Grains of Sand

Pixabay I just finished throwing out two books. There was nothing wrong with the books, or the information that they contained. I also made a mental note to go through some study material that I wrote and taught several years ago to remove references to one of the books I have just consigned to the garbage. It's not the books, or the material. It's the author who wrote the books. I won't say that he has ever been an idol of mine. But I know that he has been the idol of others, world-famous in fact. He started a movement and became a guru among evangelicals, much quoted and much emulated. And perhaps everything he said and did (at least in his ministerial role) was exemplary and worthy to be followed. But it turns out he is an idol with clay feet, who has systematically abused his power over many years while in the ministry,  This abuse particularly relates to his relationship with women. As a woman, and one who knows a little about abuse of power in ministry, I don...

Pixabay “ In the beginning…. ” Today marks the beginning of a new year. What expectations are there for 2018? What hopes are there for this new year as it dawns? Fresh pages…but from the same old book? Or will a new story be written? If it were not because of the word that comes after “ In the beginning… ” we might despair. We know that resolutions made on this day will likely fade into distant memories within a few short days or weeks. We know ourselves…or prefer not to delve too deeply into that muddy pool of self-knowledge in case we should find something we do not like and do not know how to deal with. But then there is that word: “ In the beginning, God…. ” Just as in that first beginning He, the Master Creator, made everything new, so can He do the same in us as 2018 dawns. With Him, nothing needs to ever be the same as it was last night, last week, last month, last summer, last year. Just a few short verses after Genesis 1:1 comes this: “ So God created man in his own image,...

Pixabay When did the organized, communal worship of God begin? I don’t think I have ever asked that question before. But this morning my curiosity “bone” was tickled when I read this interesting phrase at the end of Genesis 4: “ At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord ” (vs. 26). The context tells us that this happened around the time Adam and Eve’s third son, Seth, had a son of his own called Enosh. Experts calculate that this was some two hundred and forty years after the creation of Adam. It’s an odd phrase that seems to imply that before this people didn’t communicate with God. But we know that some did. The general consensus seems to agree with Matthew Poole’s comments: “ to call upon the name of the Lord; to pray unto God, to worship God in a more public and solemn manner; praying being here put for the whole worship of God, as Genesis 12:8, Genesis 26:25, and in many other places. According to the marginal version, the sense is this: Then when the world w...

Pixabay Remember...what you have received. When I was a kid and Christmas morning rolled around, there was a tradition that had to be observed. Every present that was received and opened had to be documented. What it was and who gave it was recorded. Immediately after Christmas thank you notes were written to the gift-givers and put into the mail. To neglect to acknowledge a gift was almost an unpardonable sin. The apostle John, exiled to the Isle of Patmos, received some messages from the Lord that were to be delivered to some of the churches in the region. One of those letters was to go to the church at Sardis. Of course, the principles outlined in these letters to the seven churches are also meant as messages to the church today—nothing much has changed given that human nature doesn't change no matter what century we are looking at. Sardis appeared to be a vibrant church (Revelation 3:1). God knew better. In the message, John was to write: " ...but you are dead ....

Pizabay Remember...His reputation. What's in a name? I have four names. Lynda Lee Schultz Bloedow. The last, my mother's maiden name, never really made much difference until I lived in Colombia and Venezuela where it was vital on official documents. The trouble was that its pronunciation sounds like a popular swear word in Spanish! Not good! Schultz was basically impossible to pronounce at all. Lee was easy and Lynda or Linda is a Spanish word, but not one usually used as a name so I got some odd looks when I introduced myself. Some people thought I was vain since "linda" means "pretty" or "lovely." Names mean something. And no one is more jealous of His Name than God. His reputation hangs on what people think when they hear His Name. And what people think when they think "God" depends on what the people who claim to be His followers are like. They are His representatives, His ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20). In Ezekiel 36, God...

