Psalm 143:5-12

What do you think about when you wake up? Are your thoughts instantly focused on the day ahead, or are they centered on the Lord? Although most of us have busy lives that consume much of our time and attention, the most important and time-saving part of each day is that spent in quiet solitude with God.

Yet many believers feel so rushed that they don’t think there’s time for the Lord. They immediately jump onto the treadmill of life and then wonder why they’re so frustrated, confused, and dissatisfied. Even if their desire is to follow God, they don’t know where He’s going since they haven’t stopped to get directions for the day. There’s also a disconnect because they’ve ignored their relationship with Him. No one can have intimacy with Christ without daily communication.

Perhaps the problem is our own human logic. We think spending time reading the Bible and praying each morning will result in having less time and lower productivity. However, when we seek Christ’s direction and wisdom for the day and invite Him to control our lives, He’ll accomplish more through us than we can do by ourselves. He’ll give us wisdom for good decisions, increase our strength and energy, and free us from time-wasting anxiety.

Are you too busy for the Lord? If so, you’re denying yourself the blessing of an intimate relationship with Christ. When you make time for Him, He’ll fill you with peace and joy, guide your decisions, grant you wisdom, empower you to obey, make you more productive, and comfort you with His love.

Reading an online newspaper the other day, I ended up, as I often do, on the religion pages. My attention was first caught by a long list of various world religions, followed by the descriptions of the beliefs and practices of each one. Interestingly, I thought, atheism was among the many religions listed. And yet in describing the beliefs of atheists, the first sentence declared, “Atheism is not a belief.” Can a belief-system accurately be defined as the absence of belief? Its very inclusion as a belief-system among alternative belief-systems seemed to negate its first belief.

In a very real sense, atheism is a belief. Though it contends disbelief in God, it is rightfully placed among the many belief-systems that inform life. Moreover, as the atheistic worldview offers certain perspectives about the world, like Christianity or Hinduism, it requires certain faith assumptions: that the world exists in ordered, knowable nature, that our senses and intellect are reliable in discovering truth, that there is a uniformity to nature extending from past to future. At the foundation of every worldview, a number of interconnected beliefs are held in faith. The question then becomes, which faith provides the most coherent foundation for understanding the world?

As one author points to the tensions of incoherence in the atheist’s insistence of reason as the foundation of non-belief, “[R]easons require that this universe be a reasonable one that presupposes there is order, logic, design, and truth. But order, logic, design, and truth can only exist and be known if there is an unchangeable objective source and standard of such things….Like all non-theistic worldviews, Darwinism borrows from the theistic worldview in order to make its own view intelligible.”(1) In other words, the very foundation of atheistic faith allows for an unstable structure of interpretation.

Either arrogantly or boldly, Jesus proposes himself as a foundation. “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand” (Matthew 7:24-26). It may sound to some archaic or egotistical. But to hear a psychologist speak of moral accountability as a necessary qualifier in understanding human behavior, or a cultural analyst proclaim the effectiveness of setting aside one day out of the workweek for rest is to hear vital remnants of this bold and arrogant foundation, whose thought and life surrounds us.(2)

At the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. there is a large wooden altar from a synagogue that was vandalized by Nazi soldiers who had come to remove the Jewish citizens of the city. Across the altar is a single phrase of Hebrew carved deeply into the wood. Though it bears the hack marks of axes that attempted to delete the words, the phrase is still decipherable. It simply reads: Know before Whom you stand.

We can attempt to eradicate the name of God; we can begin without Christ at the foundation of our belief systems. But it will never negate his presence.

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

(1) Norman Geisler and Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2004), 130.

(2) Cf. Hobart Mowrer, “Sin, the Lesser of Two Evils,” American Psychologist, 15 (1960): 301-304) and Douglas Rushkoff, “Remember the Sabbath: An Argument in Favor of a Day Off,” December 1999.

 Morning    “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who

shall be heirs of salvation?” / Hebrews 1:14

 

Angels are the unseen attendants of the saints of God; they bear us up in

their hands, lest we dash our foot against a stone. Loyalty to their Lord

leads them to take a deep interest in the children of his love; they rejoice

over the return of the prodigal to his father’s house below, and they welcome

the advent of the believer to the King’s palace above. In olden times the sons

of God were favoured with their visible appearance, and at this day, although

unseen by us, heaven is still opened, and the angels of God ascend and descend

upon the Son of man, that they may visit the heirs of salvation. Seraphim

still fly with live coals from off the altar to touch the lips of men greatly

beloved. If our eyes could be opened, we should see horses of fire and

chariots of fire about the servants of the Lord; for we have come to an

innumerable company of angels, who are all watchers and protectors of the

seed-royal. Spenser’s line is no poetic fiction, where he sings–

 “How oft do they with golden pinions cleave

 The flitting skies, like flying pursuivant

 Against foul fiends to aid us militant!”

