Grains of Sand

Google Images Empty. Dark. Then God went to work and changed it all. Genesis 1 records how everything began, how a Creator took what was empty and dark and made it into something beautiful and good. The Bible is a book of redemption, of restoration, of reconciliation. Right from its first chapter that story is told: emptiness can be filled—with God; darkness can become light—because of God. “ In the beginning God created... ” (Genesis 1:1). The beauty that God created will be spoiled and soiled, sullied and sacrificed but the lesson remains: With God, because of God, emptiness can be filled and darkness can become light. John 1:14 tells us: “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word as with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life and that life was the light of men, The light shines in darkness... ” Jesus was there, from the beginning, on a mission to fill emp...

Google Images “ The Word began flesh and made his dwelling among us ” (John 1:14).’’ We know the story. Perhaps its familiarity is part of what keeps us from taking the time to revisit it and to think again about the implications of it. The busyness of the season—what others have made of the season—sweeps us away and before we are aware it’s January and we have forgotten to REALLY stop and pay attention to a baby in a cattle shed. Think again with Paul about what this “God with skin” is all about—what He did for us and what He wants to do in us. Think, and worship. “ ...All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth...For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worth...

Google Images “ You must be born again ” (John 3:7). I doubt that this was what Nicodemus expected when he arrived under cover of darkness to talk to Jesus.  According to the record given to us in John 3, Nicodemus hardly got through the pleasantries of a polite introduction before the Lord went right to the point—the religious leader and member of the Jewish ruling council, needed a Saviour. In this most famous chapter of the Scriptures, the Gospel is laid out in graphic detail. No one can be part of God’s kingdom unless he is born again (3:3). Being born again is the work of the Spirit of God (3:6). The Son of Man, Jesus, would be the instrument of that new birth (3:14). Belief is required (3:15, 16). God made the supreme sacrifice to make it possible for us to be born again (3:16). The first coming of Christ happened so that we would have the opportunity to be saved (3:17). Those who reject Christ have already condemned themselves (3:18). Sin keeps people from being born aga...

Google Images When Jesus was betrayed, he was taken before the priests to be judged. John 18:14 has this to say about one of those men: " Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people ." Little did he understand the significance of what he said. Some men die as they have lived—selfishly. But only One man died to make it possible for every other man to live. THE POTTER The cart lurched, throwing Abel off his stride. He stumbled but kept his grip on the shafts between which he walked. He pulled to the right, willing his shallow crate on wheels to slide as easily out of the rut as it had sliding in. Romans tax us to death and they can’t even fix the roads . How often had Abel heard his father mutter that complaint under his breath as he had carted earth back to their hovel? Well, the old man was gone and now it was his son’s turn to haul the rusty-red dirt. With the cart now securely back on the t...

stock.xchng photo Tonight my growth group begins a series of studies on the fruit of the Spirit, the God qualities that He wants to develop in believers. But if we hope to make room for the character of God in our lives, we have to clean out the closet and get rid of the old stuff. Ephesians 4:24 tells us: " You were taught with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self…and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness ." As I read Numbers 33 this morning I was reminded of the Old Testament illustration of the New Testament instruction. Moses had come to the end of his journey. The children of Israel were soon to enter into the land that God had promised them. Moses reviewed the past with the people he had led for so long and gave them this instruction: " When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish...

“ I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life ” —John 5:24, NIV. My mother used to tie me to the clothesline. No, she didn’t tie me with clothesline, she simply attached my harness to the clothesline. This allowed me the freedom of the backyard and kept me from wandering out to the street. If she could have trusted me to stay in the yard I’m sure we could have done well without the harness or the clothesline; but she couldn’t. I was a wanderer. I know that because the story is told of the first (and last) time mom gave me the freedom of the yard and I ended up in the middle of the street in front of our house. The only thing—humanly speaking—that saved me from certain death was the quick action of my big brother who rushed out and hauled me back to the safety of the sidewalk. He crossed me over from “death to life” in the physical sense. I thought about that incident ...

“ But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all ” —Isaiah 53:5, 6 Sing it again, today and tomorrow and every day after tomorrow. The song of the cross is not seasonal. It is as fresh as Spring, as glorious as Summer, as abundant as Fall and as lingering as Winter. Thomas Chisholm wrote this beautiful hymn, set to music by Merrill Dunlop, which echoes Isaiah’s words: He was wounded for our transgressions, He bore our sin in His body on the tree. For our guilt He gave us peace, From our bondage gave release, And with His stripes, and with His stripes, And with His stripes our souls are healed. He was numbered among transgressors, We did esteem Him forsaken by His God, As our sacrifice He died, That the law be satisfied, And all our sin, ...

" Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! " —2 Corinthians 5:17. The more I think about this verse, the more I realize that unless Paul lied, many of us have a serious problem with letting go. One newly-minted Christian. One new creation, fresh, clean, unblemished, pure, untouched, and a host of other words that could be used to describe " new creation ." Everything bad that was from before that moment of being reborn in Christ no longer exists. Everything is brand, spanking, new. If this is true, and Paul really didn't lie, exaggerate, or really mean the future tense even when he used the present, then why do we harbour the old even as we embrace the new? The Scripture recounts one time when Jesus' first touch only produced partial healing (Mark 8:22-25). That passage has always puzzled me. How could Jesus' healing be incomplete? The story is of a blind man brought to the Lord for healing. Jesus spits...

Paul writes in Romans 6:14: " For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace ." The verses that come before this one are part of Paul's explanation on how life changes after an encounter with Calvary. It's a God-thing; specifically a Holy Spirit thing. Paul admits that old habits die hard, but the truth is that they are dying. The believer, now under new ownership, strives to finish them off as he yields daily to the prompting of the Spirit of God, now resident in his life. The evidence of this new life will be there for all to see. A believer can't help but seek to please his new Master, and to fight to remove all those things that were characteristics of his old life under his old master. Paul knows that believers, new and old, will often have doubts about their relationship with God. The constant struggle with the old habits, and the occasional failures that dog our steps, can be discouraging. Which is the reason for this last...

Today would have been my mother's birthday. She's been gone now for almost eighteen years, but the memories never fade. They just soften with time. The birthday might have passed virtually unnoticed if it hadn't been for today's verse. " I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life " —John 5:24. " Crossed over ." I held my mother's hand in her hospital room as she literally "crossed over." It was three days before Christmas. My father had died three months before, at the end of September, and my plan had been to have a special Christmas for mom. I didn't know that God had better plans. When my mother accepted Christ, she "crossed over" from spiritual death to spiritual life. At that moment when she physically "crossed over" she passed from pain and sadness to health and joy. Not only did she get to spend...