Just a couple of days ago Canada, my home country, celebrated its 148th birthday. Tomorrow our neighbours to the south will celebrate their Independence Day. So I thought it was interesting that my reading this morning should take me to Psalm 33:12, which says: “ Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage .” Of course the psalmist was referring to Israel as God’s covenant people, but both Canada and the US were founded on Christian principles and continue to EXPECT divine favour as privileged first-world nations. How quickly we forget the fate of an Israel that abandoned her God. Over forty years ago, Francis Schaeffer wrote a little book called Death in the City . Even back then he preached the message that his beloved Europe was under the judgment of God for having abandoned Him. He gave the lectures upon which the book was based while on tour in the US. and applied the statements he made about Europe to North America. Our drift away ...

blog.codinghorror.com (Google Images) Part of my morning routine is to read through our local newspaper. This morning my eye caught an article by Anthony Furey. Recently the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that an adult of sound mind, but suffering from overwhelming pain, can be legally helped to commit suicide. The government has a year to come up with some kind of legislation to that effect. The article, Suicide and the So-Cons , ( http://www.nugget.ca/2015/02/10/suicide-and-the-so-cons ) argues that “social conservatives” need to stop trying to force law-makers to pass legislation to prevent such things as assisted suicide. Instead, they need to work within society to give people better choices and to persuade them to make better decisions. The term “social conservatives” would include most of us who are followers of Christ. And I have to say that Furey makes a good point. We, as Christians, can’t legislate right behaviour, any more than foreign governments can mandate peace in th...

Google Images Perhaps it’s just because I choose to read them above others, but it seems as though more and more posts and articles are appearing on the subject of revival, and all that is implied by the word. This morning a pastor friend posted a plea for prayer for revival among our leaders, churches and believers. Shortly after I read his post, I turned to my reading of the day and was met by this passage from Matthew 12:38-45. Jesus is rebuking the Pharisees and religious authorities. They want Him to produce a “sign” to prove His authority. Jesus refuses. But He points them back to their roots, to a piece of history that they know only too well. He directs them to the story of Jonah and his mission to Nineveh. “ The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now one greater than Jonah is here ” (Matthew 12:41). Roots. Repentance. Revival. The root, as Jesus implied, was not in another new s...

shoutitforlife.com (Google Images) It was one of those details that I had never noticed before. Hezekiah is king in Judah. Determined to follow the Lord wholeheartedly and to bring his people back to God, he repairs the temple, gives order for the priests and Levites to consecrate themselves and then leads them in consecrating the temple and restoring the worship of God once more (2 Chronicles 29). Chapter 30 describes the next stage of Hezekiah’s spiritual reforms. We know that at this stage of history Israel and Judah are separate nations, often enemies. Israel, the northern kingdom, was prone to idol-worship. While Judah sometimes slipped into the same sin, her kings tended to be more given to following God and maintaining the nation’s connection with Him. Hezekiah’s actions in restoring the worship of God after one of these “slips” is interesting. “ They decided to send a proclamation throughout Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, calling the people to come to Jerusalem and celebrat...

Google Images Jesus taught His disciples how to pray. The famous “Lord’s Prayer,” recorded in places like Matthew 6:9-13, is repeated verbatim in many places around the world. It some contexts it has become more mantra, or “rabbit’s foot” than it is actually prayer, but nonetheless it is said.  For decades it was prayed in classrooms and at special events. Unhappily, in many of our North American churches, prayer, if it exists at all, is perfunctory. This is to our shame, if only because prayer was so important to Jesus and, supposedly, we are to concern ourselves with what is important to Him. The Lord’s last action with His disciples before His arrest was to pray. He prayed with them before they left the upper room and then He went to garden to pray again. John 17 records His final prayer with His followers. This morning, as I read the passage again, two verses in particular stuck out. “ I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to...

The walls are up and people are settled in. Nehemiah calls a general assembly " …made up of men and women and all who were able to understand " (Nehemiah 8:2, NIV) and Ezra, the teacher of the law, enters the picture once again. Ezra begins to read the Law of Moses. From daybreak until noon he reads. And everyone listens. They worship. " They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read " (8:8, NIV). Here, in just a few statements, is the essence of the ministry: Assemble, worship, read and understand the Scriptures. This moment in history kicked off days of celebration in Jerusalem. But it is interesting to note that Nehemiah had to order the people to celebrate because when they heard the Word of the Lord read the reaction was not one of joy. " …all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law " (8:9, NIV). No explanation is given except to say tha...

The synopsis of the life of Hezekiah, king of Judah, given to us in 2 Chronicles 29-32, contains a beautiful progression. Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne. The first order of business was to restore the temple and its worship. The priests and Levites had to be consecrated, purified, so that they could serve. All that was evil needed to be removed from the sanctuary (29:1-6) because: " Our parents were unfaithful; they did evil in the eyes of the Lord our God and forsook him. They turned their faces away from the Lord's dwelling place and turned their backs on him, They also shut the doors of the portico and put out the lamps. They did not burn incense or present any burnt offerings at the sanctuary to the God of Israel " (29:6, 7, NIV). The house of God and the worship of God had been neglected and abandoned. In 2 Chronicles 30, after the priests, Levities, and temple were restored, Hezekiah called the people to come to Jerusalem. This wa...

