Grains of Sand

Pixabay Some people are under the mistaken impression (though there may not be as many of them as I think) that, just because I am older and have had some experience with life, I have wisdom to offer. There are times that I am even prone to believing that myself. The truth of the matter? Yes, I am older. Yes, I have had some experiences in life that others might not have gotten around to yet. Hopefully I have learned some lessons from those experiences. Hopefully I am the wiser for them—otherwise God’s efforts in bringing them into my life might have been wasted. But whatever wisdom that has been acquired does not ultimately reside in me—I’m still frail and sometimes foolish though, hopefully, less so than once I was. The truth is, as Job 12:13 says: “ To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his .” I am reminded that one of the characteristics of a good listening ear is humility—the recognition that I come from the same messiness that the person to whom I am l...

Google Images Solomon is king over Israel. But the man purported to be the wisest man that the world has ever known made at least one fatal mistake: He didn’t ask God for enough, nor did he ask soon enough. In 1 Kings 3 we have the record of Solomon’s prayer to God when he asks the Lord to give him wisdom. “ Now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours? ” (3:7-9) That prayer was a smart one. God responded to it by blessing Solomon with extraordinary wisdom—so much wisdom that Solomon’s fame spread throughout the world of that day, and continues to be a much quoted example today. But Solomon had already made a fatal m...

Google Images Anticipation. All the preparations have been made. The people have done all that they were instructed to do. A people, described by God as one that would become “ ...a kingdom of priests and a holy nation ” (Exodus 19:6) awaits the message God has for it. The phrase is remarkably like 1 Peter 2:5: “ ...you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ” This was what God wanted—and still wants—of His children. Moses comes down from a mountain whose display of light and sound has left the people below terrified (Exodus 19:16). He delivers the message known to us as the Ten Commandments. Each one is huge in itself. But it is the first phrase that grabs my attention this morning: “ I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery ” (Exodus 20:2). Would the people have remembered how Moses introduced himself to them when he appe...

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 ...

Reading: James 1-5 My online dictionary defines wisdom as: ·       the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise. ·       the soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of such experience, knowledge, and good judgment . ·       the body of knowledge and principles that develops within a specified society or period . James gets even more specific, showing us that wisdom is as practical as a shopping cart in a grocery store. His definition of godly wisdom morphs into something perhaps quite different from what we might expect. He writes: “ But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness ” (James 3:17, 18, NIV). Godly wisdom is not based on human knowledge or experience. I...

“ See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared ” —Exodus 23:20, NIV I wonder if Moses ever got writer’s cramp? We often think of the Ten Commandments as only, well, ten. In fact, there followed the giving of the basic ten a whole waft of others along with instructions for every detail of building the Tabernacle. And in the middle of taking note of the myriad of instructions about the laws that were to govern the new nation of Israel comes this wonderful promise. Perhaps this was the point at which Moses was thinking, as he rubbed his sore fingers: “How on earth am I ever going to do all this stuff?” The weight of responsibility for the physical and moral well-being of a couple of million people tracking through the desert was not a light burden. Moses had seen God’s provision in the past. But like all of us, each fresh challenge seems to require a fresh assurance that the God who looked after business yesterday...

Though I haven't been chosen to rule a kingdom, I can empathize with Solomon. When the Lord appeared to the new king in a dream, as recorded for us in 1 Kings 3, God asked Solomon what his greatest desire was. Solomon replied: " …I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours " —1 Kings 3:7-9, NIV. The heart of the request comes in: " give your servant a discerning heart… " Part of my task is that of discovering and mobilizing people to do ministry. In the weeks that I have been here, I've begun to investigate and observe. Sheets of information on the gifts that have been identified in members of the congregation have been handed to me. However, paper, as good as it is, doesn...

Job 11-13 Why is it so easy to “see” the sins of others and not our own? Zophar takes up the “Job Challenge” with: Oh, how I wish that God would speak, that he would open his lips against you and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom has two sides. Know this: God has even forgotten some of your sin ” —Job 11:5, 6. If he and his buddies had prayed that God would give Job wisdom and understanding in the midst of all this trauma rather than judge from their “superior” position, it might have been more useful. They assumed because they thought they knew something that they didn’t. The arrogance is obvious. I suppose this strikes me hard because I am, and have been, listening to the same lofty judgments rendered by some who “know” heaped on others who obviously don’t. “He is not fit for ministry,” is the current popular refrain directed at someone, I admit, who has a lot to learn. But to say he is not fit for ministry is a judgment call only God can make. If these same peop...

Tucked in between James' teaching on trials are two verses that we hold close to our hearts. " If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind " —James 1:5, 6 NIV. Obviously verses like these apply to everything in life, but I find it interesting that they appear in this particular spot like sliced beef between two slices of whole grain bread. Since nothing in Scripture is irrelevant, the placing of these two verses must have a special meaning in the context. What do I do in the face of this trial? That's the kind of question that demands that we go to God and ask for His wisdom. We are never more vulnerable to making wrong decisions or reacting badly as when we are undergoing trials. During these times we need to lean heavily on God so that we make no mistakes in our ...

What looks like one thing often turns out to be something different when seen in its context. That's true with this well-known verse of Scripture: " Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened " —Matthew 7:7, 8. And everyone rushes into God's presence with his wish list. Since Jesus used an illustration about food to describe God's perfect responses to this prayer, we immediately think material things when we claim this verse. But context is everything. In Luke's Gospel, these verses are summed up this way: " If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! " (11:13). Holy Spirit? What's He got to do with food, clothing, financial security, health, job opportunities—all the things o...