“Thus says the Lord, ‘In this you shall know that I am the Lord: Indeed, I will strike the waters of the Nile with the rod that is in my hand, and they shall be turned to blood.’”

— Exodus 7:17

In the Book of Exodus, we see the great confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh. This is the Old Testament counterpart to that confrontation between Christ and Pilate, the representative of the pagan Roman Empire, with Pharaoh being the representative of the pagan empire of Egypt.

Here is a classic confrontation between good and evil, Christ and Satan. It is the high point in the Old Testament. It is that point to which the Jews looked for centuries afterward remembering the great acts of God.

Now these ten plagues are not simply punishments upon Pharaoh and the people of Egypt, but they are a concerted effort on the part of Jehovah to destroy the idolatry of the Egyptian people and to bring to naught their many gods. And so, in the plagues, we have a systematic, cumulative crescendo of attacks on the gods of Egypt before the watching Egyptians.

Take, for example, the first plague, the attack that God made was upon the River Nile, which was a great god to the Egyptians because it was the source of all their livelihoods. Egypt of course is a huge desert with the Nile River running down it, giving about a 50 mile wide swath of greenery and life. Without the Nile, that nation would dry up and blow away. And so first of all, God attacked that, the great god of the Nile.

God alone is to be worshiped and not any false idols.

God above all gods, give us the strength of heart to worship only You. We ask that You cast down any idol in our lives and that our worship might be true and right…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN AVOID IDOLATRY
AND DESTROY ANY IDOLS IN OUR LIVES.

“But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.”

— Mark 4:6

A man who owned a vineyard noticed that one of the plants was not doing well. It was sickly for two years, and it had never produced grapes of any significance. He wondered why all of those around it were quite filled with fruit, and so he decided to dig down around it and see if there was some problem in the soil. He dug down about six inches and ran into boards underneath the plant covering an old abandoned well. When he took away the boards he noticed that the roots of the plant had gone down between the cracks and were dangling in the empty well, trying desperately to get nourishment. The plant could not grow. What a picture that is of many Christians. They do not grow and they do not produce fruit because their roots are not into the Word of God.

I would ask you this: Are the roots of your faith reaching down into the Word of God? If they are not, you will not be growing. If the true principle of grace is in your life, it will be giving you a hunger for the Word of God.

If you are growing in faith, you will be growing in repentance, too. Are you growing in that area in your Christian life? Our whole life is a continuation of repentance. Failure to repent is one of the sure ways to stop spiritual growth. Is there some sin in your life that is keeping you from growing? Ask God to show you.

Lord, help me to be mindful of the depravity in my own soul. Help me to live in daily repentance, always taking time to confess my sins before You. Thank You for Your blood that washes away my sins and cleanses me from all unrighteousness…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN SEE OUR SINS, CONFESS
THEM, TURN FROM THEM, AND BE FORGIVEN DAILY.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

— Exodus 20:17

In modern America, we are like mice wandering in a maze—we don’t know where we are going. We don’t know which way to head, or even which way is which way, because we have turned away from the Word of God and from the instructions that our Founding Fathers believed in and looked to and upon which this great country was built.

One of those areas in which we have lost our way is the realm of economics. While the Soviet Union imploded because of forced socialism, many in our own country have been clamoring for less violent versions of socialism.

Though we have seen the greatest experiment in socialism in the history of the world in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics come to a disastrous end, crash in flames and burn, bring utter disaster and bankruptcy and perhaps famine to that nation, still socialism is alive, though not well, in America. I think one of the great lessons we need to learn from the events of recent years is that socialism doesn’t work. It doesn’t work in the Soviet Union. It doesn’t work in Poland. It doesn’t work in East Germany. It doesn’t work in Cuba. It doesn’t work in China. It doesn’t work in America. What is it going to take to wake us up to that fact?

Socialism is built on covetousness, but the Bible says, “You shall not covet.” The Bible also says, “You shall not steal”—not even if you are the federal government.

Lord, give me strength for today to see through the politicians’ wily plans to buy votes from the unsuspecting. Lord, forgive us for stealing from our neighbor through exorbitant taxation. Help us to work for our daily bread and to share with others…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE ARE
CONTENT, NOT COVETOUS.

“But he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

— John 3:18

A minister once said, “I have the most marvelous news for lost sinners, if only I could find one.” He added, “The problem with most people in America is not getting them saved. They think they are saved already. The problem is getting them lost.”

Unless we understand the bad news, we can’t begin to appreciate the good news. Jesus says the world is condemned already. But so many people suppose that if they just live a reasonably decent life, it will be all right with them in the end and they will finally make it.

