Month: November 2024

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

For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses,
inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house.
Hebrews 3:3

Even today Moses holds a unique place in the hearts and minds of the Jewish people. He was their deliverer and principal figure in the foundation of Israel as a nation. However, although this man of God was great in all he did, he pales in comparison to Jesus Christ, who is Worthy of More Glory than Moses.

Moses 1.     Name mentioned 797 times in the Bible. 2.     Law of Moses (Joshua 8:31) called law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). 3.     Mediator of the First Covenant (Exodus 34:27). 4.     Moses’ face reflected glory of God (Exodus 34:29). 5.     A prophet (Deuteronomy 34:10) 6.     Led the children of Israel out of bondage from Egypt (Exodus 13:3). 7.     Built the foundation of the nation of Israel (Hebrews 3:4).

Jesus 1.     Name mentioned 983 times in the New Testament 2.     Law of Christ (Galatians 6:2) called law of Spirit of life (Romans 8:2). 3.     Mediator of a Better Covenant (Hebrews 8:6). 4.     The body of the glorified Christ shone (Rev. 1:14-16). 5.     The Prophet (John 6:14) 6.     Delivered the world out of the bondage of sin (Galatians 1:4).  7.     Built the foundation of the church (1 Corinthians 3:11).

In the very least Jesus Christ is Worthy of More Glory than Moses, but on a much grander scale, He is worthy “to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:12). Praise and worship be to the Lord of Glory.

October 23

Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers.
Acts 7:52

Who said it? Now that’s an important question to ask when studying the titles of Christ. In this case, it was Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian church.

Stephen was the kind of young person that every youth group desires: energetic, servant’s heart, eloquent, and on fire for the Lord. The Sanhedrin had outlawed speaking about Jesus of Nazareth and there he was, right inside the temple, preaching about Christ and making points that no one could refute. He was hauled off to court and the book of Acts records his own defense. Stephen preaches a sermon detailing the history of Israel, pointing out that their ancestors had not only challenged Moses’ leadership, but the authority of every prophet God had sent. Then came the bottom-line: those assembled in that room had betrayed and murdered the Just One of God (a.k.a. the Messiah).         

The truth hurts and convicting truth hurts a lot, so the courtroom turned into a mob bent on really hurting Stephen. They dragged him outside and threw heavy stones at him until his skull was crushed and he died.         

Another young religious zealot witnessed all this, but he belonged to the opposition. Saul of Tarsus would have thrown stones himself if he had the chance, but was outranked by the more hateful clerics. Saul did see the angel-like face of Stephen and the peace with which he died, but the phrase Just One probably was what disturbed him the most.      

This was probably on his mind while Saul was on his way to Damascus to persecute the followers “of the Way” (Acts 9:2). He saw a blinding light from heaven, realized that Jesus of Nazareth was talking to him and was told that someone would come to him with instructions. That someone was an older believer named Ananias who told him “The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will, and see the Just One, and hear the voice of His mouth.” (Acts 22:14). The same Just One that Stephen had preached had now became Saul’s Lord.

October 22

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
John 1:4

Most Americans aren’t into cartoons as they used to be. When I grew up in the 1950’s and 60’s, most homes subscribed to both a morning and afternoon newspaper. In the back of the last section would be forty or so different comic strips. It’s safe to say that the “funnies” were the how and why I learned to read. They also taught me how to recognize and interpret symbols.

If a comic strip character had smoke coming out of his ears, he was angry; if there was a series of Z’s over his head, then he was asleep. When there was a light bulb in a bubble over his head, it was clear that the figure had an idea.         

Actually, I’ve seen this scenario played out in real life during my forty years as a teacher. Every now and then, I presented a lesson to a classroom of bored students, when someone actually got what I was teaching! It’s very noticeable. Their eyes lit up as if a light bulb turned on in their head. They were truly enlightened. There is even a term for this in pedagogy. It’s called an “Aha moment.”        

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Light of Men in a world of spiritual darkness. Just as sightless people don’t have a clue about color or sunsets, the unregenerate are clueless about righteousness and judgment. The god of this age has blinded those who do not believe, so they can’t see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4). However, that veil of deception can come down and the light of God’s holiness can come into even the darkest hearts. Through the years, I’ve seen many people come to know Christ as Lord and Savior and I can testify that there is no greater Aha moment then when someone realizes that their sins are forgiven and they have eternal life. A great spiritual light bulb turns on in their soul when the Light of Men comes into their lives.

October 21

The LORD is my rock and my fortress […]; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust…
Psalm 18:2*

King David never quite got over the experience of being a shepherd boy alone in the wilderness responsible for the lives of many sheep. As a young man in the desert, he faced wild animals that were stronger and faster than he. As sovereign of Israel, he was surrounded by enemies with bigger armies. Feeling weak served David well, because he ran to the LORD “who armed Him with strength and made His way perfect” (Psalm 18:32).

The Prophet Daniel saw a vision of a “Glorious Man” who was “clothed in linen,” his face had “the appearance of lightening,” and “his eyes like torches of fire” (Daniel 10:5,6). Since the description is similar to Ezekiel’s view of the “Glory of the LORD “(Ezekiel 1:27,28) and the Apostle John’s encounter with the glorified Christ (Revelation 1:14,15), this vision is often interpreted as an appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ. Daniel describes a dialogue between the two of them: “And he said, ‘O man greatly beloved, fear not! Peace be to you; be strong, yes, be strong!’ So when he spoke to me I was strengthened, and said, ‘Let my Lord speak, for you have strengthened me’” (Daniel 10:19).

The Lord Jesus is not only the personification of Strength, He is the source of strength for all those who are weak “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).

The Lord Jesus declares in 2 Corinthians 12:9: “And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

The weakness of God is stronger than Mankind at his prime (1 Corinthians 1:25). When people are at their weakest, there is no strength to overcome the stressfulness of life. Only with God’s help can one truly have victory. The apostle Paul understood that he could rely on the Savior’s strength. “… For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

*see also Isaiah 12:2, 25:4, 40:29; Revelation 5:12,12:10

October 20