Month: November 2024

Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go through them, and I will praise the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD, through which the righteous shall enter.
Psalm 118:19-20

In the ancient world, real security could only be found in walled cities. Marauding raiders regularly burned villages and plundered farms, but were kept out by tall, thick walls. However, the walls were useless if the city gates were weak and undefended.

The gates were a traveler’s first indication of what kind of place they were entering. If the gates were massive, made of durable materials, had a drawbridge, and were surrounded by towers, the city was strong. Beautiful gates that were aesthetically pleasing conveyed a city’s culture or religion.

Soldiers, customs officials, and judges sat inside the gates to screen for undesirables, regulate trade, and settle problems. Historically, these gates were not open doors that allowed indiscriminate passage, but were processing centers that determined who was worthy to enter.

In Matthew 7:13-14, the Lord Jesus teaches: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

The world is like a wide-mouthed funnel that takes in everyone from all walks of life. Once inside, each is squeezed into the world’s mold, and the outcome for everyone is the same destruction.

Now, if you turn that funnel around, you have an illustration of Jesus, the narrow gate. You enter it by faith, by agreeing with Christ. You throw out all your contradictory philosophies and lifestyles and simply follow Jesus. What starts off seeming to be very narrow and restrictive suddenly opens up into great freedom and opportunity.

It’s interesting that the New Jerusalem (i.e., heaven) has twelve gates. In a very real sense, each one of those is the Savior, the Gate of the LORD, through which the righteous shall enter.

June 22

And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead,
and the ruler over the kings of the earth…
Revelation 1:5

As a student of history and an observer of modern politics, I’m unimpressed with world leaders whom others have labeled “Great.” Many have conquered the world or changed society dramatically, but much of their power came from back-room deals, lies, and treachery. Too often, this political axiom proves itself to be true: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (John Dalberg-Acton, 1832-1902).

Arrogance is another characteristic of these “Greats” that just grates on me. To me, their blatant, unabashed pride of who they are and what they’ve done is very off-putting. Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, and Genghis Khan never admitted any wrongdoing. Instead, they felt their actions were noble and just. That’s just wrong.

All the famous and powerful people of this world, both past and present, would never be concerned about my opinion about them, even though I know something they don’t. That’s why I take comfort in the fact that Jesus Christ is the Ruler Over the Kings of the Earth.

One day, Christ will come in His glory. On that day, the souls of all these important people, whose names I had to memorize in history class, will be brought before the King of kings. All of them will bow down on their knees before Him, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

I let my imagination run wild and can see Alexander the Great trying to hide himself. I see Pontius Pilate trembling before the Lord. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Nero weeping for his sins or Hitler submitting himself to Christ.

As far as the world is concerned, I’m just another nameless, faceless nobody that clutters up the planet. As far as Jesus is concerned, I’m a child of God, and I’ll be with Him on Judgment Day. I’m looking forward to seeing all the somebodies on earth brought before the Great White Throne when Christ reveals Himself as the Ruler Over the Kings of the Earth.

June 21

To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,
and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father,
to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 1:5-6

Coming in at fourteen words, this is the longest title of Christ in the Bible. It’s a mouthful, so most books on the names of God don’t mention it. I include it because the apostle John uses it in his doxology in the first chapter of Revelation and I can’t find any way to condense it.

It all begins with love, Christ’s love for us. To really understand the Savior, we must understand His motivation. He wanted to save Adam’s fallen race because He Loved Us and gave Himself for us.

Sinners are unable to go to heaven because they’re sinners. It’s not so much what they’ve done, but who they are. A homeless guy wouldn’t be allowed to dine in a five-star restaurant dressed in rags and smelling like manure, even if he had the money to pay the bill. At the very least, he’d need a bath. In the same way, we’re not fit for heaven. If we go to heaven, it’s because Christ cleaned us up and Washed Us from our Sins.

This love that saves and cleans up a sinner is Calvary love. Sin doesn’t come out with soap and water; it comes out with blood, Christ’s blood. Some forms of lymphoma are flushed out with more than one hundred blood transfusions. In the same way, sin is in our blood, and unless a donor with sinless blood can clean us from the inside out, we’re doomed. But Jesus died on the cross to wash away our sins in His Own Blood.

