… I was sick and you visited Me …

— Matthew 25:36

A famous atheist was quoted as saying: “An atheist wants a heaven on earth, a hospital instead of a church. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanquished, and war eliminated.” Now, that expresses a very noble sentiment.

But what say the facts? This person says atheists want heaven on earth. To bring it about they want a hospital instead of a church. Isn’t that an amazing thing? As far as I know, there is not a single hospital anywhere on the face of this globe that has ever been voluntarily built by atheists.

That is not to say that some government, committed to atheism, may not confiscate by taxation some of the wealth of the people and build a hospital. But atheists voluntarily banding together and contributing their own money freely to build a hospital? There is not one that I know of on the face of the earth.

Christians, however, have built tens of thousands of hospitals all over the world, even in the most remote parts of the farthest jungles on the earth; hospitals that minister to the sick and to the lepers and to the blind and to the deaf and to the crippled and the maimed of every sort.

We can thank the Lord for the love of Christ, which has motivated Christians to care for the sick and advance modern medicine so that His love and mercy may be demonstrated all around the world.

Question to ponder:
Would you be alive today if it were not for modern medicine?

The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water; He turns it to any place He will.

— Proverbs 21:1

Babylon became a symbol in antiquity of the world’s evil power. The inhabitants were described as enslaved to witchcraft, magic, idolatry, and sacrilege (Daniel 5:1-3). From the Tower of Babel to the fall of Babylon in Revelation, Babylon is called the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.

In the fourth century A.D., Julian the Apostate came to the throne of Rome. His one great overwhelming desire was to destroy Christianity and reestablish the pagan religions of Rome. While engaged in a war with the Persians near the remains of Babylon, Julian completely destroyed the remnants of the wall of Babylon, lest it afford any protection in the future for the Persian army. And thus the prophecy from Jeremiah was brought to fulfillment by one of the greatest antagonists of Scripture of all time.

But God had much more to say about this city: “Because of the wrath of the Lord she will not be inhabited, but shall be wholly desolate …. It will be inhabited no more forever” (Jeremiah 50:13, 39). Babylon was situated in the most fertile part of the Euphrates valley, and yet, 2,500 years have come and gone, and Babylon to this day remains an uninhabited waste. Nothing but “heaps” remain of the city, as the prophet Jeremiah prophesied (Jeremiah 51:37).

Question to ponder:
How does this prophecy validate the Word of God?

The king spoke, saying, “Is this not Babylon the Great that I myself have built as a royal residence by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?”

— Daniel 4:30

An example of biblical prophecy fulfilled is the magnificent city of Babylon, perhaps the greatest city in ancient times. The walled city consisted of 196 square miles of the most beautiful architecture, hanging gardens, palaces, temples and towers. Babylon drew her stores from no foreign country. She invented an alphabet, worked out the problems of arithmetic, invented implements for measuring time, and advanced beyond all previous peoples in science. Yet, there are more than one hundred specific prophecies concerning Babylon’s fate. God said of Babylon, even when it was the greatest city in the world: “Babylon, the glory of the kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah” (Isaiah 13:19).

The great walls of Babylon, Herodotus the historian tells us, had towers that extended above the 200-foot walls to a height of 300 feet. The city was laid out in a square with walls that were 187 feet thick at the base and 14 miles to a side. The city of Babylon was impregnable. But God said of those towers: “The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken . . . it shall be desolate for ever” (Jeremiah 51:58, 62). There is nothing vague or ambiguous about this prophecy, and even though it took centuries for it to be completely fulfilled, today, not a remnant of that wall remains.

Question to ponder:
How does Biblical prophecy strengthen your faith?

For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we are Jews or Gentiles, whether we are slaves or free …

— 1 Corinthians 12:13

We need to have caring, and sharing, and burden bearing, and even rebuking and correcting in the church. We need to have affection demonstrated in love—in the love of the family of God. It all begins, however, in our reconciliation to God through Jesus Christ.

His broken body and His shed blood are the means by which that oneness occurs—that ultimate perfect oneness when we are in Christ and together in Heaven. It is a oneness where there will never be the slightest ripple of division or dissension, when all sin will have been taken away forever. In heaven, we will enjoy forever with Him such a joy and a love in that fellowship and family and communion that we cannot even imagine it now!

Many of us have experienced the pain of separation. The world is full of different churches and denominations. From the Great Schism in 1054 onward, we have continued to divide. We are separated from fellow believers by everything from church splits to geographical distance. Nevertheless, the pain of separation and distance will one day be removed. How we long for that to happen!

Lord, make us one.

Question to ponder:
What pain of separation have you experienced? Does the hope of heaven help you overcome that pain?

Do not be drunk with wine, for that is reckless living. But be filled with the Spirit.

— Ephesians 5:18

When we receive Christ we are baptized by the Holy Spirit into one body, but, alas, we are leaky vessels. Every hole is caused by sin, and so we need to be filled with the Spirit. By the way, the verb “be filled” is what is called a “continuous, repetitive tense.” It means not just a one-time action, but something that occurs over and over again. So, too, we need to continuously ask God to fill us with His Spirit.

How vital that prayer is. You can do nothing for Christ—you can’t teach Sunday school, bear witness, preach, or anything else without the Spirit of God enabling you to do so. We need to obey Him, which means a determination to turn from whatever it is God shows us by His Word and Spirit is wrong.

