A Daily Devotional

[Soldier4Christ]

By Faith

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

This great verse, evidently a definition of faith, appears to be somewhat obtuse, but it can be properly understood. The word “substance” carries the sense of reality or assurance. The same author uses the word to explain that the Son of God took on human “substance,” consisting of “the express image of his person [or ‘substance’]” (Hebrews 1:3). The word “evidence” is more properly translated “proof.” The passage teaches, then, that faith provides the reality and proof of things that we can’t see directly. They are as sure to us, through faith, as things we can see directly.

Faith enters into the picture whenever we attempt to understand something outside the realm of empirical observation. This surely includes creation. “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Hebrews 11:3). Creationist faith is certainly reasonable faith, in stark contrast to evolutionist faith, which believes in ordered complexity from disorder without any ordering mechanism or outside intelligence.

Faith is extremely important in God’s economy: “Without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6) in any area of life. “For by grace are ye saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8). Likewise, we live by faith: “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20). Furthermore, “by faith ye stand” (2 Corinthians 1:24) steadfast as a Christian and “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). We are to “follow after...faith” and “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:11-12).

Since this list comprises only a sampling of things that must be done in, by, or through faith, it is no wonder that it “is the victory that overcometh the world” (1 John 5:4). JDM

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Haste Makes Waste

“Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.” (Isaiah 28:16)

This is one of the great Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament, promising a Savior who would be the sure foundation of the eternal temple of God; yet it was 700 years before the promise was fulfilled. God did not “make haste,” but His promise, nevertheless, was sure. No doubt many believing Jews wondered why it was taking so long, but in the “fulness of the time” (Galatians 4:4), Christ came.

It is so easy to rush ahead of God instead of waiting for His leading. With good intentions and admirable zeal, Christians plan great programs, establish new organizations, promote legislation, and become involved in a thousand-and-one good activities, all in the name of Christ and His kingdom. Such activism is urgent, they believe, because the time is short. Nuclear war is coming; maybe even Christ is coming; and we must hurry.

But the Scripture says, “Therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him” (Isaiah 30:18).

We must not fail to follow when He really leads through His Word, but all too often undue haste results in confusion and collapse. When our text is quoted by Peter (1 Peter 2:6), the phrase “make haste” is rendered “be confounded” or “be ashamed.” It is not honoring to God for Christian projects and activities to “be confounded,” so believers must be careful not to “make haste.” “Wait, I say, on the LORD” (Psalm 27:14). HMM

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Take and Eat

“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” (Galatians 3:13)

Paul here explains that when the Lord Jesus offered Himself up as a sacrifice on the cross, He did what was required to rescue any sinner from the curse of the law. Two connections add poignancy to this divine rescue operation.

The first connection involves the first created couple. They ignored the words of their Creator and listened instead to this false promise: “Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened” (Genesis 3:4,5). They ate. The death Curse came.

They would not have eaten that fruit if they did not believe that doing so would add something desirable to their lives. We’ve known since then that “all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16).

But the Father broke our Curse by sacrificing His Son, who was “made a curse for us” (our text). What, then, remains to be done? Though Adam and Eve ate a physical fruit, we must take in a spiritual food—the fruit of Him who hung on a tree for us.

The Lord Jesus instituted a regular supper to remind His followers of His sacrifice for them. “And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave it to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body” (Mark 14:22). When we take and eat that symbol of the Lord’s body, we remember that He was “wounded for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5) in general and for each one of us in particular. BDT

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Idolatry Lives Today

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.” (1 John 5:21)

These final words of the apostle John’s letter seem like an abrupt ending, but the Greek construction is significant, emphasizing the duty of personal effort in combatting idolatry. In the Greco-Roman world, moral compromise was inseparably linked with the worldly ideologies of idol worship. Idolatry’s trap led many unbelievers and believers alike into sinful practices, resulting in serious consequences.

Idolatry’s influence permeated the early church just like it did the nation Israel (2 Chronicles 24:18), so Paul commanded the church to “flee from idolatry” (1 Corinthians 10:14). Idolatry can be found in every heart and is an over-dependence on someone or something. It can be a physical object like creation (Romans 1:25), a property, a person, an activity, a role, a hope, a pleasure, or a temporary comfort—anything substituted for a love for the Creator. The human heart is inclined toward idolatry, so beware its multifaceted faces:

    Worshiping anything/anyone instead of God (Romans 1:21, 23; 1 Thessalonians 1:9).
    Revering anything/anyone in addition to God (1 Kings 11:4-8).
    Treasuring anything/anyone more than God (Colossians 3:5; Ezekiel 14:4, 7).
    Idolizing anything/anyone as a means of worshiping God (Exodus 32:4-5).
    Exalting our own conception of God and not the true God of Scripture (Psalms 50:21).

