Tag Archives: theology

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What God Can Do – Greg Laurie

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He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.— Colossians 1:13

Our society doesn’t really have answers for all the problems we are facing in our country today. Ironically, our society seems to do everything it can to undermine the only one who can help us, and that is Jesus Christ.

There are people caught in our legal system as repeat offenders. There are judges who make the wrong decisions. There is the breakdown of the family. And all of these elements combined produce a society that can do very little to change a person’s heart, if anything at all. Rehabilitation efforts largely fail. In fact, the only real programs that seem to produce lasting change are faith-based, and more specifically, are being operated by Christians who are calling people to faith in Jesus Christ. Society doesn’t have the answers.

Jesus met two men whose lives had been controlled and ruined by Satan. Society didn’t have the answers. Enter the Savior, Jesus. What did He do? He sought them out in their graveyard and offered them hope. In fact, Luke’s account of the story tells us what happened to one of the men who was delivered: “Then they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid” (Luke 8:35). Why were people afraid? They didn’t know what to make of it. He was so transformed it frightened the people. They couldn’t even imagine a guy like him could be changed in such a dramatic way.

It is such a glorious thing when Christ so transforms someone that you can’t even imagine that person being what he or she used to be. You realize that it is the power of a changed life. And that is what God can do.

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The Greatest Gift of All – Charles Stanley

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John 3:15-21

Even children understand that unless a present is opened and explored, its value will remain unknown. Yet many people neglect “unwrapping” God’s gift of salvation through Jesus. They receive His forgiveness but fail to discover the marvelous treasures made available to them as children of God.

When God the Son came to dwell on earth, He took on human flesh. This mystery is known as the incarnation. Jesus, who was fully God, lived a sinless life. Yet He was also fully human. Without Christ, we would be eternally separated from God the Father. The sin we all inherited through Adam does not allow fellowship with the perfect God. So the Savior took our iniquities upon Himself and endured the death penalty in our place. And then He rose from the dead.

In doing this, Jesus redeemed us and opened the door for eternal fellowship with the Father. Any who so choose can accept mercy instead of punishment. It is God’s free gift, which includes an eternal home in heaven. We will live forever with Christians from every generation and can look forward to reuniting with loved ones who have already died in the Lord. A small baby in a manger was truly the greatest gift of all time.

Do you have a relationship with Almighty God? Jesus came to redeem you. If you haven’t accepted His salvation, take this opportunity: admit your need for forgiveness, and ask Christ to be your Savior. The gift is wrapped and ready, waiting for you to open and enjoy all God has given.

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Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

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Morning  “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name

Immanuel.” / Isaiah 7:14

Let us today go down to Bethlehem, and in company with wondering shepherds and

adoring Magi, let us see him who was born King of the Jews, for we by faith

can claim an interest in him, and can sing, “Unto us a child is born, unto us

a son is given.” Jesus is Jehovah incarnate, our Lord and our God, and yet our

brother and friend; let us adore and admire. Let us notice at the very first

glance his miraculous conception. It was a thing unheard of before, and

unparalleled since, that a virgin should conceive and bear a Son. The first

promise ran thus, “The seed of the woman,” not the offspring of the man. Since

venturous woman led the way in the sin which brought forth Paradise lost, she,

and she alone, ushers in the Regainer of Paradise. Our Saviour, although truly

man, was as to his human nature the Holy One of God. Let us reverently bow

before the holy Child whose innocence restores to manhood its ancient glory;

and let us pray that he may be formed in us, the hope of glory. Fail not to

note his humble parentage. His mother has been described simply as “a virgin,”

not a princess, or prophetess, nor a matron of large estate. True the blood of

kings ran in her veins; nor was her mind a weak and untaught one, for she

could sing most sweetly a song of praise; but yet how humble her position, how

poor the man to whom she stood affianced, and how miserable the accommodation

afforded to the new-born King!

Immanuel, God with us in our nature, in our sorrow, in our lifework, in our

punishment, in our grave, and now with us, or rather we with him, in

resurrection, ascension, triumph, and Second Advent splendour.

 

Evening “And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent

and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt

offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my

sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.” /

Job 1:5

What the patriarch did early in the morning, after the family festivities, it

will be well for the believer to do for himself ere he rests tonight. Amid the

cheerfulness of household gatherings it is easy to slide into sinful levities,

and to forget our avowed character as Christians. It ought not to be so, but

so it is, that our days of feasting are very seldom days of sanctified

enjoyment, but too frequently degenerate into unhallowed mirth. There is a way

of joy as pure and sanctifying as though one bathed in the rivers of Eden:

holy gratitude should be quite as purifying an element as grief. Alas! for our

poor hearts, that facts prove that the house of mourning is better than the

house of feasting. Come, believer, in what have you sinned today? Have you

been forgetful of your high calling? Have you been even as others in idle

words and loose speeches? Then confess the sin, and fly to the sacrifice. The

sacrifice sanctifies. The precious blood of the Lamb slain removes the guilt,

and purges away the defilement of our sins of ignorance and carelessness. This

is the best ending of a Christmas-day–to wash anew in the cleansing fountain.

