Grains of Sand

Google Images If there ever was a portion of the Gospels that testifies to the deity of Jesus Christ, John 1 is that portion. The writer begins with those famous lines, “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. ” One of the reoccurring questions that bubbles to the surface here and there on the otherwise stagnant pond of today’s church is, “How can I know God better?” The deepest desire of a believer ought to be a more intimate connection with his Creator, John, reported to be the disciple who had that connection with Jesus more than any of the others, tells us the secret to knowing God. “ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth...No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known ” (John 1:14, 18). To know Jesus is to know God. Those who say t...

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 ...

Has anyone ever asked you this question: “Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently?” Most of us can think of circumstances in our lives when, if we had known the consequences at the time, we would have made different choices. As I read Genesis 16 earlier this morning, I was impressed with yet another example of the grace and mercy of God. The story is that of Hagar, the Egyptian servant who was given by Sarai to Abram so that Abram could have the son that Sarai apparently couldn’t give him. When the deed was done and the servant became pregnant, Hagar gloated, Sarai fumed, and Abram ended up sending Hagar and the unborn child out into the desert to fend for themselves. Historically we know that from Ishmael sprang the Muslim nations (Genesis 12:8) who have been mortal enemies of the Jews, and just about everyone else, since then. This fulfills the prophecy of Genesis 16:12: “ He [Ishmael] will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be agai...

“ His anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning ” —Psalm 30:5, NIV. parallelism | ˈ par ə lel ˌ iz ə m| noun the state of being parallel or of corresponding in some way. • the use of successive verbal constructions in poetry or prose that correspond in grammatical structure, sound, meter, meaning, etc. This verse from Psalm 30 is one of those many biblical examples of parallelism. The difference lies in the perspective from which each phrase is written. “ His anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime ” refers to God. The second phrase: “ weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing in the morning ” refers to us. They are connected—they are parallel. They are the same statement from two different perspectives, though we don’t always apply them with that in mind. Our trouble often lies in separating the two phrases with more than a semi-colon. For example, we often use the secon...

“ May the words of my mouth and meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer ” —Psalm 19:14, NIV. The verse is a “grace” verse. Many of us have been trained since childhood to say a blessing before eating our meals. We often call it “saying grace.” I’m not quite sure where the name came from, since “grace” means “undeserved favor.” Of course, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the freedoms we enjoy, are all undeserved. Why should we be so blessed when others aren’t? So perhaps there is god reason to call it “grace.” But the food we eat is only a small part of life that needs to be “graced.” “Bless this food that we are about to receive and make us truly thankful” stands shoulder to shoulder with: “Bless everything I say today. I thank you for the ability to communicate. Sprinkle my words with kindness, understanding, courage and wisdom. May every word come from you.” If you are like me, that kind of prayer is usually reserved for those m...

“ And he said to man, ‘The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding’ ” —Job 28:28, NIV It is what it is. In the original Hebrew the word “fear” used here means: 1) fear, terror, fearing a) fear, terror b) awesome or terrifying thing (object causing fear) c) fear (of God), respect, reverence, piety d) revered There is no denying that there are some people who should be terrified of God. The difference in meaning; for example what makes one person terrified and another respectful, is the context. An unrepentant sinner should be terrified—he lives outside of God’s grace, teetering on the edge of hell. One who belongs to God through faith in Christ needs to treat God, and the things of God, with great reverence. Though he has no fear of judgment, no reason to be terrified in anticipation of being punished for his sin, his gratitude for the grace of God leads him to live as far away from what offends God as he can. Job’s words are a warning to sinner...

It's just a phrase, but in those few words lies a world of meaning. " But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us " —Romans 5:8 NIV. Two pieces of bread wrapped around a slice of meat. God loves us. Christ died for us. Then comes that phrase that so often gets missed: " While we were still sinners… " Think on that for a bit. God didn't wait until you, or I, were good enough to be worthy of being saved, or showed some kind of promise that made his investment in our lives a good one. From before the foundation of the world, he was prepared, and willing, to show us his love through the sacrifice of his own Son. Peter writes: " …you were redeemed…with the precious blood of Christ…he was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in this last times for your sake " (I Peter 1:18-20). There is nothing I can do to earn the grace of God. There is nothing I NEED to do to earn the grace of G...