Grains of Sand

Google Images When we get to a section of the Scripture like the parts we have here in Exodus, many of us get bogged down. Who cares about all the details of building a Tabernacle? Apparently God does. Okay, so God cares about the details, but why do I need to know that He ordered Moses to: “ Make fifty loops on one curtain and fifty loops on the end curtain of the other set, with the loops opposite each other ” (Exodus 26:5)? It’s a sparrow thing (Matthew 10:29). It’s a hair thing (Matthew 10:30). It’s a tears-in-the-bottle thing (Psalm 56:8). It’s why we have Spring (eventually) and a full moon on schedule. It’s why the birds comes back from the south in the Spring and head back in the Fall. It’s why each snowflake is a different design, and why a spider weaves such intricate webs. God is God of details. And He reminds us that the details are important to Him. It’s not that He’s being a nit-picker, or fussy. It’s that He wants us to know that no detail, however small, escapes His...

Google Images Today marks the anniversary of the Halifax Explosion in 1917 that killed thousands of people and leveled a good part of the city. ( http://daisiesfrommymeadow.blogspot.ca/2012/11/90435.html ). After the disaster the good people of Boston Mass. sprang to the rescue and rushed supplies and personnel to Halifax to help. Since that time, and in gratitude for what the citizens of Boston did, Halifax sends them a giant tree every year for their Christmas celebrations. Some unwise decisions taken by a sea captain in 1917 brought disaster down on the heads of Haligonians. There are times when the unwise, and sometime nasty, decisions of others cause us a lot of grief too. I was reminded of this truth this morning as I created a new blog for my Spanish-speaking friends. I used a meditation from my book Diseño Divino Para la Vida Diaria , to launch the blog. Today’s reading was from Acts 27 and described Paul’s sea voyage to Rome. God wanted Paul in Rome but the apostle warned ...

Every once in a while I post on other sites besides my own. On occasion I revisit my past when I post these articles—lots of lessons have been learned over the years! A couple of times a month I do that on Journezine , once a month I do it on InScribe and once a month I do it on Jewels of Encouragement . Today I'm at Jewels remembering how important the stomach is to spiritual health. Sound odd? Check it out for yourself and let me know. http://www.jewelsofencouragement.com/2012/01/lessons-from-bread-machine.html

Reading: Jeremiah 1-3, Hebrews 9 I was a surprise to my parents, born late in their lives. God wasn’t a bit surprised. When I was in my early teens, a “friend” of the family told me that I should never have been born. God had a different opinion on that subject. So when I read God’s words to Jeremiah, I nod my head knowingly. “ The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart. I appointed you a prophet to the nations’ ” —Jeremiah 1:5, NIV. I like that thought. It’s not unique to Jeremiah. David echoes it in Psalm 139: “…you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were writte...

“ The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing ” –Zephaniah 3:17, NIV. Wrap yourself in it. When your island isn’t a Paradise anymore and feels more like solitary confinement, have tea with Him. When you are weak and the present “enemy-of-the-month” seems sure to overcome you, remember how big and strong your “Daddy” is. When you are uncertain of your value, let Him tell you how proud He is of you, no matter what. When anxiety and fear run riot in your mind and heart, feel Him rocking you gently in His arms. When doubts threaten to kill your song, sing along with Him. Wrap yourself in it.

“ Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, but I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God ” —Psalm 42:11, NIV. Do you remember the Charlie Brown character who always walks around with a cloud over his head? It’s dust, because he’s a dirty kid. But he reminds me, well, of me. There are times when no matter how well things are going, how blessed I might be, there always seems to be a cloud lingering overhead. It often goes nameless, not appearing to have an origin or a reason for being. It’s just there. Perhaps it’s the state of the world: evil run rampant, earthquakes, and friends going through hard times. Perhaps it’s an unfulfilled desire or a blocked path. Perhaps, I’m just tired and in need of some physical and emotional relief from the “day-to-day.” Sometimes, I’m sure, it’s an issue about which I need to get right with God. The psalmist turns his focus away from the cloud and directs it elsewhere. He tells his listeners to “hope...

“ But he knows the way that I take, when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold ” —Job 23:10, NIV Job might not have understood what was going on in heaven during the darkest hours of his life, so he might not have understood fully the significance of these words. He was eager to defend himself before God. In fact, he demanded to be able to present his case to God. Job was certain that God had made a mistake, a miscalculation, that he had mistaken Job for a sinner. He was just as certain that God could be made to see that he already was “gold.” But the statement goes far beyond the meaning Job gave it. His words are the cry of those, who like him, are going through deep waters but who understand that those circumstances are allowed by a gracious God to refine us a Christ-followers, to chip away at a little bit more of whatever it is that keeps us from being more like him. God knows the circumstances because he is the Master of them. He knows they are a double-edged sword...