Believer, come to this sacrifice continually; if it be so good tonight, it is

good every night. To live at the altar is the privilege of the royal

priesthood; to them sin, great as it is, is nevertheless no cause for despair,

since they draw near yet again to the sin-atoning victim, and their conscience

is purged from dead works.

Gladly I close this festive day,

Grasping the altar’s hallow’d horn;

My slips and faults are washed away,

The Lamb has all my trespass borne.

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Recovering Man’s Destiny – John MacArthur

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“We . . . see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone” (Heb. 2:9).

The ultimate curse of our lost destiny is death. God warned Adam that if he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die (Gen. 2:17). In the restored kingdom we will be elevated again over a redeemed earth. But the only way that we could ever reign again as kings was to have the curse of sin removed, and the only way to remove it was to pay the penalty of sin, which is death (Rom. 6:23).

There’s just one problem: how can we reign if we are dead? We need to be raised from the dead, but we certainly can’t do that ourselves. That’s why God sent Jesus Christ.

To accomplish this great work for us, Jesus had to become a man. He Himself had to be made “for a little while lower than the angels.” To regain man’s dominion He had to taste death for every man. Christ came to die for us because in His dying He could conquer death.

But He was also raised from the dead: “Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him” (Rom. 6:9). How does that help us? “If we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection” (v. 5).

The moment you put your faith in Christ, you are identified with Him. You died with Him on the cross, you were resurrected, and you began to walk in newness of life. You now are a joint heir with Christ in His eternal kingdom.

Christ tasted death for you and me so we could recover our lost destiny. Celebrate that glorious truth as you celebrate His birth today.

Suggestion for Prayer:  Before you do another thing today, praise your heavenly Father for His wonderful plan of salvation.

For Further Study:  Read Isaiah 2:2-4 and 11:6-9 noting the character of our future kingdom.

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Jesus—His First Appearance – Charles Stanley

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Romans 8:28

Some situations in the Bible may seem perplexing to us, but none of them were mere happenstance. God, who knows all things and sees the end from the beginning, was sovereignly working out all the details of His redemption plan.

For example, it may strike us as strange that a government census inconveniently caused Mary the discomfort of having to travel in her ninth month of pregnancy. Caesar Augustus may have thought this census was his idea, but the reality is that he was being sovereignly overruled: God was moving this family to Bethlehem in fulfillment of a prophecy about the Messiah’s birth. Centuries earlier, Micah wrote, “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity” (5:2).

Not only was the travel a hardship, but once Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem, the only accommodations they could find were rather unglamorous. A stable with a feeding trough for the baby’s crib was hardly what we would think of as a setting fit for a King. But the Father had purpose in mind for that as well. He wanted the Lamb of God to be born in a lowly setting, alongside other lambs.

What difficult circumstances are you facing? Do you wonder why God would allow such trials? Rest assured, your heavenly Father sees all and has a good purpose beyond what our finite minds can grasp. Choose to trust Him, and rest in His promise to work everything for His children’s good.

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Unfamiliar Christmas – Ravi Zacharias

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If the first chapter of Luke is the preface to a great story—the foretelling of a herald, the prophecy of a child, the return of the throne of a king—the second chapter is the culmination. The Roman world is called to a census. A young couple journeys to Bethlehem to be counted. A child is born. “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.’”(1)

Christian or otherwise, the Christmas story is often viewed as wonderful in its familiarity, calling forth each year a childhood delight in the monotonous, beckoning our imaginations to a stable and a story. Christmas hymns, full of imagery and story, are piped in as background music at post offices and malls. Manger scenes can still be found as part of familiar Christmas décor. Yet often for those to whom it is all most familiar, it is also a story we can find surprisingly unfamiliar each year. Like children delighting in another reading of a bedtime favorite, the Nativity is somehow still startling in its mysteries, the child still out of place in the manger, the story full of profound paradox.

The first time I walked through the crowded, pungent streets of Bethlehem, I was struck by the disparity between what I was seeing and “the little town of Bethlehem” I had imagined in pageants and songs. The harsh reality of God becoming a child in the midst of the cold and dark world I knew myself suddenly seemed a blaring proclamation: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. There is a plaque of the same words outside the dark and ancient church built upon what was once the place of the nativity. Reading this in the actual Bethlehem, I remember thinking I had never really considered it before: God taking on flesh to live here, with us, in our chaos and fighting and despair.

 

Upon his conversion, Charles Wesley took to hymn writing as a means of attempting to capture the strange hope of a God among us, which was persistently stirring in his mind. Though a few of the words have long since been changed, one of Charles Wesley’s 6,000 hymns is a widely beloved declaration of the Incarnation. Seeking to convey in pen and ink a Christmas story both familiar to our hearts and startling in its wonder, Wesley wrote:

Hark, how all the welkin rings,

“Glory to the King of kings;

Peace on earth, and mercy mild,

God and sinners reconciled!”

For Wesley, the Christ child in the manger was forever an indication of the great lengths God will go to reconcile his creation, a savior willing to descend that we might be able to ascend. “Welkin” is an old English term meaning “the vault of heaven.” Wesley was telling the radical story of the Incarnation: All of heaven opening up for the birth of a king and the rebirth of humanity.

