Continue in prayer, and be watchful with thanksgiving …

— Colossians 4:2

Sir Noel Paton was an outstanding artist. His paintings always have one unusual feature: There are beautiful flowers and gorgeous birds, knights and ladies, gossamer-winged fairies, and children of seraphic beauty. However, always, somewhere down in the corner of the painting, or at the feet of these beautiful characters, is a form that is uncouth, repulsive, and repugnant, a loathsome creature such as a toad or a lizard or a slimy snail to render, by contrast with their repulsiveness, greater beauty to the rest.

This is how it is with the New Testament. We see Christ in all of His glory crucified between two thieves. There are twelve apostles, and one of them is a devil.

Rather than thank God for all His blessings, it is much easier to have a “fly complex.” I do not know if you have ever detected this in your own life, but I have. The old “fly in the ointment.”

Many of us, it seems, spend a great deal of our time counting the flies in the ointment of life. We need to realize that there is never going to be a jar of ointment in this world that does not have some flies in it. The question really comes down to whether we see the flies or the ointment. You can almost divide people into two kinds: There are the “fly people” and there are the “ointment people.” Which are you?

Question to ponder:
What is the “ointment” you are thankful for today?

If you refrain to deliver those who are drawn unto death, and those who are ready to be slain;

— Proverbs 24:11

In March 1964 a young New Yorker named Kitty Genovese came home from work, put her key into the lock on the front door of the apartment building she lived in. Suddenly a man grabbed her from behind and when she screamed, he cut her with a knife. She screamed louder and said, “Help, I’m dying. Help me. Somebody help me. This man is killing me.”

Windows went up all over the huge building. People looked down at her as she screamed for help. The police finally arrived thirty minutes later. It had taken thirty minutes of screaming for Kitty Genovese to die. No one in the building called the police.

Thirty-eight residents of that building said they saw the murder. When asked why they didn’t intervene or call the police, each answered, “We didn’t want to get involved.” Don’t you feel like going up and punching those people in the nose? I do. “This woman is being carved into pieces, and you didn’t want to get involved?”

As Christians we are called to get involved in the lives of others. We are called to a life of service and witness for Him.

Question to ponder:
How can you “get involved” today or this week to help people in need?

… And you shall be My witnesses …

— Acts 1:8

Some professing Christians are members of the club called “Voiceless Christianity.” They say, “I can’t witness with my mouth. I just witness by my life.”

Dear friend, if you witness by your life, you only witness to yourself. Christ told us that we are to point beyond ourselves, unto Him and to His Cross, and that requires the use of our mouths.

Many claim that words don’t accomplish anything; it is the life that we live that gives a powerful witness. So, is it the case that most of you who are part of the “Voiceless Christianity” group have had dozens of people just this past year coming up to you and saying, “Oh, what a wonderful person you are. I am so amazed. Please tell me how I can be like you and how I can have whatever makes you that way?”

No, our Lord has entrusted us with the responsibility and the joy of leading others to Himself. Before He left this earth, Jesus said to His disciples:

All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And remember I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20).

Voiceless Christianity is a myth by which the lazy or fearful justify their silence.

Question to ponder:
Do you practice “voiceless Christianity?” Why or why not?

He said to them, “Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”

— Mark 16:15

I have always liked the story—it’s not factual, but it is based on truth—the story of when Jesus Christ returned to Heaven after His resurrection and His ascension. When He arrived in heaven, as the story goes, all of the angels gathered around to hear about His great exploits on the earth below. He told them about His birth in a manger, about the life He lived, about His work as a carpenter, His mission as a prophet going out and preaching and teaching, the gathering together of His disciples, His betrayal, His scourging, His mockery, His condemnation, the Cross, the spikes, the sword, the tomb, and finally the glorious resurrection and His return into Heaven.

He said, “I have told my disciples that they are to go into all the world and tell everyone that through what I have done, they may have pardon and forgiveness and reconciliation and may receive the free gift of eternal life.”

Then there was quiet among the angels. Finally, one of them said, “Lord, but what if they don’t do that? What other plan do you have?”

Jesus Christ replied, “I have no other plan.”

Dear friends, you are it.

Question to ponder:
How does it make you feel to know that you are privileged to be His channel of eternal blessings to others?

He was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and entreated him.

— Luke 15:28

Jesus knows the heart. The parable of the Prodigal Son shows us that very frequently prodigals are not welcome even today. We are quite willing to have the respectable folks come into the church, those who are well-clothed and come from good families and upbringings, but bring the drunk in off skid row, bring in the person who has destroyed his body with vice, drugs, and sinful living, and some people will raise their eyebrows. Sinners are told to come into the warm harbor of God’s love, and they run smack-dab into the iceberg of the elder brother.

“What are you doing here in our nice church?” Some people do not really believe in conversion. You talk to them about the thief on the cross and they become very upset, even as some of the early Christians did not believe Saul had been converted.

For 24 years, I lived without the slightest shadow ever crossing my mind that I was separated from God and on my way to perdition. Not until I came to that realization did the door of God’s mercy open to me. Let us always be open and welcoming to those who seek after God. He always welcomes a repentant sinner.

Question to ponder:
If someone came to church from a life of sin, would you welcome them as a God-seeker?

