Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.

— James 3:5

Tact can go a long way in solving a lot of problems, as one man who worked in a grocery store discovered when an elderly lady came up and wanted to buy half a head of cabbage. “But Madam,” he said, “we only sell the whole head.”

“I just want half a head of cabbage,” she replied. “I live by myself and I only need half a head of cabbage.”

He tried a number of times to dissuade her. Finally, with some exasperation, he said, “Well, I’ll go and ask the manager.”

So he walked to the back of the store and found the manager. “Can you believe that some old idiot wants to buy half a head of cabbage?” he exclaimed. Then he noticed out of the corner of his eyes that the woman had followed him and was standing right behind him. Recovering his tact quickly, he said, “And this dear lady has agreed to buy the other half. Would that be all right?”

May God grant that we learn to control our tongues. May He help us to use them to build people up, not to tear them down. May He give us the grace to glorify Him and to use our tongues tell others of Jesus.

Question to ponder:
How can you use your tongue for someone’s good today?

I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice …

— Romans 12:1

During the Civil War, the troops of General Ulysses S. Grant were poised to capture a fort in Tennessee. The Confederate commander then sent this message: “I propose to the commanding Officer of the Federal forces the appointment of Commissioners to agree upon terms of capitulation of the forces and fort under my command.” But Grant famously replied: “No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted.” And Grant became known thereafter for the phrase “unconditional surrender.”

It is not for us to begin to praise God until first we have surrendered ourselves unconditionally to Christ. This is the army of the conquered—those that have been conquered by Christ.

When our hearts have been won and our wills have been taken over by Christ, when the sword of our rebellion is knocked from our hands and we are brought to the ground, only then will we abandon all lesser goals and all lesser aims, and give ourselves over to the highest and the best. Those who are most thoroughly surrendered to Him are the greatest trophies of grace and will have the greatest victories.

Our will was created good, but in Adam’s fall, the will of man became rebellious and self-serving. Only when our will is submitted to God are we free again to offer ourselves as our spiritual worship.

Question to ponder:
Is there any area of your life that is not surrendered to the Lordship of Christ?

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, murder, theft, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.

— Mark 7:21-23

The greatest minds have known that man was sinful. Albert Einstein said: “The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men. It is not a problem of physics but of ethics. It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.”

Shakespeare, who was a masterful student of human nature, had Cassius tell Brutus the truth: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings” (Julius Caesar). How very true that is.

The problem is within us—that we are underlings, that we are sinners. The problem is not in our environment. I think of the man a hundred years ago who was driving into Maine with his wagon and his horses. He was laboriously beating his horses, and they were straining mightily to climb this long hill. Finally, as he passed a farmer who was standing on the edge of the road watching him in some amazement as he furiously drove his horses, he cried out to the farmer. “Sir, how long does this hill last?

The farmer said, “Hill, nothing. Your hind wheels are off.”

Are you having problems, my friend? You had better check your hind wheels. They may be off. The problem may be within. The only hill may be in your heart.

Question to ponder:
What do you find most troublesome about the evil within?

But godliness with contentment is great gain.

— 1 Timothy 6:6

Unless the discontented person learns the secret of contentment, he is never going to be happy, because he is never going to get enough. Whenever he gets one thing, the devil is going to let him know there is something else—a newer car, a bigger house, a boat—that is going to make him happy. But he never will be happy.

I remember reading about a man who was very, very rich. I think he had about $900 million dollars, an extraordinary amount of money at that time. A TV interviewer asked him, “Are you satisfied, contented, with what you have?”

“Well, not yet.”

“How much would it take for you to be content?”

“Just a little more.”

Do you see the truth in that? If you are discontented, then even if you had $10 billion, you would still need “just a little more” to be satisfied.

Ben Franklin said, “Who is rich? He that rejoices in his Portion … . Content[ment] makes poor men rich; Discontent[ment] makes rich Men poor.”

Not only is there a great sorrow involved in discontentment, but we also need to realize the sin of discontentment. Discontentment leads to grumbling, complaining, and unhappiness.

To be content in such a discontented culture is to shine for God, because little is much when God is in it.

Question to ponder:
Have you noticed how thankfulness and trust drive away discontentment?

Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

— Psalms 37:4

We live in a culture where people are profoundly dissatisfied; we have an unrelenting lust for “more and more.” However, we are encouraged by the Lord to present our needs to Him, and He has promised to provide for us. To be satisfied by little or much, to learn contentment—this is a Christian virtue. The key is to delight ourselves in the Lord.

Thanks be to God! There is an antidote to covetousness, and that antidote is found in Jesus who brings peace and joy and rest to our hearts. To rest in Jesus is to find the answer to all of our desires.

The most astonishing thing that happened to me in my conversion was that God reached down and changed my “wanter.” Suddenly, all of the things I had always wanted and never had enough of, I did not want anymore. I saw them for the lies and deceits they really were. Suddenly, my affections were set on Someone above, and the things of this world grew strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. At last I found contentment.

Christ gives us new desires, new affections. He sets our affections on things above, not on things here below. That is why Pilgrim, when he comes to Vanity Fair in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, passed through without being enticed by all of the baubles therein.

