Grains of Sand

Pixabay, Public Domain There are so many meaningful pictures in Psalm 23. But perhaps the first part of Psalm 23:6 is the greatest. “ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life… ” (KJV) Life is not good or merciful a lot of the time. So what is the shepherd telling us here? In the world of the Old Testament, lambs were destined for slaughter, especially those bred on the hills outside of Jerusalem. From their perspective, if they had one, life was not good or merciful. Their end was as a sacrifice on the altar in the temple. Lamb after lamb, year after year, decade after decade. Then came the Great Shepherd Who, strangely enough, was also the last lamb required to go to slaughter. John the Baptist introduced his cousin, Jesus, with these prophetic words: “ Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world .” The writer to the Hebrews notes: “ …we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all…by one sacrifice he m...

Exodus 28, 29 is a tedious read There are some passages in the Old Testament which many of us avoid simply because they seem totally foreign and totally irrelevant. You might be able to make an argument for that except for one “small” detail—God made sure that the information was recorded for us as part of His infallible Word, as part of the “ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness , so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work ” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17, emphasis mine). Exodus 28, 29 (in case you really don’t feel you can manage the perseverance to read it yourself) is all about the special clothing the high priest and the other priests were to wear in the performance of their duties, and the ritual surrounding their consecration as priests in the service of the Lord. “Special” hardly seems to sufficiently describe these garments. Exodus 29:29 says: “ Aaron’s sacred garments… ” or as the ESV pu...

“…There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord .” (Genesis 12:8b, NIV) Abram didn’t built altars everywhere he went. It seems he skipped those places, like Egypt, where he shouldn’t have been in the first place (12:10ff). That would make perfect sense. But in all the places that the Lord took him, the patriarch’s first order of business was to build an altar. There at the altar he praised God and offered himself and that place to the Lord. stock.xchng photo I got to thinking about all the places I go. Do I build an altar when I arrived in the office? Do I build an altar when I enter the grocery store? Is there a dentist’s altar, or a bank altar, or a library altar? Of course I’m not talking about the physical pile of stones that Abram would have constructed, but do all the places I go become places of praise and commitment? Can I sit in the hairdresser’s chair and thank God for that place and commit it, the experience, the hairdresser, and myself to...

The clay jar from Venezuela arrived in Canada slightly the worse for wear. A chunk of the spout didn't survive the trip. As I read this morning's reading from 2 Corinthians, I remembered the jug. As what we know as 2 Corinthians 3 closes, the Apostle Paul writes: " And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit " (3:18, NIV) Paul is adamant throughout his writings that we, as believers must cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the renovation process that began at the moment we came to faith in Christ. Being declared holy because of Christ's redemptive work in us, now demands that old habits be laid aside to make room for the characteristics of Christ. However, in 2 Corinthians 4, Paul acknowledges that believers are very much like my clay pot and that being so is not entirely a bad thing. He writes: " But we have this treasure...

"Nobody's perfect!" comes the cry of the masses. And we all know just how true that is. Even if we didn't tend to take frequent critical looks at others, an honest look at ourselves would soon reveal the painfully, yet truthful, tale. Nobody is perfect. Facing this painful truth can led to discouragement and even to thoughts of throwing in the "holiness" towel and resigning ourselves to mediocrity. Perhaps that was why Paul adds this note to his letter to the Thessalonian church: " May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ " —1 Thessalonians 5:23, NIV. This little book is dotted with tidbits about holy living and it's easy to forget in the midst of the instructions to be holy that such a project isn't fueled by our own efforts. A car without gas doesn't go far. In the spiritual realm, the fuel that provides the impetus...

They say that there is always a family resemblance. The nose, the eyes, the chin, something always gets carried over from one generation to another. According to Paul, family resemblances are carried through beyond the context of moms, dads and grandparents. He writes in 1 Corinthians 15:49: " …just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. " Oh boy, can I relate to the first part of the phrase! I'm really earthly. The good part is, that because of the grace of God, the seeds of that " man from heaven " are firmly planted. Day by day, bit by bit, victory by victory, his likeness replaces the earthly one. And one day, the rest of the promise will come about: " …we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of nan eye…For the perishable must clothe itself in the imperishable, and the mortal with the immortal…thanks be to God. He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ " —1 Cor...