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life … shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

— Romans 8:38-39

If Christ had not come, there would be no sure hope of eternal life. For Christ has brought life and immortality to light. Only He can give the blessed assurance of everlasting life. I have never met a person who knows what is going to happen to him beyond this life who was not a believer in Jesus Christ who said, “I am He who lives, though I was dead. Look! I am alive forevermore” (Revelation 1:18).

If Christ had not come, then the dark and dank tomb would be the end of each and all. There would be no hope beyond the grave. If Christ had not come, you could look down into that six-foot hole and see your future; beyond that there would be but speculations and vague hopes. Jesus brought us an absolute certainty: “I am the resurrection and the life … Because I live, you shall also live.” Only in Christ is there the assurance and certainty of everlasting life. What a magnificent promise that is.

Amazing to say, because of His grace in Jesus Christ, God is willing to wash me whiter than snow, to forgive me, to cleanse me, and to accept me as His child, now and forevermore. When the stars have burnt into cinders, and this universe has collapsed, I will still be with God and will have only just begun to live.

Question to ponder:
In light of the promises of Christ and His resurrection, what does death mean?

The heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment.

— Isaiah 51:6 (NIV)

In this world, the Second Law of Thermodynamics constantly works and everything is running down, wearing out, growing old, and perishing. There is no escape from the law of entropy. In this contest, you can never win; you cannot even break even.

With the fall and the curse came the current order of things. We go from order to chaos, from clean to dirty, from new to old, from fresh to rotten, from living to dead. Everything breaks down, even heaven and earth itself will wear out.

Thankfully, this is not all there is. For we have a Savior who declares, “Look! I am making all things new” (Revelation 21:5). This means the reversal of entropy. Paul says, “… the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).

In heaven, we will experience freedom from entropy. In heaven, all things will be continuously new—a new heaven and a new earth—without entropy.

Question to ponder:
When you think of all that breaks down, from the earth to our bodies, what does freedom from entropy mean?

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

— Romans 12:21

A man who was having great trouble with a neighbor who was doing him dirt came to me one time. I told him of the principle of returning good for evil and he said, “I just couldn’t to that.” He was right. The natural man can’t. It is spiritual. It is the greatest evidence of a truly regenerate heart to respond positively or kindly to enemies, to love our enemies, to bless them that curse us, to do good to them that hate us and despitefully use us. This is, however, what Christ tells us to do.

It is a defensive shield, so that no matter what anybody does to us, we can turn that into a blessing. We can transform that person by going the second mile, by turning the other cheek, by returning good for evil.

When we do good to those who hurt us, we are a part of the greatest triumph in the world. When Christ triumphed on the Cross over all evil powers and the devil himself, He proved that good is stronger than evil. Every time we do a kindness instead of “getting even,” we are triumphing over evil.

Question to ponder:
Can you think of something good you can do today or in the near future for someone—maybe even for someone who has hurt you?

The heavens declare the glory of God … and night unto night declares knowledge.

— Psalm 19:1-2

We all look at the moon, admire the moon, sing about the moon—the moon in June. It brings out tunes and all of that, but what does the moon really mean to us?  Let me say this: If there were no moon, there would be no you. For example, the moon is God’s cleaning-maid for the earth. It cleans up the oceans with its tides. Without those tides and without the moon, all of our shores and all of our bays would be filled with billions of tons of garbage, stench, and debris. The highest priced landscape would be as far from the seashore as you could get, especially on the leeward side.

Furthermore, the moon’s gravitational pull mixes the atmosphere. Just as it works on the sea, it works on the atmosphere and mixes oxygen with the water in the waves breaking on the shore. When you watch waves breaking on the shore, you are watching the ocean’s lifeline in progress. Oxygenated water is required by plankton, which is the foundation of the whole marine food chain without which all marine creatures would die. The moon, which just “accidentally” happens to be there, just “accidentally” happens to be the right size in the right place and the right distance away from the earth to exert the proper gravitational force on tides and the atmosphere.

Day by day, night by night, God’s creation itself brings Him glory for those who will but listen.

Question to ponder:
What aspects of creation fill you with awe about God?

I can do all things because of Christ who strengthens me.

— Philippians 4:13

We were created by God to do great things, to soar high and to make an impact upon our world for Him. In fact, most of the great men and women who have accomplished impressive things in this world have been men and women who have dreamed dreams of what God, by His grace, could do in their lives.

I suppose everybody has dreamed dreams. The problem is that we all as children had great visions, but alas, as we grew up, most of those dreams faded away. They are destroyed by that pesky voice that whispers, “You can’t do it. You never have, you never could, and you never will.”

So like acid rain that falls upon our dreams, they slowly disappear. Our great visions fade and our ambitions corrode because we believe the negative words of the devil: “You can’t, you can’t, you can’t.” And so, we invent all kinds of reasons why we can’t.

The apostle Paul had no such limitations. He said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).  Paul is not talking about PMA—a “Positive Mental Attitude.” He did not say, “I can do all things through PMA”—but through Jesus.

May God help us to realize that we can do all things through Christ. He is the creator of dreams and the source of our strength.

Question to ponder:
Is there something great or small that God has put on your heart to accomplish for Him?