A Daily Devotional

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A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear.” (Psalm 46:1-2)
 
Martin Luther’s journal entries inform us of his continual battle against evil forces and that Psalm 46 was a great comfort to him. As he meditated on the words of our text, the thrust of a mighty song was born that openly declared victory in the great battle: “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great,
And, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.
The battle to be fought is “not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). Satan, along with his henchmen, is an ancient foe, “a roaring lion,” as it were, “seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). But there is no need for alarm, “the LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge” (Psalm 46:11). He “is our refuge and strength” (today’s text), a bulwark never failing. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).
 
Only God could accomplish this victory, for Satan is “the prince of this world” (John 14:30), “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2). No man on Earth is his equal.
 
But how did the Son of God gain the victory? By taking on Himself “flesh and blood” and dying a substitutionary death, “that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). JDM

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The Right Man on Our Side

“Behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.” (Luke 22:31-32)
 
Satan wanted Peter to fall, and fall he would (v. 34), but Christ had prayed for him that victory would come. The second verse of “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” reflects our vulnerability on our own and our invincibility on His side.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right man on our side, the man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus it is He,
Lord Sabaoth, His name,
From age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.
After revealing many thrilling blessings, Paul asks: “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). Furthermore, neither “principalities, nor powers” nor any thing else in all creation is “able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). With Him, Satan cannot win the battle for our minds or destinies. But on our own, we cannot win.
 
The term Sabaoth is the Hebrew word for “hosts,” in particular the “host of heaven.” The term Yahweh Sabaoth or “Lord Sabaoth” occurs some 300 times in the Old Testament and constitutes a most majestic name for God. “For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called” (Isaiah 54:5). This is none other than “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8). Creator (Colossians 1:16), Sustainer (v. 17), Redeemer (v. 20)—He must win the battle. JDM

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His Doom Is Sure

“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44)
 
The third verse of “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” focuses on Satan’s end. God has willed triumph through His truth.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear; for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim—we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.
When Satan was cast from heaven, fully a third of the angels fell with him (Revelation 12:4), such that a “legion” of them could inhabit one individual (Mark 5:9). But God has other plans for His children. He desires “to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they might receive forgiveness of sins” (Acts 26:18). He desires us to “resist the devil” (James 4:7) and not “give place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27).
 
He also has plans for Satan, including “everlasting chains under darkness” (Jude 1:6), and “everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). Just one word and Satan will be “cast into the lake of fire and . . . tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 20:10). Jesus, anticipating His execution, spoke of it triumphantly. This had been His Father’s will all along. “Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:31-32), and now the battle is His. JDM

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 His Kingdom Is Forever

“Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith: who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)

The final verse of “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” describes our tools and comportment while in the battle, and the final victory.

That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours thro’ Him who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill:
God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.

As the King’s soldiers, we have God-given abilities and possessions, most notably the indwelling God’s Spirit and empowering gifts. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9). “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:4). We should “fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28) and focus on Him, “denying ungodliness and worldly lusts”—even goods and kindred (Luke 9:60-62), if need be. “We should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:12-13).

As of yet the battle continues. “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (Revelation 3:21), “and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). JDM

[Soldier4Christ]

 Almighty God

“And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.” (Genesis 17:1)

This is the first of 48 occurrences of the designation of God by the term “Almighty” in the Old Testament. There are also nine times in the New Testament where God is called “Almighty,” plus once where He is called “omnipotent.” The last time it occurs is very near the end of the Bible, telling us that there is no special temple in the holy city, “for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it” (Revelation 21:22).

Thus, in the first and last books of the Bible, and often in between, we are reminded that our God is an omnipotent God. As Jeremiah prayed; “Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee” (Jeremiah 32:17).

Sarah “laughed” when God said that she would bear a son in her old age, but God responded: “Is any thing too hard for the LORD?” (Genesis 18:14). Many years later, the angel told the Virgin Mary that she would have a son, and she said: “How shall this be?” (Luke 1:34.) The angel replied: “With God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37).

Some things God cannot do, of course, for “God cannot be tempted with evil” (James 1:13) and He “cannot lie” (Titus 1:2), so whatever He does is right and whatever He says is true. We may not always understand just why He does or says something, but in eternity we shall learn that He was indeed able to do what He says. He is omnipotent!

