Grains of Sand

" Who do you say I am? " (Mark 8:29) This was the question that Jesus asked his disciples. It sounds simple enough. " You are the Messiah ," was Peter's reply (Mark 8:29). You are the Son of God. You are the Saviour. You are the Creator of the universe. You are the Almighty. You are the Good Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep. You are the Lord. You are the Head of the church. You are the Judge of the living and the dead. You are the great High Priest. You are the Master Teacher. It's a simple question, with a seemingly simple answer. In fact, the answer begs a huge question: "if this is who I am, then what difference should that make to your life?" The question was never meant to be simply academic, a question of more knowledge or clearer understanding. It was meant to provoke a response. If Jesus is, for example, the Master Teacher, then what do I need to learn, and how am I going to go about that? If He is the Saviour, then what do I need...

Google Images What do you do when the cross no longer moves you? You keep going back to it until it does. When we are no longer impacted by the remembrance of the cost of our salvation we have, as Paul writes to the Colossians, " lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow " (Colossians 2:19). The cross is the pumping of the heart that moves the blood that supplies life to the body. Psalm 22 is a Messianic psalm, describing the work of Christ on the cross. Over David's story is superimposed HIS-tory. " My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me… Many bulls surround me; stong bulls of Bashan encircle me. Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths against me. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my...