“But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

— 1 Corinthians 15:30

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the greatest historical fact of antiquity. Author and speaker Josh McDowell has studied, written on, and debated about this for decades now. He writes: “After more than 700 hours of studying this subject, and thoroughly investigating its foundation, I have come to the conclusion that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the “most wicked, vicious, heartless hoaxes ever foisted upon the minds of men, or it is the most fantastic fact of history.”

He points out that the theories to try and explain away the resurrection make less historical sense than the resurrection itself.

When asked if the disciples stole the body of Christ, as some unbelievers assert, he says: “…here was a small band of men—most of them fishermen—just common people. They came out, fought off the Roman guard, some of the most disciplined soldiers in history, broke the Roman seal that anyone feared breaking because of the consequences of it, and then stole the body and spread abroad that Jesus had been raised from the dead.”

But what if He hadn’t really died, but swooned in the tomb? “Four professional executioners signed His death warrant; that was according to Roman customs. And then to try to believe that that damp tomb, instead of killing Him, healed Him, and I guess then He jumped up, hobbled over, pushed the stone out of the way, tied the guard unit up with His linen cloth and appeared to His disciples as the Lord of Life.” No, the only thing to explain the facts are that He is risen. He is risen indeed!

Lord of life, we praise You that You have conquered the grave. We praise You that You changed all history, Jesus, when You walked out of that tomb. Thank You for building Your kingdom on the solid foundation of Your historical resurrection…

BY HIS STRENGTH, WE KNOW THAT
WE WILL LIVE, EVEN AFTER WE DIE.

“…their glory is in their shame, their minds are set on earthly things.”

— Philippians 3:19

One of the sad things about our time is the fact that shame seems to have become almost extinct. When did you ever hear anyone say, “You should be ashamed”? We have so many people today that glory in their shame, that boast in their shame, that proclaim their shame publicly, and it is tragic that today people glory in the very things that they should be ashamed of.

And “their minds are set on earthly things.” That, I think, is sort of the bottom line of it all because their hearts and minds are not in heaven but simply upon this earth, and if we do not have that upward calling in mind we are going to mind earthly things. Paul says our citizenship is in heaven. The Greek word we translate as citizenship is the word from which we get politics or policy. We should remember that we are citizens of heaven.

This was particularly apropos to the Philippians because Philippi, though in Macedonia, was a Roman colony. It was attached to the Roman Empire, since they had been granted by Caesar Roman citizenship, which was to be devoutly desired. They were citizens of Rome. They were citizens of Rome, even as we are citizens of heaven and most particularly of the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city. That is where our true citizenship is.

We may be involved, rightly so, and concerned about the politics and citizenship of this world, but we need to remember ultimately we are citizens of heaven; thus, we naturally are repulsed at people glorying in their shame.

Heavenly Father, You are pure and holy, and we live among a twisted and perverse generation. Help us to be more grieved when we see people flagrantly breaking Your commandments and are proud of it. Give us the strength to choose the hard right over the easy wrong…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN LIVE
IN THIS WORLD AS CITIZENS OF HEAVEN.

“For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God…”

— 1 Peter 3:18

Before my conversion, I hadn’t realized what spiritual danger I was in. But how well I remember that day when I first discovered the truth about myself, when the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to see myself as I really was. I was arraigned before the bar of God’s judgment. Justice accused me, and the scales tipped precipitously against me.

The Judge looked me sternly in the face and said, “I pronounce that you shall die. Do you have anything to say for yourself before the sentence of eternal death is pronounced upon you?” For the first time in all my self-righteous life, I was speechless. The Judge brought down His gavel, and the sentence was pronounced.

Eternal death descended upon me, and I stood on the scaffold of God’s judgment. I felt hopeless as I felt the black cap of eternal death placed upon my head and about to be pulled down over my eyes. Suddenly, I heard a cry, a voice that said, “Stay. Let not that man descend into the pit.”

I looked and there came at a great run one whose face was flecked with blood, whose hands were pierced, who said, “Surely he deserves to die but the spear pierced My side instead. Surely he deserves to descend into the pit, but there in the blackness of midday at Calvary, I descended into the pit for him. All that he deserves I have properly taken. Now let him go free.” I praise God for His gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus my Lord.

Lord Jesus, thank You that You are our advocate before the Father, pleading our cause. Thank You for rescuing us from eternal peril at the cost of Your own shed blood…

IN HIS STRENGTH,
WE STAND FORGIVEN.

“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

There are certain sayings Jesus repeated over and over, such as “the last will be first, and the first last…” (Matthew 20:16). “…a servant is not greater than his master”… (John 13:16). “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14).

