Justice Is Right Relationsships
I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist them. The one who was dying blessed me; I made the widow’s heart sing. I put on righteousness [tzadeqah] as my clothing; justice [mishpat] was my robe and my turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy; I took up the case of the stranger [immigrant]. I broke the fangs of the wicked and snatched the victims from their teeth.
Job 29:12–17
We must have a strong concern for the poor, but there is more to the biblical idea of justice than that. We get more insight when we consider a second Hebrew word that can be translated as “being just,” though it usually translated as “being righteous.” The word is tzadeqah, and it refers to a life of right relationships. Bible scholar Alec Motyer defines “righteous” as those “right with God and therefore committed to putting right all other relationships in life.”8
This means, then, that biblical righteousness is inevitably “social,” because it is about relationships. When most modern people see the word “righteousness” in the Bible, they tend to think of it in terms of private morality, such as sexual chastity or diligence in prayer and Bible study. But in the Bible tzadeqah refers to day-to-day living in which a person conducts all relationships in family and society with fairness, generosity, and equity. It is not surprising, then, to discover that tzadeqah and mishpat are brought together scores of times in the Bible. […] When these two words, tzadeqah and mishpat, are tied together, as they are over three dozen times, the English expression that best conveys the meaning is “social justice.”
Generous Justice
King’s Cross
A Merciful Smackdown
Psalm 19:1–14
Sometimes, we’d rather not be teachable. When it comes to taking advice from people in my church community, it’s easier to keep an emotional distance than it is to listen. If I tread lightly on their sin, maybe they’ll tread lightly on mine. If we keep our problems to ourselves, we can maintain a certain understanding. This type of tolerance has deadly results.
Unrestrained sin and pride doesn’t just hurt the one who is sinning—its waves affect everyone (1 Cor 5:6). This is why Paul takes such a strong stance against it in 1 Cor 5:1–13. In Corinth, believers were using their freedom to commit all sorts of sordid sins. And instead of being broken about their sin, they were filled with pride—they were boasting about their freedom.
Paul knew he had to do something drastic to break through such thought patterns. His statement is startling for those who might practice tolerance for sin: “I have decided to hand over such a person to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, in order that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord” (1 Cor 5:5). This type of judging is not seen as casting someone to the depths of hell; rather, it is casting someone out of the Christian community with the purpose of helping them see their sin for what it is. (For Paul, the realm of Satan was everything outside of Christ; thus, everything outside of the Church was the realm of Satan.)
We aren’t called to judge people who have no claim to following Jesus. Rather, we’re called to hold accountable those who, like us, believe the good news (1 Cor 5:11). Within the bounds of authentic Christian community and trust, we need to be ready to call each other out when sin and pride creep in—and we need to do it with loving intolerance.
How are you reaching out to others who are struggling with sin? How are you making yourself approachable and teachable?
REBECCA VAN NOORD
John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).
Is This “Bad” From God?
Numbers 20–21; 1 Corinthians 3:1–4:21; Psalm 18:31–50
God has granted us incredible grace in the salvation that Jesus’ death and resurrection offers, but that very grace is often used as a theological excuse. It’s dangerous to say that bad things come from God, but there are times when they actually do. What makes them good is how He uses them to help us grow. The great grace God offers doesn’t mean our sins go unpunished.
We see God directly issue what seems “bad” in Num 21:5–7. First we’re told: “The people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us from Egypt to die in the desert? There is no food and no water, and our hearts detest this miserable food’ ” (Num 21:5). Then, Yahweh sends poisonous snakes that bite the people, causing them to die (Num 21:6). Why would a good God do such a horrific thing?
In Numbers 21:1–4, the people had experienced a miraculous victory against the Canaanites living in Arad—a people they were losing to, and should have lost to, until Yahweh intervened. Yahweh showed Himself to be loyal and true; yet, the people still rebelled.
When Yahweh punishes the people with the snakes, it’s not because He wants to; it’s because He needs to. And the result is worth it. The people say to Moses, “We have sinned because we have spoken against Yahweh and against you. Pray to Yahweh and let him remove the snakes from among us” (Num 21:7). In their response, they show faith in Yahweh and His ability to change the situation. They also show faith in the leader He appointed to them: Moses.