Question to ponder:
How can you delight yourself in the Lord today?

The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me.

— Psalms 138:8

Alchemy, the precursor to chemistry, stands in relation to chemistry somewhat the same way that astrology stands to astronomy. The great quest of the alchemists was to transmute the base metals into the noble—to change lead into gold. As you may surmise, they failed in their quest. However, God is the great cosmic alchemist who never fails. Romans 8:28 is the alchemy of God. He changes the lead of our lives into gold.

What is the great comfort in our lives? Ultimately, it is His divine deliverance that is our great comfort—all things that come to us He is able to turn to our good. No matter what it may be, Christ can deliver us. What a marvelous promise this is—even from the greatest tragedy, the tragedy of death—Christ can deliver His people.

If Christ can turn to good even death itself, how much more can He take the problem we are facing today and bring resolution? It seems like life presents one problem after another, whether it is our health, our finances, our relationships, our work, our family, or our loved ones. As soon as we solve one problem, another presents itself. Jesus never promised a problem-free life; but He did promise that things will work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. If we are His, He will make all things right in the end. He has given us beauty for ashes.

Question to ponder:
What problem are you facing today for which you need divine deliverance?

By faith Noah, being divinely warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark to save his family …

— Hebrews 11:7

In Noah’s day, vast multitudes were invited to come into the ark. As many as would, Noah invited to come and join him, but they would not. However, when the great fountains of the deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and the floodwaters came upon the earth, I am sure they beat upon the sides of that ark and cried out to be admitted, but God had shut Noah and his family in, and there was no opening the door then.

There is a day coming when the period of grace shall be irrevocably and irretrievably ended. Now the sun shines and the day of grace is still upon us, and all that will come into the ark are invited to come. But we must make the decision.

While you are deciding whether to surrender your life to Jesus Christ, you have two options: reject Him or accept Him. Nevertheless, in truth, you may have already taken the option of having rejected Him, for until you accept Him you have done precisely that. “He who is not with Me,” said Christ, “is against Me” (Matthew 12:30).

There is no middle ground. There is no fence upon which to sit. We are either the friends of Christ or we are His enemies and adversaries; we either gather in or we scatter abroad. There is no third choice.

Question to ponder:
For Christ or against Him: what were some of the factors that helped you respond to His call?

My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

— 1 Corinthians 2:4-5

There are many arguments for the Christian faith, for the Bible, for the existence of God, and for the resurrection of Christ. And I am very thankful that I am not afraid to talk to anybody or debate anybody on these matters, because I know that the truth is God’s and that God is truth. The truth is on our side, which makes it far easier to win a debate.

In every debate I have ever seen between a Christian and an unbeliever, the Christian has won because truth is on our side. Wonder of wonders, when that Logic was incarnated in human form, it was Love.

The truth of Christ stands—but not because the messengers are eloquent and wise. The Truth is eternal and strong, in spite of the messenger. We do not win debates because we are better debaters. We win because we have the Truth.

At times, it might seem that we fail by human standards, but God incarnate—Truth with a capital T—is Jesus Christ. He is the Logos that came into the world and even though we are weak and stammering, the message is true, eternal, and mighty.

Question to ponder:
Can you think of a time when your words felt completely inadequate, but God used them anyway?

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them the light has shined.

— Isaiah 9:2

Jesus came into this dark world of sin, yet even more wonderful to tell, He is willing to come into the dark world of our hearts—our hearts of sin—bringing a light that will never go out. Christ brings the light of life to those into whose hearts he comes. Behold, they that “sat in darkness saw a great light” (Matthew 4:16).

We as Christians are called “children of light.” In one sense, the sun, warmth, light, and day are all symbols of God, and pictures of all that is good. We have all been called out of the darkness into light.

Because the light of the world has come, we have hope. In The Inferno of Dante’s Divine Comedy, the famous inscription over the Gates of Hell reads, “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”

Without hope, we have nothing. Hopelessness, darkness, and despair are tools of the devil to keep people away from God, away from Jesus Christ and His marvelous light. Jesus is the light of the world, and without Him, we walk in darkness. Jesus has come and He has brought light and life to our dark world.

Question to ponder:
What is the connection between physical and spiritual light?

They shall neither hunger any more, nor shall they thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and He lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

— Revelation 7:16-17

For believers, death is only a transition, a glorious step into His world and our eternal home. However, millions who do not know Christ are afraid of death. Woody Allen once made light of it by remarking, “I’m not afraid of death. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”

We see death symbolized as the caped skeleton with his bony finger beckoning us to go where we don’t want to go. This is captured dramatically in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol when Scrooge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Future, who shows him his own grave.

To many, death is indeed the King of Terrors. But the Christian need not be afraid of death. Afraid of death? Afraid to see the Savior’s face? Ah, my friends, there is no tragedy, no pain, no suffering, no depression or disconsolation that Christ cannot heal. One of my favorite hymns states it this way:

Come, ye disconsolate, where’er ye languish,

Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel.

Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish.

Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.

This is what we have to look forward to—the healing of all our hurts, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Total healing and perfection: that is what Jesus Christ wants for us and that is what He has in store for us.

Question to ponder:
What major hurt in your life has Jesus healed?