The star of Bethlehem, the magi, the shepherds, and the willing child Mary are all amid the long-imagined and inconceivable markers of a God among us. The birth of Christ is the timeless gesture that God has chosen to remain. And Christmas is a time to imagine what it means if the hard cries of a real and unpolished world have really been heard, if a savior was born, if the vault of heaven was truly opened.

Hail the heav’nly Prince of Peace!

Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all He brings,

Ris’n with healing in his wings.

Mild He lays his glory by,

Born that man no more may die.

Born to raise the sons of earth,

Born to give them second birth

Hark! the herald angels sing,

“Glory to the newborn King!”

 

 

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

(1) Luke 2:8-14.

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Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

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Morning   “For your sakes he became poor.” / 2 Corinthians 8:9

The Lord Jesus Christ was eternally rich, glorious, and exalted; but “though

he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor.” As the rich saint cannot be

true in his communion with his poor brethren unless of his substance he

ministers to their necessities, so (the same rule holding with the head as

between the members), it is impossible that our Divine Lord could have had

fellowship with us unless he had imparted to us of his own abounding wealth,

and had become poor to make us rich. Had he remained upon his throne of glory,

and had we continued in the ruins of the fall without receiving his salvation,

communion would have been impossible on both sides. Our position by the fall,

apart from the covenant of grace, made it as impossible for fallen man to

communicate with God as it is for Belial to be in concord with Christ. In

order, therefore, that communion might be compassed, it was necessary that the

rich kinsman should bestow his estate upon his poor relatives, that the

righteous Saviour should give to his sinning brethren of his own perfection,

and that we, the poor and guilty, should receive of his fulness grace for

grace; that thus in giving and receiving, the One might descend from the

heights, and the other ascend from the depths, and so be able to embrace each

other in true and hearty fellowship. Poverty must be enriched by him in whom

are infinite treasures before it can venture to commune; and guilt must lose

itself in imputed and imparted righteousness ere the soul can walk in

fellowship with purity. Jesus must clothe his people in his own garments, or

he cannot admit them into his palace of glory; and he must wash them in his

own blood, or else they will be too defiled for the embrace of his fellowship.

O believer, herein is love! For your sake the Lord Jesus “became poor” that he

might lift you up into communion with himself.

 

Evening   “The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it

together.” / Isaiah 40:5

We anticipate the happy day when the whole world shall be converted to Christ;

when the gods of the heathen shall be cast to the moles and the bats; when

Romanism shall be exploded, and the crescent of Mohammed shall wane, never

again to cast its baleful rays upon the nations; when kings shall bow down

before the Prince of Peace, and all nations shall call their Redeemer blessed.

Some despair of this. They look upon the world as a vessel breaking up and

going to pieces, never to float again. We know that the world and all that is

therein is one day to be burnt up, and afterwards we look for new heavens and

for a new earth; but we cannot read our Bibles without the conviction that–

“Jesus shall reign where’er the sun

Does his successive journeys run.”

 

We are not discouraged by the length of his delays; we are not disheartened by

the long period which he allots to the church in which to struggle with little

success and much defeat. We believe that God will never suffer this world,

which has once seen Christ’s blood shed upon it, to be always the devil’s

stronghold. Christ came hither to deliver this world from the detested sway of

the powers of darkness. What a shout shall that be when men and angels shall

unite to cry “Hallelujah, hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!”

What a satisfaction will it be in that day to have had a share in the fight,

to have helped to break the arrows of the bow, and to have aided in winning

the victory for our Lord! Happy are they who trust themselves with this

conquering Lord, and who fight side by side with him, doing their little in

his name and by his strength! How unhappy are those on the side of evil! It is

a losing side, and it is a matter wherein to lose is to lose and to be lost

forever. On whose side are you?

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The Restriction of Man’s Destiny – John MacArthur

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“But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him” (Heb. 2:8).

God gave man dominion over all the earth, and the earth supplied his every need. All he had to do was accept and enjoy the earth as provided for him. But Adam sinned and Satan usurped the crown. A new chain of command was born: the earth now rules man.

To know how true that is, all you need do is look at the amount of effort expended on restoring the ecological balance of the earth. Environmentalism is a popular watchword of our day. Yet with all our modern technology, we are still unable to gain control over the earth.

Look what happened once Adam sinned: no longer could man easily harvest what the earth provided–now he had to toil by the sweat of his brow (Gen. 3:18). Women would experience pain in childbirth (3:16). Murder soon followed in Adam’s family. God had to destroy virtually all mankind in the Flood because they had become so debauched.

Much of the animal kingdom now lives in fear of man and cannot be tamed. Where once the earth produced good things naturally and abundantly, now it produces thorns, weeds, and other harmful things. Extremes of heat and cold, poisonous plants and reptiles, earthquakes, typhoons, floods, hurricanes, and disease were all products of the Fall. Man was no longer a king but a slave–a dying creature fighting a losing battle with a dying earth.

Amazingly, the earth is aware of its condition: “For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it” (Rom. 8:20). Now it eagerly awaits for the day when the sons of God, believers, are manifest in the kingdom, for then it will be liberated from the bondage of corruption (vv. 19, 21-22).

