Tag: salvation

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Crucify Him!

Daily Reading

Matthew 27-28

Daily Thought

From where he sat in a prison cell, Barabbas could not hear Pilate speak, but only the shout of the raucous crowd in the courtyard. “Pilate said to them, ‘Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?’” (Matthew 27:17). It was the governor’s custom at the Feast to release a prisoner chosen by this crowd, and the crowd cried, “Barabbas” (Matthew 27:21). Barabbas, in chains, in prison, a rebel, a murderer, and a thief, heard his name shouted from the crowd. “‘Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They shouted all the more, “Crucify him!” (Matthew 27:22).

Alas, all Barabbas could hear, over and over, was, “Barabbas! Barabbas! Crucify him! Crucify him!!” Imagine, then, his astonishment when he was set free. “Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified” (Matthew 27:26); and an innocent man was crucified on the cross of another, one who was guilty and deserved the punishment Jesus would endure. 

The horror of this is I find my place in the crowd and the criminal, and it should and would have been on the cross, but, there, Jesus took my place.

Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed. ~Isaiah 53:4-5

Replace the name of Barabbas with my own and I begin to grasp the wonder of the salvation. 

Daily Prayer

My Father in heaven, I am not forsaken. I deserve to be, but You loved me by death, death on a cross. Your Son took what I deserved. He took my place and my penalty and set me free.

I show someone the smallest amount of grace and I pat myself on the back–as if I’d done something grand. You demonstrate Your love in this, that even while I sin, and keep sinning, and delight in sin, you died for me.

Now, how can I keep sinning? I must not. I must embrace righteousness because I have received grace and mercy. I am newly born, a saint. Thank You, Jesus.

Amen

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The Perfect

Daily Reading

Matthew 5-6

Daily Thought

Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18). Jesus then elaborates on the what exactly are the iotas and the dots of the Law. Murder is a big one, but Jesus says anger and hate are the same thing. Adultery is bad, of course, but Jesus says if you lust you are guilty. Do not swear to tell the truth, just tell the truth, always. Turn the other cheek and go the second mile. Love your neighbor and love your enemy. In summary, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Fat chance. No one can claim what Jesus claimed, that he fulfilled all the Law, that he is perfect. 

Jesus holds two expectations of us, the first, perfection, the holy expectation of heaven, extravagant righteousness, “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:21). Jesus gave us a standard we cannot reach and he knows it because he knows us. Perfection is our aspiration, but Jesus also expects us to fall far short because he knows of our fondness for the forbidden fruit. Jesus stands in the middle of two expectations, perfection and failure, and so he says, simply, “Follow me” (Matthew 4:19). That is our choice. Will it be Satan or Savior, sinner or saint? He demands a choice, for “no one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24), and if we choose to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33), all the iotas and dots. We will be perfect, because “for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2Corinthians 5:21). Jesus took our place so we could take his.

Daily Prayer

My God, You sent Your Son the first time to bring salvation. His second coming will usher those who are saved into Your Eternal Kingdom.

My salvation is in knowing You as my Savior and Lord, and I desire to be at all times excited at Your coming. Help me live each day believing it could be The Day, the day that You return. May I live with the freedom and confidence that comes from knowing that this world will pass, so there is nothing in this world that should hold me. There is nothing more valuable than You. May I love You, therefore, with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love my neighbor as myself. May I live the life You saved me to live.

Amen

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Right On Schedule

Daily Reading

Zechariah 8-14

Daily Thought

Much of the work of God’s prophets is in the proclamation of judgments and the promise of redemption, but sometimes they foretell the future, and Zechariah more than most. It is a future of God’s glory reflected in the salvation of his people, “On that day the Lord their God will save them, as the flock of his people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land” (Zechariah 9:16). That day speaks of Jesus Christ, and 500 years before God’s son rode into Jerusalem, Zechariah saw it coming. 

“Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” ~Zechariah 9:9

Just as Zechariah foretold, it happened, “Throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it, saying, ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!’” (Luke 19:35, 38).