June 20

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus,
who became for us … righteousness…
1 Corinthians 1:30

Righteousness is a Bible word. It is almost never used outside of a religious context, so the unchurched usually don’t have a clue to what it means. As a youth speaker, I try to make very simple definitions that young pagans can instantly understand and remember.

I define righteousness as “the opposite of wrongseousness.” Now, nobody has ever heard the word wrongseousness before, but as soon as they have, they can understand righteousness. Righteousness is not being wrong; it must be being and doing right.

If the truth be known, we’re all wrongseous. “As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one'” (Romans 3:10-12).

As we were growing up, my Dad had a rather crude but pragmatic bit of advice for us kids: “Do the best you can! It will be bad enough.” The Bible says that “All our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Even the very best we can do falls far short of the glory of God.

The apostle Peter addressed his second letter “To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:1). We are righteous because Jesus supplies us with His righteousness. The same grace that saves us also changes us and makes us righteous.

The fancy, theological term for being made righteous is “sanctification,” and the process is summed up in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” We can simplify this even more: If we’re in Christ, we become righteous because Christ Jesus is our Righteousness.

June 19

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”
Revelation 5:11-12

The scene: In Heaven.
The cast: Hundreds of millions of holy beings.
The purpose: Praise.
The time: The soon future.
The focus: The Lamb who was slain.

                                                      -James Montgomery (1771-1854)

June 18

“And I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations,
and I will fill this temple with glory,” says the LORD of hosts.
Haggai 2:7

Under Zerubbabel, the returned exiles from Babylon began to rebuild the temple. Unfortunately, it had been sixteen years since the foundation was laid, and the building was far from done. The prophet Haggai rebuked the repatriated house of Judah for allowing personal interests to usurp God’s work. Everyone could see that the new temple would never be as impressive as Solomon’s. However, Haggai assured the reluctant workers that God would fill this sanctuary with glory because the Desire of All Nations would be there. It would, in fact, surpass Solomon’s glory.

When the LORD of Glory came to the second temple, a large crowd shouted “Hosanna” and laid palm branches and clothes in His path. If these folks failed to give Him glory, Christ said that the stones would have immediately cried out. Immanuel had come, and it was a very big deal.

The arrival of the Messiah has shaken up the nations for almost two millennia. In the first century, the mob in Thessalonica complained that Christians had “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). It took three centuries for the Roman Empire to change from polytheistic to Christian. Different cultures on all the continents have been transformed by Christ through great revivals that have occurred periodically over the centuries.

Today, the pendulum seems to be swinging the other way around, and the Desire of All Nations doesn’t seem to have His same appeal. It’s illegal to preach about the Savior in 37 countries. Church attendance in the U.S. is going down. Materialism is the new paganism, and this is just one more sign of Christ’s return.

Even so, in Africa, South America, and on the Pacific Rim, Christ’s church is seeing tremendous growth. Anywhere there are oppressed and needy people, the gospel message is still good news to hungry souls. Folks still want to have their sins forgiven and to receive eternal life. Men and women everywhere still seek the Savior. After all, He’s never stopped being the Desire of All Nations.

June 17

For the bread of God is He who comes
down from heaven and gives life to the world.
John 6:33

Bread is a complicated concoction made up of precise ingredients, a multi-step process, and time. Flour, yeast, salt, oil, warm water, and flavoring in exact proportions are kneaded together until the dough has a specific consistency. It is covered with a towel, put in a warm place for half an hour, and let to rise. After that, it is punched down, covered again, and let to rise for another half hour. It is then put in a hot oven and baked at the right temperature until golden brown.

Complicated? Yes, but it’s also universal. Every culture has its own recipe for bread, but in all of them, bread is considered a basic staple of life. When I grew up, we had bread on the table for every meal. My dad would say, “Fill up on bread, it’s cheap!”

It’s true that some primitive cultures don’t have grains, flour, or bakeries. In those places, some kind of starchy root vegetable becomes the basic foodstuff of their diet. However, the principle still holds that everyone has some kind of food that is indispensable.

