Month: November 2024

But I am a worm, and no man;
A reproach of men, and despised by the people.
Psalm 22:6

“A worm and no man” – how can this be a proper title for the Lord of lords? It seems all wrong until we realize that Christ took this title for Himself in the Old Testament prophecy. By doing so, He let us know the depth of humiliation He encountered at the cross.

Rejection by those one loves is a devastating experience. The anguish of abandonment produces a pain that is difficult to talk about for those who experience it.

Forsaken by the Father, deserted by His closest friends and ridiculed by those He came to save, Jesus felt ultimate rejection. The altogether lovely one was deemed as unattractive as a slimy worm. We esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted (Isaiah 53:4). The Creator was humiliated more than the creature will ever understand.

Is it any wonder that “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble?” (1 Peter 5:5). He who called Himself a Worm and No Man can lift up the dejected soul and elevate him to heavenly places. The poor in spirit will discover that the Lord will never leave them or forsake them (Hebrews 13:5), but Christ-rejecters will be separated from God forever.

Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?
                                      – Isaac Watts (1674-1748)

July 12

And having been perfected, He became the
author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,
Hebrews 5:9*

When it comes to salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ wrote the book. He’s its author. He thought it up. He is its source. He alone saves. Without Christ, mankind is hopelessly lost.

Read the scriptures: “I, even I, am the LORD, And besides Me there is no savior” (Isaiah 43:11).

“Yet I am the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God but Me; For there is no savior besides Me” (Hosea 13:4).

“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

There is one Lord, one God, and one Author of Eternal Salvation.

Christ also defines the terms of salvation. It is eternal. Far from being a mere escape from punishment, it is a condition that stays in effect forever: “But Israel shall be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation; You shall not be ashamed or disgraced Forever and ever” (Isaiah 45:17).

Oh! The height and depth of His boundless love,
And His mercy who can tell,
When He came to the cross from the throne above
To save our souls from hell!

Salvation! Salvation! Vast, full and free;
Through the precious blood of the Son of God
Who was slain on Calvary.
                     – T.D.W. Muir (1855 -1933)

*See also Hebrews 2:10

July 11

Through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Luke 1:78-79

Malaria is a terrible disease. I know; I had it. Look up the symptoms in an encyclopedia: high fever, severe chills, uncontrollable shaking, and sweat so profuse that you soak the sheets, the blanket, and the mattress. However, the worst part of the illness is never on the list. No one ever mentions it.

When I had malaria, I went almost three days without sleep. One of life’s simplest comforts was denied to me by this horrible disease. By far, the worst part was enduring the nights. I heard every tick of the clock and felt every beat of my heart. My mind raced, but time stood still in the darkness and refused to move. I longed for sleep, and when that was not possible, I longed for the dawn. When an empty eternity finally passed away, morning broke on the horizon and lit up the world. I felt easy. I could rest. There was great comfort in that Dayspring.

At the birth of John the Baptist, his father, Zacharias, was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to prophesy. He foretold that his son would be a prophet of the Highest. More importantly, he announced the coming of the Dayspring from on High: Jesus Christ.

The Jewish nation had passed through a long and agonizing night. Four Gentile empires had ravished the Jewish people, yet no prophet of the Lord had come forth to speak a word in over 400 years. Herod the Great was the cruel and murderous despot who ruled the land at that time. The faithful were weary from waiting for light.

The Dayspring from on High offered them peace and comfort, just as He does today to all those who are tired and weighted down with sin.

July 10

Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person,
and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins,
sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Hebrews 1:3

How do you go about describing color to a blind man? Words simply can’t do it, and the sense of touch is wholly inadequate to relate what it is like. The only means to communicate this knowledge would be to give the gift of sight, without which all theory about light is meaningless.

How do you go about describing an infinite God to a finite mind? A person born in a three dimensional world cannot begin to comprehend a Supreme Being who consists of neither atoms nor energy, but is capable of creating both. God and His glory are totally incomprehensible for mankind unless He chooses to reveal Himself to them.

In ancient times, God used the vehicle of light to communicate His presence. Created on the first day, light is not the essence of God, but it is somehow always intricately associated with Him. A pillar of light guided the Israelites through the wilderness, the “Shekinah” glory glowed over the Ark of the Covenant, and Mount Sinai flashed with God’s holy fire. However, no matter how intense light may appear, it’s only a shadow of what His true glory is really like.

Christ is both the effluence of divine radiance and the gift of sight by which the creature can finally see his Creator. In Him, there is no darkness at all.

