Again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

— John 8:12

How do we continue in the communion God has called us to? John says in the first chapter of his first letter, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another …” (1 John 1:7). So we must continue to walk in the light of God, which means we continue to repent of our sins, continue to seek to walk honestly and purely before the Lord.

If we claim to have fellowship with God and yet walk in the darkness, we lie, John says. We have no fellowship with Him. But if we walk with Jesus Christ, we walk in the light. Just as physical light makes all things visible, so spiritual light makes all things clear and visible in the spiritual realm.

The Lord wants us to keep short accounts with Him. What that means is that when we sin, we should immediately ask for forgiveness. He promises us, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Question to ponder:
Are you keeping short accounts with God?

You know His will, and approve the things that are more excellent …

— Romans 2:18

We serve a most excellent God.

When we realize the greatness, glory, and majesty of our God, we should react with praise. Truly, our hearts should rejoice and the greatness of our God should cause us to sing of His glory and should also move us to reverential awe. When we see how great and glorious God is, when we grasp how His righteousness, holiness, and justice never change, and that He is infinite and eternal, we should be moved to awe. We should be moved to peace and comfort to know that if we have been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, we are in the hands of a Being Who can never fail—One Who can never die.

Lastly, we should also be moved to excellence. Always, we should strive to give God our best: our best in worship, our best in work. It should be our standard as His children for He is most excellent in power and beauty.

That is why I have always tried to employ the best musicians, the best organists, the best pastors and staff. No Christian should be content to imitate in thought, word, or deed what one has called “the Patron Saint of Mediocrity.”

Question to ponder:
How do you offer your best to God?

But they desired a better country, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

— Hebrews 11:16

Today, people seem to think that in some way religion in general and Christianity in particular are inimical to good government and that the purpose of the government is to keep religion away from the civic arena. This is a very different view than that held by George Washington, who said, “True religion offers to government its surest support.”

Why are people so against Christianity? What is it about Christ that they so abhor? They declare, “We will not have this man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14, nkjv). People do not want anybody—especially not Jesus Christ—to have power or control over their lives. Perhaps it gets back to what Jesus said in John 3:19: “light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.“

We Christians have a dual citizenship. We should do all we can to make our country the best it can be. We should seek godly values and vote for men and women of integrity and wisdom. Even as we work to make our country a good place to live, we know that there is a city that God has prepared for us; a country where He rules that is, and always will be, our true homeland.

Question to ponder:
What are your thoughts on our dual citizenship?

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally and without criticism, and it will be given to him.

— James 1:5

In Jesus Christ we find that wisdom has become incarnate. We read that Jesus Christ “has become for us wisdom from God” (1 Corinthians 1:30 NIV). The fear of the Lord can grow into a complete love and adoration of God who now has come to live in our midst.

We need wisdom. Our world is full of the inexplicable, the inscrutable, the unfathomable, the impossible, and the insurmountable. We cannot, in fact, go three steps in any direction without running into the hard wall of mysteries, riddles, paradoxes, profundities and labyrinths—problems that we cannot solve; labyrinths that we cannot make our way out of; hieroglyphics that we cannot decipher; anagrams that we cannot spell out and sphinxes that just will not speak. Life is full of puzzles.

God gave Solomon great wisdom and he has been regarded as the wisest man who ever lived. But Jesus is the one “greater than Solomon” (Matthew 12:42) and in Him “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). That wealth of wisdom from God is ours if we simply ask Him for it.

Question to ponder:
With God’s wisdom, what mystery would you like to solve?

The just shall live by faith.

— Romans 1:17

If you asked the average American what October 31 is, the response would be instantaneous: “It’s Halloween.” Yes, but it is also something far more important. It is Reformation Day, the birthday of the Protestant Reformation. It is the day when we celebrate the reclaiming of the Gospel of grace from out of the mist and darkness of the Dark Ages.

Beginning in Germany with Martin Luther, the Reformation transformed many of the nations of Europe, spread over to Great Britain and sailed across the Atlantic. The Pilgrims and the Puritans were all followers of John Calvin, who was a follower of Martin Luther. Interestingly, those nations that have accepted the Reformation have been blessed by God, and those that have rejected it have become a part of the backwash of history. It is true not only of every nation, but of every soul as well.

The Reformation was simply a rediscovery of the apostolic message—the truth that we can’t work our way to heaven. Eternal life is a free gift that we are to receive. It is faith alone that saves us, but that faith never stands alone. That faith produces good fruit in our lives.

Question to ponder:
What does it mean in your life that “the just shall live by faith”?

Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget it, nor turn away from the words of my mouth.

