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These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will
overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings;
and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.
Revelation 17:14

Lord of lords. The idea is that Christ is the leader of all the world leaders, the boss of all the big bosses.

Actually, this title is true in two very different ways. The verse above demonstrates that Jesus is going to bring down all the proud and mighty demigods on earth. They will be brought low, broken, and forced to bow the knee before the Lord of lords.

The second application is better seen in Revelation 19:16: “And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” The scene is after the battle of Armageddon. The Lord is ready to reign on earth with a newly appointed group of kings and lords, and they’re all good; they’re the saints of God who suffered and even died for the name of Christ.

The millennial reign of the Lamb of God will be 1,000 years without war, injustice, and oppression. We would come to expect that, if Christ is in charge, but all the national and local administrators will also be holy and just. Coming from a day and age when the term “honest politician” is used as an oxymoron, it is hard to believe that they’ll be public servants who actually serve the public.

Not everyone who is saved will reign with Christ. He gives that responsibility to those who showed themselves faithful in little. In the Parable of the Minas (Luke 19), the Lord said to the servant whose mina earned nine more, “Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.”

I take seriously the promises of Christ, so I want to be faithful to His will for me now, so that I can reign with Him in His kingdom. If He someday makes me a lord, let it be known that Christ is already my Lord of lords.

January 16 

Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected
indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious.
1 Peter 2:4

The CEO of a multinational company has many complex and specialized jobs to do. He needs to have vision for building his corporation and the leadership skills to get it there. He must negotiate with clients, motivate employees, jump legal and political hurdles, and take educated risks. The success or failure of a big business depends on having the “right man” at the helm. For this reason, selection committees will often spend millions of dollars to screen all the candidates before that “right person” is finally chosen.

The hundreds of titles of Christ show just how complicated the job of God’s Anointed really was. He had to be Savior, Redeemer, Advocate, and Friend. He came to destroy the works of the devil, console Israel, and willingly offer Himself as a substitute for sinful mankind. No one less than God Himself could be qualified for this position.

The Jewish religious leaders understood that their Messiah was singled out for His mission of redemption. Standing at the foot of the cross of Christ, the rulers of the Jews sneered at Jesus and said “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God” (Luke 23:35).

Only a very few of the titles of the Lord also apply to believers. This is one of them: “…just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,”(Ephesians 1:4). How wonderful is that! Before the creation of all things, the Chosen one chose us to be His special people.

 January 17 

To Titus, a true son in our common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.
Titus 1:4

In the 405 titles of Christ that I have found in the Bible, most occur only once or twice to emphasize some specific attribute of the Master. Some titles are repeated many times and are the most familiar. New titles are even made by linking shorter ones together in order to magnify the Lord’s greatness. Listed below are the top ten titles of Christ. – Please note that not included is Jesus’ Old Testament name (written YAH/ Yahweh/ Jehovah/ the LORD) which occurs over 6000 times.
Top Ten Titles in the New Testament:

1. Jesus – 986 times
2. Lord – 652 times
3. Christ – 529 times
4. Son of Man – 87 times
5. Son of God – 73 times
6. Teacher – 49 times
7. King – 38 times
8. Master – 36 times
9. Savior – 26 times
10. Lamb – 25 times

When Titus was sent as a missionary to Crete, Paul wrote to him a letter of encouragement giving him practical advice. Although Titus observed and followed Paul for many years as his disciple, he was also born and raised a pagan before converting to Christ. Paul repeated the basics of the gospel and the purpose of his mission to the Gentiles of that island nation. To do that the Apostle chose a name made up of four of the top ten titles of the Son of God. Titus was there to serve the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.

 January 2 

For your Maker is your husband, The LORD of hosts is His name;
And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth.
Isaiah 54:5

Before there was ever sin in our world, God designed and instituted marriage. Two people, although the same species, are male and female, man and woman, and God made them Husband and Wife. This wasn’t a marriage of convenience, but a carefully arranged union orchestrated by God. Since the whole human race would be produced from Adam and Eve’s DNA, God planned the wedding.

The Jewish Talmud (the oral tradition and teaching of ancient rabbis) portrays a curious detail about the first marriage ceremony. According to the legend, God Himself braided Eve’s hair and personally presented her to Adam. That would have been a nice touch that would have added to the specialness of the relationship.

Contrary to the politically correct notions of today, men and women are very different. They look, think, and act differently, and part of the design for the continuance of the human race was different roles for husband and wife.

