“But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us.’”

— Luke 19:14

Have you ever played a part in this scenario: You’re having a rational discussion with someone when the subject of Christianity arises. All of a sudden, this person spouts nonsensical arguments in favor of rejecting Christ outright. Do you ever wonder why the subject of Christianity makes the most rational people irrational?

Why do so many reject Jesus Christ? Arguments against Christ seem to fly out of the human heart like bats out of a dark cave. Many people raise objections against Christ that seem absurd and ridiculous. The fallen human mind can produce an enormous amount of arguments to counter the truth of Christ despite clear evidence of His existence. This reflex rejection brings to mind Christ’s trial, when no rational accusation against Him came forth.

I believe that most objections do not come from intellectual causes but from moral ones. People reject Christ not because of unconvincing arguments but because of uncontrolled appetites. Most people prefer to pass themselves off as skeptics rather than sinners, as agnostics rather than reprobates, as doubters rather than debauchers or drunks. I once read about a man who claimed to be a Christian early in life but then rejected Christ because, despite his prayers, a loved one died from a disease. Later on, however, people discovered that this man was a womanizer with a “girl in every port.” His intellectual arguments didn’t fuel his rejection of Christ; his sin did.

Instead of allowing sin to determine our belief in Christ, we should have an attitude like that of the aging Queen Victoria. During a performance of Handel’s “Messiah,” as the choir sang “King of kings and Lord of lords,” she rose to her feet despite a great deal of pain. She later explained that she could not sit before the King of kings and Lord of lords. We, too, should proclaim His existence, in our arguments and our actions, striving to live right so that we might experience Him daily, leaving no room for doubt that He lives.

“All hail the power of Jesus’ name! Let angels prostrate fall.
Bring forth the royal diadem, to crown Him Lord of all!”
Edward Perronet

“But command Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him . . .”

— Deuteronomy 3:28

Have you ever had someone encourage you when you felt low or defeated? Remember how that encouragement rejuvenated you, giving you a fresh desire to persevere?

Nothing could uplift us more than the encouragement of a friend or loved one. Encouragement is the oxygen of the soul. Having run two miles, a person may need to pause to catch his or her breath before running another two. Similarly, a person facing a formidable task or even the wearying routines of life needs to pause for encouragement before tackling the work ahead. Encouragement fortifies the laboring soul.

In Deuteronomy, God instructed Moses to commission Joshua and to “encourage him and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you will see” (Deuteronomy 3:28). Why did Joshua need such encouragement? Because God assigned him the great task of leading the Israelites into the Promised Land. God knew Joshua would need all the encouragement he could get, and He knew Moses could best give it. When Moses led the Israelites, he faced discouragement again and again: when he confronted Pharaoh, when he came to the Red Sea, and when the Israelites lamented their lack of meat in the desert. In desperation Moses cried out to the Lord, explaining that the people were too big a challenge for him. Having had these experiences, Moses readily obeyed God’s command to encourage Joshua for the task that lay ahead.

Like Joshua, we all need encouragement, especially after our greatest defeats when doubt and discouragement set in. So be oxygen to the souls of those around you, strengthening them to persevere for the kingdom of God. Encourage others with God’s promise to work good in all things.

Who can you encourage today?

“Correction does much, but encouragement does more.”
Johann Von Goethe

“Pursue . . . holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.”

— Hebrews 12:14

Do you ever wonder how historians of the future will characterize the age in which we live? Will they call it the information age? The nuclear age? The technological age? The space age?

I’d like to suggest a term, but you probably won’t feel proud of it. I think we live in a dirty age. Despite the ways agencies fight the air and water pollution that threaten our environment, we live in a dirty world. But I’m not talking about environmental blight—I’m talking about the moral impurities that pollute our society, affecting us far more than we realize.

I do not know when in the history of civilization society has degenerated to such an unclean state as that which we experience today. To see what I’m talking about, just peruse almost any contemporary novel, take a peek at some of the recently produced movies, or view today’s television programs. Or just listen to everyday conversations.

