Grains of Sand

The trouble with Hebrews—though “trouble” is perhaps not the right word—is that each chapter is so rich in material that it is difficult to choose what to focus on, and impossible in a blog post to cover it all! To extract just a little piece seems tantamount to desecration. So I urge you to become a student of the Word yourself and read the rest of the chapter so that you can feel the richness of the teaching. The tendency today is for people to look for a word FROM God rather than learn from what He has already given—the Word OF God. There is no further revelation other than what the Scriptures give us. Don’t be fooled by cheap imitations. Hebrews 2:8b, 9 (ESV) says: “ Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace...

Reading: Zechariah 9-11 “The Lord their God will save them on that day as the flock of his people. They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown. How attractive and beautiful they will be!” (Zechariah 9:16, 17a, NIV). I come from mining country and though I have never worked underground (or on the surface for that matter), I have been on enough tours of the mining operations in our area to appreciate that you simply don’t walk in and grab a gold bar and walk out again. You have to move a ton of rock to get a bit of gold. The physical effort and danger involved in hard rock mining just to produce a few ounces of gold is incredible. To the north of us diamond mines are being developed. Like gold, miners don’t just walk in and grab a few relatives of the Hope Diamond, sparkling and pure, from the ground. Gold, diamonds, and all other precious metals and jewels, are produced at tremendous expense and sacrifice. God redeemed His “jewels” at tremendous cost to Himself. The d...

Reading: Hebrews 7 After explaining the earlier reference he made to Jesus becoming a priest as had been Melchizedek (see previous post), the writer to the Hebrews describes why Jesus is a superior priest. The old system with an inherited priesthood limited to the tribe of Levi and attached to the Law, was not perfect. And its imperfections and limitations prevented it from meeting the people’s need for restoration and reconciliation with the God against whom they had sinned. When Jesus came, the perfect answer to the dilemma came with Him. “ Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people, He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law appo...

“ Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it’ ” –Matthew 16:24, 25, NIV. The Lord Jesus has just finished calling Peter a “ stumbling block .” That was the politer of the phrases Christ used to describe His passionate but mistaken disciple. The Lord was getting into a habit of announcing His coming death and Peter couldn’t stand the negative talk any longer and took it upon himself to “correct” the Lord of the universe. After the stinging rebuke, Jesus turns to all His disciples with this word. Basically if they are serious about following Him, their path must take them all the way to the cross. They will need to sacrifice everything for Him just as He is sacrificing everything for them. This is not: “I just want you to be willing to do it. I really won’t ask you to carry out your promise.” This is for s...

Today is Monday Manna , hosted by our wonderful Joanne at An Open Book . Be sure to check it out. The passage Joanne chose for today is Numbers 6:24-26: " The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace " (NIV). As I thought about the "triplicity" of the blessing, (it's all about the Lord) my eyes wandered to what precedes it in Numbers 6. The rest of the chapter is all about the procedure of becoming and of unbecoming a Nazarite, or a person who is fulfilling a vow before the Lord by separating or dedicating himself, or herself, to the Lord for a period of time. There were strict rules to follow for the person involved. When a Nazarite had complete the vow he had made to God, he went to the Tabernacle and offered a male lamb, a ewe lamb, a ram, and other sacrifices, to the Lord. Then he was free from his vow. Though Jesus was not a Nazarite, I mentally co...