Month: September 2024

And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
John 20:28

“Doubting Thomas” earned his nickname honestly. He asked the Lord serious questions when he didn’t know the answers (John 14:5), and He followed Christ sincerely, believing that he was the Jewish Messiah. But when he saw his Master crucified and was overcome with grief, he lost it: He lost his faith. Nothing made sense to him anymore. All his assumptions and expectations were dashed to pieces, and he wanted to be alone.

The resurrected Lord only appeared to believers. He appeared to the women at the tomb, the ten apostles in the upper room, and two disciples on the road to Emmaus. He didn’t show himself to Pontius Pilate, the Roman soldiers that crucified Him, or the Sanhedrin. They had rejected the Lord of Glory, and they would not be forced to believe.

Jesus, however, made one exception. He appeared to Thomas. A week after Christ first appeared to the apostles, Thomas was in the upper room and he really wanted to believe but couldn’t. As soon as he saw the risen Savior, he fell on his knees and cried out, “My Lord and my God!”

Over the years, I’ve had many young people tell me they have “given up” their faith. Actually, just like true salvation can’t be lost, true faith can’t be given up. In any case, these doubters now want to shed their Christian beliefs. Many have been active in church youth groups or counselors at Bible camp, but they have somehow become disillusioned by some aspect of Christianity.

My heart really grieves for these spiritual drop-outs, and I pray for them continually. The bottom line is that Christ never became their Lord and God. My prayer for them is that they can be honest with themselves and sincerely desire to make their faith real. At that point, Christ will make Himself known to them in such an unmistakable way that they drop to their knees and confess Jesus as their Lord and their God.

September 6

But the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King.
At His wrath the earth will tremble,  And the nations will not be able to endure His indignation.
Jeremiah 10:10

On September 9, 2015, Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom became the longest-reigning female head of state in the world, displacing Queen Victoria, who reigned 63 years, 216 days. Sobhuza II of Swaziland holds the record for male monarch at 82 years, 254 days. A little better-known is King Louis XIV of France, who sat on the throne for 72 years, 110 days. In 1830, King Louis XIX of France became the shortest-reigning sovereign with just 20 minutes on the job.

Over five millennia of human history have seen world leaders and their governments come and go, none ever reaching a century of being figurehead of their domain. Christ will outshine them all when he rules 1,000 years on earth, after the Anti-Christ is destroyed. Then, He’ll reign in heaven as the Everlasting King.

Some might argue that this title is referring to God the Father and not the Son. To clear that up, one would only have to go to 2 Peter 1:11, which says, “for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Simple logic then concludes that, if the Son of God has an everlasting kingdom, He must be the Everlasting King.

Living forever without having to go through destructive campaign cycles, political attack ads, regime change, revolutions, coups d’état, wars and rumors of wars, it must be heaven. True paradise will not have injustice, corruption, or oppression. This certainly was impossible when men and women ruled the world, but is very obtainable under Christ.

Hail King Jesus! – the Everlasting King!

September 9

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
Colossians 2:9-10

During the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas proposed a system of angelic hierarchy in his book Summa Theologica. He developed and elaborated on an idea first suggested by late fifth century Theologian, Pseudo-Dionysius. Aquinas’ aggrupation of celestial beings included three levels, or “spheres,” each with a triad of angels.

Highest Sphere: Heavenly Counselors
1.     Seraphim (listed from highest to lowest)
2.     Cherubim
3.     Thrones

Middle Sphere: Heavenly Governors
1. Dominions
2. Virtues
3. Powers

Lowest Sphere: Messengers and Soldiers
1.     Principalities
2.     Archangels
3.     Angels

Aquinas based his hierarchy roughly on Colossians 1:16 and Ephesians 1:21. He mentioned the Cherubim guarding the tree of life, as well as Isaiah’s, Ezekiel’s, and Apostle John’s descriptions of the throne of God. Although the Roman Catholic church today still holds these levels of angelic authority as church doctrine, there is little in actual scripture to support this belief.

Although interesting, angelology is not elaborated on much in the Bible. However, one thing is very clear: Jesus Christ is God. In His body was the fullness of the Godhead. He is the Head of all Principality and Power, and anything else anyone wants to add to the list.

September 4

And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a
living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
1 Corinthians 15:45

Before we can understand the Last Adam, we must have a clear understanding of the first Adam. Adam was the prototype of God’s greatest creation. Unlike the animal kingdom, the first human was a spiritual being capable of language, reason, emotions, and discovery.

The engineering put into the human was amazing. The components of the physical structure consisted of several inter-dependent systems that caused the creature to move, turn raw materials into energy, increase in size and abilities, as well as make more of the species. Each body system was composed of microscopic, self-replicating parts called cells that could repair themselves when damaged.

