A Daily Devotional

[Soldier4Christ]

Creating Life

“And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.” (Genesis 1:20)
 
The two most fundamental laws of science state that matter can neither be created nor destroyed and that all processes tend to lose order, wear out, and eventually stop functioning. This is particularly significant when considering the origin of life.
 
Creation is an act of omnipotence and omniscience. Creation requires the bringing into existence of something that did not exist before. Creation even requires a unique word to define it! God had created (something from nothing) on Day One. God had then used the material of Day One to make everything else, including the stars, the sun, and the moon.
 
On Day Five, God created life. First were the water creatures and then the air creatures—“abundantly” throughout the planet. These living things were created, not made. On Day Six, He continued creating the “cattle,” “beasts of the earth,” and “creeping things” that would live on the dry land. They were very different from the air and water creatures, but they shared the created life that set them apart from the food that had the ability to reproduce “after its kind.”
 
After a close friend of the Lord Jesus had sickened and died, Jesus went to visit with the remaining sisters. As they were all grieving at the untimely loss, Christ revealed a core attribute of His diety: “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life” (John 11:25). Herein lies the source of “livingness”! Furthermore, Jesus promised, “He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 1:25-26). Do you believe this? HMM III

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The Good Confession

“I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession.” (1 Timothy 6:13)
 
Young Timothy also had “professed a good profession [same word as ‘confession’] before many witnesses” (v. 12), evidently of similar substance and quality to that in the witness of Christ before Pilate. When the Jews urged Pilate to condemn Jesus to death, their charge was that “he made himself the Son of God” (John 19:7). Pilate gave Jesus opportunity to deny this charge and save His life, “but Jesus gave him no answer” (v. 9). Both by His silence, when a denial of the charge could have saved Him, and by His open testimony before Pilate that He was, in fact, a King from heaven itself—indeed “the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Timothy 6:15)—it becomes clear that our own “good confession” must be a confession of our faith in Jesus Christ as Son of God, our Savior and Lord, especially when that confession is made openly before hostile witnesses.
 
Jesus said: “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32). Paul said, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9); and John said, “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God” (1 John 4:15).
 
Despite the great blessings awaiting all who make a courageous and good confession of saving faith in Christ, most people will refuse until it is too late. There is a time coming, however, when “every tongue [will] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11). HMM

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What Is Life?

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3)
 
We often overlook the fact that the Bible text uses a unique word for “life” that is never applied to plants and vegetation. The word choice of the Holy Spirit is chay (and its derivatives) and occasionally the word chayah. Together, those words are used 763 times in the Old Testament—never applying that quality to plants or vegetation. Plants are food.
 
Another unique fact about living things is that they move. “God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth” (Genesis 1:21). The Hebrew word is ramas, used 17 times in the Old Testament. It is used to describe birds gliding through the atmosphere. It is used of insects “sneaking” around on the floor of the earth. It is used of large beasts “stalking” and moving freely through the wild lands of the earth. Living things have the ability to move independently. Plants do not.
 
“The life of the flesh is in the blood,” announces Leviticus 17:11. The concept is pretty simple. If a moving creature has blood, it is alive. Life also has nephesh—the Hebrew word for “soul”—perhaps best equated with the self-conscious awareness that “I” exist.
 
The other noncorporeal term used by the Holy Spirit to describe and define life is the Hebrew word ruwach. Of the 389 times that word appears, it is most often translated “spirit.” Lots of mystery here, but it is very clear that living things are not plants!
 
Humans have all of the above qualities and share them with other living things. But we were especially created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). That makes an enormous difference. HMM III

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Scripture Says/God Says

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16)
 
Among the many evidences for verbal inspiration, both within and without Scripture, is the frequent interchange of God recognized as the author of a particular passage with the human author who actually penned it. This can be true only if the very words recorded by the various authors are “God breathed” (the meaning of “inspiration”).
 
For example, the early Christians exclaimed, “Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?” (Acts 4:24-25), thereby recognizing that God spoke through David, who wrote God’s words in Psalm 2:1-2.
 
Likewise, Paul, in his masterful dissertation on God’s sovereignty, claimed “the scripture saith unto Pharaoh” (Romans 9:17) that which God Himself had spoken unto Moses (Exodus 9:13). In other words, what Scripture says, God says.
 
Even Christ Jesus, who Himself had written with His finger “honour thy father and thy mother” (Exodus 20:12) on tables of stone, personally ascribed the authorship of the passage to Moses (Mark 7:10). Evidently to Christ, there was no difference. That which Moses had written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and in this case what he had copied from the stone tablet, was fully the Word of God.
 
