Grains of Sand

Reading: Revelation 15, 16 My touch causes sparks to fly. I touched my phone last night to answer a call and the spark was great enough to temporarily cut off the call and turn the display black. I would like to be able to say that I have some special power in my touch. But alas, the sparks only fly from my fingertips because it is so dry in the apartment now that winter has set in. But there is One whose touch carries with it the power of salvation, righteousness and judgment. Truth is, He only has to speak and the power of that Word is irresistible. “ Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages. Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed ” (Revelation 15:3, 4, NIV). This section of Revelation describes the judgments of God, a solemn reminder to not ignore the voice of the Lord when He s...

Reading: Revelation 8-11 The chief meteorologist for the Weather Channel was being interviewed this morning. He was asked about the most significant weather that happened during 2011. He mentioned several things, referring to these as being of “almost Biblical proportions.” I wondered if he really knew what “Biblical proportions” were? It’s an interesting phrase, considering that many in his audience would not know the meaning of the statement. As I’m reading through Revelation, I am reminded of “Biblical proportions” as John describes some of the events of the times about which he prophesied. Whatever one believes about when all these terrible things are going to happen, the truth is that they are terrible and terrifying. I wonder if somehow the end of a year triggers in people that fear of events to come. I noticed that a lot of the movies scheduled to be shown on television during this coming weekend have to do with terror. No one would admit that somewhere back in the re...

Reading: Revelation 6-8 Countdown. The cradle is tightly bound to the cross. The first coming of Christ is connected unflinchingly to the second coming; once in humility and then again in glory. For God, there is no counting of days as we know it. We count the days until the 2012 dawns and a new year begins, but time doesn’t have the same meaning for Him as it does for us, though He is perfectly aware of it. But He knew the hours, days, weeks, months and years that would pass from the time His Son left heaven to become a child in a manger to the time when His Son returned, resurrected, to Him. And though the centuries have passed, He has ordained the moment when that beloved Son will come again in glory. It seems appropriate to finish the year reading about the stages and ages of the plan of God as it moves toward a completion and a new beginning. This life is, at times, pitiless. Thankfully, this life is not permanent. John records the create gathering of the saints from...

Reading: Jude “ To those who have been called,             who are loved by God the Father                         and kept by Jesus Christ… I desire for you a Christmas adorned by His presence, hovering, covering, and flooding your hearts during this special season of the year. “…Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance ” (Jude 1, 2, NIV).

Reading: 3 John “ I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth ” (3 John 4, NIV). We used to struggle with what to get mom and dad for Christmas. It’s not that they had everything. There was always one more gadget that we could have purchased, destined to gather dust on some shelf. After my mother’s death I got more use out of the blender my brother had bought her one Christmas than she ever did (it’s still going more than 25 years later). The truth is, my parents needed very little. And they wanted even less. My parents weren’t demonstrative types. In some ways that characteristic made it easier to identify those things that they really valued. I know they valued who I became much more than they valued any of the gifts I ever gave them. When I graduated from seminary my mother was recovering from a broken leg. There was no way she was going to be able to make the 500 mile trip to see me graduate. I was also the class valedictorian—a rare privile...

Reading: 2 John I suppose I could be accused of seeing the Ten Commandments everywhere I look these days. That’s the natural outcome of preparations for the series that I am teaching beginning in January. But honest, I saw them again as I was reading 2 John this morning. Traditionally, we see our relationship to God in the first four commandments: ·       No other gods ·       No images ·       No misuse of God’s name ·       Honouring the Lord’s Day. We consider that the last six of the Ten Commandments have to do with our relationship with others: ·       Honour your parents ·       Don’t murder ·       Don’t commit adultery ·       Don’t steal ·       Don’t lie ·       Don’t covet. Keeping the rules turns into legalism if the proper moti...

Reading: 1 John 1-5 The introduction to this letter reminds me of a little kid with a secret that he just can’t wait to tell.   The adults are busy doing whatever it is that adults do, and this little kid is tugging on the back of dad’s coat and clinging to mom’s leg to get their attention. He has something to say and if he doesn’t say it soon, he’s just gonna BURST! He’s had an experience that he can’t wait to share, and everything else has faded into insignificance. FINALLY, his mother and father stop to listen—perhaps more in frustration at his insistence that anything, but at least they stop to hear what he has to say. “Little” Johnny says: “ That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared, we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared t...