The unconverted eye will never see God’s glory, because the spiritually lost are totally blind to it. But those who are saved by grace are given eyes of faith to see. For them, the focus will forever be on the Lord, who is the Brightness of God’s Glory.

July 9

He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood,
and His name is called The Word of God.
Revelation 19:13

Ask any Sunday school child, and unless he has Attention Deficit Disorder, he should be able to tell you that the Bible is the Word of God. The phrase is well understood and the New Testament uses the term thirty-six times to refer to scripture.

Fewer folks know that the book of Revelation also gives Christ this title just before describing the great battle of Armageddon. And yet there is no contradiction between these two uses of the phrase. In one sense, they are two forms of the same thing.

The Bible is the written Word of God. It was given to reveal the nature and will of God to the world. Its essential message is that since sin separates people from fellowship with their Creator, God needs to provide a way for them back to Himself. Jesus is seen throughout Holy Writ as the source of salvation, redeeming men and women from judgment. In story, symbol, and illustration, the Lord Jesus Christ is presented over and over again. Even Old Testament law was given to be a tutor to bring people to Christ so that they might be justified by faith (Galatians 3:24).

The Lord Jesus is the living Word of God. He is the whole revelation of God in bodily form. When the elements of the world finally melt away on Judgment Day, there will be no need to preserve the Bible in scrolls, books, or on computer chips. The Word of God will always be alive and well, dwelling among the redeemed of earth in heaven.

July 8

From the end of the earth I will cry to You, When my heart is overwhelmed;
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
Psalm 61:2

David cried out to God when he felt afraid. Yes, big bad David, the giant killer, felt overwhelmed at times, but He took comfort in something much bigger than himself.

As strange as it might seem, I totally get what David is saying here; been there, done  that. Many years ago, I had my own secret place that no one but God and I knew about. It was my own rock that is higher than I.

Sometime during my college years, I was walking along the Chagrin River in a park  just east of Cleveland, Ohio when I came upon an interesting geological formation. A huge rock, maybe 25 feet high and at least that much wide, had broken off from the cliff face behind it. A space ranging from 3-6 feet was behind it. Front and backsides of the enclosure went straight up, giving the impression of a well-lit cave. I fell in love with the place as soon as I found it and since it was really hard to see that it was anything special, few would ever find it. I scooped up candy wrappers and cigarette butts from the dirt floor so that I could pretend that no one else in the world knew about it, and I gave it a name: “Castle Rock.”

It was really peaceful there. I could be alone with my God and just think and pray. At the end of summer, just before both my junior and senior years began, I was really stressed. College had become progressively more challenging and I was afraid that I wasn’t going to make it. I was overwhelmed, so I would go up to Castle Rock (I even took lunch once) to cry out to God and find peace.

The last time I visited there was almost 50 years ago. If I went back there now, I know I’d find it again (assuming my knees would hold up on the trail). That monolith isn’t going anywhere and that’s why I felt so secure hiding behind it.

In the years that followed, I never found any other place that was quite as special, but I’ve had the same feeling of tranquility many times since then. Now, I just take shelter in Jesus. He’s my Rock that is Higher than I.

July 7

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon,
and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life…
1 John 1:1

Words are not alive. To a bored teenager enduring English class, words can be as dead as the inscription engraved in stone on some ancient tomb. Even literature that is deemed immortal often sits dead and dust covered for years until a reader takes it down from the shelf and puts his own life into it.

On the other hand, Jesus Christ is the living, moving, Word of Life. Purpose and enthusiasm are gained from knowing Him. From that perspective, life and living before the encounter seem to have been a mere illusion.

Counterfeit Christianity seems dull by comparison to true faith because it is dead. Knowing Christ produces a hunger and thirst for His fellowship that ritualism can never imitate. The redeemed of the Lord long to see their Savior because He is the source of their existence. However, because of where we are right now in God’s present plan, the priority is faith over sight.

Believers cling to the written Word because it is a vehicle for knowing the true living Word. Through scripture there is communion with Christ, a defining of direction and a strengthening of faith. The world can’t understand it, but the Bible isn’t a normal book. It’s the Reader’s Digest version of the Word of Life.

