Grains of Sand

Google Images Sometimes I feel like a broken record! As I read Joshua 4 this morning, I was reminded of something I have said quite a few times over the last few years—probably to the annoyance of several people. However, here I go again. Joshua and the tribes of Israel pass over the Jordan in Joshua 4. God does yet another enormous miracle by parting the waters of the river in front of the them, allowing everyone to pass over safely. But before the water returns to its natural place, Joshua asks one man from each tribe to pick up a stone from the river. “ And Joshua set up at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, ‘In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, “What do these stones mean?” tell them, “Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.” For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over… ” (4:20-23). We often don’t think our spiritual journeys matter to anyone...

My connection with Margaret Haines goes back to my childhood. My mother used to do light housework at Margaret’s place during a period in her life when she was still working and looking after her aunt and uncle in her home. Margaret loved children—I won’t say “kids” because Margaret would not have approved—and she loved books. The teenagers who remember her will tell you that she was good to them. She was the driving force behind The Northland Bible Bookroom in our church and was absolutely dogged about getting people to buy good books—even to writing articles for The Timmins Daily Press promoting the books and the bookroom. If people didn’t come into the bookroom, or even if they did, she’d take the books she thought were appropriate for them and pursue them until she could catch them long enough to explain why they urgently needed to read that book. It was not a matter of sales, it was always a matter of people and what might be meaningful to those people. In fact,...

Google Images " He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God " (Joshua 4:24, NIV). The context? After the Israelites crossed over the Jordan and stepped into the land God had promised to give them, they were instructed to build a memorial made of stones taken from the river. The memorial was to be a permanent reminder of how God's hand had worked to bring them to this point in their history. As I looked at this phrase, I wondered what life would be like if every "happening" was viewed as a "God did this to show me Who He is" moment. Life becomes a series a photographs that tell His story as it relates to our lives. We open the album (or the file on our computer) and "show and tell." We say, "this was when God…" A week ago I had the opportunity to tell my story, the condensed version, to a friend. As I answered her questions I...