God did create the cosmos in all its macroscopic complexity and all the living kinds with their microscopic complexity. “I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27). HMM

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Worship the Master Designer

“Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.” (Acts 17:22-23)
 
As the apostle Paul once declared to the scholars in Athens, the whole universe declares the evidence of a Master Designer (Psalm 19:1-4).
 
Even the most uneducated person knows that things don’t just happen. All of our experience in life verifies somebody made the things we use and play with. Red wagons and rag dolls do not pop out of raw dirt. Somewhere, someone makes them. There is a manufacturing process. Even if it is little more than our mother or father, somebody makes the things we come in contact with every day.
 
Once we enter formal schooling, and ultimately when we enter the workforce, we become more and more aware that the houses we live in, the food we eat, the tools we use, the cars we drive, and the clothes we wear all come from a source, a place, a store, a company, and even a specific person or persons who are responsible for making them. Everybody knows that!
 
The common denominator among all the various religious systems and the sequence of empires and tributary nations was this: The reality of our world is so complex, so intertwined with order and purpose, so obviously full of observable cause and effect relationships that supernatural power was required to create it in the first place and to keep it from falling apart over time.
 
Today, we would recognize such observation as a key part of the scientific method! “All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee” (Psalm 145:10). HMM III

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Partakers of the Promise

“That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.” (Ephesians 3:6)
 
There are many Christians who regard themselves as almost exclusively New Testament believers, arguing that the Old Testament was for the Jews under the dispensation of law and thus not applicable to Christians today.
 
Nothing could be further from the truth. While the old animal sacrifices, temple rituals, and Levitical priesthoods have indeed been superseded by Christ’s “one sacrifice for sins for ever” (Hebrews 10:12), there are many “exceeding great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:4) of the Old Testament that can be properly and joyfully appropriated by Christians. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable,” wrote Paul (2 Timothy 3:16), speaking particularly of the Old Testament Scriptures.
 
In the context of our verse for the day, Paul is stressing that his own new revelations, given in connection with the Christian gospel, actually involved bringing Jew and Gentile together as one body in Christ. The “dispensation of the grace of God . . . by revelation he made known unto me,” he wrote, but in previous ages, it had not been “made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit” (Ephesians 3:2-5).
 
And what was it that had not been made known? The hidden mystery was simply “that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs” with the Jews, and therefore “partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6).
 
Thus, Gentile believers can now share in all the gracious promises of God in the Old Testament (e.g., Psalm 23; Isaiah 26:3; etc.), except those directly dealing with the future of Israel as a nation, “that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ” (Galatians 3:14). HMM

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The Excellent Eye

“He that formed the eye, shall he not see?” (Psalm 94:9)
 
Animals benefit from a variety of unique eye designs, but where did eyes come from? Most vertebrates have the classic “camera eye.” It uses a transparent cornea and convex lens to bend images onto a light-sensitive layer of tissue called the retina that lines the back of the eye.
 
The basic design is common among many land-based creatures. For example, spineless squids and octopi use the same basic camera-eye anatomy as vertebrates—albeit with a few optimizations for life underwater. Even some jellyfish use small camera eyes. Random evolutionary accident? Unlikely!
 
Other life forms with an internal backbone use completely different eyes. For instance, the deep sea spookfish uses reflective mirror lenses, not refractive lenses. The chameleon has a pinhole eye design that uses concave lenses instead of convex lenses. These lenses spread out a narrow section of incoming light onto a broader retina. Similar eye designs, but unique features that “just happen” to fit the lifestyle and needs of the specific creature. Similar designs, but very different animals.
 
Those who do not believe in an omnipotent and omniscient Designer must speculate that the same eye designs evolved multiple times in separate organisms. And, since there is absolutely no evidence for any kind of multiple evolutionary episodes, the academic literature is full of magic words like “emerge,” “evolve,” and “appear” instead of a realistic explanation of each supposed gradual step in eye evolution. No wonder Charles Darwin wrote to American botanist Asa Gray in 1860, “The thought of the eye made me cold all over.”
 
“The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3). HMM III
 
Adapted from Unlocking the Mysteries of Genesis by Dr. Henry Morris III.

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When the Foundations Are Destroyed

“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3)
 
The word here for “foundations” is not the usual word for, say, a building foundation. Used rarely, a better translation of this word would be “purpose,” or “basis.” The fear expressed is not that the foundations of our faith might be undermined but that we might lose our sense of purpose.
 