Christ is the bread of God that has come down from heaven. He is our sustenance that provides our spiritual need, just as bread supplies our physical needs. To communicate this to tribal people, some missionaries in New Guinea translate the title bread of God into “Sweet Potato of God” and some African tribes know Christ as the “Cassava of God.”

Jesus doesn’t have to be complicated. He is as simple as a child eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He’s good, satisfying, and meets our needs.

Jesus Himself says, “This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die” (John 6:50).

Fill me up, O Bread of God!

 

June 16

For I determined not to know anything among
you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
1 Corinthians 2:2

To the apostle Paul, the cross was the focal point of the gospel, and that offended people. “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). He presented Christ as the Crucified One. That either repulsed people or drove them to repentance.

In this day and age, preachers try to make the gospel as attractive to as many people as possible; not so with Paul. He expected most of his audience to be offended. The apostle said, “But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:23).

It’s O.K. to be offended. That’s a clear indication that the person heard the message and then rejected it. That’s so much better than hearing the message and remaining indifferent to it. Those people don’t realize that they have rejected the Lord of Glory and, with Him, eternal life.

Paul pushed the people to make a clear decision: Accept the Lord Jesus or reject Him. He presented Jesus as the Crucified One. Since Christ was God’s only Son, He should have been honored and well-received by his creation. Instead, the Lord of lords was rejected by His own nation, betrayed by His close friends, condemned to die by the religious elite, and executed in the most terrible way that a world government could conceive. Since Jesus was both God manifest in the flesh and the Crucified One, the human race is in trouble. Christ is coming again soon and very soon to judge the living and the dead.

The apostle made it clear that those who reject this message are lost “but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:24-25).

How about you? What is your response to the Crucified One?

June 15

Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its
seals?”… And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals;
For You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation…”
Revelation 5:2,9

The scene was before God’s throne. All the host of heaven were there: Archangels, regular angels, elders, cherubim, seraphim, and living creatures. These were the witnesses when the question was asked: “Who is worthy?” Who had the right to pour out judgment on planet Earth?

Everyone was sad. Even though all the Who’s Who of the universe were assembled, including all the owners and operators of every star in every galaxy, it was clear that no one was worthy to do much of anything.

Then, the Lamb came, and it was obvious: He was Worthy. He died to save mankind; He redeemed Adam’s race with His blood and made people kings and priests to God. He’s the only one who is Worthy.

Worthy to take the scroll and open its seals.
Worthy to judge the world of sin.
Worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom.
Worthy of strength and honor and glory and blessing.
Worthy of praise and worship and thanksgiving.
Worthy of my love, respect, and obedience.
Worthy of my time, effort and energy.
Worthy of my car, house, and possessions.
Worthy of my here and now and future.

Jesus Christ in all things is Worthy.

June 14

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.
1 Timothy 3:16

Without controversy, without argument, without doubt, the mystery surrounding God’s nature and outworkings are deep, very deep. This having been said, the above verse sums up with the greatest economy of words the mission of Christ to our planet.

First off, God was manifested in flesh; the invisible God took on human form. Jesus was and is the eternal Creator in a package of skin, muscle, blood, and bone.

The next point states that he was justified in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit confirmed, revealed, and celebrated who Christ was. Those who approached the Savior in faith heard that still, small voice within them saying, “This is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

Then, He was seen by angels. They had observed the Master since the beginning of time, but this time they weren’t looking up at Him as the Great God of the Universe; they were gazing down at Planet Earth to see God’s grace and mercy revealed.

Preached among the Gentiles? Yes, preached to the whole world. This God manifested in flesh, and the grace that brought Him here was too great for just one nation or people. He had to be preached to all.

The result of that was that He was believed on in the world. “When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). The answer is yes.

Finally, God Manifested in Flesh was raised up in glory to resume His daily running of everything that is matter and energy. We can’t see Him now, nor can we physically hear or touch Him. But one day very soon, He will come to earth again, and then people will say, “There He is: God Manifested in the Flesh.”

June 13