A Daily Devotional

[Soldier4Christ]

No More Tears

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away" (Revelation 21:4).

Surely this is one of the most glorious promises in the Bible! No more suffering, no more sorrow, no more death! In this present life, in this present world, every one of us must endure suffering and sorrow in various degrees, and eventually death. But our gracious Savior "hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows" and because "the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. . . . He was cut off out of the land of the living" (Isaiah 53:4,6,8), and He endured for us the awful suffering of death on the cross.

In dying, however, He defeated death, rose from the grave, and is now alive "for evermore" (Revelation 1:18). Thus He can promise immortal physical bodies that will never die again to all who trust Him.

How can He do such a thing? He "shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself" (Philippians 3:21). "The dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (I Corinthians 15:52).

The believers of pre-Christian days will also share in these blessings. The prophet Isaiah recorded a beautiful promise to them, as well as us, hundreds of years before Christ came to make it possible. "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the earth: . . . And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him . . . we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation" (Isaiah 25:8-9).

[Soldier4Christ]

In the Spirit

"For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father" (Ephesians 2:18).

We cannot see or hear the Holy Spirit, but He is very real and is, in fact, the very life of each true Christian. It is only through Him that we have access in prayer to the Father, as our text points out. Christ in His resurrection body is seated at the right hand of the Father in the distant heavens, but the Holy Spirit has His temple in our very bodies.

He not only hears each spoken prayer, but also each thought of our hearts. From the moment we receive Christ, we live in the Spirit; He is always with us, to guide our steps, to bear witness with our spirits that we belong to God, to illumine our understanding and, when needed, to convict and chasten when we get out of His will.

Therefore, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25). When we yield to some worldly temptation, it is because we have ignored this admonition for the promise is "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16). The very presence of the Holy Spirit assures our eternal salvation, so how can we ignore His holy constraints on our behavior? "Grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Ephesians 4:30). We speak of worshiping God in church, or home, or elsewhere, but if we really worship Him, we must "worship God in the spirit" (Philippians 3:3), for we have access to the Father, and the Son, only in the Spirit.

When we pray, we must be "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:18). "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. . . . For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Romans 8:9,14).

[Soldier4Christ]

Jesus Sees and Cares

"Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise" (John 5:19).

What the Father sees, the Son sees, and what the Father does, the Son does, for "I and my Father are one," said the Lord Jesus (John 10:30). God sees everything, of course, for "the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good" (Proverbs 15:3), but it is noteworthy that there are just seven occasions where John's gospel stresses specifically that Jesus saw a particular event and then took special action to do something about it.

At Jesus' baptism, two seekers followed Him and "Jesus turned, and saw them following" (John 1:38). He invited them to come and they followed Him from that day on. Nathanael, a devout Jew, also followed Him when Jesus said: "When thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee" (v.48).

There was an incurable cripple at a pool and "When Jesus saw him lie" (v.6), He said, "Rise, . . . And immediately the man was made whole" (5:8-9). There was a hungry multitude: "Jesus then lifted up His eyes, and saw a great company come unto Him," and He prayed, and soon "they were filled" (6:5,12).

Next, Jesus "saw a man which was blind from his birth," and soon the once-sightless man could testify, "whereas I was blind, now I see" (9:1,25). Not only the lame and blind, but also the grieving came to His attention. When Mary's brother Lazarus died, Jesus "saw her weeping." Then "Jesus wept" and soon "he that was dead came forth" (11:33,35,44). Finally, even while Christ was dying on the cross, He "saw His mother" and provided for her care (19:26).

Jesus sees those who hurt, or grieve, or hunger, and He cares. For, after all, He is our Father.

[Soldier4Christ]

From Darkness to Light

"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness" (Genesis 1:3-4).

The initial aspect of God's newly created world was one of darkness in the presence of the all-pervading waters. Since "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (I John 1:5), the darkness had to be specially created (Isaiah 45:7) before God could then call for the light to appear in the darkness.

This would later serve as a striking picture of the entrance of light into the darkness of a soul born in sin. "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (II Corinthians 4:6). The light enters our soul by His Word. "The entrance of thy words giveth light" (Psalm 119:130).

This great theme, contrasting the darkness of the soul without Christ to the glorious light He brings when that soul receives Him by faith, is found often in Scripture. "|Christ| hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" (I Peter 2:9). "The darkness is past, and the true light now shineth" (I John 2:. Jesus even called Himself that true light which divided the light from the darkness. "I am the light of the world," He claimed; "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12).

And because we have received the true light, we should henceforth live in the light of His truth. "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light" (Ephesians 5:. "Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light" (Romans 13:12). God's light is good. In the Holy City "there shall be no night there" (Revelation 22:5).

