Grains of Sand

Pixabay If memory serves, Michael Jackson tried to change the colour of his skin. That was probably the most extreme example during this present era of the measures to which people go in the constant search to feel better about themselves. The other example that comes to mind is the woman who underwent endless surgeries to make herself look like Barbie of the famous (or infamous) Barbie and Ken doll collection. On a smaller scale we "nip and tuck," cream and cover, make-up and dress-up, tone-up and touch-up, every flaw we think we see that keeps us from being whatever someone else has decided is handsome, beautiful, acceptable, marketable, relevant, or worthy of being taken seriously.  Then along comes someone like Jeremiah to expose, literally, the ugliness that really counts and the impossibility of covering that ugliness up at any price or by any means. The prophets spent a lot of time describing the consequences attached to the continual rebellion and disobedien...

Google Images Why would a man invite someone whom he despised to supper? Simon the Pharisee did just that. He invited Jesus to dine with him. But his feelings were clear from the beginning. The accepted custom was for the host to ensure that a servant washed a guest’s feet as he entered: to relieve him of the dust from the road and refresh him for the meal. Simon did not do this (Luke 7:44). Neither did the Pharisee offer a kiss of friendship when Jesus came into his house (7:45). Certainly he never honoured the Lord by recognizing him by anointing him with oil (7:46). The signs were all there. This was an inquisition not an invitation to dinner. But one lone woman messed it all up. How “ a woman who had lived a sinful life ” (7:37) got into Simon’s dining  room is a mystery. Mind you, God does move in mysterious ways so it is quite possible that she walked in because God ensured that she was invisible to doorkeepers and servants. Simon saw her and was incensed. Jesus saw her a...

" But go, tell his disciples and Peter... " (Mark 16:7). How do you feel, Peter, when you hear those words? Shame . Singled out because you know what you have done, the horror of it, and pain of it. Anxiety. Why are you separated from the rest of the disciples? Does that mean that you have been cut from the roster? Fear . What if the Lord is going to tear a strip off you in front of the men you have lived and worked with for the last three years, the men who looked on you as their lieutenant.  Relief . You hope this means that there is a reprieve at the end of this. You pray that there is forgiveness for your betrayal. A myriad of thoughts go through our minds when we know that we have failed the faithfulness test. To Peter was added the shame of having made a public promise to go to the cross with His Lord if had to. Instead he not only walked away physically but he walked away verbally as well. As public as his promise was, the betrayal was just as public. We know how th...

Only what functions perfectly can understand how terrible dysfunction is. If we think that dysfunction is a modern phenomenon, we are wrong. Dysfunction is as old as sin. Only perfection can feel perfect pain. You and I think we know what pain is, but if we were capable of feeling pain as God feels it, its weight would crush us underneath the load. God saw the dysfunction and felt the pain.   “ The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. ” (Genesis 6:5, 6, NIV) We are inoculated against dysfunction because all of us are, to one extent or the other, dysfunctional. We don’t fully feel the pain of sin because we are, saved by grace or not, sinners tainted by sin and still prone to a certain level of rebellion against God. But God sees it all and feels it all. There were exceptions du...

Genesis 4:23b, 24 “ I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.” Lamech was Cain’s great-great grandson. Considering how long people lived in those days it is likely that Cain was still alive when Lamech said these words. During his lifetime how many times did Cain tell the story behind his exile, and at what point did it get to be his parents’ fault, his brother’s fault, God’s fault? When did the story began to be about how he had been wronged and how justified he had been in killing his brother, Abel? From Lamech’s words we get the idea that there was no longer any sense of wrongdoing associated with murder. History somehow got twisted. On Cain’s part there was no acknowledgment that he had offended God, that he was wrong in killing his brother, that God was justified in the punishment that He meted out—in fact, merciful in the judgment He meted out in banishing Cain. All God go...