Believers need to recognize the potential ways we are tempted to disobey God through our preoccupation with self-made idols. Believers, keep yourselves from idols. CCM

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Going and Returning

“I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.” (Genesis 46:4)

Imagine the turmoil Jacob must have felt when he heard the news that Joseph was alive and wanted him to move to Egypt. His son, whom he had thought dead for many years, was not only alive but governor of Egypt! As difficult as this was for him to believe, Jacob no doubt had a myriad of other emotions crowding in on him. God had directed him to Canaan, as with his fathers Abraham and Isaac. This was the land of promise, and yet circumstances seemed to indicate that God was leading him away. In the past, God had always spoken to him directly before each important move, and Jacob must have had that in mind as they traveled.

The company stopped at Beersheba, the southern boundary of the promised land. Here Jacob had lived with his parents (Genesis 28:10). Here God had repeated His covenant to Isaac (Genesis 26:24), and here Jacob decided to build an altar to ask God for clear leading before leaving the land (Genesis 46:1). God graciously answered: “I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation” (Genesis 46:3). Furthermore, God assured Jacob, in our text, that when His purposes in Egypt were accomplished, He would “bring thee up again” into the land of promise. Many details were as yet unknown to Jacob, but he gladly obeyed.

This pattern is applicable to us. As we endeavor to follow God’s leading, we should proceed as best we can to discern the situation (assuming there is no scriptural teaching to the contrary), all the while praying for wisdom and clarification. He may shut the door and redirect, or He may confirm our decision. We can proceed in the confidence that He will go with us, and when the time is right, He will lead us on. JDM

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Praise from the Creation

“Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein.” (Psalm 69:34)

We may not yet understand the full purpose of God in creation, but at least one aspect of that purpose is that all things created should somehow praise their Creator. This theme occurs often in Scripture, especially in the Psalms. For example, in addition to the exhortation in our text:

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Psalm 19:1).

“Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the LORD: for he cometh” (Psalm 96:11-13).

“All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee” (Psalm 145:10).

“Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens....Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: fire, and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his word: mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl” (Psalm 148:3-4, 7-10).

The Lord Jesus said that if men should refuse to praise Him and “should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out” (Luke 19:40). Yet even though the whole creation—in its beauty, complexity, and providential orderliness—gives continual praise to its Creator, men perversely have “worshipped and served the creature [or more aptly stated, the creation] more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever” (Romans 1:25).

How poignant, therefore, is the final verse of the book of Psalms: “Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD” (Psalm 150:6). HMM

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First Advent Names

“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)

Matthew records two names for Mary’s first child: Emmanuel and Jesus. In today’s verse, an angel told Joseph to go ahead and marry Mary since her pregnancy was divine. The name Jesus transliterates the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew Yeshua. The Hebrew yasa, “to save,” lies at its root. Jesus is not just a savior but the Savior! “Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour” (Isaiah 45:15). “We trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe” (1 Timothy 4:10).

What qualifies the Lord Jesus to be our Savior? First, He must be one of us—born of a human mother—our kin. We’ve known of this since the Curse: “And I will put enmity between thee [the serpent] and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15). We needed the seed of the woman, and God supplied Him!

But each human’s own sin requires propitiation. This disqualifies us from saving ourselves, let alone others. Second, therefore, we need this man to also be sinless God, hence the second name from Matthew, quoting Isaiah: “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matthew 1:23). The one and only holy God “was made in the likeness of men….Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:7,9). What name? Jesus, God with us, our Savior. BDT

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Signs of Christmas

“Moreover the LORD spoke again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.” (Isaiah 7:10-11)

Although “the Jews require a sign” (1 Corinthians 1:22), and this attitude was rebuked by Christ when He said that “an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign” (Matthew 12:39), God has given three specific signs with respect to the incarnation of Christ. There were other signs, no doubt, such as the star of Bethlehem, but three events were specifically called signs.

First, He said to the unwilling King Ahaz, “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). Immanuel means “God with us,” and the sign of the virgin birth, biologically impossible without a mighty miracle of divine creation, assures us that the omnipotent God has entered the human family once for all.

