January 8, 2016
Worry is a wasted activity. It is also a sin. For it begins with a lack of faith that doubts God’s protection and provision. Worry is like a puppy that won’t return its master’s slipper, gnawing and growling, it won’t let go of a shoe that it neither owns nor needs. Can you change your tomorrow with worry? Can you add one hour to your life by being anxious (Matt. 6:27)? Worry is anxious self-talk. Why not use the same effort to turn this inward dialogue upward? Turn your worries into prayers. Give the “shoe” back to the Master owns tomorrow.
January 7, 2016
The Lord’s visitation to make a birth announcement concerning Abraham’s wife, Sarah, began a pattern of such divine announcements in the lineage of Christ. Isaac, the child of laughter and of promise, was clearly a miraculous birth. God opened the womb of a woman “advanced in years,” one in whom the “way of women had ceased to be.” This birth announcement was a foreshadowing of the announcement Gabriel made to Joseph and Mary. For in a similar fashion, God chose the young virgin Mary, and caused her to be with child, also visiting Joseph to call him to accept her and to name the boy child, “Jesus,” adopting him as his own. The birth of Isaac points to the birth of Jesus. In fact, the whole Old Testament points to Christ’s coming.
January 6, 2016
A repetitive phrase that Jesus used in His Sermon on the Mount to contrast the letter of the law with the spirit of the law. “You have heard it said…” that thou shall not kill… thou shall not commit adultery… thou shall not divorce… “but I say…” Jesus listed many of the ten commandments and levitical laws and challenged His hearers to understand that even the attitude that precedes the action is sin. As Jesus illustrated, “everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Those who thought that they had kept the law and were therefore righteous, now understood that they weren’t. Jesus taught that the action of sin begins with the attitude of sin. Encountering Jesus we are convicted of our self-righteousness, the sinful attitudes of our hearts are exposed, and our need for salvation is revealed. Many will turn away, determined to cling to their own self-efforts at being “good.” But some will admit the condition of their hearts deadened by sin and receive Jesus, and their hearts will come alive in Christ!
January 5, 2016
This is more an expression of resolve by the petitioner than an expectation that the Lord will hear the petition. “O Lord, in the morning [and every morning thereafter] you [will] hear my voice.” The psalmist David is expressing his determination to begin his days in prayer. He uses metaphoric language in the Hebrew to describe how he will pray. He speaks like an archer, saying “I will send my prayer towards You and to You alone, and watch to see that it hits the target.” Or like a priest, David plans to “prepare” his prayer like a morning “sacrifice,” arranged carefully upon the altar, and then, to watch the smoke arise to the throne of heaven. David is determined to begin his days in the offering up of prayers to God. These will not be sleepy, memorized mutterings, but carefully considered and arrayed prayers… prayers aimed at the heart of God.
January 4, 2016
After Jesus overcame Satan and returned from His wilderness fast, He began His public ministry. News of Him soon reached other lands, including Syria. In the book of Acts we read that Christians were in Damascus in such number that the persecutor, Saul, headed there to bring them to trial. Of course, His mission was changed when the Lord struck him blind along the way. Instead of persecuting them, he ended up preaching the gospel there. A large Christian fellowship of believers has lived in Syria since the 1st century. Yet, today they are experiencing terrible persecution once again. Pray for the Christians in Syria. Before the civil war, they made up over 10% of the population. Untold numbers have been persecuted and killed. Pray that the Lord once again directs help to a street called “Straight” (Acts 9:11).
January 3, 2016
God seems to have favorite numbers. Both the number 40 and the number 3 are significant in today’s OYB reading. The number 40 generally symbolizes a period of testing, trial or preparation. We see the number in both our OT and NT readings today. Noah and his family were kept safe in the ark while God sent 40 days and nights of rain to flood the earth (Gen. 7:12). And in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus was led into the wilderness for 40 days of testing by the “Spirit.” This time of “temptation” points back to at least two events in the OT: 1) The Israelites 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and 2) Adam and Eve’s 3-part temptation in the garden. The 40 days for Jesus marked his preparation for public ministry, just as the 40 years for Israel marked their preparation for entering the promised land.
And the 3-part temptation by the devil was familiar too. Notice the similarity between Satan’s temptation of Eve (Gen. 3) and later, of Jesus:
1) Eve: “good for food;” Jesus: “stones to bread”
2) Eve: “delight to the eyes” Jesus: “let the people see the angels save you”
3) Eve: “wise like God;” Jesus: “give your worship to me instead of God”
Of course, the difference is that Adam and Eve succumbed to temptation, but Jesus overcame it.
The apostle John reminds us that in Christ, we can be “overcomers” too. Notice the three temptations listed by John and then the promise.
“For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world… Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 2:16, 5:5).
January 2, 2016
Even within the curse of sin, God gave a promise. Some have called Gen. 3:15 the “protoevangelium,” the “first good news,” because it speaks of an “offspring” of the woman that will “bruise” the head of the serpent. That this promised “offspring” or literally, “seed,” will come through the woman foreshadows the virgin birth of Christ, as women have no “seed.” That this one should be bruised of the serpent (or Satan), points to his suffering on the cross. But that the serpent’s head shall be bruised of him, points to his ultimate victory over evil through the resurrection. God removed humanity from the garden because of their sin, but He left them with a promise that one of their descendants would save them from their sin. In Christ, God has kept that promise.
January 1, 2016
“Blessed” (Happy, fulfilled, satisfied) is the one who doesn’t follow the counsel and way of the world, but instead finds direction from God’s Word. The person who follows the “law of the Lord,” which is the Word of God, follows a narrow path that few find, yet is available to all who would delight in it. This blessed life is marked by meditating on the Word, moving it from the head to the heart through reading, studying and internalizing it day and night. This life is like a “tree planted by streams of water,” drawing on the life from the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, who is revealed by the written Word.
How will you begin this new year 2016? Whose counsel will you follow?
December 31, 2015
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last” (Revelation 22:13 NKJV).
“Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!” (Psalm 150:2 NKJV).
“Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised” Proverbs 31:30 NKJV).
On this last day of 2015, it seems appropriate to quote from all four OYB readings. As I do, I am reminded that the Bible is primarily a book about God. Malachi speaks of God’s immutability. Revelation reveals Christ’s prominence, preexistence, and eternality. The Psalmist calls us to give praise for the Lord’s mighty works and excellent greatness. And Proverbs reminds us that real and lasting beauty comes from knowing and fearing the Lord. God has given us the Incarnate Word, Christ Jesus, so that we might be saved and know Him. And He has given us the written Word, so that through the help of the Spirit we might understand His character.
I hope you have been encouraged by this year’s “Bible bus” tour! Get ready. We’re pulling into the station and preparing for another tour in 2016!
December 30, 2015
John saw a city of pure gold “descending out of heaven from God.” This city is the New Jerusalem, a city not made by human hands (2 Cor. 5:1). This city is the Church, the Bride of the Lamb come down from heaven to a new earth. This is the “Father’s house” where Jesus ascended to “prepare a place for us” (John 14:2-3). There will be no “death, sorrow, nor crying” from pain in this city, for God will “wipe away every tear” and “make all things new.” The eternal destiny for those who believe in Jesus is not an existence on some immaterial, ethereal plane, but one where believers with resurrected, glorified bodies may dwell. It is a city prepared for those whose name is written in the “Lamb’s Book of Life.”