Google Images Here in Canada we just celebrated our 145th year as a nation. Our neighbours to the south are about to celebrate their birthday as a nation. There is cause for celebration in two of the most favoured places on the planet. But for how long? Israel is coming to the end of its days as a nation. Assyria is about to descend and take her people into exile. We all know why. Even God comes to end of his patience, and though He will not forsake them, even in exile, nor will He continue to tolerate their rebellion. Judah, the southern kingdom, still has a few years of grace left before she follows her sister into exile. But things don't run smoothly there either. Though Judah had many good kings, some were not. Ahaz, is a classic example of why Judah finally ended up in exile. He is also a frightening parallel to the modern church age. In 2 Kings 16, Ahaz begins to reign in Judah. But he is one of Judah's kings who doesn't follow the Lord. In fact when Aram and Isra...

Henry and Richard Blackaby, in their book Fresh Encounter , describe the characteristics of a normal Christian life this way: 1. Intimate fellowship with God 2. Joy in God's presence 3. A sense of peace 4. A holy life 5. A Spirit-filled life 6. Recognizing God's voice 7. Filled with the fruit of the Spirit 8. Experiencing God's power This is only page three and I'm already convicted! Last night I was taking a couple of candidates through the church membership class and caught myself saying, "But we're only human" as though that excuses us from reaching for the goal for which Christ had destined us as believers. There are numerous passages that remind us that being "only human" doesn't cut it but this one from Ephesians 4:23, 24 (NIV) is particularly pointed: " You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude ...

Reading: Isaiah 25-27, Titus 3 I hesitated on this one because I don’t “feel” it. Intellectually I know it’s true. Even experientially, I’ve been in this place. But present reality seems more like a dark hole where, if there is a pinprick of light somewhere miles above me, it seems too impossible for its brilliance to penetrate the blackness. However, like prayer, you do it whether you “feel” like it or not. Because whether I “feel” it or not, the truth of the Word of God is still that—truth, absolute and unchanging. So here it is. For the most part these chapters from Isaiah are songs of praise—an odd hiatus in the middle of long passages of pronouncements of judgment. Mind you, there are still bits and pieces of sword slashes built in, but much of what Isaiah records in these chapters is encouraging stuff. Some of it has a tinge of “yet-to-be” (25:6-8) coupled with a touch of more immediate implications—God did restore the fortunes of His people after their sentence in exile...

TRANSFORMING PRAYER Daniel Henderson Bethany House 2011 The traditional impression of prayer meeting is that of a quick Bible study, endless discussion about the people and circumstances surrounding the prayer requests and then a guilty: “Oh, we’re almost out of time, we’d better pray!” Although he is quick to reassure us that our requests are important to God, Daniel Henderson is equally quick to point out that prayer begins long before the requests are mentioned and that it needs to start with a recognition of who God has revealed Himself to be. He writes: “Worship-based prayer seeks the face of God before the hand of God…I have learned that if all we ever do is seek God’s hand, we may miss His face; but if we seek His face, He will be glad to open His hand and satisfy the deepest desires of our hearts…Worship-based prayer ignites a desire for spiritual intimacy and personal transformation” (pg. 27). The bottom line, says Henderson, is that we can never expect to see revival...

Last Sunday, as I drove north with my brother, the weirdest feeling passed over me. This was the first time since our parents passed away back in 1991 that we had traveled to Timmins together. In fact, my brother hasn't been north since 1996, when he took a few days just to come up by himself. In the past, we eagerly anticipated pulling up in front of the house on Elm Street to be greeted by mom and dad and to feel the familiar sentiments of being "home." Now, for the first time, Wayne was coming to my new home, an old world with a new beginning. Today we will go to the cemetery where mom and dad are buried, not because of nostalgia, but for a much more practical reason. When I was there in the spring there were "things" growing on the headstone and I warned my brother that when he came up we needed to go back there and clean things up. Coming home is different now. Wayne brought up a couple of suitcases of photos that he's been looking after since I wen...