“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with all eagerness, daily examining the Scriptures, to find out if these things were so.”

— Acts 17:11

The Scripture is the final authority in all religious controversies. It is to the Word of God, the oracles of God, not to men, that we are to turn. Down through the centuries people have said, “Well, the minister said this or the priest said that or the church has said this or the Rabbi declares this.” But the Scriptures declare it is only in the Bible that we have the infallible Word of God.

I charge you not to take what I say on faith, but to examine what I say in light of the Scriptures. I endeavor to proclaim no novel doctrines, and offer no new religions, but simply to declare that faith which, once and for all, was delivered unto the saints. It is up to you to examine it.

The Bible tells us that the Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica because they received the Word with all readiness of mind. In fact, they searched the Scriptures daily to see if this preaching was true. Who was it that was preaching? None other than the Apostle Paul himself. God declares that these people were noble and I would charge you to believe nothing I say without testing it by the Scriptures. If it is contrary to the Word of God, reject it. May God make us good Bereans.

Father, thank You for speaking through Your holy Word. Help us never to reject it to listen instead to man’s opinion. Help our churches so that we all boldly proclaim Your Word and not any false doctrine which twists and distorts what You have clearly said…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN BE
GROUNDED IN THE WORD OF GOD.

“Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, ‘Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are able to overcome it.’”

— Numbers 13:3

Joshua and Caleb were among the twelve spies who Moses sent into the Promised Land. But sadly, he and Caleb were outvoted by the other ten who said it was a great land, but it was filled with giants.

Nonetheless, Joshua and Caleb said we are more than able to possess it. “Let us go up at once and take it,” they said. They were not men that were filled with fear, timidity, or defeatism. They were positive, they were strong, they were courageous, and they wanted to go up at once.

Now they had also seen the giants. They did not by any means declare that the majority was wrong in its facts of the case, they were just wrong in their conclusions. They had seen the giants and yes, compared to the giants I suppose they were grasshoppers. Ah, but Caleb and Joshua saw the Lord God Jehovah, and compared to Him, the Anakites or Anakim were but ants crawling around on the earth. And so that courage, which is an integral part of true grit, comes from a confidence and faith in God’s Word.

Being Christian does not mean that God spares us from facing giants in our lives. What it does mean is “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). God is much greater than Satan. The Lord can give us victory over all the giants we face. Let us face the problems in life with the eyes of faith, like Joshua and Caleb, as opposed to eyes of unbelief, like the other ten spies.

Lord of hosts, in Your army and in Your company, we are conquerors. Jesus, You who are the Captain of the Lord’s army, give us strength for today and courage to face the giants. Thank You for the “weapon” of Your Word, which is the sword of the Spirit…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN OVERCOME
THE DARTS OF THE EVIL ONE.

“Then I looked. And there was a great multitude which no one could count, from all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands.”

— Revelation 7:9

When Jesus died and rose from the dead, there were some 120 believers who gathered in an upper room to pray, at His command. No one even took note of their existence.

Then Peter preached a sermon, and 3,000 believed. Shortly thereafter, 5,000 more were added to the number, followed by a great multitude of Jews and priests. Next came a time of persecution and when it ended in 313 A.D. with the Edict of Toleration, there were about 10 million professing Christians. By the year 1000, this number had grown to 50 million. By 1800 A.D., the number had grown to 215 million professing Christians. That is an increase of 165 million in 800 years.

In 1795, the modern missionary movement began in earnest with William Carey. By the year 1900 A.D., 100 years later, the number had grown to 500 million professing Christians. That is an increase of 285 million in one century. Jump ahead to today, and we are talking about roughly 2.2 billion professing Christians, larger than any other religion.

There is nothing even vaguely approaching this accomplishment in the annals of human history. When we look at the explosive growth of the Church worldwide, it makes us realize that, by God’s grace, we are winning.

Jesus Christ, Lord of the universe, grant us strength today to further Your kingdom on earth. Thank You for letting us be a part of this great multitude who belong to You. Help us to not miss the big picture in our everyday life…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH AND HIS GRACE,
WE ARE ON THE WINNING SIDE.

“…until we all come into…the knowledge of the Son of God, into a complete man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…”

— Ephesians 4:13

Sanctification is just a technical term coming from the Latin that means spiritual growth—that God did not birth us to be merely babies. We are to grow and become little children and older children and then mature adults.

We are the army of Jesus Christ. We sing, “Onward Christian Soldiers,” but can you imagine a kindergarten full of little children putting their toy rifles on their shoulders and marching off to war singing “Onward Christian Soldiers”? We would say, “Aren’t they cute? Certainly nobody is going to get hurt by that army. That’s for sure.”

