A Daily Devotional

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Strength Through Weakness

“Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10)

Here is one of the great paradoxes of the Christian life. How could the apostle Paul actually find pleasure in being persecuted or reproached, in being placed in distressing situations, and having to endure bodily pain or weakness? There could be no pleasure at all in such things were it not “for Christ’s sake.”

Paul was a great man of faith and prayer, and he prayed earnestly that God would remove what he called a “thorn in the flesh” (v. 7), evidently some painful infirmity that he felt was hindering his ministry. God answered his prayer, however, by saying, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (v. 9).

Somehow, one of the most powerful testimonies to the truth of Christianity is given when Christians exhibit patience and joy and fruitfulness in the midst of suffering—whether that suffering be due to illness, or persecution, or loss, or any of a hundred situations that could be unbearable apart from Christ. In Paul’s case, he said that his “thorn” could not be removed “lest I should be exalted above measure” (v. 7) because of the great experiences God had given him as a Christian.

“Grace groweth best in the winter,” and we can testify with the psalmist, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes” (Psalm 119:71). One thinks, for example, of Fanny Crosby, blind since early childhood yet enabled to write 8,000 beautiful hymns in her 95 years.

The struggling church at Philadelphia was assured of an open door because it had “little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name” (Revelation 3:8). It is precisely when we recognize our own weakness in the flesh that we can become strong in Christ. HMM

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Thanks Be Unto God

“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:57)

There are innumerable things for which we could—and should—give thanks to God. But there are three notable gifts mentioned by Paul in his letters to the Corinthians in which he was led to use this particular exclamation: “Thanks be to God.” We shall do well to look at these great blessings, and then—like Paul—pour out our own thanks to God for them!

The first is in our text above, giving thanks for God’s gift of victory. And what victory is that? “Death is swallowed up in victory” (v. 54), and death has lost its terrible sting for the believer, for Christ conquered death forever when He died for our sins and rose again.

The second is similar yet goes beyond even the first gift: “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place” (2 Corinthians 2:14). Not only victory over death but victory in life!

By the indwelling presence of the Spirit of Christ, we are enabled to triumph over circumstances and “shew forth the praises of him who hath called [us] out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9). But the greatest gift of all is Christ Himself! Therefore, we join with the apostle Paul as he exclaims, “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15). “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). The value of this gift is beyond language to describe, “unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8). The Lord Jesus Christ is both our Creator and Savior, giving us triumphant peace and joy in life, and eternal victory over death. Thanks be unto God! HMM

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Sing and Give Thanks

“Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.” (Psalm 30:4)

When we do remember God’s holiness and then remember how the mighty seraphim in the heavenly temple are continually crying out “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts” (Isaiah 6:3), and then further remember the prophet’s prayer acknowledging to God that: “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity” (Habakkuk 1:13), and then still further remember that, as Paul said: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing” (Romans 7:18), we can only marvel at the infinite mercy and grace of God. He has not only forgiven our sins, saved our souls, and promised us eternal life, but “daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation” (Psalm 68:19). What can we do except to perpetually “sing unto the LORD, . . . and give thanks,” as David exhorts us in our text for today.

But how can this be? A God who is too pure and holy even to “look on iniquity,” yet promises unworthy creatures such as us that “goodness and mercy shall follow [us] all the days of [our lives]: and [we] will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever” (Psalm 23:6). How can that be?

This could not be, of course, were it not for the incredible love of God in Christ, who “hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). “The chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Therefore: “Be ye thankful. . . . singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Colossians 3:15-17). HMM

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In Everything Give Thanks

“Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herds in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” (Habakkuk 3:17-18)

It is easy to be happy and cheerful in times of prosperity, when one has all the comforts of an affluent lifestyle and everything seems to be going well. The testing times come, however, when these material comforts are somehow taken away, and one feels defeated and all alone.

Except for God! Whatever else may fail, God “will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5). Since we still have the Lord (assuming we have trusted Him for forgiveness and salvation through Christ), we can always “rejoice in the LORD, . . . in the God of my salvation.”

Job, for example, lost all his possessions, then his children, finally his health, and even his wife turned against him. Yet he could say: “The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21).

God has commanded the Christian: “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Not for everything, but in everything!