If the hardware was fantastic, the software was even more so. Designed to be in the spiritual image of God, Adam #1 could love, show empathy, have original thoughts, and solve complex problems. More amazing yet was that he was capable of devotion, holiness, and fellowship with God. Placed in the perfect environment, Adam and all his future generations were designed to never die. However, there was one flaw.

As long as there was no temptation, everything worked perfectly. But as soon as there was an opportunity to sin, everything fell apart. Take all temptations from people today and the human condition improves greatly.

Since a perfect world no longer exists, the Last Adam, Jesus Christ, came in to fix the problem. Being both God and Man, the Savior became the mediator between Adam’s race and the Holy God.

In dying on the cross for the sins of men and women, the Lord became a substitute replacing mankind’s broken relationship with God with the perfect fellowship that He had with the Father. Through faith in the Crucified One, believers are accepted in the Beloved and the age old problem of sin is finally fixed. The flaws of the first Adam are done away with and the world is offered a free, eternal upgrade through the Last Adam.

September 2

For there is one God and one Mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 2:15

With all the titles that affirm the deity of Christ, it almost seems that the Holy Spirit felt it necessary to bring us down to earth and remind us that Jesus was also a man. He had dual citizenship. Existing before the creation of the world, He was clearly divine, but having been born on planet Earth, He was also human.

Although He was born at a time when there wasn’t the myriad of bureaucratic regulations of today, every aspect of Christ’s humanity was documented. Jesus had a birth certificate.

Mary and Joseph made the 80 mile trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem to register for the national census. When they got there, Mary was in labor, and the job of having a baby took precedent over everything else. By morning, mother and Child were resting, so Joseph was able to take care of official business. He would have registered Jesus as his firstborn on that very first Christmas day.

Jesus was also given a death certificate. When Christ died on the cross, Pontius Pilate asked the centurion to confirm that Jesus was, in fact, dead. That fact being established, the governor wrote an edict to authorize His burial.

The life of Christ was historically documented. The Romano-Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, confirmed the existence of Jesus of Nazareth in his history book written in 93 A.D.

Christ Jesus is the perfect Mediator between a Holy God and the sinful human race. He is the only begotten Son of God, so the fullness of God was evident in His physical body. The Lord was like us in every way, yet without sin, so He became a natural bridge between God and people; He could only do that because He was 100% God and 100% Man.

December 3

   …who is the head — Christ — from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part
does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Ephesians 4:15,16

The scripture portion above is actually a small part of a very long, complex sentence that lasts for six verses and goes on for 158 words. The theme of this section (Ephesians 4:11-16) is spiritual gifts, however, there is too much material to cover in a short devotion, so I’ll focus on the most vital; I’m going for the Head.

The Church is like a body that is made up of many different parts and doing a variety of jobs. All are necessary, and every member needs each other. Christ is the head of the body. Without Him, nothing would be coordinated and nothing would get done. Heads come in all shapes and sizes, but they all do the same thing – command and control the rest of the body. Even the most primitive of animals has a head. At first, the lowly earthworm seems like it has two tails, since it’s missing eyes, ears, and a nose. However, about a half an inch behind the mouth on a night crawler and inside the animal itself is a tiny structure, smaller than a pinhead, called the cerebal ganglia. If that is removed or even damaged, the worm becomes brain-dead. It can’t move or do the things worms do.

The pastor, the bishop, or the president of a denomination is not the head of the Church; that is Christ’s job alone. When each member is in tune with the leading of the head of the church, everything works together and great things can be accomplished. When the connection is cut off from the head, the body is essentially paralyzed and begins to die. This is usually the problem when the church is unable to move forward.

“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power” (Colossians 2:9-10).

August 29

But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and
gracious,  longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.
Psalm 86:15*

King David viewed the Lord as the strong and powerful God who taught his “hands to make war” (Psalm 18:34), but He was also the God Full of Compassion who forgave him of his terrible sins. David certainly feared the Lord, but even when he faced the wrath and judgment of God for his willful transgressions, the king knew that God would not utterly abandon him if he cried out to the God who was filled with compassion and mercy.

This God that David knew was almost totally forgotten by the children of Israel by the time Jeremiah began to preach. The prophet begged the people of the nation of Judah to humble themselves and repent so that God could hold back His wrath and show them mercy. They refused, so the promised judgment did fall and the nation was destroyed. Only a small number escaped because they were taken captive. God is compassionate, and yet He judges sin. These dual attributes are hard to understand, so Christ was sent to be a clear and understandable object lesson.

Jesus saw the poor and downtrodden and reached out to  them. He fed the hungry, healed the sick, and raised the dead. But the problem is that people still get hungry the next day, or fall victim to any one of the thousands of diseases on another day. Even the resurrected just live to die again. Since Christ was truly God Full of Compassion, He dealt with the core issue, the sin problem.