We can be sure that what Scripture says, God says. “That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:17). We can trust our lives on Earth, our view of history, and our eternal destiny to what is written on the pages of Scripture. JDM

[Soldier4Christ]

I Am

“And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” (Mark 14:62)
 
After His arrest, “the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put him to death; and found none” (Mark 14:55). Then they got their sought-after witness from Jesus Himself when the high priest asked Him: “Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” (v. 61), and it only took two words from Him. “I Am!”
 
As a matter of fact, this was not the first time He had thus identified Himself as the self-existent, eternal God. On an earlier occasion in Jerusalem, He had told the Pharisees: “I am the light of the world,” and then, “I am from above: . . . I am not of this world. . . . If ye believe not that I am, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:12, 23-24; the “he” in verse 24 is not in the Greek original).
 
He made this especially clear a few minutes later when He asserted: “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). But when He finally made this wonderfully truthful claim in the presence of the council, “they all condemned him to be guilty of death” (Mark 14:64). He had committed the capital crime of blasphemy in their opinion, by claiming to be God.
 
“I am” is, in fact, the very name of God. When Moses, at the burning bush, was called by God to deliver the Israelites from slavery, God said His name was “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14). The name Jehovah (or Yahweh), the most frequently used name of the Lord in the Old Testament, is essentially this name.
 
One can count at least 196 “I am” claims of God in Christ (“I am the way, the truth, and the life,” for example—John 14:6) in the Bible. Truly, our Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal, self-existent God, “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last” (Revelation 22:13). HMM

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God’s Image

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (Genesis 1:27)
 
On Days Five and Six, God created living things. First were the water and air creatures throughout the planet. On Day Six, He created the “cattle,” “beasts of the earth,” and “creeping things” that would live on the dry land. They were very different from the air and water creatures but shared the “life” that was so different from plants, which were designed as food.
 
Then, God paused for a very specific purpose. He wanted to create a being that would bear His image and be in His likeness. You may recall that God took some of the dirt that was created on Day One and “sculpted” a body and breathed into this unique body (God made only one) the “breath of life.”
 
These special biblical terms—image, a representative form of another form, and likeness, a copy (stronger word)—are only used of humans. While that may not seem that significant, there are a lot of Bible passages that speak of animals. None of them ever speak of any animal having the image or likeness of God.
 
The shape and capabilities of man are unique. When we read that God formed the body of Adam from the dirt of the ground and later made the body of Eve (Genesis 2:7, 21-22), we are being told that these two living creatures were unique among all of the rest of creation. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). HMM III

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God’s Steward

“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)
 
There are many Bible passages that speak of animals, but none of them ever speak of any animal having the image or likeness of God. On the other hand, there are many references that insist that God intended for man to “take over” God’s creation and function as the steward of Earth in God’s place.
 
Please notice the authority. Man was to “have dominion” over all other life, to “fill” Earth, and “subdue” the planet. All authority is delegated authority—God the Creator is still the Owner. If we are to understand the uniqueness of human life, we must first grasp the significance of this authority.

For thou hast made [man] a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. (Psalm 8:5-8)
God’s authority is the basis for action (Matthew 28:18-19; Daniel 7:14). His Word is still the source of ultimate truth (John 14:6; 17:17). His steward (man) is still responsible to the Creator (Isaiah 45:18-22). As we “uncover” the processes of Earth, we are to exercise the delegated authority to “rule” so that we can “fill” the planet that the Creator has designed—“to the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:6). HMM III

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The Fossils’ Tale

“Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.” (2 Peter 3:6)
 
Billions of dead creatures are entombed in cubic miles of water-deposited rock layers. The story they tell is hotly debated in our educational institutions. But one thing is very clear—sometime in our planet’s past “all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died” (Genesis 7:21-22).
 
If life sprang into being from non-life, and if that life, once generated, changed over time into more and more complex systems, then those events must have happened outside of our current environment. Since we do not find evidence of such large biological changes happening in the present, we must look to find it among the fossils preserved for us in the planet’s sedimentary deposits.
 
At first glance, all would agree that these enormous deposits speak of a vast water catastrophe that inundated the entire planet. The Bible tells us that such a planet-covering water catastrophe did take place (Genesis 7:11-12, 19).
 
Those who refuse to accept the biblical record must deny that such a flood ever took place. They must also attempt to tell a story (without God in the story) of processes and conditions that could produce the worldwide deposits of sedimentary rock and the billions of fossils they contain. Job understood that we should “speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this?” (Job 12:8-9). HMM III

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The Infinite Wisdom and Knowledge of God

“In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Colossians 2:3)
 
One of the most amazing of the divine attributes is God’s omniscience. He not only understands all the complexities of relativistic science and higher mathematics, He ordained them in the first place! The same applies to every other discipline of study and activity.
 