There is coming a day, in the wonderful plan of God, when man will receive once again the dominion that he lost. May our Lord hasten its coming!

Suggestion for Prayer:  Thank God that He will one day redeem the earth from its subjection to the curse.

For Further Study:  Read Isaiah 60:21, 65:25, 2 Peter 3:13, and Revelation 21:27. What will characterize the new earth?

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Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

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Morning   “Friend, go up higher.” / Luke 14:10

When first the life of grace begins in the soul, we do indeed draw near to

God, but it is with great fear and trembling. The soul conscious of guilt, and

humbled thereby, is overawed with the solemnity of its position; it is cast to

the earth by a sense of the grandeur of Jehovah, in whose presence it stands.

With unfeigned bashfulness it takes the lowest room.

But, in after life, as the Christian grows in grace, although he will never

forget the solemnity of his position, and will never lose that holy awe which

must encompass a gracious man when he is in the presence of the God who can

create or can destroy; yet his fear has all its terror taken out of it; it

becomes a holy reverence, and no more an overshadowing dread. He is called up

higher, to greater access to God in Christ Jesus. Then the man of God, walking

amid the splendours of Deity, and veiling his face like the glorious cherubim,

with those twin wings, the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, will,

reverent and bowed in spirit, approach the throne; and seeing there a God of

love, of goodness, and of mercy, he will realize rather the covenant character

of God than his absolute Deity. He will see in God rather his goodness than

his greatness, and more of his love than of his majesty. Then will the soul,

bowing still as humbly as aforetime, enjoy a more sacred liberty of

intercession; for while prostrate before the glory of the Infinite God, it

will be sustained by the refreshing consciousness of being in the presence of

boundless mercy and infinite love, and by the realization of acceptance “in

the Beloved.” Thus the believer is bidden to come up higher, and is enabled to

exercise the privilege of rejoicing in God, and drawing near to him in holy

confidence, saying, “Abba, Father.”

“So may we go from strength to strength,

And daily grow in grace,

Till in thine image raised at length,

We see thee face to face.”

 

Evening   “The night also is thine.” / Psalm 74:16

Yes, Lord, thou dost not abdicate thy throne when the sun goeth down, nor dost

thou leave the world all through these long wintry nights to be the prey of

evil; thine eyes watch us as the stars, and thine arms surround us as the

zodiac belts the sky. The dews of kindly sleep and all the influences of the

moon are in thy hand, and the alarms and solemnities of night are equally with

thee. This is very sweet to me when watching through the midnight hours, or

tossing to and fro in anguish. There are precious fruits put forth by the moon

as well as by the sun: may my Lord make me to be a favoured partaker in them.

 

The night of affliction is as much under the arrangement and control of the

Lord of Love as the bright summer days when all is bliss. Jesus is in the

tempest. His love wraps the night about itself as a mantle, but to the eye of

faith the sable robe is scarce a disguise. From the first watch of the night

even unto the break of day the eternal Watcher observes his saints, and

overrules the shades and dews of midnight for his people’s highest good. We

believe in no rival deities of good and evil contending for the mastery, but

we hear the voice of Jehovah saying, “I create light and I create darkness; I,

the Lord, do all these things.”

Gloomy seasons of religious indifference and social sin are not exempted from

the divine purpose. When the altars of truth are defiled, and the ways of God

forsaken, the Lord’s servants weep with bitter sorrow, but they may not

despair, for the darkest eras are governed by the Lord, and shall come to

their end at his bidding. What may seem defeat to us may be victory to him.

“Though enwrapt in gloomy night,

We perceive no ray of light;

Since the Lord himself is here,

‘Tis not meet that we should fear.”

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The Revelation of Man’s Destiny – John MacArthur

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“He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking. But one has testified somewhere, saying, ‘What is man, that Thou rememberest him? Or the son of man, that Thou art concerned about him? Thou hast made him for a little while lower than the angels; Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor, and hast appointed him over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.’ For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him” (Heb. 2:5- 8).

When we look at the vast, seemingly endless universe and then think about the little dot we call earth in the middle of it all, we cannot help but wonder, “What is man? What right do we have to be so much on God’s mind?”

David had an answer: “Thou hast made him for a little while lower than the angels . . . crowned him with glory and honor . . . appointed him over the works of Thy hands . . . put all things in subjection under his feet” (Heb. 2:6-8). The writer of Hebrews was quoting one of the Psalms (Ps. 8:4-6) to show that God made man to be king.

David undoubtedly penned his psalm based on what God said in the beginning: “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Gen. 1:26). God’s original design for man in his innocence was to be king over an undefiled earth.

When God made Adam, who was pure and innocent, He gave Him honor and glory. God crowned man king of the earth: “Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet” (Heb. 2:8). One day we again will be given the right to rule the earth, and all God’s creation will be put under our feet.

Suggestion for Prayer: Read Psalm 8 and offer it as your own praise to God.

For Further Study:  Read Daniel 7:18, 27 and note the extent of the saints’ ultimate rule.

The Revelation of Man’s Destiny  –  John MacArthur

“He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking. But one has testified somewhere, saying, ‘What is man, that Thou rememberest him? Or the son of man, that Thou art concerned about him? Thou hast made him for a little while lower than the angels; Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor, and hast appointed him over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.’ For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him” (Heb. 2:5- 8).

