Day by Day

[Soldier4Christ]

"Christmas Forever"

"And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." Luke 1:33

Christmas is about to make its annual journey around the world. Soon the sheet marked December 24th will fall from the calendar at the International Date Line out in the Pacific Ocean and it will be Christmas in New Zealand, in Eastern Asia, and in many islands.

Like a great ray of warm and cheery light, Christmas will move westward in 24 giant steps until it has encircled the earth. It will brighten Japan where hundreds of new converts to Christianity will for the first time experience a blessed Christmas. It will shine on the battlefields of Korea and many a soldier will think of home and long for it more tenderly than he ever has in his life.

The light of Christmas will become rather dim as it passes behind the Iron Curtain and the Bamboo curtain. It will not be as bright in China as it has been in former years, where many Christian missionaries have been sent home, or imprisoned, or murdered by wicked men who insist that they do not believe in God but who are as much afraid of Him as Herod was afraid of the Christ Child when he ruthlessly slaughtered the innocent babes at Bethlehem. But there will be hearts in China and in Russia where the light of Christmas will shine.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the whole history of humanity finds in Christ its center, its direction, and the solution to the sin that is fundamental to all our problems: Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

[Soldier4Christ]

"Getting Ready for Christmas"

A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Isaiah 40:3

If our Christmas is to be truly a Christ festival, we'll have to get ready for it. Those nine melancholy monosyllables in the Christmas story reveal a tragic situation: "There was no room for them in the inn." The innkeeper was not ready for Christ. There were crowds in Bethlehem. The family of David was meeting in grand reunion. Business was good, you know! But the visit of Mary and Joseph and the newborn Christ Child passed quickly and the innkeeper never got to meet the Savior, because he was not ready.

How different it was with aged Simeon! He was waiting for the Christ Child—had been for a long time. Each morning he probably arose with the thought that the day might finally bring the revelation of his Savior. Daily he went to the temple with happy anticipation and full of hope. And what a happy Christmas the old man finally had. With the Christ Child in his arms he sang one of the first great Christmas songs, known to us as the Nunc Dimittis: "Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace … for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." Simeon was ready.

How does one get ready for Christmas—in his soul, I mean, and in his heart? "We get hold of God by the handle of our sins." The true God will not be found in quest of religion. He is waiting for sinners in search of salvation.

[Soldier4Christ]

"I Will Come Again"

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. John 14:3

On one of his several expeditions to the Antarctic, Sir Ernest Shackelton was compelled to leave some of his men on Elephant Island, with the intention of returning for them and taking them back to England. But he was unavoidably delayed and by the time he could go for them, he found to his dismay that the sea had frozen over and that his men were cut off. Three times he tried to reach them, but his efforts ended each time in failure.

At last, as he made his fourth and final effort, he found a narrow channel through the ice. Guiding his small ship back to Elephant Island, he was delighted to find his men not only alive and well, but all prepared to get aboard. Without wasting a moment, they were on their way to safety and home.

After the excitement had abated, Sir Ernest asked his men how it was that they were all ready to get aboard so quickly and with all of their necessary belongings. Then they told him that every morning their leader had rolled up his sleeping bag saying, "Get your things ready, boys, the boss may come today."

The return of the Lord Jesus to this earth is more certain than was the return of Sir Ernest Shackelton to Elephant Island. Christ's promise to come back to claim His redeemed is established on His Word and His character. Christ will come again. Will you be ready when He comes?

[Soldier4Christ]

"Get Out the Book!"

You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me. John 5:39

Get out the Book! Mr. Jake Rachmann, the editor of the popular “Town Tattler” column in the Omaha World Herald, urged his readers, “The Bible is the best seller in the world, but it is the least read of all books.

How many persons can find the Bible they got as a present from their Sunday school or was given to them by their parents as a wedding gift? They don't know where it is. I hope that with my words I was able to jar a few of them to their senses, that they began looking for their Bible and having found it started to read it, for that Book is a Great Book.”

