Grains of Sand

Pixabay “ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid .” (John 14:27) What kind of peace does the world give? Temporary. Treaties are made. Treaties are broken. Ceasefires cease sooner or later. Someone looks and lusts; conflict breaks out in the push and pull of political intrigue. Relationships sail along comfortably until the next storm. That’s not God’s peace. That’s not what Jesus promised as He approaches the epicentre of conflict—His world’s  need to be rid of Him. The political and religious leaders clamour for His death. He knows this. He knows what is coming—the maelstrom in the making. And He speaks of peace that nothing can disturb and tells His disciples not to be troubled and not to be afraid. It is not a peace conjured up by force of character. Jesus says He is leaving HIS peace with them—the inheritance of those filled with His Spirit. It’s permanent. It’s living, b...

Pixabay A long spell of brutally hot, humid, weather was broken last night. This morning, as I went out into the backyard to fill the bird feeder and deadhead the pansies, the cool breeze and absence of humidity after last night's cold front and rain filled me with a sense of well-being. As I sat in my office later a familiar verse came to mind that seemed appropriate not only to the weather but for the world in general. It comes from Acts 3:19 and dovetailed perfectly with my verses of the day from John 3. Peter, preaching to the crowd in Jerusalem exhorts them to: " Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord ." The oppression of sin, the guarantee of the fiery depths of hell, can be dealt with as forgiveness rains down, as the breeze of the Holy Spirit scatters the dying embers of all that holds us down and keeps us behind the fence away from relationship with our Heavenly Father. Repent...

Google Images The story of Samson is one of the most mysterious, inexplicable tales of God’s actions in the lives of men found in the Scriptures. It doesn’t take long before we understand that none of those in and through whom God chose to work, was perfect. And oftentimes we forget that the stories we ready of His actions are as much about those upon whom God’s judgment was to fall as they are about the instruments God used to deliver that judgment. Samson, who had been dedicated to the service of the Lord before his birth (Judges 13:7, 14), was God’s man to punish the Philistines for their acts of oppression against Israel: “ The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol ” (13:24, 25). We are hard put to understand some of the seemingly wrong things that Samson did. He was arrogant and disobedient. But the Lord did not leave him until the vow...

“ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth ” –Acts 1:8, NIV. Have you ever counted the number of times you’ve heard, or read, a message on this verse? We know it by heart, along with its interpretation. We’ve even tried doing it, each of us in our own little spheres of influence. They tell me I used to be quite the little evangelist in the neighbourhood where I grew up. Frankly, I don’t remember preaching to my chums on the street, or playing “preacher” to my doll pack. I remember taking courses on personal evangelism. Methods, programs, plans popped off the printing presses with frightening regularity even in my early maturity. Every one was better than the other, guaranteed to bring in the lost by the boatload–or so it was claimed. I did door-to-door visitation over the summer of my first student ministry assignment. That was another one of the great “mus...

“ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come ” —John 16:13, NIV. God doesn’t have more than one “story.” How often have we heard people say “Oh well, we all worship the same God” when confronted with a belief system that runs parallel (or opposite) to the truth of Scripture. Though there are many roads that could lead a person to faith, all those roads have to pass through the cross. During the last discourse that Jesus gave to His disciples, He taught them about the Spirit of God Who would shortly come to live in them. He prayed for their unity. He reminded them that He was the only way, the only truth, the only life. We don’t like to offend but neither should we deceive by allowing others to go on their way believing that any road leads to an eternal home. Faith alone is not sufficient to save—if it is faith wrongly placed. The Holy Spirit i...

Numbers 7-10 Everyone loves a sunny day. But clouds can be good too. Take the experience of Israel as an example. The people have received their instructions, the Tabernacle has been prepared, the priests and the Levites are set aside for their duties. Everything is set to go. All eyes are on Moses, the leader of this brave band…oops, all eyes are NOT on Moses. All eyes are on the cloud covering the Tabernacle. “ Whenever the cloud lifted fro above the Tent, the Israelites set out; wherever the cloud settled, the Israelites encamped. At the Lord’s command the Israelites set out, and at his command they encamped. As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. When the cloud remained over the tabernacle a long time, the Israelites obeyed the Lord’s order and did not set out. Sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle only a few days; at the Lord’s command they would encamp, and then at his command they would set out. Sometimes the cloud stayed from evening till ...

I'm running a few days behind because, well, I'm running. The demands of this week have been super overwhelming but I couldn't pass up this verse coupled with a quiet Sunday morning. " If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever " —John 14:15, 16. I have an ongoing debate with one of the ladies in my Bible Study group about self-proclaimed Christians who show absolutely no signs of belonging to Christ (I guess you know from my use of the word "self-proclaimed" what I think on the subject!). Jesus is extremely clear about how to discern if someone is what they proclaim themselves to be. The person who truly loves Him, ie. a genuine believer, will obey Him. Sure there will be slips into the muddy puddles of sin, but for a follower of Christ those will be more exception than rule. This is a theme that Jesus amplified throughout those last moments with His disciples be...

Just as we take the long way around a puddle in our path, we shrink back from looking too closely at some bits of truth. We don't want to be harsh, or judgmental. We look at our own lives and admit that we struggle and don't always succeed in being all that God meant us to be. How can we point a finger when doing so means there are several pointing right back at us? All truth needs to be walked through, not walked around. " The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks " —Luke 6:45. Just prior to this verse comes another, reminding us that a good tree doesn't produce bad fruit. The lesson? If the man acts consistently like a pagan, that's what he is—a pagan. Harsh? Yes. But truth is like that. A Christ-follower will struggle, but therein lies the key: He struggles. He may not always succeed in being Christ-...

What looks like one thing often turns out to be something different when seen in its context. That's true with this well-known verse of Scripture: " Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened " —Matthew 7:7, 8. And everyone rushes into God's presence with his wish list. Since Jesus used an illustration about food to describe God's perfect responses to this prayer, we immediately think material things when we claim this verse. But context is everything. In Luke's Gospel, these verses are summed up this way: " If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! " (11:13). Holy Spirit? What's He got to do with food, clothing, financial security, health, job opportunities—all the things o...

I'm a do-er, not a wait-er. I want things done yesterday. I want answers right now. Patience defies me, which is why God continually tests me in that area. I hope his efforts to make me a patient person aren't a lost cause. Intellectually, I know that they won't be, but every day I give thanks that He is perfectly patient with me, even when I am not perfectly patient with Him. Just when I think I might be making progress, I slip and fall again. So this morning's reminder was an appropriate one. "'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the Lord Almighty." —Zechariah 4:6. It's not that " might " and " power " aren't good things—after all we have to make an effort. It's that, in the end, we have to understand that God is the One who puts all the pieces together according to a perfect timetable. It is the Lord who works according to a perfect schedule. It is the Almighty who makes everything happen as it should,...