April 30

Jesus sees your infinite potential. He has high expectations of you. He knows your heart and He understands your yearning to be a viable contributor to His Kingdom’s purposes. Before the foundation of the earth, He set you aside to perform exploits in His behalf. Yes, He did.

In John 15:16 He says, “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed you that you might go forth and bear much lasting fruit. Whatsoever you ask the Father in My name, He will give to you.” This broad, sweeping promise empowers you for great fulfillment of your glorious purpose.

Jesus here assures you that your feet are not trapped in the concrete of the mundane day-to-day endeavors of life. You were created for greatness. Though you may be required to earn a living and live a life, you must not be so occupied with the temporal as to overlook the spiritual opportunities around you. You have been chosen to be a vessel for His purposes!

The Lord has selected you to do the work of His Kingdom within your sphere of influence because He has seen your potential to bear much fruit for Him. He has seen your faith that will enable you to go to the Father’s Throne in Jesus name and beseech Him for souls that He will save, for healing that He will perform, for miracles He will do for His glory! Be bold! Ask! Receive! Let blessings flow!

April 29

We tend to be conflicted. This proclivity pervades our species. Even the great Apostle Paul indicated this inner battle for ascendancy. There was a war within him for control. He said that the things he wanted to do were in conflict with the things he did. We are victims of the same internal turmoil.

It seems there is no total remedy for our quandary as long as we dwell within this tabernacle of flesh, for we won’t be totally like Christ until “we see Him as He is.” But there is a way to draw near to Him in the inner man. There is a way to diminish the inner warfare, to empower the spirit man to triumph over the natural man.

It’s not a hidden secret. In fact, it’s proclaimed throughout scriptures. Psalm 71:8 declares it as do many other verses throughout the Word. It says, “My mouth shall be filled with Your praise and with the honor of Your name all the day.” All the day. Continually.

The reality is that the mouth that is filled with praise for the Holy One will not be inclined to curse his fellow man. The lips that speak of His honor will not soon be given to blasphemy or profanity. May we yield our lips to His glory, for in so doing, the rest of our life shall follow suit.

April 28

Those of us who have committed ourselves to the Lord have a deep yearning to serve Him and one of the ways we most long to see our witness take affect is by the conversion of those we love to a fullness of faith in Christ. This longing goes back to the earliest pages of scripture where it is expressed by Moses.

Moses was called by God to lead His people the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt. Moses discovered that leading people into the promised blessing of God is not an easy task. Our human will often thwarts God’s will and our progress toward the provision He desires us to have is impeded by our own resistance.

We lift the prayer Moses prayed in Exodus 33:13 for the Israelites in the behalf of ourselves and those we long to see following the Christ we love—“Now, therefore, I pray to You, if I have found favor in Your sight, show me how I may know You better and have Your grace for myself and for these I lead for You.” Like Moses, we must ask Him to show us how to overcome the hindrances before us.

To spare ourselves frustration in our attempt to keep those we love on the path to God’s full blessings of salvation and provision, we must remember that HE will empower us to accomplish all He calls us to do. We must say as Moses did when being pursued by pharaoh’s army, as the Red Sea parted so the people could escape pharaoh’s chariots on dry ground, “Stand still and behold the salvation of God” (Exodus 14:13)

April 27

Ephesians 3:16-19 enumerates a series of reasons Paul has chosen to “bow my knees” before our heavenly Father. They are valid cause for our doing the same and include, “that He would grant you according to His riches in glory to be strengthened by His spirit in the inner man, so Christ might dwell in your hearts by faith…”

It goes on to say, “…that you may be established in love and able to comprehend…the entirety of the love of Christ which passes all human understanding and thereby be filled with all God desires to give to you.” The Word makes it clear that without bowing the knee, there can be no comprehension of the lavish blessings the Lord longs to give His people.

Until we have surrendered our will to His, we can’t fathom the magnitude of the advantage we gain in forgoing our control over our own lives to His control. Until we have given our heart, our mind, our spirit, our will to the Lord, we can’t begin to comprehend the blessing He will give to us. It has to do with what this passage goes on to say in verse 20.

“He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think, according to His power at work within us.” When we empty ourselves of self and enthrone Him as Lord of our life, He endues us with His power that enables us to not only comprehend the reality of His provision for us with our minds but to know HIM in the realm of our day-to-day experience.

