John 3:1-21

Faith isn’t something we can lay claim to because we were born to believing parents or have citizenship in a Christian country. Nor can we attain it by attending or even teaching Sunday school, though I’ve often heard such incorrect assertions. Instead, the following should be true of genuine believers.

A clear understanding of the gospel is essential for a person to believe and receive the good news of Jesus Christ. His death on the cross was the only sacrifice required to remove our sins. God offers His grace as a gift to anyone who will receive it.

A definite decision at a particular point in time serves as a sort of landmark of the heart and mind. People do not just slip into Christianity; faith in Jesus must be chosen. Believers are those who have made a deliberate decision to trust the Lord and follow in His ways.

A blessed assurance follows the clear-cut decision so that believers can be certain of their salvation. God wants confident, assured children (1 John 5:13).

A visible symbol of what happens when someone receives the Savior–namely, baptism–illustrates dying to one’s old ways and rising to new life in Christ Jesus. Believers are to take this step as a public way of identifying with Him (Matt. 28:19).

A man or woman of faith chooses to surrender to Christ, embraces the Word of God, and lives fully for the Lord. True believers no longer muddle through the practices of religion out of habit, but instead worship and rejoice in a vibrant personal relationship with the Lord.

In spite of the proverbial certainty of death and taxes, the human psyche has always dreamed of discovering loopholes in whatever mechanisms fix the limits. Yet though it might be possible to cheat on one’s taxes, “cheating death” remains a phrase of wishful-thinking applied to incidences of short-lived victories against our own mortality. Eventually, death honors its ignominious appointment with all of us, calling the bluff of the temptation to believe that we are the masters of our own destiny. But despite the universal, empirical verification of its indiscriminate efficiency, we continue to be constantly surprised whenever death strikes. Only a painfully troubled life can be so thoroughly desensitized against its ugliness as to not experience the throbbing agony of the void it creates within us whenever the earthly journey of a loved one comes to an end.

Such a peculiar reaction to an otherwise commonplace occurrence points strongly to the fact that this world is not our home. As Ecclesiastes 3:11 explains, God has put eternity in our hearts, and therefore the mysterious notion that we are not meant to die is no mere pipe dream: it sounds a clarion call to the eternal destiny of our souls. If the biblical record is accurate, there is no shame or arrogance in pitching our hopes for the future as high as our imaginations will allow. Actually, the danger is that our expectations may be too low, for “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Far from being the accidental byproducts of a mindless collocation of atoms, we are indestructible beings whose spiritual radars, amidst much static noise, are attuned to our hearts’ true home.

Trouble begins, however, when we try to squeeze that eternal existence into our earthly lives in a manner that altogether denies our finite natures. We do so whenever we desensitize ourselves against the finality of death through repeated exposure to stage-managed destruction of human life through the media. Or we zealously seek ultimate fulfillment in such traitorous idols as pleasure, material wealth, professional success, power, and other means, without taking into account the fleeting nature of human existence. Or we broach the subject of death only when we have to, and even then we feel the need to couch it in palatable euphemisms. With some of our leading intellectuals assuring us that we have pulled ourselves up by our own bootstraps and we therefore have no need for God, the only thing missing from our lives seems to be the tune of “Forever Young” playing in the cosmic background.  A visitor from outer space would probably conclude that only the very unlucky ones die, while the rest of us are guaranteed endless thrill-rides through space aboard this green planet.

But such a visitor would promptly be treated to the rude awakening that even the most self-assured of human beings are still in transit. While it is possible to sustain a façade of total control within the confines of material comforts, a functional government, and a reasonable distance from the darker side of human suffering, this opportunity is not equally shared around the globe. It would take a very specialized form of education to believe in the ability of human beings to control their own destiny when hundreds of people are being put to the sword, homes are being razed to the ground, and your neighbors are fleeing for their lives—a scenario my family lived through in Kenya. Unlike their counterparts elsewhere, news anchors in this part of the world rarely preface their gruesome video clips with viewer discretion warnings, and so the good, the bad, and the ugly are all deemed equally fit for public consumption.

Affronted by such an in-your-face, unapologetic reality of human mortality, one finds oneself face to face with a dilemma: why should you devote all of your energy to making a meaningful difference in the world if it is true that everything done under the sun will eventually amount to zero? Once one has come to the conclusion that the emperor has no clothing, what sense does it make to keep up with the pretense? Sadly, some see through the emptiness and choose to end their own lives. From a naturalistic perspective, that seems to be a perfectly consistent step to take.

Yet the Bible grasps this nettle with astounding authority. Not only has God placed a yearning for our true home in our hearts, God has also promised to cloth the perishable with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality through Christ’s own death (1 Corinthians 15:54). In the meantime, the light of the gospel shines an eternal perspective upon our service unto God and humanity, fusing all of our activities with significance. When the call of God has been answered, nothing that is done in obedience to the Father, as the Son himself confirmed in life and death, is ever trivial. Thus even in the face of suffering and death, as a follower of Christ, I neither bury my head in the sand nor grope blindly in total darkness. With faithfulness and joy, I enthusiastically render service to my God,

And when my task on earth is done,
When by thy grace the victory’s won,
Even death’s cold wave I will not flee,
Since God through Jordan leadeth me.(1)

J.M. Njoroge is a member of the speaking team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

 (1) From the 1862 hymn, He Leadeth Me, by Joseph Gilmore.

