Grains of Sand

designyoutrust.com (Google Images) Someone posted on FACEBOOK this morning a thought that ended like this: “I believe even when God is silent.” That statement echoed through Psalm 42 as I read it. Listen to the writer’s words: “ As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Where can I go to meet with God?…These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng ” (Psalm 42:1, 2, 4). A hunger to meet with God is a good thing. But it appears that the psalmist’s hunger remains unsatisfied, even in the house of the Lord. He used to go up to the temple with anticipation, with joy, at the head of the “pack.” But not anymore. He is “downcast” (vs. 5) or depressed. He apparently isn’t sleeping well at night (vs. 8). He is sad, feels forgotten by God and is troubled by his enemies (vs. 9)....

Google Images Most people who are familiar with the stories of the Bible know about Gideon and his three hundred (Judges 7). In yesterday’s post I revisited Gideon’s call to lead God’s army against the Midianites (Judges 6). The reluctant warrior might have been encouraged by the thirty-two thousand men he had command of—though the Midianites are described in the chapter as “t hick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore " (7:12). After Gideon got finished counting to, say, sixty-three thousand four hundred and fifty-two, he may have had second thoughts about just how big his army really was! And then God said: “ You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength had saved her, announce to the people… ” (7:2, 3). Anyone who was afraid got to go home and Gideon was left with 10,000 men. Logically we would have thought that ten thousand men beating a much sup...

Google Images I woke up early yesterday morning—4:00 a.m. early. Rather than try to go back to sleep I went out into the living room to spend some time reading Scripture. I’m “between” reading projects so flipped open my Bible and read the first thing that appeared. It turned out to be Psalm 145. The approach of a new year always drives the mind toward thinking about the future. This coming year, 2014, will be a time of transition for me. How, when, and what, are the questions that arise when I think of what might be coming around the next corner. But even in my rather haphazard way of choosing what to read in Scripture, God sent His Word to me. Psalm 145:13b-16: “ The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made. The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. ” Psalm 145:19:...

Google Image In my Bible Romans 12:9-21 is titled: Love in Action . But one particular verse stuck out this morning among the many characteristics given that describe a believer “in love with Jesus.” Romans 12:12 says: “ Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer .” While all the other characteristics seem to have a here-and-now sense to them, these three also have a what-happens-tomorrow feeling. We hope something will be true, but we aren’t sure. Perhaps the present circumstances make things feel like our hope might be in vain. We get gloomy and depressed as hope fades. Paul tells us to turn our gloom into glory and our depression into dancing and be joyful as we hope for the Lord’s grace in whatever is yet to be. Affliction can be a present circumstance, but it can also be something to which we see no end. Because we understand that in this world we will have tribulation (John 16:33)—that’s a promise—we are to endure it with patience. There are lessons to be le...

Ask anyone. It is unlikely that there are many people on the planet who can't come up with at least one challenge that they are currently facing. Big or small, significant or not, there is always something. As Moses continues through his final discourse to the Israelites before he takes his final journey, he has some words of encouragement for the nation. Some might raise their eyebrows at that one since the instructions about obedience and faithfulness and the consequences of rebellion seem so prominent in the Old Testament books. But, yes, there are words of encouragement. As we start Deuteronomy 9, Moses reminds his audience about the report that had come back from the ten spies forty years earlier. These men had warned that there were giants in the land and were not at all excited about taking those giants on. Yes, admits Moses, these Anakites are big brutes (9:1, 2) living in strongly fortified cities. But God was bigger. " But be assured today that the Lord your ...

“ The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him ” (Genesis 40:23, NIV). That must have been a cruel disappointment. Joseph does the cupbearer a huge favour in prison and all he asks is that Pharaoh’s servant put in a good word for him when he gets released. After all, the man has the king’s ear. It’s easy to point a finger until I remember all the people I forget. That phone call to ask how someone is who has been sick or who is going through a difficult time. That email to pass along an invitation, or to connect with someone far away. That person I should have spoken to on Sunday at church. That letter or card I should have sent to remember a special day. That person who needed a visit but didn’t get one from me. That time with the Lord when He was waiting—and I didn’t wait. The passage doesn’t say that Joseph was disappointed, discouraged, hurt, by the cupbearer’s forgetfulness. Perhaps as a man of faith it didn’t bother him—much. But whether or not the...

Reading: Romans 15, 16 The book of Proverbs says that: “ Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life ” (13:12. NIV). Last night, Sidney Crosby returned to captain the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team after almost a year’s absence due to a concussion. I suspect he might have known something about “ hope deferred ” as the doctors and coaching staff held him off from playing in order to be sure that he was fully recovered. Watching his teammates play the game that is his life while he sat on the sidelines must have been a difficult experience. As I watched Crosby as the singing of the national anthem came to an end prior to the game, I saw him cross himself. Whether or not it has been his habit to stand with his head bowed and then to cross himself before every game, I don’t know, but every eye in the hockey world was on him last night. Was he grateful to God for that “ longing fulfilled ?” After a while a hope unrealized becomes an incredibly h...

