Grains of Sand

I just received a box of business cards. I know, what does a retired person who has no business need with business cards? I might be a victim of good advertising—or at least persistent advertising—but I did it anyway. I didn’t order 500 as was suggested—I’m not quite that foolish—I’ll be dead and gone before I ever gave away that many! But while I was designed my card, I had the option of putting something on the back side of it. Three words came to mind and here they appear again in my verse for today. “ Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always .” (1 Chronicles 16:11) In the context in which this verse was recorded, David is celebrating the arrival of the ark in Jerusalem. The verse is part of a song of praise (16:8-36) written to remind the people of God just Who this God is, and all that He has blessed them with as a nation. It is well worth the reading, and the singing—you can make up the music as you go along—I’m sure David won’t mind if you change his melody a li...

Traditionally in Ireland, January 6th is known as Little Christmas. It is also widely known in the rest of the world as the Feast of the Epiphany. It is the traditional end of the Christmas season. In some parts of the Spanish-speaking world, Christmas Day is strictly religious, and gifts are exchanged on the feast of the Epiphany. I didn’t know what Epiphany meant until just this week. This date represents the appearance of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi. The Jews were expecting a Messiah, but they were NOT expecting that their Messiah was also coming to provide a means by which the Gentile world could also enter into the Kingdom of God. While Mary and Joseph were fulfilled their obligations in the temple in Jerusalem, it is likely that just a short distance away, King Herod was fuming as he sat in his throne room waiting for some foreign visitors to the region to return to him with news about a so-called newborn king. After the birth of Jesus, several strange...

Reading: Mark 4, 5 It caught my attention this morning how often Jesus told people not to talk about the miracles He had performed for them. The book of Mark is the shortest of the Gospels and the writer squeezes a lot of the highlights of Jesus’ earthly ministry into relatively few chapters, making the journey a particularly intense one.   The shortness of the book makes the Lord’s instructions not to talk about His miracles that much more pronounced. Of course, He didn’t want the demons He cast out of people (Mark 3:12) to talk about Him—who needs that kind of publicity? When the miracles were public there wasn’t much He could do about the crowds reaction. His fame became so great that He had difficulty getting into the towns without attracting a huge following (Mark 1:45; 3:7-8). Where He could, He asked those who benefitted from His miracles to limit who they spoke to about them (Mark 1:43-44; 5:19, 20, 43). I asked myself why Jesus didn’t want His miracles to be broad...