But God calls us to holiness and purity, wanting us to counteract moral pollution. So how do we become pure and stay pure in the midst of our society’s depravity? We can do so only through the pure and spotless Lamb of God.

To pursue holiness and purity, we need to understand what sin really is. Instead of enjoying the forbidden, we need to see sin as devilish and destructive, an evil force that pulls us down. As the psalmist said, “You that love the Lord, hate evil.” Guard your heart from the evil that surrounds you daily. Forsake the depraved, and feed your mind on the things of God.

We also must seek accountability. Do you know a mature and trustworthy Christian who can hold you accountable in your walk with God? If you struggle with a particular sin, just knowing that you’ll have to give an account to someone can keep you walking straight on God’s path. If you don’t already have such a person in your life, begin praying today that God will give you a partner with whom you can seek His holiness and purity.

“The greatest security against sin is to be shocked at its presence.”
Thomas Carlyle

“. . . And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”

— 1 John 5:4

Everyone wants to win in the game of life. Yet, as we look about this world, we see many losers, people who lose more often then they win, many who are victims and not conquerors. Many fall vastly short of any and all hopes they had for life. Perhaps you know someone who has reached for his or her dreams but fallen on hard times in the process.

What is the secret to victory in life? There are varying theories. Some believe that education is the great panacea, the key which unlocks all the doors of success. Others say that a positive attitude can help anyone live life victoriously. With PMA—Positive Mental Attitude—the whole world will fall in line. Yet others extol the virtues of meditation. Place your hands on your knees, squat on the floor, close your eyes, and chant your mantra; soon life will be a bowl of cherries.

We could add to this list almost indefinitely, and no doubt some of these ideas have value. But if we want the true key to victory in life, we need look no further than the Bible. Scripture describes a key that inevitably brings triumph: the key of faith. “Faith,” declared the apostle John, “is the victory that overcomes the world.”

Yet how can we rejoice in victory when we are constantly beset with trials, problems, troubles, and evils of every sort that threaten to overwhelm us? God promises that no evil can overcome those who believe in His Son. We can claim victory because we have faith that God will transform any trials into victories. We can rest in that confidence, and thus faith changes all things in a magnificent way. Isn’t it wonderful to know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God works good in all things?

Do you feel headed for defeat today? Trust God—He can turn any loss into victory. Have faith in Him today, and look toward your situation with confidence that He works all things for good.

“God and I can do anything that God can do alone.”
Anonymous

“Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come everlasting life.”

— Luke 18:29–30

When the Lord asks us to follow Him, He doesn’t promise an easy nor simple life. In fact, He often calls us to give up something or someone for the sake of the Gospel. Perhaps you’ve had to let go of a cherished dream or a relationship to follow Christ.

Whatever God asks us to give up, we never make those sacrifices in vain. God always repays us “many times more,” not because He owes us anything, but because of His kindness and mercy. Though our sacrifices may cause us pain that we may live with for the rest of our lives, Jesus promises the blessings will be worth the sacrifices. When we look back on our lives, we’ll see that whatever we gave up for His sake, He gave back to us in other ways, and then some. For example, some choose to follow Jesus even though their families reject them, but suddenly they find they have a worldwide family in the body of Christ.

As humans, we never find these sacrifices easy, but the difficulty is part of God’s grand design. God tries us in order to strengthen us. A father tries to get his little son to learn to walk, not so that he will fall down and knock out a tooth, but so that he will know the joy of walking. God tries us through our sacrifices so He can test our faith, purifying and strengthening us. It is sad that many people never experience God’s incredible blessings because they don’t want to make sacrifices. Instead of putting their all on the altar, they stand far off and debate about the reasonableness of God’s request. But God never asks us to make sacrifices until He has prepared us for them. He makes us ready to stretch and grow into stronger people. And when we undergo the trials, God blesses us tremendously.

Is God asking you to make a sacrifice that seems humanly impossible? Don’t stand by and miss the blessing He has in store for you. Say “yes,” obey Him, and watch Him do great and mighty things in your life.

