James 4:14

Title:  You do not even know

How can we not entrust the future to the One who is life, when life comes to us in fragments, and the only segment available to us is today?

What to us is short and without definite form is clearly defined in the Lord’s will.  We were placed on a planet we cannot leave, and given twenty-four hours in which to operate, so there’s really nothing to brag about.

The Lord has already secured an eternity of glory for the Christian, and it will bring him honor if we will live for him today.

1 Peter 2:21

Title:  Follow in his steps

Suffering for doing what is good and right is part of the growing process of the Christian.

We’ve always maintained that Christianity is not a religion; it is a new way of life that is lived by faith in participation with the life of the Lord Jesus.  A Christian, therefore, is someone who follows in the steps of Jesus, learns obedience and is made perfect (refined to the point where his faith is proven genuine) through suffering.

This journey leads to glory, and is put into effect by the Spirit of glory and of God blessing and refreshing us whenever we suffer as Christians.

Daniel 3:18

Title:  But even if he does not

Who do we think we are?

God doesn’t owe us a single favor.  On the contrary we are so deeply indebted to him that eternity would not suffice serving him. 

We may give and offer our bodies as living sacrifices for the sake of the gospel, even to the point of laying down our very lives, but that is just what is expected from us.

My God’s thoughts are greater and higher than mine.  He doesn’t make available to me explanations for every event in my life; what he gives me is the grace to serve him in all circumstances.

If I can serve him only in favorable situations, I would cease to be a Christian and He ceases to be God.

Psalm 22:1

Title:  Why have you forsaken me?

This cry forever enshrined the reality of suffering.  If God knew greater anguish in the person of Jesus, what would exempt us from its grasp?

That is why when we ourselves suffer we know we have a Savior who is neither passive nor distant.  If he suffered for us, there is no doubt that he will suffer with us, for he was acquainted with suffering, and what we have to do is to get acquainted with him.

Colossians 1:16

Title:   All things were created by him (the Lord Jesus) and for him

The atheist denies a First Cause, and the humanist is his own god.  Either way life has no meaning and purpose but what could be determined at the spur of the moment.

In the grand scheme of things the Lord Jesus is all in all.  He alone is.  He is all possibilities.  Purpose and meaning could be traced back to his good pleasure.

Man has no part in the equation but to live for God, to worship him and to enjoy him forever.

1 Peter 4:7

Title:  The end of all things is near

It is the certainty rather than the timing of the end of all things that should compel Christians to live for the will of God.

We can’t afford to wait for the bandwagon to appear on the horizon before we would act, because by then it would be too late.

The proper way of waiting is to utilize whatever gift God has bestowed on us to serve other believers, encouraging and edifying them in the process, and announcing the gospel in all its simplicity but in God’s power so that he may be praised in the Lord Jesus.

Matthew 26:74

Title:  I don’t know the man!

We must never under-estimate the power of persecution to challenge the resolve of the staunchest follower of the Lord Jesus.

Persecution is assured to a disciple of Jesus, particularly to those who would follow him to the courtyard of injustice, all the way to the torture of the cross,

and not until we are confronted with the same life-threatening situation can we prove the integrity of our faith as the Holy Spirit stands beside us.

Galatians 3:11

Title: Live by faith

The righteous will live (will be justified) by faith.

“Living by faith” simply means being credited with righteousness by believing the gospel and not by human effort which is characterized by obedience to or observance of the law.

Here “living by faith” cannot be hermeneutically interpreted to mean domestic financial support.

Morning, 1997

I love you with so much

of myself

that I could appreciate

even the sound of you

breathing the morning

a warm, personal welcome.

Can we not run

into the woods

and find ourselves

without care

or yearning

for every good thing

in life

but ourselves?

2 Corinthians 5:17

Title: New creation

The Bible is a book of distinctions; it distinguishes believers from those who are perishing.

The Scriptures reveal that Christians are different: they are different from the rest of mankind, and they are different from what they were before.

The gap is a great gulf fixed, but many believers are not living up to expectations and are turning out to be more worldly than the world itself.

In the great struggle between good and evil, darkness is getting the upperhand because what has been made clean is eager and willing to get back and wallow in the mud puddle.

Matthew 27:51

Title: Was torn in two

We may be able to repair a curtain that had been torn by the hand of God, but it would never again serve its purpose.

It would no longer be able to hide the presence of God in total darkness, away from view of the redeemed for whom the Lord Jesus died.  God now has a dwelling made not by hands, for now he lives in the hearts of the children of his mercy by faith.

John 12:8

Title: The poor

Many congregations help the poor with the deeper intention of sharing to them the gospel. This may look noble and commendable, but it may give the wrong impression that the gospel addresses social and economic problems in its context.

The gospel deals with sin and its consequence, and ultimately its presence. It gives no guarantee to wealth or physical well-being. In fact, being a Christian places a person in the path of persecution and, as warned by the Lord Jesus, tribulation in this world.

The gospel needs no decorations to make it palatable. To a soul that is perishing, it will always be offensive. What the gospel needs is a storyteller, a soul tired of sin, and the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 28:18

Title: All authority

Behind this command is the power of government whose orders must be obeyed.

