… Rejoice always.

— 1 Thessalonians 5:16

Trouble comes to us all, saved or unsaved. But people react differently.

We know that the same sun that bakes bricks melts butter. Adversity causes some people to become embittered and hardened, to become hateful toward God and man. Others it sweetens and softens and enriches.

The world finds it very, very strange that even in the midst of the most painful circumstances, there can be rejoicing. In fact, Paul tells us that we can be sorrowful and rejoice at the same time: “as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10).

Regardless of the pain of the circumstances, there can be deep-seated joy. In the midst of an illness, at the very nadir of my experience, a time when I was in such pain that I absolutely did not know what to do and tears were coursing down my cheeks, I could honestly say to my wife, “I yet believe that God is good and will lift me up out of this.”

What kind of problems have you had this past week? Did you face them like Paul, or like the world faces them? How do we deal with our problems? Faith comes from our realization that God is with us, whatever the problems we may face. When we face them, do we become better or do we become bitter?

Question to ponder:
Are you going through a difficult time? Can you find something to thank God for in the midst of your adversity?

… rejoice with the wife of your youth.

— Proverbs 5:18

The best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother. If you are going to be a godly dad, you need to forsake all others with heart and mind and soul and love your wife. We are to love our wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for us.

It is in loving each other that parents create a stable and good home. Besides loving his wife in order to be a good father, a man must commit to be there for his children.

It is really very easy to become a father, but it is very difficult to be a godly father in the home. You must, first of all, be a godly man. Second, you must—very obviously, but today, importantly—be in the home, because if there is one place where tens of millions of American fathers are not present today, it is in the home. Eighty percent of all of the families in the inner city are fatherless. Eighty percent!

Without fathers in the home, children will lack the emotional center a father provides, crime will go up as will all the troubles that lack of guidance and fathering bring upon a family.

Question to ponder:
What happens to a society where men are not present in the home?

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night declares knowledge.

— Psalm 19:1-2

The zodiac has twelve major signs. The first is Virgo, depicting a woman who has in her right hand a branch and in her left hand sheaves of corn. In Hebrew, she is called Bethulah, which means “virgin,” even as virgo, from Latin, means virgin.

Everywhere her name is the same. She is called “the virgin.” This is of course, the picture of Mary, the virgin mother of Christ. So we have Virgo, the virgin woman, holding the branch and seeds in her hand. We find next to her, Coma, “the desired one” (the desire of all nations, who shall come) who is now an infant being nourished in her lap. Thirdly, we see him grown to manhood—a very unusual man, however, one with two natures: One who is the great hunter, teacher, physician; one who gives his life voluntarily and conveys his immortality to others; one who is the great High Priest, slaying the victim over the Southern Cross.

Finally, we see him, also full grown, coming mightily and in power, and rapidly as Bootes—the coming One, the ruler, the governor, the harvester of the earth, coming with a sickle in his hand in judgment to harvest the world. Thus, there is the Gospel presented in the stars, in the Zodiac—none of which has anything to do with reading your horoscope.

Question to ponder:
How do the stars “reveal knowledge”?

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have established …

— Psalm 8:3

The Bible condemns astrology. It says that we are not to consort with astrologers; we are not to consult them; we are not to have anything to do with astrology. And, yet, behind all of that, there is a great revelation of God and His glory and of His salvation in what has come to be known as the zodiac. This is often described as a circle of animals. But that is not really what the word “zodiac” means. Rather it comes from a primitive root, zoad, which comes from the Hebrew sodi, and in Sanskrit means: “a way; a step; a path.” It is the path, or the way, and it is the way of salvation revealed in the heavens.

I hope that as you go out and look at the starry skies above, you will be impressed anew and afresh. You will become amazed at the God who hath written on high these things for all the world to see. For surely His voice has gone out unto the ends of the earth, and the invisible things of Him are plainly seen from the creation of the world. God has placed in the constellations of the zodiac, which He brought forth with His own hand, pictures of the great salvation which He has wrought in Jesus Christ.

Before it was corrupted and twisted, the zodiac presented a clear picture of God’s story. It shows the virgin who gives birth to a son and is attacked by the evil one. And there is much more, as we will show in the following devotional reading.

Question to ponder:
The horoscope is a tool used by Satan to deceive. How did it become so twisted?

So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God.

— Romans 14:12

The Bible makes it plain that we shall, each one, have to give an account of ourselves. It will not be your wife, your husband, your parents, your neighbors, church members, or preachers—it will be you yourself that you will be giving an account of in that great day. No other statements will be allowed. I guess the Corinthians are still around today. How many people walk out of church and make comments such as: “Well, what did you think of that sermon?” “How did you like the preacher?” Are we not back to Corinth again? My friends, do you come to judge God’s servants or do you come to place yourself under the judgment of God’s Word? What a difference there is in those two attitudes.