This has always been one of the greatest testimonies a Christian can give to an unbeliever—the testimony of a life rejoicing in God’s salvation even in the midst of trouble. This was the example of Christ Himself, “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 12:2). “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). HMM

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The Real and the Unreal World

“He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s, and he hath set the world upon them.” (1 Samuel 2:8)

The above text contains the first reference in the Bible to God’s world. The “pillars” upon which it is set are, literally, “firm summits” (not “columns”), speaking of its permanence, “established that it shall not be moved” through the eternal ages when “the LORD reigneth” (Psalm 96:10).

That is the real world, where all who have been “raised up” by the Lord through faith in His Word will “inherit the throne of glory” and reign with Him forever. But that real world has, for a time, become “this present evil world” (Galatians 1:4), often mistakenly represented by its worldly inhabitants as their “real” world. In reality, this present world is very ephemeral, for “the world passeth away” (1 John 2:17).

This present unreal world has become the domain of Satan, “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4), for “the whole world lieth in wickedness [or ‘the wicked one’]” (1 John 5:19). Consequently, it is essential for believers now living in the world to heed the Lord’s warning: “I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19).

The “world” includes its inhabitants and the world system they have developed. This present world, because of sin, has become so unreal that it no longer even knows its Creator. “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not” (John 1:10). Nevertheless, “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17). We can defeat this present evil world and prepare for our eternal service in the real world to come. “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4). HMM

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The Law for Today

“And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?” (Deuteronomy 4:8)

God has never dealt with any nation as closely and fully as He has with Israel, but He nevertheless is directly concerned with every nation as a national entity. He has actually established each nation Himself (Deuteronomy 32:8), even determining the geographical boundaries of each and the time when each would rise and fall (Acts 17:26).

Every nation has a purpose in history, but Israel had the highest calling of all. God personally gave them (through Moses) the finest governmental and legal system any nation ever had (Deuteronomy 4:5-8), and modern governments would therefore do well to emulate these, in so far as possible. In fact, it is amazing that this Mosaic legal code has since served effectively as the basic legal code for all the greatest nations in modern history. This, in itself, is clear testimony to its divine origin and is therefore justification for retaining and implementing it wherever possible, even today.

Sadly, however, modern political and judicial practices are departing further and further from this divine standard. The philosophies of evolution and relativism dominate our schools of law today, and the concept of absolute principles of righteousness and justice, rooted in the nature of God as Creator and in His revelation, are largely being replaced by legislation based on evolving social policies and preferences. Even the Ten Commandments are banned from our schools, despite the fact that they are engraved in the Supreme Court building itself.

It is sobering to consider that God did not even spare His beloved nation Israel when His people departed from His law. Nor will He spare America if our growing rebellion against His Word goes on much longer. HMM

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The Sign of Science and Travel

“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” (Daniel 12:4)

The book of Daniel contains the most detailed description of the end times of any book in the Bible except the book of Revelation. In Daniel’s last chapter, after all the prophecies had been recorded, the condition in our text was given as a sign of their imminent fulfillment at “the time of the end.”

A more striking summary of our own times could hardly be imagined. The Hebrew word for “run to and fro” is used first in 2 Chronicles 16:9. “The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth,” and its sense is “race back and forth.” What a description of our present society, with speeding automobiles all over the land and airplanes filling our skies! In little more than one lifetime, the world “progressed” from horse and buggy to spacecraft, and almost everyone is racing to and fro.

Furthermore, “knowledge” has been “increased” far beyond the wildest imaginations of people in the days of our founding fathers. The Hebrew word could well be understood as what we mean today by “science.”

It is significant that the foundations of our modern scientific age were laid mostly by great scientists who were creationists (Newton, Boyle, Pascal, Pasteur, Faraday, Maxwell, etc.). In our present generation, however, science has been largely taken over by non-Christian evolutionists, and science has also generated deadly instruments of destruction and pollution that are threatening life’s existence. This rise in “science falsely so called” is also given as a sign of the last days (1 Timothy 6:20; 2 Peter 3:3-4; etc.).

In any case, the explosive increase in science (both true and false) and rapid travel in our day is one of the many God-given signs that the return of Christ is near! HMM

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The Savior of the World

“And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” (1 John 4:14)

This unique title of the Lord Jesus Christ assures us that when the Father sent His Son away from the glories of heaven down to a world lost in sin, it was not just to be the Messiah of the Jews, or to assume David’s throne as King of Israel, or to punish the wicked Gentile nations.

“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17).

