A Daily Devotional

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The Moments of God

“For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.” (Isaiah 54:7-8)

This gracious promise to Israel gives a beautiful insight into both God’s character and the relation of time to eternity. God can be a God of wrath, for He must punish unforsaken sin in His people, but He is much more the God of mercy. His prolonged judgment on His chosen people of Israel is only “for a small moment” compared to His “everlasting kindness” toward redeemed Israel in the ages to come.

This theme occurs a number of times in Scripture. “For his anger endureth but a moment,” said David, “in his favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). To the people faithful to God during a time of judgment against their nation or against the world, God says: “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers . . . hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast” (Isaiah 26:20).

Thus, a time of testing or judgment may extend over many days, or years, or even centuries, but this is only a moment in relation to the endless ages of blessing yet to come.

As applied to Christians, this concept is stated explicitly in the only occurrence of the Greek parakutika (“moment”) in the New Testament. “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17). “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. . . . They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD” (Isaiah 65:17, 25). May God give us eyes of faith to see these “moments” of God in their eternal setting. HMM

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Look Back

“Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.” (Isaiah 51:1)

While it is not good to dwell too much on the past—whether in pride of past accomplishments or despondency over past failures or grieving over past losses—it is well never to forget what God has done for us. In this passage, Israel is reminded of Abraham and Sarah, who had been lifted out of the pit of paganism and cut out of the rock of idolatry, and whom God had greatly blessed.

David, looking back, had written that God “brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay” (Psalm 40:2). Paul looked back and said: “In time past . . . beyond measure I persecuted the church of God. . . . But when it pleased God, who . . . called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me . . . they glorified God in me” (Galatians 1:13, 15-16, 24).

Whatever our own background may be—bigoted skeptics, or flagrant sinners, or self-righteous hypocrites—God has indeed, if we are now saved by His grace, lifted us out of a pit and set us on a solid rock. We were “strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). But God “hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13).

“Such were some of you,” wrote Paul of such gross sins as fornication, idolatry, homosexuality, adultery, and thievery, as well as covetousness and drunkenness. “But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 6:11). An occasional look back will help us to remember more often to look up in humble thankfulness for the grace of God. HMM

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True Freedom
“As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.” (1 Peter 2:16)

We who live in what the song writer called the “sweet land of liberty” have a great responsibility to preserve that freedom which our forefathers obtained for us at great cost over two centuries ago. At the same time, we must not turn liberty into license. It would surely hurt those brave and godly men if they could see how we now use “freedom of choice” to justify murdering multitudes of innocent children before they are born, and how we use “freedom of speech” to warrant fouling the eyes and ears of our children with widespread pornography and to promote all kinds of immoral behavior in our society in general. No nation can remain free very long after such practices become widely accepted by its citizens. We need to pray for revival!

The same warning applies to the abuse of our spiritual freedom in Christ. As the apostle Paul said and repeated: “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient” (1 Corinthians 6:12; also 1 Corinthians 10:23, where he added that “all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not”).

As Peter says in our text, even though we are “free” and have real “liberty,” we are nevertheless “servants of God,” where the Greek word doulos actually connotes “bond servants,” or even “slaves.” Our liberty in Christ is not freedom to sin whenever we so choose, but rather freedom from our former bondage to sin. “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (Romans 6:18).

Although our nation is rapidly becoming anti-Christian in belief and practice, we Christians can still best serve our nation and our Savior by practicing and proclaiming Christ’s wonderful saving gospel of free salvation from sin and regeneration unto righteousness. HMM

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God Knows What We Don't Know

“I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.” (Psalm 119:75)

One of the most perplexing aspects of the Christian life is trying to understand God’s purpose when defeat or affliction comes into our lives, thereby hindering or even halting our ministry and testimony for Him. Many have been the servants of God who were sincerely working for Christ, seeking to obey His will and His Word as best they understood them, but then suddenly were laid aside by sickness, or had their ministries stopped by the enemies of God (sometimes even by fellow Christians), or for some other reason, and could not discern why God allowed it.

What then? When affliction comes, we must simply trust God, knowing that whatever He does is right and that our affliction is invested with His faithfulness. He is our Creator and, through Christ, has also become our heavenly Father: “Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?” (Hebrews 12:9). He knows what we don’t know, therefore we can “know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

This verse (Romans 8:28) is one of the most familiar and most wonderful promises in the Bible, but it is one of the most difficult to believe in time of affliction or loss. Nevertheless, it is God’s promise, and “all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us” (2 Corinthians 1:20).

