Calendar Collection #3

 from "Old Collection"

Tuesday, January 17

THE VIRTUE OF HAVING ENEMIES

"Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets" (Luke 6:26).

It is no compliment to say about a Christian that he has no enemies, for that is the same as saying he has accomplished nothing. The apostle Paul had many bitter enemies, and they finally got him executed. In fact, almost all of the great heroes of the faith, through all the centuries since Satan gained his victory over Adam and Eve, have had to overcome bitter opposition from that wicked one.

So instead of resenting our enemies, we should thank God for them, for they enable us to become more like our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Only through such experiences can we learn what it means to say, with Paul: "I am crucified with Christ" (Galatians 2:20). Only if we have enemies can we learn to obey Christ's difficult command to "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" (Matthew 5:44).

The Lord Jesus easily could have called on twelve legions of angels to rout His enemies (Matthew 26:53). Instead, He submitted to their vicious insults and cruel tortures, even praying in His agony on the cross, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:24). The enemies of Christ killed Him, but had they not done so, He would not have died for our sins, and we would be lost eternally. This is a mystery to ponder, and difficult to comprehend, yet, as the Bible promises, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee" (Psalm 76:10).

The enmity of man can thus be a channel of divine grace to the believer, for "tribulation worketh patience" (Romans 5:3), and "our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (II Corinthians 4:17). HMM

Thursday, January 19

SOWING AND SLEEPING

"So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption" (I Corinthians 15:42).

When a believer's soul and spirit leave the body and return to the Lord, it is significant that the New Testament Scriptures speak of the body, not as dead, but as sleeping. For example, Jesus said, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of his sleep" (John 11:11). This state is not "soul sleep" as some teach for "to be absent from the body [is] to be present with the Lord" (II Corinthians 5:8). The body is sleeping --not the soul.

Similarly, when the believer's body is laid in a grave, Paul speaks of this act not as a burial, but as sowing! "But some men will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die; And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed his own body" (I Corinthians 15:35-38).

Just as a buried grain of wheat brings forth a fruitful plant, so the old, sin-corrupted, aching body of human flesh, sown in the ground, will some day come forth "fashioned like unto His glorious body" (Philippians 3:21), in which "there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain" (Revelation 21:4).

"So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body" (I Corinthians 15:42-44). When a believer's body is sown in the ground, God will soon reap from it a body of glory which will last for eternity. HMM

Sunday, January 22

FEAR OF FIRE

"And others save with fear; pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh" (Jude 23).

This exhortation refers both to attempting to "save" unbelievers by warning them of hell and to warning believers against the influence of the apostates.

The ultimate hell (Greek, gehenna) is not the same as the present hell (Greek, hades), although eventually all those lost souls now in the latter will eventually be "cast into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:15). Both are fearsome places of real fire. The inhabitants of Sodom, for example, have been "suffering the vengeance of eternal fire" (Jude 7) for thousands of years, though not yet in that ultimate hell. Also the rich man mentioned by Jesus was in hades and yet was being "tormented in this flame" (Luke 16:23-24).

Both "hells" have literal fires, but it is hard to understand how material fires could torment non-material souls. There is a clue in James 3:6, which calls an unbridled human tongue "a fire, a world of iniquity:...set on fire of hell." Since the tongue is not literally on fire, but can be extremely destructive in human relationships, the implication is that hell itself is a "world of iniquity."

This aspect of hell makes it even more fearsome than literal fires could ever be. The existence there of billions of unredeemed souls, eternally separated from the holiness and love of God, where all who are "unjust" and "filthy" will continue forever to increase in their unrighteousness and filthiness (Revelation 22:11), and in the constant presence also of the devil and his angels, is unspeakably appalling. Yet that was their choice when they rejected or ignored the infinite love of Christ.

No wonder that Jude urges us to warn them of such awful fire and seek to save them with fear if they won't respond to the compassionate love of Christ.  HMM

Wednesday, January 25

INSTRUCTION CONTRARY TO KNOWLEDGE

"Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge" (Proverbs 19:27).

One of the saddest realities in the modern world is that many of the leaders of evolutionary and humanistic thought were raised in Christian homes, where from an early age they were exposed to the truths of Scripture. Testimonies without number have been chronicled of Christian students going to universities where they were taught to doubt and then the disbelieve the faith of their parents. Perhaps all these students knew of Christianity was a set of rules; maybe they never understood the reasons their parents held certain views nor the basis for these beliefs. Certainly the foundational teaching of creation has been missing in many Christian homes and churches.

Our primary goal as parents should be to establish a godly heritage --to teach the truths of God in such a way as well be believed and cherished by our children, so that they will "keep that which is committed to [their] trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called" (I Timothy 6:20).

