A Daily Devotional

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Loving His Appearing

“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:8)

It is fascinating to learn that the Lord has a special reward for all those who “love his appearing.” The word “appearing” (Greek epiphaneia) can refer to either the first or second advent of Christ, depending on the context. Paul urges us to be “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). For “the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ...hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light” (2 Timothy 1:10).

Our text for the day obviously refers to His Second Coming “at that day,” exhorting us not only to look for but to love His appearing! At that great day, “the Lord, the righteous judge” will award to those who have loved His appearing a special crown of righteousness. We have already received the imputed “gift of righteousness” (Romans 5:17) by His grace and have been “made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21), so this crown of righteousness somehow must be (as a wreath encircling the head of a victor in a race) an enveloping glow of divine appreciation for a godly life lived in daily anticipation of the Lord’s return.

The apostle John beautifully expressed the way in which such a life, loving Christ’s coming, produces a growing righteousness now and perfected righteousness then. “And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming....We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 2:28; 3:2-3). HMM

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The Joy of the Lord

“Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our LORD: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10)

Jerusalem’s wall had been completed, God’s Word had been honored, and there was a great day of rejoicing. The real joy in the hearts of the people, however, was not their joy—it was the joy of the Lord. They rejoiced because He rejoiced, and they shared His joy.

The Lord’s joy is satisfied when His love is received and His purposes fulfilled. “The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17).

To attain His joy, He must first redeem from the penalty of sin and death those whom He had created in His own image. Therefore, He “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).

There will be a great day of rejoicing in the age to come when all the redeemed will be presented “faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 1:24). Until that day, however, “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:10).

Joy is in the Lord’s heart whenever His saving grace is received by a believing sinner. That same joy is likewise experienced by each believer whose testimony of life and word brings such a sinner to God.

Jesus said, “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (John 15:11). His joy is our joy, and the joy of the Lord is our strength. HMM

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The Fear of the Lord

“Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.” (Psalm 34:11)

This psalm has been a source of great comfort and encouragement to many down through the years. The first section (vv. 1-7) of this acrostic hymn (the first letter of each verse begins with successive letters of the 22-letter Hebrew alphabet) consists of the testimony of one who fears the Lord, and the last section (vv. 16-22) describes the deliverance promised those who do fear the Lord, contrasted with the destinies of those who don’t. In the center section, David explains what it means to fear the Lord and invites all who read to join him in fearing God.

Here, the “fear of the LORD” is not so much an attitude as it is a life commitment. “What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?” (v. 12). A God-fearing man or woman desires a long life of ministry to others. “To die is gain” (Philippians 1:21), yes, but we should ask for lengthy opportunities to “see good.”

“Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile” (Psalm 34:13). We know that the tongue is capable of incredible harm. The one who fears the Lord should be characterized by a lifestyle of guarded speech.

Not only is our speech to be free from evil, but we are to “depart from evil, and do good” (v. 14) in every area of life as well. Our life’s motive should be to “seek peace, and pursue it.” Attaining peace may not be easy, but we should strive for it.

The results of such a lifestyle should be reward enough, but our gracious Lord promises even more: “The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them” (v. 7).

“O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him” (Psalm 34:9). JDM

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To the Looking Glass

“For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” (James 1:23-25)

The Word of God is not a magic mirror, but if we seek real truths concerning ourselves, the biblical looking glass can bring great blessing. He who reads or hears the Word but does not believe or obey it is “a forgetful hearer” (v. 25) who is deceiving himself. It is these who merely “behold” themselves in the Word. The Greek word used here for “beholding” and “beholdeth” means “looking from a distance”—standing erect, as it were, while posing before the mirror. The man who “looketh into” the Word, on the other hand, “and continueth therein” being an obedient doer of its work is the one who receives eternal blessing. The Greek word here for “looketh” conveys the idea of intense scrutiny, requiring the one who is looking actually to stoop down in order to see. In fact, it is often translated “stoop down.”

As we allow the mirror of God’s Word to evaluate and correct our lives, “we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Yet, this is only a token of what we can experience in the future. “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). Now we can see ourselves in the written Word. When we see the living Word, “we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). HMM

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Like the Most High

“I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” (Isaiah 14:14)

These are two of the “I will’s” of Satan—or Lucifer—as he aspired to usurp the throne of God as ruler of the universe (see Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:11-17). Not content to be “the anointed cherub,” the highest of the angelic hierarchy (Ezekiel 28:14), he wanted to be God, and this monstrous pride became “the condemnation of the devil” (1 Timothy 3:6) so that he is now “fallen from heaven” and will soon be “brought down to hell” (Isaiah 14:12, 15).

