“… He who has seen Me has seen the Father …”

— John 14:9

There are many idolaters among us today. We may not carve gods from wood or stone, but we often shape an idol in our mind—a cheapened image of God. We carve God up until we’ve whittled Him down to our own liking. Then we bow down and worship the image we’ve made. We deceive ourselves into thinking we’re worshiping the true God when we’re doing nothing of the kind.

We need to throw away our limited understanding of God and seek out His true nature. How can we do this? By looking to Jesus Christ. The New Testament declares that Jesus Christ is the exact image of the invisible God. In all of His attributes—His mercy, purity, sinlessness, grace, love, holiness, and righteousness—Jesus Christ reflects God’s image because Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. Only by examining Jesus Christ can we ever discover what God is like.

Michelangelo once found a great slab of marble so large that no one else would use it. He had a specific purpose for this marble. Before he began his work, Michelangelo built a shed around the marble so that no one could see it. For months he worked, allowing no one to view his progress. Finally, it was completed, and Michelangelo unveiled his great statue of David. Why didn’t he allow anyone to see it before completion? Because he didn’t want people forming wrong ideas about it until it had reached perfection.

In the same way, God in Old Testament times forbade humans to make any image of Himself because their view of Him was incomplete. Finally, in the fullness of time, God revealed the exact and perfect image of His own nature in the person of Jesus Christ.

“Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ
and the founders of empires and the gods of other
religions. That resemblance does not exist.”
Napoleon

“You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”

— Exodus 20:4

Read that verse again. Think about it. What does it mean to you? Over the years, people have held varying interpretations of that verse. Some people believe that the Second Commandment forbids any kind of visual art including television, motion pictures, books, paintings, and pictures. But this interpretation doesn’t fit with God’s instruction to Moses to build a tabernacle that included visual representations such as embroidery and pictures of flowers and trees. Others believe the Second Commandment forbids three-dimensional art such as statues. But this interpretation doesn’t fit either. If this interpretation were correct, then why would God command Moses to adorn the tabernacle with three-dimensional figures of oxen and cherubim?

These interpretations rely on extremely literal readings of the verse. Let’s take a step back to grasp the bigger picture behind the words. The Second Commandment doesn’t forbid any art form in and of itself. In fact, God loves beauty and has given it to us in abundance. We can use Christian art to glorify God and to produce additional beauty in the world. We can also use it to communicate God’s truth. Pictures bring to mind great scenes of Jesus finding the lost sheep, healing the blind man, or inviting all to come to Him.

Instead of forbidding artwork, the Second Commandment actually forbids idolatry— worshiping a work of art in place of worshiping the living God. That’s why the Israelites shouldn’t have made the golden calf, not because it was a three-dimensional statue, but because they worshiped it instead of God. The Second Commandment commands intolerance of other gods and other religions. While intolerance sounds harsh, God means it for mercy. God is like a parent who won’t tolerate His child eating junk food because it deprives the body of nutrients—He knows that when we worship a false god we deprive ourselves of His greatest blessings and highest good.

Today take a few minutes to evaluate what you worship. If you find it isn’t God, then reorder your priorities so that He is first in your life, before anything humankind has created.

“God forbids us to have other gods instead of Him …
That is when we fear, love, or trust any person, thing, or
creature as we should fear, love, and trust in God alone.”
Martin Luther

“For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant . . .”

— Romans 11:25

Do you know God? Not just know about Him, but really know Him? Do you know that we can know God, for He has come into this world and revealed Himself to us through Jesus Christ?

Agnostics believe that God is essentially unknowable. Thomas Huxley coined the term “agnostic” in the nineteenth century. The term comes from two Greek words: gnosis (to know) and a (to take away). Although “agnostic” is a relatively new English word, its Greek equivalent occurs frequently in the Scriptures. Paul says, “I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant.” The word “ignorant” is a Latin word derived from the Greek word agnostis. “Agnostic” and “ignorant” mean exactly the same thing: “not to know God.”