When we look at the vast, seemingly endless universe and then think about the little dot we call earth in the middle of it all, we cannot help but wonder, “What is man? What right do we have to be so much on God’s mind?”

David had an answer: “Thou hast made him for a little while lower than the angels . . . crowned him with glory and honor . . . appointed him over the works of Thy hands . . . put all things in subjection under his feet” (Heb. 2:6-8). The writer of Hebrews was quoting one of the Psalms (Ps. 8:4-6) to show that God made man to be king.

David undoubtedly penned his psalm based on what God said in the beginning: “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Gen. 1:26). God’s original design for man in his innocence was to be king over an undefiled earth.

When God made Adam, who was pure and innocent, He gave Him honor and glory. God crowned man king of the earth: “Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet” (Heb. 2:8). One day we again will be given the right to rule the earth, and all God’s creation will be put under our feet.

Suggestion for Prayer: Read Psalm 8 and offer it as your own praise to God.

For Further Study:  Read Daniel 7:18, 27 and note the extent of the saints’ ultimate rule.

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Intimacy with God – Charles Stanley

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Psalm 63:1-11

For Christians, it’s fairly simple to notice other people filling their God-shaped void with all the wrong things. It’s much harder, though, to see that same error in our own redeemed lives. We all too easily get busy for God—serving, singing, teaching, preaching, and going to the mission field. None of these things are wrong; in fact, they’re all good. But they’re often a misguided attempt to create a false sense of intimacy with God.

Why would any believer choose artificial closeness with the Lord when He wants to give His children the real thing? Two reasons: first, being known by God requires intense vulnerability and the humility to receive His grace. There is nothing we can do for the Lord or give to Him that will atone for our sins. Second, all successful friendships require hard work, and that holds true for our relationship with God as well.

To really know the Lord, you have to read the Bible—all of it. And you cannot maintain a close relationship with your heavenly Father if you ignore His principles. You must, therefore, fill your mind with godly things and forego worldly influences. In addition, a vibrant prayer life is essential to intimacy with God. These things don’t just happen; they require intentional effort.

Simply put, when we satisfy our thirst with living water, we’re no longer thirsty. When we live in intimate communion with God, the temptation to strive for saintliness in our own strength falls away. And our service, offerings, and worship, stripped of any self-serving motives, genuinely glorify God.

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Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

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Morning  “I will strengthen thee.” / Isaiah 41:10

God has a strong reserve with which to discharge this engagement; for he is

able to do all things. Believer, till thou canst drain dry the ocean of

omnipotence, till thou canst break into pieces the towering mountains of

almighty strength, thou never needest to fear. Think not that the strength of

man shall ever be able to overcome the power of God. Whilst the earth’s huge

pillars stand, thou hast enough reason to abide firm in thy faith. The same

God who directs the earth in its orbit, who feeds the burning furnace of the

sun, and trims the lamps of heaven, has promised to supply thee with daily

strength. While he is able to uphold the universe, dream not that he will

prove unable to fulfil his own promises. Remember what he did in the days of

old, in the former generations. Remember how he spake and it was done; how he

commanded, and it stood fast. Shall he that created the world grow weary? He

hangeth the world upon nothing; shall he who doth this be unable to support

his children? Shall he be unfaithful to his word for want of power? Who is it

that restrains the tempest? Doth not he ride upon the wings of the wind, and

make the clouds his chariots, and hold the ocean in the hollow of his hand?

How can he fail thee? When he has put such a faithful promise as this on

record, wilt thou for a moment indulge the thought that he has outpromised

himself, and gone beyond his power to fulfil? Ah, no! Thou canst doubt no

longer.

O thou who art my God and my strength, I can believe that this promise shall

be fulfilled, for the boundless reservoir of thy grace can never be exhausted,

and the overflowing storehouse of thy strength can never be emptied by thy

friends or rifled by thine enemies.

“Now let the feeble all be strong,

And make Jehovah’s arm their song.”

 

Evening  “The spot of his children.” / Deuteronomy 32:5

What is the secret spot which infallibly betokens the child of God? It were

vain presumption to decide this upon our own judgment; but God’s word reveals

it to us, and we may tread surely where we have revelation to be our guide.

Now, we are told concerning our Lord, “to as many as received him, to them

gave he power to become the sons of God, even to as many as believed on his

name.” Then, if I have received Christ Jesus into my heart, I am a child of

God. That reception is described in the same verse as believing on the name of

Jesus Christ. If, then, I believe on Jesus Christ’s name–that is, simply from

my heart trust myself with the crucified, but now exalted, Redeemer, I am a

member of the family of the Most High. Whatever else I may not have, if I have

this, I have the privilege to become a child of God. Our Lord Jesus puts it in

another shape. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

Here is the matter in a nutshell. Christ appears as a shepherd to his own

sheep, not to others. As soon as he appears, his own sheep perceive him–they

trust him, they are prepared to follow him; he knows them, and they know

him–there is a mutual knowledge–there is a constant connection between them.

