Grains of Sand

Pixabay It's not the milk's fault! I don't know when it happened but somewhere along the line the "perfect food" became imperfect. Milk used to be considered that "perfect food". I remember one choir tour that took us to a farming community in Eastern Ontario. The ladies of the congregation prepared and served lunch for us in the church basement after the morning service. It was a full meal, a banquet in fact. Part of any meal is a beverage, and milk was one of the items offered that day. I took the milk and I seriously doubt that what I drank was ever touched by anyone but the farmer from whose cows it came. It was the real deal. It was sooooo good! What appears in our stores today is not that. And while what we drink might be so altered as to no longer be "perfect" perhaps the problem is not the milk so much as it is the drinker. We are an altered people, contaminated by the world we have contaminated—tit for tat. But thi...

cutestpaw.com (Google Images) Louloubelle has taken a liking to drinking water out of the bathroom sink. It's a bit of a nuisance when I am trying to wash my face in the morning! But hey, if you're thirsty, you're thirsty, right? If we are thirsty, we look for something to drink. If we are hungry, we look for something to eat. If we are tired, we look for some place to take a nap. We know what to do when we have a physical need. We are not always so smart when it comes to that deep, gnawing emptiness that comes with spiritual need. Perhaps, unlike hunger or thirst or weariness, we think, “going without” spiritually won’t hurt us. Or, we think that a weekly intake on Sunday morning is sufficient—if we get there. According to statistics, only 25% of evangelical Christians read their Bibles daily. A whopping 86% of Canadians never read the Bible. The latter number shouldn’t be all that surprising. But that 75% of Christians don’t think it’s important to be reading the Sc...

stpatselkhorn.org (Google Images) It used to be that one of the signs of old age was loss of hearing. I say, “used to be” because many people have suffered loss of hearing early in life due to the excessive level of noise they have been exposed to, levels that were not the experience of earlier generations. In any case, the question that arising from today’s reading is “How’s your hearing?” Jesus has just told the parable of the sower to His audience (Matthew 13:10-23; Mark 4:10-25; Luke 8:9-18). On the heels of that teaching He reveals to His circle of disciples what the parable means. The parable itself is all about the Word of God and how well, or how poorly, people hear, understand, and respond to it. Changing metaphors, Jesus then said that, like a lamp on a table, the light than comes from the Word of God is to shine brightly. Everyone should be exposed to it, but not everyone will understand the meaning of its brilliance, even when they have been exposed to it. He ends with ...

Google Images The honeymoon, if there ever was one, is over. In John 6 we learn that many of those who had been following Jesus, began to move away from him (John 6:66). The miracles couldn’t hold them and His teaching had become too demanding and too offensive. As we begin John 7, we discover that even in His own family Jesus had little credibility. It appears that his brothers (Mary and Joseph had had children after Jesus’ birth) thought that all this “campaigning” that Jesus did was simply a craving for notoriety. As the date for the Feast of Tabernacles approached, when huge crowds would gather in Jerusalem, his brothers encouraged Him to go. “ Jesus’ brothers said to him, ‘You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world’ ” (John 7:3, 4). We might think that they simply wanted to enhance His ministry by broadening i...

Google Images It’s amazing how many things we experiment with in our quest to find satisfaction in life. Since I woke up this morning the words of this worship song have been running through my head: KNOWING YOU All I once held dear built my life upon All this world reveres, and wars to own All I once thought gain I have counted loss Spent and worthless now, compared to this (Chorus) Knowing you, Jesus knowing you There is no greater thing You’re my all, you’re the best You’re my joy, my righteousness And I love you, Lord Now my heart’s desire is to know you more To be found in you, and known as yours To possess by faith what I could not earn All surpassing gift of righteousness Oh to know the power of your risen life And to know you in your suffering To become like you in your death, my Lord So with You to live And never die. (Graham Kendrick) By the time Jesus ended His discussion with the crowds that had followed Him, recorded for us in John 6, many people decided that knowing...

Google Images So far, the gifts to give to the Lord in honour of His birthday are: a return to my first love, faithfulness in spite of difficulties and purity. But there is one more gift from Revelation 2. This time it comes in God’s message to John for the church in Thyatira (Revelation 2:18-29). Heresy was a huge problem back in the early days of the church and Thyatira was not exempt. The message from the Lord to the church specifically mentioned a prophetess by the name of Jezebel who was leading people astray through her teachings. The church in Thyatira remained strong and the Lord commended her for it: “ I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that now you are doing more than you did at first ” (Revelation 2:19). But in the next breath, John drags out the accusation. The church remained strong for the most part, but was tolerating Jezebel’s presence and teaching (2:20). The Lord issues a warning about what is going to happen to both the so-...

The walls are up and people are settled in. Nehemiah calls a general assembly " …made up of men and women and all who were able to understand " (Nehemiah 8:2, NIV) and Ezra, the teacher of the law, enters the picture once again. Ezra begins to read the Law of Moses. From daybreak until noon he reads. And everyone listens. They worship. " They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read " (8:8, NIV). Here, in just a few statements, is the essence of the ministry: Assemble, worship, read and understand the Scriptures. This moment in history kicked off days of celebration in Jerusalem. But it is interesting to note that Nehemiah had to order the people to celebrate because when they heard the Word of the Lord read the reaction was not one of joy. " …all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law " (8:9, NIV). No explanation is given except to say tha...

Google Images On one of the many spin-offs of the original Star Trek series, there appears a race, the Ferengi, that gets extreme pleasure out of having its ears rubbed. I wonder if they ever read Paul's letter to Timothy? Paul warns his son in the faith, " …the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hea r" (I Timothy 4:3, NIV). Back in the days of King Ahab, human nature wasn't any different. I Kings 22 records for us the last major incident in Ahab's life. He had made a pact with Judah's King Jehosaphat, to fight against Aram. Before going to battle, Jehosaphat insisted that they consult a man of God to find out what the Lord had to say about all this. Ahab had plenty of "prophets" around him who told him exactly what he wanted to hear—they rubbed his ears—but the King of Judah was not decei...