God sent this “bad” thing because He knew it would be a good thing (compare 1 Cor 11:30–32). This knowledge should make us boldly proclaim, as the psalmist does, “For who is God apart from Yahweh and who is a rock except our God?” (Psa 18:31).
What currently seems “bad” that is really a result of God responding to your disobedience?
JOHN D. BARRY
John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).
Letting Evil Burn
Numbers 19:1–20:13; 1 Corinthians 2:1–16; Psalm 18:13–30
“And Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying … ‘let them take to you a red heifer without a physical defect …. And you will give it to Eleazar the priest, and it will … be slaughtered in his presence. Then Eleazar the priest will take some of its blood on his finger and spatter it toward the mouth of the tent of assembly seven times. The heifer will be burned in his sight; its skin, its meat, and its blood, in addition to its offal, will burn’ ” (Num 19:1–4).
This passage is so strange and gruesome, it is clearly symbolic. The heifer represents the perfect, unblemished sacrifice—which takes care of some (not all) of the purification associated with things Yahweh deemed unclean for the purpose of teaching His people obedience, and some of the results of sin (Num 19:9).
Also, the heifer is burned because it has to be made into ashes. This beautiful creature becomes ashes. That’s the cost of an impure life: good has to become worthless. The only way to purge impurities is to burn them away. Then what has been purified through fire (and then water) can be used (Num 19:9–10). The passage goes on to describe several uses associated with this practice (e.g., Num 19:11–13).
All of our lives include things that go against God’s will, and these things must burn. We must let the Spirit work in us to empower us to remove them. And there’s good news for this: Jesus has already done the great work of conquering sin in the world. There is no more need for the red heifer because Jesus’ sacrifice (His death) paid for our problems. He wasn’t the symbol of the sacrifice, like the heifer; He was the sacrifice itself.
God calls us to the great race of running toward Him—for Him—in honor of what Christ has done among us. So let’s let the evil burn.
What is God calling you to burn?
JOHN D. BARRY
John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).
It Will Seem Simple in Retrospect
Numbers 17:1–18:32; 1 Corinthians 1:1–31; Psalm 18:1–12
We’re all faced with difficult tasks. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he was forced to confront their spiritual problems, which were slowly destroying God’s work among them. Paul was thankful for them (1 Cor 1:4–8), but he was also called to a high purpose as an apostle. His calling meant saying what people didn’t want to hear (1 Cor 1:1).
There were divisions among the Corinthians that were going to rip their fledgling church apart, and Paul implored them to make some difficult changes: “Now I exhort you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that … there not be divisions among you, and that you be made complete in the same mind and with the same purpose. For … there are quarrels among you” (1 Cor 1:10–11). And here’s where something amazing happens that we often overlook. Paul, a confident man and a former Law-abiding Pharisee, could have stated why he was right and moved on, but he does something else:
“Each of you is saying, ‘I am with Paul,’ and ‘I am with Apollos,’ and ‘I am with Cephas,’ and ‘I am with Christ.’ Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I give thanks that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that you were baptized in my name” (1 Cor 1:12–15). Paul sticks it to them, and he reminds them that Christ deserves all the credit.
We all have moments like this, where we have the opportunity to take credit for someone else’s work—or even worse, for Jesus’ work. Paul had the strength and character that we should all desire.
How are you currently taking credit for others’ people work or for Jesus’?
JOHN D. BARRY
John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).
The Power Struggle
Numbers 16:1–50; John 21:1–25; Psalm 17:1–15
Every leader faces power struggles—from those who follow the leader and from those the leader follows. If there isn’t some sort of struggle, the leader probably isn’t doing his or her job well. It’s simple: those who make everyone happy probably aren’t pushing people to be better, and pushing will—at times—frustrate both the leaders and the followers.
Moses regularly experienced leadership struggles. In Numbers 16, Korah—accompanied by 250 men who were leaders in Israel—calls Moses and Aaron’s leadership into question, saying, “You take too much upon yourselves! All of the community is holy, every one of them, and Yahweh is in their midst, so why do you raise yourselves over the assembly of Yahweh?” (Num 16:3). They’re using Moses’ words, spoken on behalf of Yahweh, against him here: “you will belong to me as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod 19:6). But they made one faulty assumption in doing so. Yahweh had prefaced these words by saying, “if you will carefully listen to my voice and keep my covenant, you will be a treasured possession for me out of all the peoples, for all the earth is mine, but …” and then He continued with the line Korah quoted (Exod 19:5–6).