Thus the one mark, the sure mark, the infallible mark of regeneration and

adoption is a hearty faith in the appointed Redeemer. Reader, are you in

doubt, are you uncertain whether you bear the secret mark of God’s children?

Then let not an hour pass over your head till you have said, “Search me, O

God, and know my heart.” Trifle not here, I adjure you! If you must trifle

anywhere, let it be about some secondary matter: your health, if you will, or

the title deeds of your estate; but about your soul, your never-dying soul and

its eternal destinies, I beseech you to be in earnest. Make sure work for

eternity.

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The Confirmation from God – John MacArthur

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“How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will” (Heb. 2:3-4).

When Jesus preached the gospel, He performed miracles that made what He said believable. He said, “Though you do not believe Me, believe the works” (John 10:38). Jesus claimed to be from God, then made it obvious He really was from God.

Nicodemus came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “No one can do these signs that You do unless God is with Him” (John 3:2). Jesus confirmed His ministry by His own miracles. Peter reiterated that fact on the day of Pentecost: “Jesus the Nazarene [was] a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs” (Acts 2:22).

God also gave these same confirming signs to His second generation of preachers–the apostles–so no one could dispute the validity of their message. What the apostles said was not their own opinion; it was divine truth substantiated by signs, wonders, and miracles.

Signs, wonders, and miracles are synonyms referring to all the supernatural things the apostles did. But the apostles also confirmed the Word with “gifts of the Holy Spirit.” That’s a reference to the temporary sign gifts described in Scripture, such as tongues and healings, not to the permanent edifying gifts given to the church for all time.

Today God attests to the gospel with the miracle of His written Word. Let it not be said that you neglected Jesus Christ. History confirms that hours of neglect cost Napoleon Waterloo. Neglecting Christ’s salvation will cost you eternal blessing and joy and bring you damnation. Don’t allow yourself to drift past God’s grace.

Suggestion for Prayer: Thank God for His Word, and that through it you have all the truth you need to communicate the gospel.

For Further Study:  Read Acts 5-19 and list all the miracles performed by the apostles to confirm the gospel.

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The Infinite Jesus – Charles Stanley

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Philippians 2:5-11

The virgin birth of Jesus is a miracle, but it does not mark His beginning. Christ existed long before He was born in Bethlehem. As John 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning was the Word [Jesus] and Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Debating the scientific probability of the virgin birth seems rather pointless when we’re talking about the firstborn of creation by whom all things were created (Col. 1:15-16). It isn’t logical to say, “I believe in Jesus” or “I believe in God” and then reject the fact of Mary’s virginity. The God of the Bible is certainly capable of causing such a miracle. And that is exactly what He did. Jesus laid aside His glory, was born a human, and carried out the Father’s redemption plan (Phil. 2:6-11).

If Jesus had come to earth still wrapped in His glory, no one would have been able to look directly at Him. Divine radiance is too great for human eyesight—which is the same reason Moses had to be protected from seeing anything more than God’s back as He passed by (Ex. 33:18-33). But what Jesus didn’t set aside was His deity. He was fully man so that He could experience temptation, pain, and sorrow and thereby know how we feel. Yet He was also fully God, and He came to earth to show us what the Father is like (John 14:9).

Jesus was born of a virgin woman. Those two words convey a wealth of information about His dual nature on earth. One tells of His divinity; the other, His humanity and ability to sympathize with our weaknesses (Heb. 4:15). It adds up to an eternal Savior who looks on us with mercy and love.

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Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

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Morning  “Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant.” / 2 Samuel 23:5

This covenant is divine in its origin. “He hath made with me an everlasting

covenant.” Oh that great word He ! Stop, my soul. God, the everlasting Father,

has positively made a covenant with thee; yes, that God who spake the world

into existence by a word; he, stooping from his majesty, takes hold of thy

hand and makes a covenant with thee. Is it not a deed, the stupendous

condescension of which might ravish our hearts forever if we could really

understand it? “HE hath made with me a covenant.” A king has not made a

covenant with me–that were somewhat; but the Prince of the kings of the

earth, Shaddai, the Lord All-sufficient, the Jehovah of ages, the everlasting

Elohim, “He hath made with me an everlasting covenant.” But notice, it is

particular in its application. “Yet hath he made with me an everlasting

covenant.” Here lies the sweetness of it to each believer. It is nought for me

that he made peace for the world; I want to know whether he made peace for me!

It is little that he hath made a covenant, I want to know whether he has made

a covenant with me. Blessed is the assurance that he hath made a covenant with

me! If God the Holy Ghost gives me assurance of this, then his salvation is

mine, his heart is mine, he himself is mine–he is my God.

 

This covenant is everlasting in its duration. An everlasting covenant means a

covenant which had no beginning, and which shall never, never end. How sweet

amidst all the uncertainties of life, to know that “the foundation of the Lord

standeth sure,” and to have God’s own promise, “My covenant will I not break,

nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” Like dying David, I will

sing of this, even though my house be not so with God as my heart desireth.

 

Evening  “I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers’ skin,

and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.” /

Ezekiel 16:10

See with what matchless generosity the Lord provides for his people’s apparel.