[Soldier4Christ]

"Cataclysmed" with Water

"Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished" (II Peter 3:6).

In comparing the intensity and global extent of the coming judgment of sinful mankind, "in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up" (v.10), to the intensity of the historic judgment of sinful man at the time of the Flood (the denial of which constitutes willful ignorance, v.5), Peter uses extraordinary language. The word "overflowed" in our text translates the mighty Greek word, katakluzo, from which we get our word "cataclysm."

In the Greek New Testament, this word is only used to refer to Noah's Flood (see Matthew 24:38-39; Luke 17:27; II Peter 2:5); other words were used for other, local floods (see Luke 6:48 and Revelation 12:15). Such a distinction is likewise borne out in the Old Testament. The Hebrew word for "Flood" used over and over again in Genesis 6-11 is mabul (see also Psalm 29:10) and stands as qualitatively distinct from other lesser floods, both of water and figuratively of invading armies, or the Red Sea crossing.

As a matter of fact, God promised that Noah's Flood would be different from all other water floods (Genesis 9:11), in that it was a display of God's awful wrath on sinful mankind and the world infected by that sin.

And that is the point. "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). It always has been, always will be. God is not the sort of God who will allow sin to go unpunished. His holy nature demands the punishment of death for sin.

But just as "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord" (Genesis 6:, so do believers of today. The penalty for sin is indeed death, but "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23).

[Soldier4Christ]

The Dark Valleys

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me" (Psalm 23:4).

There are many dark valleys mentioned in Scripture, and these typify the many sufferings and hard experiences through which the people of God must pass. "For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake" (Philippians 1:29).

The valley of Achor--which means "trouble"--was so named because sin in the camp of God's people had caused great defeat for their armies there (Joshua 7:25-26). Willful sin inevitably must result eventually in a trek through the dark vale of trouble and defeat.

Then there is the vale of tears called Baca, or "weeping." Opinions differ as to whether this was an actual valley in Israel, but it came to symbolize a time of deep loss and sorrow. Repentance and restitution will lead one out of the valley of Achor, but God's comfort will guide through Baca. "Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee. . . . Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well. . . . They go from strength to strength" (Psalm 84:5-7).

Perhaps the darkest valley of all is the valley of the shadow of death. All must enter that valley once at least--some may even travel it often before its thick darkness finally conquers them. For those without Christ it is a valley of great fear; there have been multitudes "who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Hebrews 2:15).

But for those who know the Lord, they need fear no evil for God is with them. Even His guiding staff and buffeting rod are comforting for they prove the love of the Shepherd. No wonder the 23rd Psalm is the most requested passage of Scripture by those deep in this dark valley.

[Soldier4Christ]

Much Yet to Do

"Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the Lord said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed" (Joshua 13:1).

There is no set "retirement age" for the Christian, for there is always "yet very much land to be possessed." Joshua had survived forty years in the wilderness, then led in the long hard conquest of Canaan, and was now at least 80 years of age. Not only was he "old and stricken in years," but God even told him he was old! But instead of allowing him to settle down to enjoy a few retirement years in his hard-won new home, God merely sent Joshua out once again for still further conquests.

That must always be the case with those who love and serve the Lord. There is still much Scripture to study and learn, many people yet to reach with a gospel witness, many with whom to share God's love and comfort, much money yet to be earned to give to missions. Even those who must retire from active service, or become confined at home, still have much praying to accomplish.

No one who knows the redemptive love of Jesus Christ is ever too old to possess more "land" for the Lord. "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing" (Psalm 92:12-14).

Old age eventually comes to everyone who survives youth and middle age, but that does not mean it is time to quit. "O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have showed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to everyone that is to come" (Psalm 71:17-18).

[Soldier4Christ]

Without Form and Void

"I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light" (Jeremiah 4:23).

The language in this verse is clearly patterned after Genesis 1:2, the description of the primordial earth: "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." That it is a metaphor, however, and not an actual reference to that primordial earth is evident from its context. The previous verse speaks of "my people" (that is, the people of Judah) and the following verse of "the mountains" (there were no mountains as yet at the time of Genesis 1:2).

Furthermore, the broader context makes it plain that the prophet is speaking of a coming judgment on the land of Judah because of the rebellion of its people against their God (verse 16 specifically mentions Judah, and verse 31 mentions Zion). The land is to be so devastated that the prophet compared its future appearance to the unformed and barren earth at its very beginning.