“In this world it is not what we take up,
but what we give up, that makes us rich.”
Henry Ward Beecher

“. . . Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God . . .”

— Hebrews 10:9

Many people today seem to live in frustration, anxiety, fear, and disappointment. They endure a wearying struggle, often in vain, leading to dissatisfaction. Does this sound like your life? If so, maybe you need to discover the joy of praying to God, “Thy will be done.”

These words crossed Jesus’ lips often. He said, “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.” And remember how, on that night in Gethsemane, He uttered those words over and over: “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”

We must believe that God is good and that He has great plans for our lives. We can place ourselves in Christ’s hands, remembering that those hands have been pierced for us. But so often, we shrink back in horror from Jesus’ words “Not my will but thine be done.” We think that if we say them, maybe something like the Cross awaits us. But God has not called us to save the world. Jesus took that Hell in order that we might be spared. He loves us with an everlasting love. How many people do you know who would send their children to die for you? Can Someone who would give His only begotten Son not also freely give you all things?

Oh, that we would cease struggling and rebelling against God’s will for us. I believe that as we stop viewing God through our distorted, human lenses and seek His true nature as described in Scripture—that His banner over us is love, that the hands extended before us have been pierced for us—we will eagerly cast ourselves wholeheartedly and unreservedly into His hands and say with all that is in us, “Lord, Thy will be done in me.”

Cast yourself in God’s hands today. Say to the Lord, “Thy will be done,” laying before Him all that stands in your way of following and trusting Him wholeheartedly. And when He tells you where to go and what to do, obediently follow, and watch what God can do in and through your life.

“Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus,
vast, unmeasured, boundless free . . .”
Hymn

“So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

— Psalm 90:12

Are you getting everything you want from life? Or do the days slip by too quickly for you to meet your responsibilities, let alone reach for your dreams?

If we’re going to make the most of our lives, we have to get the whole concept of life into the proper focus and perspective. We need to view life as God does, because as humans, our perspective on life is upside down.

The Bible tells us two things about life. A number of Biblical texts deal with life’s brevity, and others address its longevity. To make sense of these seemingly contradictory assertions, we must understand that the first group of texts discusses this present life and the second group describes the life to come. The Bible makes it clear that eternal life is the real life—that in eternity we wake up, as it were, from a dream, out of a deep sleep. Although this present life seems so real, it is but a shadow, a vapor that passes away. In Psalm 90, Moses says this life is like grass that grows in the morning and in the evening is cut down. Job said, “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle.” A weaver’s shuttle goes up and down so fast, yet faster than that fly the days of our lives. The moment we reach eternity, the morning that people call death, is the beginning of real and everlasting life.

But we also need to focus on today. Yesterday is gone—irretrievably, forever, completely gone. We can never bring it back. Tomorrow may never come. We never have anything but today. And so the Bible teaches us to live in the moment, making each one count.

Live this life one day at a time, and make the most of each day for God’s glory. And the next time you look up at a clock and wonder where the day has gone, remember that you’re one day closer to eternity.

“Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”
Anonymous

“. . . Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

— Joshua 1:9

If someone just left thousands of people in your care with the command to lead those people through wilderness toward a promised land, how would you feel?

Joshua had that exact experience. After Moses, the Israelites’ leader, died, God handed Joshua the leadership baton, and with it came the responsibility to lead the people safely to Canaan. God had created Joshua for this role; even Joshua’s name, which means “the Lord saves,” set Joshua apart to lead the people into the Promised Land. As you might imagine, if Joshua was going to fill Moses’ shoes, he needed a little encouragement. At the beginning of Joshua’s new ministry, God exhorted Joshua to have courage. Four times in Joshua 1, God commands Joshua to be strong and of good courage. God obviously wanted to get His message across.

You and I also need courage. If we want to fulfill the destiny God has planned for us, we need to step out in courage, knowing that God will blaze our trail for us. To receive our inheritance, to successfully fulfill our life purpose, to bring glory to God, we must have a courageous character. Following Christ isn’t an easy task. It requires great strength and courage because we never know what God will call His people to do.

