Grains of Sand

PIxabay Perhaps it was because yesterday was such an extremely windy day here in southern Ontario, that these lines from As You Like It repeated themselves over and over in my head all day: Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind as man's ingratitude... I confess I don't remember even studying Shakespeare's play in which these words appear, but the lines are engraved in my brain nonetheless. I wonder if Jesus ever felt what William tried hard to express? He lived among an ungrateful people. Their ingratitude was, at least in part, why He had come to dwell among men in the first place. As the sinless Lamb of God, sin repelled Him. But it also drew Him toward sinners so that He could deal with that sin and restore fellowship between His Father and all of us who had rejected His loving favour to follow other gods. But those to whom Jesus came rejected Him as well. Despite that He tells His disciples in Luke 6: "... Love your enemies, do good t...

Every year I haunted the garden centres in Caracas looking for one special flower. It appeared only sporadically. The florists called it “nardo,” which would be translated “nard” or “spikenard” in English. The buds had a slight pinkish tone but the flowers, once opened, were pure white. I would take the bunch home, put it in a vase and wait. It never took long for the scent to invade every nook and cranny of the apartment. It is the most beautiful, and powerful, scent I have ever had the opportunity to enjoy. Spikenard originates in the Himalayas, and from it was made the rare and highly prized perfumes of the East. It is part of the Honeysuckle family of which my Venezuelan nard is a branch. When I was growing up we had a Honeysuckle bush outside our back door. The scent in the Spring when the tree was flowering was delicious. It was the spikenard of the East that is described in Mark 14:3 and John 12:3 as being poured out on Jesus. This event was included in our pastor’s sermon las...

Pixabay Remember...generosity. Several times a year my father would come home from work, eat his supper, don his one-and-only suit and leave the house for an hour or so. This was unusual because my father generally only wore a suit on Sundays and to weddings and funerals. When I was a kid I remember asking him once where he was going. He smiled his conspiratorial smile and said, "To see my girlfriend." It was sometime later that I discovered that his "girlfriend" was a nurse and my father a regular blood donor! He gave blood until they finally told him that they couldn't allow him to give any more. Why he needed his Sunday suit to give blood was something I never really figured out, though I suppose he thought that what he was doing was important enough to merit his best foot forward. Dad didn't have much of this world's treasure, but what he could give he gave freely, consistently and happily. You see, generosity isn't just about money. ...

Google Images Now that the Tabernacle has been built and all the furnishings put in place, it is time for God to give Moses detailed instructions on the activities that are to take place in and around the meeting place where God will presence Himself among His people (Exodus 40:34-38) when they are not on the move. Leviticus 1 describes the procedure for the burnt offerings. Depending on the capacity of the supplicant, various offerings could be made: a bull from the herd, a sheep or a goat from the flock, or a dove or a pigeon for those who were very poor. The animal or bird was to be a male without defect. But it is the picture given to us in Leviticus 1:3b-5a that made me pause this morning. “ …He (the supplicant) must present it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting (the Tabernacle) so that it will be acceptable to the Lord. He is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. He is to slaughter the young b...

Google Images It was an expensive gesture. Just two days before His death, Jesus reclined in the house of Simon the Leper. We can assume that Simon wasn’t a leper any longer, but he isn’t the focus of the story. As Jesus sat at dinner with His disciples, a woman came into the room. She might not have been noticed if she had been a servant in the house, intent on putting down some delicacy before the guests or filling up their cups. When she broke open the flask she was carrying and poured its contents on the Lord’s head, we can almost imagine the collective gasp that filled the room along with the scent of perfume. I was traveling from Lahore to Shikarpur, Pakistan. As we landed, the man sitting beside me opened his briefcase, took out a bottle of cologne and doused me with it. Honestly, I had showered and to this day I have no idea why he did it! In this story from Matthew’s gospel, Jesus made the reason behind the woman’s actions abundantly clear. “ She has done a beautiful thing...

Google Images How precious is it? “ The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it ” —Matthew 13:44-46 Did you promise God everything when you first came to faith? Do you sing “all I am, all I have is yours”? Now, after the fact, and after the stirring worship of a Sunday morning, is He really a treasure in whom you have invested everything? Ambition. Leisure. Time, Money, Sports. Friends. Family. Hobbies. Business. In these parables from Matthew's Gospel, nothing was held back. Jesus warned His audience to “count the cost” BEFORE they built (Luke 14:28). Jesus challenged the ruler who came looking for a cheap entrance into the kingdom with the very thing that stood between him and the door—and the man wa...

Google Images When Jesus was betrayed, he was taken before the priests to be judged. John 18:14 has this to say about one of those men: " Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people ." Little did he understand the significance of what he said. Some men die as they have lived—selfishly. But only One man died to make it possible for every other man to live. THE POTTER The cart lurched, throwing Abel off his stride. He stumbled but kept his grip on the shafts between which he walked. He pulled to the right, willing his shallow crate on wheels to slide as easily out of the rut as it had sliding in. Romans tax us to death and they can’t even fix the roads . How often had Abel heard his father mutter that complaint under his breath as he had carted earth back to their hovel? Well, the old man was gone and now it was his son’s turn to haul the rusty-red dirt. With the cart now securely back on the t...

Tucked away in the heart of an "Easter" kind of message about sacrifices and salvation comes this little Christmas gem: " Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: 'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings your were not pleased. Then I said, Here I am–it is written about me in the scroll–I have come to do your will, O God' " –Hebrews 10:5-7, NIV. The writer imagines the heavenly conversation; Jesus assuring his Father that their wills were in perfect harmony, that he was about to take on a baby's soft and vulnerable skin to set aside the old system of continual and ineffectual sacrifices in favour of what is described just a few words later as: " And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all " –Hebrews 10:10, NIV. God prepared the body of that child. Jesus put aside the rights and privileges of the ...

Three lessons about salvation back to back. THE STORY OF THE PHARISEE AND THE TAX COLLECTOR (Luke 18:9-14) The Pharisee counted on his works to get him through the door to the kingdom. He was totally unconscious of the inadequacy of his self-righteousness. But the tax collector knew what he was: " God, have mercy on me, a sinner " – Luke 18:13b, NIV. Lesson: Salvation comes to the sincerely repentant heart who sees himself as God sees him. THE STORY OF THE LITTLE CHILDREN AND JESUS (Luke 18:15-17) The disciples didn't see in the children what Jesus saw. He rebuked his followers for denying access to those who most showed the attitude that we all need to demonstrate. " . . .anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it " –Luke 18:17. Some people believe that Jesus is referring to the innocence of a child but the Scriptures clearly state that no one is innocent and no one is justified by his own "goodness....

What pastor would have the nerve to tell his people that if they wanted to cruise through the Christian experience, they should go and join the church down the street? Apparently there is at least one, and his church is full of people who are working their passage rather than sitting on the deck basking in the sun. As I began reading in Ezra yesterday I was reminded that if the church were a vessel, it would be freighter not a cruise ship. The Lord has moved the King of Persia's heart to allow some of the captive Israelites to return to Jerusalem to rebuild. Notice the telling little phrase: " Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem " —Ezra 1:5, NIV. Anyone could have gone, but only those whose hearts God had moved would have volunteered for the "blood, sweat, and tears" involved in reparation of the disaster that had been left b...