My friend, Joanne, calls him "Freaky Zieky" and he certainly is! As I was reading more of Ezekiel's story this morning, I really felt for the man. He's packing bags to go nowhere, digging holes in walls and then crawling through them. He's trembling and shuddering without the aid of zero degree temperatures. I wonder how many laughed at him right to his face? You have to give the man credit for humble and persistent obedience. It's not everyone who can make a fool of himself on purpose. In the midst of all the dire predictions of murder, mayhem and mass destruction, all ably illustrated by Ezekiel, the Lord sends an absolute ray of sunshine. Seemingly out of nowhere Almighty God chooses to encourage the people upon whom his judgment has fallen. He took pity on his prophet. Ezekiel was overcome with grief, and God reached down to minister to him (Ezekiel 11:13). The Lord says: " I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries...

I can hardly read the printed words for all the scribbles and notes I've written alongside Isaiah 40. The bulk of the chapter is a huge praise-fest, exalting God and all that He is to His people. Then I got to the end of the chapter and was reminded again how all the power, love, compassion and glory of God works for me in practical reality. Boy, did I need to hear the promise once more! Do you not know? (Yes, I do, but my memory is terribly short sometimes.) Have you not heard? (Yes, but please tell me again, and again, and again, and…) The Lord is the everlasting God,      the Creator of the ends of the earth. (Right down to that last and littlest end—me) He will not grow tired or weary ,      and his understanding no one can fathom (I'm so glad you understand how I feel, Lord) He gives strength to the weary      and increases the power of the weak. (That's me and thank you) Even youths grow tired and weary ...

The other day I asked the Lord for a word of encouragement. At lunchtime today he delivered. A friend was telling about an incident that happened out at her campsite. She, her sister, and her sister's husband were part of a course on Angels I taught in the spring. The hubby was the only man in the study group and I really felt sorry for him and was actually surprised that he hung in right to the end. He never said a word all through the weeks we met together for the study. That wasn't a surprise since he's a quiet soul even among his own family. So everyone was astonished when another sister, visiting the camp that afternoon, asked a question related to angels and he proceeded, not only answer to her question, but to tell her a whole raft of other things that he had learned from the course. My friend commented that if she or her sister had answered the question, or interrupted with their own contribution, it would have resulted in a "ho-hum" from the third sis...

Transitions are always hard. I seem to need constant assurance from God that everything is going to be fine. I'm not sure that indicates a lack of faith. It's possible, but I prefer to liken it to the relationship of a young child to his parent. A child trusts implicitly that his parent will look after him, but still needs to be regularly hugged and reassured. It's a little like justification and sanctification: an already declared and certain state of being but one that is proved and lived out in the crucible of daily life. So in the midst of the insecurities of transition, I appreciated these words from Moses's charge to Israel and to Joshua at God's instruction: " Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, (transitions and the insecurities they bring can be enemies) for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you…Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has ...

“ Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created .” —James 1:16-18 James began his letter writing aboout trials. He encouraged us to rejoice in whatever trials God sends us because they ultimately are meant for our spiritual growth. We are encouraged to persevere so that we get the most value out of those trials. We are to ask for wisdom in dealing with them. We are to trust without wavering. A little later, James deals with temptations. From Satan’s standpoint what God uses as fertilizer to promote growth can also be a gopher hole to cause us to fall and break a leg. James reminds us that it’s our choice to give in, the desire to sin comes from within, not from influences without. We know that the paragraphing and the numbers assigned to the Scripture...

Last night I spoke on the phone with a friend. She is one of several people I know here in Venezuela who are seriously depressed. The situation in the country in not encouraging, and there is plenty to get depressed about. I prayed that God would give me a word of encouragement for her, and for others. And, ever faithful, He sent this along this morning: " The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him " —Nahum 1:7. It's easy to become overwhelmed by circumstances and not so easy to give those circumstances to God and leave them for Him to work out according to His will. Our tendency is to snatch our concerns out of His hand and continue to worry over them. These are moments when Nahum's words need to become like a mantra, repeated over and over until their truth replaces the anxiety of our souls. I pray that will be true for my friend, and for you, today.