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Then the Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?”
John 8:48

Samaritan – the word doesn’t bring up any emotional response or gut reaction in our day and age, but at the time it was given, it was a put-down of the basest sort. Jewish people looked down on their neighbors to the north because they were foreign transplants to the land of promise and, even after centuries of living there, were still unwelcome.

The term also had connotations of being a heretic, because although the Samaritans wanted to worship Yahweh, they did so at the wrong mountain and in the wrong manner. By equating Jesus with those undesirables, the Jewish leaders could switch from discussing issues with the Master to simply dismissing any argument He could give, because He was beneath them.

The main problem with trying to use racial slurs to insult Christ is that He loved everyone, including the Samaritans. He purposely traveled through Samaria to reach out to a wayward woman, and then preached to her village, where He was hailed as “the Christ, the Savior of the world” (John 4:42). In Jesus’ parable of “the Good Samaritan,” the Samaritan was portrayed as the good guy and the Jewish leaders as hypocrites. Finally, when the Lord healed ten lepers, only the Samaritan in the group came back to give thanks. Jesus commended him and told him “Your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:19).

The Lord Jesus wears all His titles well, even the derogatory ones. Bigoted men and women appear in every age and culture. They would try to ignore Christ because they feel He is unworthy of their time and effort. He still loves them all the same and wants them to break through their hate and prejudice so they can approach Him in faith as Savior of the World.

August 4

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you
are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
Colossians 2:9,10

Not 10%, not 50%, not even 90%, but 100% of the fullness of the Godhead belonged to Christ. What does that mean, exactly? It means that all that is God (i.e. His power, His majesty, His holiness, His character) was bound up in the body of Jesus. Nothing was missing. He wasn’t a condensed form of deity; He was the real deal.

Having the  Fullness of the Godhead in bodily form took nothing away from the Father, but allowed the Creator to touch and redeem His creation in ways He couldn’t do as a distant deity. “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:19,20).

True faith in the Savior includes and concludes that He is God. He always was and always will be. There is only one True God, and the Lord Jesus is the manifestation of that Supreme Being. The Son of God isn’t inferior to God the Father and never took away anything from the Father. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God” (Philippians 2:5,6).

The realization that Jesus is the Fullness of the Godhead should shake people up. It certainly did in the first century. Many of those who shouted “Crucify Him!” or jeered at Him, or spit on His face, later fell down on their knees with fear and repentance when they realized they allowed the Prince of Life to be put to death.

Today, most people just don’t get it. They either don’t know that Jesus is the Fullness of the Godhead, or they really don’t understand what that means. They demean and reject Christ’s sovereignty and control over their lives by viewing Him as less than God.

Christ knows all, sees all, and has existed for all eternity. When He lived and walked on earth, in His body was the Fullness of the Godhead.

August 5

This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying,
“These men are the servants of the Most High God,
who proclaim to us the way of salvation.”
Acts 16:17

The Apostle Paul and his evangelistic team were led by the Holy Spirit to take their message to Europe, so they began preaching in Philippi, one of the chief cities in Greece. This was a whole new territory, and the satanic opposition was evident. Almost from the very beginning of their time there, a demon-possessed girl followed them and became very distracting. In her spirit-affected voice, she announced the missionaries to be “Servants of the Most High God.” Paul cast the demon out, but the opposition just intensified.

It is a very curious thing to note that this title of Christ actually came through demonic channeling. Demons are nothing more than the fallen angels who were cast out of heaven by the LORD of Glory, so they know who He is. When Jesus approached the demoniac in the county of the Gadarenes, the man fell down before the Lord and the voices inside him also recognized Christ as “Jesus, Son of the Most High God” (Luke 8:28). This was no profession of faith on the part of the evil spirits, but an acknowledgment that He was their God and would one day condemn them to go into the abyss.

The Apostle James makes this point when he wrote: “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe — and tremble!” (James 2:19). Actually, the dark host has a better response to the Savior than the stiff-necked human race does. Demons acknowledge Christ’s deity, bow down before Him, and believe that their punishment is sure. They, however, rebelled willfully against their Creator, so the grace of God was never extended to them, and their doom is a sure thing.

People, on the other hand, were deceived into sinning, so God provided a way to escape through the blood of the Crucified One. Salvation is extended to those who approach Christ in faith, confessing their sin, and acknowledging Him as the Most High God.