Morning   “I am with you alway.”   Matthew 28:20

It is well there is One who is ever the same, and who is ever with us. It is

well there is one stable rock amidst the billows of the sea of life. O my soul,

set not thine affections upon rusting, moth-eaten, decaying treasures, but set

thine heart upon him who abides forever faithful to thee. Build not thine house

upon the moving quicksands of a deceitful world, but found thy hopes upon this

rock, which, amid descending rain and roaring floods, shall stand immovably

secure. My soul, I charge thee, lay up thy treasure in the only secure cabinet;

store thy jewels where thou canst never lose them. Put thine all in Christ; set

all thine affections on his person, all thy hope in his merit, all

thy trust in his efficacious blood, all thy joy in his presence, and so thou

mayest laugh at loss, and defy destruction. Remember that all the flowers in the

world’s garden fade by turns, and the day cometh when nothing will be left but

the black, cold earth. Death’s black extinguisher must soon put out thy candle.

Oh! how sweet to have sunlight when the candle is gone! The dark flood must soon

roll between thee and all thou hast; then wed thine heart to him who will never

leave thee; trust thyself with him who will go with thee through the black and

surging current of death’s stream, and who will land thee safely on the

celestial shore, and make thee sit with him in heavenly places

forever. Go, sorrowing son of affliction, tell thy secrets to the Friend who

sticketh closer than a brother. Trust all thy concerns with him who never can be

taken from thee, who will never leave thee, and who will never let thee leave

him, even “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” “Lo, I am

with you alway,” is enough for my soul to live upon, let who will forsake me.

 

Evening   “Only be thou strong and very courageous.”   Joshua 1:7

Our God’s tender love for his servants makes him concerned for the state of

their inward feelings. He desires them to be of good courage. Some esteem it a

small thing for a believer to be vexed with doubts and fears, but God thinks not

so. From this text it is plain that our Master would not have us entangled with

fears. He would have us without carefulness, without doubt, without cowardice.

Our Master does not think so lightly of our unbelief as we do. When we are

desponding we are subject to a grievous malady, not to be trifled with, but to

be carried at once to the beloved Physician. Our Lord loveth not to see our

countenance sad. It was a law of Ahasuerus that no one should come into

the king’s court dressed in mourning: this is not the law of the King of kings,

for we may come mourning as we are; but still he would have us put off the

spirit of heaviness, and put on the garment of praise, for there is much reason

to rejoice. The Christian man ought to be of a courageous spirit, in order that

he may glorify the Lord by enduring trials in an heroic manner. If he be fearful

and fainthearted, it will dishonour his God. Besides, what a bad example it is.

This disease of doubtfulness and discouragement is an epidemic which soon

spreads amongst the Lord’s flock. One downcast believer makes twenty souls sad.

Moreover, unless your courage is kept up, Satan will be too much for

you. Let your spirit be joyful in God your Saviour, the joy of the Lord shall

be your strength, and no fiend of hell shall make headway against you; but

cowardice throws down the banner. Moreover, labour is light to a man of cheerful

spirit; and success waits upon cheerfulness. The man who toils, rejoicing in his

God, believing with all his heart, has success guaranteed. He who sows in hope

shall reap in joy; therefore, dear reader, “be thou strong, and very

courageous.”

 

. . . The only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  John 1:14

Believer, you can bear your testimony that Christ is the only Son from the Father, as well as the firstborn from the dead. You can say, “He is divine to me, even if He is regarded as simply human by the world. He has done for me what only God could do. He has subdued my stubborn will, melted a rebellious heart, opened gates of brass, and snapped bars of iron. He has turned my mourning into laughter and my desolation into joy; He has left my captivity captive and made my heart rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Let others think of Him as they will—to me He must be the only Son from the Father: Blessed be His name.

And He is full of grace. If He had not been, I would never have been saved. He drew me when I struggled to escape from His grace; and when at last I came trembling like a condemned culprit to His mercy-seat He said, ‘Take heart, My son; your sins are forgiven.’ And He is full of truth. His promises have been true; not one has failed. I testify that no servant ever had such a master as He; no brother ever had such a relative as He has been to me; no spouse ever had such a husband as Christ has been to my soul; no sinner ever had a better Savior, no mourner a better comforter than Christ has been to my spirit.

He is all I need! In life He is my life, and in death He will be the death of death; in poverty Christ is my riches; in sickness He is my great physician; in darkness He is my star, and in brightness He is my sun; He is the manna of the camp in the wilderness, and it is He who makes the feast in the promised land. Jesus is to me all grace and no wrath, all truth and no falsehood: And of truth and grace He is full, infinitely full.

My soul, tonight bless with all your might ‘the only Son.'”

The family reading plan for May 10, 2012

Isaiah 8 , 9:1-7 | James 2