Tag: salvation

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The Last Word

Daily Reading

John 11-12

Daily Thought

Home was heaven, but Jesus let go and entered a world of sin and hurt, suffering and injustice, and most of all, death. His friend Lazarus lay dead in a tomb and the sisters suffered and the crowds cried and “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). Nevertheless, when Martha asked of her brother’s death, Jesus had the answer, “Your brother will rise again. I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. Do you believe this?” (John 11:23, 25-26). 

She did believe, but her brother was dead right now, and Jesus did something special. Jesus would show her and her sister and the weeping crowd around them the glory of God. Jesus commanded, “Take away the stone!” (John 11:39). Martha, always the practical one, warned, ““Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days” (John 11:39). That’s just how it is, death stinks. It is foul. Death is the last enemy, but not the last word. 

“Lazarus, come out!” Jesus called in a loud voice. “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” ~John 11:43, 44

In a short time, Jesus would himself be lying in a tomb, but if you were there on this day at the tomb of Lazarus, you know death is not the last word.

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” ~John 11:25

Do you believe this?

Daily Prayer

Father, I do not live in despair in this world of sin and death because I have the certainty of heaven, of home, of eternity in Your presence. I live holding the hope of heaven because Your Son beat death and I believe! And that changes everything.

God, I live in a land foreign to my citizenship in Your Kingdom where I will live forever. I serve the King of kings and my hope, when my life here ends, is to hear from You, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” May I live in a manner that delights You and those words sum up my life.

Amen

Daily Question

Why should someone believe Jesus rose from the dead?

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A New Heart

Daily Reading

Jeremiah 14-17

Daily Thought

If you do a thing often enough, you become that thing. Pick up a basketball, practice and play, and, in time, you will become a basketball player. So, also, a pianist, a writer, a welder, and, yes, a sinner. It is argued that there are no bad people, rather people do bad things; however do a bad thing often enough, it will become part of who you are. “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars” (Jeremiah 17:1). The heart in Jewish thought is the essence of you. Doing is becoming. Sin leaves a deep mark. Jeremiah etched with a diamond-tipped pen the sins of Judah on the stone horns of the altar, as sin itself has left its indelible mark on the hearts of the people.

Habits can be broken, but the heart requires more; “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Jeremiah cries for a surgeon, a Savior, because more than changing habits, he is healing hearts. 

“Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved.” ~Jeremiah 17:14

A Savior will come, one who can and will–if you let him–erase what has been written and write something new, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33). Ask God to create a new you and he will guide you into new habits, repetitions of righteousness that will change your heart.

Daily Prayer

Holy God, lead me in Your ways; change my heart. May I desire good, may I love deeply, as You do, so that my heart will be holy and righteous. I cannot do this. I need Someone who knows me better than I know myself. I am deceived by my own heart. You designed me for better than this. Take over, God.

Teach me new things, build in me new habits, create in me a new heart, O God.

Amen

Daily Question

Which of your habits are hardest to break?

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Bee Stings

Daily Reading

Isaiah 23-27

Daily Thought

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Jesus prays what Isaiah prophesied, “In that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem” (Isaiah 27:13). The kingdoms of this world present power and pleasure, but deliver destruction and death. Isaiah declares a day to come when we will return to the mountain of God, where the Lord “will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces” (Isaiah 25:8). Isaiah is speaking of Jesus.

This world offers us pleasure today. We can hold it now, which is the power of temptation. It is in our grasp, but comes with a sting, the terror of sin and promise of death. At six years old, I was scared to death of bees, and a bee flew into the car. Dad rolled the car windows down, offering escape, but this bee was intent on terrorizing me. Finally, Dad reached over and caught the bee in his hand and held it. I did not see it sting, but I know it stung because he opened his hand and showed me the bee. Dead. Dad plucked the stinger out of his palm, and I was brave again. 

“’O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” ~1Corinthians 15:55-57

God offers us joy forever in a day to come. It comes with a cross, the triumph of sacrifice and the promise of life. We can be sure of it, which is the power of trust. That is the choice we must make, between today and tomorrow, between temptation and trust.

Daily Prayer

My Savior God, You warned me. You told me that sin leads to death, and yet I like to sin. And so, I deserve death because I choose a life of sin over a life of obedience. In astonishing love, however, You took the death I deserved, even while I continued to sin. No wonder I learn love only because You first loved me.

It’s an amazing grace You offer me. Through faith, I receive the righteousness of Your Son. I do not need to obey to earn Your love because You freely give it to me. So, now, I obey, not because I need to, but because I want to. You have changed my desires, God, and now I want nothing more than to follow You.

Amen

Daily Question

Often we sin even though we know at the time it will do us harm. Why do we do that?

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Restoration

Daily Reading

Psalm 51-57

Daily Thought

A friend in college bought a sporty 1978 MG Midget. Sweet car, nice looking, good paint. And then he got a ding, a 4-inch gash on the left front fender. Several weeks passed and I asked if he was going to fix it, but it was a lot of money and his insurance would go up, and, “well, no,” he said. “Maybe I can put up with it.”

“How often do you notice it?” I asked.