While agnostics claim that any attempt to know God is futile, Scripture tells us differently. The Bible says that we can know God because He has revealed Himself to us. In Isaiah, Jehovah says, “I am Jehovah. I am God, and beside Me there is no other God.” He also says, “I am Jehovah, I am the Savior and beside me there is no Savior.” In the New Testament, we read of the One set forth as God: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” And Thomas knelt at the feet of Jesus and said, “My Lord and my God.” Luke tells us that “there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

Jesus Christ is the “down-to-earth” revelation of God as expressed in the New Testament. He is none other than the great “I Am,” the great Jehovah, the Creator of the universe. God in the form of Jesus Christ has come to bring us out of the bondage of our sin through His sacrificial death.

You and I have the privilege of knowing God—the all-powerful, all-knowing Creator of the universe—on a personal level. Allow God to reveal Himself to you through Scripture, through Jesus Christ, and through the ways He touches your life today.

“I am convinced of God by the order out in space.”
Eugene A. Cernan
(Astronaut)

“You shall have no other gods before Me.”

— Exodus 20:3

A class of college students had the assignment of ranking the Ten Commandments in order of importance as they saw them. The students ended up reversing the order. At the bottom of the list, they placed the command “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

Where would you have ranked this commandment?

Many people today utterly forget their Creator. They offer Him no praise or thanks. They don’t even give Him a second thought.

When God says we must have no other gods before Him, He doesn’t give us free license to have other gods as long as we place Him in front of the line. God didn’t want the Israelites— or us—to have any other gods at all. The Hebrew people lived in the midst of a society that worshiped the gods Moloch, Baal, and Mammon. Moloch was the god of cruelty who demanded child sacrifices. Baal was the god of lust. Mammon was the god of money. Many today still worship these three gods, although not by the same names.

The First Commandment covers a multitude of actions we should avoid. Some of the sins forbidden by the First Commandment are: atheism (denying or not having a God); idolatry (worshiping any other god instead of the one true God); not standing up for God; neglect of anything due or required by Him; hatred of God; self-love and self-seeking (putting self above God); anything that takes our mind off God completely or in part, such as unbelief, heresy, distrust, despair, hardness of heart, and pride; tempting God; lukewarmness; consulting with the Devil; slighting and despising God; resisting and grieving His Spirit; and accusing God falsely.

After reviewing such a list, who can possibly claim not to have violated this commandment? But, thankfully, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Do you need to put away any behaviors that hinder you from honoring God first and completely?

“Eternal Father of my soul, let my first thought today be
of Thee, let my first impulse be to worship Thee . . . let
my first action be to kneel before Thee in prayer.”
John Baillie

“You shall have no other gods before Me.”

— Exodus 20:3

A class of college students had the assignment of ranking the Ten Commandments in order of importance as they saw them. The students ended up reversing the order. At the bottom of the list, they placed the command “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

Where would you have ranked this commandment?

Many people today utterly forget their Creator. They offer Him no praise or thanks. They don’t even give Him a second thought.

When God says we must have no other gods before Him, He doesn’t give us free license to have other gods as long as we place Him in front of the line. God didn’t want the Israelites— or us—to have any other gods at all. The Hebrew people lived in the midst of a society that worshiped the gods Moloch, Baal, and Mammon. Moloch was the god of cruelty who demanded child sacrifices. Baal was the god of lust. Mammon was the god of money. Many today still worship these three gods, although not by the same names.

The First Commandment covers a multitude of actions we should avoid. Some of the sins forbidden by the First Commandment are: atheism (denying or not having a God); idolatry (worshiping any other god instead of the one true God); not standing up for God; neglect of anything due or required by Him; hatred of God; self-love and self-seeking (putting self above God); anything that takes our mind off God completely or in part, such as unbelief, heresy, distrust, despair, hardness of heart, and pride; tempting God; lukewarmness; consulting with the Devil; slighting and despising God; resisting and grieving His Spirit; and accusing God falsely.

After reviewing such a list, who can possibly claim not to have violated this commandment? But, thankfully, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Do you need to put away any behaviors that hinder you from honoring God first and completely?

“Eternal Father of my soul, let my first thought today be
of Thee, let my first impulse be to worship Thee . . . let
my first action be to kneel before Thee in prayer.”
John Baillie

“Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.”

— 1 John 2:3

In numerous classes, to hundreds of people, I have posed this question: “Can anyone tell me any one single thing any person can do that would please God other than obey His law?”

What would you say?

