Grains of Sand

Pixabay " Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, until each appears before God in Zion ." (Psalm 84:5-7) The story broke earlier this week on national television. Veterans in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia, would be denied the traditional prayer normally included in their Remembrance Day ceremonies. The school board felt that the absence of the prayer would make the ceremony more inclusive. Veterans were devastated. The decision was eventually reversed and called a "misunderstanding". ( https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/cape-breton-school-reverses-decision-to-ban-veterans-prayer-1.4665405 ) My initial thought at hearing the news report was this: "Funny, when other groups in the community celebrate their traditions no one would ever think of demanding that they cut out s...

Pixabay The psalmist cries: " 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 and meet with God? " (Psalm 42:1, 2). " Where can I go and meet with God? " is the cry of every seeker who is thirsty for what only an encounter with God can satisfy. And it is often "different strokes for different folks." The Samaritan woman who met Jesus at the well, did not get her thirst satisfied through traditional means. She wasn't welcome among the "righteous" folk. Nicodemus drank from the water of life in the middle of the night during a secret meeting with Jesus. Zacchaeus got his in the tree. The ex-demoniac tasted in a cemetery. God meets us where we are when our thirst is so urgent that nothing other than His life-giving water will do. A designated place is not critical. An attractive program is not essential. Glad-handing people are not vital. There is a ...

Pixabay, Public Domain “ The Lord is my shepherd…he leads me beside quiet waters… ” (Psalm 23:2  About a year ago, some friends and I were touring Alberta. We visited Athabasca Falls. The sound of the water is so loud you have to shout to make yourself heard. The speed of the water racing through the rocks down into the gorge is terrifying. At the top of the falls, just near the edge of those rushing, roaring waters, is a bench. On the bench is a small plaque. The plaque says that the bench is dedicated to the memory of a young man who got too near the edge. He fell and was swept over the falls and carried onto the rocks and down the gorge. The current was far too swift, the fall much too far, the rocks much too sharp for him to have a chance of survival. This is not the place a shepherd would take his sheep. The sound and the fury would scatter them in all directions. They won’t drink if the water is flowing too quickly. Sheep need quiet water. So a good shepherd loo...

openforum.com (Google Images) John the Baptizer had been arrested (Luke 3:19, 20). When Jesus heard about His cousin (Matthew 4:12), He and His disciples left Judea and headed back to Galilee. But He chose to return via Samaria. The Jews and the Samaritans didn’t get along, but Jesus was on kingdom business and had a visit to make with someone with whom most Jews would not even pass the time of day. They stopped at a well near Sychar. Jesus sent His disciples off to find food while He stayed at the well to rest—and to keep an important appointment. At noon, a woman arrived at the well. Normally women collected their water in the early morning or in the evening, to avoid the heat of the day. That this woman came at noon was a strong indication that she was not an accepted member of Sychar’s society. In any case, most Jewish men would not have spoken to her. She was a woman and a Samaritan at that. But Jesus wasn’t “most men.” He asked her for a drink of water and so began the co...

Google Images Last night I watched White House Down —for the second time. I had seen it on the big screen last year and when I discovered it was on television I decided to watch it again. Throughout the movie I found myself thinking, “This can’t be the same show! I don’t remember this!” Granted, my memory isn’t always the best, but honestly, though there were parts that I did remember having seen, most of it seemed new to me. But I also caught myself paying closer attention this time to the details. Perhaps in the back of my mind I did remember the story and now, months later, I had enough background tucked away back there to be able to focus on the nuances. Though there is a limit to the depth of most fiction, whether it be on the screen or in some other form, I would probably find something new in the movie should I ever watch it again. That same kind of thing happens when it comes to the Scriptures. This time we have a true story with depths that we can only begin to fathom. But...

Google Images Water. Ecologists warn that we are abusing it and that one day that abuse will come back to haunt us. In some parts of the world, lack of the vital resource has left millions of people struggling for life. It would be hard to drink too much of it, but most of us drink too little. We bathe in it, flush it, swim in it, and generally assume that it will always be there for us. Water is essential to life. Washing, to the Jew familiar with the law and the traditions of the religion of his ancestors, symbolized purification. It had always had a place in the practice of religion, from the cleansing rituals of the priests before they entered the holy places to the bitter water drunk by the woman suspected of adultery. Amazingly it took more modern generations a long time to realize just how important washing was to the prevention of disease and contamination. It wasn’t until the 1800s that physicians began to make the connection that the Bible had always illustrated through i...

Reading: Ezekiel 46-48, Revelation 1 Tedious. That’s what the journey seemed like until I got to Ezekiel 47. I have a colour-coded Bible that I use for my quiet time. The colours were all brown until I got to Ezekiel 47:9-12. Blue appeared, as blue as the water described in its verses. The description is of the restored city, shown to Ezekiel in a vision from God. In this particular chapter, the temple is the focus. As the chapter begins, Ezekiel sees a river of water flowing out from the temple. “ Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Great Sea. But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. Fruit trees of all kinds will g...