The Bible is a great book because it testifies that Jesus is the true Son of God. It takes you into the palace of the high priest where you hear Jesus Himself tell the high priest that He is the Son of God. It takes you to Bethlehem so that with the shepherds you can see God's own Son clothed in the flesh of man. In this book we see Him weeping, walking with the disciples, sleeping in the boat, suffering in the palace of Pilate, dying on the cross of Calvary.

This Holy Book testifies that the strength we sinners need to walk in the ways of Jesus must come from Jesus, that He is our admittance ticket to heaven. And because it tells us who the true Savior of mankind is, I say to you that it is the greatest of all books.

[Soldier4Christ]

"Behold the Glory of the Christ Child!"

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

No uncertainty lingers in Saint John's mind about the meaning and importance of Christmas. In plain language he testifies, "The Word was made flesh." Jesus Christ, called "the Word" because He conveyed the thoughts and the will of God as the words you speak express your will; that blessed Lord "was made flesh." Christmas, above all else, marks the glorious, victorious truth that the Son of God—eternal praise to His name!—left the majesty of His throne for the lowliness of the manger.

"We beheld His glory," Saint John writes. I submit to you that Saint John knew whereof he spoke. He was with the Savior from the beginning of His public ministry. John saw Christ both in His transfigured glory and in the deep humiliation of His atoning love, when at Calvary the crucified Lord spoke to him the only words directed to a disciple from the cross. When a man thus testifies on the basis of more than three years' personal experience that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that during all this time he beheld His divine glory, such evidence should convince even the most skeptical.

This is the blessed glory of Christmas: when you behold in the Christ Child your God; when you join the entire Christian Church in saying, "I believe … in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary," then you have a God who can wipe away sin, supply every want, defend in every distress, and deliver in every dark hour.

[Soldier4Christ]

"Prepare to Meet Your God"

"Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel." Amos 4:12

How—and may this be the question that clamors for answer in your heart!—how can we prepare to meet the Lord? How can we remove all damning iniquity from our souls and stand purified before the holy God?

As the Advent cry resounds, "Behold your God!" look to Jesus, believing with all your heart that He is your God. Understand this keystone doctrine clearly: Jesus had to be God because no man, no saint, no angel, no legion of cherubim or seraphim, could offer the ransom required for our souls' redemption. He had to be God to bring the one sacrifice by which sin, death, and hell could be defeated forever.

So prepare now to meet your God in Christ, during this busy week. This message may be the last God Almighty will permit you to hear. It may be that, if what I now tell you in Christ's name does not move your heart and bring you, penitent and contrite, to Jesus, nothing in this world will ever save you. When we stand before the throne in eternity, I do not want you to point to me and say, "I heard you on the radio, but you did not tell me of my soul's danger." To prevent that tragedy, forget everything else as we repeat to you that without Christ you can never face God, but with Christ the portals of heaven itself will swing wide amid the hallelujahs of the angels, welcoming you when your hour comes.

Don't delay! Don't postpone! Come now, in the Advent season!

[Soldier4Christ]

"The Light of Life at Bethlehem"

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12

“More light for Christmas!” a New York publisher asks as his eight full-length-column advertisements in the nation's leading newspapers plead for a blaze of illumination in homes, factories, business offices, and public buildings on Christmas Eve. Europe is darkened by blackouts, he reminds us, and America should show the world our free way of life by turning on a flood of Yuletide brightness.

No one should oppose his appeal, especially not under present conditions. This may be the last peace-and-prosperity Christmas America will celebrate in our generation, so let us enjoy light and laughter while we can. We do, however, object to the fact that this light campaign is being waged without a word about the Lord Jesus Christ, whose birth gave us Christmas.

Particularly, must we disagree with the proposal to make these lighted homes what the imposing newspaper advertisements want them to be: evidence of “our faith in the decency and dignity of man.” Was there ever an age in which less value and dignity was attached to men's lives than in these breakdown years, with the mass destruction of human beings in two World Wars? I for one, and millions of Christians with me, place no reliance on our own decency and dignity. At Christmas we reaffirm our trust in God, our confidence in the Christ Child, the Savior of sinners, and the light of life at Bethlehem.