But we can’t muster up courage on our own. Any courage we manufacture within ourselves will vanish in the face of our first trial. We need to get our courage from the Lord. When God told Joshua to have courage, He followed that exhortation with the promise that He would go with Joshua wherever Joshua went. In the same way, God gives us courage for whatever He calls us to do. How? Through our reconciliation with God. When we come to Christ and find in Him our redemption, we gain courage to fulfill God’s purposes for us. We get our courage from knowing that God is our Father who has accepted us unto Himself and whose providence watches over us.

Since nothing can separate you from God’s love, go forth boldly into whatever He has for you this day. “Be strong and of good courage . . . for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

“Cowards die many times . . . The valiant
never taste of death but once.”
William Shakespeare

“The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.”

— John 1:9,  NIV

Have you ever been afraid of the dark? Perhaps as a child you feared that monsters lurked in your bedroom, just waiting for the lights to go out. Or maybe as an adult you fear that people with evil intentions hide in the shadows, ready to attack.

Dangers do lurk in darkness. I refer not to “things that go bump in the night,” but to very real dangers which exist in the dark. After all, darkness is the domain of the “Prince of Darkness,” who hates the Light and does all he can to keep people from coming to the Light.

Many of the most dramatic, compelling, and illuminating stories found in the Bible took place at night. It was night when the Sodomites beat upon Lot’s doors and demanded his two angelic visitors to molest. It was night when David looked upon the form of Bathsheba bathing upon the rooftop below, then called her to his presence and committed the sin of adultery.

But the darkest “night” this world has ever seen took place at midday on Calvary. In that darkness, the noon that became midnight, humankind’s sin extinguished the Light of the World. Christ endured in body and soul the penalty, pain, and anguish which we so rightly deserve for our sinfulness.

But darkness couldn’t extinguish the Light forever. Isaiah foretold the day when the “people who walked in darkness [would see] a great light.” That great Light is Jesus Christ, whom the Bible calls the Light of the World. He promises to give us the light of everlasting day if we will yield our hearts to Him. Jesus Christ is the sun of our souls, and when He comes into the darkness of our hearts, He brings a Light which forever lightens our lives and gives us purpose. And when our time comes, Christ will take us to our everlasting home, and in that great day, we will discover there is no night there.

Because of Christ’s sacrifice, you need not fear the darkness. Today rejoice in Christ’s everlasting Light, the Light that extinguishes darkness this day and for eternity.

“When He came, there was no light.
When He left, there was no darkness.”
Anonymous

“. . . Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow . . .”

— Psalm 90:10

Perhaps nothing causes more people to stumble in their faith than the problem of suffering. None of us is exempt from tribulation. We all face it at one time or another. And in our pain and desperation, we often ask, “Why, Lord?”

Have those words ever echoed through the chambers of your soul in the middle of some dark and starless night?

We can’t get rid of all pain, trouble, hurt, injury, and sorrow. People fall off things and hurt themselves. Shall we then do away with the law of gravity? People have accidents in cars, planes, trains, and boats. Shall we then get rid of all forms of transportation? Suffering is a part of our world, and if Christians were exempt from all trouble and pain, everyone would immediately recognize the payoffs. If all Christians had an abundance of money, health, and happiness, our characters would never develop. Christianity would degenerate to a mere commercial venture.

So while we would avoid adversity if we could, it serves important purposes in our lives. First, trouble and sorrow equip us to help others by making us compassionate and willing to reach out to those in need. Second, trouble and sorrow draw us to God and drive us to our knees; they make us long for our real home, Heaven. The third and the greatest purpose of trouble is to make us Christlike. If we are to become like Jesus, we will, like Him, have to pass through the valley of the shadows. Although unpleasant at the moment, often out of the greatest suffering comes the greatest love and beauty.

Do you face adversity today? If so, ask the Lord to show you the purpose of it in your life. Then, if you can, look past your pain to the way God is using it to draw you closer to Him and to His kingdom.

“Beyond the cross there is the glory of Easter morning;
beyond the agony of the Crucifixion there is the blessedness of Paradise.”