Grains of Sand

“ This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself ” —Isaiah 44:24, NIV. I have an issue with instruction manuals. Call it a mental block or just pure stubbornness, but as soon as I see the writing in the little booklet that comes with most things that need to be assembled these days, I know I’m not going to be able to understand. I need the pictures—those I can follow. They tell me that men don’t read the instructions OR look at the pictures. They just figure they know how to put stuff together. I wonder what the statistics are related to how many times a job has been started without the aid of the instructions only to have to be redone, or undone, because those instructions weren’t followed. Moving the discussion to the spiritual realm, I read today’s verse and do an “aha.” God not only wrote the instruction manual, He made the product. So it ...

“ Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path ” —Psalm 119:105, NIV. There is a big different between using Scripture as a “proof text” to support an argument and making your argument the detailed explanation of a Biblical text. Today’s sermons, and the endless supply of books written for the Christian audience, often make me feel as though I am having to shuck a lot of oysters of human thought and cute stories just to find one pearl of divine truth. So when I come to a verse like this one from Psalm 119, I recognize again the importance of THE Word in my life, not as an “add-on” but as a guiding principle. Without it I can’t see where I am supposed to be going, or what the dangers are that lie at my feet. The psalmist makes huge claims for the one who takes his connection with the Word of God seriously. If we look back a few verses in this wonderful tribute to God’s Word, we read this: “ To all perfection I see a limit; but your commands are boundless. Oh, how I l...

“ Praise be to you, O Lord; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statues as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word ” —Psalm 119:12-16, NIV.   Look at the richness in these few verses. “ teach me your decrees ” — To every believer has been given the Holy Spirit who, among other roles, functions as our own private tutor. His delight is to respond to our request to learn more about the “operating manual” that God has placed on our hands. “ recount all ” — What we are given must be personally applied, but that is not the end of the journey. We need to share with others what we learn from the Word of God through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. “ rejoice in ” — For some, following the Lord seems like such an onerous task. But the psalmist reminds us that we have in our hands, in our hearts, in our minds,...

There once was a king who, anticipating a special event, ordered two local weavers to prepare him a new set of royal robes for the occasion. The men promised that the suit would be so fine that anyone unworthy or incompetent would not even be able to see it. On the appointed day the two men arrived at the palace with the emperor's new costume. The king stood in front of the mirror as the weavers made a great show of clothing him in his new garments, making obsequious comments about how splendid their ruler looked. They tweaked a little here and tucked a little there. Then they stood back in admiration of their handiwork. The king was astonished. In the mirror all he could see was his royal person dressed in the usual undergarments. But since anyone who was unworthy or incompetent was incapable of seeing the suit, and the weavers obviously saw it, the emperor bit his lip and keep his doubts to himself. The moment came, and the emperor strode out of his palace to make his way throu...

Here's an attitude to admire and an example to follow. " Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true " —Acts 17:11. True nobility of faith is measured by a believer's attitude toward God's Word. These Bereans, not content just to sit and listen and whisper a guarded "amen" after the sermon was over, rushed out to dig for the treasures of the Word on their own. They did it eagerly , not because Paul had told them that they would be poor Christians if they didn't do daily devotions. They did it because they wanted to—they valued what they had heard and were hungry for more. They did it daily , not haphazardly whenever it fit into their busy schedules. They did it carefully , not content just to skim the surface. They " examined " the Scriptures, investigating what Paul preached in the light of wha...