Surely Moses knows this, and he is well aware of their folly. But rather than answering the fool according to his folly, he responds by prostrating himself—an act of worship toward God and humility toward those he serves: the people of Israel. He then says, “Tomorrow morning Yahweh will make known who is his and who is holy, and he will bring him near to him, whomever he chooses he will bring near to him” (Num 16:5). It appears that in that moment of prostration, Moses prayed and was immediately given an answer. He insists on bringing the matter before God Himself.
Moses could have defended himself by insisting upon the special nature by which God had revealed Himself to him. Or he could have noted to Korah that he is only out of Egypt—and thus able to call Moses into question—because Moses was obedient to God. He even could have noted that Korah was only in leadership at all because Moses listened to God and appointed him. But instead, he insisted on bringing it before God. He did, though, follow up by telling Korah that he had plenty of authority and shouldn’t be so greedy (Num 16:8–11).
This event demonstrates the kind of faith that we should all have in what God asks us to do.
How do you respond when people question what God has asked you to do? How can your response in the future be more like Moses’?
JOHN D. BARRY
John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).
A Psalm Of Confidence
Numbers 15:1–41; John 20:1–31; Psalm 16:1–11
“You are my Lord,” the psalmist acknowledges. “I have no good apart from you” (Psa 16:2).
We know that God is everything we need, but somehow the details still get in the way. We want to alleviate our troubles through other means—that vacation, the position that will bring recognition, or the spouse who will complete us. The psalmist says that anyone who places their desire in anything other than God will only increase in sorrow (Psa 16:4).
It seems radical and difficult to live out the psalmist’s simple confession. The ancient practice of idol worship is alive and well in our modern-day culture and in our own hearts. (Just look at the magazine rack or TV shows if you think I’m wrong: what is worshiped there?) We are just like the Israelites—unfaithful and prone to “hurry after another god” (Psa 16:4).
For the psalmist, however, “Yahweh is the portion which is my share and my cup” (Psa 16:5). He is all the psalmist ever needs: “I have set Yahweh before me always. Because he is at my right hand I will not be shaken” (Psa 16:8). God brings the psalmist hope, and He can do the same for us. We just need to turn to Him.
Today, pray the words of Psalm 16: “You are my Lord. I have no good apart from you.” How can we remind ourselves that He is all we will ever need?
REBECCA VAN NOORD
John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).
Nostalgia: My Old Friend
Numbers 14:1–45; John 19:17–42; Psalm 14:1–15:5
Regret and nostalgia can destroy lives. They are mirrored ideas with the same pitfalls: neither can change the past, and both keep us from living in the present. When we live wishfully rather than interacting with the present, we’re bound to miss out and hurt others. Since other people don’t necessarily share our feelings about the past, they feel less important to us here and now. And indeed, we’re making them less important. We’re concerned instead with how things could have been or used to be.
This is precisely what happens after the Israelites flee Egypt: “Then all the community lifted up their voices, and the people wept during that night. And all the children of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and all the community said to them, ‘If only we had died in the land of Egypt or in this desert!’ ” (Num 14:1–2).
As usual with regret and nostalgia, these words were said in frustration but born out of fear: “Why did Yahweh bring us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little children will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt” (Num 14:3).
And their fear even takes them to the next level of disobedience against God’s will—they will overthrow Moses’ leadership: “They said to each other, ‘Let us appoint a leader, and we will return to Egypt’ ” (Num 14:4). Nostalgia is dangerous: it causes us to forget the wretchedness of the past and exchange it for fond memories. We begin to focus on the good things and drift away from obedience in the process. Regret, too, is dangerous, as we wish we had never ended the good times but kept on living the life that was never good for us to begin with.
This scene in Numbers illustrates a profound point: collective memory enables regret and nostalgia to create mob rule instead of God rule.