Reading: Isaiah 25-27, Titus 3 I hesitated on this one because I don’t “feel” it. Intellectually I know it’s true. Even experientially, I’ve been in this place. But present reality seems more like a dark hole where, if there is a pinprick of light somewhere miles above me, it seems too impossible for its brilliance to penetrate the blackness. However, like prayer, you do it whether you “feel” like it or not. Because whether I “feel” it or not, the truth of the Word of God is still that—truth, absolute and unchanging. So here it is. For the most part these chapters from Isaiah are songs of praise—an odd hiatus in the middle of long passages of pronouncements of judgment. Mind you, there are still bits and pieces of sword slashes built in, but much of what Isaiah records in these chapters is encouraging stuff. Some of it has a tinge of “yet-to-be” (25:6-8) coupled with a touch of more immediate implications—God did restore the fortunes of His people after their sentence in exile...

“ Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness ” —Lamentations 3:22, NIV. Strange words from a man observing the destruction of everything that his society held dear. The name of the book, Lamentations, tells us the story in one word. This is Jeremiah’s lament over the devastation of a nation. Still, hope peeks out from behind the curtain of despair. Hope comes clothed in what the prophet knows of the character of God. “ I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’ The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him. It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord…for men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men ” (3:24-26, 31-33). Jeremiah knows that God is good. He underst...

“ Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, but I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God ” —Psalm 42:11, NIV. Do you remember the Charlie Brown character who always walks around with a cloud over his head? It’s dust, because he’s a dirty kid. But he reminds me, well, of me. There are times when no matter how well things are going, how blessed I might be, there always seems to be a cloud lingering overhead. It often goes nameless, not appearing to have an origin or a reason for being. It’s just there. Perhaps it’s the state of the world: evil run rampant, earthquakes, and friends going through hard times. Perhaps it’s an unfulfilled desire or a blocked path. Perhaps, I’m just tired and in need of some physical and emotional relief from the “day-to-day.” Sometimes, I’m sure, it’s an issue about which I need to get right with God. The psalmist turns his focus away from the cloud and directs it elsewhere. He tells his listeners to “hope...

Pity the poor prophets who had wonderful visions but probably never knew what those visions meant. If they did know, how disappointed they must have been not to see the fulfillment of those dreams. Daniel is lying down on his bed and God sends him a dream. Among the many fascinating things he sees, the most glorious must have been this: " As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated and the books were opened. Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. (The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, b...

Psalms 112-114 " Even in darkness light dawns for the upright… " (Psalm 112:4) This phrase grabbed me this morning as I read. I'm not particularly in the "dark" at the moment or, better said, my dark spots are probably only a shade of pearl gray. But still, God's colour blind in some ways; he provides light whatever the shade of gray and in the blackest darkness, only concerned with the need for light, not worried about the intensity of the darkness.  This week the darkness has intensified for others. A missionary friend lost her mother suddenly on Sunday. The news for another missionary/pastor is not good—if he survives he will never walk again. Suddenly, or slowly, the dusk falls and then fades to black. That's why this psalm shouted out to me this morning. The psalmist goes on to proclaim: " Surely he will never be shaken…he will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is secure, he will have no f...

Psalm 31-33 Yes, I'm waiting for my bagel to thaw out. Someone out there is already reminding me that a microwave works really well to look after these details in life. My problem is that I don't have a microwave—one of those things that hasn't quite happened yet in my process of setting up house again. So I have to wait. Waiting is not my strong point (haven't I said this before—and recently?). I have a sneaking suspicion that many of us suffer from the same disease. Nope, cross that word "disease" out. That's just an excuse for bad behaviour, like Tiger Woods' addiction to sex. I also suspect that our tendency to impatience has something to do with how many times in Scripture we are told to wait. Here's another one from this morning's reading: " We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name " —Psalm 33:20, 21 NIV. In spite of all our technology, the ...

Books have been written on the subject of suffering. Some people resign themselves to it. Others deny it. The devil gets blamed for it. Sin is thought of as the cause of it. We are encouraged to pray for relief from it. And the pharmaceutical companies make a profit on it. Paul reduces suffering to its bottom line. He writes in Romans 5:3, 4: " We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope ." Rejoice in suffering? Now there's a novel idea. My suffering is nothing compared to that of others. Nevertheless, when my hands refuse to work because of the pain, I fuss and fume. I seldom rejoice and thank God that they hurt. Paul would say that I was missing the point. He's right. Though suffering is a product of the fall, God uses it for his glory and our good—if we are willing to accept it as a part of our spiritual growth. Suffering is meant to be a "God-thing." I remember fond...