Grains of Sand

elibvbid.blogspot.com (Google Images) There are many renditions of the photo you see on your left. But I think this is the version that once hung on a wall in the church of my childhood. It depicts what is described in Matthew 7:13, 14. “ Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. ” This is not a message that we want to hear. The New King James version of the Scriptures uses the word “ difficult ” to describe the road that leads to life. Commenting on this, John MacArthur writes: “Christ continually emphasized the difficulty of following Him (Matt. 10:38; 16:24-25; John15:18-19; 16:1-3; cf. Acts 14:22). Salvation is by grace alone, but it is not easy. It calls for knowledge of the truth, repentance, submission to Christ as Lord, and a willingness to obey His will and Word . Cf. Matt. 19:16-28.” ( One Perfect Life ...

just4mypet.com (Google Images) The theme verse for the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada , of which I am a member, is Luke 19:10: “ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. ” This is what the Kingdom of heaven (or of God) is all about. John the Baptist was all about the kingdom, its proclamation, and the preparation for the coming of its King. So when John’s disciples expressed concern that Jesus and His disciples were close by and enjoying a successful ministry they were a little concerned because “ everyone is going to him ” (John 3:26). John, who had drawn huge crowds, was no longer doing so. Rivalry among churches of like faith is not unusual—unfortunately. Often one church will refuse to advertise the activities of another church because of the fear that it will “lose” someone to that church. Another church will not participate in joint activities with another church for the same reason, or because the other church isn’t quite as dispensati...

Google Images She could never have imagined what she was asking. In Matthew 20:20-28 we read the story of an ambitious mother (is there any other kind?) trying to pave the path to success for her sons. The mother of James and John (who, by temperament where perfectly able to plead their own case) asked Jesus if He would allow her boys to occupy the seats of honour beside the Lord when He established His kingdom (20:21). Obviously she didn’t really have a clear picture of what kingdom she was actually referring to, but hey...! James and John were right there to answer the first question on the application form: “ Can you drink the cup I am going to drink? ” (20:22). Either they were hopelessly starry-eyed, as we often are when we are asked to be brave without actually being faced with a situation that requires us to BE brave, or they simply had not made the connection between the kingdom and the death of their Master, announced earlier (20:17-19)—for the third time! But there was a ...

Google Images One of the ongoing concerns that people have about the church is its revolving door, or back door. People come, some stay, others disappear, some look good, others look bad—spiritually, that is. There are complaints about hypocrites, and devastation when a spiritual giant within the congregation turns out to have clay feet. I remember a young man in my youth group—its leader as a matter of fact—who stood up one night in prayer meeting and confessed that he wasn’t a Christian. His profession, his baptism, his leadership was all fake, done to please his parents and others in the church. Looking back I might have picked up a clue on that when, as President of our Christian High School group, he refused to speak at an assembly and left me to do it. The non-Christian kids probably saw through him better than we did! But Jesus warned His followers that in the Kingdom of God there will be real “fish” and plastic “fish” and we might not detect the difference. Sorting those ou...

I read an excellent post this morning written by a friend ( http://brendaflemming.blogspot.com/2010/10/lord-you-are-my-home.html ). It was a reminder to me about how important perspective is in determining what our priorities in life need to be. Added to Brenda's post was an interesting incident that I read about in my devotions this morning. Jesus was coming to end of his earthly ministry and in one of those last discourses he spoke to his disciples about what was to come in the future. Among the things he said was this: " No one knows about that day [the coming of the Lord] or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! You do not know when that time will come. It's like a man going away: He leaves his house in charge of his servants, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back–whether in the evening, or at midn...