Wheat field Banner

Gleanings From The Word

Category: Christian Living

  • Spawning salmon point us to God

    Spawning salmon point us to God

    Chinook, Pink, coho salmon at Weaver Creek

    Yesterday, Kathy and I took a little road trip. We visited the  Weaver Creek Spawning Channels and the Chehalis River Trout and Salmon Enhancement Facility. They were amazing.

    The Weaver Creek facility has 3km of manmade spawning channels, beautifully laid out for walking and viewing. Three species of salmon, sockeye, chum, and pinks, come here by the thousands to spawn and die.

    Every year, the salmon return to where they were born to spawn. No one yet understands how they know where to return.

    The salmon’s lifecycle is a miracle in itself. They are born in freshwater gravel beds and eventually travel downriver (often as much as 150 miles) to live their lives in the ocean. When it’s time to spawn, they return upstream in freshwater, overcoming a wide variety of obstacles, including waterfalls, to their place of birth.

    I found it impossible to stand there and watch the salmon without marveling at God’s incredible creative power and the beauty of what He has made.

    God has placed knowledge of their home into their hearts. In the same way, He has put a knowledge of our home into our hearts.

    In 1670, Blaise Pascal wrote,

    “What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words, by God himself.”

    When the Apostle Paul addressed the learned philosophers at the Areopagus, he said this…

    So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us. Acts 17:22-27 ESV

    Only God can truly fill that void in our lives. Everything else will fail.

    Praise God for the wonderful way in which we are made, and that He calls us to Him.

    Hallelu Yah (Praise God)

    Be blessed, 

    Kevin

    You might also like

    Wolves – a lesson from nature warning of false teachers

    The gospel the best news you will ever hear

    Why no one has an excuse.

  • A rockhound looks at the church

    A rockhound looks at the church

    two pails of rocket

    I love rocks. Since I was a small child, I have gone  through many phases of collecting and working with stones and minerals. 

    I can’t imagine how many shiny stones my mother must have dug out of my pants pockets on laundry days. If I’m honest, it can still happen today.

    Rock collectors range from the casual to the obsessed, from the small child bringing a few shiny stones home in their pocket to those who travel the world to collect the perfect piece.

    A collector might collect pieces that catch their eye while out walking. Someone else might spend vast sums of money purchasing rare and unique specimens. One person might bring home common pieces, while another might collect only a particular type. Everyone’s tastes and circumstances are different.

    I have found that rock collectors are very willing to talk about what they collect and often share their collections. I have had great conversations with perfect strangers on beaches, gravel bars, or even in the landscaped sections of parking lots about rocks. The rock bug seems to bite early in life and never goes away for most people.

    A conundrum for rock collectors (or collectors of anything else, for that matter) is “what to do with them when you have brought them home?” How do you display them? How do you make room for more?

    Of course, there will never be enough room. There will always be more or bigger specimens to collect. The variety of stone is virtually inexhaustible. Many are found in only one location worldwide. Others are common, but they come in an infinite array of colors, shapes, and patterns.

    Unlike a rock collection, there is a collection that is guaranteed to be complete in time. That is the church. I don’t mean the outward manifestation of denominations and groups, or buildings, or even the gathering of believers. I am referring to everyone throughout time that God has ordained to be saved.

    True believers are a gift to Christ from the Father.

    “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.” John 17:6-10

    If we are a gift from the perfect Father to his precious Son, we will not be lost. Everyone, from everywhere and in any era included in the gift, will be saved.

    God won’t be displaying us in a basket. We will be transformed into everything he made us to be and will be in His presence for eternity to come.

    He elected His followers before the beginning of time to complete His work in them.

    For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Romans 8:28-29

    Believers are chosen by a perfect God for a holy, eternal purpose. My piles of rocks might be pretty enough, but they will never compare with the wonder of the assembled, glorified church in the presence of their God.

    I can hardly wait to see it.

    Hallelu Yah (Praise God)

    Be blessed, 

    Kevin

    A bucket of rocks

    Why no one can say they didnt know

    Why read the Bible

    How was worship today? A matter of awe!

    Thundereggs – hidden beauty