[Soldier4Christ]

"Right Thing"

For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 1 Peter 2:19
   

“No good deed ever goes unpunished.” One of my friends holds to that rather dark perspective of life.

Last week he sent me an article that had just been released by the Associated Press. The story told of how some passengers, waiting to board a plane in Minneapolis, became concerned. The object of their anxiety was a group of six men who were chanting, speaking Arabic, talking about Saddam Hussein and cursing the United States. Concern became fear when the six men boarded the plane and took seats scattered around the cabin. When they asked for the seatbelt extenders and didn’t use them, the observers did what they felt was right. As the government encourages, they reported the suspicious behavior. As a result of those reports the six Muslim clerics were removed from the plane, had their luggage checked by bomb-sniffing dogs, and were questioned at length by the FBI.

That, however, is not the end of the story. The six men hired a lawyer. That lawyer has explained that the clerics had been in Minneapolis for an Islamic convention and that the six men were praying, not cursing. They sat in the seats that had been assigned to them, and they had ordered the extenders because their seatbelts didn’t fit.

The lawyer also explained that the six are suing the airline and threatening to sue some of the passengers who reported them.

Is my friend right in saying, “No good deed ever goes unpunished?” I don’t know. I do know that the Apostle Peter believed Christians must sometimes endure sorrows because they are trying to do what God asks. Peter knew that when the Savior’s people stand up for what they believe is right, the world will not always applaud their commitment or courage. Indeed, Peter believed this so strongly, that by the Holy Spirit’s power he encouraged, “this is a gracious thing, when mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.”

Suffering unjustly. That is certainly what happened to the Savior as He lived His perfect life to save us. Unfairly, He was accused, tried, condemned, and crucified. Still, by Jesus’ gracious act of love, because He endured unjust suffering, we are saved. His sacrifice is our salvation. His suffering is our motivation.

Which is why, even though the government is worried this lawsuit may stop people from reporting “strange” activities, I believe Christians, who are living lives of thanksgiving to the Savior, will continue to do what they believe is right.

[Soldier4Christ]

"Why He Came"

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10
   

Jesse James and his gang held up trains, while Bonnie and Clyde stuck up banks. Both gangs became folk heroes to many people who admired their daring and sang songs about their lack of respect for the establishment.

This is why I’m surprised that no one has composed any poetry praising the crooks who have managed to pull off what might be one of the greatest thefts in history. I’m even more surprised that the news media seems to have given little coverage to the fact that you may have been robbed.

What, you haven’t heard? Let me explain. Last Wednesday, TJX, the company that has 2,500 stores, including T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, reported the theft of 45.7 million credit and debit card numbers. Also taken were the ID numbers, names, addresses, and driver’s license and state ID numbers of 455,000 shoppers. That’s right. Over a period of several years, people in the U.S., Britain, and Canada had their information stolen. The theft is so overwhelming that the company’s representatives admit they may never be able to “identify much of the information believed stolen.”

So far the stolen data has been used to buy $8 million worth of gift cards and electronic goods. Banks, outraged that they will have to cover these illegal purchases, are fearful that this is only the tip of the iceberg.

When Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, He asked, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me?” (Mt. 26:55) It was a legitimate question since throughout His trial He was treated as a thief, and worse.

Nothing could be further from the truth. While thieves are in the business of taking our information, valuables, and good names, Jesus was in the Father’s business of giving. Jesus gave His life, so that with His fulfillment of the law and by His substitution in our death, we might be forgiven of all our sins. Especially in Holy Week we remember how Jesus gave His life upon Calvary’s cross so that all who believe on Him will not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus said it this way, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

[Soldier4Christ]

"Given For You"

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." Matthew 26:26-28
   

It is a dubious distinction. A truck bomb containing two tons of explosives was detonated in the Iraqi town of Tal-Afar. The bomb killed 152 people and wounded 347. The blast destroyed over 100 homes and left a crater 75 feet (23 meters) wide.

It was the deadliest bomb in the four years of fighting in that tortured country.

If anyone ever wonders whether the world needs a Savior, all they need to do is look at the hatred of the suicide bombers who are willing to give their lives to take the lives of the innocent. If anyone ever wonders about the value of the Savior’s sacrifice, all they need to do is read the daily news reports which come out of that country and so many others.