In the context of the psalm, David was in danger of becoming demoralized by the pressures of wicked desires and evil ambitions all around him, and Christians surely have the same problem today. Why should we try to maintain high standards of doctrinal integrity and moral purity when the people around us—even most Christians—seem to be occupied mostly with materialistic ambition and pursuit of pleasure? If we allow the devil to undermine the very purposes God has for our lives, wandering away from His will in favor of some temporal interest, then why even continue with a pretense of Christian living?
 
David’s solution was simply to remind himself that “the LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men” (v. 4). He may allow the righteous to be tried for a season, but we must not forget that “the righteous LORD loveth righteousness” (v. 7) and that “the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth” (v. 5).
 
When we are tempted to wonder whether it is really worth all the effort, and when our very foundation and purpose for living seems to be crumbling, we should remember that our God is Creator, Sustainer, and Judge of all—that He still is on His throne, and that we who belong to Him have been “predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Ephesians 1:11). HMM

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The Delightful Law

“For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” (Romans 7:22)
 
To many people, the law of God is harsh and cruel, consisting of an unreasonable list of “thou shalt nots.” But Scripture teaches that “the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (Romans 7:12). The “old man”—that is, the natural man—“is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts” (Ephesians 4:22), and therefore it is written, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Galatians 3:10).
 
No natural man could ever truthfully say, “I delight in the law of God,” and in our modern world it is even probable that most people have broken at least most of God’s Ten Commandments and often delight in doing so. But the “old man” becomes a “new man” when he accepts Christ as his Savior, for “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made [the] curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). Thus, the “inward man” can thenceforth “delight in the law of God,” as our text says. Not to earn salvation (which we could never do) but because we love to live for Him who died for us.
 
God’s law (and we can understand this now to include even the entire Word of God) indeed becomes our delight. We can say with the psalmist, “Thy law is my delight” (Psalm 119:77). Every one redeemed of the Lord should now find that “his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:2).
 
The old covenant said, in effect, we must keep the law to live. But now, “this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them” (Hebrews 10:16). No longer are the commandments written “in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart” (2 Corinthians 3:3), and we delight in them. HMM

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Our Natural and Spiritual Bodies

“It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” (1 Corinthians 15:43-44)
 
In this portion of this great chapter on the resurrection—first that of Christ, then the future resurrection of the redeemed—death and resurrection are compared to seed-sowing and harvest. When a seed is planted in the ground, it is as though it had died and is buried. For a long time after its “death,” the seed cannot be seen, but finally it rises again as a beautiful flowering plant, or sheaf of grain, or even a lovely tree.
 
Jesus made this same analogy. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24; note also Mark 4:26-29). Our human bodies, because of sin and the Curse, eventually die and are buried; but one day (like the planted seed) they will appear again, but now immortal and glorified, far greater than they were before—that is, of course, if their real inhabitants (their eternal created spirits) have been born again through faith in their already-resurrected Savior.
 
Our new spiritual bodies rising from the grave will be real physical bodies (like that of Jesus after He was raised) but will no longer be under bondage to gravitational and electromagnetic forces as at present, but only to spiritual forces of which we have as yet very little knowledge.
 
We do know, however, that our spiritual bodies will be “fashioned like unto his glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). Although “it doth not yet appear what we shall be. . . . when he shall appear, we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2). Then in our glorious, powerful, spiritual bodies, we as “his servants shall serve him” in love and joy forever (Revelation 22:3). HMM

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Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus

“For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 3:20)
 
The doctrine of verbal inspiration implies that not only are the words of Scripture inspired, but the very order in which they appear is also inspired. Studies by commentators and translators have rightly noted that a change in the order of the words would at times change the meaning or emphasis of a passage. This phenomenon is often seen in the order in which the various names of Christ appear. By noting this order, one may sometimes gain new insight into a passage.
 
While the name Jesus, alone, normally appears in the gospels and the book of Acts, the compound name Jesus Christ appears on occasion. Interestingly, the same compound name is used exclusively by the disciples John and Peter in their letters, and by James and Jude, the brothers of our Lord. Of course, these men knew Him first by His human name, Jesus, and only fully comprehended the fact that He was the Christ (meaning “the Anointed,” or “the Messiah”) after His resurrection and ascension.
 