Matthew 25:29 is one of these. It is a text that is often overlooked. It is a text which is filled with meaning and pregnant with significance for our lives. On five separate occasions, Christ repeated this text in varied forms. It deals three times with the initial state of our Christian life, telling us to beware of what we hear.

We are warned early in the ministry of Christ that we are to be careful what we hear. Today it seems that people have very little care for what they hear. As long as the preacher has some eloquence and appeal or some sort of zeal, they will listen to anything. Nonetheless, false doctrine, however appealing it may appear, is always poisonous. Perhaps there has never been a time when people needed to listen more carefully to the Word of Jesus in that regard. “Take heed what you hear” (Mark 4:24). Few people would seem to suppose that hearing anything could be dangerous to their spiritual life. And Jesus also said, “take heed therefore how you hear” (Luke 8:18).

Are we not often careless hearers? May God give us the grace to listen carefully to Christ through the pages of Scripture with open ears and open hearts.

God of truth, help us to know Your voice amidst all the voices that scream out for our attention. Give us the strength to hear You correctly and to live by Your Word…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN DISCERN
TRUTH FROM FALSEHOOD.

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good.”

— Psalms 14:1

There are many atheists today. They write bestselling books. They go on national talk shows. They seem to be all over the place. Are they beyond God’s touch?

Well, over my lifetime, the best known atheist was Madalyn Murray O’Hair. Interestingly, she was the first guest on the Phil Donohue Show. He was a pioneer talk host, who liked to promote unbelief.

One of the defining moments in her life, when her atheism became solidified, was when she ran outside during a thunderstorm and defied God—if there was one—to strike her dead right then and there. He chose not to. “You see, you see.” she exclaimed, “I’ve proved irrefutably that God does not exist.” Note that she was pregnant at the time, and inside her was William J. Murray.

William J. Murray was actually a future servant of the Lord. After being exposed to a virulent form of atheism all his life, Murray came to a realization: “There has to be a God because there certainly is a devil. I have met him, talked to him, and touched him. He is the personification of evil.” Soon after this insight, Murray found the Christ his mother hated so much by reading the Gospel of Luke. Today he is a powerful evangelist and also an advocate of allowing God back into the public schools. This is the very man, who as a boy, had been at the center of Murray vs. Curlett (1963), one of the key Supreme Court anti-school prayer decisions. God can reach anyone.

Lord, give me strength for today to let others know about You, even those who have bought the lie of atheism. Thank You that no one is beyond Your reach, Jesus …

IN HIS STRENGTH, WE SEE GOD’S
HANDIWORK ALL AROUND US.

“The slothful man says, ‘There is a lion without! I will be slain in the streets!’”

— Proverbs 22:13

One problem in life is that too many people stop dreaming when they become an adult. Children have many marvelous dreams, but too many times we abandon those dreams by the time we become adults.

I think of a young boy who was but seven years old when Sputnik circled the earth. He became enamored with space. This was in Costa Rica, and he was very poor. But eventually, through hard work, he became the first Hispanic astronaut. He had a dream and would not let it go.

We must work at our dreams. Many people think this is some sort of magic wand. They erroneously imagine that it is some sort of a genie in a bottle. Not so.

One of the reasons some people do not dream large dreams is because they are too lazy to even think about putting feet under them. The very thought of it makes them tired.

Sometimes we can invent supposedly “Christian” excuses for what is really just laziness. “I can’t go into politics because it’s all a dirty business.” “I can’t work on a movie because Hollywood is just corrupt.” “I can’t tell my neighbor about Jesus because he doesn’t want to hear it—besides, it would be unchristian for me to be so pushy.” An excuse is an excuse is an excuse, no matter how we tend to mask it. May God grant us the discernment to see the difference between legitimate obstacles and just plain excuses.

God, help us to see clearly the dream You have planted in our heart as opposed to that which is there from selfish ambition and give us the wisdom to know the difference…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, GODLY DREAMS
CAN BECOME REALITY.

“Therefore, when I have completed this and have given this blessing to them, I shall come by way of you to Spain…”

— Romans 15:28

Throughout history, those who have accomplished great things or made a great impact have always had great dreams.

• Alexander the Great had a great dream. He had a dream of overcoming the centuries’ old animosity between the western cultures of Greece and Macedonia and the eastern culture of the Persian Empire through military conquest. However, his dream was not built upon the purposes of God, and it crumbled at his death.
• Napoleon’s dream was to make one great European nation out of France and Germany and Italy. But his dream was shattered at Waterloo. It was not based upon the Word of God.
• Karl Marx had a dream of a classless society—a dream that does not conform with the nature of man nor the teachings of God’s Word, and it is in retreat.
• The Apostle Paul had a dream based upon the truth of God. He saw men and women out of every nation, tongue, and tribe loving and worshiping the living God and coming to know the forgiveness and peace of Christ. He put feet under that dream and it is still being carried out.

