to feed God's messenger. She's not a wealthy woman. In fact, when the prophet arrives she is about to use the last of her resources to make a final meal for herself and her son. It's not that Elijah asks her to share what she will make; he asks her to make his meal first and THEN make hers (1Kings 17:13). Sounds like a scam to me! Elijah says: " For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 'The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land " (17:14, NIV). The natural reaction (mine, at least) would be to say: "Give me a sign of good faith first and then I'll make your meal." Faith doesn't work that way. We obey first, a...

One of our former "faithful priests" Last night, our congregation took an historic vote that will change the process the church has traditionally followed in looking for a pastor. A new chapter has begun and new chapters bring challenges with them. Which was why I decided this morning to stay in 1 Samuel 2 instead of moving on to the next chapter. As I opened my Bible this morning, my eye caught a verse I had underlined at the end of the chapter. It SO spoke to me. The boy Samuel is now in residence in the Tabernacle. God is unhappy with Israel's spiritual leadership. Eli is an old man who can't control his sons. Those two men are abusing their mandate as priests and God has warned Eli that He will not tolerate His name and reputation being trampled underfoot. He makes this announcement: " I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind. I will firmly establish his house, and he will minister before my anoin...

" The Lord gave them rest on every side…Not one of all the Lord's good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled " (Joshua 21:43, 45, NIV). Israel had to take the journey before she saw the reward. Giants to be conquered, enemies to be fought, obedience to be tested, defeats to be turned into victories—it was only at the end when the battles were over that God's people would be able to look back and realize that God had never failed them. That's easy to forget when the enemy has a knife at your throat. The good thing about a journey with the Lord, this battle to take another "hill," is that we can always look back at the last "hill" He took for us. While conquering the land of Canaan, Israel could look back at Egypt, and the wilderness. God took her over those "hills" and none of His promises failed. Now, as Israel looks back on this new "hill" that has tested, and proven, God's faithfulness to Hi...

It was a solemn vow, a contract between two parties. It was much more than a business arrangement, a convenience for the mutual benefit of both. And it is interesting to note that on God's part it was a "love, honour and cherish" commitment but expressed as though the other party would need to learn to love, honour and cherish as the relationship developed. Here is what Moses said as he finished his message to the Israelites. " You have declared this day that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in his ways, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws, and that you will obey him. And the Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised " (Deuteronomy 26:17-19, NIV). The sense of the pass...

--> Hidden in the horrendous events of Exodus 11 and 12 are some of the most precious Gospel promises that God could ever give. As the Hebrews come to the end of their sojourn in Egypt and as God came to the end of His patience in dealing with Pharaoh, Moses received instructions on how the people were to prepare for the Passover—for that moment when the angel of God would pass over Egypt and take the first-born from every family, every flock, every herd. The lamb was to be sacrificed and its blood sprinkled on the doorposts of every Hebrew home. “ The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt ” (Exodus 12:13, NIV). So Moses passed on the message and the people prepared for an event that has remained a sacred celebration for Jews since that time. Moses said: “ When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood ...

Photo: stock.xchng My mother made the best pie crust in the world. She gave all the credit to Tenderflake and often told me about her struggles in the early days on the farm when her parents rendered their own lard. The consistency varied from year to year which made pie making a bit of a challenge—you could never be sure how the crust was going to turn out. Making good pies was a matter of reputation since the threshing crews that came through to help with the harvest were experts in pie crust and if a certain farmer’s wife presented them with tough, inedible crust, the whole neighbourhood would soon know about it. When it come to pie crust, we want tender, flaky and melt-in-your-mouth. Someone once said that promises are like pie crusts—lightly treated and easily broken. Unfortunately, that is often true. Promises are easily made and just as easily forgotten. “Tender” is good in pie crusts, but bad in promises. We often make better promise breakers than we do promise keepe...

Reading: Ezekiel 11-15 Poor Ezekiel was called upon to do some very strange things—a kind of living illustration of the judgment to come on God’s people. His message was not usually a pleasant one—as unpleasant as some of the drama he was instructed to perform to accompany it. But I was intrigued today by some verses from Ezekiel 14. The word of the Lord comes to Ezekiel and he is told to pronounce four judgments: sword, famine, wild beasts and plague. As each of the judgments is announced, the Almighty makes the statement that caught my attention. “ ’Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its men and their animals, even if these three men—Noah, Daniel and Job—were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign Lord ” (Ezekiel 14:13, 14, NIV). Four times these three men are mentioned. There is a good supply ...

