Author: rickkhol

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
Ephesians 1:3

Blessing has been defined as God’s favor and protection, but it’s more than that, even though it’s really hard to understand in this sin-cursed world. Sometimes, when I don’t understand something well, I look at its opposite, and if I can comprehend that better, I just turn it around.

A curse is the opposite of a blessing and after the fall, all of creation was cursed. Cancer, sickness, aging, and violence didn’t exist in paradise. Plants and animals were re-created to show the effects of the curse and since then, it’s been hard to focus on blessing.

The jungle is a beautiful place with hundreds of species of orchids and a menagerie of colorful birds, but it’s exactly where I’d go to demonstrate the effects of the curse. There, most plants are poisonous, parasites are numbered in the hundreds, and all the bugs are big, and bite.

In my opinion, the Bullet Ant is the personification of the curse. These terrible predatory creatures are just under an inch long and inflict a sting that is comparable to being shot with a bullet. On the 4 point Schmidt sting pain index, they are rated 4+. Someone on the internet described it as, “Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like fire-walking over flaming charcoal with a 3 inch nail in your heal.” This description is a little melodramatic, but she nailed what it feels like.

These ants are common in the jungle and wander alone, so they are very hard to spot. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I really dislike these critters. One crawled up my pants leg and bit me three times before I could kill it. I hurt so bad that I couldn’t walk and had to crawl back to my house just using my hands.

The extreme opposite of that is blessing. It is something planned and perfected by God for the creation He formed in His own image. This is a far cry from having good luck or good fortune; it is everything good that God has given to a repentant sinner. The bottom line is this: Jesus Christ did not come into the world to bring us blessing …He is Blessing.

June 4

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, “These things says He who is holy,
He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens:
I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it;
for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.”
Revelation 3:7-8

Many years ago, we brought into our home an eight-year-old foster son who had been labeled “severely emotionally disturbed.” The title was well-deserved because he had been abused in the past and would go into terrible rages.

During one such episode, he ran into his room and locked the door. Using a hammer from the tool set he got for his birthday, he began to pound holes into the walls and doors. I had a key and so soon opened the door and asked him to stop. Defiantly, he told me he’d use the hammer on me if I tried to touch him, so I quietly watched him trash his own room. After more than 200 holes in the door and drywall, he was exhausted and ready to stop. We talked through the initial problem, but damage was already done, for which there were natural consequences.

His hammer was now mine as partial compensation for property damage, and the walls weren’t repaired for about a year. However, the most significant result of his outburst was that the door came off and was never replaced.

When Christ addressed the church in Philadelphia, he called Himself He Who Opens and No One Shuts. Satan and worldly powers threw up every obstacle they could to stop the little church from sharing the gospel. They raged at the faithful Christians until they had no more energy left. Then, God quietly took the door off the hinges, and there was nothing more to say or do. The Philadelphians returned, sharing the good news with the world around them.

“Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). The enemies of God will try to slam the door of opportunity in the face of the faithful. But the Lord doesn’t just open a window; he knocks down a wall. After all, Jesus is He Who Opens and No One Shuts.

June 25

When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the Man were a Galilean.
Luke 23:6

Galilean – not exactly a name for Christ – not really even a title. It’s more like a label you can use to pigeonhole people who are beneath your dignity. Galilee was an insignificant region of an insignificant province. Back then, Galileans were what hillbillies or rednecks are to our culture today.

On the day of Pentecost, the disciples impressed everyone by preaching the gospel eloquently in more than 16 foreign languages. The amazement was even greater when someone said: “Look, are not these who speak Galileans?” (Acts 2:7). Since these were simple, backwoods folk, people concluded that they must be drunk and ignorant of what they were saying.

Flavius Claudius Julianus was the nephew of Constantine the Great and the last emperor of the Constantinian dynasty. He is known in history books as Julian the Apostate, although the title he chose for himself was Julian the Philosopher. While Constantine and his sons embraced Christianity at a time when the faith was growing in the empire, Julian renounced the new religion when he ascended to the throne and became the last champion of polytheism in Rome.

Julian despised Christians and always referred to them as Galileans. They weren’t educated or cultured like he was, and he was distraught that so many of his subjects were abandoning the gods to follow Jesus of Nazareth. He idealized the philosophy of paganism and wrote books on the subject.

Initially, Julian had great success in battle, but on June 26, 363 he found his small Roman army surrounded by a huge Persian force. After he was mortally wounded, his aides brought him back to his tent. There, tradition tells us, Julian threw his blood towards heaven and shouted “Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!”

Wow! Who’da thunk it? The emperor of the Roman Empire glorified Jesus Christ with the most demeaning of titles.

June 26

…He who is the blessed and only Potentate,
the King of kings and Lord of Lords.
1 Timothy 6:15

Potentate – Now, that is a word you don’t hear much anymore. In fact, it’s almost gone out of use altogether. A hundred years ago, Russia had its Czar, Germany had its Kaiser, and the Ottoman Empire had its Sultan. The world had very potent leaders who answered to no one; they were potentates.

Dictators are still around today, but it’s not the same. They usually rise to power by rallying the masses to revolution. Then, they also have to appease the people, or they’ll fall victim to a new regime change led by new revolutionaries.

Potentates throughout the centuries brought fear and terror to those who were oppressed by them, as well as neighboring nations who were forced to pay tribute. These absolute rulers fared sumptuously, lived in palaces, and were envied by 99.9999% of their subjects.

Christ certainly will have unlimited power in His millennial kingdom. After that, He’ll become Emperor of the Universe for eternity. His authority will exceed everything that all earthly potentates ever obtained. But the Savior is no despot.

Jesus is the blessed Potentate. Instead of oppressing His people and siphoning their wealth for Himself, He serves them, saves them, and brings them increase. Christ will finally become the benevolent dictator that humanity always longed for, but never received.

He’s also the only Potentate. There will be no political opposition, nor wars of aggression, nor power grabs of lesser kingdoms. The King of kings and Lord of lords will be the Supreme Commander of everything that really matters. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the blessed and only Potentate.

June 23

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.

Come, let us sing the song of songs
The angels first began the strain –
The homage which to Christ belongs;
Worthy the Lamb, for He was slain!

Slain to redeem us by His blood,
To cleanse from every sinful stain,
And make us kings and priests to God:
Worthy the Lamb, for He was slain!

To Him who suffered on the tree,
Our souls, at His soul’s price, to gain,
Blessing, and praise, and glory be:
Worthy the Lamb, for He was slain!

To Him, enthroned by filial right,
All power in Heaven and earth proclaim,
Honor, and majesty, and might:
Worthy the Lamb, for He was slain!

Long as we live, and when we die,
And while in Heaven with Him we reign,
This song our song of songs shall be:
Worthy the Lamb, for He 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