That entrance was not made in an emperor’s palace as a great conqueror, however, but in the very humblest of human circumstances, and this also was a sign. “And this shall be a sign unto you,” said the leader of the angelic host; “Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12).

And there was a third sign. When the infant Jesus was brought to the temple, the aged prophet Simeon said: “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against...that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:34-35).

That is, the God/man would Himself be God’s great sign to Israel and the whole world. The attitude of men and women to God, in Christ, would reveal the state of their hearts and seal their eternal destiny, whether rising again to everlasting life or falling forever away from God. HMM

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God in the Garden

“And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.” (Genesis 2:8)

This was the world’s first garden, and it must have been a beautiful garden, for God planted it Himself. Every tree was “pleasant to the sight,” there was a lovely river “to water the garden” (Genesis 2:9-10), and God was there.

Then one day God was “walking in the garden” only to find that “Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8). Sin had entered, and Adam and Eve had to be cast out, leaving God alone in the garden (Genesis 3:23).

Many years later, God entered another garden with His loved ones. “He went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples” (John 18:1). There in the garden of Gethsemane the disciples soon fell asleep, once again leaving Him alone in the garden, “withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast” (Luke 22:41). There He “offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears” (Hebrews 5:7) as He faced the death He had pronounced on His very first loved ones long before in that first garden.

There was yet another garden where He must be alone. “In the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus” (John 19:41-42). God walked alone in the first garden, seeking His own. He knelt alone in the second garden, praying for His own. He was buried alone in the third garden, having died for His own. Therefore, in the new “paradise of God” where the pure river flows and the tree of life grows eternally, “his servants shall serve him” and reign with Him “for ever and ever” (Revelation 2:7; 22:1-3, 5). HMM

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Walk Before Me

“I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.” (Genesis 17:1)

Abraham had been “walking” in the land of Canaan nearly 25 years when God gave this command to him. He had experienced the shameful rebuke in Egypt by Pharaoh and a marvelous victory against Chedorlaomer. He then demonstrated both humility and obedience before Melchizedek.

God had been explicit in His promises to Abraham, but the promised heir had not yet come. Now, in spite of the awful lapse of faith with Hagar and the nagging burden of Ishmael, God insisted that Abraham “walk before” Him and “be perfect.”

The Hebrew language here is unusual. The word translated “before me” is panyim, basically meaning “the face.” This is the term used in the first commandment where we are told to “have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).

In Genesis 17:1, the phrase could well be translated “walk, looking at my face.” The first commandment could also be translated “don’t let any other god get between your face and my face.”

The implication is obvious. God expects us to live in such a way that His “face” (person, character, presence) is always “before” us so that our “walk” (lifestyle, behavior) is “perfect” (complete, whole, healthy), with nothing inhibiting the relationship “of him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13).

“Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations” (Genesis 6:9). After warning Israel of the dangers of the pagan nations surrounding them, Moses still insisted that they should “be perfect with the LORD thy God” (Deuteronomy 18:13). No matter what the circumstances may be, if we are looking at God’s “face,” we will walk perfectly. HMM III

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Spiritual Hygiene

“But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” (1 Timothy 4:7-8)

We are bombarded these days with diet plans, exercise programs, health foods, beauty aids, etc.—all aimed at improving our lives or lifestyles. These may profit a “little” and should not be ignored, but we must never allow a preoccupation with physical things to negate our true priorities.

Spiritual hygiene is much more important than physical hygiene. As infants, we should “desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). For adults, “strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age” (Hebrews 5:14)—those who are no longer “unskillful in the word of righteousness” (v. 13).

We are to be “nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine” (1 Timothy 4:6) and admonished to profess “sound [literally ‘healthy’] doctrine” (Titus 1:9; 2:1), healthy “faith” (1:13; 2:2), healthy “charity” and “patience” (2:2), and use healthy “speech” (2:8).

Exercise must not be ignored, but it should be “exercise...unto godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7), enabling us to “discern both good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14). It may take the form of chastisement, which “yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness” (12:11).

And, of course, cleanliness is important. “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word” (Psalm 119:9). Christ gave Himself “that he might sanctify and cleanse [the church] with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:26-27). JDM

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Why?

“Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?” (Romans 9:20)

In this scientific age, it is essential for us to remember that “science” can never answer any question beginning with “why.” Scientific research seeks to answer questions of “what” and “how” and sometimes “where” and “when,” but it can never deal with “why” questions. Such questions require a moral or theological answer.