This ultimate fulfillment will be at Armageddon. The same Hebrew words (tohu for "without form," and bohu for "void") occur again in this context in an awesome scene of judgment described by Isaiah: "For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations" (34:2), gathered together in the former land of Edom to fight against Jerusalem when Christ returns, "and He shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion |i.e., tohu|, and the stones of emptiness |i.e., bohu|" (34:11). Instead of the regular surveyor's line and markers ordering the property boundaries, God's judgment will bring such disorder and barrenness to the land that it almost will seem to revert back to its primeval state at the beginning of time. "Nevertheless we, . . . look for new heavens and a new earth" (II Peter 3:13), and that earth will be beautiful and bountiful with "no night there" (Revelation 22:5).

[Soldier4Christ]

False Prophets and True

"And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many" (Matthew 24:11).

In the apostolic period, two main gifts of the Spirit were those of the apostle and prophet. In fact, the church itself was "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets" (Ephesians 2:20). One function of these men was to receive and transmit God's revelation to His people--first verbally, then eventually written in permanent form in the New Testament. "Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit" (Ephesians 3:5).

The apostle Paul revealed also that such prophecies would cease once they were no longer needed. "When that which is perfect |or `complete'| is come, then that which is in part shall be done away" (I Corinthians 13:9-10). Clearly in the context, this refers to the complete revelation of God. When the last book of the Bible was transmitted to the church by the last living apostle, the Lord warned us neither to "add unto" nor to "take away from the words of the book of this prophecy" (Revelation 22:18-19).

But many false prophets have indeed "gone out into the world" (I John 4:1), just as Jesus warned, and they have "deceived many." One of them, a self-asserted seventh century "prophet" from Arabia, received certain "revelations" from a "god" that were vastly different from those of the God of the Bible, and his followers now number over a billion.

There have been others, before and since, and the Lord Jesus warned us always to "beware of false prophets" (Matthew 7:15). The basic criterion by which to test any alleged prophecy, ancient or modern, is whether or not it fully conforms to the written Word of God, the Bible. "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20).

[Soldier4Christ]

"Very Good"

"And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day" (Genesis 1:31).

On several occasions during the Creation Week, God had declared aspects of His creation as "good" (vv.10,12, 18,21,25). But once His crown of creation was in place, the very image of Himself (vv.26-27), He pronounced it all "very good" and ceased His creative activity (2:1-3).

Just what does it mean to be "very good" in God's eyes? This term is used elsewhere in the Old Testament by men and regarding men, but here God Himself, the sinless, ever-living One, declares creation to be just what He wanted--able to accomplish and fulfill each of His plans and desires for it. Whatever else may be said about this creation, it, at the very least, must have been without death, being a phenomenon anathema to Him.

Death is identified as "The last enemy that shall be destroyed" (I Corinthians 15:26). "Death reigned from Adam to Moses" (Romans 5:14), and "it is appointed unto men once to die" (Hebrews 9:27). Indeed, "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now" (Romans 8:22). The source of this condition is known as the curse pronounced on all of creation due to man's rebellion against God (Genesis 3) as had been promised (2:17). Even today "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23), and since all sin, all must die. Truly, sin has ruined God's original sinless, deathless, "very good" creation.

But the story does not end there. The very Creator who pronounced the awful curse of death as the penalty for sin has Himself died to pay that penalty and one day will repeal the curse (Revelation 22:3) and abolish death (21:4). The creation will be returned to its original created intent, and all will once again be "very good."

[Soldier4Christ]

Living Truths

"He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err" (Mark 12:27).

Sin and death are grim realities in the world, but these are only temporary intruders as it were. The God of creation is the living God; and "Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16) is our living Savior, alive forevermore. It is appropriate, therefore, that the term "living" is applied over and over again to great truths of the Christian faith.

For example, the Holy Scriptures are called "the lively oracles" (Acts 7:38). "Lively" and "living" represent the same Greek word, zao; thus the Bible is God's "living word." Jesus Christ called Himself "the living bread which came down from heaven," sent down by "the living Father" (John 6:51,57). He also promised that all who believe on Him would find "living waters" flowing through their lives (John 7:38).

He has opened for us through His substitutionary death and justifying resurrection "a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh" (Hebrews 10:20). Furthermore, He has thereby "begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (I Peter 1:3).

The Lord Jesus is the foundation of the great house of the Lord into which we come through Him. "To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (I Peter 2:4-5). In this holy temple we are therefore urged to "present |our| bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is |our| reasonable service" (Romans 12:1). Our God is, indeed, the God of the living!

[Soldier4Christ]

Tragic Lot

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful" (Psalm 1:1).

One of the most tragic figures in all of Scripture is that of compromising Lot, Abraham's nephew, who renounced the land of promise for the sinful society of Sodom, ultimately to lose everything of importance.

His slide into apostasy, as traced in Genesis chapters 12-19, seems to parallel the progression described in our text as not becoming a godly believer.