People need to totally get out of this sin-cursed world and into the presence of holiness, but that is not going to happen if they take their sin with them. For that reason, Christ took on Himself the sin of the world so the sons and daughters of God could take on His righteousness. Now, when believers finally leave this planet, they can go to a place where they will never again be hungry, get sick, or face death, and they will live forever with their God Full of Compassion.

*see also Psalm 111:4

August 28

Simon Peter answered and said, “You
are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Matthew 16:16

“Denotation” and “Connotation”: Two words that are throw-backs to high school English class. The first is the dictionary meaning of a word, and the second is what it means to the people who hear it.

Technically, the word “Christ” means “anointed one.” It could refer to any prophet, priest, or king who had oil poured on him, but it especially referred to the Jewish Messiah who held all three of these positions.

When Jesus asked His disciples who they thought He was, Simon Peter just blurted it out, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Peter wasn’t giving the theoretical or politically correct definition of Christ; he was calling it as he saw it.

The Lord Jesus is the one and only Son of the living God, yet He adopts people into His family to make them children of God. It is hard to understand why, but faith accepts it as a miracle of love and grace.

C.S. Lewis once said, “The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.” What does that mean, exactly? Each word can be defined and analyzed, but that is no guarantee that someone will really understand what a new relationship with God is all about.

When I was a boy, I heard a Scottish preacher explain it this way: “It’s better felt than telt.” That nails it! Knowing Christ through experience by far surpasses knowing about Him in theory.

Christ came into this world to save sinners, and this only happens when people encounter Christ and experience Him to be the Son of the Living God.

August 27

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; Whoever believes will not act hastily.”
Isaiah 28:16

The surest way to prove that an Old Testament title is a name of Christ is to see it quoted in the New Testament referring to the Savior. Peter paraphrases this verse calling Christ “a chief cornerstone, elect, precious” (1 Peter 2:6). Now the job is to figure out what it means.

Something precious is of great value such as precious metals or precious jewels. A precious cornerstone would be very costly and certainly would set itself apart from the ordinary stones around it.

When the Washington Monument was completed in 1884 a 3,300 pound marble capstone crowned the top. On top of this was a nine inch apex made of 100 ounces of pure aluminum. At the time, aluminum was worth more than silver and the tiny pyramid cost the government $225.00. That might not sound like an extravagant amount, but a worker on the monument earned $1 a day for ten hours of work. The little ornament was worth almost as much as a working man’s salary for a year.

Before being placed on Washington’s tallest monument, the apex was displayed in the window of Tiffany’s in New York City, as the crown jewel of the nation’s capital. The rare, rust-proof metal that composed it made it architecturally unique; it was a precious cornerstone.

Christ has always had a special and singular position for the redemption of the human race. He fit into God’s plan at the right time and place and was worth more than a hundred galaxies. The Lord, the Precious Cornerstone is the pinnacle of God’s glory and will remain exalted for mankind and angels to praise for all eternity.

August 26

She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Yeshua, [which means ‘Adonai saves,’] because he will save his people from their sins.
Matthew 1:21 CJB

Although I have no memory of it, shortly after I was born, my legal name became Richard Khol.  I know that because my birth certificate says so, although through the years I’ve been given other names.  As a kid, everyone called me Rickey, and my baby brother called me “Racoo.” When I got to High School, I went by “Rick,” and that’s who I consider myself to be.

My name in South America was “Don Ricardo.”  That’s not who I was, but it worked for Spanish speakers, and I was all right with it. While there, I became close with an Ecuadorian pastor who expressed his friendship by always addressing me as “Rrrreek.” He didn’t pronounce it right, but at least he tried, and I appreciated it.

When Christ was born in Bethlehem, His legal name was probably “Yehoshua,” which we pronounce today as “Joshua.” In Hebrew, it means “God-saves” and was a common name in the first century. This four-syllable word was shortened to three in the name “Yeshua,” which translates “Salvation.”

English speakers are usually clueless to both the meaning and pronunciation of the Lord’s name. When the New Testament was written in Greek, the Savior’s name, Yeshua, was transliterated to “ee-ay-soos”, since there weren’t equivalent letters in both languages. Then, in the 5th century, the New Testament was translated into Latin, and for a thousand years His personal name was “IESVS.”  

The Tyndale, Geneva, and early King James versions all used the Latin spelling of the name. It wasn’t until 1630 that the “J” was added and pronounced “Yeh”. Later, the “Yeh” sound was finally dropped and the “Jeh” sound substituted.

The English name “Jesus” then, is a transliteration of the Latin, which is a transliteration of the Greek, which is a transliteration of the Hebrew.

O Lord Yeshua, please have patience with us!  We’ll get your name right in heaven!

August 25