Grains of Sand

Pixabay I have a collection of old rusty keys. I also have some nice, shiny ones. They come in handy. They connect to Calvary. “ And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel ” —Genesis 3:15. The story begins in Genesis with the first couple and the first sin—at least as far as the historical record is concerned. God’s plan to deal with what He knew was inevitable began long before time began, as is suggested in Revelation 13:8 when John refers to the “… the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world .” It's a pity. No sin, no need for a Saviour, or a cross. James Kennedy remarks in Cross Purposes, Discovering the Great Love of God for You , that we seldom if ever hear the word sin used today—not even from many of our pulpits. Many people go so far as to deny that such a thing as sin exists. We have invented more “politically correct” terms...

Google Images The early chapters of Acts describe a church on fire, where thousands of people came to faith and new believers were added daily to that number. This new movement must have distressed the establishment to no end. They thought they had stamped out any possibility of these Christ-followers gaining momentum when they crucified their leader. Equally amazing to those who watched was the community that grew up around these professions of faith. Acts 5 tells us: “ All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all .” We like the multiplication the believers but tend to race over the division of goods. But that’s a subject for another time, though I can hear the pundits clamoring to tell me that that was a different time, a different place, a different culture and we c...

Google Images What do you do when the cross no longer moves you? You keep going back to it until it does. When we are no longer impacted by the remembrance of the cost of our salvation we have, as Paul writes to the Colossians, " lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow " (Colossians 2:19). The cross is the pumping of the heart that moves the blood that supplies life to the body. Psalm 22 is a Messianic psalm, describing the work of Christ on the cross. Over David's story is superimposed HIS-tory. " My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me… Many bulls surround me; stong bulls of Bashan encircle me. Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths against me. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my...

Google Images Seasonal consumers of religion. At the risk of sounding harsh, a lot of those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus who are exactly that—seasonal consumers of religion. We come and go when it's convenient and when something piques our interest in the program of the church. We turn up when we can't find anything better to do. We blame the pace of the rest of our lives on our lack of attention to what needs to be THE priority of life. We are religious but we are not very spiritual. We treat Grace cheaply.* It's a good thing God doesn't operate that way. I was struck this morning by David's response to God as we see it in 1 Chronicles 21. He did a "no-no" (21:6, 7) and God gave him a choice of punishments—that in itself is significant and shows us the high regard God had for David in spite of his sin. David chose to submit to God's hand as the instrument of punishment (21:13) rather than subject himself to the punishment men would ...

“ Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me ” —John 12:26, NIV. Doesn’t this verse sound soooooo good? Yes, Lord, I’ll serve you. I’ll follow. I’ll be where you are. My Scripture reading program for this year only gives me one or two isolated verses each day—a dangerous thing because it’s possible to miss the point of the passage when I look at it apart from its context. I thought I should look this one up. Jesus has already entered Jerusalem on his first, and last, donkey ride. Though the occasion was triumphant, the crowds appreciative, and new interest in the gospel sparked, the Lord immediately hauled His disciples down from their “cloud nine.” The interest in Christ’s message came from an unexpected quarter, some Greeks who were in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. They asked to see Jesus. We can assume from the answer Jesus gave to their request that He was challenging them to count the cost of...

“ In reply Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. ’” —John 3:3, NIV. Who’s the liar? Voices today (though this is not a new phenomena) tell us that everyone is going to heaven, that hell is what we make it here on earth. Neither of these statements is true. The book of John alone is full of verses that hammer away at the misguided thought that in the end love will prevail (i.e. John 1:12, 3:16, 17, 5:24). Love does prevail—for those who confess their sins and throw themselves on God’s mercy for forgiveness and restoration. Do those who so cavalierly dismiss the statements of Scripture and the clear teaching of Jesus even wonder what else might be a lie? If they can so quickly say that Jesus didn’t mean what He said about salvation, what else didn’t the Lord mean? Perhaps He also didn’t really mean to say that there is a literal heaven, since there doesn’t seem to be a literal hell. Perhaps He didn’t mean that He was l...