Tonight, Maundy Thursday, many Christians will go to the Lord’s Supper. There, surrounded by people who have been redeemed by the Savior, they will confess their sins and hear the called Servant-of-the-Word offer Jesus’ blood-bought forgiveness.

Then, at the Lord’s table, the pastor will repeat the words of the new Covenant first spoken by our Redeemer so many centuries ago: THIS IS MY BODY. THIS IS MY BLOOD, WHICH IS SHED FOR MANY FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS.

Today, as you prepare yourself for this Meal of Life, spend some time pondering the Redeemer’s words. Think about the wonderful gift that He gives to you and all who will believe in the completeness of His work. They are wonderful, giving words: My Body, My Blood, given for you. In a world where people are offering up their lives to steal and rob the life from others, we have a Savior who gave Himself up so all who believe in Him might be forgiven.

Tomorrow is Good Friday, and we will once again hear that Jesus’ sacrifice was a willing and voluntary offering for us. It was not the nails that kept Him on the cross. It was His love. At any time, the Savior could have accepted the challenge of the unsaved thief and come down from the accursed tree. That, however, was not why Jesus had been born, died, lived, and rose. Jesus came to voluntarily give His life as a ransom. Ponder His words. “I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” (John 10: 17b-18a) Then, having remembered His commitment to you, give thanks for Him.

[Soldier4Christ]

"Christ Died For Us"

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
   

Today is Good Friday. Today, I remember the Savior who showed His love by dying for a sinner like me.

It is true that I didn’t fall asleep as the disciples did in the Garden of Gethsemane, but it is also true that there have been many times when I have promised to pray for someone and didn’t, or when my mind wandered at Sunday worship as the pastor prayed for those who had a special need of body or soul.

Today is Good Friday. Today, I remember the Savior who showed His love by dying for a sinner like me.

It is true that my lips never betrayed the Savior with a kiss as did Judas, but it is equally true there have been many times when I spoke unkindly about those who needed to be built up, revealed the personal confidence of a friend, or spoke the Lord’s name with a curse and not in praise.

Today is Good Friday. Today, I remember the Savior who showed His love by dying for a sinner like me.

It is true that I didn’t call for the Savior’s crucifixion, as did the mob outside Pilate’s palace, but I must confess that I kept silent when injustice was being done. I must admit to those moments when my voice was stilled when it should have shared the Savior.

Today is Good Friday. Today, I remember the Savior who showed His love by dying for a sinner like me.

It is true that I did not wield the hammer and nails at Christ’s crucifixion as did the Roman soldiers, but it is also true that my hands have not reached out to those who were in desperate need. I have not worked to help those who had no one to turn to and no one to count on.

Today is Good Friday. Today, I remember the Savior who showed His love by dying for a sinner like me.

Today, and every day, I must confess that I have not wept at the sight of Jesus’ suffering as did the women of Jerusalem. I must admit that I have not faithfully stood at the foot of the cross, as did Jesus’ mother and friends. I must acknowledge that I have neither defended the innocence of my Lord, as did the thief who hung by His side, nor have I made confession of my faith, as did the centurion at the foot of the cross.

Today is Good Friday, and in my confession, I rejoice that the Savior offers complete forgiveness to a sinner like me.

[Soldier4Christ]

"Have You Room for the Christ Child?"

And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:7

Luke tells us that “because there was no room for them in the inn,” Mary laid her newborn Son in a manger. It was not by accident that the Savior's birthplace was in the small province of despised Judea, a vanquished, plundered country. The village of Bethlehem was small even according to that day's impoverished standards, and the manger was the humblest spot of that village.

These details were part of a divine plan to show God’s mercy. Christ, through whom this universe and its vastness came into being, loved every one of us with a heavenly devotion so wide that for the ransoming of our souls from death He became man.