April 26

Those of us who believe we are Christ’s, that our lives are not our own but His, have a heightened sense of purpose. We know what we were and we know what He’s called us to be, and there is a great gulf between those two diametrically opposed aspects of our lives.

As we once lived for ourselves, focused on the aspirations that we anticipated would make our lives into the epitome of our dreams and innermost longings, so now we focus on the performance of His purposes so others might know Him through us and believe.

We recognize our total inadequacy to be effective for His lofty calling upon our lives, but we also recognize His all-sufficiency to accomplish it through us. In Ephesians 3:16 we are assured that He will, “…grant you out of the riches of His glory to be strengthened in the inner man.”

What we have no power or ability to accomplish on our own, He will, through His own strength and glory, grant to us the empowerment to perform! We needn’t rely upon our own inadequacy because we are endued with His complete sufficiency! He asks nothing of us that He will not enable us to do!

April 25

Although God needs nothing from us, He, in His love and graciousness, extends to us the opportunity to make ourselves of service to Him. Some of us may be called to far foreign shores to serve Him among the lost. Some of us may simply be given the opportunity to let His light shine through us right where we are to those whom we love.

Some of us may do great things to the honor and glory of His holy name. Some of us may do nothing but simple things with fervor born out of our devotion to the Lord. Whichever course our individual lives may take, we are privileged to do all that our hand finds to do with the excellence that becomes the One we serve.

In Matthew 5:16 Jesus admonishes, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.” Our Lord declares that each of us has a light to shine, that each of us has a work to do if His Kingdom’s purposes are to be furthered.

We are tasked with the Great Commission that we go into the entire world with the message of hope and salvation that Christ came to extend to all mankind. By so doing, the light of His truth and His love and His salvation shall shine through us. The good work that we do to our brothers shines that light as does little else.

April 24

When we have gone forward, clean in God’s eyes by the purging of the dishonor that is our proclivity as mere mortals, we discover the basis of the truth regarding the process we have allowed within our own dark hearts.

In Ephesians 4:32, Paul states it thusly: “Become useful and helpful to one another, be tenderhearted and forgive freely as God in Christ forgave you.” This speaks to the great gulf that exists between unrepentant man and God. It was created by our sin and resulted in our separation from Him.

Jesus came to bridge that vast expanse that no man on his own can traverse. Because Jesus sacrificed Himself for our cleansing, we can be forgiven of the sin that interjects itself between us and the eyes of God that cannot look upon sin. As HE forgave us, we must forgive others. He is not hardened against us because of our sin.

Jesus is tenderhearted and His love compelled Him to spend Himself in our behalf. If we indeed wish to be useful to His Kingdom’s purposes, we must have His mind—which laid His deity aside and His tender heart, which emanates infinite love—so we can go forward to serve Him by demonstrating His salvation through love and forgiveness to those whose lives touch ours.

April 23

Sometimes as we sing the song of life, there is a nagging refrain that hauntingly follows our cheery verses of hope and encouragement. It whispers into our spirit through the ups and downs that intrude into our song almost daily. Its, “Why bother?” interjects a lament into what we’re trying to sing as a joyful tune.

The youthful Timothy learned something of value through his observation of the contention between the great Apostle Paul and Barnabas. The fact is that their disagreement over inclusion of John Mark in their missionary team resulted in having two teams go forward with the gospel instead of just one!

God used the difference of opinion between the two men to further His own purposes—just as He can use the twists and turns of our lives to enhance the eternal purposes that He esteems higher than our temporal endeavors. But there is a necessary intermediate step that must be taken to facilitate it. Paul and Barnabas took it before they continued their separate missionary journeys.

As is pointed out in II Timothy 2:21, “A man must purge himself of dishonor so he may be sanctified for the Master’s use in every good work.” Bitterness cannot stand, nor can any unresolved attitude be between us and the Lord. When we have set right the wrong in our own heart, we may go forward to serve the Lord as did Paul and Barnabas, and we may sing the song of salvation in joy.

April 22

In II Corinthians 8:9 we are told of the magnitude of Christ’s love for us. It says, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich, for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich.” This is an amazing and unique act of sacrifice on His part.

We know He died for us, but He sacrificed more than His life, He sacrificed the essence of who He is for us! We are all aware of philanthropists who contribute vast sums of money to benefit the disadvantaged, to further causes that are close to their hearts.

