Title: Everything is uncovered
We all live on a planet we cannot leave, and there is a God we cannot hide or flee from. To talk about freedom limits us to where God wants us to be and what he wants us to accomplish in accordance with his will for our lives and for his creation. No one in his right mind would fail to see the influence and control God has over all he has spoken into being and our responsibility to obey Him, whether we recognize it or not, on pain of condemnation.
Title: You have saved the best till now
Withholding the valuable and beautiful and virtuous for last is wisdom from God. Man would rather have the finest here and now; he is concerned with nothing but the present convenience.
We have not seen the best of Christianity yet, because it anticipates the elimination of sin, and the reign of the Lord Jesus. Therefore we can be patient for the hope that all circumstances of life, including those we have no explanations for, will be reset to the former state of creation when there were only the valuable and the beautiful and the virtuous.
Title: If you are offering your gift at the altar
All of life is a religious ritual. Let us not be misled into thinking that there is a distinction between formal worship and day to day life, for there is none. We can only glorify God in the same way we deal with the least of men. In reality we can only love God if we have determined in our hearts not to take revenge on those who have wronged us.
Title: The authority to do all this
Although the Lord Jesus had the right and the power to demand righteous worship of the Father, it was the responsibility of the priests to maintain the sacredness of the temple as a sanctuary for prayer.
The place of worship must never be a venue for the exchange of merchandise and services. The only commodity allowed in its premises is the souls of men, and the purchasing power of the Lamb of God.
Title: To lay down our lives for our brothers
We understand what God’s love is because of its effect in our lives: the possession of eternal life by faith in the sinless life, the sacrificial death, and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. And since this love has been sealed into our spirits by the Spirit of God, we become actively in love with the Creator, a love which is personified in our love for all believers.
Our love for God is prompted by our actions towards those in the faith and those without: to those in the faith, the giving of ourselves for their sanctification; to those outside the church, a sacrifice for their salvation.
Title: In the twinkling of an eye
Time will be of no consequence when the transformation from the perishable to the immortal takes place. In fact it will transpire in a moment of time that is no longer divisible in graded units, much less measurable. This places that future event in the realm of timelessness, not unlike the agelessness of eternity past and eternity future, when time will be no more.
Title: Be silent before the Sovereign Lord
The din of industry, the hollow speeches of diplomats, the scornful claims of atheists, the angry threats of warriors, the proud rhetoric of rich and mighty men, the mystical predictions of soothsayers, the thundering cheers of sports fans, the captivating words of celebrities, the godless jargon of scientists, the heartless lies of politicians and lawyers, will be silenced on the day of God’s wrath.
No voice would have the audacity to echo a reason or a complaint before God, because on that day any speech would be the evidence against itself.
Title: See, I have told you ahead of time
Why do you think God would caution only his people? The answer may lie in the fact that only God’s children have a future to look forward to. And we know that heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. The warning itself is a blessed sign that God wants to keep us on tract, not swayed by false doctrines here and there, because all the preparations for the day of reckoning will be important later.
Title: Do not let the sun go down
God doesn’t command us to do things beyond our control, like telling the sun not to go down for one day. From the spiritual point of view, any unjust provocation coming from a Christian brother, and results in a body-quivering anger, must not last beyond twenty-four hours, because an uncontrolled indignation may lead to revenge, and revenge is the prerogative of God.
Title: A righteousness from God is revealed
If God had not unveiled a righteousness from above, or the righteousness of God, is necessary for our cleansing from the power, influence, and presence of sin, who would have life?
Absolutely none, because no one knew that the solution was there, just awaiting revelation by the Lord Jesus. It can not be sought by human initiative, because the plot was so noble, only God could have thought of it.
If lesser members of creation would not be pardoned in a court of law for not recognizing the invisible qualities of God, we could just imagine how an infidel would fare under such circumstances.
There would be a court proceeding.
There would be a judge.
There would be total silence.
There would be a guilty verdict.
Title: And presented him with gifts
If the family of Joseph were alive today, would our offerings in worship sustain them during their stay in
The wise men left with nothing from the Lord Jesus after they had presented their gifts. They simply wanted to worship him.
Title: To work it and take care of it
God never intended for man to be busy as we are today. Indeed not even to plant a garden, but to take care of it, since the garden was already in existence. He was to be a gardener, enjoy his work, and have plenty of time on a daily basis to fellowship with his Creator.
And even in the whole design of creation, the gardening takes second place, because the real purpose for life is the worship of God. Again on a daily basis.
Title: What good is it?
We are most miserable if the only gain we could boast of is tangible, but beyond that we have no blueprint of a sense of urgency for the spiritual. Our capacity to enjoy life is unambiguously anchored to the blessed hope of immortality, and if so, that our mortal life should be modeled after and regulated by the righteousness of God.