Certainly a more effective way of teaching is to continually point the child or student back to foundational principles, rather than to list a set of do's and don'ts. We must teach those under our influence to be grounded in the Word, so that they can make sound judgments when away from our watchful eyes. No greater aid to serious study, no better primer in careful reasoning exists than in Scripture. Using it and other supportive materials, a child can learn to think carefully and critically. Not only will they learn information, but here they can learn wisdom and knowledge and understanding. "For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding" (Proverbs 2:6). JDM

Monday, January 30

PRESENT WITH THE LORD

"We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord" (II Corinthians 5:8).

This verse has proved of great comfort to many a sorrowing believer who has just lost a loved one. Especially if they know that the parent or child or friend was also a believer in the saving work and person of Christ, then --although they sorrow--they "sorrow not, even as others which have no hope" (I Thessalonians 4:13).

For that loved one, though no longer in that old body which had perhaps been filled by pain, is now with the Lord. That is, he or she has been given a somewhat indescribable spiritual body in which to function in heaven until the coming resurrection day. Although that may not yet be the wonderful life that awaits them in their glorified, resurrection bodies in the ages to come, they will be "with Christ; which is far better" than this present life (Philippians 1:23).

There are a number of sincere believers who argue that dead Christians will simply "sleep" until He comes again to raise the dead. While a certain case can be developed for this "soul-sleep" concept, it is hard to see how that could be "far better" than this present life. Paul said that he had a "desire to depart, to be with Christ" and also that "to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:23,21). But what "gain" could there be for him in simply "sleeping" instead of continuing to live in Christ?

The Scriptures do not reveal much about that "intermediate state," as it has been called. But there is that intriguing verse about being "compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses" who perhaps are somehow watching us as we "run with patience the race that is set before us" here on Earth (Hebrews 12:1). That possibility can be a real incentive to do just that. HMM

Sunday, July 8

MY NECESSARY FOOD

"Neither have I gone back from the commandment of His lips; I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food" (Job 23:12).

The Book of Job is probably the oldest book in the Bible, written even before the Mosaic laws had been inscribed; yet Job knew at least some of God's commandments, and regarded His divine words as more important to his life than even his daily bread. Abraham also knew and obeyed God's word long before the writing of even the complete Book of Genesis (Genesis 26:5). The exact form of this primeval revelation is unknown to us, since it has now been replaced by the Bible. The very fact that it has been superseded means, of course, that we now have of God's word is far better than what they had. Yet Job (and, no doubt, Abraham also) felt that "the words of His mouth" were more to be esteemed than his "necessary food".

How this ought to shame Christians today who spend far more time eating than they spend with the Lord in prayer and Bible study. Not even these Days of Praise devotionals suffice to meet this need! They are intended to encourage more study of God's word, not to replace it.

The very first psalm assures us that "blessed is the man" (that is, he is truly happy) whose "delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night" (Psalm 1:1,2). Likewise the very last book of the Bible is introduced with these words: "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein" (Revelation 1:3). Many are the believers who miss blessings in their lives because of neglecting even this last book of the Bible, which Job and Abraham and David never had the opportunity to read. Don't forget that Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God" (Luke 4:4). HMM

Tuesday, October 8

BEARING AND HELPING TO BEAR

"Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ...For every man shall bear his own burden" (Galatians 6:2,5).

This is one of the most commonly cited Bible "contradictions." The apostle Paul commanding us, almost in the same breath, to bear other people's burdens and yet to bear our own burdens. There is, however, no real contradiction, and both commands are equally valid and important.

The problem is partly one of translation. There are two Greek words used here, baros and phortion, respectively. The first means "heavy load" and second, "responsibility."

When a Christian friend has been stricken with a great burden--whether sickness, financial need, death of a loved one, or even a grievous sin in his life which he has been unable to overcome by his own strength (see verse 1)--he needs desperately the love and support of his Christian brethren. The Scripture assures us that, when we help relieve this burden, we "fulfill the law of Christ." The previous chapter also notes this:  "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Galatians 5:14).

At the same time, the privilege of having Christian friends who will share and help with an otherwise unbearable load does not at all absolve us from the responsibility of doing our own part in carrying out our God-given responsibilities. There is no place in the Christian warfare for Christian beggars or Christian crybabies. "Study to be quiet, and to do your own business...That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without" (I Thessalonians 4:11,12).

The preceding verse (Galatians 6:4) had urged that "every man prove his own work." Since God has both created and redeemed us, we can be sure He is concerned about us and and will not allow trials, or place upon us duties which are greater than we can bear (I Corinthians 10:13). HMM