Who Is He

The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength,
in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
Psalm 18:2

King David was a man of war, so at times entire armies were out to get him. However, he felt safety and security in the LORD. The many titles above showcase the defensive nature of God to protect and comfort His people. The shepherd-king felt strong, even invincible, knowing the LORD was his stronghold. 

During the middle ages, strongholds actually became an offensive weapon with the development of castles. If a nation wished to invade another, they would often build a fortress deep into enemy territory at some strategic crossroad or elevated checkpoint. Since fewer soldiers were needed to defend a stronghold than to attack it, the invaders could build two or three new castles while the enemy was busy with men and material besieging the first. Little by little a nation would be overrun.

Satan builds strongholds of sin in the minds of men and women. Even Christians feel the effect of this evil influence that only becomes stronger the longer it is permitted to remain. The devil has many blueprints of internal fortresses of influence, just to mention a few: fear, anxiety, sexual impurity, addictions, bitterness, and deceit.

Only Christ has  power enough to demolish them. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4). Believers are given arms and armor to engage in spiritual warfare such as the word of God, faith, the gospel, truth, prayer, and assurance of Salvation. But more importantly than anything else, Christians must feel the comfort and security of their own Strong Tower.

The Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the believer’s fortress and rock in time of trouble. Church and Christian fellowship are certainly helpful but it’s only the Savior that will make the devil flee (James 4:7). “The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him” (Nahum 1:7).

November 12

But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 15:20

I really enjoy growing a garden and I’m not even sure why. Most years, my actual harvest is miserable and the other years I get nothing at all. I’ve had my garden trampled down by boys playing hide-and-go-seek at night and normal 110 degree Kansas summers are very hard on vegetables. When I do get a tomato plant to flower and produce fruit, I do everything I can to see that it reaches maturity. I go out every day and watch the tiny ball slowly getting bigger, then finally turn pink. I know that soon and very soon, I’ll be able to pick and eat that very first tomato. I don’t even like tomatoes that much, but it is more than the realization of my work, time, and anticipation that results in a harvest of satisfaction. It’s the joy of seeing fruitfulness.

Over the years, I’ve been able to strike terror in the hearts of my sons, so they know that the very first red tomato is Papa’s. They can have any and all of the rest, but that first fruit is mine.

When God brought the children of Israel into the Promised Land, He made it very clear to them that the Land was His. They could use and enjoy it, but they were to bring Him an offering of the firstfruits every year. God gave them the land, the rain, and the increase, so the first part of every harvest was God’s.

It was an act of faith to give God the firstfruits, because once given, there was no guarantee that the rest of the crop would be harvested. A hail storm or plague of locusts could destroy all the rest. However, obedience was the best guarantee of God’s blessing and to not give God His portion was stealing from the Almighty.

Jesus is the Firstfruits of those who would be resurrected from the dead. Christ is dedicated to God and serves as a harbinger (promise of good things to come) for believers who are awaiting the resurrection from the dead and eternal life.

November 11

The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ — He is Lord of all—
Acts 10:36

“All” is such a little word, but it sure includes a lot of stuff. It has just three letters, one vowel, and one consonant, yet it contains everything out there (rocks, trees, butterflies, and bees; planets,  pumpkins, peanuts and people; sun, moon, stars, and galaxies; matter, energy, ideas, and the vacuum of space). Come to think about it, “all” is actually a very big word and Jesus Christ is Lord of All.

“Lord” is the chief, leader, president, king, emperor, potentate, jefe, head honcho, and person in charge. So if the Son of God is Lord of All, He’s over everywhere, everything, and everybody.

The context reveals that this was part of a message given by the Apostle Peter in the house of a centurion named Cornelius. At that time, Jewish people and Gentiles didn’t mingle and accepting the other’s dinner invitation was unheard of. So Peter had to explain what was happening. Since Jesus is Lord of All, He’s not the God of the Jews only, but of everyone in the whole world. That meant that the apostle felt compelled to leave his comfort zone and share the Savior cross-culturally.

Christ is not just the Redeemer of white, middle-class Americans, He came to seek and to save the lost no matter where they live. Arabs, Bedouins, China men, Dutchmen, and Eskimos all need to know the good news of sins forgiven and eternal life through faith in Jesus. That’s hard, because it is sooooo politically incorrect to share Christianity with those that are obviously non-Christian.

We live at a time when Radical Islam makes no apologies for trying to convert everyone to their religion through murder and intimidation. I, therefore, shouldn’t feel guilty or amiss for wanting to win the world with the love of Christ who is Lord of All. 

November 10

For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
Romans 14:9

Not long ago, I saw a bumper sticker that read “Union Members Vote!” Soon after that, I saw another one declaring “Christians Vote!” One bumper sticker I’ve never seen is “Dead People Vote!” although that also seems to be true.

After every election there are stories and editorials that reveal how many deceased citizens cast ballots. Although their bodies are no longer around, it seems that their political voices are not defunct. Actually, what is happening is a form of voter fraud where a living person votes in the name of someone they met in the obituaries.