Sing them over again to me, wonderful words of life,
Let me more of their beauty see, wonderful words of life;
Words of life and beauty teach me faith and duty.
Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life.                                           – Philip P. Bliss (1838-1876)

July 6

When the Angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and his wife, then Manoah knew that He was the
Angel of the LORD. And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God!”
Judges 13:21-22*

There is one God, but He is revealed to us in three separate ways. So teaches the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Christ is the “second person” of the Trinity. He distinguishes Himself from the Father and the Holy Spirit, because He has visible, physical form.  Being God, the Lord Jesus has no beginning or end. He always existed. So, what did He do with His time between creating the universe and His advent at Bethlehem? Christ did what we know Him for today: He visited His creation.

The Old Testament describes many physical appearances of God that theologians like to call “theophanies.” Since Jesus is the physical manifestation of the Deity, then we can conclude that Christ came to earth before He was born in the manger.  The most common theophany we come across is the appearance of the Angel of the LORD. The title comes up on a dozen occasions in the Old Covenant. In them, He speaks as God and identifies Himself as such.

It was the Angel of the LORD who appeared to Moses in the burning bush when He called Himself the great “I AM” (Exodus 3:2). The very ground where He appeared was Holy, so Moses took off his shoes. When Abraham saw the Angel of the LORD (Genesis 22:11), he named the place “The-LORD-Will-Provide.” Hagar called the spot of her encounter “You-Are-The-God-Who-Sees” (Genesis 16:7-16). 

Christ appeared in angelic form to Gideon, David, and others. He was not idle as He waited for the fullness of time to come. After being born of a woman and redeeming the lost creation, He still is not idle. He makes Himself known to men and women today in special ways. Many of them, like Moses, fall down on their knees, for they know that the ground of their meeting is Holy.

*See also Genesis 16:9-13, 22:11, 15; Exodus 3:2; Judges 6:11-14, plus 46 other references

July 5

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside
every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before
us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1, 2

Most Christians know all too well what the Lord expects of them in the Christian life – break with sin and follow the will of God. However, the question that most people can’t answer is how to do it.

Hebrews tells us that it’s by “looking unto Jesus.” If we keep Him in view, the victory will come without striving for it. Unfortunately, a lot of folks do just the opposite.

Books and even Christian counselors tend to put all the attention on the problem at hand. However, when we focus in on the sin, we get a closer look at it. Often it seems bigger, uglier, and more insurmountable than we first thought, so some vices are simply not overcome.

The Bible says to forget the things that are behind and reach forward to what’s ahead – looking only to Jesus (Philippians 3:13). Christ provides the power to do it; it doesn’t depend on us. Not only is He the source and originator of our faith, He is also the Finisher of it. He makes it perfect.

There’s not one kind of faith for salvation and another to grow spiritually. Faith is nothing more and nothing less than agreeing with God that what He says is true. When we read in the Word that whoever believes in Christ shall not perish but have eternal life, we respond by saying, “Yes, Lord, I agree.” When the Holy Spirit tells us that the sin in us makes us worthy of hell, the answer is the same: “Yes Lord, I agree.”

Our mind, actions, and attitudes need to agree with God. But how is that done?

The Lord does it. It is He who gives us the power to simply believe. If we can trust Him for our soul’s salvation, we can also look to Jesus to put the finishing touches on our faith. After all, He’s the Finisher of our Faith.

July 4

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2

Salvation is not for sale. You can’t buy it by being good enough, going to church or doing religion. It can’t even be bought with a pound of faith (or however you try measuring it by quantity).  “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). Nothing can save apart from God’s unmerited love. “Nothing” means just that – not good works and not even faith.  It’s true that faith is involved in the saving process, but it doesn’t in itself save. Think about a light bulb in your house. To turn it on, you need to flip the switch, but that only works when the electrical energy is flowing through the line.

God’s grace is like the generator (the power source), and faith is the switch (the connection). By believing the Word of God, you are simply agreeing with Him, and that is the basis of fellowship. This then allows Him to save and change your life.

Just as a person can’t boast about lighting up a room when he turns on the switch, so there is no reason to feel proud of his ability to believe. The strange thing, however, is that people do just that. They impress themselves with their capacity to trust and figure that they really made God’s day because they decided to believe Him.

How foolish. They don’t realize that they’re so totally destitute of the glory of God that they don’t even have faith they can call their own. If you have any faith at all, it is because the Lord Jesus gave it to you. He is the Author of your Faith, its source. Apart from Him, you have nothing.

Belief is born when you focus on Him. Looking to the person of Christ, His death on the cross and the power of His resurrection are each part of the activity of faith. It is not the technique of believing that matters; it’s the object of faith that’s all-important. Where is the boasting then?

There is none. We can’t boast because Jesus even installed the light switch of faith in us. Remember, He’s the Author of Our Faith.

July 3