Paul, on the other hand, first encountered Christ in all His glory on the road to Damascus. Perhaps, as a consequence, he frequently reversed the order, speaking of Christ Jesus, although he used both orders many times.
 
The reason for this choice of order perhaps can best be illustrated in Philippians 2:5-11. In verse 5, Paul described the Anointed One, who first emptied Himself of certain aspects of His deity to take on human form. Therefore, Paul used the name Christ Jesus. In verse 11, however, the order is reversed. In this case, as in our text, the movement is from humanity to glory. In one, the glory of the risen Savior is emphasized; in the other, the glory that we shall share with Him. This glory is assured us through His victory. JDM

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Our Advocate in Heaven

“Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.” (Job 16:19)
 
It is significant that here, in what is probably the oldest book in the Bible, two vitally important New Testament truths are anticipated. Job somehow knew that he (and, by implication, every other person as well) has a “record” in heaven. This is the only occurrence of this word (sahed) in the Bible, but it basically means that our works, good or bad, have been recorded by God in heaven concerning how we have used or abused our stewardship here on Earth.
 
And the record inevitably testifies against us, “for there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). At God’s throne of judgment, when “the dead [are] judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works,” then “whosoever [is] not found written in the book of life [is] cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:12, 15).
 
But how can we know that our names will be in God’s book of life in that day? Thankfully, even Job knew, in his long-ago time, that “my witness is in heaven.” Here the word (Hebrew ed) speaks of a formal personal witness who can testify on our behalf, one who “might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor!” (Job 16:21).
 
Job somehow knew that such a witness was there, for he could also say, “I know that my redeemer liveth” (Job 19:25). In the light of the New Testament record, we know that this Redeemer and Witness is none other than the Lord Jesus. “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:1-2). That is, He is the “sacrifice” for our sins and thus can redeem us from sin’s penalty and thereby serve as our defense witness in heaven. Our record of sin and guilt has been washed clean with the precious blood of Christ. HMM

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The Dazzling Spider

“The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces.” (Proverbs 30:28)
 
There is incredible detail and beauty in a typical spider web. Scientists have found that web strands are comparable in strength to fused quartz fibers. Zoologists discovered that spiders have one to four pairs of spinnerets located in their abdomen (the normal number are three pairs). In addition, there are seven silk glands, each making a strand for a unique purpose.
 
One silk gland produces thread for cocoons and another for wrapping up the prey. The two seem to be the same, but they require especially designed silk. Other glands make the walking thread so the spider doesn’t get snagged herself, while another makes the sticky material that captures the juicy dinner. Some of the finer threads are almost invisible to us unless the light is reflected just right. Yet spider silk is strong! Typically it has a tensile strength five times that of steel and elasticity—strong enough to stop a lumbering bumblebee at full speed.
 
Each spider engineers a style of web characteristic of its species and builds it perfectly on the first try. These complex glands and intricate design patterns have every evidence of design. It is obvious that the spider does not have the intelligence in its brain to learn how to do this. It is equally obvious that the ability to do so is already designed into the genetic instructions that were placed in the original spiders by their Creator.
 
Our text begins by Solomon noting “four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise,” and he lists the spider as one of those that are “wise.” Perhaps we could learn “wisdom” from them. HMM III

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The Invisible Law

“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead.” (Romans 1:20)
 
Are you aware that all science rests on an invisible law of science? The most certain and universal of all scientific principles is that of causality, or the law of cause and effect. The implications of this principle have been fought over vigorously in theological and philosophical disciplines, but there is no question of its universal acceptance in the world of experimental science, as well as in ordinary experience.
 
Every event can be traced to one or more events that preceded it and, in fact, caused it. A scientific experiment specifically tries to relate effects to causes in the form of quantitative equations, if possible. Thus, if a scientist repeats the same experiment with exactly the same elements, then exactly the same results should be produced.
 
The very basis of the highly reputed scientific method is this very law of causality. Effects are in and like their causes, and like causes produce like effects. That is, everything that happens contains the “stuff” that made it happen.
 
Nothing can come from nothing—everything has a cause. Everything we can observe—up and out to the seemingly infinite reaches of our universe or down and into the miniscule pieces of the world of the nature of matter—is exceedingly complex and fascinatingly related to everything else.
 
Rather than looking for a “god particle” that is the source of everything, why not trust what the Creator has said: “In the beginning was the Word. . . . All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1, 3). HMM III