Title: Stop sinning
Spiritual healing must pick up the trail where physical cure had left off. If not, no profit would have been gained if what had benefited the body can not be mirrored as the wellness of the spirit as well. And a time will come when only the spirit would respond to healing. Therefore, although physical needs may get our urgent attention, more provision for healing and renewal are demanded by the soul.
Title: You are not in darkness
A Christian is in a state of perpetual light, so whatever operates in the dark, or whatever comes out as an effect of deeds done in the dark, should have no binding hold on him.
His territory is characterized by open deeds of love and mercy, and spiritual fortitude, generally shunned by the elements of darkness.
Title: I have told you ahead of time
What advantage Christianity has over other faiths! We’ve been given an assurance of eternal life with God, and also a view of events that will unfold in the future onto the zenith of the history of salvation.
Title: Like a thief in the night
A thief, approaching from the back, comes in stealth, and comes to cause a loss; in the case of the unbelieving world the loss of their peace and their security.
Title: In the beginning
To leave the past to speculative philosophies robs us of a substantial present and a significant future. A beginning demands meaning and fulfillment of purpose, and without these there is nothing to build upon but the flimsy equations borne out of man’s desire to eradicate any trace of morality from the pleasures life can offer. Save for the beautiful face of God hovering over all he has created, there is no other logical option but to pursue after pleasure. But pleasure is not an end in itself, but the fruit of the achievement of the purpose of a beginning.
Title: Here is a boy
It need not take a theologian with a doctorate degree in Divinity to participate in a miraculous undertaking by the hand of the Lord Jesus. Even a lad could be the source of the elements by which the Messiah could show that his relationship with the Father was genuine and would answer to the basic needs of man, even the need of the soul for deliverance.
The Lord is looking for such who can provide the means by which the love of the Father would turn the sustenance or the merchandise of a little one into a feast for the bodies and spirit of a multitude.
Title: You are the light of the world
Light makes us see things as they are. Different sources of light emit this energy at diverse levels of intensity, but they all exhibit the same attribute, and that is to expose things as they are.
In the same manner, a Christian must never hide behind a veil of untruthfulness, but instead be the spring of illumination which brings enlightenment to those who have groped in darkness all their lives, with a radiance that can not be mistaken as emanating from any other direction but from God.
Title: For him
We cannot draw out from our selves the meaning of our existence. We have not been given that ability, since the answer is simply not within us. There is a definite purpose for man, and that lies in the bosom of the Creator, who is the Lord Jesus.
And to say the least, all of us are a captive to this purpose; we shall be measured through its resolution in our lives. And joy shall find us at all times, if only we would live and burn out for the pleasure of God.
Title: I tell you the truth
Faith can offer no less than an eternity with God. To have faith in God is a belief that carries with it the assurance of eternal life. To have faith is to have eternal life. Nothing can be so sure, as faith is based on evidence and not on blind belief.
Eternal life is the initial offering to a soul coming to the Lord Jesus by faith. It is also the last.
Title: Being understood from what has been made
No written revelation is necessary to prove and validate that God is, for even in the absence of material and spiritual creation God is.
The whole of creation is an open book of unseen forces and divine governance singularly attributed to the Creator so eternally powerful he had spoken into being a mind-boggling universe and all that there is, and yet so simple its light, its message, is visible to the eyes of the flesh and of the spirit. That is why even a child would want to know who made the birds and the bees, and the flowers and the trees, and the moon up above, and the thing called love.
Title: Has appeared to all men
The power of the gospel to save the whole world is not diminished for the reason that not all are being rescued from the shackles and slavery of sin, because the revelation of the Lord Jesus and a righteousness that comes by faith is not merely to make visible a phenomenal Teacher and a controversial teaching, but to appear and give light. And only those who recognize that light are the ones who are mercifully bought from the slave market of sin and raised to walk in newness of life.
Title: What good is it for a man
The Savior had to die for us to live. It might have been unthinkable for this to have happened while the Lord Jesus still lived, but looking back we could now see the necessity of it all for the establishment of the kingdom and our being part of it.
But the kingdom is not material in nature; it is not earthly or earthbound. It is a gain that doesn’t damage the soul with greed and unlawful gain and love for money and power. It is a gain that would not meet with worldly goods and influence at any given time and on any horizon. It is the fruit of an exchange for life by a sacrificed life.
Title: He was not seen by all the people
God has nothing to prove to the skeptics, and even in our own times the light of the person of the Lord Jesus can only be construed by those who would share in his way of life and in the many sacrifices and perils of the gospel and the testimony that only through the Lord Jesus can there be forgiveness of sins and, as a result, eternal life.
The historicity and majesty of the resurrection is not for those who could see only with their eyes, but for those who would have their souls enlightened because they have benefited from its power over death and condemnation.