We know that people of enormous wealth have enriched all our lives by their philanthropy. Yet, when the check has been written and the contribution made; when the disadvantaged have received the gift of great magnitude, the wealthy individual whose donation meant so much is still wealthy! This is entirely unlike the unspeakable Gift Jesus gave to us! The gifts of men do not deplete them!

When Christ set aside His deity to become a man, He left behind the wealth of the universe to become poor and humble. He did not bring the trappings of His Godhood with Him! The Word tells us that He had no form or comeliness that we should desire Him (Isaiah 53:2). His love for us compelled Him to leave it all! Should not His love for us compel us to receive all He supplied by His sacrifice?

April 21

We know that when we have surrendered our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit begins a transforming work within us. Our outer circumstances may remain largely unchanged, but our inner man will become more like the Lord we profess to love and serve if we give Him liberty to transform us from what we have been to what He desires us to become.

One of the insights into what that inner transformation will entail comes to us in the small book of Galatians. In Chapter 6, verse 2, it says, “Bear one another’s burdens and in this way fulfill the law of Christ.” There is perhaps no greater way we can reflect Jesus and His law of love than by following this admonition.

Jesus, Lord of everything that exists, left Heaven where He is worshiped and praised continually to become a mere man—not a powerful, highly respected man—a lowly, despised man for one reason. His purpose was nothing less than bearing our burden of sin so that we could lay down that unwieldy load. Why? Because of His love.

Because His love compelled Him, He took our enormous weight of sin from us. We no longer must carry it! We are free of its power to hold our lives from the joy of our salvation! As Jesus lifted our burden and set us free from it, so we must extend ourselves through love and prayer and compassion to lift the burdens of our fellow man.

April 20

Humility is not readily associated with the well-to-do. In fact, it is often the flip side of that character coin, arrogance which sets apart the lofty from the plebeians! Many of us who thought our wealth to be secure have received an unsought dose of humility through the recent economic downturn.

And it may, ultimately, work to our advantage, for the Bible states clearly in Psalm 37:11 that it is “the meek who shall inherit the earth...” It goes on to say something else that is worthy of note—“…and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.”

The implication here is that with arrogance comes strife and turmoil and a lack of a viable inheritance among our fellow journeyers through life. When we are preoccupied with promoting ourselves above others, we have little that is intrinsically valuable to show for our efforts. Though others may envy what we possess, they do not envy what we are.

Nor do we have inner tranquility when we are constantly straining for ascendancy over those around us. When we lack humility, we rob ourselves of anything of abiding value and of the peace of attaining it. Perhaps recognizing our need for things of eternal worth is the silver lining behind the cloud of the current economic storm.

April 19

The Bible has some godly counsel that would have spared us overwhelming economic consternation on a world-wide-scale if we’d heeded it. Perhaps one day things will return to normal and life on this planet will evidence prosperity again, but it is true as we forge through the concluding years of the Twenty-first century’s first decade that the wisdom of these words was not appropriated.

In Chapter 13, verse 8 of his letter to the Romans, Paul wrote something we would all do well to apply in our own financial dealings. Here he says, “Stay out of debt and owe no man anything except to love, for in loving is fulfilled all man’s obligation to his fellow man.”

The reality of life in the late Twentieth and early Twenty-first Centuries was virtually the opposite of Paul’s wise counsel! We found ourselves loving little but borrowing much in order to indulge ourselves, Madison Avenue encouraged us to gratify our every whim and their marketing strategy for the products we wanted told us we deserved to have them now!

Whether bankers were extending loans to unqualified buyers for home mortgages or for new cars to fill our garages or anything else that indulged our fancy, over-extension was the game everyone was playing! With the bitterness of disappointment and loss on our tongues, love was the last word we were prepared to say when everything crumbled around us!

April 18

We like to think that our Christianity has made us better people. We know who we were before we knew Jesus as our Savior and Lord and we know ourselves now. Although there is still much room for improvement, we like the difference we see in ourselves. We know He has shaped us into a better version of ourselves.

Following Him has given us something to which to aspire that we could not have recognized if we’d been left to our own devices. We would perhaps have striven for more that we could consume upon ourselves but we’d not have concerned ourselves with how we might improve our humanity.

Psalm 16:11 gives us a purely altruistic reason for following after our God and seeking His face. Oh, yes, it makes us better versions of ourselves, it makes us more considerate of our fellow sojourners on this temporal journey from dust to dust, but there is something even worthier of our pursuit than the mere vanities of time.