August 6

But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1 Corinthians 1:24

Many of the classic paintings of Christ from the Middle Ages and Renaissance show an emaciated man with a pale face, scrawny arms, and ribs showing through His skin. The idea was to show the horrors of the crucifixion, but the Lord looks pathetic. It would make one think, “How could this skinny guy be ‘Savior of the World,’ much less the ‘Power of God?’”

Certainly, “the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:25), but people tend to miss the strength of God even when it’s obvious. Jesus was no weakling. He walked through the middle of an angry mob that wanted to kill Him in His home town of Nazareth, and then the crowd just melted away at His boldness (Luke 4:28-30). He called the Jewish religious leaders hypocrites to their faces (Matthew 23:13-15) and threw the buyers and sellers out of the temple – twice! (John 2:14-15; Matthew 21:12-13). He stood up to Judas and his army of thugs and impressed Pontius Pilate with His self-control at His trial. If He wanted or felt He needed them, He could have summoned twelve legions of angels at any time, but this powerful man had everything under control. He was, after all, the Power of God on earth.

As Creator, He made both visible and invisible worlds by the power of His Word and is, in fact, the force that holds the universe together (Colossians 1:16-17). He is the commander-in-chief of all the good angels and has disarmed all the principalities and powers of Satan and his demonic host (Colossians 2:15).

Immanuel is God with us, man’s very present connection to the Almighty. Christ Jesus is the source of all energy, the force behind the universe, the Power of God.

August 7

As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man,
so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust,
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.
1 Corinthians 15:48, 49

In 1994, Danny DeVito starred in the motion picture Renaissance Man. In the film, he uses his many talents to motivate an underachieving bunch of army recruits to complete basic training. Most of us, at some point in our lives, have experienced a Renaissance Man or Woman (often a school teacher) who has inspired us to succeed in areas where we considered ourselves failures.

The Lord Jesus is so much more than that; He’s the Heavenly Man. He lifts us out of the dust of planet Earth and gets us ready for heaven. He’s busy now getting our accommodations ready in heaven, and since He is the Way, He’s even made the travel arrangements.

I fully expect to see Christ as soon as I get to heaven. My main reason for going there is to see Him. Without Him, I wouldn’t know where to go or what to do. How much do you tip an angel for opening up the pearly gates, or do they even do that up there? I have so many questions, but when you’re visiting a strange new place, it’s always great to know someone who’s already there.

Jesus is the Heavenly Man; He’s from around those parts and is my contact in the afterlife. Traveling is always a little scary, especially when you don’t know the language, you’re going to be there a long time, and there are no plans to return home. But it’s not going to be that way for me. I know that hundreds of millions of Christians will be there already, and probably thousands more will arrive the same day I get there. All the same, the Lord will still have time for me. After all, He always has. He’s my go-to Man; He’s my Heavenly Man.

September 10

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ” Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; Whoever believes will not act hastily.
Isaiah 28:16 Continue reading Sure Foundation

This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light,
that all through him might believe. He was not that Light,
but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
John 1:7-8*

One theme that is increasingly apparent in the genre of futuristic and fantasy literature is the theme of light versus darkness. It’s not just the idea of good guys against the bad guys, but about the vast power of darkness swallowing up actual light energy. It’s about noble warriors fighting against overwhelming odds to restore light to the universe.

Something else is going on here: It’s the battle of science fiction versus science non-fiction. Imagination is often brought down by cold, hard facts. The fact is that darkness, just like silence and vacuums, doesn’t even exist. They are just the absence of something that does exist (light, sound, and matter).

If you were to go into a cave that hadn’t been exposed to light in 100 years and then light a match, the darkness would quickly dissipate. (When I say quickly, we’re talking about the speed of light). Darkness can’t hold a candle to it.

On the first day of creation, God made light energy; it hadn’t existed before. From that day forward, darkness had to yield to light. They can’t co-exist together.

There’s no sun, moon, lamps, or flashlights in heaven because Jesus is there and He is the source of all light (both physical and spiritual). “Darkness” is a word that will forever be dropped from the heavenly vocabulary.

Hell is described as a place of “outer darkness” (Matthew 8:12). Christ is not there, so there will be no light.

Jesus came to this world to be our source of light. “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:5).

*Context John 1:1-9

September 18

To the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.
Romans 6:27 (NASB)

In Isaiah 44:6 the LORD, the King of Israel declares, “I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God.” Two verses later He adds, “You are My witnesses,” meaning that if people would only open their eyes, this truth would be self-evident.

