Grains of Sand

Pixabay I have my pastor to thank for this one. He is working through the Book of Acts on Sunday mornings. Today's message was from Acts 3, the story of the lame man who had an encounter with Peter and John at the entrance to the Temple. His life was dismally the same every day—sitting at the entrance begging people to drop a few coins into his hand. It was all he had, all he expected, all he thought he would ever know in life. Until... " When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, 'Look at us!' " As my pastor remarked, with that statement the man anticipated a big payday! " So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, 'Silver or gold I do not have...' " Disappointment. And his attention, so focused on these two men and what he might gain from their generosity, probably began to shift away to the next peo...

Pixabay It is both amazing and appalling what is done “in God’s Name.” Jacob continues to practice deception. Not only has he manipulated things so that he comes away from his father-in-law with enough wealth to make Laban’s heirs jealous, but he lies to Leah and Rachel by saying that God blessed him with all this wealth because Laban had cheated him of the wages he deserved over the course of the twenty years that Jacob remained in exile from his own family. One sin does not require another to correct it. But Jacob had yet to learn that lesson. Genesis 31 continues the sad story of "deceive and be deceived." Whatever goodwill Laban had extended to Jacob is well tarnished now. Genesis 31:2 says, “ And Jacob noticed that Laban’s attitude toward him was not what it had been. ” I guess Laban noticed that Jacob was getting richer while he was getting poorer. So Jacob deceives his father-in-law again and runs off into the night with his family and his belongings. Rachel even s...

Pixabay How many altars have I built in my life? An altar is a place of worship, of commitment, of sacrifice. Noah built an altar when, at last, he and the riders of the great ark were on dry land once again. It is recorded that Abraham built altars at significant points in his spiritual journey. In Genesis 26 Isaac builds an altar as well. This event was spurred by an encounter with God during which the Lord said: “ I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham” (26:24). It is said that Isaac built the altar “…and called on the name of the Lord ” (26:25). An altar is a place of communion, a place of encounter with God. We used to have “altar calls” away back when. Those were moments at the end of a service when the pastor invited anyone who wanted to accept Christ, or make some other significant spiritual decision, to come forward. I responded to one of ...

I was distracted. That’s a poor excuse. Somewhere in the delivering of the study last night I mentioned that I found it more difficult to multi-task with the passing years. I guess I proved my point—at least to myself. My mouth was trying to say one thing while my mind was struggling with something else. The result was, what felt like at least, a very disjointed Bible study. When I was making some sense, we were talking about walking with the Lord. The study launched from the two Scriptures in Genesis 5 and 6 that describe Enoch and Noah, Enoch’s great-grandson, as men who “ walked with God .” In my devotions this morning I was reading Hebrews 12, a passage rich in material that felt like a follow-up to last night’s study. The first two verses, familiar as they are, were particularly encouraging and challenging. “ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with p...