Author: rickkhol

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

A man will be as a hiding place from the wind, and a cover
from the tempest, As rivers of water in a dry place, as the
shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
Isaiah 32:2

One curious fact that I still remember from third grade geography class is that in the Sahara Desert, it gets to be 120° F in the shade. “Boy,” I thought to myself, “I bet people try to stay out of the shade as much as possible.”

My impressions of the desert greatly changed when, as an adult, I saw one for myself. On the arid wasteland, the sun is so intense you can fry an egg on a rock. There’s a lot of wind, but it doesn’t cool. It just pushes hot, dry air on your face. No trees grow anywhere, and the only shade that can be found is what you bring for yourself.

The only relief from the hostility of the elements is found in the mountains at the very edge of the desert. Great walls of rock rise high above the burning sand and break the fury of the furnace-like air. Overhangs and huge cracks in the stone capture the coolness of the previous evening, and the shadow of a great rock can provide a place of refuge from the heat even at noonday.

This sin-ravished world is like the desert. It’s a hard and unsympathetic place. We are like sun-scorched travelers who are burned by their own ungodliness, as well as by the sinfulness of others. When the burden gets really heavy and life seems almost unbearable, people don’t want religion or even reformation; they want rest. Jesus said, “Come to me… and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Beneath the cross of Jesus
I fain would take my stand,
the shadow of a mighty rock
within a weary land;
a home within the wilderness,
a rest upon the way,
from the burning of the noontide heat,
and the burden of the day.
                                     – Elizabeth Clephane (1830-1869)

July 2

Whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
2 Corinthians 4:4

In the original blueprint of man’s creation, the design called for a creature made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). It was not the physical distinctions of the humanoid form that set Adam apart from the animals. After all, God is a Spirit and has no visible shape of His own. What was really unique was his power to deal in abstracts and reach conclusions.

A dog cannot see beauty or enjoy art. Right and wrong, or even right and left, are far beyond the comprehension of even the most intelligent ape. It is man’s capacity to reason that allows him to make intelligent choices. This is necessary to enjoy communion with God.

However, something went terribly wrong after the die was cast. The first man chose to disobey his maker, thus distorting the divine likeness. As a result, he came to resemble the god of this age more than the true God of the universe. Now, when human history is recorded, its wars and injustices stand out above all else, showing man’s weakness and failure of character. The image of God had become terribly flawed.

Christ is the Image of God, the highest example of the Creator’s plan for Adam’s race. If holiness was too intangible a concept for people to understand, it took shape in the person of Jesus Christ. God’s love and grace had physical form that could be seen, heard, and felt by those who had lost sight of the original design. Truth, justice, and mercy became solid realities that demanded to be dealt with.

Man’s marred image of God can be remade by the Savior. The work of grace not only covers the ugliness of sin, but transforms our behavior into the image of Christ. In this way, the old order of how things were meant to be can be finally regained forever.

July 1

And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS,
for He will save His people from their sins.
Matthew 1:21*

The Lord’s human name occurs 983 times in the Word of God. Two-thirds of these are in the gospels, where it is used most often in the narratives and very rarely in direct address. “Jesus” almost always appears in combination with other titles such as “Christ” or “Lord” when found in the epistles. However, it appears unadorned with any additional title all but six times in the gospels. The most logical explanation for this is that the histories of Christ’s life focus on the reality of His physical presence while the doctrinal books emphasize the relevance of His advent.

Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua and literally means “Salvation.” There was nothing unusual about this common name in the Roman Empire. In fact, so many shared this name that His detractors found it necessary to call him “Jesus of Nazareth” in order to single Him out.

The same is true today. The name of Jesus is used as a curse by Christ-rejecters, but speaks of a wonderful Savior to those who love Him. The big difference is the reality of the encounter. For those who do not know Jesus, His name means nothing at all. To those who love Him, it’s beautiful!

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer’s ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.
                               – John Newton (1725-1807)

*see also John 12:21, 19:19, 21:25; Ephesians 6:24; 2 Peter 1:1; plus 936 other references

December 1

Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,
“The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,” and
“A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense…..”
1 Peter 2:7-8*

These verses point out obvious contrasts: Believers/Unbelievers; Precious stone/Stumbling block. The first is two distinct groups of people; the second is two aspects of the same rock.

Everyone at some point in their lives must focus on Christ. Their perception of who He is will determine their reaction to Him. If discovering the Savior is like finding a many-carat, flawless diamond in a field, the response will be one of joy, excitement, and fulfillment. However, if someone trips over that same piece of geology multiple times, it becomes a rock of offense that produces resentment, frustration, and anger.

Jesus gets in people’s ways. He makes them feel uncomfortable or inadequate, so they want Him to just go away. When He doesn’t (because He is everywhere), they try to run away. The further they go from the light, and the further down the tube they fall, the deeper they go into the slime of sin. But that doesn’t work either, because the Lord still reaches with His nail-pierced hands toward the sinner to pull him out.

At this point, one of two things happens: 1. Faith takes hold of the Savior’s hand and everything changes, or 2. Nothing changes except for the intensity of emotion. Frustration and anger build, along with an acute sense of being offended.

Few, if any, are truly indifferent about the Savior if they really have known Him. To those whose lives He has transformed, He is precious. To those who have rejected Him, He makes them mad and indignant. He is their “Rock of Offense.”

*See also Isaiah 8:14 and Romans 9:33

June 29