They are so arrayed that the divine skill is seen producing an unrivalled

broidered work, in which every attribute takes its part and every divine

beauty is revealed. No art like the art displayed in our salvation, no cunning

workmanship like that beheld in the righteousness of the saints. Justification

has engrossed learned pens in all ages of the church, and will be the theme of

admiration in eternity. God has indeed “curiously wrought it.” With all this

elaboration there is mingled utility and durability, comparable to our being

shod with badgers’ skins. The animal here meant is unknown, but its skin

covered the tabernacle, and formed one of the finest and strongest leathers

known. The righteousness which is of God by faith endureth forever, and he who

is shod with this divine preparation will tread the desert safely, and may

even set his foot upon the lion and the adder. Purity and dignity of our holy

vesture are brought out in the fine linen. When the Lord sanctifies his

people, they are clad as priests in pure white; not the snow itself excels

them; they are in the eyes of men and angels fair to look upon, and even in

the Lord’s eyes they are without spot. Meanwhile the royal apparel is delicate

and rich as silk. No expense is spared, no beauty withheld, no daintiness

denied.

What, then? Is there no inference from this? Surely there is gratitude to be

felt and joy to be expressed. Come, my heart, refuse not thy evening

hallelujah! Tune thy pipes! Touch thy chords!

“Strangely, my soul, art thou arrayed

By the Great Sacred Three!

In sweetest harmony of praise

Let all thy powers agree.”

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The Certainty of Judgment – John MacArthur

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“If the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” (Heb. 2:2-3).

Today the majority believes that God is a God of love and grace, but not of justice. One brief look at Hebrews 2:2-3 ought to convince anyone otherwise. The writer’s point is this: Since the Old Testament makes it clear that transgression and disobedience met with severe and just punishment, how much more so will equal or greater punishment be rendered under the New Testament, which was revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself?

Both the Old and New Testaments confirm that angels were instrumental in bringing the law (Deut. 33:2; Acts 7:38). The law the angels spoke, primarily the Ten Commandments, was steadfast. That meant if someone broke the law, the law would break the lawbreaker. The law was inviolable; punishment for breaking it was certain.

“Every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense” (v. 2). Transgression refers to stepping across a line–a willful, purposeful sin. Disobedience, however, refers to imperfect hearing–the sin of shutting one’s ears to the commands, warnings, and invitations of God. It is a sin of neglect or omission, doing nothing when something should be done.

Hebrews 2:2 also puts to rest the notion that God is not fair. The writer says every sin received a “just recompense.” God, by His very nature, is just. Every punishment He meted out to those who defied Him was a deterrent to the sin He wanted to stop.

God severely punished the nation of Israel because they knew better. That leads to the important principle that punishment is always related to how much truth one knows but rejects. The person who knows the gospel, who has intellectually understood it and believed it, yet drifts away will experience the severest punishment of all.

Suggestion for Prayer:  Ask God to give you an even greater appreciation of the punishment He has saved you from to motivate you to pursue the lost more vigorously.

For Further Study:  Read Matthew 11:20-24, 12:38-42, and Luke 12:47-48 to discover Christ’s attitude toward those who know the truth yet rebel against it.

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What Christmas Is About – Greg Laurie

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Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.— Isaiah 9:7

As we look at our world today, we realize that part of the promise of Isaiah 9:6–7 has not yet been fulfilled. The Son has been given. The Child has been born. But He has not yet taken the government upon His shoulders. We do not yet have peace with judgment and justice. But the good news is that there will come a day when Christ will return. He will establish His kingdom on this earth. And it will be the righteous rule of God Himself.

Before Jesus could take the government upon His shoulder, He had to take the cross upon His shoulder. Before He could wear the crown of glory as King of Kings, He had to wear the shameful crown of thorns and give His life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. The first time, a star marked His arrival. But the next time He comes, the heavens will roll back like a scroll, all of the stars will fall from the sky, and He Himself will light it.

Christ came to this earth. God came near to you so you can come near to Him—to give your life purpose and meaning, to forgive you of your sins, and to give you the hope of heaven beyond the grave. Christmas is not about tinsel or shopping or presents. Christmas is not about the gifts under the tree. Rather, Christmas is about the gift that was given on the tree when Christ died there for our sins and gave us the gift of eternal life.

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The Virgin Birth—Does It Matter? – Charles Stanley

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Luke 1:26-37

I find it interesting that people choose parts of the Bible to accept as true. The virgin birth is often a rejected miracle—the argument I hear is, “As long as I believe in Jesus, the rest doesn’t matter.” But that rationale isn’t logical. Apart from the virgin birth, Jesus would have been just another man and therefore unworthy of anyone’s faith.

Consider the implications if Mary were not a virgin. If that were the case, then the following things would be true: 1) She was a liar who claimed to have been visited by an angel and told that she would bear the Son of God; 2) She was unfaithful to her intended husband and, consequently, 3) Jesus was an illegitimate child with no divine nature. Not only that, but if the virgin birth were a lie, then Jesus was a crazy man who claimed to be the Son of God and died a martyr’s death trying to prove it.

In fact, for Jesus’ death to provide atonement, the virgin birth had to be true. A child born of a man and woman comes into the world with a sinful “flesh” nature (Rom. 5:12), but God required a perfect sacrifice to pay for sin. That message is all through the Old Testament (Deut. 17:1). Only Jesus, who was born of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:18), could have paid our penalty in our place.