Lot is first mentioned as traveling with Abram and Sarai from their homeland to Canaan in obedience to God's command (Genesis 12:4-5; 13:5). A petty problem arises which surely could have been resolved (13:6-10), but Lot chose (v.11) to walk in the counsel of the ungodly. "But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly" (v.13).

Lot soon found a home in the city itself, not content to merely herd his flocks in the fertile valley. By standing in the way of sinners, when Sodom was attacked by enemies, he was captured (14:12) and later rescued by Abram (vv.14-16).

Lot's identification with wicked Sodom did not end there, as it should have, for when the city's wickedness was beyond God's forbearance, Lot was found sitting in the seat of the scornful, a leader of the city, sitting in the gates with the town fathers (19:1). Lot was a "just" |or "righteous"| man, "vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked" (II Peter 2:7), but his actions (Genesis 19: and his lack of spiritual influence even within his own family (vv.14-16, 31-38) testify to the horror of such a compromising lifestyle.

May God grant us all the persevering faith of Abraham and not the compromising faith of Lot.

[Soldier4Christ]

The Beauty of Holiness

"Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness" (Psalm 29:2).

When King David transported the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem he delivered a special psalm into the hands of Asaph and the other musicians. In it he exalted the Lord: "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name: bring an offering, and come before Him: worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness" (I Chronicles 16:29).

Psalm 96:6 discusses this beauty: "Honor and majesty are before Him: strength and beauty are in His sanctuary." Verse 9 gives further clarification when it states, "O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before Him, all the earth." This is not an outward beauty, for the prophet told of Christ that "when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him" (Isaiah 53:2). Rather, it is a beauty of character . . . an inward righteousness. It was the searching of this beauty that became David's life mission: "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple" (Psalm 27:4).

This Scriptural phrase occurs again during the reign of King Jehosophat. The prophet had predicted a great victory if Israel would just believe and let God do the fighting. II Chronicles 20:21-22 records, "And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army." In glorifying God's beauty Jehosophat enjoyed a tremendous victory.

Still today believers should seek to meditate upon God's beauty and let it radiate from our lives. "And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us" (Psalm 90:17)

[Soldier4Christ]

Justification

"And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation" (Genesis 7:1).

This is the first mention of the great doctrine of justification in the Bible--that is, being seen as "righteous" by God. The same Hebrew word is translated "just" in Genesis 6:9: "Noah was a just man." The reason Noah was seen as righteous and therefore as just, or justified before God, was that "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord" (Genesis 6:. This is the first mention of "grace" in the Bible. The first mention of "faith" or "belief" is also associated with justification: "|Abraham| believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness" (Genesis 15:6).

Thus, in the Old Testament and certainly in the New, justification is by grace through faith. "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" and also "being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 3:24; 5:1).

Justification--that is, being seen and proclaimed as perfectly righteous, even in spite of past sins--must of course be authorized by God the Creator. "It is God that justifieth" (Romans 8:33). That God can indeed be both "just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Romans 3:26) is based entirely on the substitutionary death and bodily resurrection of Christ who conquered death. "Being now justified by His blood," the Lord Jesus Christ "was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification" (Romans 5:9; 4:25).

Now, although we are freely justified by grace through faith, such justification inevitably generates good works also, for "by works a man is justified, and not by faith only" (James 2:24).

[Soldier4Christ]

The Finger of God

"This they said, tempting Him, that they might have to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground, as though He heard them not" (John 8:6).

During His earthly ministry Jesus never wrote a book or any other document, so far as we know, but it is recorded that He wrote with His own finger in the sand, and that what He wrote turned away those who had sought to stone a woman caught breaking one of God's Ten Commandments.

The woman was repentant, however, and Jesus forgave her, evidently indicating this by what He wrote with His finger on the ground. This He could do because He, as God, had written this very commandment Himself with His own finger long before. "And He gave unto Moses . . . two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God" (Exodus 31:18). Moses testified: "And the Lord delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the Lord spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly" (Deuteronomy 9:10).

There are only two other references to the "finger of God" in the Bible. When the Lord through Moses brought the great plagues upon Egypt, Pharaoh's magicians were able to imitate Moses' first few miracles, but soon their deceptive "magic" could no longer compare, and they had to confess, "This is the finger of God" (Exodus 8:19).

There is one final mention of God's finger in the New Testament. When the Pharisees charged that His power to cast evil spirits out of demon-possessed people had been given to Him by Satan, He affirmed rather, "I with the finger of God cast out devils" (Luke 11:20). Jesus is able both to forgive sins and to defeat Satan, because He is the Creator of the universe and all its laws.