What memories are you holding too dearly? How are they holding you back from the life God has for you now?
JOHN D. BARRY
John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).
Unto The Hills
I lift up my eyes unto the hills. From whence does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:1–2 RSV
Israel, the nation in which the Bible was written, is a very “hilly” country. There are mountains and hills everywhere. In fact, the Bible speaks of going “up to Jerusalem,” which is “a city set on a hill.” Throughout Scripture, there are references to these hills and mountains, and encouragement to the Israelites to “look up” to the hills and to look up to heaven.
The disciples looked and saw the resurrected Christ “ascending” to His Father in heaven. We are told that when Jesus returns, He will come in the clouds and we will see Him come just as He left us, from the sky. Looking upward takes the attention of men and women off of their earthly circumstances. It changes their perspective.
If you have ever flown in an airplane, you know that your perspective of what is on the ground is far different from what it was when you were on the ground. Pictures of the earth that have been taken from the moon and from space show an earth that looks much different from our awareness of the planet while we are on it. This is the kind of perspective God wants to give us of ourselves. As we look unto God instead of at ourselves and our circumstances, our perspectives change.
Do not be bogged down in the circumstances of life. Look upward for the guidance of Christ. Keep your eyes upon the eastern sky. “Lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28)!
Our Father and our God, Master of the hills, I bring You my heart and my life. I look up to You for help in living my life as You would have me live it. I know You are the source of inspiration and enthusiasm for life. I love You, Father. Let Jesus find me watching when He returns. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Revelation In Scripture
For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.
Psalm 119:89
What does revelation mean? It means that something which has been hidden is to be made known. God, who has existed forever, has revealed Himself to us through Scripture.
God has two textbooks (a textbook is a book which gives the reader facts and instructions). One of God’s textbooks is about nature. The other is about revelation.
The laws God has revealed in the textbook of nature have never changed. They tell us of God’s mighty power and majesty.
In the textbook of revelation, the Bible, God has spoken verbally; and this spoken Word has survived every scratch of human pen. It has survived the assault of skeptics, agnostics, and atheists. It has never been proven wrong by a single archaeological discovery. It remains supreme in its revelation of redemption.
The writers of the Bible repeatedly claim that God spoke. Either God did speak, or these men were the biggest liars in history. But for them to have told two thousand lies on one subject would be incredible.
Jesus quoted frequently from the Old Testament. He never once said He doubted Scripture. The apostle Paul often quoted Scripture. In fact Paul said, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16). Were Jesus and Paul fooled by “liars”?
No, God has spoken truly in history, and He still speaks to us today through that same Word, which stands forever because it is the Word of God.
Get to know the Word of God and you will draw closer to Him.
Our Father and our God, reveal to me Your specific will for my life. Help me to draw closer to You by always being close to Your Word, the Bible. I know Your Word holds the key to life eternal. This great knowledge compels me to share with others the Good News about Jesus, which is revealed in Your Word. Help me to share it in love and in His name. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
A Lamp And A Light
Your word is a lamp to guide me and a light for my path.
Psalm 119:105 TEV
We must become grounded in the Bible. As Christians, we have only one authority, one compass: the Word of God.
In a letter to a friend, Abraham Lincoln said, “I am profitably engaged in reading the Bible. Take all of this Book upon reason that you can and the balance upon faith, and you will live and die a better man.”
Coleridge said he believed the Bible to be the Word of God because, as he put it, “It finds me.”
“If you want encouragement,” John Bunyan wrote, “entertain the promises.”
Martin Luther said, “In Scriptures, even the little daisy becomes a meadow.”
The Bible is our one sure guide in an unsure world.
Great leaders have made it their chief Book and their reliable guide. Herbert J. Taylor, formerly international president of Rotary, told me that he began each day by reading the Sermon on the Mount aloud. President Ronald Reagan revered the Bible so much that he proclaimed 1984 the “Year of the Bible.”
We should begin the day with the Book, and as it comes to a close let the Word speak its wisdom to our souls. Let it be the firm foundation upon which our hope is built. Let it be the Staff of Life upon which your spirit is nourished. Let it be the Sword of the Spirit, which cuts away the evil of our lives and fashions us in His image and likeness.