David says, “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, in Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” Following the Lord is not simply the avenue of self-improvement and more insightful awareness of others. Rather, it is our route to transcendent joy and to the spiritual goals that assure our eternal, not merely our fleeting, worldly happiness!

April 17

Here’s a question that is food for thought. How do you truly know anyone? Do you know him from a business association? Do you know him from in-depth conversations on an array of topics? Do you know him from ‘hanging out’ with him? The answer might be, ‘All the above.” By extrapolation, then, how do you know God?

You have a quasi business arrangement with Him—He supplies your income and you render back your tithe. You peruse His Word to discover His thoughts on any topic your mind can question. You hang out with Him in prayer and through fellowship with the Holy Spirit. That puts you on the right track to knowing Him.

What’s the outcome of your close associations? First and foremost, you learn of the character, the inner workings of the individual with whom you spend quality time. You are able to determine whether further friendship with him is something you wish to pursue. You discover whether you have enough in common to be able to forge an abiding relationship.

The Bible tells us in Psalm 9:10 that this very thing is possible with God as well as it is with temporal associations. Here it says, “They who know You will confidently put their trust in You, for You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.” As you draw close to our Heavenly Father, He proves Himself worthy of all you trust to Him. In knowing Him, His integrity is manifested.

April 16

Trusting God comes with great reward. It is not mere temporal advantage that is afforded to the people who place themselves under the wing of the True and Living God. Trusting Him comes with great inner blessings that manifest themselves most fully in the face of adversity.

In Isaiah 26:3 the prophet states that truth in very reassuring terms. Isaiah says, “You shall keep him in perfect peace whose mind is staid on You, because he trusts in You.” There is a treasure trove in those few words, for in them is the secret to standing unshaken, even in the midst of trial.

In Philippians 4:7 we are given further insight into this peace that is promised. It states, “And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.”

In Christ, God reveals Himself to be our very personal God whose provision includes inner peace even in adversity for any person who believes Him. Isaiah shows us God’s heart. Jesus shows us His face.

April 15

Our God is steadfast. Our God is unchanging. Jesus told us that He is the same always. There is no shadow of turning in our Heavenly Father. He is not a whimsical deity who will deal with us capriciously. He will not dangle hope before us and disappoint us. He will not promise then fail to perform. We may trust Him with time and we may trust Him with eternity.

In Romans 4:20, 21, Paul reiterates Abraham’s confidence in the God who led him from his home to a strange land, from disappointment in his childless state to being the father of nations, from the heartbroken obedience of sacrifice to the thankful joy of receiving God’s substitute to lay upon the altar.

Like Abraham, we in the midst of our trials may remain unwavering “concerning the promise of God, grow strong and be empowered by faith, giving praise and glory to God, fully persuaded that what HE has promised, HE is able to perform.” We, like Abraham may fully depend upon the provision of our God. Where He leads, He will bless. What He requires in offering, He will supply.

Will our deliverance always be immediate? Will our escape from our besetting circumstances be without exercise of faith? As with Abraham, there may be a time of testing that precedes the revelation of the Lord’s full provision. But God is steadfast and unchanging. His promises are yea and amen. As Abraham trusted Him, so may we.

April 14

The extremity of the alternative stated in Proverbs 12:24 is enough to galvanize the most inert among us to determination and resolve and action! It states a clear distinction between a positive and energetic investment of our talents and our time and a lazy lack of concern regarding how we spend ourselves.

It states clearly, “The hand of the diligent will rule, but the slothful will be put to forced labor.” The harsh reality is that, as Ben Franklin observed in Poor Richard’s Almanac, “The early bird catches the worm.”

Life holds out a prize, a desirable end that will be attained by the one who is diligent in his pursuit of it. That is not to negate the reality that our focus is to be on the things of the Lord rather than on the things of earth nor the truth that the spirit realm is eternal while the temporal matters flee away. Nor is it to diminish the importance of giving our utmost endeavor to the attaining of spiritual goals.

Rather, it is to affirm that the Lord’s expectation is that we shall give due diligence to every task He sets before us, that we shall use our talents wisely. He fully expects us to “occupy” until He comes. If we do, we shall be found in a position of power and gain, not indebtedness and loss when He assesses our use of the talents He’s entrusted to us.

April 13

The Bible stresses the importance of a man’s own words regarding the outworking of his circumstances. People are not hapless by-standers where their fate is concerned. They do not have to sit back and watch events swallow them into a sea of eventualities that they would prefer to avoid.