In a worship service, to paraphrase Soren Kierkegaard, it is God who is the audience, the congregation, the performer, and the preacher. God is the one to judge. We who are covered by the blood of Christ will be forgiven, but we are still accountable and will face the day of reckoning.

Question to ponder:
What is frightening and what is comforting about the accountability of believers?

“Where have you come from, Gehazi?” And he said, “Your servant went here and there.” He said to him, “Did my heart not go with you when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to take money, and to take garments, olives and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male and female servants?”

— 2 Kings 5:25-26

Many people think they can get away with all sorts of crimes today. Perhaps they do for a while. But in the big picture, God sees, and He will one day bring it to light—whether in this life or the next.

In 2 Kings 5, Gehazi ended up with Naaman’s leprosy because of his greed. When David sinned, he was forgiven—yet “the sword” never left his house. Even though God forgives us for our sins when we come to Him with repentance, God does not always remove the consequences of our sins. Sin is always serious and always destructive.

Certain sins can follow families and be repeated for several generations. Yes, God can break the cords of sin. Chains can be loosed at Calvary, but it is much better to keep ourselves from sin in the first place.

Question to ponder:
Have you seen situations where one sin has brought trouble to many?

… Whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

— John 3:15

We have been exposed repeatedly to the humanistic thesis that belief in God is irrational and unbelief is rational. Is that true? I would like to expose it for what it really is: an unmitigated fraud, an unalloyed lie that rises right up from the father of all lies.

To believe that God has made us, that there is a purpose for our lives and that we go to be with Him when we die—that is the Christian world-view.

This belief leads to meaning in life, joy, and satisfaction, purpose, and peace. Unbelief leads to hopelessness, lack of meaning and purpose, and fear of death. Unbelief is not sophisticated, it is devastating, and the result of unbelief is grief and pain. The result of belief in the God of the Bible is contentment, peace, and joy. Belief in God is life-giving and life-sustaining.

Question to ponder:
Contrast belief and unbelief in people you know. Can you see the difference?

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

— John 8:32

Sadly, a majority of Americans today believe that truth and morality are relative. Even many professing Christians have fallen prey to this myth.

Virtually all of our high school students have learned that there are no absolutes.

You probably heard about the teacher who said to his class, “You can know nothing for certain.”

One student responded, “Teacher, are you sure?”

He said, “I’m certain.”

Sometimes students don’t realize that when a teacher or professor says there are no absolutes, he is also saying there is no God. Because, you see, God is the ultimate absolute.

If there are no absolutes, how is it that the Holocaust was wrong?

If there are no absolutes, how could 9/11 be wrong?

It becomes very difficult to live in a completely relativistic world. Suppose you are waiting in your car at a train crossing, and a train is coming down the tracks at 60 miles an hour. You know that if you drive your car out in front of that train, you are not going to be “relatively” dead—you are going to be “absolutely” dead. We can’t live as relativists in this world.

Truth is revealed to us in God’s Word. Christ says, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32).

Question to ponder:
Why is truth so important to God?

And He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”

— Luke 22:15

The Lord’s Table is a memorial, but obviously it is also a supper, as it is a sacrament. It is a meal unlike any that has ever been celebrated before. How wonderful it is that we can eat with Him. Even as John laid his head upon the bosom of Christ, so we can eat with the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Great Pyramid was built to honor a man to his everlasting remembrance—can you remember his name? It was the mighty Khufu. The Taj Mahal is perhaps the most beautiful building built. It took 20,000 people 22 years to build it. It is a magnificent place. It was built by Shah Jahan to memorialize and cause to be brought to everlasting remembrance his beautiful young wife, whose name is not remembered by most of us.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, however, left for us a very simple, tiny by comparison, memorial—the Last Supper. But when the stars shall have burnt out of Heaven, when the end of all of the ages shall have come, when the Great Pyramid shall have crumbled into dust, this memorial will still be known, and everyone who sees it will know precisely who it is that is to be remembered in the simple bread and wine of the Lord’s Table.

Question to ponder:
How do we benefit spiritually from the Lord’s Supper?

It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”

— Luke 4:4

The Bible is the greatest book in the world.

In the midst of the many marvelous texts that make up the Scriptures, there are some verses that are often overlooked and seldom quoted compared to other well-known verses. These verses lie nestled away like timid little flowers. However, these timid little flowers give off a marvelous fragrance—a fragrance that, if inhaled deeply, can utterly transform your life. Sometimes I like to pick one such little flower from the pages of Holy Writ, lift it up, analyze it, and sense its fragrance and its transforming power.

Psychologist William James once stated: “The Bible contains more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, more morality, more important history, and finer strains of poetry and eloquence than can be collected from all other books, in whatever age or language they may have been written.” Sir William Gladstone, considered by many the greatest prime minister England ever had, said, “I have known 95 great men of the world in my time. And of these, 87 were followers of the Bible.”

Question to ponder:
Can you list ten reasons why you read and study the Bible?