Probably the most vexing of all such questions is: “Why do the righteous suffer?” Or put another way: “Why is there evil in a world created by a God who is good?” The question becomes especially poignant when personal calamity comes and we ask, “Why did this happen to me?”

Many think the book of Job was written to answer such questions, for Job was one of the most godly men who ever lived, yet he suffered more than anyone. But God answered Job’s searching questions only by pointing to the wonders of His creation. God has made us for Himself, and He is “forming” us for His own holy purpose; that is all we need to know right now. “What I do thou knowest not now,” said Jesus, “but thou shalt know hereafter” (John 13:7).

Yet, even Jesus in His human suffering cried out on the cross: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). We do know, at least in part, the answer to this question. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

For answers to the other “why” questions, we may well have to await God’s own time. Until then, “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God” (Romans 8:28), and we can say with Job: “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:15). HMM

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Prepared for You

“Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 25:34)

In context, this wonderful promise may apply specifically to those living believers recognized as “sheep” by Christ when He returns to judge the nations (or “Gentiles”) at the end of the age. For them He has prepared a wonderful kingdom in which they can fully serve their great King here on Earth. The “goats,” on the other hand, will be sent away into “everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).

But we remember also that the Lord Jesus Christ has also prepared a mansion in heaven for His faithful disciples. “In my Father’s house are many mansions...I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2).

He is, even now, preparing for us that glorious place. One day, it will be fully prepared, and we shall see it when He brings it down from heaven, as John did in his great vision. “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2).

It will, indeed, be a wonderful place of “many mansions,” and John describes some of its beauties in the Bible’s last two chapters. But that is not all. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Therefore, we can say with Paul: “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). He has indeed prepared a great eternal future for His redeemed children. HMM

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Times and Seasons

“And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” (Acts 1:7)

Just before Christ ascended into heaven, His disciples asked Him, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” (v. 6). Christ refrained from answering their question as they had hoped, but in His wisdom He used the occasion to teach them that some information is for God alone, including the “times or the seasons.” In our finiteness, we are unable to handle too much information, and should we know even a small part of the “knowledge [which] is too wonderful for me” (Psalm 139:6), we would use it improperly.

Isaiah taught the same lesson many years before: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). God has graciously revealed enough that we know He has a wonderful plan, but the details are known by Him alone. They are under His “own power” or authority (our text). Certainly He knows the future, but more than that, He controls it.

And why not? He created time (Genesis 1:1); surely He can exercise authority over it. Surely the “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last” (Revelation 22:13) can control the destinies of individuals and nations. “Power” to work out His good pleasure rests solely with “the only wise God our Saviour...now and ever” (Jude 1:25).

Even though this “power” is His alone, His promise to the disciples that “ye shall receive power [a different word than that in verse 7, here meaning strength]” (Acts 1:8) has been fulfilled in the person of the Holy Spirit. We have what we need to be “witnesses” of that which we know of Him to “the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). JDM

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Creation and the New Year

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)

It is appropriate for Christians to begin the New Year by referring back to the beginning of the very first year. The first verse of God’s Word is also its most important verse, since it is the foundation on which everything else is built. Even God’s great work of salvation is irrelevant and futile without His prior work of creation, for only the Creator of all things could ever become the Savior of all things.

If a person really believes Genesis 1:1, he or she should have no difficulty believing anything else in the Bible. The very first object of saving faith (Hebrews 10:39) is the fact of special creation by the word of God (Hebrews 11:3).

The verse is comprehensive and scientific, viewing space (“the heaven”) and matter (“the earth”) as functioning in a framework of time (“in the beginning”). This space/matter/time “continuum” (as scientists call it) has not existed eternally, nor is it still being created, both of which heresies are standard beliefs of all forms of evolutionary pantheism (including most of the world’s religions and philosophies, ancient or modern). It was created, and even completed, in the past.

This foundation of all foundations is, clearly, the only sure foundation upon which one should build a life, an organization, or anything. A firm renewal of one’s commitment to special creation as literally recorded by divine revelation in the inerrant Word of God is thus the proper way to begin a new year, a new home, a new career, a new family, or any phase of a Christian life. This is the time to confess and forsake all doubts and trust God’s Word! In the beginning of the first year, God created all things. At the beginning of this year, we should resolve to believe and obey all things in His Word. HMM