So I would ask you: If you have been born of Christ, have you grown in Christ? You know, it’s interesting, you will hear a lot of people say, “I’m a born-again Christian.” Now that certainly has a wonderful truth to it. It’s saying that we have experienced that life-transforming act where God changes us, and we have a new birth.

But what would you think about a person that you met who is fifty or sixty years old and every time you talked to him, he told about what a wonderful birth he had had—that his mother didn’t have a whole lot of pain. It all worked out well, and you keep seeing him and he keeps telling you about when he was born, as if that is the last thing that ever happened to him. God wants us to grow in Christ unto maturity.

Lord Jesus, we repent of our spiritual laziness. We repent of taking the things of You so lightly, while seriously engaged in other pursuits. Give us strength for today, Lord, that we may begin to develop great spiritual maturity…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN
AGE GRACEFULLY IN CHRIST.

“…and My name is continually blasphemed all day long.”

— Isaiah 52:5

We live in an age that is awash with blasphemy. It is grievous to hear the name of Jesus Christ taken in vain, spoken of blasphemously. Why would anyone speak that name in blasphemy? It is the only sin without any motivation other than the pure demonic hatred of the fallen heart of man against God. Why? What more could He do than for you He has done?

God says in the Ten Commandments that He will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. Yet people blithely take God’s name in vain all over the place in this culture. They treat it like it doesn’t mean anything—and yet their very lives depend on Him, whose name they take in vain. It’s hard to turn on the radio or watch TV or a movie and avoid hearing blasphemy.

I would remind every blasphemer, every persecutor, every antagonist of Christianity that they are persecuting the living, risen, glorious Son of God, before whom one day they will stand and give an account of themselves and before whose feet they will bow. For many of them it will be the last thing that happens before they are taken and cast into hell.

God’s name is holy. We should not take it in vain in profanity or by using it lightly. Don’t ever say, “The Lord told me…” if it really was only your own wishes that told you. The name of God is to be praised, not defamed.

Holy God, we tremble when we think of all the blasphemy of our society. We cringe when we hear even little children swear. Lord, forgive them for they know not what they do. Give us strength for today to always honor Your holy name…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE
CAN KEEP HIS NAME HOLY.

“The Lord said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.’”

— Acts 9:5

How did Saul of Tarsus get changed? He was a religious zealot, persecuting the church wherever he could find it. He was committed to its destruction because he thought God wanted him to do this.

One day, as Saul approached Damascus, we are told in the ninth chapter of Acts, suddenly there was a light that shone upon him from heaven as if God turned on a great spotlight with a brilliant, dazzling whiteness that so struck him that he fell to the ground.

He was filled with terror and trembling, and he heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” (Acts 9:4). In the Greek text there is an interesting emphasis that does not come out in the English. What it says there is, “Why Me do you persecute?” The emphasis is on the word “Me.”

That shows us that when anyone persecutes Christians, the apple of Christ’s eye, they are persecuting Him—that we are one body. He is the head; we are the body.

Consider Jesus’ question: “Why? What have I done to you, Saul? I left My throne in glory. I came down from the ivory palaces into this world of woe. I took upon Myself your guilt and went to a cross, and there I suffered in agony, even the very wrath of My Father, for you. I endured hell for you. Why are you persecuting Me?”

We should pray for the persecuted church—that they would continue to be faithful and that their attackers would be redeemed (as Saul was) or removed.

Jesus, Lord of the church, there are many today who are persecuting You. A new wave of cruelty and barbarism is being unleashed against Your people, and we grieve and ask, “How long, Lord?” before You lift up Your mighty sword and stop Your enemies…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, THE
MARTYRS WILL TRIUMPH.

“Many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified…”

— John 4:39

When people encounter Jesus, their lives are never the same again. We can see that in the instance of the woman at the well. This well was near Sychar in the region of the Samaritans who were hated by the Jews because they were half-breeds.

Jesus and His disciples were traveling through that region, and the disciples went off on an errand. Jesus met a certain woman at that well. She was a woman of ill repute. You may recall her encounter with Jesus: “The woman said to Him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When He comes, He will tell us all things.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He’” (John 4:25-26). This woman dropped her water pot in amazement. She had confronted the living Messiah, and her life would never be the same again.

Amazingly, He directly told her that He was indeed the Messiah. At that point in His ministry, He generally kept that fact under the radar.