When Zechariah said, “They weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver” (Zechariah 11:12), is it possible he knew it was the price of betrayal? “Then Judas went to the chief priests and said, ‘What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?’ And they paid him thirty pieces of silver” (Matthew 26:14-15). Of those thirty pieces, Zechariah prophesied, “’Throw it to the potter’–the lordly price at which I was priced by them” (Zechariah 11:13), and they did, “So they took counsel and bought with them the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers” (Matthew 27:7).

As Jesus, God’s only son (John 3:16), the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15), hung on the cross, “one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear” (John 19:34); and Zechariah prophesied, “When they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10).

Five centuries after Zechariah spoke these words, salvation came in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and Peter looked to the prophets to explain to a confused crowd, “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified” (Acts 2:23). Everything was right on schedule. Prophecy is given, not so we will know all the future holds, but that we will know God who holds all the future. 

“Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” ~Acts 2:36

Daily Prayer

All knowing, Almighty God, You are my salvation. You have rescued me from sin, through the blood and the love of Your Son, Jesus Christ. You have brought me into Your family, clothed me in righteousness, and set me apart to be a witness of Your grace.

You have shown me the future, a great future, a future I can be sure of, with Your Son on the throne and all the world subject to Him. In peace He reigns. I will follow You. Thank You for so great a salvation.

Amen

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I Can’t Solve Me

Daily Reading

Job 8-10

Daily Thought

Bildad’s callous solution to Job’s suffering is simply, “If you are pure and upright, surely then he (God) will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation” (Job 8:6); to which Job rightly replied, “Truly I know that it is so, but how can a man be in the right before God?” (Job 9:2). Job is saying, “You are right, Bildad, and that’s why you’re wrong.” Bildad believes you can be good enough before God, and Job despairs that good enough is impossible.

Job is a story of the contrast between two views of suffering, but, more importantly, two views of God. For Bildad, it is do right before God; for Job, it is be right with God. Bildad puts his faith in the character of man, because Bildad is looking for a solution. Job trusts in the character of God, because Job seeks a Savior. “There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both” (Job 9:33), he cries, looking for someone to bring him together with God. As the story continues, Job’s hope will increase, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth (Job 19:25). Job is correct and his name is Jesus.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). 

I can do this means I’m seeking a solution. I can’t do this admits I need a Savior. The Gospel begins its work when I realize I can’t solve me.

Daily Prayer

My Father in heaven, You are holy. I am amazed that You even think of me, because I am not holy. Far from it. Yet You love me and seek me out. You save me, not because I have something You want or need, but You save me out of Your own pleasure. This is astonishing love.

Thank you for Your Son, Jesus Christ. Through His obedience, His life, His death, His resurrection, I am made righteous and given the certainty of eternal life with You. You have given me all I ever need, and therefore I can love others the way You love, not to receive something, but for the sheer pleasure of loving and giving and serving.

Amen

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Silence Was Better

Daily Reading

Job 5-7

Daily Thought

Job’s three friends came and sat silently seven days. In this they did well. When they did speak, Eliphaz, likely the oldest, spoke first, “Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty” (Job 4:7). You must have done wrong, Job. What else explains the suffering? The other two, Bildad and Zophar, concur. This is the simple religion of easy equations. We like simple religion. “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” the disciples asked Jesus (John 9:2).

The problem was Job was “a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil” (Job 1:8). Those were God’s words. The friends were sure they had Job, and God, figured out. “They are ashamed because they were confident; they come there and are disappointed” (Job 6:20). They were actually sad that Job was not bad because it meant their religion was not safe from suffering and it scared them. “For you have now become nothing; you see my calamity and are afraid” (Job 6:20-21).

Jesus answered his disciples question, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:3). Jesus did not explain suffering, he entered suffering; Christ and a cross, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 11:2). A suffering Savior for a suffering world, who teaches us how to “rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3-4). But Job’s friends kept talking.