“Every single time I get in the car,” he said. 

We got in his car and drove to the body shop. 

“For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” ~Psalm 51:3

King David shuts his eyes and sees his sin, opens them and sees Bathsheba, his wife and reminder of adultery and murder. His heart becomes desperate to deal with his sin and be restored to righteousness.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” ~Psalm 51:10

You hear in his cries the shame of sin, but it is not that which drives him most. It is something bigger, something better, something lifting him heavenward. He misses his Father, “Against you, you only, have I sinned” (Psalm 51:4). Inside all sin is a sadness, a scarred remembrance of the holy wonder of our creation and our Creator. 

“Restore to me the joy of your salvation.” ~Psalm 51:12

Daily Prayer

My God and Savior, what an amazing love You have for me. You sent Your only Son, the only sacrifice sufficient for my sins, so that I might be made righteous. You created me in Your image, and yet I turned to the pleasure of sin and away from the joy of paradise. Still You are willing to forgive me, to invite me back in the family, to create in me again a clean heart.

Restore right desires in me. Renew my love for righteousness and justice. I am sorry for my sins. I will turn away from them and follow You. Make me new again.

Amen

Daily Question

What sins do you need to deal with right now? What are you going to do?

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Life and Death

Daily Reading

2Samuel 19-21

Daily Thought

Absalom, the son of King David, led a rebellion against his father and was killed in the battle, and David mourned the loss of his son, wailing “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!” (2Samuel 18:33; 19:4). Who can fault a father his grief, but this lingers too long and too loud, and at last his commander Joab rebuked his king, “You have made it clear today that commanders and servants are nothing to you, for today I know that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, then you would be pleased” (2Samuel 19:6). Absalom, David’s son, had been, after all, David’s enemy.

Death is grievous, and should be, but there is a particularly awful agony in the loss of a son you never really had, whose death was as pointless as his life. King David, the father, is mourning not just the death, but the life of his rebellious, disobedient son, and in doing so, he scorns the faithful people who had well-served their king in battle.

But not all the sons of David died such. There is another, actually, the great, great, great, etc., grandson of David, but the Hebrews kept it simple, “Jesus Christ, the son of David” (Matthew 1:1). What a contrast to Absalom, for Jesus showed us how to die because he showed us how to live, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Absalom lived for the moment, for himself, and Jesus lived for eternity and therefore served others, and therein lies the difference in their deaths, and ours, as well. To a life lived for today, death closes the door, but to a life lived for Jesus, death opens into eternity.

Daily Prayer

God, Your salvation is amazing. I, a sinner, was not looking to be saved, but rather, I was self-seeking, longing to be self-satisfied. I could not, however, find satisfaction, contentment, peace, love, purpose in my pursuits. I needed a Savior.

Your Son left His place by Your side and became like me to show me who You are. He  sought me, saved me, and showed me true love, how to serve and sacrifice. He laid down His life to give me mine. No greater love.

Thank You

Daily Question

How do you hope to be remembered by others?

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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 their faith and following. The first fruits are a celebration of God’s blessing, and the hardships, toil, and wandering are part of the story and must be remembered.

This is our story as well. Each of us are wanderers, lost until we are 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).

“My father was a wandering Aramean” is our story. It is our first-fruit offering, the celebration of salvation, the reminder that we were wanderers, born of wanderers, “and the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). Jesus loved me first.

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

Daily Question

What was it like when you first met Jesus?

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A Serpent on a Pole

Daily Reading

Numbers 21-22

Daily Thought

The Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. ~Numbers 21:8-9

Why would God use a bronze serpent to heal the Israelites when a serpent often represents Satan and evil?

Jesus recalls the imagery of Moses’s bronze serpent to illustrate his death on the cross: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14). God had instructed Moses to make a serpent of bronze and put it on a pole where the people could see it. All who looked at the bronze serpent would be healed of the deadly bites of very real serpents. The serpent was placed in the midst of the camp, not in the tabernacle, because nobody is saved by keeping the law, but only by looking at the uplifted serpent, just as Christ is the only Savior of our sins. Each Israelite had to look at the serpent for himself. None could look on behalf of another. Salvation was individual and personal.

But why a serpent? The bronze serpent on the pole foreshadowed Jesus on the cross. As God used a serpent to heal the people of the venom of serpents, on the cross Jesus became sin to heal us of the deathly venom of sin. 

For our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. ~2Corinthians 5:21

Daily Prayer

My Savior, You and You alone came to my rescue. Only You could and only You would. Your love is so deep that you went to the cross because of and in spite of my rebellion. God, I repent. I turn away from the old way of life and I will follow You. Teach me what is right and good, and change me to love purity and live generously.

You not only saved me from my sins, but You made me holy. I’m different now, and it’s a good difference. Very good. I desire Your pleasure more than anything else. You are my Lord, my Savior, my God.

Amen

Daily Question

What is the difference between the way you look at sin and the way God looks at sin?

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The Lamb of God

Daily Reading

Exodus 10-12

Daily Thought

The tenth plague, the death of the firstborn, introduces Passover, so named because the angel of death passed over homes protected by the blood of a lamb. But God knew which homes belonged to Egyptians and which were Israelites, so why didn’t he simply skip the Israelite homes? Why did God require blood on the doorframe of a house to protect it from death? 