When Paul wrote to the Ephesian church, he gave God’s orders for the Christian family. Addressing the men, he said, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” The Master shows Christian men a model of what a loving, caring husband should look like. He is always there to listen to us, provide our needs before we ask, and comfort us when we feel alone and weak.

Yahweh of the Old Testament took on Himself the role of the spouse of the children of Israel. In the New Testament, concerning the church, Christ clearly presents Himself as her Husband.

 January 18 

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.
John 12:24

Now, is this a title, or is it a parable? It’s both. In context, this verse comes right after the triumphal entry. The Lord has just told His disciples that the hour had come for Him to be glorified. He had already told them that He was coming to Jerusalem to die, and they didn’t get it. He now tries to get through to them by saying that He is going to be like a grain of wheat.

Once a farmer sows his seed, there is no way to get it back. Wheat is just a fancy grass, and there’s a lot that can go wrong. If there’s too much or too little rain, it’s too hot or too cold, or there are too many bugs, it just won’t produce. That’s not even figuring in dust storms, hail, wheat rust, mildew, and rot. Hungry farmers throughout the centuries have learned not to plow the last of their grain into the ground. If they do, there’s no guarantee that they’ll have anything to eat later.

Most farmers I know are religious (I’m talking family farmers, not big corporations). They have to believe that there is a power greater than themselves that makes things to grow, and they trust Him to do His job if they do theirs. It takes a lot of faith to take tomorrow’s meal, bury it in the dirt, and pour water on it.

Christ somehow had to convince His disciples that the capital punishment He was about to receive was not just a senseless act of injustice. He was going to be glorified by it, and they were the ones that were going to benefit.

The disciples knew it was dangerous to go to Jerusalem, but He went anyway. He had to go; He had to die. If He didn’t go, there never would have been eternal life. He could never have provided for their spiritual sustenance. He first had to become a Grain of Wheat.

 January 3 

“Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command to restore
and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times.
And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;
and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.”
Daniel 9:25-26

Wonderful, powerful, significant verses! …Yet they are unknown and unimportant to most Christians today; what a pity!

The translators of the King James and New King James Versions saw the importance and translated the Hebrew word “Meshiach” as Messiah. They wanted everyone to know that this prophesy was about the Jewish Messiah; that is Christ. The 38 other times it appears in the Old Testament, it was translated literally as “anointed.”

This prophecy is a time-line that begins with the “command to restore and build Jerusalem.” Jewish people in the first century knew the day, month, and year it took place. Even our history books tell us that King Artaxerxes of Persia made that decree in 444 B.C.

Then come two time periods: “seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.” The term “weeks” literally means “sevens” and is actually referring to weeks of years. So then “seven weeks” is actually 49 years and “sixty-two weeks” is actually 434 years. Forty-nine years after the decree to rebuild, Nehemiah actually finished building the streets. 49+434=483 years. Exactly four-hundred eighty-three years after Artaxerxes’ command, the Messiah was to be “cut off” (March 30^thof 33 A.D).  First-century preachers did the math and believed that date to be the day of Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The anointed of God went to His own and His own received Him not. Four days later (April 3^rd) Christ was crucified – “cut off.” When early Jewish believers heard this, they also did the math and were convinced that Jesus was their Messiah.

 January 20 

I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will
be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
John 10:9

Doors come in many shapes and sizes. It can be as simple as a slab of ice that covers the opening to an igloo, or an inlaid ivory and gold masterpiece before the throne room of the king. When all is said and done, a door is just a device that allows easy access to a place that was designed to keep other things out.

Some doors come equipped with locks or even armed guards to determine who can go in and who stays out. A bank would be worthless if everyone could go in and out anytime they wanted. Heaven has a Door. His name is Jesus. In Luke 16, Christ told a story about a very rich man (unlisted name) and a very, very poor man named Lazarus. Lazarus was a believer and the other guy wasn’t. In the end, they both died. After his fancy funeral, the soul of the billionaire was cast into Hades. Lazarus died full of sores on some side street; no one paid much attention. That is, no one except for Jesus.

When his body was cold, the angels of God carried his soul to paradise and he was cradled in Abraham’s bosom. When the rich man saw that, he wanted to go there too – Not Allowed! Then, he wanted that lowly Lazarus to bring him some water – Also not Allowed!

People don’t get to heaven just because they want in, or even because they think they deserve it. The bottom line of the story is explained in the chorus of the African-American spiritual, “Rock my Soul in the Bosom of Abraham.”

So high, you can’t get over it
So wide, you can’t get around it
So low, you can’t get under it
You gotta go through the Door.