Legally, dead people can’t vote because the law says they have ceased to be; they no longer exist. Actually that’s not true. They’ve just become non-residents, which also makes them ineligible to vote.

The true essence of a person is his/her soul and spirit. They are real, but can’t be measured or weighed. They aren’t bound in a physical body which can be seen, because they don’t have mass and form. That body eventually wears out or breaks down, but that person’s everlasting soul remains even after the body is buried. That spiritual person moves on to “the place of the dead” (i.e. Hades, Sheol). State, local, and national governments don’t have jurisdiction there, but order and authority are still very evident.

Christ Jesus is the Lord of Both the Dead and the Living. He reigns over the dead, because He’s gone through death, established residency there, and conquered it. He is the undisputed Lord of all that have gone before.

It is safe to say that many more dead people acknowledge Jesus as Lord than the living. Living souls worship other gods or things more than the Master Creator, but one day that is all going to change. At the final Judgment day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of Both the Dead and the Living.

October 31

Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace
always in every way. The Lord be with you all.
2 Thessalonians 3:16

Stress – Comes from rush hour traffic, crying babies, whining toddlers, ungrateful teenagers, and nagging spouses. It compounds as bills increase, the work-load becomes heavier, and the tyranny of the urgent becomes oppressive.

Anxiety – The fear of not knowing what comes next; the unease that stems from all the negatives of the status quo, and the worry that things won’t get better; they’ll only get worse. Oh-oh, here comes the panic attack.

Frustration – Knowing what I want and not knowing how to get it. Sometimes it’s even not knowing what I want, but knowing that, whatever it is, I don’t have it.

Depression – That sense of hopelessness, heaviness, and weariness and feeling all alone. It’s sitting for hours in a dark room and not doing anything except fighting a battle of ideas in the mind.

Nightly News – Poor economy, unemployment, racial tensions, scandals, wars, terrorism, unrest in the Middle East, famines, epidemics, and this year’s storm of the century.

Humanity cries out for peace, but there is no peace. The world wants problems to go away, but that doesn’t bring peace, because more problems just come to take their place.

Paul prayed that the Thessalonian church would experience the true peace that only the Lord of Peace could give. That peace would cover every category mentioned above and would last always.

The Lord Jesus wears many titles, but when all the little and big things of life get us down, we need to approach Him as the Lord of Peace. Christ gives peace to those who need it. He owns it. He’s the boss of peace. Where the Savior goes, peace has to follow.

So let stress, anxiety, frustration, depression, and the nightly news be put on notice. If you all come around to bother us, we’re going to call directly on the Lord of Peace.

October 29

For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:11*

Reinforced concrete makes up the majority of modern  foundations. In ancient times, people dug through the top soil until they got down to bedrock. Jesus explained in His Sermon on the Mount that those who got down to the solid rock were wise, because storms and winds won’t bring down their houses. It’s the lazy people that have no foundation. They don’t put the effort into making something that will last. Their houses won’t stand the test of time, proving them to be foolish.

The Lord Jesus is the spiritual foundation of every believer and it’s the nature of foundations to be built upon. Everyone builds their lives on some kind of worldview. If a person has a philosophy of life that lives for the moment and has no concept of God, judgment, or eternity, then it’s as if they had a foundation of sand and their destruction is sure, although maybe not immediate.

Belief in Christ and the Word of God opens potential for greatness that endures forever, but that’s only if faith expresses itself in action. Faith without sweat equity is like a big slab of concrete without a building on it. The Apostle James put it this way, “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17).

In God’s eyes, obedience, fervent prayer, meditation on His word, worship, and dedication are comparable to building materials made of gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Corinthians 3:12-13).

When a Christian has the Savior as his sure foundation, but his life is composed of incomplete obedience, hypocrisy, and materialism, it is like building a ramshackle shanty made with cardboard boxes and sheets of plastic on a footing made for a skyscraper. The wasted life results not only in a great loss of reward for the believer at the judgment seat of Christ, but is a terrible insult to the Son of God who laid down His life to become our Foundation.

*see also Isaiah 28:16; Luke 6:48,49; 1 Corinthians 3:12; 2 Timothy 2:19

October 28

… To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.
Daniel 9:24

Sometimes in the Old Testament it is difficult to determine if a title of God is referring to God the Father or if it is actually a prophesy of the Christ who was to come. This time it’s not hard at all because it is a part of Daniel’s seventy-weeks prophesy. This section is actually the only place in the Old Testament where the title “Messiah” is given (Daniel 9:25,26  KJV and NKJV) and in the verse above, the One who is called the Most Holy is anointed.

Conditions in an operating room must be nearly 100% sterile. To arrive at that condition, antiseptics and antimicrobial devices are used to kill bacteria on surfaces and in the air. These things are not only sterile, they also make everything around them germ free.