Lucifer, of course, is not the Creator, for he was “created” (Ezekiel 28:15) himself. It would seem therefore that for him to rationalize his ambition to be like the most High, he must somehow persuade himself that he is like the most High—that is, that God is a created being like himself and thus can be defeated. He only had God’s word that he had been created by Him, and he evidently chose not to believe what God said (just as do multitudes of men and women today).

He, like they, chose rather to believe that the eternal cosmos had somehow created them all by its own powers. The great cosmos (call it Mother Nature, perhaps) has “created” spirit beings, as well as men and women, and all the worlds inhabited by them. In this scenario, the true Creator God is viewed as only one of many. Therefore, He is vulnerable to defeat—or so Satan evidently believes.

Thus, Lucifer became the first evolutionist, and this great lie by which he deceived himself became the basis of his later deception of Eve and then of the founders of all the varied pantheistic religions of the world, as well as modern evolutionism and New Age philosophies. Nevertheless, God is still on His throne, and “the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings” (Revelation 17:14). HMM

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The Great Divider

“Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division.” (Luke 12:51)

From the very beginning, God has been a great divider. On the first day of creation, “God divided the light from the darkness”; on the second day, He “divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament” (Genesis 1:4, 7). When God first created humans, they walked together in sweet fellowship, but then sin came in and made a great division between humans and God. Nevertheless, “when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10).

The price has been paid for full reconciliation with our Creator, but “men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19), so Christ Himself is now the One who divides. “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).

Jesus Christ divides all history and all chronology. Things either happened “Before Christ” (BC) or “in the Year of our Lord” (AD). People are either under the Old Covenant or the New Covenant. Most of all, He divides humanity. “There was a division among the people because of him” (John 7:43; see also John 9:16; 10:19). These divisions because of Him can cut very deep. “The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother” (Luke 12:53).

Finally, when He comes to judge all nations, “he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:…And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal” (Matthew 25:32, 46). The division is life or death, light or darkness, heaven or hell, Christ or antichrist—and the choice is ours! HMM

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The Wolf and the Lamb Together

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.” (Isaiah 11:6)

This scene seems impossible. Could it be merely an allegory? But that isn’t all. “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD” (Isaiah 65:25).

Whether this will all come to pass literally (and there is nothing in the context to cause us to question it), it definitely describes what God considers the ideal state of nature. In fact, in the original creation, all animals were herbivorous. “And God said, Behold,…to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so” (Genesis 1:29-30).

With humanity’s fall into sin and God’s resulting curse on the earth, this ideal state deteriorated. Teeth and claws, originally designed for digging roots and branches, began to be used for tearing and eating flesh. Even people were authorized by God to eat meat after the Flood (Genesis 9:3). It’s still true, however, that both people and animals can survive on a non-carnivorous diet when necessary, for this was designed initially as the best way. All of this leads to the certain conclusion that God did not allow any such reign of tooth and claw on the earth before humans sinned. Those who promote the idea of long geological ages, with billions of animals suffering and dying during those ages, charge our God of wisdom and mercy with gratuitous cruelty. In a world made by a loving God, there could have been no death in the world until humans brought sin into the world (Romans 5:12). HMM

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King at the Flood

“The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea, the LORD sitteth King for ever. The LORD will give strength unto his people; the LORD will bless his people with peace.” (Psalm 29:10-11)

There are quite a few different Hebrew words that are translated “flood” in the Old Testament. The word in this passage (Hebrew mabbul), however, is unique in that it is only used elsewhere in the account of the Noahic Flood, thus indicating conclusively that the dramatic scenes described in this psalm occurred at the time of the great Flood.

There was never in all history such a time as that, when “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). God therefore brought about “the end of all flesh” (v. 13)—no doubt millions, perhaps billions, of ungodly men and women—by the great mabbul.

In spite of the fact that nearly every culture around the globe (made up of descendants of the eight survivors of the Flood) remembers this terrible event in the form of “flood legends,” the very concept of God’s judgment on sin is so offensive to the natural mind that modern scholarship now even denies it as a fact of history.

Nevertheless, the epitaph of the antediluvian world is written in stone in the sedimentary rocks and fossil beds everywhere one looks all over the world. The greatest rebellion ever mounted against the world’s Creator by His creatures (both humans and fallen angels) was put down by God simply by His voice! “The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters” (Psalm 29:3).