It was 12:45 A.M. on April 15, 1912, when the first lifeboat was lowered from the stricken Titanic, one hour after the ship struck the iceberg. The passengers were told that they must leave the ship. Many of them didn’t believe it. Even if the ship was taking on water, they were quite confident they were in no danger. Surely this ship couldn’t sink, after all, a White Star Line employee at the time of Titanic’s launch on May 31, 1911 had said, “Not even God himself could sink this ship.” So they went inside into the warmth of the interior chambers and refused the offer of a lifeboat. Most of them died. They couldn’t accept the good news that there was a place in the lifeboat for them, because they wouldn’t accept the bad news that they were in danger of perishing.

We cannot be saved until we first recognize that we are lost and need to be saved.

Dear Lord, how permanent this life seems to be. But in reality, how fleeting it is. Help us to live for eternity and not just for the very short time of our earthly sojourn. Give us strength for today to share the Gospel with those who are lost, even if they don’t know it…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE REALIZE WE
ARE LOST AND IN NEED OF BEING SAVED.

“I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”

— Luke 19:26

There are a lot of people who are like a little boy riding on his rocking horse. There is a great deal of motion and action, but very little progress. A lot of people in the church are like that. They may go through a lot of motion, be involved in all sorts of things, but they do not really make progress in their spiritual life. True use of the means of grace: i.e., the Word and the Sacraments, will inevitably cause us to grow because grace always grows. It is always progressing. Those who grow will be given more (Luke 19:26). That is the absolute law of God.

One farmer in a country church used to say at testimony time: “Well, I haven’t made much progress, but I am established.” One day he was bringing his wagon full of logs into town; the road was wet and the wheels sank into the mud. One of his fellow church members, who did not really agree with his view of the Christian life, happened to be passing by. He said, “Well, Farmer Jones, I see that though you are not making much progress, you are established.” What some people call “established in the faith” may be little more than established in the mud.

If you truly have the grace of God, the principle of life within you, there is growth. That means you will be growing in faith and love, peace, joy, and all the other fruit of the Spirit will show themselves in your life.

Jesus, the true Gardener, let Your grace produce fruit in my life. Give me the strength today to partake regularly in the means of grace…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, THE FRUIT OF
THE SPIRIT WILL ABOUND IN US.

“And other seed fell on good ground, and it yielded grain that sprang up and increased by thirty, sixty, or a hundred times as much.”

— Mark 4:8

Divine grace always grows. The good seed of God will inevitably grow. There is no doubt about it. Place a live bulb in the ground; and a stalk and buds will appear, and the lilies will eventually sway in the breeze. Put a post and a sapling into the ground and what happens? Immediately the post begins to decay and the sapling begins to grow. Come back twenty years later and, should the post still be there, you will find it completely decayed, but the little sapling will be a huge tree.

So it is with our lives. If it is true that divine grace always grows, then it is vitally true that this teaching of Jesus would instruct us to make certain that we have the true spiritual principle within.

I would ask you, are you a post or a tree? Go back twenty years. There are many people who grew up in the church, attended regularly, but there was never any divine principle of life within them. Are they growing in love and zeal and service to God, or do they actually find that there is less zeal, less desire for prayer, less interest in the Word of God, less interest in the worship of God, less interest in the service of God? If so, then you are a post and not a tree. Over the years you have decayed. You have not grown, and you need to seriously consider whether or not you have the true principle of life within you.

Lord of the harvest, may Your strength, Your power, Your Holy Spirit bring forth the fruit in our lives that You desire. Weed out and prune us that we may yield an eternal harvest a hundredfold…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE
CAN GROW AND BEAR FRUIT.

“For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from him who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away.”

— Matthew 25:29

As we continue to look at this verse, we note that many people often lament the fact that it seems that the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. Money makes money; nothing succeeds like success. However, this is a principle Christ built into the universe and enunciated in his earthly ministry.

The essence of that principle is: Use it or lose it. Money does not make money, unless it is put to use. In the parable of the talents, there was the third servant who hid his talent in the ground. His money was buried and produced nothing. If he had used it, it would have produced more.

The principle certainly applies in the physical realm of the body. Build your muscles; don’t let them atrophy. This is also true in the case of our work. Is it not a fact that the person who is able to do something finds that he is given it to do? We will then unquestionably find that opportunities will grow with the exercise of our gifts.

It is also true in the moral area of conscience. Our characters will develop in due proportion to those aspects we give our time to exercise and develop. Would that more of that time were spent studying the Word of God.

