1 Peter 2:1-2

Think about a time when you experienced unbearable thirst. You probably would have traded anything for a drink. When you finally got your wish, there was nothing that could have tasted better than that cold, refreshing glass of water.

Compare this physical need to spiritual thirst. Jesus referred to Himself as “living water” because He knew our deep need for fulfillment. And only He can truly satisfy.

Isn’t it interesting, then, that we live in a society where most people feel dissatisfied? In Christ, we have everything necessary to be complete, content, and fulfilled. Yet our world deceptively tells us to seek after wealth, glory, and other empty dreams. These seem to gratify for a short time, if at all. Yet we often do not recognize our actual needs. The Enemy continues to deceive by telling us that his poor substitutes will satisfy the hunger inside us.

Our Father, on the other hand, is all we need. Let’s look at three passages from Scripture. Jesus called Himself “the bread of life” and “living water”–the sustenance our souls require to survive and thrive (John 6:34-35; 7:38). His Word is alive, able to teach, convict, and redirect us toward a godly path (Heb. 4:12). God’s truth, which is called spiritual milk, provides the nourishment our souls need (1 Peter 2:2).

All of us have an emptiness within–a longing for something more. What are you attempting to use to satisfy it? Our hearts are like a jigsaw puzzle. No matter how hard you try to force a wrong piece, it will never fit correctly. Turn to Jesus, and His living water will satisfy your soul.

 New studies show that cell phones, amidst other technologies with intentions of furthering social structure and networking, are altering social behavior in ways that would seem counterintuitive. Friends remain on their phones when they are together. Answering a ringing phone at dinner or in a meeting is less likely to be viewed as an interruption (by the answerer) than it was even five years ago. Phones created with the intention of fostering communication now seem to be furthering qualities of poor communication—or in some cases no communication at all. 

 One major company has recently introduced what it refers to an added functionality for their subscribers. A service they are calling “Escape-A-Date” allows users to arrange for their cell phone to ring at a specified time. The call then guides the answerer through an automated “escape script” that allows the individual to talk his or her way out of being with the gullible person across the table any longer. The evening comes to an abrupt end as half of the party is seemingly in need of rushing off to tend to business. If the date is going well, the courtesy call is simply not answered. 

 This added functionality rivals its non-automated partners in crime, “alibi clubs,” in which online members enlist one another to create an alibi. One only has to post a request for an alibi, which is then answered and acted out to maintain a façade of innocence. Complete strangers call each other’s spouses, bosses, or children, explaining the delay, lessening the disappointment, providing an excuse that allows the one in trouble to go free. Even the most ridiculous scenarios need only the compassion of a fellow stranger to keep the lines of communication “open.”

 There is an ancient phrase of the psalmist that leaps out at me as I read of these emerging functionalities that come into our lives and wreck havoc on genuine functionality. Such counterproductive fruit springing up all around us is something like the “grass on a rooftop” the psalmist describes. In psalm 129, the writer is referring to the deceptive or the wicked, those who work against God’s kingdom. Crying out to God he asks that they be like “grass on a rooftop.”(1)

 At first glance it seems at best an odd request. But in the crevices of the flat roofs of Eastern houses grass indeed springs up, seeming almost to boast about its heightened position in rebellious places. Like the tufts of grass that seem to tirelessly fight back to own a place in the cracks of our sidewalks and driveways, grass on the rooftop stubbornly declares its existence and demands attention, lest the roof itself be damaged. Still, why would anyone ask God to make his enemies like the annoying grass with which he unremittingly fights each year? The conclusions seem almost disheartening. Will the corruption and counterproduction that endlessly springs forth in the crevices of society ever cease? Will the deception and wickedness that grows like weeds not be stopped?   

The psalmist’s colorful description reminds us that, for now, it will likely not be stopped. But in the image of grass upon a roof the psalmist wisely elicits us to see—and to pray—these enemies and their schemes that threaten in a less glamorous light. “May they be as useless as grass on a rooftop, turning yellow when only half grown, ignored by the harvester, despised by the binder” (Psalm 129:6-7). 

 The weeds of certain corruption will remain, but like grass on a rooftop it will never be grass as it was intended, or even as it might hope. Communication that is spoken through alibi clubs and escape scripts is not communication and eventually will bear its counterproductive fruit. Grass on a rooftop cannot fill the reapers’ hands, nor can it fill the gatherers’ arms. It may boast in its elevated position and rebellious standing, but having shallow roots and nowhere to grow, it cannot remain standing for long. It bears no fulfillment, nothing to cut or to carry, nothing for the hand to grasp, nothing that will last. 

 In the words of the Count of Monte Cristo, weo therefore “wait and hope.” “For until the day comes when God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these words: Wait and hope.” The Christian waits for the coming kingdom in its fullness and takes hope in its signs in our midst today. And when we pray, we pray that those who work against the kingdom of God in whatever capacity shall be like grass on a rooftop, until the day when weeds and tears shall be no more.  

 Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

 (1) Psalm 129:6.

