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?

… and those whom He justified, He also glorified.

— Romans 8:30

The final part of our salvation is glorification. This will take place when we are finally home in heaven and made perfect through Jesus Christ.

I have always known that in glorification we would be perfect. I knew that we would have perfect bodies; we would never be sick; we would never be weary; we would never tire nor need sleep. All of that, of course, is true but I never thought about the face being perfect. I thought that if we were perfect we would all look the same. Of course, that is not really so. Each one of us is a certain type that God has made. We are unique like snowflakes, but each one of us also is marred: a little twist to the nose, or bulge to the ears, or a crook to the teeth, or whatever it might be. Just think, however, what would happen if all those imperfections were corrected: perfection, paradise, a perfect body in a perfect environment—forever. All compliments of Jesus Christ!

That is just the physical part of our glorification. Our darkened mind will be sharp and perfectly able to function at top capacity. Our will shall finally be free from all evil influences and unable to rebel again. Our emotions will be healed of all hurt and pain. Most of all, our souls will be sinless and sin-free forever.

Question to ponder:
Think of your own glorification. What do you look forward to most?

The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.

— 1 Corinthians 15:26

Death is something that causes the human mind to recoil. We do not like to think about it. The great English poet and dramatist Ben Johnson said that man spends all of his life in one effort after another trying to avoid the thought of his own mortality.

The great English preacher Charles Spurgeon, however, would call us to look upon it. He said that the time comes, erelong, when these shining orbs by which I look out upon you and through which you look into my very soul, will become a “carnival for worms.” This body of mine will be inhabited by loathsome things, the brother of corruption—the sister of decay. These cheeks now flushed with life will soon be sunken in death. Beneath the skin there will be going on such activity that, could we look upon it, we would recoil in horror. This same death of the body is the condition of our soul as we come into this world.

Ultimately, the Christian need not have the same fear of death that the non-Christian has. Because Jesus conquered the grave, we have new hope in the face of death.

Question to ponder:
Is death still our enemy?

For the good that I desire to do, I do not do, but the evil I do not want is what I do.

— Romans 7:19

One of the tragic things about sin is that it is addictive. It doesn’t matter what kind of sin a person gets into—not just alcohol or drugs—all sin is addictive. The more we do a particular sin, the stronger becomes our addiction and the more its chains hold us, and the greater our desire for that sin. Some of you know exactly what I am talking about; you have been there or you are in bondage right now. The good news is that every shackle is broken at Calvary.

There on the Cross, Christ having been affixed, hand and foot, for us, broke the chains that bind the captive to sin—and He can set you free. You can go to that fountain, which has been opened at Calvary’s Mount, and you can be washed and cleansed. You can be clothed in the perfect righteousness of His white robes of purity and become whiter than snow. You can be in-filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and delivered from the bondage and addiction of sin. Only at the Cross is there hope for a sinful world.

I invite you in His name to come to the Cross to find forgiveness, to find a new life, to find the purity and freedom you desire. Come and find the truth and the love of Christ, and the life abundant and everlasting.

Question to ponder:
Have you surrendered your life fully to God? How does it make you feel to know you are cleansed and forgiven?

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus …

— Romans 3:23-24

Grace means looking away from yourself unto the cross. It means being accepted because of what God is, not because of what we are. It means being accepted, not based on what we have done, but in spite of everything we have done. It is the free gift of eternal life.

If you have never received that grace, I urge you to receive it now. You don’t have to plead your virtues; you don’ have to plead your great accomplishments. You see, there’s only one thing you can add to your salvation—your sin—for which Christ died. By God’s grace, He changes our hearts. By His grace, He brings us to repentance and faith.

God’s grace is really all we need. It is all-sufficient.

Grace is the most important concept in the world. It is the most important concept in the Bible. Some of you are saying, “Did not the Apostle Paul say that the greatest concept was love?” No, he didn’t. What he actually said was: “So now abide faith, hope, and love, these three. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). What a glorious concept this is. If grace had entered into the list, love would have had to step into the shadows, for grace is greater than love.

Question to ponder:
Explain in your own words: What is grace?

God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not by our works, but by His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began …

— 2 Timothy 1:8-9

The meaning of grace is totally unmerited favor to those who deserve disfavor. To the undeserving, to the ill-deserving, to the Hell-deserving, God offers eternal life, but not because of anything that we have done.

If Bible passages could be likened unto mountains, Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one should boast,” would be the Himalayas. One text stands out above them all, rising high into the sky, snow-clad, surrounded with clouds of mystery. It is, I think, the very pinnacle of biblical revelation, and it shares with us that great truth, that one central truth, that God wants us to know: “By grace you have been saved.”

Question to ponder:
How is the grace of God manifest in your life?

Have the gates of death been opened to you? Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?

— Job 38:17

A distinguished professor of psychology told his class of a rather striking case of somnambulism (sleepwalking). A man got out of his bed, went down the stairs, opened his front door, and walked across the lawn and out into the street. He walked right out of town and on through the fields and meadows. He never woke up until his bare feet stepped into the cold water of a stream that crossed his path. Then, suddenly, he awakened and looked around terrified at the strange surroundings. He wasn’t in his bedroom. He was standing in the midst of a stream.

There are many people like that. The “walking dead,” asleep while supposedly awake, they walk through life oblivious of where they really are in the eternal scheme of things. They never wake up until suddenly they find their feet in the cold stream of death. Then they awaken—startled by strange surroundings—to find themselves in the midst of death and judgment and condemnation.

Death is a wake-up call. When we are confronted by our own mortality or the death of a loved one, it puts life into perspective.

Question to ponder:
How does the thought of death wake us up?