God knows the end from the beginning, and in that wonderful day when Christ returns, “then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). Until then, we must simply trust Him. HMM

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The “Light” Equation

“God is light.” (1 John 1:5)

The biblical text is rich with metaphors and similes, one of which often appears in John’s writings. God is said to be “light”—the most constant, clearly observable, and all-pervasive experience in our universe.

God’s life is the light of men (John 1:4).
God’s light is not conquered by darkness (John 1:5).
God’s light attracts men who love truth (John 3:21).
Jesus is the “light of the world” (John 8:12).

John’s emphasis in his epistle is focused on the application of the “light” in our lives. Since God is light (our text; see also 1 Timothy 6:16), we can never be a participant in the life of God apart from the light of God (1 John 1:6). If we claim fellowship with God, we must “walk in the light, as he is in the light” (1 John 1:7). Since God is the “true light” (1 John 2:8), we are not part of His family if we despise those He loves (1 John 2:9).

It is equally obvious that since God is holy (Psalm 99:9) and righteous (Daniel 9:14), the light that we are to “shine” (Matthew 5:16) must be a “radiant” righteousness visible to all who come in contact with us (Proverbs 4:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:5).

Our breastplate of righteousness (Ephesians 6:14) should “blind” the ungodly with the brilliance of our lifestyle of holiness—so much so that even if we are spoken against by those who hate God, they will be forced to glorify God (“adorn with luster”) because of our good works (1 Peter 2:12).

Because the God of our salvation is “the light of the world” (John 9:5) and we have been made “the children of light” (Ephesians 5:8), “ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). HMM III

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Eternal Life

“. . .that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” (1 John 5:13)

Although this powerful, five-chapter letter from the apostle John is full of vital insights into the Christian life, it is written to “little children” (1 John 5:21) so that they might “know” the majesty and wonder of eternal life.

John begins his epistle with a reminder that he “knew” this Jesus from whom the promise of eternal life came (1 John 1:1-3). John was an eyewitness to Christ’s resurrection (John 20), which is the most powerful proof of the claims and promises of the Lord (Acts 17:31).

Much of that which is applied in John’s epistle is based on the precise teachings of the Lord Jesus Himself, heard by John and recorded in John’s gospel under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (John 20:31).

Those who believe will “not perish” (John 3:15-16).
The “water” of Christ springs up to “everlasting life” (John 4:14).
Whoever has everlasting life “is passed” from death to life (John 5:24).
Those who come to Christ will “never hunger” (John 6:35).
No one is able to “pluck” the believer out of the Father’s hand (John 10:28-30).
“Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:26).

Based on the Word of God, John gives us several experiential tests by which we can know that we “live”:

We love and keep His commandments (1 John 2:3).
We know and love the truth (1 John 2:20).
We love the brethren (1 John 3:14).
We have God’s Holy Spirit (1 John 4:13).

HMM III

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Savor of Life or Death

“For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Corinthians 2:15-16)

It is remarkable how the very same testimony can have such dramatically opposite effects on its recipients. A lecture on the scientific evidences of creation, for example, or on the inspiration of the Bible will be received with great joy and understanding by some, provoke furious hostility in some, and generate utter indifference in others. This seems to be true of any message—written, or verbal, or simply demonstrated in behavior—which has any kind of biblically spiritual dimension to it. It is like the pillar of cloud in the wilderness, which “came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night” (Exodus 14:20). A Christian testimony draws and wins the one, repels and condemns the other. Some there are who “loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:17).

Thus, the wonderful message of the gospel yields two diametrically opposite results. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). Christ came to bring both unity and division. “Behold I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious. . . . Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient. . . . a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word” (1 Peter 2:6-8).

But the wonderful thing is this: Whether a true testimony generates life or condemns to death, it is still “unto God a sweet savor of Christ.” HMM

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Dividing Light from Darkness

“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)

Initially, the created cosmos was in darkness—a darkness that God Himself had to create (“I form the light, and create darkness”—Isaiah 45:7). But then the dark cosmos was energized by the Spirit’s moving, and God’s light appeared. The darkness was not dispelled, however, but only divided from the light, and the day/night sequence began, which has continued ever since.

This sequence of events in the physical creation is a beautiful type of the spiritual creation, “a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Each individual is born in spiritual darkness, but “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” (2 Corinthians 4:6). We are now “partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,” because He “hath delivered us from the power of darkness” (Colossians 1:12-13).