The story must be told that Jesus was born to take away the sins of those who would trust in him as their Savior; that he died for their sins, was buried, and that he resurrected himself after three days all according to Scriptures.

The supreme sacrifice of death has been paid by the Lord Jesus, thus assuring the efficacy of the message to those who would hear, obey, and follow.

And there is no excuse to neglect such sacred duty inasmuch as there is no other way by which sin might be dealt with with finality and salvation procured as a result.

John 8:44

Title: You belong to your father

The way we live shows who our father is.

When we exhibit a lifestyle in public and in private that is consciously lived for God in recognition of the Lord Jesus as an eternal being in oneness with the Father in heaven, it cannot be hid that we are the children of God.

On the contrary a child of the devil displays the character of the evil one towards the Son of God, the Immanuel; still tempting Jesus by casting doubt and questioning his claims and the testimony of the one who bears witness to his sonship, none other than his Father; and rejecting the testimony of the Jehovistic “I Ams” which are no less the claim to Deity.

Job 26:14

Title: The outer fringe of his works

The God whose majesty we can only view in the boundaries of his works visited his people in human flesh, the God who was with us, and the occasion for the visitation was for sin, and judgment, and the world to come.

For to manifest God’s glory the heavens were created, but still awaiting was the revelation of the Immanuel who feels for human suffering, sickness, poverty, and enslavement to the chains of sin.

The outer fringes of creation still pose the unknown and the mysterious, but God in the Lord Jesus we have heard, we have seen with our eyes, we have looked at and our hands have touched.

2 Corinthians 4:1

Title: We have this ministry

Every ministry handed down from God is undeserved, which translates to the adage that “the battle is the Lord’s.”

If so, all the glory should go to him, and all the money should go to the cause of the gospel, without denying that a minister of the gospel should live (not profit) from it.

No one has the right to get rich from peddling the word of God. That would be tantamount to stealing from God.

And no one steals from God and gets away with it.

1 Peter 2:24

Title: You have been healed

The atonement includes the promise of physical healing as looking forward to the moment the redeemed will be changed in the twinkling of an eye and be clothed with immortality.

We know from experience that Christians get sick and die, and not all sicknesses end up being healed by prayer. Some get cured, others don’t. God is sovereign; he would heal whom he would. Even Elijah suffered from the illness from which he died.

Our hope is in not getting sick, but that in the resurrection we will be raised imperishable and then there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.

Colossians 1:16

Title: All things were created by him (the Lord Jesus) and for him

While science pursues the illusive equation of all things, theology can provide the answer: “God”

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

God is running the whole show. He doesn’t have to explain his actions or give reason for his designs. He is answerable to no one but to himself.

Unless science recognizes that its job is to discover and describe in comprehensible equations the laws of God that govern nature, to add, divide, and measure them, it will end up with a technology that will destroy the world instead of declaring the glory of God.

Matthew 27:45

Title: From the sixth hour

Darkness engulfed not only the entire land, but also the hearts of men. The silence was shattered only by groans of lingering death. Gloom descended upon the Light which refused to be smothered.

But victory burst forth from the newly-hewn cavern, even before the stone was rolled away, not to let the Redeemer out, but to allow his followers in.

John 19:30

Title: He bowed his head and gave up his spirit

Let us look not at death as separation from our loved ones, but a homecoming with the One who loved us most.

John 19:41

Title: In the garden

A Christian will always find a garden near the place of sacrifice.

In contrast to the intensity of the ordeal outside the gates of the city, the serenity of the garden opens to the door of sanctifying rest and glorifying resurrection.

Matthew 10:38

Title: Take his cross

We all have our own beams to carry outside the walls of the city, and as followers of the Lord Jesus, we cannot just dump the weight of suffering and hardships and persecution for the fleeting baubles of the world.

We are told to carry our crosses up the knoll of sacrifice, as a testimony that we have learned from His life and example, and are worthy to glory in the light beyond the gloom of Calvary.

Matthew 28:3

Title: His appearance was like lightning

The intense radiance illuminated the interior of the tomb and revealed to the guards the place where the body of the Lord Jesus had been laid, the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around his head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.

But the body of Jesus was not there.

Matthew 27:31

Title: They led him away

Foreigners and slaves condemned to death had to be dragged to the cross. Not so the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of those who put their trust in him for their salvation:

He was led away without any struggle, which was unusual because sheep are usually led as a flock.

He was led away or in reality the Lord Jesus led the way to the cross for believers to follow in his footsteps of sacrifice if needed be.

1 Thessalonians 5:16

Title: Be joyful always

Continuous joy can only be experienced through continuous prayer and continuous thankfulness.

This is possible for the Christian since only he has reason to be joyful for, pray for, and be thankful for because when the judgment of God is poured upon the world, instead of suffering wrath, he will receive complete salvation, and even death will have no power to deny him resurrection and an imperishable body.

Such hope, which the best in the world cannot offer, can bring only pure joy.