 January 4 

“But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears?
For He is like a refiner‘s fire. And like launderers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner
and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold
and silver, That they may offer to the LORD an offering in righteousness.”
Malachi 3:2-3

Before the industrial revolution and mass production, everything was done in small home workshops. Every town would have had a blacksmith; all would have seen the refiner at work and would have understood the process.

Small furnaces would be dug into the earth and lined with bricks. Coal or very hard wood would fill the chamber along with silver ore. Air would constantly be pumped in at the base to make the fire intense. In the fervent heat, impurities would be burnt off and the liquid metal would pool at the bottom of the furnace. A brick would be removed and the molten silver would pour out, usually into molds. Ash floated as a powder over the glowing metal, and tin or copper would separate from the precious elements.

Most people don’t realize how intensive the work of the refiner was. Besides working the bellows almost non-stop, fuel would have to be added frequently to maintain the extreme temperature. Although the workshop would be hot, the refiner had to wear the ancient equivalent of long sleeves. The refining process throws off UV-radiant energy many times that of the sun. The whole process had to be repeated several times in order to get pure silver or gold.

The refining process is an illustration of God’s discipline in the life of a believer. “If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?”
(Hebrews 12:7).

Too often we focus on what we have to suffer in order to be purified for Christ. The emphasis should be the effort, energy, and endurance the Master puts into us to carry out His role of Refiner.

 January 21

O the Hope of Israel, his Savior in time of trouble, Why should You be like a stranger in the land, And like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night?
Jeremiah 14:8

Jeremiah was given a tough message to preach. God’s wrath was going to fall on what was left of Judah. The nation of Israel was already completely destroyed, and those in Jerusalem were soon to die of the sword, sickness, and hunger. On the one hand, 99.9% of the population was going to die, but the good news was that those who were dragged away into slavery would survive, prosper, and return to build Jerusalem up again.

God’s promises are a sure thing. When the exiles saw the completion of God’s judgment on the Jewish people in the Promised land, they chose to believe that the second part would be true also. God’s people set themselves apart from idolatry and clung to the Hope of Israel.

True hope is much more than wishful thinking. It is an expression of faith that is convinced of God’s predicted outcome, even when conventional wisdom would suggest otherwise. It is the belief that God’s Word is a sure thing even though the odds are stacked against you.

Today, Israel is surrounded by more than a billion enemies who have sworn to kill them. Those radicals live in the lands rich in petroleum, so they are able to buy bombs and weapons without hard work or a productive economy. The little land of Israel survives by selling fruit grown in the desert and by being on the cutting edge of technology. This is where the David and Goliath story began. But now, even the United States is turning its back on the apple of God’s eye, and odds have never been worse.

Jeremiah addressed the Hope of Israel as a person (i.e., the Savior). The problem is that Israel today has missed out on her Messiah and, with that denial, has also missed out on the hope God offers.

God has called on His people to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. As we do that, we also need to pray for great revival among the Jewish people that they will receive Yeshua as their Messiah and cling to the Hope of Israel.

 January 5 

Then Pilate asked Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”
He answered and said to him, “It is as you say.”
Mark 15:2

The Old Testament prophesied repeatedly that the Messiah would come to sit on the throne of Israel as a descendant of King David. For this reason, early Jewish scholars used “Son of David” as a Messianic title. The New Testament declares and affirms 17 times that Jesus was, in fact, the King of the Jews.

The wise men from the East sought the newborn King of the Jews and even had a supernatural appearance of a star to confirm their faith assumptions, but they never actually saw the fulfillment of the title (Matthew 2:2).

Roman soldiers mocked the Savior and bowed the knee feigning honor and respect to the King of the Jews. However, their insincerity and unbelief didn’t annul that the title was correctly given (Matthew 27:29).

At His first coming, the chief priests and Jewish leaders rejected Him as their leader and delivered Him up to Roman authorities to be crucified. They protested when Pilate wrote on the sign posted at the cross that He was King of the Jews (John 19:21). They resembled the crowd in Jesus’ parable of the minas who said, “We will not have this man to reign over us”(Luke 19:14).

They were wrong. He was their king and will one day reign on the throne of David in Jerusalem and fulfill all the promises of God made to the Jewish people.

Most Christians are also wrong. It’s not all about us. The promises of an earthly kingdom centered in Jerusalem is for the Jewish people. True, there will be other kingdoms during the millennium, all subject to the King of kings, but first and foremost, Jesus is the King of the Jews.

 January 22