Grains of Sand

How many times have I quoted Psalm 30:5b to myself or to someone else? “ Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning ” writes the psalmist. Sometimes those nights seem excruciatingly long, to the point of never-ending. We like to say that mornings come early, but oftentimes they don’t come soon enough. But this morning, my mind was engaged by the first part of the verse—the one I never quote! “ For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. ” The alternate reading for the last part of the phrase is “ …and his favor is life ” but I’m going to go with what the English Standard Version considers the best of the two options. I was interested in what other passages of Scripture had to say about God’s “anger.” The results of my foray into other verses was, oddly enough, encouraging. Psalm 103:8-14 is a beautiful reminder that while sin brings consequences it also invites grace. “ The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding i...

Busy people. The disciples had been running around the countryside teaching and healing. They were overwhelmed with responsibilities and people, and didn't even have time to eat, let alone digest their food. So when Jesus said, " Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest " (Mark 6:31) the chances are at least one of the guys had to stifle a "yippee." As it happens the devotional thought I read this morning in connection with this passage focused on the importance of taking time to rest, reflect and renew. Amen and amen. But I had to laugh. Jesus took His disciples away to a solitary place so that they could rest, reflect and renew. But people saw them, and followed them so that when they got to this solitary place, it wasn't solitary anymore. There were five thousand men there, and who knows how many women and children on top of that. What would you and I say? "Sorry, we're on vacation, on retreat, on furlough. Go home and we...

Reading: Nahum If Jonah had still been around in Nahum's time (see http://lyndasgrainsofsand.blogspot.com/2011/09/better-class-of-help.html   ) he would have been gratified. When God sent him to Nineveh 150 years earlier to warn the Ninevites that God was about to destroy the city and its inhabitants, they’d all repented and Jonah had not been pleased! Now Nahum appears on the scene to deliver the message Jonah would have liked to have been commissioned to deliver. This time there was no opportunity for repentance and Nineveh’s destruction was assured. The Ninevites were a nasty bunch. It took one hundred and fifty years for Nineveh to go from totally repentant to totally unrepentant and sufficiently evil for God to say “enough!” That’s pretty fast work—frighteningly fast. But it is the picture of God on a mission that jumps out from the page. “ The LORD is a jealous and avenging God…The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunish...

“ Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness ” —Lamentations 3:22, NIV. Strange words from a man observing the destruction of everything that his society held dear. The name of the book, Lamentations, tells us the story in one word. This is Jeremiah’s lament over the devastation of a nation. Still, hope peeks out from behind the curtain of despair. Hope comes clothed in what the prophet knows of the character of God. “ I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’ The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him. It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord…for men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men ” (3:24-26, 31-33). Jeremiah knows that God is good. He underst...