Our Father and our God, thank You for Your living Word. It touches my heart with wisdom. It leads me through this dark world and keeps my feet on the Way to You. I love Your Word, Lord. And I love Jesus, who demonstrated Your Word on earth. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Searching
My spirit made diligent search.
Psalm 77:6
When a spacecraft returns from its orbital flight, there is a blackout period of about four minutes when all communications are broken. This is due to the intense heat generated by the spacecraft’s reentry into the earth’s atmosphere.
The Bible teaches that man is in a period of spiritual blackout. Spiritually, he is blind. “We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men” (Isaiah 59:10). “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
Spiritually, man is also deaf. “They have ears to hear, and hear not” (Ezekiel 12:2). Jesus went so far as to say, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (Luke 16:31).
Spiritually, man is even dead. “Who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1).
All of this means that the communication between God and man is broken. There is a wonderful world of joy, light, harmony, peace, and satisfaction to which millions of persons are blind and deaf, and even dead. They search for serenity, they long for happiness, but they never seem to find it.
Many give up the search and surrender to pessimism. Often their despondency leads to a frantic round of cocktail parties where vast amounts of alcohol are imbibed. Sometimes it leads them to narcotics or illicit sex. It is all part of man’s desperate search to find an escape from the cold realities of a sin-blighted existence. All the while God is there, speaking and beckoning. God is sending forth His message of love, but we must be on the right wavelength. We must be willing to receive His message and then to obey it.
Our Father and our God, renew in my mind’s eye a perfect vision of You. Revive my spiritual hearing so that Yours is the only voice I hear calling me. And release my heart once again from the death grip of spiritual apathy. Show me Your glorious world of joy, light, harmony, and peace that’s available through Christ, my Lord. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Satisfying The Longing Soul
Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
Psalm 107:8–9
When Satan tried to tempt Jesus into the same trap made of “things” that he lured men to in this day, Christ said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Bread is important—but it is not all-important. Pleasure and recreation have their place—but they must not have first place. Money is necessary, but gold is not a satisfying substitute for God.
Now, as then, God’s Word resounds in our ears: “Hearken diligently unto me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness” (Isaiah 55:2). This is the secret of soul satisfaction: Let your soul delight itself in fatness. Remove the obstructions, tear down the barriers, and let your soul find the fulfillment of its deepest longings in fellowship with God.
I could tell you of many people who have explored every earthly resource for happiness and failed, but eventually came in repentance and faith to Christ, and in Him found satisfaction. The principal reason communism loses ground in the world (when it does) is that it promises material prosperity without spiritual satisfaction. Things, minus God, equal misery. That equation is just as true as two plus two equal four. As Eddie Rickenbacker once said, “Let the moment come when nothing is left but life, and you will find that you do not hesitate over the fate of material possessions.”
Our Father and our God, fill me with Your spirit. Help me to know that You are all I need. Deliver me from the temptations of this world and take away my desire for material things that only shackle me to this sinful world. Let me find my satisfaction in You. Through Jesus, my Savior. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Angels All Around Me
Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments hearkening unto the voice of his word.
Psalm 103:20
There is much in the news these days about demons and devil worship. Movies like The Exorcist attracted wide interest years ago and packed movie theaters. Today we read of cults that engage in animal and, in some instances, human sacrifice.
Until recently there was far less attention paid to angels, perhaps because so much of the media seems preoccupied with the evil forces in the spirit world and not the good. But if you are a believer in Christ, expect powerful angels to accompany you in your life experiences. You will not always be able to sense their presence. You will not be aware that you did not turn down a certain road, preferring another, because an angel so directed you away from trouble.
The Bible teaches that angels speak and that they appear and reappear. You may have never seen one, but there is much that you have not seen that still exists. You may never have been to the North Pole, either, but it is there.
Often we fail to sense the spiritual forces around us because we operate for the most part on our physical senses, the senses of sight, touch, and taste. Get tuned in to the spiritual realm through God’s Word and through regular prayer and sense the angels and the work of God’s Holy Spirit in your life. It is like tuning in on a radio. The signals are already in the air, but you have to turn the dial to bring them in.