It’s a tough question, and so far, no one in my classes has come up with an answer. Some have said, “Well, we could love God,” and to do so would be to obey what Jesus said was the first and greatest commandment: to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, strength, and mind. But many others hold the erroneous belief that because Christians are saved by faith—without having done anything to earn our salvation except receive Jesus’ free gift of grace—that we do not have to keep God’s laws after we’re saved.

That’s not what the apostle Paul teaches. In Romans 3:31, he asks and answers the question about keeping the Law: “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not. On the contrary, we establish the law.” When God gave His law in the Old Testament, He also promised to purify us and write His law on the walls of our hearts. Then we would no longer be like the wild horse that does not want to submit to a bridle and does everything in his power to fight against it. Instead, we’d be like the tame horse that willingly and gladly submits to the guidance of his master and wears the bridle.

God promised to take away our wildly rebellious hearts and give us new hearts of glad submission. Because of our new hearts, we can say with David, who was called a man after God’s own heart, “Oh, how I love thy law. It is my meditation day and night.” This should be the attitude of our heart. We should believe, as the apostle Paul did, that God’s law is good and just and holy. We should remember Jesus’ teaching, “If you love me, keep my commandments.”

Will you covenant with me today to obey God’s commandments, showing your gratitude to and love for Him by doing so?

“If we do not have a law of God,
how shall we know His will?”
Horatio Bonar

“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

— Matthew 1:21

Many people are given exalted names but never live up to them. Charles Spurgeon tells about wandering in a cemetery and seeing a headstone inscribed with these words: “Sacred to the memory of Methuselah Coney. Age, six months.” (Recall that the Biblical Methuselah lived more than nine hundred years.)

The most important name the world has ever heard is the name of Jesus, and Jesus lived up to everything that name foretold. To make sure Mary and Joseph named Jesus properly, God sent angelic messengers to proclaim what His name should be and why. “Jesus” means “Jehovah saves,” and Jesus saved all of us from sin. The Bible has many other names for Jesus, but “Jesus” was His personal name, the name we call Him as our friend, the name that celebrates Him as our Savior.

Of course, we’ve Anglicized Jesus’ name. In His Hebrew home, people would have called Jesus “Joshua.” That name, common in that time and in ours, celebrates the memory of Joshua, one of the great heroes of Israel. Joshua led God’s people into the Promised Land of Canaan and fought to drive out all the Israelites’ enemies. During his lifetime, Joshua kept God’s people in line so that they walked with the Lord.

Joshua lived up to his name. He saved God’s people from earthly enemies and led them to the Promised Land. Jesus lived up to His name by doing something even greater—saving His people from eternal foes and delivering them into an eternal promised land.

As you go about your business today, honor the name of Jesus. Each time His name comes to mind, dwell on the fact that He has lived up to the promise of His name by saving you from sin and death for eternity.

“Jesus Christ [is] the condescension of divinity
and the exaltation of humanity.”
Phillips Brooks

“… the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life …”

— Luke 8:14

Yesterday we considered two kinds of “hearers” of God’s Word: the wayside hearers and the rocky-soil hearers. Both had hardened their hearts, refusing to allow the Word to penetrate and change their lives. Today we’re going to discuss the third kind of hearer that Jesus spoke of in the parable of the sower: the thorny-soil hearer. The farmer cast the seed everywhere, and some of the seed fell on thorny soil. Although the soil richly nourished the seed, the thorns choked the plant so that it couldn’t bring fruit to maturity. In the same way, thorny-soil hearers can hear and absorb God’s Word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke them, preventing them from bearing any fruit.

I have known so many people like this. I think of a dear man I know who once told me, “Oh, I haven’t got time for spiritual things. I have to make a living. It is so hard these days.” Thorny-soil hearers pay too much attention to the cares of this world, forgetting that they will one day die and face God and their cares will disintegrate in His presence. And yet people continue to allow bills, jobs, worries, and anxieties to crowd out the Word. These cares choke out time to serve Christ and to bear fruit. I know of too many people who have gone this way, spiritually strangled to death, never bringing forth fruit to maturity.