— Proverbs 4:5

There is a vast difference between the approach of the Hebrew and the Greek minds toward understanding wisdom. For the Greek, it was entirely a matter of the mind—a matter of putting things together and understanding the way the universe was made. It did not necessarily have much to do with the way one lived. Many renowned pagan writers of antiquity not only practiced, but also taught some of the most heinous of sins. In spite of their vast knowledge in some areas, their knowledge of holy and godly living was deficient, to say the least.

In Proverbs we find the door of wisdom open to everyone. But for the Greeks wisdom was reserved for a very select few. Over the gates to the school of Plato were inscribed the words: “Let no one enter herein who is not a geometrician.” Unless you were an expert in the study of geometry, you were not even invited to school.

Proverbs is quite the contrary. Here are invited the ignorant and simple, the foolish and the young—all are warmly invited to come and learn wisdom. In addition, we are told in Proverbs 1 that the wise will also hear and increase in their learning. We are repeatedly admonished that the wise, indeed, are those who hear the Word of God.

Question to ponder:
How do we become wise?

… without hope and without God in the world.

— Ephesians 2:12

Millions of people have studied Edgar Allan Poe’s most famous poem, “The Raven,” and yet I doubt that one-half of one percent of them have the faintest idea what it means.

“The Raven” is the personification of the unbelief that plagued Poe’s life. He was terrified by the grisly specter of death. In this poem he is seeking to find some surcease of sorrow for his lost Lenore. As he lost his wife in real life, so in this poem he loses Lenore, a beautiful, radiant maiden who has been snatched from his arms.

He can find no relief for the suffering and the heartache that grips him. He wants what everyone wants: some ease to the pain of this life. He wants to know that there is a balm in Gilead—a biblical phrase for Jesus Christ. In other words, Poe is asking, “Will I see Lenore again?” And unbelief answers, “Nevermore.”

How different is Christ’s answer to this question. On that glorious Easter morn He rose again from the dead and stepped forth into the light saying, “I am He who lives, though I was dead. Look! I am alive forevermore.” (Revelation 1:18).

Unbelief says: “Nevermore.” Faith says: “Forevermore.” He conquered our fears and fulfills our hopes now and forevermore.

Question to ponder:
Do you know people who live in fear of death, without hope and ruled by unbelief?

Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.

— Jeremiah 33:3

Do we not have a God in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom? Do we not have a God who has at His disposal all power in Heaven and in earth? A God whose purposes none can disannul? Who has stretched forth His hand and there is none that can stay it nor say unto Him, “What doest thou?” Do we not have a God who does according to His will among the armies of Heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, who created the world and the heavens? There is nothing too hard for Him.

So, what do we ask Him to do? Too often our requests amount to piddling little things that do not amount to a hill of beans.

No, we can ask of Him anything. There is nothing too hard for Him. He can reach down into our souls and stretch our faith. He can open our eyes to see His awesome power and His willingness to reveal it. He can yet again bring to pass great and mighty things whereby His Kingdom may come and His name will be glorified in the earth.

Question to ponder:
What great and mighty things do you want to ask God for?

… and some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had come out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, who supported Him with their possessions.

— Luke 8:2-3

A few years ago, I was in a land where the Gospel of Christ has had little impact at all. As I was passing by, I saw an ox pulling a plow and as I reached a certain angle where I could see the other beast yoked to the oxen, I saw that it was a woman. The men were all playing checkers out in front of the house.

This exemplifies the world without the Bible. This is why so many women have loved and followed Christ—because He has lifted them up and given them a nobility. Today there are more women in American colleges than men. What would Plato say about that?

In ancient times, a woman was simply the property of her husband, and then, Christ was born of the Virgin Mary. Christ called unto Himself woman to be his fellow-laborers and friends in His ministry. It was a woman who was first given to see the resurrected Christ and to announce it to the world, and it was His Gospel that said there is neither male nor female. This has utterly changed the view of women.

Question to ponder:
Do you see the difference Jesus has made in how women are treated?

Therefore, the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me …”

— Isaiah 29:13

First love: God asks for our hearts. We can give no more. He can accept no less. He has loved us even unto the pit of Hell. How can we not love Him back? Ah, my friends, all of those good works, all of those labors, all of those industries exercised for Christ mean nothing if that first love is not there. Without love they are only “sounding brass or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1 NKJV).

Is there any husband anywhere in the world, who would be satisfied if he discovers that his wife’s heart is now far from him, that she no longer loves him? Does it make any difference how diligent she is in the affairs of the home, in the tasks of keeping house? All of these things are worse than ashes if her heart is far from him.

God speaks of those who draw nigh unto Him with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him. God made us to love Him, for He loves us, and we must love Him too.

We love Him because He first loved us. As the hymn reminds us, “Lord, let me never, never outlive my love for Thee.”

Question to ponder:
How is the love life of your heart to the great Lover of Your Soul?