In all the great turmoil of the Flood, Noah and the righteous remnant in the Ark were safe through it all. In every age, even in times of stress and danger, “the LORD will bless his people with peace.” HMM

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Faith

“And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6)

It may come as a surprise to some that both Old and New Testament believers are justified only by faith. In fact, four New Testament epistles base their arguments on justification by faith on two Old Testament passages, each quoted three times but with each one emphasizing a different aspect.

In our text, we see that Abraham was declared righteous because of his faith (i.e., belief, same word). This verse is quoted in Romans 4:3 in the midst of a formal argument on the just nature of God and the fact that we are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). Here, the emphasis is on counted. In Galatians 3:6, the word believed is emphasized, couched in the book dedicated to contrasting works and faith. “They which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham” (Galatians 3:9). The book of James was written to encourage believers to good works as evidence of their faith, and our text, quoted in James 2:23, emphasizes righteousness. “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:26).

The other Old Testament passage dealing with faith, which is also quoted three times in the New Testament, reads, “The just shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4). When used in Romans 1:17 just prior to the description of the evil lifestyles of the wicked (vv. 18-32), the emphasis seems to be on the word just. In Galatians 3:11, as noted above, the word faith is stressed. But in Hebrews 10:38, the author teaches that those who have been declared righteous by God live eternally by faith and will be able to cope with persecution (vv. 34-37).

Thus, the Old Testament doctrine that we are saved by faith in the work of God to solve our sin problem applies to every area of our lives and being, including our past sin, our present holy life and work, and our future eternal life. JDM

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How the Earth Is Filled

“For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” (Habakkuk 2:14)

The very first command given to Adam and Eve was “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (Genesis 1:28). This might seem to imply there had been a previous population (so-called “pre-adamites”), but the word “replenish” (Hebrew male) means simply “fill.” Actually, in the King James Old Testament, it is translated by the Old English word “replenish” only seven times, whereas it is translated “fill,” “filled,” or “full” some 250 times. The precise meaning is “fill.”

Even today, with our so-called “population explosion,” the earth is far from being filled with people. One thinks of our vast deserts and inaccessible mountain ranges, plus the frozen wastes of Antarctica, for example. It may, however, once have been filled in the much more habitable world before the Flood, but it also was “filled with violence through them” (Genesis 6:11, 13). This, in fact, was the very reason God sent the great Flood to “destroy them with the earth.”

The time is coming, however, as seen in Nebuchadnezzar’s prophetic vision as interpreted by Daniel the prophet, when a great stone—representing the future kingdom of God—will have “filled the whole earth” (Daniel 2:35). Then the great doxology of the psalmist will be reality: “And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen” (Psalm 72:19).

The prophet Isaiah also spoke of this time: “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). The later prophet Habakkuk in our text beautifully echoed these words of Isaiah. HMM

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His Master's Crib

“The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.” (Isaiah 1:3)

What an indictment this is—not only against the people of Israel, but against men and women everywhere. All were created and made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27) for fellowship with Him, but even His own chosen people rejected Him, and most people everywhere all but ignore Him in their daily lives.

“Crib” is the same as “manger,” and when God became man, His human parents “laid him in a manger” (Luke 2:7) since there was no room for Him anywhere else. The animals knew Him, and so did the angels, but His people were unconcerned. “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not” (John 1:10).

When He came into Jerusalem offering Himself as King of Israel, He rode on an unbroken colt, “whereon yet never man sat,” and the little “foal of an ass” (Luke 19:30; Zechariah 9:9) willingly submitted, knowing his divine Master and Maker. But the people of Jerusalem as a whole joined in clamoring for His crucifixion just a few days later.

The indictment against Israel could be lodged with even greater justification against America today. “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth:…I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me” (Isaiah 1:2). The morals of our people seem to have been turned upside down, and God would say to us also: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness” (Isaiah 5:20).

Yet—in modern America, as well as in ancient Israel—“as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12). HMM

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Milk or Meat

“For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” (Hebrews 5:13-14)

The Scriptures are compared in these verses to our daily food—milk and meat. Milk is the necessary food for babies (1 Peter 2:2), but it becomes grotesque when a baby continues year after year as a baby, still incapable of partaking of anything but milk. This was the case with the Corinthian Christians who were, according to Paul, “babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 3:1-2). It was also true for these Hebrew Christians: “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again…the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat” (Hebrews 5:12).