Daily Prayer

My God, You became like me and took the cross of my making. You bore my sin and died my death. In a world full of suffering, You gave me hope for the future. May I now become like You and embrace the suffering of others, coming alongside them and sharing this same hope.

You have taught me a deep joy and a powerful peace that strengthens me when I face trouble. I know I can rely on You because You have gone before me and overcome. You are my strength and my Savior, and in the midst of a world in turmoil, in You I can by silent and find rest.

Amen

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The Comfort of Captivity

Daily Reading

Ezra 1-3

Daily Thought

Cyrus of Persia conquered Babylon in 538 BC and offered Israel its freedom, “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people… let him go” (Ezra 1:2-3). The order was certain, Cyrus would free the people and aid the rebuilding of their home and their temple. The acceptance was optional, “whoever among you.” Jerusalem was a 700-mile journey, and the comforts of Babylon would not accompany them. Israel had grown comfortable in captivity and only 42,360 accepted the offer (Ezra 1:64), a fraction of the Jewish population. Josephus, the Jewish-Roman historian of the first century, said it simply, “Many remained in Babylon, not wishing to leave their possessions behind them.” The proverbial captive monkey whose hand is caught in the jar because he refuses to let go of the banana.

We become accustomed to the ways of this world, so much so, that many prefer the chains of sin to the freedom offered in Christ. “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1); yet many choose the comfort of captivity.

Daily Prayer

My God, You left the pleasure of heaven itself, You emptied Yourself, You became like me to save me. Thank You for letting go for my sake. Why in the world do I hang on to this world so tightly? I must let go for my sake, as well.

Keep changing my heart, oh God, to delight in You, to love Your ways. Help me hate sin and seek Your goodness and righteousness. May Your Word fill my heart, transform my mind, change my life, and set me free.

Amen

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After the Closing Credits

Daily Reading

2Chronicles 35-36

Daily Thought

Hear the heart of God as Jesus says to a sinner, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). Judah repeats evil upon evil and is lost, but through the end, “the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place (2Chronicles 36:15). The Hebrew says literally, “God rose up early and sent messengers.” God began his day thinking of his lost people.

I remember certain teachers, when explaining their criteria for grading, would challenge, “You have to really want an ‘F’ to receive an ‘F’ in my class.” These teachers did everything they could to pass us, unless we truly tried to fail. “But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy” (2Chronicles 36:16). God had sought to save the lost, but there are those who would not be found. Thus the Chronicles end. Almost.

I love it when a movie, at the very end, after the closing credits, adds one more scene, a glimpse of what’s next. There is more to come. All is not lost. The Chronicles do this.  After the kings of Judah and Israel did evil repeatedly, leading to the fall of the kingdom, a foreign king speaks the closing words of the Chronicles, words that give the Hebrews hope. “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up’” (2Chronicles 36:23). Israel and Judah tried hard to fail, but God won’t let them. This proclamation of Cyrus is repeated to open the next book, Ezra 1:2-3, and the story continues.

Daily Prayer

My God, my Lord, and my Savior, I am so glad that You came uninvited into my life. Thank you for crashing my party and rescuing me from myself, because I would have sought my own pleasure to my destruction. Instead, You saved me for You pleasure, which is life itself, a life everlasting and overflowing.

May I ever find my joy in You. May I begin each day thinking of You, delighting in Your Word, following Your lead, living life to the full. You are good, a righteous King, a loving Lord, Almighty God. I worship You.

Amen

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Two Genealogies

Daily Reading

1Chronicles 1-2

Daily Thought

The books of the Chronicles begin with the genealogy of humanity, which, of course, begins with Adam (1Chronicles 1:1), when “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). After Adam came “ Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech (1Chronicles 1:1-3), and Noah, and “the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart” (Genesis 6:6). 

Ten generations, that’s all. From very good to very bad, one bite from a delightful piece of fruit turned loose a terrible flood and nothing has changed since. The Chronicles genealogy continues from Noah through Abraham and Jacob to David and the kings, establishing the bloodline of the nation of Judah. It is, regrettably, a genealogy filled with sin and sinners, and still is. “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came…” (Luke 17:26-27). The generations continue, but the devil has done his damage.

