Grains of Sand

Pixabay Some of my American friends are wrestling with how they voted in the last presidential election. Believing that Hilary wasn’t a good choice they voted for Donald. Now they are rethinking that. The latest scandal to hit the White House has sent ripples throughout the world. Donald was caught disparaging people from African nations and from Haiti even while he is signing some kind of document to honour Martin Luther King Jr. He claims that what he said was taken out of context. Even if it was, calling African nations “s—hole” countries is not appropriate no matter what the context. But that is the mouth of man. And the Scriptures (Matthew 15:18, 19) are clear that what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart—deny it all you want! Meanwhile, our own Prime Minister is pushing his marijuana agenda in town halls across the country. A young Muslim girl was attacked in Toronto because of her hijab. The PM expressed concern, and rightly so, but then made the statement that, “T...

Google Images “You can’t fight City Hall.” I suppose that many of us have heard that phrase before. It appears that the people of Israel heard something similar. Or perhaps they really didn’t care about the issue anyway which might have accounted for their actions—or the lack thereof. In any case, King Solomon loved his ladies and gave in to their every whim—including the ones that dictated that they worship their own gods. We already know that he shouldn’t have married these women in the first place (1 Kings 11:2) but he not only allowed them to worship as they pleased, but he also “aided and abetted” their worship by building altars to some of the most detestable of their gods (11:7, 8). To add insult to injury, he participated in the worship of these gods (11:5). And the people followed him, apparently without protest—after all Solomon was “City Hall.” There is no Biblical record that anyone said anything about Solomon’s choices. Where were the prophets, the priests, the righteo...

Google Images I had reason to go hunting through the church archives yesterday. As I was sorting through the record books, photos and other memorabilia that have been collected over the last 90 years of our history, I ran across a little item that fits with the encounter described for us in John 9. A long time ago, our church belonged to a denomination that began to stray from its historic Biblical roots. Our church was one of the first to protest this drift, and was expelled from the denomination a year before other churches were expelled. It costs something to stand up for truth. In John 9, we are told how Jesus healed a blind man. The religious leaders of the day were not happy with the situation because Jesus had broken their rules. They interrogated the parents of the man. And for fear of being thrown out of the synagogue, the parents referred the authorities back to their son who was old enough to speak for himself. The now healed ex-blind man wasn’t entirely sure just Who ha...

Sometimes the squeaky wheel does get the grease! The focus in the book of 2 Chronicles is the story of God's dealings with Judah, the southern kingdom. But in 2 Chronicles 28 there is an interesting encounter between God's prophet Oded, and the King of Israel. Judah's king, Ahaz, was not one of that kingdom's bright stars of righteousness. Judah had many good kings, men who followed the Lord, but Ahaz wasn't one of them. So God punished Ahaz and put him, and Judah, under the iron hands of Judah's enemies, including her northern sister, Israel. But the soldiers of Israel overstepped their bounds and went beyond the mandate that God had given them by merciless slaughter and by taking two hundred thousand captives (28:9, 10). The Lord was not pleased. The prophet's instruction was: " Now listen to me! Send back your fellow Israelites you have taken prisoner, for the Lord's fierce anger rests on you " (28:11, NIV). Now Pekah, king of Israel, wa...