Grains of Sand

Pixabay " Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For 'all people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.' And this is the word that was preached to you. " When I posted my thoughts on 1 Peter 1:17-19, someone commented that love without justice and righteousness was just an empty word. That observation fits so well into these verses from 1 Peter 1:22-25. The pilgrimage that produces springs in the desert, that gives life where there is no evidence of it, as is suggested in Psalm 84, cannot be simply a "warm fuzzy". Here, in Peter's words as recorded in 1 Peter 1:22-25, we read his challenge to these pilgrims,...

Pixabay The Gospel and the young. However you define the “children” Jesus refers to in Matthew 18:1-14, the result is the same—don’t cause the young to stumble in their faith, or else! Jesus was responding to a question put to Him by His disciples: “ Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? ” (18:1) Considering some of the other discussions they had among themselves I suspect they wanted Jesus to affirm that they, for the sacrifice of following Him, qualified for the position. Instead Jesus takes a young child and uses the simplicity and fervour of a child’s faith as an illustration of who will be the greatest in the kingdom. That provides a launch pad for this: “ But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea ” (18:6). Yikes! This leads to an even more graphic description of what is necessary to protect the budding faith of the young. ...

Pixabay Has anyone ever asked you who you think is the person who has made the greatest contribution to society? Answering the question is made easier if I specify the field in which this person has contributed. If I specify the medical field, someone will suggest a particular doctor or researcher. For example, Alexander Fleming is famous as the discoverer of penicillin. In the area of technology, another Alexander, as in Graham Bell, might get the nod for the telephone, the great-great-granddaddy of the cell phone. If I mention sports, James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, might come to mind. But the answers to these questions will certainly be varied. Not everyone thinks of (or is old enough to think of ) a Fleming, a Bell, or a Naismith. And if I ask who has made the greatest contribution to religion, the answers will be equally varied.  Because it's me asking the question my guess is that you will think I am hoping that you'll say: "Jesus!" But no...

Google Images It’s a scene often described to us. It’s an example we are told to follow. But how often do we stop to think about why Peter felt the horror he did when Jesus bent down to wash the disciples’ feet. “ It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love ” (John 13:1) In the hustle and bustle of the Passover preparations, apparently no one thought to look after the custom of washing the feet of the guests as they entered for the meal. It would have been proper for one of the disciples to at least wash the Rabbi’s feet. But, it seems, no one did. So when Jesus got up, removed his outer garment, wrapped himself in a towel, filled a basin with water and knelt on the floor to wash His disciples’ feet, they should have been appalled. We have no record that anyone jumped up to take His place, or objected—except Peter....