Grains of Sand

When Jacob was running from the disaster his actions had caused within his family, he stopped to rest at a place that he would name “Bethel” (Genesis 28). On that occasion he was not prepared to surrender to God. His focus then was on the place itself rather than on the God Who had revealed Himself in that place. Years later, having returned again to Canaan, having met God for a second time and having finally surrendered to God (Genesis 32), Jacob returns to Bethel a second time. Bethel means “house of God” and Jacob had built an altar there after his first encounter with the Almighty. Now, as he returns again, he is conscious that he goes there with a different focus than he had once had. One of the things Jacob had neglected to do when he returned to Canaan was to deal with the household gods that Rachel had stolen from her father, Laban (Genesis 31). He knew he couldn’t approach the Only God without dealing with the false ones. He gives instructions: “ Get rid of the foreign...

Pity the poor prophets who had wonderful visions but probably never knew what those visions meant. If they did know, how disappointed they must have been not to see the fulfillment of those dreams. Daniel is lying down on his bed and God sends him a dream. Among the many fascinating things he sees, the most glorious must have been this: " As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated and the books were opened. Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. (The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, b...

I'm recycling paper. In this case that phrase means I am going through the files in my good, old-fashioned four drawer metal filing cabinet—an antique in this technological age. Most of the files in the cabinet are ministry-related, but there are a good number that have housed the many recipes I've cut out of magazines over the years. The weight of the paper alone represents a lot of dead trees. I bought some software which should help me to warehouse all the recipes that I want to keep. IF I get this project done, I will have stored that weight of paper and all that information inside one little laptop. Isn't that amazing? It will be even more amazing if the hard drive doesn't crash and if I don't lose all that I have so carefully saved. I guess that's why someone invented jump drives, or whatever the current name is for those little sticks that act as external memory "just in case." I had the privilege to visit my last remaining aunt recently. She ju...

He was always surrounded, but stood alone; understanding, but seldom understood. People had expectations of Christ. Surely, He would throw out the Romans and return Palestine to its rightful owners. Without doubt, He would do miracles and all that was evil in the world: hunger, sickness, war, would go away forever. Palestine stayed in Roman hands, and evil continued. He led, but His followers sometimes wandered off on other trails, pursuing rabbits instead of righteousness. He taught eternal truths to men with temporal minds. Like oil and water, they sometimes didn't mix. Christ's mission was often misunderstood, even by those closest to Him. In the end, the vast crowds that had followed Him eagerly, dissipated. These "friends" were replaced by crowds who wanted Him dead. Sometimes the familiar faces in one were the same faces that appeared in the other. Did Jesus ever wish He could just go home? Hebrews tells us that Jesus was tempted in every way that we can be temp...