One of the first missionaries for Christ, she rushed to her region and called many of the townspeople to come and meet this amazing man, who was more than a prophet. They came and believed when they heard Jesus for themselves.

Whoever you are, whatever your background, the Lord can use you as a witness for Him. Then, others may also experience the transformation of heart that you experienced after your encounter with Jesus.

Dear Holy Spirit, thank You for Your work in our world. Daily You quicken dead hearts and bring people unto salvation. You call us to repentance and to gather in Jesus’ name. May You also use me as a witness to those who do not know You…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, OUR
HEARTS CAN BE CHANGED.

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.”

— 1 Timothy 1:15

Saul of Tarsus was born into a well-to-do family. His father was a Pharisee, and Saul followed in his footsteps. He was given the finest education. He was sent to Jerusalem to sit at the feet of Gamaliel. There he outstripped all of his countrymen in the religion of his fathers. He was blameless in the sight of men. He had a brilliant and quick mind.

When the crisis of Christianity broke in Jerusalem, he was the one who was going to be their champion. He persecuted Christians, hauling them into jail, torturing and killing them, and causing them to flee from the city of Jerusalem until there was now little fuel left for the martyrs’ fires that he wished to start.

He obtained letters from Caiaphas, who was still the High Priest, and set out to find and exterminate these Christians. He was, indeed, going to reverse the Great Commission. Jesus had said to go into all the world and make disciples of all the nations (Matthew 28:19). Saul was going to go into all the world and make sure the Gospel would not be preached to any creature.

Shakespeare says in Hamlet, “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough hew them how we will.” Saul was about to discover that Providence as he set out to destroy the church. Christ transformed him on the road to Damascus and changed him into perhaps the greatest missionary ever—the Apostle Paul. When Christ truly changes you, you are not the same anymore.

Lord, You who changed Saul into Paul, thank You for the transforming power You have over human hearts. Thank You for making me Your child and using me in Your kingdom. I pray today for those I love, whose hearts are still unregenerate. Lord, save them…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH,
SINNERS ARE CONVERTED.

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

— Philippians 1:21 KJV

What is your philosophy of life? You say you don’t even have one? Oh, yes, you do. Everyone has one. Some have explicitly stated them or written them down. For most people, however, I am afraid they are more subconscious. These people may not even know they have one, but may I say that the less consciously it is declared, the more fully it controls a person’s life—even unbeknownst to them. You have a philosophy of life. What is it?

The world and the kingdom of Christ define success differently. To me, the only success that really matters is that which is of eternal value. Consider the example of Paul. He was not only a great apostle, a missionary, apologist, evangelist, statesman, and preacher, but he was also an unparalleled expert in the art of living. He had discovered the secret of a life worth living. He states it in a very succinct, terse, sententious form: “For to me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21 kjv). There it is. Seven, simple, single-syllable words: “For to me to live is Christ.” There is a divine philosophy of life given to us by our Maker. I do not believe anyone could improve upon it, even if volumes were written.

Here is the great discovery of the secret to a successful life. Paul had discovered the art of living: “For to me to live is Christ.” And what does that mean when life is over? He finishes the verse: “…and to die is gain.”

Lord Jesus, who is my life, thank You for this beautiful philosophy of life. Thank You for being my life, my light, and my salvation. Thank You that all I need I have in You…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH,
CHRIST CAN BE OUR LIFE.

“Those who are wise shall shine as the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who turn the many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.”

— Daniel 12:3

In this verse, Daniel gives a goal to set your heart on. Lift up your eyes. You are not one of the animals of the field to be satisfied with the husks on the ground, but lift up your eyes unto the stars.

Decades ago, I went into a suite of offices for some purpose. I don’t remember where it was or why I was there, but I remember one thing: When I got ready to leave and had finished my business, I was in something of a hurry, and I opened a door to the hall and stepped into a 3 x 4 foot broom closet. I instantly stepped out again, shamefacedly closed the door, and looked for the proper exit. I probably was in that broom closet for between one and two seconds.

Wouldn’t it be sad if I spent the rest of my life talking about that broom closet where I spent, at most, two seconds of my life? May I say to you, this world to which you give all of your energies and time and thought and effort will be less than two seconds of your eternal life. It has well been said that many people spend more time planning a two-week vacation than they plan where they are going to spend eternity. God has made you for forever. Some people cannot see beyond next year.

God of all creation, give me strength to lift my eyes to the stars, and as I count them, as Abraham did, let my faith and hope grow. Let me be a part of bringing people to righteousness and of imparting Your wisdom to others…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE LIFT
OUR EYES TO THE STARS.