Our Father and our God, give me spiritual insight to sense the presence of angels around me. Open my heart that I may be fully aware. I believe they are all around me, Father. Help me overcome my unbelief by following the example of Jesus, who trusted You in every circumstance of life. In Him. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
We Are Going To A Place
I go to prepare a place for you.
John 14:2
The Lord Jesus could have used any word, any symbol to tell us where we would spend eternity. But He always chose words very carefully, and so in this instance He used the word place.
I live in a place, high on a mountain in a log cabin in North Carolina. This place has an address. If you send a letter to me, the postman knows where to deliver it.
In saying that He was going to prepare a place for us, Jesus was telling us that when we die, we are going to a precise location. We do not evaporate or disappear. In fact, He said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” We are going to have a place in heaven if we have trusted Christ as our Savior—and not only a place, but a mansion!
When we as Christians die, we go straight into the presence of Christ, straight to that place, straight to that mansion in heaven to spend eternity with God. We are simply changing our address, much as we would if we moved to another place here on earth. If the post office was capable of delivering the mail in heaven, we could fill out a change of address form, because the place we are going has an address just as the place in which we are now living has an address. It is a real place.
Our Father and our God, I am excited to come and be with You in that special place that Jesus has prepared for me. I look forward to that day with anticipation and joy. When the time comes, I will gladly change my address to Yours. In the meantime, teach me to wait with patience and anticipation for my returning Lord Jesus. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Forever
As for man, his days are as grass; even as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
Psalm 103:15
The Bible reminds us that our days are like grass; we live and flourish for only a brief time. Because of this, we are exhorted to redeem the time because the days are evil.
Our lives are also immortal. God made man different from the other creatures. He made him in His own image, a living soul. When this body dies and our earthly existence is terminated, the soul lives on forever. One thousand years from this day you will be more alive than you are at this moment. This Bible teaches that life does not end at the cemetery. There is a future life with God for those who put their trust in His Son, Jesus Christ. There is also a future hell of separation from God toward which all are going who have refused, rejected, or neglected to receive His Son, Jesus Christ.
Victor Hugo once said, “I feel in myself the future of life.” Cyrus the Great is reported to have declared, “I cannot imagine that the soul lives only while it remains in this mortal body.”
Our Father and our God, I know that I am made in Your immortal image. Some days I just don’t feel immortal, Father; I feel tired, lonely, and hopeless. But today I feel Your comfort, Your energetic Spirit, and Your hope. I feel excited about life in Your Son, who brought happiness and hope to my life. In His name I thank You and praise You. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
The Owl And The Pelican
I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.
Psalm 102:6
My wife had a weakness for books—especially old, choice religious books which are now out of print. At one time Foyles’ in London had a large secondhand religious book department. One day during the 1954 London Crusade, she was browsing through the books in Foyles’ when a very agitated clerk popped our from behind the stacks and asked if she was Mrs. Graham. When she told him that she was, he began to tell her a story of confusion, despair, and frustration. His marriage was on the rocks, his home was breaking up, and business problems were mounting. He explained that he had explored every avenue for help and as a last resort planned to attend the services at Harringay arena that night. Ruth assured him that she would pray for him, and she did. That was in 1954.
In 1955 we returned to London. Again my wife went into Foyles’ secondhand book department. This time the same clerk appeared from behind the stacks, his face wreathed in smiles. After expressing how happy he was to see her again, he explained that he had gone to Harringay that night in 1954 as he had said he would, that he had found the Savior, and that the problems in his life had sorted themselves out.
Then he asked Ruth if she would be interested in knowing what verse it was that “spoke to him.” She was. Again he disappeared behind all the books and reappeared with a worn Bible in his hand. He turned to Psalm 102, which I had read the night that he had attended the Crusade. He pointed out verse 6, “I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.” This had so perfectly described to him his condition that he realized for the first time how completely God understood and cared. As a result he was soundly converted to the Lord Jesus Christ. And subsequently so was his entire family.
My wife was in London during 1972 at the time of a Harringay reunion. As the ceremonies closed, a gentleman came up to speak to her, but he didn’t have to introduce himself. She recognized the clerk from Foyles’. He was radiantly happy, introduced his Christian family, and explained how they were all now in the Lord’s work—all because God spoke to him when he was “an owl of the desert”!