In fact, this special title is used only one other time in the Bible, and it was used by Samaritans rather than Jews when they came to know Jesus as He ministered among them for two days. These people were mostly of Gentile background with a mixture of Israeli blood who had become adherents of a quasi-Jewish religion that was also part pagan.

But they were actually looking for a Savior, and their testimony after meeting Jesus was: “Now we believe . . . and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world” (John 4:42). They perceived that He had come to bring salvation to lost sinners in every nation, not just to Israel or Samaria. As He said later, “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47).

And so He commanded His disciples “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations” (Luke 24:47). He became to the Father “the propitiation . . . for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2) when He offered up His life as a sacrifice for sins, then died and rose again. We who have believed on Him as our personal Savior are now to be His witnesses “in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). HMM

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Blessings We Have in Christ

“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (2 Corinthians 5:1)

The blessings we have in Christ are far too many to number, but it is a blessing even to note just a few of those indicated by the words we have or ye have. First of all, in Christ “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7). As a result, “being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

Thus, through such promises, His Word assures us of salvation. “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). Further assurance is given by the witness of the Spirit who indwells our bodies when we believe on Christ. “Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15).

There are many other blessings that are ours in Christ. In Him, for example, “we have obtained an inheritance” (Ephesians 1:11), for we are joint-heirs with Him. God has even confirmed His promises, the writer of Hebrews says, by taking an oath in His own name that “we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast” (Hebrews 6:18-19). Indeed, “we have a great high priest” (Hebrews 4:14) ever living to intercede for us at the throne of God.

Finally, in the words of our text, when God calls us home, “we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” and then we are “to be present with the Lord” throughout the ages to come (2 Corinthians 5:8). These are a few of the blessings we have in Christ. HMM

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First Things First

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33)

There are innumerable things to do and things to buy and things to read. How does one choose between them? An important guideline is the use of the word “first” in the New Testament. For example, consider the following priority items.

Priority in awareness: “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers . . . saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for . . . all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:3-4). The primary intellectual heresy of these latter times is the anti-God philosophy of naturalistic evolutionism, as succinctly outlined in this passage.

Priority in behavior: “Cleanse first that which is within the cup and the platter, that the outside of them may be clean also” (Matthew 23:26). The thoughts of our hearts will inevitably control the words on our lips and the works of our hands.

Priority in giving: “[They] first gave their own selves to the Lord” (2 Corinthians 8:5). One’s possessions, talents, time, and all other resources belong to the Lord, but such gifts are acceptable to God only when offered by one whose heart first has been given fully to Him.

Priority in witness: “For I delivered unto you first of all . . . how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

Priority in concern: “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men” (1 Timothy 2:1).

Finally, as the Lord Jesus Himself has commanded, our first priority in every decision should be to do that which honors the kingdom of Christ and His righteousness. HMM

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Prayer for Peter and James

“Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.” (Acts 12:1-2)

Verse 2 of our text rather casually records what may have been one of the lowest points of apostolic time. James was killed with the sword—James, one of the only three disciples in Christ’s inner circle. He was one of only three to witness the resurrection of the synagogue ruler’s daughter (Luke 8:51-55); one of three to catch a glimpse of Christ’s glory at the transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-2); and one of only four to sit with Christ on the Mount of Olives and learn of the future (Mark 13:3-4). In Gethsemane, after their last supper together, Christ allowed him, along with Peter and John, to witness His agony in a special way (Mark 14:32-34).

He was highly trained by Christ Himself, and the fledgling church could ill afford to lose his leadership. But suddenly he was arrested and slain! A tragedy it would seem to lose such a leader. Think what James might have accomplished had he lived longer, much as Peter and John did. Could it be, however, that his martyrdom was a blessing in disguise? Certainly God allowed this to happen, but for what purpose?

The answer may be found in the verses following our text. Peter had been taken prisoner and was to be executed the next morning (Acts 12:6). However, the church had learned a lesson. No prayer for James is recorded, but for Peter, “prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him” (Acts 12:5), and Peter was miraculously freed by an angel and joined the prayer meeting.

What would have happened had the believers prayed for James as they did for Peter? Of course, that question has no definite answer, but prayer such as was offered for Peter followed the apostles and early church leaders in their work from that time on. JDM

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The Brightness of His Rising

“And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” (Isaiah 60:3)

This beautiful Messianic prophecy in the Old Testament book of Isaiah compares the coming of Christ to the rising of the sun.