Anything that is holy is free from sin. Since the term Most Holy is superlative, it must be more than 100% sinless and is able to sanctify whatever it touches. In the Old Testament, the phrase refers to things that were used to atone for sin. The inner part of the Sanctuary (1 Kings 6:16) and the bronze altar and its utensils were considered most holy (Exodus 40:10). The priests who interceded for sinners were set apart for service to God and the sin offering and other offerings made by fire were most holy before God (Leviticus 6:17).

All of these Old Testament images are nothing more than types and shadows of God’s Anointed, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. He is the Most Holy of all the most holy things that were ever used for atonement. With His one and only sacrifice on the cross, He was able to make an end of sins, make reconciliation for all mankind, and bring everlasting righteousness to the earth.

October 27

Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
John 10:7

Sheep herding was a poor man’s business at the time the Bible was being written. It was labor intensive but required low capital investment. Starting with just two sheep, a flock could be built up over time and equipment was minimal. The rod and staff were nothing more than short and long sticks and the sheepfold could be made out of rocks. Israel has an abundant supply of rocks which are everywhere in the desert, so stacking them to form walls is not difficult. On the other hand, lumber to make a door and hardware to make it open and close cost money, so that was generally left off. The shepherd would sleep at the narrow entrance to the pen and would in fact become the door of the sheep.

With the shepherd at the opening, the sheep couldn’t wander away at night, but more importantly, wolves and bad guys couldn’t get in to hurt the sheep. Everything had to pass by way of the keeper of the sheep. That gave the flock a sense of security and discouraged the predators, because the shepherd usually kept a camp fire going and his two sticks could poke or hit them.

As Door of the Sheep, Christ cares for and defends His flock. All the spiritual sheep must enter through the door and be recognized as a member of the flock. In the first century, flocks were generally small, so shepherds could recognize their own charges and often had names for each one. Jesus knows each of His followers and interacts with every one. It is also extremely comforting to realize that nothing bad can happen to a believer that doesn’t first pass through the Savior. If Christ allows it, then the Christian can be assured that the strength and patience to overcome the trial will also be there. Jesus is more than just the Good Shepherd; He’s the Door of the Sheep.

October 26

‘Now if a sojourner or stranger close to you becomes rich, and one of your brethren who dwells by him becomes poor, and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner close to you, or to a member of the stranger’s family, after he is sold he may be redeemed again. One of his brothers may redeem him.
Leviticus 25:47-48

…knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
1 Peter 1:18-19

This  important name of Christ is very clear and observable in the original Hebrew but is a little hard to grasp using only English translations of the Bible. Although it takes some effort to fully understand this title, the effort is well worth it.

In the oriental law of kinship, the gâʼal (literally “next of kin”) was required to buy back a relative’s lost property, marry his widow, rescue him from harm, or avenge his death. Abraham acted as gâʼal when he rescued Lot and his family from the four mighty kings of the East with only 318 trained servants; and Boaz was Ruth’s gâʼal, marrying her and restoring her land.

The role of the kinsman-redeemer is well-established in the Hebrew scripture with the word gâʼal appearing 71 times. We miss this in English because there is no direct translation. Gâʼal sometimes is translated as Kinsman, redeemer, redeem, relative, close relative, deliverer and even six times as “avenger of blood.”

As a “Friend that Sticks Closer than a Brother,” the Lord Jesus has become our Gâʼal. He is our Deliverer from the powers of the devil, sin, and death and  restores us to the close relationship with the God that Adam lost in the Garden of Eden. He redeemed us from the slavery and self-destruction of sin and adopted us into the family of God. As Kinsman-Redeemer, Christ sought us, bought us, and fought for us. He is our Gâʼal. 

October 24

 “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are — the Holy One of God!”
Mark 1:24

It might seem obvious, but I’ve learned a lot from my twenty year study of the titles of Christ. What started as a challenge to find a name of the Lord for every day of the year ended with a deeper love for and fellowship with my Savior. I also discovered things that I never heard preached on before and I never knew were there. One example of this is insight I’ve gotten from the “demonic titles.”

Sometimes when Christ healed the sick, He also cast out demons and a few of those carried on a conversation with Him. They addressed Jesus of Nazareth by name without any formal introduction, because they knew who He was. After all, He cast them out of heaven before the foundation of the world.

The thing that surprised me about the demonic titles is that they all speak truthfully of who He is. The evil spirits address Him as Christ, the Son of God, and even the Son of the Most High God (Luke 4:41, Mark 5:7), but they never called Him Lord or Savior. The title Holy One of God was never spoken except by fallen angels as if it were a phrase they heard in heaven before Satan rebelled against the Lord of Hosts.

I find it interesting that demons never insulted the Son of God nor made disparaging comments about Him as did His human adversaries. Christ’s dissenters called Him Beelzebub (Matthew 10:25), a Samaritan (John 8:48), and a glutton (Matthew 11:19), not knowing the condemnation they were laying up for themselves. “But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves” (Jude 10).

The demons not only knew who Christ was, they knew that their punishment was ready to be handed down and they begged Him not to cast them into hell before their time. Although condemned and without hope, they appealed to Him on the basis of who He is: the Holy One of God.

October 25