Day Thirty Five

2 Corinthians 5:1-10

1.) 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.

2.) For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,

3.) if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.

4.) For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

5.) He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

6.) So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,

7.) for we walk by faith, not by sight.

8.) Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

9.) So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.

10.) For 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.

         The Bible is a closed book. By that, we mean that the Bible is not to be added to nor taken away from. Much of ‘Christendom’ would say differently, that you can twist it anyway you like and it is OK. But to do so, we put ourselves in peril.

         While it is a closed book, it is also a living book. How many times have we read a particular passage and gotten one thing out of it, and then read it again later and got something else? The two things will not disagree from one another, but will complement one another. Although, there are some passages that we read that we do not like and so we never read them again.

         This is a passage that many would rather not be bothered with. It talks of the end of life. We don’t want our lives to end. But Paul says that it is better to be out of our bodies and be with the Lord. That’s just crazy talk! Verses six, seven and eight say this; So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. How can we prefer to be away from our lives?

         Christians in their eighties and nineties who are approaching death will have a different attitude. They have struggled enough. They have loved ones in heaven. They look forward to a place far superior to this realm. But for younger people, their children and grandchildren and spouses are all part of their good life. This is as God intended. If we are to love and be loved, how can we wish to leave?

         Paul also said in Philippians 1:21-24; For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Paul understood the desire to stay, but he also understood the desire to depart. Christians should enjoy their lives and be grateful. However, there comes a time when the balance tips and we begin to desire to be home with the Lord.

         I have seen Christians who were dying who feel as though there is more to do here. They want to live. Yet, they are not afraid of actually dying. They just wish they had more time. I have also seen Christians who were dying who were worn down by life. They are weary. They also do not fear death. Many are eager for it. In both cases, for a Christian who is confident in the Lord, there is no fear. How is that possible? In the passage at the start of this writing, verse 10, Paul says; For 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. 

         We don’t fear death because we know that Christ paid for our sins. When we stand before the Lord we will be found to be clean and worthy of heaven. We may have a desire to stay and watch the grandkids grow up, but when we do pass, we will walk the streets of glory.

         In Ecclesiastes 3 we are told that there is a season for everything in life. Everything comes and goes. We often call it the circle of life, although Ecclesiastes is much more explicit in what is contained in the circle. There is, though, coming a time for us when the seasons of life will stop and we will enter into the final season forever.

         Today’s prayer is a prayer of thanks. Thank the Lord that the Sacrifice that was made provides you an eternal place with Him.

Day Thirty Four

Matthew 6:19-24

¹⁹ “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,

²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

²² “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,

²³ but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

         The ministry has been an amazing trip.

         She looked fifty, but she was just twenty five. She had three children, two girls and a boy, and they were live wires. Her husband had been able to scratch out a living of sorts doing odd jobs and such, but when I met them, he was dying of cancer and so couldn’t work. I was young and had never witnessed poverty like I witnessed with them. Their situation was hopeless. Being in the mountains of Tennessee in the mid 1970s, they were not the only folks like that. But these were people I knew.

         However, on Sunday morning, she and her little brood would come into the church. Always sat on the front pew. She always sang out. She always made those kids mind in church. Sunday night they would be back. Wednesday evening they were there. No matter the weather. Both this lady and her dying husband loved the Lord above all else. Yet, they had nothing. Life was bleak. They didn’t need tires for their car. They had no car. They didn’t fret over not having a variety of foods. They ate what the neighbors put out by their door. It is too easy to say that people like that should have plugged into government programs. In the hills of Tennessee at that time there was a pride that is not evident today. While the big television preachers will take verses out of Scripture, like you have not because you ask not, and tell you the Lord wants you to be rich, this family knew that the Bible was talking of Spiritual things.

         He was eighty five and looked sixty. The wealthiest man in town. By the time I met him, I was in my forties. He didn’t attend our church but at least once a week he would stride into my office, sit down on a sofa and proceed to tell me of his life’s successes. Finally, he told me that the church he went to was a miserable church with miserable people and a miserable preacher. They would never see a penny of his money, by golly! As near as I can remember, he is the only person I ever told to vacate my office. When he died the funeral was at the Methodist church. People were lined up outside to get in. I was walking by on my way to the coffee shop and I noticed one of the local ministers, a man who had been the target of the rich man's venom, was in line to get into the church. What a lovely gesture, I thought. I never figured Pastor Tom would be there. I stopped and shook hands with my colleague and told him that even after the way the old man had talked about him, there he was in line. I told him I was impressed. This preacher pulled me close and whispered in my ear, “Don’t be impressed. I’m just going to make sure he is in the casket.”