The rest of this chapter in Isaiah seems to stress His coming in glory at the future end of the age (e.g., “the LORD shall be thine everlasting light,” Isaiah 60:20), but our text verse had at least a precursive fulfillment when the Gentile wise men from the east came to Bethlehem to honor Jesus soon after His birth.

Other Messianic prophecies used a similar metaphor. For example, there is Malachi 4:2: “Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.”

Christ Himself made the same comparison. “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). He would not serve as the light for only the Jews; He is the light of the whole world!

The theme of global light through Christ is often found in the Old Testament. “I the LORD . . . will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles. . . . It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth” (Isaiah 42:6; 49:6).

It will all be perfectly and eternally fulfilled in the New Jerusalem, “for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: . . . for there shall be no night there” (Revelation 21:23-25). HMM

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Lo, I Come

“Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.” (Hebrews 10:7)

These marvelous words (in Hebrews 10:5-7) are an interpretive quotation from Psalm 40:6-8, which in turn was being cited prophetically as the testimony of the eternal Son of God as He prepared to leave heaven and “the bosom of the Father” (note John 1:18) to descend to Earth to become also “the Son of man,” with no “where to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20).

He first took up residence on Earth in the womb of Mary, then in a manger, then a house in Bethlehem, then somewhere in Egypt until the death of King Herod, who had tried to kill Him, then in the home of his foster father in a despised village, eventually on a cross on which His enemies would impale Him, and finally for three days in a borrowed tomb.

And all this, amazingly, was to do the will of His Father in heaven, which He fully understood would include the terrible death of the cross. “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again” (John 10:17).

We can never comprehend such love—only believe it and receive it. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Now we can testify with Paul “the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God [His faith, not ours!], who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

But anyone who ignores that love should note this sobering truth: “He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). HMM

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Everything Beautiful in His Time

“He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

In verses 2–8 of Ecclesiastes 3 appears a remarkable listing of 28 “times,” arranged in 14 pairs of opposites (e.g., “a time to be born, and a time to die,” v. 2). The entire section is introduced by God’s definitive statement: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (v. 1). It is then climaxed by His remarkable assurance in the words of our text for the day. Everything that God has made is beautiful in its appropriate time—even death and war, killing and hating, and all the other “negatives” in the list, as well as the 14 “positives”—healing and loving, building and planting, and many others.

The pronoun (implied) could be either “its” or “His,” and since all our “times” are “in thy hand” (Psalm 31:15), it is fitting to recognize that the appropriate time for “every purpose under heaven” is His time—God’s time.

Thus, everything that God has made is, in fact, beautiful when accomplished in His own time, in His way, as set forth in His Word. We may not understand many things in our time, for “no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.” Nevertheless, when God made us, He “set the world in [our hearts],” so that the very deepest roots of our nature assure us that God exists and cares. The Hebrew word for “world” means, literally, that “world without end” (compare Ephesians 3:21). Thus, all that happens to us, if accepted and applied according to God’s Word, becomes beautiful, and “we 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). HMM

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The Man Child

“And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.” (Revelation 12:5)

This remarkable scene was part of a great vision given to the apostle John as the Lord was revealing to him “the things which shall be hereafter” (Revelation 1:19). He had seen an amazing “sign” in heaven—a woman “clothed with the sun . . . travailing in birth,” with “a great red dragon” awaiting the delivery and ready “to devour her child as soon as it was born” (Revelation 12:1-4).

Although the whole vision is richly symbolic, the figure of the man child clearly refers to Jesus Christ, because it is He alone who must eventually rule all nations “with a rod of iron” (Revelation 19:15). Thus, the symbolic “woman” must suggest His human mother, Mary, but also Eve, the “mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20), for in His human birth, the Son of God became also “the Son of man” (Acts 7:56; Revelation 1:13). The vision, in fact, dramatizes the long warfare between the great dragon (i.e., Satan—Revelation 12:9) and the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15).

In the vision, the “man child” will have been “caught up” (i.e., “raptured”) to heaven, and the dragon and his angels “cast out” to earth (Revelation 12:5-9). But when Christ returns from heaven, all believers, living and dead, will also be “caught up” to meet Him in the air, and thus may well be included in the man child of the great “sign.”

There has been continuous warfare between the seed of the Serpent and the spiritual seed of the woman. The Dragon is forever “wroth with the woman” and with “the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17). But Christ will finally prevail and cast Satan into the eternal lake of fire (Revelation 20:10). HMM