What about the deceitfulness of riches? I have seen many people who have prospered, so blessed by God that they no longer concern themselves with the cares of this world, but they have now let riches deceive them. Everything has come their way, and they want more. Instead of God’s goodness leading them to trust Him more, their wealth simply brings forth more thorns in their lives. They buy every sort of new gadget and toy and invest in every new luxury to make life exciting. They have no time for God, no time for church. Instead, they say, “I must look after my portfolio.” Money in itself is not bad, but the love of money is; it has shipwrecked the faith of many.

Instead of being wayside, rocky, or thorny soil for the seeds of God’s Word, we need to be good soil, hearing God’s Word, understanding it, and bearing fruit for His kingdom. Today, read God’s Word, and let it really sink in. Then let it do its work in your heart so that you might bear its fruit in your life.

“The poorest man I know is the man who has nothing but money.”
John D. Rockefeller

“Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.”

— Matthew 13:3-6

Why do some people fall away from the faith and others continue to the end? A person’s spiritual staying power depends on his or her inclination upon hearing God’s Word. Jesus explained this in detail by telling the parable of the sower. In this parable a farmer sows seeds on four kinds of soil; three were bad, and one was good. Each type of soil represents a way that people might hear God’s Word. Today let’s consider the first two types of soil and what they represent.

Seed first fell along the wayside path. In Palestine, small farms were divided by paths trampled hard by many feet, both human and animal. As the farmer sowed the seed, some of it fell on this hard-packed dirt. Because the seed was vulnerable on the path, the birds gobbled it up. This hard-packed soil represents the hearts of wayside hearers. Trampled hard by the hoofs of Satan and his herd of lies, lusts, and vanities, God’s Word has no place to sink in and take root.

Second, seed fell on rocky soil. This kind of soil was actually slabs of rock protruding from the hills or mountains with only an inch or two of soil on top. That soil was easily warmed by the sun, encouraging the seed to sprout quickly. But when the sun rose high, it scorched the seed. Having no root, the seed died. In the same way, rock-soil hearers feel enthusiastic about God’s Word when they first hear it. But while their hearts seem tender to the Word on the outside, inwardly they have no intentions of allowing the Word to change their hearts and lives. The instant that tribulation comes because of God’s Word, these people stumble spiritually, unable to withstand the heat.

Do you know people who fall into these two categories? Ask God to soften the soil of their hearts, preparing them to hear His Word and bear its fruit in their lives. Tomorrow we’ll address the third type of soil.

“Almighty God of truth and love, To me Thy pow’r impart;
The burden from my soul remove. The hardness of my heart.”
Charles Wesley

“… the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”

— 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, niv

The problem of suffering, or as C. S. Lewis called it, “the problem of pain” has troubled believers for centuries. In fact, an entire book of the Bible—Job—addresses the issue of enduring pain and sorrow. Why does God allow us to go through heartbreaking times of tribulation? Have you ever asked that question? Have you ever cried in despair to God, desperately asking, “Why?” Maybe you’re experiencing suffering even now. And if you’re like the rest of us, you want nothing more than to purge yourself of all pain, trouble, hurt, and sorrow.

Despite our desperate cries, God often doesn’t remove troubles and sorrows from our lives. Why? Because God uses suffering to prepare us for helping others. Through our troubles and sorrows, God molds us into sympathetic and compassionate people. The Bible speaks of comforting those in trouble through the comfort that we ourselves have received from God. Only those who have endured the shadow, who have known suffering and trouble, can adequately comfort others.

In the Old Testament, when a man was ordained to the priesthood, he had water sprinkled on his head, his hands, and his feet. We who are the priests of God, in the universal priesthood of all believers in the new covenant, experience a baptism of tears that prepares us for the office of sympathy.

Where did Paul get the wisdom to write his comforting epistles? Where did David get the inspiration to write those solacing psalms that play such an important role in every believer’s life? Where did John get the foresight to write that tremendously hopeful conclusion to the book of Revelation? Each one of them gained the ability to comfort others by experiencing his own tears.

If you know someone experiencing hard times right now, comfort that person. Pray for him or her. Show sympathy and compassion. And if you are enduring a difficult time, don’t view it as a hopeless, needless tragedy. Perhaps God is using your trial to prepare you for an important work. Ask God today to transform your sorrows into sympathy and empathy.

“Sweet are the uses of adversity.”
William Shakespeare