Do you have any dreams? Or did they end with your childhood? How big are your dreams, my friend? Are they consonant with the teachings of the Scriptures? If so, you must then trust in Christ for their fulfillment.

Lord, You are a God of great and mighty things. Grant us great dreams for the sake of Your kingdom and the strength to live them out…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH,
WE CAN OVERCOME OUR FEARS.

“But Jesus came and touched them and said, ‘Rise, and do not be afraid.’”

— Matthew 17:7

Do you realize that all of life is a school? Through all the difficult circumstances in life, the Master is trying to teach us a few key lessons over and over, mainly to trust Him.

This is why over and over again the Bible says, “Fear not.” “Be anxious for nothing.” “Be not afraid.” Why? Because Jesus said, “It is I.” But in the Greek, it means “I am.” It was the great tetragrammaton, the four letter name of God, Jehovah, in the Old Testament. When Jesus said that same word to the soldiers in the Garden of Gethsemane, they fell on their backs. “I AM.” The great “I AM,” is here. “Fear not.” “Do not be not afraid.”

Are you afraid? Honestly? Is there something you fear? Is there something you are concerned about? Is there something you are anxious about? God doesn’t want us to be afraid. He doesn’t want us to be fearful. In fact, fear and faith cannot exist in the same person about the same thing at the same time, any more than water and air can exist in the same glass at the same time. One displaces the other.

So, if you are fearful, it is because you are not trusting Jesus Christ for whatever it is you are fearful about. So, trust Him. Again we come back to the basic class, the basic lesson in all of the classes in the school of life: “Fear not, it is I.”

My God, help me to know that nothing comes into my life except through Your loving hand. When I am afraid, I will trust in You. Life can be terrifying, but You are mighty and You have me in the palm of Your hand…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH,
WE CAN OVERCOME OUR FEARS.

“From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

— Matthew 4:17

There are some unbelievers today who are in the church and are doing great damage to the church. Their type was around in the first century.

Jude warns about “these ungodly dreamers,” who “defile the flesh” and “reject authority” (verse 8). Some of them today say the church has a ministry to alcoholics and to criminals, so why can’t it have a ministry to homosexuals and this sort? Wonderful, it certainly ought to have, by all means. But the ministry it has to alcoholics and criminals is one of repentance by which a gracious God will forgive you and receive you and cleanse you from your sins.

It’s not that we are going to form a club of continued professing alcoholics and criminals who will come to church on Sunday and worship, and they will go the rest of the week to rob banks. How utterly absurd.

Jude adds that they are blind in their sin: “But they destroy themselves in those things that, like unreasoning animals, they know by instinct” (verse 10).

These are those who are sensual and not filled with the Spirit of God. My friends, the spirit of lasciviousness and license, and of lawlessness, is the very spirit that was rebuked when God says to us, “Go and sin no more”—whatever our particular sin is. Jesus may meet us in our sinful state, but if you have a true encounter with Him, He does not leave you there. Jesus said, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruit you will know them” (Matthew 7:19-20).

Holy Savior, give me strength for today to repent of any sin in my life. Let Your light shine in my soul, so that I can see my sin and run to You for cleansing and forgiveness…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE
LIVE IN DAILY REPENTANCE.

“But, speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things into Him, who is the head, Christ Himself.”

— Ephesians 4:15

God has called us to walk in the truth and not in error. But the minute you begin to discern truth from error, immediately there are those who spring up to denounce you, while they declare the only Bible verse they seem to know: “Do not judge or you will be judged.”

The Epistle of Jude says that we are to contend for the faith that was given to the saints. We are told that we are to contend earnestly for the faith, and yet somehow or other we are to do it without being contentious.

To contend in love is the secret, and it is always a difficult one. We tend either to lose sight of love and compassion and just hack people to little pieces with our theological axes. Or we become so loving and so compassionate that we let Christian doctrine just sort of melt into a marshmallow type of thing it can be shaped however anyone wants it. But we are to contend, though non-contentiously, for the faith once for all delivered unto the saints.

There is a faith once and for all delivered to the saints. Faith here means not the subjective activity of our exercise of faith, but it means the objective body of doctrine which has been given to us, the Gospel of Jesus Christ that has been given to us.

God of truth, help us to see clearly by Your Spirit. Give us the right balance between truth and mercy, so that we may speak the truth in love…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN
BE CONTENDERS FOR THE FAITH.