 Morning “Brethren, pray for us.” / 1 Thessalonians 5:25

 This one morning in the year we reserved to refresh the reader’s memory upon

the subject of prayer for ministers, and we do most earnestly implore every

Christian household to grant the fervent request of the text first uttered by

an apostle and now repeated by us. Brethren, our work is solemnly momentous,

involving weal or woe to thousands; we treat with souls for God on eternal

business, and our word is either a savour of life unto life, or of death unto

death. A very heavy responsibility rests upon us, and it will be no small

mercy if at the last we be found clear of the blood of all men. As officers in

Christ’s army, we are the especial mark of the enmity of men and devils; they

watch for our halting, and labour to take us by the heels. Our sacred calling

involves us in temptations from which you are exempt, above all it too often

draws us away from our personal enjoyment of truth into a ministerial and

official consideration of it. We meet with many knotty cases, and our wits are

at a non plus; we observe very sad backslidings, and our hearts are wounded;

we see millions perishing, and our spirits sink. We wish to profit you by our

preaching; we desire to be blest to your children; we long to be useful both

to saints and sinners; therefore, dear friends, intercede for us with our God.

Miserable men are we if we miss the aid of your prayers, but happy are we if

we live in your supplications. You do not look to us but to our Master for

spiritual blessings, and yet how many times has He given those blessings

through His ministers; ask then, again and again, that we may be the earthen

vessels into which the Lord may put the treasure of the gospel. We, the whole

company of missionaries, ministers, city missionaries, and students, do in the

name of Jesus beseech you

 “Brethren, pray for us.”

 

Evening “When I passed by thee, I said unto thee, Live.” / Ezekiel 16:6

 Saved one, consider gratefully this mandate of mercy. Note that this fiat of

God is majestic. In our text, we perceive a sinner with nothing in him but

sin, expecting nothing but wrath; but the eternal Lord passes by in his glory;

he looks, he pauses, and he pronounces the solitary but royal word, “Live.”

There speaks a God. Who but he could venture thus to deal with life and

dispense it with a single syllable? Again, this fiat is manifold. When he

saith “Live,” it includes many things. Here is judicial life. The sinner is

ready to be condemned, but the mighty One saith, “Live,” and he rises pardoned

and absolved. It is spiritual life. We knew not Jesus–our eyes could not see

Christ, our ears could not hear his voice–Jehovah said “Live,” and we were

quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Moreover, it includes

glory-life, which is the perfection of spiritual life. “I said unto thee,

Live:” and that word rolls on through all the years of time till death comes,

and in the midst of the shadows of death, the Lord’s voice is still heard,

“Live!” In the morning of the resurrection it is that self-same voice which is

echoed by the arch-angel, “Live,” and as holy spirits rise to heaven to be

blest forever in the glory of their God, it is in the power of this same word,

“Live.” Note again, that it is an irresistible mandate. Saul of Tarsus is on

the road to Damascus to arrest the saints of the living God. A voice is heard

from heaven and a light is seen above the brightness of the sun, and Saul is

crying out, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” This mandate is a mandate of

free grace. When sinners are saved, it is only and solely because God will do

it to magnify his free, unpurchased, unsought grace. Christians, see your

position, debtors to grace; show your gratitude by earnest, Christlike lives,

and as God has bidden you live, see to it that you live in earnest.

How many are my iniquities and my sins?  Job 13:23 

 Have you ever really weighed and considered how great the sin of God’s people is? Think how heinous is your own transgression, and you will find that not only does a sin here and there tower up like an alp, but that your iniquities are heaped upon each other, as in the old fable of the giants who piled Pelian upon Ossa,1 mountain upon mountain. What an aggregate of sin there is in the life of one of the most sanctified of God’s children! Attempt to multiply this, the sin of one only, by the multitude of the redeemed, “a great multitude that no one could number,”2 and you will have some conception of the great mass of the guilt of the people for whom Jesus shed His blood. But we arrive at a more adequate idea of the magnitude of sin by the greatness of the remedy provided.

It is the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s only and well-beloved Son. God’s Son! Angels cast their crowns before Him! All the choral symphonies of heaven surround His glorious throne. “God over all, blessed forever. Amen.”3 And yet He takes upon Himself the form of a servant and is scourged and pierced, bruised and torn, and at last slain; nothing but the blood of the incarnate Son of God could make atonement for our offenses.

No human mind can adequately estimate the infinite value of the divine sacrifice, for although the sin of God’s people is great, the atonement that takes it away is immeasurably greater. Therefore, even when sin rolls in like a flood, and the remembrance of the past is bitter, the believer can still stand before the blazing throne of the great and holy God and cry, “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised.”4 While the recollection of the believer’s sin fills him with shame and sorrow, its very darkness serves to show the brightness of mercy; guilt is the dark night in which the fair star of divine love shines with serene splendor.

1The giant sons of Iphimedia who tried to reach Olympus by piling Mt. Pelian on Mt. Ossa (The Odyssey).

2Revelation 7:9 3Romans 9:5 4Romans 8:34

Family Reading Plan Jeremiah 2Matthew 16