Graves' This and That

I well remember holding baby boys closely, rocking, and singing to them as a part of the nightly regimen, and especially while taking the last bottle for the night.  Many times, I sang with them as they rocked in their rocking chair or even fell on all fours, and rocked back and forth.  Because I am not very creative, I used the same song, but changed the name to fit the son.   Reading through Zephaniah, I always love verse 17 from chapter 3.  It always amazes me that God, Sovereign of Heaven and Earth, Glorious, and Majestic would simply sing over me!  I thrill at the fact that He is in my midst, that His love quiets me, and that He rejoices over me...GRACE, but to just imagine in my mind's eye that He hovers over me or maybe sits beside me in the night and sings over me.  I can't help but wonder, what song does He sing over me?   I understand that in context, this was a promise to Jerusalem, and yet, the same love and care is shown toward th...

Pride is so seductive, secretive, and at times, subtle.  It shows up outwardly as inferiority, insecurity, sometimes bashfulness, timidity, or fearful.  We give it several names as it outward flashes like a neon sign.  It often poses as a mere weakness or frailty, but the real culprit is PRIDE.  We seek to control, conquer, complete, compare, and connive.  When any behavior, attitude, or thoughts gives off the aroma of  "it is all about me, my feelings, my hurts, my expectations of others, my thoughts, my behavior when I asked to account for my words  and am offended", yulp, PRIDE as again reared its ugly head and is ready to build a beachhead in my heart or mind.   Especially today, I was reading in 2 Chronicles 26 about King Uzziah and how he had a heart to please the Lord,  and the Lord even blessed and prospered him.  When he was strong, Scripture records in verse sixteen, he grew proud, to his destruction.  He even becam...

As I read Acts 4-5, I wondered as I eyed the phrase "and great grace was upon them all", what would that look like?  The passage does give some hints:  of those who believed were of one heart and soul and even as they looked at their belongings, they claimed nothing as their own but had everything in common.  What an attitude!  Out of that attitude, they were willing to give and then needs were met when distributed among the people. Tragically, our culture encourages us to look at our belongings, hold them closely to ourselves in closets, storage even air-conditioned sheds, bank vaults, etc and seek to get more and more!  If that same attitude of being of "one heart and one soul" (kardia: the seat and center of human life) as a Christ follower was practiced first by myself, would that be infectious enough to draw hearts to be willing to hear about the Lord Jesus and give validity about what I am sharing?  To be of one heart and one soul suggests that I no...

The Oregon events are a mirror of the events that have taken place multitudinous times throughout this new century on school campuses, college campuses, in churches, and in homes in the USA.  These practices have occurred in the nations throughout the world also. As a parent, what are we missing in the lives of our son or daughter that we are shocked and wounded when lives are taken by the choice of the son or daughter and we do not even know their hearts?  Are they so distanced from us that we are unaware of their pain, their questionings, or their separation from us emotionally?  I wonder when does the estrangement take place?  Over a period of time?  An immediate decision?  Being a retired teacher, I know their is some brokenness in education and in us teachers, but we cannot bridge the gap which is there in the home, the environment where the child is supposed to thrive mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  I am shocked what is NOT...

As I read Jonah this morning, I am amazed at his blatant and obvious rebellion thinking that he could find a place away from the presence of the LORD.  He was very determined not to give mercy, grace, and the great news to Nineveh that God was going to judge them and that they could repent and receive mercy and grace from God.   I thought what are some ways that we have a tendency to think that we can go away from the presence of the LORD?  Sometimes, the running away is not always as obvious as Jonah's distance.  Can the going away from the presence of God manifest in the thought life and to run away be vicarious ?  The going from God's presence in the mind only?  How long to entertain the thought?  At what point is there recognition of the sin of rebellion?  It seems that Jonah was experiencing a duplicitous/double-souled mindset:  that he could run from God and yet profess that he feared the LORD, God of heaven.  How often do w...