The truth of our power over our own lives is stated clearly in Proverbs 12:14 where it says, “From the fruit of his words a man shall be satisfied with good, and the work of his hands shall come back to him. The point is two-fold, and it is clear. Our attitude toward and what we do about our circumstances have impact.

Our words spring from our hearts. If our hearts are filled with faith, our response to life will be rooted in faith. When storm clouds gather, we will view them from a vantage point of expectation rather than from a vantage point of dread. We will speak hope into the storm, we will speak peace into the storm. Our actions too will reflect our confident expectation that our Father in Heaven is Lord over the storms of life.

We will not cower in fear of the storm, but will boldly meet it—knowing we do not encounter it alone but with the One who has promised to ever be at our side. When we face life and its battles with confidence in Jesus who has given us victory over every foe including death, hell, and the grave, our attitudes, our words and our actions will evidence His resurrection power within us and over every trial we encounter.

As the ignomony of the cross on Good Friday gave way to the glory of the resurrection on Easter morning, may every trial you face become the springboard to a great blessing. In Romans 8:28 the Word assures us that "all things work together for good to those who love the Lord, to they who are called according to His purpose." Stand on His Word. He never lies. He cannot fail.

HAPPY EASTER!

April 12

“Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God; they shall bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap.” There is a wealth of blessing within these few simple words found in Psalm 92:13, 14, and we must not overlook it.

First of all, we are to be planted in the house of the Lord. Something that is planted takes root and is not easily pulled up. Second of all, we are planted in the house of the Lord. We have not been plucked from our Source. We are attached to Him.

When we are attached to God, we shall flourish. We shall be nurtured properly, just as a plant is properly nurtured by virtue of its attachment to its root. Roses that are attached to the bush from which they have sprung will flourish while those that are picked—even to be arranged in a beautiful bouquet—will wither and die; neither will they be capable of generating new life

Unlike the beautiful but dying bouquet, the people of God will be viable throughout life—they shall be “full of sap” and this denotes their vitality. Not only will they be empowered to live long lives, they will be given the strength to live fruitful lives! Those who are rooted to Christ will not only flourish personally, they will, by the sap within them generate spiritual life in others.

April 11

The Lord our God is holy. That statement is beyond our comprehension. To say it is to suggest understanding its import, but the reality is that when we say that God is holy it’s as though we’re speaking in a foreign tongue. Just what is holy? What is our point of reference for the word?

We know that Jesus is holy and the Bible records much about Him, so that gives us some insight. Further, we have the Holy Spirit who has come to teach us all we need to know about life and salvation and God. Yet the reality is that no matter what helps we have, our finite minds cannot comprehend our infinitely holy God.

What are we to do? How can we make ourselves grasp the reality of who He is and why He is to be worshipped when we cannot even understand the great gulf that exists between our humanity and His holiness? What does He expect us to do to resolve our dilemma? As with all questions of great import, the answer to this one is found in the Word itself.

In Psalm 100:4 we are told that we are to, “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and enter His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and praise His name.” It comforts us with the realization that we don’t have to understand what it means that He is holy; all we must be willing to do is to recognize that He is by thanking and praising Him! Thanks. Praise. Enough.

April 10

In I Corinthians 16:13 Paul gives us a word of cautionary advice. He warns us that we must, “Be vigilant and alert and stand firm in your faith; quit you like men and be courageous as you grow in strength.” The implication of these few words is quite profound.

Paul is advising us to be vigilant, to be on guard. That suggests that there is a force, an enemy, that stands against us and that it may encroach upon us. Our vigilance allows us to be aware of its presence and to defend ourselves against it.

To be successful in that regard, we must stand firm in our faith. Some of the things that try us are of overwhelming magnitude. It is the intent of the enemy of our soul to swallow us in defeat. Indeed, he desires not merely our defeat but our total destruction! The evil one desires nothing more than to annihilate people of faith because he knows they are precious to the Lord.

To resist and overcome his insidious devices, it is imperative that we hold fast to our confidence in Jesus, that we rely upon the Holy Spirit within us to guide us through the mine field of trial and temptation that the enemy set up to destroy us! When we have been vigilant and resisted, we will find our faith strong and our courage to be more than sufficient for us to overcome.