How graciously God speaks to us in our need . . . often through some obscure passage.
Our Father and our God, I praise You for leading me to the exact passages in Your Book that I need every day. I search for You among the pages, and I am never disappointed, for You are always there. I love Your Word, Lord. Help me to mold my life to fit within its precepts and promises through Your Son. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
In The Beginning
God hath from the beginning chosen you.
2 Thessalonians 2:13
God’s love did not begin at Calvary. Before the morning stars of the pre-Eden world sang together, before the world was baptized with the first light, before the first blades of tender grass peeped out, God was love.
Turn back to the unwritten pages of countless millennia before God spoke this present earth into existence, when the earth was “without form and void” and the deep, silent darkness of space formed a vast gulf between the brilliance of God’s glory and His cherubim and seraphim, who covered their faces with their wings in reverence toward Him who is high and holy.
Yet lofty as the heavens may be, and pure as God’s holiness glistens, there comes to our ears the word that the majesty of His love was moved for us, and the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.
God thought of you even then, even before He made the world, even before He made you. It is that God who loves you and longs to have the deepest and closest relationship possible with you.
That is what it was like in the beginning. That is what it is still like today, for God never changes, whether it be in His personality or in His love for you.
Our Father and our God, I cannot fathom Your eternal nature. My little mind cannot grasp Your greatness, Your magnificence, Your everlasting love and care. I bow in praise and adoration, Father, and I thank You for loving me even before I was. Through Jesus, Your eternal Son. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
The Cloud Of Discouragement
May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to love in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus.
Romans 15:5 RSV
The root of discouragement is unbelief. Consider what discourages you. You are not making enough money (you are not convinced that God can and will supply all of your needs); you are frustrated in your job (you have refused to believe that you can be content in whatever state you are in); you are worried about health problems (Is not God the great physician? Did He not make your body and know how every cell functions? Can He not heal you when and if He wishes?).
Discouragement is a large cloud that, like all clouds, obscures the warmth and joy of the sun. In the case of spiritual discouragement, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus, is eclipsed in our lives. Discouragement blinds our eyes to the mercy of God and makes us perceive only the unfavorable circumstances.
There is only one way to dispel discouragement, and it is not in our own strength or ingenuity. The Bible says, “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD” (Psalm 27:14).
I have never met a person who spent time daily in prayer and in the study of God’s Word and who was strong in the faith who was ever discouraged for very long. You cannot be discouraged if you are close to the One who gives us hope.
“Be of good cheer,” Jesus tells us. “I have overcome the world.”
Our Father and our God, You are my strength and my courage. Help me, Lord, to be strong in the faith and close to You. I praise Your mighty name, and I glory in the cross of Jesus Christ, through whom I have salvation and hope. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
The Family
All thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.
Isaiah 54:13
The family is the basic unit of society. But from the very beginning, since man sinned against God, the family has been in trouble.
On certain products you will find the label, “For best results follow the instructions of the manufacturer.” For best results in marriage and in rearing children and building a stable home, follow the instructions of the One who performed the first wedding in the Garden of Eden. Those instructions are in the Bible. The reason the family is in critical condition today is that we have neglected the rules, the regulations, the formula for a successful home.
You can have the right kind of home. Your home can be united if it is now divided. Perhaps there is so much tension and unhappiness that you wonder whether you can stand it much longer. Perhaps you are seriously contemplating divorce. Don’t do it! God can heal any marriage if we allow Him to.
A good friend who has counseled troubled marriages for many years says that whenever he hears someone say, “I don’t love her,” or “I don’t love him anymore,” the first question he asks is this: “But are you willing to love?”
If we are not willing to love our spouses, then God will not be able to restore the love we once had for our mates. Remember, feelings come out of commitment and sacrifice. We love God because He first loved us. We came to feel and understand God’s love after He offered it in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Receive God’s love and ask Him to restore your love for your mate. He will.
Our Father and our God, I know that You loved me with all Your heart when You sent Jesus to save me. Help me to love my family as You have loved me. I want to love them with a pure and gentle love. I want to love them unconditionally. I want to lead them faithfully to You. Through Christ, my strength and hope. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).