Grains of Sand

Psalm 76-78 The theme for last night's session at our study was angels, how they worship and how their worship impacts us. Angels worship day and night, and it's easy for us to say: "Sure, they're angels and don't have to deal with the mess that my life is in right now. How can I be expected to praise God under these circumstances?" I quoted Psalm 34:1 where David says: " I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. " Considering that David was on the run from Saul, keeping company with the dregs of society, in the foreign land where the king also wanted to be rid of him, having to pretend he was insane to escape death, etc. etc., I'd say his attitude of continual praise was pretty significant. Well, we might say, David was a special case. I'm not him either. This morning I read through Psalm 77. This is one of Asaph's psalms and I was impressed by his solution to the: "how-can-I-praise-God-when lif...

" Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. '" —Hebrews 13:5. In the present economic crisis, thinking about money is the stuff of everyday living. It's a good thing the Scriptures don't tell us not to think about money; we'd be hard pressed to manage an instruction like that. This particular verse from Hebrews reminds us not to love money for money's sake. In other passages, like that of Matthew 6, we are told not to be anxious about the supply of our most basic needs. Instead, we are to put God first and watch Him take care of all of our necessities. The writer to the Hebrews reminds us to not be anxious, AND to be content. But it's the last statement that struck me this morning as I read it. Not being greedy and being content with what we have is based on something other than the "power of positive thinking". " …God has sa...

Up to this point in Jesus' famous sermon, the disciples probably figured that the theme didn't have much to do with them. The majority were fishermen. They had no "treasure" as far as material things were concerned, so focusing on the Kingdom was easy—well, until they thought about the cost of the commitment they had made to their Rabbi. Just a little while earlier, Jesus had taught them His prayer. In that prayer appears the phrase: " Give us today our daily bread " —Matthew 6:11. I imagine that this immediately sparked some chaotic thoughts in the minds of the men who had left their livelihood behind them to follow Christ. In the euphoria of the moment, they might not have not thought about how their families were going to survive without that income. That phrase in the prayer was a reminder of who they were dependent upon to meet those needs. But Jesus knew that His followers would have moments of anxious concern about the practical realities of life, so ...

When does providing for your family turn into an obsession with more? When does making a living become living for the making of that living? Jesus is almost brutal in this statement in Matthew: " No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money " —Matthew 6:24. We tend to focus on the word " money " in this verse, but perhaps we would have a better understanding of what Jesus is saying if we considered these words: " serve ," " love ," and " devoted ." Those words should only apply to our relationship with God. When they apply to our relationship with the world, then we are in big trouble. Then we have not only divided loyalties, but only one loyalty. And wherever those words apply is where our " treasure " is stored (See yesterday's post). The Lord isn't saying that making a living and loving God, a...