 To what dignity are the chosen elevated when the brilliant courtiers of heaven

become their willing servitors! Into what communion are we raised since we

have intercourse with spotless celestials! How well are we defended since all

the twenty- thousand chariots of God are armed for our deliverance! To whom do

we owe all this? Let the Lord Jesus Christ be forever endeared to us, for

through him we are made to sit in heavenly places far above principalities and

powers. He it is whose camp is round about them that fear him; he is the true

Michael whose foot is upon the dragon. All hail, Jesus! thou Angel of

Jehovah’s presence, to thee this family offers its morning vows.

 

Evening   “He himself hath suffered being tempted.” / Hebrews 2:18

 

It is a common-place thought, and yet it tastes like nectar to the weary

heart–Jesus was tempted as I am. You have heard that truth many times: have

you grasped it? He was tempted to the very same sins into which we fall. Do

not dissociate Jesus from our common manhood. It is a dark room which you are

going through, but Jesus went through it before. It is a sharp fight which you

are waging, but Jesus has stood foot to foot with the same enemy. Let us be of

good cheer, Christ has borne the load before us, and the blood-stained

footsteps of the King of glory may be seen along the road which we traverse at

this hour. There is something sweeter yet–Jesus was tempted, but Jesus never

sinned. Then, my soul, it is not needful for thee to sin, for Jesus was a man,

and if one man endured these temptations and sinned not, then in his power his

members may also cease from sin. Some beginners in the divine life think that

they cannot be tempted without sinning, but they mistake; there is no sin in

being tempted, but there is sin in yielding to temptation. Herein is comfort

for the sorely tempted ones. There is still more to encourage them if they

reflect that the Lord Jesus, though tempted, gloriously triumphed, and as he

overcame, so surely shall his followers also, for Jesus is the representative

man for his people; the Head has triumphed, and the members share in the

victory. Fears are needless, for Christ is with us, armed for our defence. Our

place of safety is the bosom of the Saviour. Perhaps we are tempted just now,

in order to drive us nearer to him. Blessed be any wind that blows us into the

port of our Saviour’s love! Happy wounds, which make us seek the beloved

Physician. Ye tempted ones, come to your tempted Saviour, for he can be

touched with a feeling of your infirmities, and will succour every tried and

tempted one.

He himself has suffered when tempted.   Hebrews 2:18

 It is a common thought, and yet it tastes like honey to the weary heart—Jesus was tempted as I am. You have heard that truth many times, but have you grasped it? He was tempted by the very same sins into which we fall. Do not separate Jesus from our common humanity. If you are going through a dark room, remember Jesus went through it before you. If you are engaged in a sore fight, remember that Jesus has stood foot to foot with the same enemy. Let us be encouraged—Christ has borne the load before us, and the blood-stained footsteps of the King of glory can be seen along the road that we travel at this hour.

There is something sweeter yet—Jesus was tempted, but Jesus never sinned. My soul, it is not necessary for you to sin, for Jesus was a man, and if one man endured these temptations without sin, then in His power His followers may also flee from sin. Some new believers think that they cannot be tempted without sinning, but they are mistaken; there is no sin in being tempted, but there is sin in yielding to temptation. Here is comfort for those who are greatly tempted. There is still more to encourage them if they recall that the Lord Jesus, though tempted, gloriously triumphed; and as He overcame, so may His followers also, for Jesus is the representative man for His people.

The Head has triumphed, and the members share in the victory. Fears are unnecessary, for Christ is with us, armed for our defense. Our place of safety is the embrace of the Savior. Perhaps we are tempted just now in order to drive us nearer to Him. Blessed be any wind that blows us into the harbor of our Savior’s love! Happy the wounds that make us seek the beloved Physician. Tempted ones, come to your tempted Savior, for He can sympathize with your weaknesses and will comfort every tried and tempted one.

 

Family Reading Plan    Ezekiel 36  Psalm 86