Thankfully, there is another genealogy, and it picks up where Chronicles leaves off, following David to Solomon, to others, to finally “Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ” (Matthew 1:16). Just in time–at just the right time! “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons (Galatians 4:4-5). Very good again.

Daily Prayer

Oh God, the record of my life matches the record of all lives, I seek my own way. I look at the fruit as Eve did, that it is pleasing to the eye and delicious, and I bite into it, as well. I’m so glad You had a plan to deal with that, to save me without me even asking for a Savior. You are my Creator, the author of life, and the Source of all that is good. I say that is what I want from life, goodness and love, but I found the opposite on my own.

God, You are good and You are love. I want to know You more. I want to know the depths of Your wisdom, and the breadth of Your love. May I always seek You and follow You. Lead me in the way of righteousness and life. Lead me always to Jesus.

Amen

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Happily Ever After

Daily Reading

2Kings 23-25

Daily Thought

A siege is slow relentless death, and, in the original Hebrew, the fall of Jerusalem is told in one long methodical twelve-verse sentence, 2Kings 25:1-12. (English adds periods to ease the read.) “The ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month” stretches “till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah, on the ninth day of the fourth month” and in eighteen months all is done. The wall is breached, the Chaldean army rushes in, and the last king of Judah is chased into the plains of Jericho, the same place where it all began when Joshua fought the battle of Jericho and the people shouted and the trumpets blew and the walls came tumbling down (Joshua 6).

There is no emotion in this account. God’s prophet Jeremiah weeps over the fall of Jerusalem in his book of Lamentations, but here in 2Kings is the dispassionate voice of a court reporter recounting the execution of judgment. Judah had her good kings, but not enough, and the country is judged for the whole of her sins. Josiah’s reign (2Kings 22-23) had been a brief righteous reprieve, but he was followed by Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin and Zedekiah and a nation cannot endure evil upon evil upon evil. So Judah was taken into exile out of its land (2Kings 25:21).

“The wages of sin is death” (Romans 3:23) for nations, as well as for you and me. The story seems over, but fairy tales are not the only stories that end with “they lived happily ever after.” “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). There will come to Israel and the world a new king, a righteous one whose reign will not be brief, but forever, bringing with him “the free gift of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Daily Prayer

My God, You are righteous and good and holy and just. I am not. Created in Your image, I chose my own way rather than yours, and my sin led to judgment and that judgment is death. There was such hopelessness in life without You. Thank You for rescuing me, for delivering me from death, returning me to hope, and giving me a life that overflows with Your love.

May my thankfulness be evident in a life changed by Your love. May I walk in Your truth, full of grace, sharing Your goodness by word and deed with all who cross my path. May I seek opportunities to share Your love in the same way You sought me. Thank You for so great a salvation, such a wonderful Savior.

Amen

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A Wandering Aramean

Daily Reading

Deuteronomy 24-27

Daily Thought

The Israelites presented their first fruit offerings with these words, “A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me” (Deuteronomy 26:5-10).

This is the story of the Israelites, the story of God’s leading, of faith and of following. The first fruits are a celebration of God’s blessing, and the hardship, the toil, the wandering are part of the story and must be remembered. It is our story as well. We were wandering lost, found by Christ. “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1Corinthians 6:9, 11).

This is our story: “My father was a wandering Aramean.” It is the first-fruit offering, the celebration. We are wanderers, born of wanderers. “And the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

Daily Prayer

Loving Father, You are my Savior and my Deliverer, my Rock and my Fortress, my Rescuer and my Redeemer. You made a covenant, a promise, a vow with me. You are my God. I, with all who believe in You and place our lives in Yours, all of us, we are Your people. The bride of Christ.

I am created in Your image, fearfully and wonderfully made. The image is clouded by sin, but You are restoring it. God, fill me with Your Spirit, so Your glory is evident, so that I resemble Your Son, so that all who see me see a reflection of You.

Amen