Dragons, John and Every Grain of Sand
Dear reader, I submit this essay with considerable uneasiness because I do not want to appear to be boasting. My thoughts reflect my response to God’s ever-surprising grace.
On February 22, Monday evening, I had the privilege of preaching the inaugural sermon for Ozark Christian College’s annual Preaching-Teaching Convention. The theme was Unveiled, and all of the sermons were based on the Book of Revelation. I was asked to preach a sermon based on Revelation 1. My goal was to use the first chapter as a way to introduce the major themes of the last book found in our New Testament. The title I gave to the message was “Dancing to the Lyrics of the Lamb,” and I wanted the folks to understand how John challenges us as disciples to remain faithful to the Lamb. I pray that it was a night in which God was honored by what I preached.
At the end of the service, Shane Wood, an alum of our seminary, former research assistant of mine, member of the staff at OCC, and a student currently working on a PhD in New Testament in Edinburg, Scotland, announced to the assembly that he was editing a book that would contain special studies on the Book of Revelation. What took my breath away was that the book was going to be published in my honor later this year. He then presented me with a plaque and a list of the contributors: Craig Blomberg, Paul Boatman, Oti Bunaciu, Craig Evans, Gary Hall, Fred Hansen, J.K. Jones, Paul Kissling, Brian Lowery, Yulia Lubenetz, I. Howard Marshall, Matt Proctor, Mark Scott, Jeff Snell, Carmen Trenton, Tony Twist, Neal Windham, and Shane Wood. Some names will be recognizable to you, some will not be. I know all of them. They are former teachers (either directly or through their writings), classmates, and students.
What unites them all is their love for Jesus, their commitment to the study of the Word, and their love for wedding serious study with service in the Lord’s Church. They hail from our country as well as from Austria, Canada, Romania, Scotland, and Ukraine. Some are presidents, others are professors, still others preachers and teachers. But all follow the Lamb. I have been blessed by their influence in my life over the years, and I pray that whatever they write will be a blessing to you and bring glory to the Lamb. And I thank them for their gift.
I remain stunned this Thursday morning as I write this piece. But before I finish, I must share with you something about the title of the volume. You certainly understand the references to the dragons and to John, but what is the meaning of “every grain of sand”? Bob Dylan wrote a song with that title many years ago, and it remains my favorite song of the hundreds he has written and of the hundreds I have heard him perform. Let me quote some lines from memory:
In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need,
When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed.
There’s a dyin’ vice within me, reaching out somewhere,
Toiling in the dangers and in the morals of despair.
Don’t have any inclination to look back on any mistake,
Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break.
In the fury of the moment, I can see the Master’s hand,
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand.
I gaze into the doorway of temptation’s angry flame,
And every time I pass that way, I always hear my name.
Then onward in my journey, I come to understand,
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand.
This is not the time to offer an analysis of the song, so let me offer this one observation: as we experience the failures and frailties of life may we always remember that God remains God, and our submission to his will is our way of expressing gratitude to him for his saving grace.
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