This lowly birth at Bethlehem foreshadows the free approach every sinner can have to the sin-bearing Savior. Suppose Jesus had been born in a royal palace. How He would have been guarded that only a select few might behold Him from a distance! But no guards surround a stable. No certificates are demanded for the inspection of a public manger. Did this not reflect the full grace of the infant Jesus? As the shepherds, far down on the scale of human society in that day, were the first to hasten to the manger, today every one of us has the unconditional invitation of Jesus: “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” As sinners we can go to Him just as we are, trusting only but wholly in the power of His blood to save us to the uttermost.

[Soldier4Christ]

"Good Tidings of Great Joy"

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11

These words of the Gospel of Luke express the two sacred, eternal, glorious central truths of the Christmas tidings. Deny one, and you have removed the granite blocks upon which the temple of our faith rests. Deny the other, and you have destroyed the girders that strengthen its towering structure. A Savior has been born for you, and He is Christ the Lord.

If you are the man or woman who has never done anything, said anything, or thought anything that dishonors or distresses your God, injures your fellow men or yourself; if you are a paragon of perfection whose hands have always been active in behalf of truth and justice and faith, whose heart has always beat in measured sympathy with your unfortunate brothers; if your mind has always dwelt on the pure, the clean, the noble, then turn off your radio! You do not need my message! You do not need Christmas!

I am not arguing that you need a Savior. You know your own life better than I do. The voice of Scripture, with its multiplied pronouncements on the depravity of the human race, has placed this tragic truth above the possibility of debate: we are all sinners! I am simply bringing you the plain truth that Christmas, with its heart-warming appeal and its soul-lifting promise, asks us not to surrender to the folly and blindness of striving for our own peace and pardon, but to believe, with all the radiance and rejoicing of this blessed day, that “in the city of David, a Savior” was born.

[Soldier4Christ]

"God’s Unspeakable Gift"

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! 2 Corinthians 9:15

When Saint Paul calls Christ God's “unspeakable gift,” he is not polishing his style with impressive phraseology. The blessing of the Savior's Gospel was as inexplicable to him as it must be to us. The apostle uses a term here which means one cannot bring out or express the blessing, the fullness, the glory, the riches, the value, of this divine gift.

Equally “unspeakable” is the mercy granted to us in the birth of Jesus. It has been custom to remember with our gifts those who are near and dear to us, to whom we are bound by ties of friendship or indebted by obligation. The great gift of Christ is granted not to God's friends, but to His enemies, to those who in their sins have risen up against God and declared war against the Almighty.

Christ came to save. Blessed assurance! But more: He came to “save … to the uttermost,” so that no sin is too great, no sinner too vile, to be blessed, when penitent and believing, by this gift. No conditions are attached to this gift of God in Christ. It is the free, gracious, unearned, unmerited gift of God to those who with the humility of the shepherds and the reverence of the Magi believe with a personal and trusting faith that Jesus is the ransom of their souls. Christ came to save. But more: He came to bring with His salvation doubt-destroying conviction. The gift of His grace gives the exultant conviction that nothing in life or death “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.”

[Soldier4Christ]

"The Greatest Gift of All"

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

At the manger in Bethlehem there are no restrictions or distinctions. “God so loved the world”—the entire human race from pole to pole—from the first moment of its existence until the last moment when this world crumbles into everlasting decay! Before the cradled Christ child there are no Nordics or Slavs or Semites. There are no destitute, like the 20,000,000 plus who are fed by the open hand of public or private charity. Before the Christ child there are no barriers separating capitalists from laborers, doctors of philosophy from illiterates, freemen from slaves, Protestants from Catholics, or Jews from Gentiles.

The angelic message, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord,” is treasured in the hearts of hundreds of millions, from the poorest and the most underprivileged men and women to internationally acclaimed geniuses, statesmen, and leaders.

No matter who you are or what you are, God loves you. Will you not resolve: “Let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass”? True, we cannot understand the immeasurable mercy by which Christ loved this world. We have our Christmas gift lists for our family and friends and for those—how ashamed we ought to be, and yet how true this often is!—who must be remembered because they remember us. But, above our knowledge and understanding is God's worldwide, eternal gift list from which no name is omitted. Only the sinner himself, rebellious, unbelieving, blasphemous, can cross off his own name.