We cannot treat God’s Word like a religious buffet, where we choose the parts we will believe. Every fact, promise, and principle is included for a reason. The Father placed His Son in the womb of a virgin so that no one could doubt He was something special—the Lamb of God, Savior of the world.

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Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

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Morning  “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” / Jeremiah 31:3

Sometimes the Lord Jesus tells his Church his love thoughts. “He does not

think it enough behind her back to tell it, but in her very presence he says,

Thou art all fair, my love.’ It is true, this is not his ordinary method; he

is a wise lover, and knows when to keep back the intimation of love and when

to let it out; but there are times when he will make no secret of it; times

when he will put it beyond all dispute in the souls of his people” (R.

Erskine’s Sermons). The Holy Spirit is often pleased, in a most gracious

manner, to witness with our spirits of the love of Jesus. He takes of the

things of Christ and reveals them unto us. No voice is heard from the clouds,

and no vision is seen in the night, but we have a testimony more sure than

either of these. If an angel should fly from heaven and inform the saint

personally of the Saviour’s love to him, the evidence would not be one whit

more satisfactory than that which is borne in the heart by the Holy Ghost. Ask

those of the Lord’s people who have lived the nearest to the gates of heaven,

and they will tell you that they have had seasons when the love of Christ

towards them has been a fact so clear and sure, that they could no more doubt

it than they could question their own existence. Yes, beloved believer, you

and I have had times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and then our

faith has mounted to the topmost heights of assurance. We have had confidence

to lean our heads upon the bosom of our Lord, and we have no more questioned

our Master’s affection to us than John did when in that blessed posture; nay,

nor so much: for the dark question, “Lord, is it I that shall betray thee?”

has been put far from us. He has kissed us with the kisses of his mouth, and

killed our doubts by the closeness of his embrace. His love has been sweeter

than wine to our souls.

 

Evening  “Call the labourers, and give them their hire.” / Matthew 20:8

God is a good paymaster; he pays his servants while at work as well as when

they have done it; and one of his payments is this: an easy conscience. If you

have spoken faithfully of Jesus to one person, when you go to bed at night you

feel happy in thinking, “I have this day discharged my conscience of that

man’s blood.” There is a great comfort in doing something for Jesus. Oh, what

a happiness to place jewels in his crown, and give him to see of the travail

of his soul! There is also very great reward in watching the first buddings of

conviction in a soul! To say of that girl in the class, “She is tender of

heart, I do hope that there is the Lord’s work within.” To go home and pray

over that boy, who said something in the afternoon which made you think he

must know more of divine truth than you had feared! Oh, the joy of hope! But

as for the joy of success! it is unspeakable. This joy, overwhelming as it is,

is a hungry thing–you pine for more of it. To be a soul-winner is the

happiest thing in the world. With every soul you bring to Christ, you get a

new heaven upon earth. But who can conceive the bliss which awaits us above!

Oh, how sweet is that sentence, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!” Do you

know what the joy of Christ is over a saved sinner? This is the very joy which

we are to possess in heaven. Yes, when he mounts the throne, you shall mount

with him. When the heavens ring with “Well done, well done,” you shall partake

in the reward; you have toiled with him, you have suffered with him, you shall

now reign with him; you have sown with him, you shall reap with him; your face

was covered with sweat like his, and your soul was grieved for the sins of men

as his soul was, now shall your face be bright with heaven’s splendour as is

his countenance, and now shall your soul be filled with beatific joys even as

his soul is.

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Throwing Out the Anchor – John MacArthur

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“For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (Heb. 2:1).

While English explorer William Edward Parry and his crew were exploring the Arctic Ocean, they needed to go further north to continue their chartings. So they calculated their location by the stars and began a treacherous march.

After many hours they stopped, exhausted. After taking their bearings, they discovered they were now further south than when they started! They had been walking on an ice floe that was traveling faster south than they were walking north.

That is similar to the situation people who continue rejecting Christ find themselves in. Therefore Hebrews 2:1 says, “We must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.”

Why would anyone knowingly reject Christ? He came into the world as God incarnate, died on a cross to forgive our sins, paid our penalty, showed us divine love, and gives us blessing and joy beyond imagination.

The Greek words translated “pay much closer attention to” and “drift away from” both have a nautical usage. The first means “to tie up a ship” and the second can be used of a ship that has been carelessly allowed to drift past the harbor because the sailor forgot to attend to the steerage or chart the wind, tides, and current. Hebrews 2:1 could be translated: “We must diligently anchor our lives to the things we have been taught, lest the ship of life drift past the harbor of salvation and be lost forever.”

Most people don’t deliberately turn their backs on God; they almost imperceptibly slip past the harbor of salvation and are broken on the rocks of destruction. Be sure you warn those you know who might be slipping past that harbor.

Suggestion for Prayer:  Ask God to strengthen your resolve when you know you need to confront someone regarding his or her relationship with the Lord.

For Further Study:   Memorize Proverbs 4:20-22 as your own reminder of how important it is to hold on to God’s Word.