However, the light in the primeval darkness resulted only in a division of night and day. The night still comes, but God has promised that in the coming Holy City, “there shall be no night there” (Revelation 22:5).

Just so, even though we have been given a new nature of light, the old nature of darkness is still striving within, and we have to be exhorted: “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8). Nevertheless, “the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18). When we reach that city of everlasting light, all spiritual darkness will vanish as well, for “there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth” (Revelation 21:27), and we shall be like Christ. HMM

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Catastrophe or Cataclysm

“[God] spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly.” (2 Peter 2:5-6)

These two verses speak graphically of two different kinds of terrible physical convulsions, both of which were divine judgments. The volcanic upheaval that sent fire from heaven pouring over the wicked cities of the plains was called an “overthrow” (Greek katastrophe, from which, obviously, we get our English word “catastrophe”). Great upheavals such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and hurricanes are rightly called catastrophes.

But such events are only local or regional in extent and occur relatively often. There was one event, however, that was unique in all history. When God brought the “flood” upon the ungodly antediluvian world, the word used to describe it was the Greek kataklusmos, and this word is never applied in Scripture to any event except the terrible Genesis Flood, when “the world that then was, being overflowed [Greek katakluzo] with water, perished” (2 Peter 3:6). From these Greek words we derive the English word “cataclysm.”

There was never any flood like this flood! It covered all the world’s mountains, and everything on the land died, leaving great fossil deposits and great beds of lithified sediments all over the world.

There has been only one worldwide cataclysm in the past, but another is coming—global fire instead of global water. Jesus said, “For as in the days that were before the flood [i.e., kataklusmos] they . . . knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:38-39). HMM

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Saints and Sinners

“Then Job answered the LORD, and said, Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.” (Job 40:3-4)

It is remarkable how the saintliest of men often confess to being the worst of sinners. The patriarch Job was said by God Himself to be “a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil” (Job 1:8). Yet, when Job saw God, he could only say, “Behold, I am vile.”

And consider Abraham, who is called “the father of all them that believe” (Romans 4:11). When he presumed to talk to God, however, Abraham said that he was “but dust and ashes” (Genesis 18:27).

David, “the sweet psalmist of Israel” (2 Samuel 23:1), and “a man after [God’s] own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14), said: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). Isaiah, the greatest of the prophets, testified when he came into God’s presence: “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5).

The angel recognized Daniel the prophet as “a man greatly beloved” by God (Daniel 10:11). Yet, when Daniel saw God, he fell on his face and said: “My comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength” (Daniel 10:8).

In the New Testament, the apostle Peter said: “I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8), and Paul called himself the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). God dwells “in the light which no man can approach unto” (1 Timothy 6:16).

The closer one comes to the Lord, the more clearly one sees his own sinfulness and the more wonderful becomes God’s amazing grace. No one who is satisfied with his or her own state of holiness has yet come to know the Lord in His state of holiness! None dare face the Lord except by His grace through the mediator Jesus Christ. HMM

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Resisting the Devil

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.” (1 Peter 5:8-9)

The devil is far more powerful and intelligent (as well as subtle and seductive in his malignant purposes) than any combination of human enemies we could ever face, and we would be utterly unable to defeat him with our own human resources. Yet, God’s Word makes it plain that we are neither to yield to him nor flee from him. Instead, the admonition is: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

But how can we resist such a mighty foe? As in our text, we must constantly maintain sobriety and vigilance against his enticements, and be careful to remain “steadfast in the faith.” Otherwise, the pseudo-intellectualism and social peer pressure to which we are subjected daily could quickly persuade us to compromise the faith, or even to depart from the faith.

We are commanded not to yield and not to compromise. Instead, we must “put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” We have “the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the [wicked one],” and also “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:11, 16-17).

This mighty sword with which we can make Satan flee from us is literally “the saying of God”—that is, an appropriate individual word from the complete Word of God. This was the instrument with which the Lord Jesus Himself resisted the devil, parrying each temptation with an incisive thrust of Scripture. The result then—as it will be now with us also—was that the devil “departed from him for a season” (Luke 4:13). HMM

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He Became Poor

“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9)

The doctrine of Christ’s kenosis, or self-emptying, is one of the most amazing of all biblical truths. The extent to which He who was not only “in the form of God” but also “equal with God” condescended to “make himself of no reputation” (the translation of kenoo in Philippians 2:6-7) is utterly beyond human comprehension.