The prophet then focuses on the foolishness of man-made gods: “Those who make an image, all of them are useless, And their precious things shall not profit; They are their own witnesses” (Isaiah 44:9). People try to put themselves or things they love in place of the True God. They woefully fail. If they were being honest with themselves, they would see that, too.

But the general population is too proud and self-absorbed to admit that they have created for themselves a pantheon of false gods, and they deny the one and Only Wise God.

One of these fabricated deities is “Mother Nature.” A number of years ago, I visited a science museum that had an exhibit titled, “Mother Nature is the Greatest Engineer.” It showed the “intricate and remarkable designs of Mother Nature” and man’s attempts to copy “her” breakthroughs in engineering. They said “she” perfected her blueprints over 4.5 Billion years, and now scientists can learn from “her achievements.”

There is even a new branch of science called Biomimicry in which researchers do reverse engineering to see what makes plants and animals able to do the marvelous things they do. Since God never patented his creation, people feel free to steal His design and then credit Mother Nature or the blind forces of evolution for the wonders of the living world.

It makes no sense that random mixing of chemicals could produce any life, but it does prove what God said: “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man — and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things” (Romans 1:22-23).

Jesus Christ is our Great Creator (Colossians 1:16-17) and the  Only Wise God.

September 22

And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
Hebrews 9:15*

Israel had a great covenant with God; it was a deal made with runaway slaves that was better than even the rich and mighty nations had with God. Even Moses had to exclaim, “”For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the LORD our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him?” (Deuteronomy 4:7). It was more than they could hope for, and certainly more than they deserved.

There was, however, a real problem with this relationship. Israel was unable and unwilling to uphold their part of the bargain. They had made a legal contract with God and they were in default. The penalty clauses were kicking in; all the promised blessings were withheld and the long list of terrible curses were being served.

The children of Israel needed a new contract, a new covenant, but they could bring nothing to the table; they had nothing to offer. What they really needed was the Mediator of the New Covenant.

Moses had interceded for the people on a number of occasions appealing to God’s merciful nature to turn away His wrath, but Moses was incapable of appeasing the divine justice of God. The LORD of Hosts Himself would have to provide His own go-between in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In dying on the cross and shedding the blood of a willing, righteous sacrifice, He was able to demonstrate the grace of God and maintain the just laws of the Ruler of the Universe. Christ’s death on the cross was a game changer. Since the righteousness and mercy of God were both represented, a new contract could be written, but not just for Israel; it was for all people. The blood of the Savior brought the Creator and the human race back together. Christ had become the Mediator of the New Covenant.

*see also Hebrews 12:24

 October 2 

 

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14

Jesus Christ is extreme grace. He is Full of Grace; He is grace on steroids. That having been said, most people don’t understand simple grace much less grasp its full concentration. To explain it, I’ll use an illustration that comes from the jungles of Ecuador.

Dangerous animals live in the rainforest. Anacondas, jaguars, and scorpions come to mind, but few have heard of the most dangerous of them all – stinging caterpillars. They’re everywhere! Once I was walking on a jungle trail when I brushed against some low hanging branches. A “chinicuru,” as the Indians call it, fell down my T-shirt and it rolled down my back leaving a raised, painful burn that lasted for hours. I really don’t like these things!

On another occasion, I went to visit a Quichua family. When I got to their thatched hut, the parents had already gone to work in the garden leaving the twelve year old in charge of her five younger siblings. I came unexpectedly, so I caught them in the process of torturing a chinicuru. They had formed a circle with the coals from the kitchen cooking fire and they put the caterpillar in the middle. Whatever direction it turned, it would burn off the venomous bristles that covered its body.

As the only adult present, not to mention a missionary and ambassador of Christ’s love, I felt that I should say something, but I didn’t. I wanted to see the awful beast burn. Did I mention that I hate those things?

Now, if I wanted to save that ugly worm, I could have reached my hand down and let it crawl up my finger to escape the danger. However, if I did that, I would have gotten burned, ……. twice! Once by the fire and once from that stinging caterpillar. But I would never do that. I’ve been stung too many times. Who would ever do that? The only One who could possibly do something like that would be the critter’s Creator. Saving it, He would allow it to transform into the beautiful moth that it was designed to be. But if the Creator did that, He’d have a love for the unlovely that would be so intense, you’d need a new word to describe it – let’s call it Grace.

The human race has rebelled against God and is much more dangerous than stinging caterpillars, yet Christ died on the cross so that we could live. Jesus clearly is Full of Grace.

August 23