April 9

The Psalmist tells us in Psalm 84:4 just how we can attain true happiness. This is not the fleeting emotion that is contingent upon how much we own or how we look or how other people think of us or how successful we are in our interactions with others. This is the abiding kind of happiness that gives us the strength to transcend our circumstances.

The secret to this happiness that overcomes adverse circumstances lies in our proximity to the God who fashioned us for Himself. As Augustine observed centuries ago, “Lord, You have made us for Yourself and restless are our hearts until they rest in You.”

When we rest—are at peace with our circumstances and with ourselves because we know we’re secure in His love—we will acknowledge as did David, “Blessed is the man who dwells in Your house, in Your presence. He will sing songs of deliverance all the day long.” David goes on to advise his reader to ponder that truth.

If the magnitude of its meaning is to impact the lives of believers, it must be an integral part of our thoughts and attitudes. For that to occur within us, we must give ourselves to prayer as the Word admonishes in Psalm 109:4. Then we shall rest in the security of His presence where there is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11) and there discover His joy to be our strength (Nehemiah 8:10).

April 8

The life of prayer does not come readily to the converted. The natural man continues to flex his muscle and his inclination is not toward devotion to the Lord or meditation upon His Word or immersion in the activity of prayer. The newly converted man has bigger fish to fry.

The “responsibilities” of life still compel him to devote the preponderance of his time to the pursuit of the things he has been trained to endeavor to attain. Now that he is born again, he may be thankful for the place the Lord has secured for him in heaven, but he believes he still must strive for his place on earth.

When he has gone through trials, however, as David did in the pursuit of the goal the Lord set before him—that of being King of Israel—he comes, to the same conclusion David reached. That is, nothing of value can be achieved without heartfelt, constant prayer. As David said it in Psalm 27:4, “ One thing have I asked of the Lord, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord (in His presence) for all the days of my life, that I may see His beauty and meditate upon His Word.”

It is David’s conclusion that without prayer, life is futile. We who know the presence of the Holy Spirit within us must allow Him to turn our hearts toward this worthy pursuit in fullness of surrender to the Lord and King who longs to hear our voice. Our natural man may resist at the onset. Our mind may drift off to temporal thoughts and we may be required to engage in life’s mundane pursuits, but if we will speak to Him, He will speak to us, and prayer will be our portion.

April 7

“It is time to arise out of slumber, for our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” These words in Romans 13:11 are sobering. Indeed, if they were true when Paul penned them, how much more imminent is the return of Christ today than it was when Paul languished in a Roman dungeon awaiting execution!

Around us on every side are indicators of the Lord’s soon return. Events in the middle east, wars and rumors of wars, man’s inhumanity to man, the rise of violence not only as a form of entertainment but as an actuality on our streets and in our schools tell us that man has lost his moral compass and we are hurling through uncharted waters of a tumultuous sea of crime and war and evil.

We who profess faith in Christ must be emboldened in this dire hour to take the truth on which we stand to every life that touches ours! Our passion for Christ and the reality that salvation is to be obtained only through His substitionary life, death and resurrection must motivate us to be steadfast in our endeavor to share Jesus’ unspeakable gift to us with everyone whose path crosses ours.

If we remain silent, how many shall miss the glorious gospel message of salvation? If we remain silent, how many will continue to live lives steeped in anger and hatred and violence? If we remain silent, how many will go to a Christ-less grave? If we truly believe what we profess, surely we must awaken from slumber and be employed about our Father’s business of reaching the lost with the truth of Christ’s precious salvation and matchless love for them.

April 6

I wonder how many of us can say with any seriousness the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 119:148. There he says, “…I am awake before the cry of the watchman that I may meditate on Your Word.” How many of us are so eager to delve into our Bibles that we can’t wait to wake up in the morning!

But the Word is health to our bones and life to our spirits. In it are the very issues of life for time and eternity. Should we not eagerly approach it, reverently open it, focusing on its intent and allow our hearts to be penetrated by every nuance of its meaning.

Conversely, should we allow ourselves to fall into somnolence? Are we not aware that to languish through the day in slumber is to waste the precious commodity of time that is allotted to us? And even more devastating to our lives than excessive physical sleep is the spiritual somnolence that can fall upon the unwary.

If we allow ourselves to be lulled into the kind of indifference to the things of the Lord that are our right to understand, to appropriate and to implement into lives of surrender to Him that result in spiritual blessing, then we have let spiritual somnolence rob us of the rich blessing He would lavish upon us if we were spiritually awake and alert.