We must go back to Genesis. When Adam and Eve chose their own desire rather than God’s, they chose death, “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Judgment was immediate and their relationship with God was severed. They were, therefore, dead, because God is life. Death through sin has been passed on to each and every one of us. We are all dead, separated from God because of sin. But Grace began immediately, as well. God allowed Adam and Eve, though dead, to keep breathing, and he launched his plan of salvation. Every breath is a gift of God anticipating grace.

Return to Exodus 12. The judgment passing through the land was just. Every family deserving of death would be visited by the destroyer, which means, because all sin, every family would be visited, including the Israelites. That Passover night, the destroyer would not discriminate between Egypt and Israel, all would be judged unless death had already been to that household. A substitute sacrifice, a lamb approved by God would pay the price, and the sign of blood was on the doorframe. It was God’s grace and we are amazed by grace only so far as we are appalled by sin. Blood on the doorframe is horrible. So is sin. The blood was a reminder that the sins of this household had been covered by the death of a lamb.

Now fast forward to A.D. 30. “The next day John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’” (John 1:29). Amazing grace.

Daily Prayer

Almighty God, Your goodness runs deep, but I choose to wallow in the shallows of my desires. Still, despite my rebellion, Your grace seeks me through the loving sacrifice of Your Son. May your righteousness consume my passions and may my desires become Yours. In response to Your overflowing never-ending love, I live thankfully and joyfully in a life made new again. 

What a wonderful Savior. What amazing grace.

Amen

Daily Question

How do you keep in mind the seriousness of your sin and the wonder of God’s grace?

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I’m Sure

Daily Reading

1John 1-5

Daily Thought

Theologians call it eternal security, and the idea is, once saved, always saved–you cannot lose your salvation because God will never let you go. Growing up, that’s what I was taught, so I began college secure that I could do anything I desired without jeopardizing my eternity. And so I did anything. 

One day, however, I came across 2Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?–unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” What was the test? I didn’t know; I only knew I failed it. I discovered there is a difference between being secure in my faith, which is God’s business, and being sure of my faith, which is mine; and I was no longer sure.

Fortunately, I found a test. It was in the first letter written by the apostle John, and it came in three parts.

“This is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” ~1John 5:11-12

A question for my head, do I trust Jesus is the Son of God, my Savior? 

“By this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” ~1John 2:3-4

A question for my feet, do I follow God’s ways? 

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” ~1John 4:7-8

And a question for my heart, do I love? 

I trust, I follow, I love, and I’m sure.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. ~1John 5:13

Daily Prayer

God, Your Son came to this world and endured the shame of the cross for my sake. May I endure its shame, as well. I would gladly boast of Your sacrifice, no matter the cost, because Your shame is the power of my salvation. You took my sin and bore its penalty by dying on the cross. The cross of a criminal. The cross I deserved.

This is Your glory, the glory of love so strong that You suffered the cross for me, a sinner. I will lift up Your Name, no matter the consequences, because it is Your Name, and Your Name alone, by which I am saved.

What a wonderful cross. What a wonderful Savior.

Amen

Daily Question

Are you sure you are saved? Why or why not?

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Take the Deal!

Daily Reading

2Corinthians 5-9

Daily Thought

Paul’s life is shaped by his awareness that this is but his first, his earthly life, and there is eternity to come, “for we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2Corinthians 5:1). “You only live once” has been oft said and never true. We are not long for this world is Paul’s point, so don’t settle in. I resonate with the words of Paul, more in my sixties than when I was sixteen, and look forward to eternity, “for in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling” (2Corinthians 5:2), and there is nothing wrong with that. 

But not so fast, there is work to be done.

“We are ambassadors for Christ,” says Paul, “God making his appeal through us on behalf of Christ’ (2Corinthians 5:20). An ambassador is a citizen of one kingdom living in another, representing his home country to a foreign land. Jesus is King and eternity is our home, but there are many who still make this world their home and do not know there is more yet to come.

There is good news and bad news, however. Bad news first. Between now and eternity stands judgment–“we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2Corinthians 5:10), and that is bad news because none of us have been all that good–not good enough for a heavenly dwelling. Now, the good news, and as God’s ambassadors, we bring it. For our sake God “made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2Corinthians 5:21). That is the Gospel, God’s offer to anyone who will receive this gift: Jesus gets your sin and you get his righteousness, and it is in his righteousness you stand before the judgment seat of God. It is an incredible offer, profoundly unfair, and you win. 

Take the deal!

Daily Prayer

Heavenly Father, You are holy and good. Your Son has taken the penalty of death for my sin and given me the reward of life through his righteousness. Thank You so much!

May I rid myself of the desires, the thoughts, the habits of old. May I put them to death. Help me kill them. I don’t want to think and act the way I used to, but rather, to live the life You created me to live, a life of service and love, of goodness and peace, that gives You glory and pleasure. Make me one who gives those on earth a taste of heaven.

Amen

Daily Question

Why can’t we be good enough for heaven on our own?