Grains of Sand

Jeremiah was known as "the weeping prophet." The situation facing his people was a dire one and the message from God that he was called upon to deliver to them was not always encouraging. He wept because of the sin that had brought about God's judgment and because of the pain that God's judgment would cause. But here and there throughout the prophet's message were words of hope, the assurance that the day would come when God's people would be exactly that: God's people, people who would follow Him wholeheartedly once again.  Jeremiah 50:4, 5 gives us one of those rays of hope: "' In those days, at that time,' declares the Lord, 'the people of Israel and the people of Judah together will go in tears to seek the Lord their God. They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten .'" In the Old Testament Zion re...

Reading: 1 Thessalonians I realized something the other day. If I videotaped my teaching sessions, and made my handouts into a book, I’d have more credibility with some people. For the most part, the only difference between what I do and what the bulk of the gurus of the modern mentoring/discipleship/Bible Study crowd is a skinny shining disc, and a publisher’s name on a book spine. Today I also learned a new word ( http://www.jewelsofencouragement.com/2011/12/lets-hear-it-for-opuscule.html ). It’s opuscule . My spell checker doesn’t recognize it as a word, but it is. Opuscule means a minor or small work, literary or musical . I do a lot of opusculating in the literary sense–lots and lots of minor works. I’ll never have a CD and no publisher is going to come looking for me. But none of that is the bottom line of life. What is that “bottom line” is Paul’s prayer for the believers at Thessalonica as recorded for us in 1 Thessalonians 3:12, 13, “ May the Lord make your love i...

Reading: Galatians 1-6 “It isn’t any of my business.” No one like a busybody. We don’t appreciate people meddling in our affairs, telling us what to do, or what not to do. Because of our aversion to those kinds of people we easily develop a “live and let live” policy. It uncomplicates relationships, makes life a whole lot less messy, and gives us the freedom to do as we want without the expectation of being confronted with our own moral and ethical faux pas. The trouble is that such an attitude is anti-biblical. Oh I don’t mean to say that being a busybody is biblical, but sometimes minding our own business can be. Paul’s letter to the Galatians is mostly a clarification of works versus grace. But when he gets to the end of the letter he targets those who claim grace as a license for sin (5:16-21) telling his readers that those who truly are Spirit-filled, resist the old habits that once characterized them and replace those old habits with the fruit of the Spirit as describ...

“ Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting ” —Psalm 139:23, 24, NIV. This chapter began with the psalmist’s recognition that God knows everything there is to know about him. When he asks at the end of the psalm for God to plumb the depths and discover even more, the psalmist is not doubting all that he has said earlier. He is admitting that he doesn’t knows himself as well as God does. He wants God to show him those things that only God sees—the areas of the psalmist’s life that have defied not only public scrutiny, but the psalmist’s own. We all have things in our lives that aren’t pleasing to God. Sometimes they are nameless and elusive, niggling in the backs of the our minds and hearts where we can’t quite put our fingers on them. With that heart’s desire to have everything in us in submission to God, we ask Him to go digging in our garbage, not because He doesn’t k...

“ He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes out of the mouth of the Lord ” —Deuteronomy 8:3, NIV. As Moses led the escapees from Egypt across the wilderness, they were faced with one of the many teaching points that God had in store for them. He let them go hungry. You would think that after all the miracles that God had done to get this newly formed nation out of captivity that he wouldn’t have forgotten the grocery list. But he did—on purpose. Then, when the Israelites realized that the supply of even their most basic needs depended on   God, and not on them, he sent them manna to satisfy their hunger. That lesson would be relearned every single morning of their lives as they travelled in the desert. We often question why God allows us to “hunger.” This hunger isn’t always wrapped in the need for a hamburger and fri...

I always have choices. My problem is that I don't always make good ones. Though it is of some consolation to know that I'm not alone in my my struggle, I also benefit from knowing that, by God's grace, I can do better at decision-making. In 1 Corinthians 9:27, Paul writes about beating his body into submission. His great "fear" was not finishing his service for Christ well. He reminds his readers that even those most blessed by God can fail to make wise choices that glorify God. As 1 Corinthians 10 opens, the apostle uses Israel as an example. They had everything going for them and blew it. The consequences were huge: " …their bodies were scattered over the desert…some of them…were killed by the destroying angel " (10:5, 10) Then comes the admonition: " These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us" (10:11) For most of us, the blessings of God on our lives are abundantly evident. In spite of all those wonde...

I avoid conflict. All those neat, little quizzes back up my claim. Unfortunately, God never meant me to leave unresolved issues hanging between me and another Christian. To help me overcome my reticence, the Lord provided a formula for reconciliation, three simple steps to follow. 1. Even when the other person is at fault, I am the one who needs to go personally to seek resolution (Matthew 18:15). 2. If my brother, or sister, is not willing to listen, then I need to try again but this time with the help of one or two others who will be witnesses to the problem and the impasse that exists between us (Matthew 18:16). 3. If this second step doesn't bring about resolution, then I need to ask the church to intercede on our behalf (Matthew 18:17). If this step fails, it is assumed that the person involved is not a believer at all and is to be treated as such. Even heaven can't release me from the chains of unresolved conflict if I don't do my part: " I tell you the truth, wh...