April 5

The promise in Psalm 103:1, 5 is amazing! It is not only uplifting and reassuring to the youthful believer but also to the more seasoned child of God. Watching life fade and wither is not a pleasant experience—as the old quip states so emphatically, “Getting old isn’t for sissies!”

But this wonderful passage takes the “bite” out of the aging process! It says, “Bless the Lord… who satisfies your mouth with good things…so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” Who has not watched in awe as the eagle soared in power to great heights, allowing the air currents to carry him above the mundane realm of the earth-bound!

And our heavenly Father, Lover of our soul, tells us He wants to lift us on high when the winds of life are adverse, and satisfy us with the good of the land in the pleasant times—even as we age. If we will but bless Him, He will assure that His goodness and mercy follow us for all our days.

We need have no fear of our outer man deteriorating with age. We need only continue to allow our lips to praise our Lord at every juncture of life and He, as only He can, will cause every stage of our life’s journey to be taken in strong, steadfast steps—the kind taken by the young and by the renewed!

Praise God, He has fashioned us to be neither old nor young but eternal!

April 4

Paul understood fully that the tendency of the flesh is toward ease. He recognized that the inclination of most people is to seek comfort, rest, sleep. He knew he had to subdue this tendency within himself and that others with good intentions to labor diligently in the harvest field require the same discipline if their desire to serve Christ is to be fulfilled.

In I Corinthians 9:26-27 he uses the terminology of an athlete when he says, “I do not run uncertainly, I do not box like one beating the air and striking without an adversary; but I buffet my body and subdue it, for fear that after proclaiming to others the Gospel, I myself should become a castaway.”

Although salvation is a free gift, purchased by the shed blood of Jesus, Paul recognizes that its maintenance requires diligence on the part of the believer once the gift is received. In Philippians 2:12 he says, “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Paul knows that our inclination toward spiritual somnolence can overtake us if we allow ourselves to succumb to it.

Paul knows that if we do not require effort of ourselves in the maintaining of our own salvation and the sharing of our faith with others, we will neglect them and they will recede in importance to us. Although the Holy Spirit can keep our effort alive even when we neglect it, in order for us to thrive as believers, we must exercise to be spiritually fit.

April 3

In Romans 15:18 Paul gives us sound advice that we would be wise to follow. He says, “I will not speak of any work except what Christ has done through me to win obedience from the Gentiles through word and deed.” Paul’s admonition by example is two fold

First, he acknowledges responsibility for his own words and deeds. He knows that words have power and they are the primary vehicle through which the Lord has chosen to reveal Himself through His servants to those who do not yet know Him. People are convicted of sin and brought into Christ’s arc of safety not only by compelling words but by the living epistle of the lives of believers.

Second, Paul states that he will testify to the power of the Holy Spirit as it is revealed through his service to the Kingdom of Christ but he will refrain from judging the service of other believers. The temptation to do so is great, but the Word says very clearly that “they who compare themselves among themselves are not wise.”

This caution extended in II Corinthians 10:12, behooves us to overcome the very human tendency to paint ourselves in a favorable light by diminishing that which shines through others. Our most expedient course of action is to serve the Lord with a full heart and entrust the success of our endeavors in the behalf of His Kingdom to Him and to allow Him to judge the work of those who labor beside us.

April 2

Our natural tendency is to be–well—natural! Part of the fabric from which this tabernacle of flesh is woven is the thread of discontent. When we are not satisfied with our circumstances, our strong inclination is to complain. Some of us even rail against God because we blame Him for our dissatisfaction.

The Word admonishes that we do otherwise. In Psalm107:43 we are told, “Whoever is truly wise will observe and heed the things that evidence the mercy and loving kindness of the Lord." The One who made us and sustains our lives wants us to understand how profoundly He loves and cares for us.

He challenges us to look around, to carefully observe the amazing things His hand has crafted for our enjoyment. We live upon the only planet in our galaxy that is capable of sustaining human life. We are surrounded by color and music and a vast gallery of beauty. The thing we need most—the air we breathe—is free!

If we lust for riches and all that temporal wealth can buy, if we yearn for power and prestige, we’ll never grasp the truth of Psalm 107:43, but if we hunger and thirst after the things of God, we will recognize that He has blessed us with an amazing array of good things—the greatest of which is the eternal salvation Jesus purchased for us with His own shed blood.