If you are not being used by God as much as you wish, make yourself available to Him.

Divine Master, give us strength today to serve You well. We desire to be good stewards of Your gifts to us, and we know that You reward service with more service…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE SERVE
HIM BY SERVING OTHERS.

“For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from him who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away.”

— Matthew 25:29

In the Greek text the words of Jesus have a certain forcefulness about them that often is lost in the translation. I read the words of Jesus after one of His judgment parables in Matthew, “Then He will say to those at the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels’” (Matthew 25:41). I thought to myself, “What must it be like for a human being to actually hear those words intoned by the Judge of all of the earth upon himself?” It seemed to me that every single person on this earth ought to cast himself upon his knees and pray, “O God, may these ears never hear those words come from Your mouth.”

The great 19th century British preacher Charles Spurgeon said that there are two great principles of grace enunciated in the Bible. The first one is this: God gives grace to the empty…to the needy…to the poor…to the humble. Second: to those whom God has granted His grace, He is in the habit of granting more. This is the great truth of our text above, Matthew 25:29.

If you are in Christ, in one sense you are already a success. If you are not in Christ, no matter how well accomplished you may be, you are ultimately a failure. What does it profit you if you gain the whole world, but lose your soul? Serve the Lord with all your heart, and He will bless you with more opportunity and joy to serve Him.

Father God, Giver of all great gifts, thank You for Your grace in our lives and the abundance of Your blessings. Help us to be mindful of our responsibilities to share with others…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE
CAN SERVE HIM WITH JOY.

“If Christ has not risen, then our preaching is vain, and your faith is also vain.”

— 1 Corinthians 15:14

Some people begin with the assumption that miracles don’t happen; therefore, Christ could not have been raised from the dead. But this does not explain any of the facts. It is also circular logic. It’s merely a presupposition that disallows the possibility of the resurrection.

But the truth is that Christ rose from the dead. The greatest problem mankind has ever faced, generation after generation, century after century, millennia after millennia, has been solved by Jesus. Death has been with us since the fall of man, and always people have asked, “If a man dies, will he rise again?” Jesus Christ has given us irrefutable evidence that the answer is “Yes!”

The greatest efforts of the most brilliant, unbelieving skeptical minds of the last 2,000 years to disprove the resurrection have all come to naught. There is not one of them that could stay afloat in a debate for 15 minutes when the evidence is given a fair examination.

Notice even the transformation of the Sabbath from the Jewish Saturday to the Christian Sunday. The resurrection took place amidst Jews who were committed and zealous Sabbatarians. How is it that suddenly the Christian church changed from the seventh day Sabbath to the first day? Because the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead happened on the first day of the week.

When Jesus walked out of the tomb, He changed human history for all time. He put His seal on everything He said. We can believe in Him because He is truly alive forevermore.

Dear Lord, thank You that what we believe has been sealed for all time. Thank You that You have solved once and for all our greatest need and by successfully taking on death, You have solved life’s biggest problem…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN
PROCLAIM THAT DEATH IS DEAD.

“…to whom He presented Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, appearing to them for forty days…”

— Acts 1:3

When Jesus walked out of His own tomb 2,000 years ago, He changed all of history. His appearances to His disciples are crucial. He appeared to one, then to another, then to two, then to three and then to eight and ten and eleven and 500 people at a time, over a period of about six weeks (1 Corinthians 15:4-9). They saw Him, they heard Him, they handled Him. He fixed breakfast for them. He ate fish with them (John 21:7-15; Luke 24:42-43).

Connected to the appearances was the transformation of the apostles. One day they were cringing in an upper room for fear of the temple authorities, and soon after they were boldly upbraiding the Sanhedrin and proclaiming the resurrection of Christ.

Consider also their martyrdom. They were crucified, crucified upside down, sawed in half, stoned to death, and killed in many other ways, all except John, who was exiled to the island of Patmos by Nero. Why would they give their lives for what they knew to be false?

One could argue that they were deceived in believing Jesus rose from the dead. However, the notion that they knew He wasn’t really raised from the dead, but they made it up anyway? Why? So they could face horrific deaths? That does not make sense. People do what is in their own best interest. The apostles spread the Word everywhere because they knew Jesus rose from the dead from firsthand experience. He is risen indeed!

Lord Jesus, give me strength for today to boldly transform my world around me by letting others know You are risen from the dead. Thank You for showing the world for all time that Your truth is based on the unshakable foundation of Your historical resurrection…

BY HIS STRENGTH, WE CAN TELL OTHERS
THAT DEATH HAS BEEN DESTROYED.