He who once sat on the throne of the universe came to Earth “lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12). Throughout His public ministry, He had “not where to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). Because He had no money to pay the tax, He had to catch a fish with the necessary coin in its mouth (Matthew 17:27). In His agony at Gethsemane, none of His friends would pray with Him, and when He was arrested they all “forsook him and fled” (Matthew 26:40, 56). No one defended Him at His trial.

On the cross, the soldiers stripped away His only personal possessions—the clothes on His back—and then “parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take” (Mark 15:24). When He died, His body had to be buried in a tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea (Matthew 27:59-60). No home, no money, no possessions, no defenders, not even a tomb of His own in which to lie.

But He had a cross on which to die, and because He was obedient to the death of the cross, “God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9). Through His poverty we become rich, through His homelessness we have a mansion in heaven, and through His terrible death on Calvary we have everlasting life. Yes, we do know the grace of Christ! HMM

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Son of Man

“And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.” (Revelation 14:14)

This is the last of some 87 New Testament references (84 in the four gospels, one in Acts, none in the epistles, two in Revelation) to Christ as the Son of man. Here we see the Son of man coming on a white cloud from heaven (just as He had ascended into heaven after His resurrection) as the conquering King of all the earth.

What a contrast is this to the first New Testament reference to the Son of man. “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). From humility and poverty on Earth to power and riches in heaven, and for all eternity—this was His journey when Christ left His heavenly glory to join the human family.

In between the poverty and the power lay the whole human experience, for He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Finally, as Son of man He must die for man’s sin, for “the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again” (Luke 24:7). Even in heaven He is still the Son of man, for Stephen saw Him thus: “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56).

There is, indeed, a great man in the glory! Christ called Himself “the Son of man” much more often than “the Son of God,” though He will eternally be both, the God/man. He delights to identify with those whom He has redeemed, for He “is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Hebrews 2:11). “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” asked Jesus. Then we say with Peter, “Thou art . . . the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:13, 16). HMM

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No Darkness at All

“. . . in him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5)

Some have suggested that the gospel message is the most important truth in the Bible—and, perhaps, from a temporal human standpoint it may well be. However, there is another, more frequent message throughout all of Scripture here summarized by John: “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

In the Bible, God’s “light” is clearly focused on intellectual and moral holiness. That unique holy nature both drives and limits the revelation of Himself to His creation.

In the intellectual sense, God is the source of all truth (Psalm 119:130; Psalm 36:9). The holiness of God requires truth, and because of His holiness God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). Whenever God reveals anything, He must reveal the truth about Himself and His nature.

The opposite of truth, even though it may contain some truth, is the active agent that opposes God’s truth as it is revealed to His creation.

Lies (darkness) oppose the revelation of that truth:

    In the created “things” (universe)
    In the written Word (Scripture)
    In the “new” creation (salvation)

The incarnate Creator God must reveal truth and cannot “be” untruth. When God speaks, He must speak truth. When God acts, He must “do” truth. God’s holiness demands that the creation not distort anything about God—or about the creation itself.

God could not create a lie—He could not make anything that would inexorably lead us to a wrong conclusion. God could not create processes that would counter His own nature—or that would lead us to conclude something untrue about Him. HMM III

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Strive Not About Words

“Of these things put them in rememberance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.” (2 Timothy 2:14)

This command emphasizes the necessity to avoid “word fights.” The apostle Paul has much to say about this in other passages. “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers” (Ephesians 4:29). Our words should be “wholesome words” (1 Timothy 6:3), “that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Corinthians 1:10).

We are not to “give heed to fables and endless genealogies” (1 Timothy 1:4), but are to “refuse profane and old wives’ fables” (1 Timothy 4:7). We are not to listen to “commandments of men, that turn from the truth” (Titus 1:14), and we must “avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law” (Titus 3:9), “knowing that they do gender strifes” (2 Timothy 2:23).

According to 1 Timothy 6:4-5, those who love “word fights” are “proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words.” Such a person is a “questionaholic.” Here is a short list of the biblical warnings about such fights.

It brings ill will toward others; wrangling; bickering.
It produces “railing” defamation or dishonor of others.
It encourages private plots to hurt.
It produces an incessant meddlesomeness.
It ends up rotting the intellect and robbing truth.
It equates personal gain with godliness.

May God protect us from those who are driven to strive “about words to no profit.” May God increase our love for “acceptable words; and that which is written, upright, even words of truth” (Ecclesiastes 12:10). HMM III