And He knows all about each of us! “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off” (Psalm 139:1-2).
 
As far as human knowledge is concerned, it is vital to know that “the fear of the LORD” is the very foundation of “knowledge” and of “wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7; 9:10). All the greatest scientists of the past acknowledged that they were seeking merely to “think God’s thoughts after Him.”
 
How foolish it is to ignore or to oppose God! There are only four places in the Bible that speak of God laughing (Psalm 2:4; 37:13; 59:8; Proverbs 1:26), and each of them describes His response to such folly.
 
Instead, we should marvel at all the wonders of His creation and providence. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33).
 
Our text verse above (Colossians 2:3) is actually referring explicitly to the Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten and eternal Son of God. It is He who has given us access to the Creator God and therefore access to the divine knowledge and understanding. Part of the still-effective dominion mandate (Genesis 1:26, 28) is to learn what we can about God’s creation, always remembering that Jesus insisted that—no matter what unbelievers say—“the scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35). HMM

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The Lord God of Heaven

“Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.” (Ezra 1:2)
 
It is noteworthy that the words of this verse are almost the same as in the last verse of 2 Chronicles. This is an indication that Ezra the scribe (who wrote the book of Ezra) was also the compiler and editor of the two books of Chronicles.
 
Even more noteworthy is the fact that the great emperor Cyrus seemed to acknowledge that the God of Israel was not just a tribal god, as many have claimed, but the Lord God of heaven—that is, Jehovah Elohim—recognizing Him as both Creator and Redeemer of the world. The Persians were largely followers of Zoroaster, but his religious system did bear some resemblance to the true monotheism of Israel.
 
But Cyrus had been called, and even named, by God, long before he was born (Isaiah 44:28–45:6). When he conquered Babylon, the prophet Daniel was there (Daniel 6:28). The Jewish historian Josephus wrote that Daniel even became prime minister under Cyrus and was able to read Isaiah’s remarkable prophecy to him, thus influencing him to send the Jews back to Jerusalem.
 
There have also been other Gentile rulers who acknowledged God, even before Christ came. Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, once hating God, finally was forced to confess that He was “the most High” and “King of heaven” (Daniel 4:34, 37). Another was the Queen of Sheba, who recognized “the LORD thy God” (again Jehovah Elohim, 1 Kings 10:9). Then there was the king of Nineveh and Assyria, who believed in God at the preaching of Jonah (Jonah 3:6-10). In fact, in the ages to come “the kings of the earth” will all “bring their glory and honour” to the Lord in the holy city (Revelation 21:24). HMM

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Practicing What We Preach

“For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.” (John 13:15)
 
Christ’s life matched His teachings, and so must ours. Consider, for example, Christ’s teaching that we should “pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). This is matched by His prayer for His tormentors while on the cross, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Elsewhere, He taught that our circle of influence should be greater than those of like thinking (Matthew 5:47), a fact that caused His detractors great consternation (Luke 15:2). He taught that our prayers should not be done so that “they may be seen of men” (Matthew 6:5). And the gospels record several times where He went “into a solitary place, and there prayed” (Mark 1:35; see also Mark 6:46). Christ placed great value on children, as we see in Matthew 18:6, and later He welcomed them (Matthew 19:14). He taught Peter to forgive “seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22) and later forgave Peter for his continued denials (Mark 16:7).
 
Christ advocated paying taxes (Mark 12:17) and later enabled Peter to pay tribute for both of them (Matthew 17:27). He taught that “a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15), and He Himself had “not where to lay his head” (Luke 9:58). Likewise, He placed great store in aiding the poor (Luke 14:13), both in teaching and in practice (Matthew 14:13-21). Perhaps His teaching “love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44) is best illustrated by His tender prayer for those who would soon take His life as He hung on the cross for the very ones responsible for His death (today’s text), all the while dying for them.

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Treasures of the Snow

“Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail?” (Job 38:22)
 
It is interesting that this book, the oldest in the Bible, contains more references to snow, ice, and frost than any other book of the Bible. This is despite the fact that Job’s homeland was in what is now essentially a desert region. Possibly the effects of the post-Flood Ice Age were still strong in Job’s day.
 
In any case, the beautiful phrase “treasures of the snow” is both appropriate and prophetic. Its crystal structure, though mostly in the form of delicate six-pointed “stars,” is endlessly varied and always intricately symmetrical and incredibly beautiful.
 
