“The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years . . . it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”

— Psalm 90:10

Each morning we receive one brand-new, shiny, golden day, set with twenty-four jeweled hours. Every one of us receives precisely the same amount of time each day. Today some of us will use our twenty-four hours to God’s glory and the betterment of humankind, others will waste them, and still others will use them for evil. Each of us has the same amount, and what we do with this day will have eternal consequences.

How will you invest this day?

Time is an irreplaceable asset. Once it’s gone, we can never get it back. Scripture tells us that one day time will cease and eternity will begin. When that happens, we will have to account for how we spent the time God gave us. So we must choose wisely the ways we invest it.

When we speak of investing, we usually speak of investing money. People invest money because they realize that they must prepare for their future, for later years in this life. As believers in God, we must realize that we have an eternal future to prepare for and that we need to invest our time wisely that we might have dividends, not only in this life, but forever.

So what are wise investments of our time? We invest our time wisely when we concern ourselves with the things that concern God—when our hearts break with the sorrows that break God’s heart. And what breaks God’s heart more than lost people? Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He gave His life looking for us. He died to redeem us. This was His joy. Christ finished the work God gave Him, and He sends us into the world to do the same.

So today, invest yourself in people as much as possible. As you invest your time in people and the great work of Christ’s kingdom, you invest in eternity.

“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked with a
mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are
mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is
immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and
exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.”
C. S. Lewis

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me . . .”

— Psalm 23:6

Do you have bright hopes and ambitious plans for the year ahead? I think we should purpose to make this year a great one for God’s glory. But how can we do that? We lay our plans and make our resolutions, and yet, sometimes what we deemed the year of great prospects turns out to be a year of disaster. One recent study found that seventy percent of people couldn’t keep their new year resolutions even through the month of January, much less the whole year.

So how can you and I make this new year great? Let me offer a prescription of five elements that can contribute to an excellent year . . . even to a successful life. You can find these elements in Proverbs 3:1-10, wherein God promises that if we obey His commands, we will experience “long life and peace.” As you read through the passage, you’ll find these themes:

1. Keep God’s commands for a long and happy life.
2. Live by mercy and truth for popularity and a good reputation.
3. Trust in and acknowledge the Lord for direction and guidance.
4. Fear the Lord, and forsake evil for good health.
5. Honor and give to the Lord your possessions for financial well-being.

Generally speaking, if you follow each command, you’ll receive each corresponding reward. But keep in mind that these are general principles, not guarantees. Many people who live good and godly lives do not experience all five consequences.

Neither are these “five easy steps” to Paradise. We don’t achieve admittance to Heaven by following any set of rules or living a good life. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that we receive salvation by God’s grace only; never by human works. But if we love Jesus, we want to show Him that love by obeying His Word.

This year ask God to show you what goals He has for you. Then ask Him how you can achieve those goals. Submit yourself to Him and purpose to love Him in all you do, and you’ll most definitely have a happy and spiritually prosperous year.

“A year of self-surrender will bring larger blessings
than fourscore years of selfishness.”
Anonymous

The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from now and for evermore.

— Psalm 121:8

As we come to the close of another year, we see that the Lord has been with us. He has watched over and protected us. Yes, there has been trouble and pain, but He has been with us every step of the way.

The Lord is the One who helps us through it all. As the psalmist said, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth (Psalm 121:1-2).

In all the hurry and hustle and bustle of modern life, we need to give God time to heal us and cure us, to build us up and strengthen us in Him. We need to trust in Christ and find that place of quiet rest. As one poet put it:

Slow me down Lord.
Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind.
Steady my hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reach of time.
Give me, amid the confusion of the day, the calmness of the everlasting hills.
Break the tensions of my nerves and muscles with the soothing music of the singing streams that live in my memory…
Let me look upward to the towering oak and know that it grew great and strong because it grew slowly and well.

Question to ponder:
How have you grown in the Lord this year?

And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than having two eyes to be thrown into the fire of hell.

— Matthew 18:9

Jesus took hell very seriously. He spoke about it as a real place to avoid at all costs.

The most awful thing imaginable would be to die and go into eternity without Christ; to stand before the judgment bar of Almighty God, who knows your every thought and word and deed, and to have all of your sins brought out before the universe and be justly condemned unto eternal perdition and cast out into a lake of fire.

There are some people who have tried every conceivable way to deny the reality of impending judgment for unrepentant sinners. This ranges from denying that there is a God who could possibly punish them; to denying that there is a Hell where they could be punished; to denying that a loving God would ever send anyone there (even such a reprobate as themselves); to claiming that God must, at least, give everyone the opportunity to hear the Gospel.

Not that this would help them, because they have been doing what people constantly try to do, which is to justify themselves by condemning God and end up proving that God is unjust and unfair and unloving, and they themselves must be, by comparison, pretty decent sort of folks.

Since Jesus took hell so seriously, so should we.

Question to ponder:
Is there anything in your life that you should get rid off, anything that hinders your Christian walk?

Truly I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, will not lose his reward.

— Mark 9:41

Christianity is not a spectator sport. Christ does not call us to be “spectator Christians.” There are some people in our churches, however, who, to my knowledge, have never done any work at all. They have merely seen themselves as spectators. They come to watch on Sunday morning, and that is the extent of what they do. They never put their shoulder to the wheel. They never dirty their hands. They never exert themselves in any work.

But Christ says in His letter to the church in Thyatira in Revelation 2:19, “I know you works, love, service, faith, and your patience, and that you last works are more than the first.” Christ had not forgotten their good works.