Reading: Isaiah 32-35 This was Saturday’s reading, but since I don’t normally post on the weekends I hung on to the verses until today. The problem is that these chapters in Isaiah are so rich that now I am dreadfully behind in taking note of a small portion of the wonderful things that the prophet said under the influence of the Spirit of God.And there is no way I am going to do justice to this! It's coming! The good news is that the Scriptures speak for themselves. Rather than do a poor job at digging for the treasure that is here, I am going to take out a few of the verses and let you hold its gold and silver in your hand and heart and bask in its brilliance. But don't settle for part of the treasure–enjoy all the promises. “ See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice. Each man will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thi...

Reading: Isaiah 25-27, Titus 3 I hesitated on this one because I don’t “feel” it. Intellectually I know it’s true. Even experientially, I’ve been in this place. But present reality seems more like a dark hole where, if there is a pinprick of light somewhere miles above me, it seems too impossible for its brilliance to penetrate the blackness. However, like prayer, you do it whether you “feel” like it or not. Because whether I “feel” it or not, the truth of the Word of God is still that—truth, absolute and unchanging. So here it is. For the most part these chapters from Isaiah are songs of praise—an odd hiatus in the middle of long passages of pronouncements of judgment. Mind you, there are still bits and pieces of sword slashes built in, but much of what Isaiah records in these chapters is encouraging stuff. Some of it has a tinge of “yet-to-be” (25:6-8) coupled with a touch of more immediate implications—God did restore the fortunes of His people after their sentence in exile...

“ I am the Lord, the God of all mankind, is anything too hard for me? ” —Jeremiah 32:27, NIV Jerusalem is under siege. Its end is near, an end that the prophet had long known was coming. He had warned the nation repeatedly that judgment would come upon them at the hand of the Babylonians and here it was. Death, destruction, exile was all that was left. Then God did a surprising thing. He instructed Jeremiah to buy a piece of land. Who in their right mind would buy property when the enemy who would claim it was sitting outside the walls of the city? In verse 17, Jeremiah began a beautiful prayer that rose out of his astonishment at God’s instructions. He begins with praise: “ Oh, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. You show love to thousands but bring punishment for the father’s sins into the laps of their children after them. O great and powerful God, whose name is the Lord Almighty, gre...

“ When you pass through waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze ” —Isaiah 43:2, NIV. It’s not that any of us would like to test this promise but, truth is, there are times when we do feel overwhelmed as though by flood waters. There are moments when the “heat of the day” seems more than we can bear. Then God comes along to tell us that though we might be up to our necks in water, we won’t go under; though we may feel the heat and smell burning in the air, we will not be consumed. I always think of the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when I read this verse. You’ll remember them from the Book of Daniel in the Bible. These three men refused to bow down and worship a statute erected to honour the King of Babylon. They were God-followers and would not worship anyone other than God Almighty. For their disobedience the king prepar...

“ Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it’ ” —Isaiah 30:21, NIV. By itself this verse is a wonderful word of encouragement. But to ignore the its context is like picking the carrots out of the stew and ignoring the rest of the ingredients as well as to miss an important detail in the message. Isaiah speaks to a nation about God’s heart for His people; what God has for them after they come to their senses and after they have suffered the consequences of their rebellion against Him. For those who see the God of the Old Testament as an angry and vindictive One, these verses are a rebuke as well as a lesson about the nature of God. “ Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice, Blessed are all who wait for him! O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he he...

“ As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him ” —2 Samuel 22:31, NIV. This gem comes in the midst of many more. David is singing praises to God, recounting how God has brought him through so many difficult places during his years of exile being pursued by Saul, and then throughout his years as king. It took a long time for David to finally see the fulfillment of the promise that Samuel made to him when this servant anointed him as king. He was only a boy then, and he would go through some terrifying times before he finally ascended to the throne of Israel. Being king wasn’t always easy either. But as a boy, then as a young man, then as a mature man, David would have wondered in all his dark moments whether or not God was going to make good on his promise. As he sings this song of praise, he remembers those awful times as he rejoices in how God delivered him from them. Without a doubt, we repeat David’s story ...

“ Ruth replied, ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God’ ” —Ruth 1:16, NIV Ruth’s words are often used in wedding ceremonies—the pledge between a wife and her new husband. In fact they were a promise made between a daughter-in-law and her mother-in-law—after the husband and son had passed off the scene. Added to that unusual circumstance, Ruth was a Moabite who was about to embark on a journey to a foreign country with a women who could make no promises in return. Naomi was going back home without her husband and her sons, without protection or the expectation of provision once she returned to Bethlehem. But the bond between the two women was held together with much more than a now defunct marriage or a shared widowhood. What Ruth saw and heard in her mother-in-law’s life during those years when Naomi and her family lived in Moab, was enough to convince Ruth ...