The snow is a treasure in other ways as well. The winter’s snowpack in the mountains is often called “white gold” because of its indispensable water storage capacity, released in the melting season each spring to provide life to teeming cities and irrigation in the desert for needed food supplies. The snow also aids in maintaining the planet’s chemical cycles by returning various elements in the nuclei of its flakes back from the ocean to the lands from which they were leached and transported by rivers to the oceans. When the snowpack becomes a glacier, it can greatly assist in the breakup of rocks to form fertile soils.
 
In the Scriptures, its pure white color is often used to symbolize the cleansing of a sinful heart that trusts the Lord. “Wash me,” said David, “and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7). “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow,” the Lord promises those who come to Him for salvation (Isaiah 1:18).
 
As the snow comes down from heaven, so comes the Word of God to ask the soul as in today’s text: “Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?” (Job 38:22). HMM

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He Knows Our Hearts

“Then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and render unto every man according unto all his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men).” (2 Chronicles 6:30)
 
Eight times in Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple, he beseeches God to “hear from heaven” (vv. 21, 23, 25, 27, 30, 33, 35, 39) when His people confess their sins and pray for deliverance. It is marvelous that God, whose “dwelling place” is in heaven (vv. 21, 30, 33, 39) can actually hear the prayers of people here on Earth, but we remember that He is omnipresent through His Holy Spirit.
 
Even more marvelous, if possible, is the fact that He can hear prayers uttered only in our hearts. But He is also omniscient and thus knows the very thoughts of our hearts.
 
Then, as we read of Jesus’ wrath at the desecration of the temple by those who would commercialize their religion there, it was said that He “needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man” (John 2:25). This is direct confirmation that Jesus is God, for only God knows the thoughts of our hearts.
 
It is a wonderful day when we realize that God knows our hearts. It can be frightening, of course, if our hearts are not right with God, but it can also be of great comfort and exhilaration—it all depends on the thoughts and motivations of our hearts. As David wrote long ago: “Thou understandest my thought afar off” (Psalm 139:2).
 
We need, therefore, to guard our thought life just as much as our social life, “for he knoweth the secrets of the heart” (Psalm 44:21). May God help us to be “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). It is a good thing if our thoughts please Him. HMM

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Rejoice in the Lord

“Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.” (Philippians 4:4)
 
The Christian has a compelling duty to rejoice. Paul stresses the Christian need to rejoice by using the tense in the Greek that specifies a continuing and habitual action. This instruction follows his mention of otherwise faithful believers in the church who were unfortunately pursuing disharmony and dissension. Believers are reminded to restore broken relationships, follow after harmony, and rejoice.
 
Perhaps the best reason to rejoice is that all our names are written in the “book of life” (v. 3). This precious book was mentioned from old times as “a book of remembrance . . . written before him for them that feared the LORD” (Malachi 3:16). Christ mentioned this book as a cause to “rejoice, because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). Our rejoicing will continue throughout eternity, for only “they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27) will be permitted into the Lamb’s presence. Our love for the brethren and our hope for eternity are reasons to rejoice, indeed.
 
Paul told the Philippian church they were among the reasons for his joy. “I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace” (Philippians 1:7). Those who had a heart for the things of God were important to him. Therefore, “fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind” (2:2). “For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me” (2:18).
 
Their joy of fellowship was rooted in the love and service of Christ, as well as His sufferings, “that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” (3:10). So, rejoice! JDM

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The Global Flood

“And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” (Genesis 6:13)
 
Among those who insist that the Flood described in Genesis cannot be actual history, two reasons stand out more than all others. First, naturalism demands a gradual development of everything over “deep time” from simple to complex. Thus, the worldwide deposit of billions of fossils could not have been rapidly buried by a global cataclysm as described in the Bible.
 
Second, those who might otherwise accept the message of the Bible are appalled by the sudden and horrific destruction of the planet by a “loving” God. Thus, the Flood must be a localized or tranquil event rather than the wrathful judgment described in Genesis. Many who embrace this kind of thinking insist that “my kind of God” could never do such a thing.
 
The first rationalization insists that “all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:4) and that the Bible must be understood in the light of evolutionary naturalism. The second rationalization ignores the holiness of God (Isaiah 5:16) and would also ignore the clear biblical teaching that godless rebellion brings the “wrath of God upon the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 5:6).
 
The first deny the evidence in the earth. The second deny the evidence in the Word. The first group rejects the facts of science. The second group distorts the facts of Scripture. Both change “the truth of God into a lie” (Romans 1:25) and fall into the “way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 16:25). HMM III