I am so glad that many Christians are always working and serving the Lord with love and patience. Christ calls us to get into the arena and glorify Him by our good works. Any deed done in Jesus’ name is precious to Him and has its reward, whether in this life or the next.

Question to ponder:
Saved, not by works, but saved unto good works—how do these truths connect?

… if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and are not removed from the hope of the gospel …

— Colossians 1:23

In his book To Light a Fire, Jack London describes a man walking through the freezing, frigid cold of Alaska, where the temperature had dropped down to 40 degrees below zero. The biting cold was searing his lungs and throat, freezing his breath and his hands and feet. He was utterly exhausted. He felt, at length, that if only he could sit down for a few minutes and regain his strength, perhaps he could go on and make it to his home.

Having sat down and leaned back against the snow, he began to feel the burning pain assuage, until he felt a warmth that surged through his body. He began to relax. He thought, “If I could just lean my head against the bank of snow and perhaps catch a few minutes sleep, then I would be refreshed and able to go on.” And so he closed his eyelids and soon slept the sleep of death.

So Satan would have us to be comfortable in our apostasy. The one thing he doesn’t want us to do is come back to God and rejoice in His presence and His love. Sometimes we need to be startled awake and realize that we have slidden back. We need to realize we are far from that comfortable relationship of joy and intimacy that once we knew—that comfort that only Christ can give—and be drawn back to Him.

Question to ponder:
How can you watch your walk so that you draw closer to the Lord and not away from Him?

Let the peace of God, to which also you are called in one body, rule in your hearts. And be thankful.

— Colossians 3:15

A young lady told me that all her life at Christmas time she always felt very sad, because no matter whether she was in the church or out, she always felt she was standing outside the candy store looking through the window. Now that she knows Christ, however, she said, she is on the inside, and her heart is filled with joy.

Joy is to be shared, and we need to keep busy helping others, praying for others, witnessing to others, and sharing our joy. Joy is increased by sharing. The more we give to other people as we encourage and uplift them, the more our joy is increased. The result: “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will protect your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). It is true joy which leads to peace, and the two are closely linked to each other.

The term used here for “protect” is an interesting one. It is a military term. Paul brings the idea of peacefulness, serenity, into close accompaniment to a military term. The word means “to garrison, to set up as a fortress, to guard with armed soldiers.” The peace of God will “garrison” our hearts from all of the buffetings of this life, if we will do these things.

Question to ponder:
How does the peace of God rule in the human heart?

By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. He endured by looking to Him who is invisible.

— Hebrews 11:27

The Bible gives us examples of both shortsightedness and farsighted vision. Certainly it was shortsighted for Eve and Adam to contemplate only the immediate delight and satisfaction that would come from eating the forbidden fruit. They didn’t take the long look at the consequences that would come.

Abraham, on the other hand, was a man of great vision. We are told that he sought a city whose builder and maker was God, though he passed through many of the cities of this world. He was looking for something that had foundations, something permanent, something that would last—a city whose builder and maker was God.

Moses is a prime example of a man with farsighted vision. We are told that he endured, seeing Him who is invisible. That is what we are called upon to do. We are not to look merely upon the things that are seen, things that are temporal, but upon the things that are unseen and eternal.

Yet most people spend more time planning for a two-week vacation than for where they are going to spend eternity. How many people have told me that they are ready to die, because they have made out their will and they have bought a burial plot. That is not adequate preparation. Let us look beyond this world and see things from an eternal perspective.

Question to ponder:
How is your present affected by the eternal?

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

— John 3:16

Christmas is all about giving. God gives. Therefore, we give.

For years spiritual analysts have lamented the secularization and commercialization of Christmas, but I think there is something perhaps even worse: the trivialization of Christmas. Stop to think about it. Santa Claus, Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, a chattering Christmas chipmunk—that trio is like “Three Blind Mice” compared to the Hallelujah Chorus.

Or, when asked the meaning of Christmas, a six-year-old child replied: “Santa Claus’ birthday.” I think this is symbolic of the spiritual blindness of the world as it gropes in its darkness for some meaning to Christmas.

The good news is that at Christmas, we are reminded annually of God’s indescribable gift in Christ. The wondrous gift is given, God’s Son for our salvation¾that is what Christmas is about. The most important gift will not be found under any tree on Christmas morning; rather, it was purchased on a tree outside a city wall long ago.

At Christmas, “God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven.” This Christmas, let God rain down His blessings on you and yours. Let us receive Him who has come to make all things new.

Question to ponder:
As you enjoy all the trimmings of Christmas, what do you consider the greatest blessing?

Then Mary said, “I am the servant of the Lord. May it be unto me according to your word.”

— Luke 1:38

There are many things about Mary that I think we could well emulate. The first is her humility. She was a lowly “maidservant of the Lord,” as she described herself. The Scripture says, “In the sixth month [of the pregnancy of Elisabeth, her relative] the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,  to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph … the virgin’s name was Mary. The angel came to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women” (Luke 1:26-28).

When Mary heard this, what did she say? Did she say, “Well at last I’m getting the recognition I deserve”? No; not at all. Rather, the Scripture says “She was troubled by his words, and considered in her mind what manner of salutation this might be” (v. 29) [you who are highly favored … Bless are you among women” (v. 28)]. She described herself as simply the maidservant of the Lord; she was of lowly estate, and could not possibly imagine what the angel intended by that saying.

God chose Mary as a humble servant through whom the world would be blessed, by her Son. We should imitate Mary, in the same way we should imitate Peter, Paul, or John.

Question to ponder:
If you were in Mary’s shoes, how do you think you would have reacted to the angel’s news of the virgin birth?