Sad to say, this is still the situation with most Christian people today, even in Bible-believing churches. This is indicated not only by the many carnal divisions between them (1 Corinthians 3:3), but even more by the frothy nature of the Christian materials they read, almost always centered on introspective personal relationships rather than on the person of Christ, the deeper truths of Scripture, and the great purposes of God. The time spent in personal Bible study is minimal, and even most sermons repeatedly serve up milk for Christian babes rather than strong meat for spiritually healthy Christians “of full age” whose “senses” have already been strengthened by use to recognize the true and the false, the good and the evil. How urgently we need to heed the last words of the apostle Peter just before his martyrdom: “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). HMM

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The Omniscience of God

“O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.” (Psalm 139:1)

The marvelous 139th Psalm consists of a prayer by King David to his King, the omniscient, omnipresent, holy Creator God, the King of kings. In this psalm David reflects on and praises God for His majestic attributes, and by doing so is driven to introspection.

David claims that God knows when we sit down or stand up (v. 2). He even knows our thoughts (v. 2). Furthermore, He knows our direction and habits (v. 3). He knows our words better than we do ourselves (v. 4). In everything, God knows and guides (v. 5). “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me” (v. 6), David claims, and neither he nor we, trapped as we are in finiteness, can comprehend this omniscience.

Where can we go to escape His omnipresence (v. 7)? Neither to heaven nor hell (v. 8). Not to the air or the sea (v. 9). Neither darkness nor light (vv. 11-12) can shield us from His presence. In all, He leads and guides (v. 10).

Thinking such lofty thoughts should compel us to praise and thankfulness as it did David, especially as it relates to our own creation and growth. God knew us in the womb (v. 13) and controlled each stage of our embryonic development (vv. 14-16). He knew and planned all the events of our lives (v. 16). “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God!” (v. 17). They are innumerable (vv. 17-18).

Reflection on God’s holiness makes David painfully aware of his own sinfulness, as it should us. Recognition of God’s nature should bring us to a place of submission and a desire for holiness, as well as a yearning to follow fully the omniscient God. “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (vv. 23-24). JDM

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Great and Precious Promises

“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Peter 1:4)

Scripture is full of promises, more than 2,800 in the Old Testament and more than 1,000 in the New. The first of these exceeding great and precious promises was the Protevangel (“first gospel”) of Genesis 3:15. Immediately after the fall of Adam and Eve through the temptation of Satan, God promised the coming Seed of the woman, the Savior: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; [He] shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

The first New Testament promise, significantly, is this same primeval promise, now made far more specific: “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

The last promise of the Old Testament speaks of a second coming of “Elijah the prophet,” who will “turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:5-6). Then, the final promise of the Bible is the wonderful assurance of Christ concerning His glorious second coming: “Surely I come quickly” (Revelation 22:20).

Sandwiched between these great and precious promises are over 3,800 other promises. Some of these are in the form of promised warnings to the sinner, but promises nonetheless. Most promises, however, are to the obedient follower of God, and we know that “he is faithful that promised” (Hebrews 10:23). “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us” (2 Corinthians 1:20). HMM

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Pie in the Sky

“And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.” (Revelation 19:9)

Unbelievers sometimes ridicule Bible-believing Christians as being “so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly use” and as waiting for “pie in the sky bye and bye.” This canard is, of course, unjustified because the Lord Jesus has told us: “Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13), and we are also instructed: “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men” (Colossians 3:23). A Christian could—and should—do a better job in his particular occupation than he would ever have done as a non-Christian. All honorable occupations come within the scope of God’s primeval dominion mandate (Genesis 1:26-28). “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).

Nevertheless, there is indeed a great feast day coming bye and bye, and indeed it will be a great blessing to be “called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Presumably those who partake of this wonderful feast will be not only those who constitute His Bride, but also others who are called to be guests at His wedding supper. Since the Holy City is also called “the bride, the Lamb’s wife” and since it is inscribed with the names of both the “twelve tribes” of Israel and also of the “twelve apostles” (Revelation 21:9, 12, 14), it is clear that believers from both the pre-Christian and Christian ages will be there. They will all have responded to the Lord’s invitation and have had the right attitude of heart and life toward the will of the Bridegroom (Matthew 22:1-14; 25:1-13).

Whether some kind of heavenly pie will be served at the supper is doubtful, but it will surely be a time of great blessing. HMM