We need to place a guard on our eyes—what we look at; on our ears—what we listen to; on our lips—what we say; on our hearts—what we think; and on our feet—where we go. When we do, God’s Spirit will fill our hearts and minds, and He will guide our steps.

Question to ponder:
How can we continually be filled with the Holy Spirit?

As the deer pants after the water brooks, so my soul pants after You, O God.

— Psalms 42:1

Several years ago, around the time that the Soviet Union was imploding, American Christian booksellers were invited for the first time to show their wares at the Moscow Book Fair. One of those booksellers brought 50,000 Bibles to give away to the people there. After several hours, the police stopped the give-away for the simple reason that there was such a mob of people clamoring for Bibles that every aisle of the Book Fair was jammed and traffic was gridlocked. So they were required to stop giving the Bibles away for two hours, then they were allowed to resume for another hour, then another break, then resume for another hour. The police weren’t trying to prevent them from distributing Bibles—they were simply trying to keep the Moscow Book Fair open.

Further down the same aisle of the Book Fair, Madalyn Murray O’Hair was at the American Atheist Society booth displaying their wares. Someone who was there told me that virtually no one even stopped to see what she had to offer. They knew about it all too well. They had had atheism for seventy years and they wanted nothing more to do with it.

What a privilege it is to have the Bible. Let us never take it for granted.

Question to ponder:
Do you feel a longing for the Word of God?

… although they knew God, they did not glorify Him, or give thanks to Him as God, but became futile in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

— Romans 1:21

“America: A Christian Nation” is a concept that has been so systematically blotted from the collective memory of this country as to sound in the ears of most Americans like an alien philosophy, an intrusion of religion into the tranquility of a secular nation.

This is a nation that was born of the Bible. In 1982, Newsweek Magazine observed that some historians are now coming to realize that it was the Bible, even more than the Constitution that founded this nation.

Today as we look at our country, we see a nation that has ceased to glorify God. When a people forget God, their hearts become darkened. But God still has many of His own in our land—many of whom are calling on His name and living humbly before Him, just as did the Pilgrims, the Puritans, and other godly settlers, along with many of our founding fathers.

We should endeavor to remember that the secret of America’s greatness is the creed that our rights come from God. God-given rights are non-negotiables. This is a great heritage, one that we can pass on to our posterity.

Question to ponder:
What does it mean to be a “Christian nation”?

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD.

— Psalms 33:12

John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States, said: “The highest glory of the American Revolution was ______.” What? It secured our independence from England? It got rid of the Stamp Tax? The Tea Tax? It dissolved our bonds with Parliament and the king?

No.

What was the highest glory of the American Revolution? Listen well to what President John Quincy Adams said: “The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the precepts of Christianity.” “One indissoluble bond”—government and Christianity. Well, today there are those who have come with their solvents of unbelief, skepticism, atheism, Marxism, humanism, and secularism, and they are doing everything in their power to completely dissolve that indissoluble bond.

You and I were born in a Christian nation. That may not be said for our children or grandchildren unless we who have received this marvelous patrimony do something other than let it sift through our fingers like sand because we are engaged simply in the pursuit of own “personal peace and prosperity,” as Dr. Francis Schaeffer used to say.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, and we should never take our freedom and our great heritage for granted.

Question to ponder:
How can we pass Christian heritage on to the next generation?

If the foundations are broken, what can the righteous do?

— Psalms 11:3

All nations that have ever existed have either been founded upon some theistic or anti-theistic principle. This is true whether we think of the Hinduism of India, the Confucianism of China, the Mohammedanism of Saudi Arabia, or the Atheism of the former Soviet Union.

If we know our history, we know that America was a nation founded upon Christ and His Word. Those foundations, indeed, are crumbling in our time. There are those in our country today who are busily tearing apart that foundation, those who would gnash their teeth at the idea that this is a Christian nation. They will not be satisfied until they have removed every vestige of our Christian heritage—not only from the minds of the people, but also from the monuments of this country.

We see the hatred people have for God and His Christ, and we tremble at the enormous assault on all things godly. What can the righteous do? Often in history God has raised up one person who has turned things around. One person is not too small. He has called us to be faithful to Him. John Quincy Adams once said, “Duty is ours. Results are God’s.”

Question to ponder:
Is God calling you to help make a difference “for such a time as this”?

Therefore He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, because He at all times lives to make intercession for them.

— Hebrews 7:25

The Apostles’ Creed declares that Jesus “sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” What does that mean? It indicates a completion of His work of atonement and the beginning of His work of intercession. Hebrews 10:11–12 tells us that every priest stands daily ministering and offering sacrifices that can never take away sins. But Jesus, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.

Christ has finished His work as our High Priest. His blood made full atonement for all our sins. Now He sits in the seat of authority at the right hand of God. Not only has He taken away our sins and made us right with God, He invites us to come boldly before His throne. Christ Himself hears our prayers and intercedes with the Father on our behalf. Jesus is our advocate with the Father and therefore we can pray with confidence.

Question to ponder:
Picture yourself clean and spotless, standing before God Almighty Who awaits your prayer. How will you pray and what will you ask for?