         Two people. One ridiculously wealthy, the other desperately poor. One felt like he was God’s gift to man, the other felt that Jesus was the greatest of all gifts to man. Since the poor lady had health issues, I imagine she is gone now. But she impressed upon her children the goodness and grace of Christ. The rich man died and his children sold the business as fast as they could and got out of town. The poor lady would have been honored to shine the rich man’s shoes and the rich man would never have wanted her anywhere near him.

         Verses nineteen, twenty and twenty one from above; “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,  but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

         Stop everything. Think and be honest. What is the treasure of your heart? What is it that you want more than anything? What are you willing to work for? What do you feel would please you more than anything? If you are honest, can you say the greatest desire in your heart is to advance the Kingdom of God? If not, you are laying up treasure on earth rather than heaven. Don’t rationalize it by saying the Lord understands. This is Jesus and the sermon on the Mount.

         We are coming up to Resurrection. Here is a question to ponder. Jesus needed to fulfill prophesy and thus went to the Cross. If that had not been necessary, if the Old Testament prophets had never mentioned the sacrifice, do you think Jesus would have died for you anyway? He loves you and me beyond all else. Does He understand when we give him less than our sincere devotion?

         The prayer today is to really look where our treasure is and to move closer to the Lord.

 Day Thirty Three

Matthew 4:12-17

¹² Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee.

¹³ And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali,

¹⁴ so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

¹⁵ “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
    the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
¹⁶ the people dwelling in darkness
    have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
    on them a light has dawned.”

¹⁷ From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

         In the New Testament there are many instances of prophesies being quoted from the Old Testament that are pertaining to Christ. These prophesies usually begin with “as it is written,” or “this was done to fulfill the prophesy of…” Here, verse fourteen says; so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: Unfortunately, most people only read the New Testament verse without ever following up in the Old Testament. When you don’t go back to read it, you lose the context in which it was given. In this case it is Isaiah 9. We also find out that the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali had been looked down on, but in time they would be exalted. By the time of Jesus, the area was known as Galilee and it was the home area of Jesus. It is important to follow up on these things.

         But the point here is that yet another prophesy had come to pass. Verse sixteen continues Isaiah’s prophesy; the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.” In the time of Isaiah, Zebulun and Naphtali had fallen way away from the Lord. They had plunged into darkness. There was the shadow death all around. But that had changed! Jesus had come! A great light had dawned.

         We can apply this to today. The world is in darkness. Not just the darkness we see before a storm, but a deep, deep darkness. Sweetwater, Tennessee is home to an extensive underground cavern system. A guide walks you through. It is amazing. The rock and mineral formations are fantastic. At the lowest point there is a body of water. The guide called it the largest underground lake in the world, which I found hard to believe. It was just about as big as a farm pond. It was quite deep, though, and at some point they had put lights on the bottom. The water was as clear as any I have ever seen and it was loaded with fish. The fish had lost their eyesight over time because there had been no need to see in the darkness. At one point, the guide turned the cavern lights off and it was completely dark. The darkness went on for several minutes while the guide talked. And then, someone in our group flicked on his lighter. Everyone whipped their heads around to see the light. It was just a lighter, but it shown like a beacon. We all took a step toward the man with the lighter. It was life.

         The darkness is the world. Each Christian is a light. The world rejects the light, but when the darkness closes in, we need to be ready to shine.

         The prayer today is that you will be able to shine the light of Christ wherever you go. You may be just the glimmer of light that someone needs to leave the darkness.

 Day Thirty Two

Matthew 6:25-33

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 

²⁶ Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 

²⁷ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

 ²⁸ And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 

²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 

³⁰ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 

³¹ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 

³² For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 

³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

         Jesus said these words during the Sermon on the Mount. To the people He was speaking to, starvation was an ever present danger. Clothing could easily be an issue. Almost everyone understood about thirst.

         The society in Israel at that time is nothing like what we know. If we are thirsty, we go to the sink. If we are hungry, we go to the freezer. If we need clothes, we go to a store that sells those clothes. If we don’t have money for these things, there are government programs that can provide the money. The vast majority of Americans have never known want.

         Which is not to say that there are not things that we want. Water is just one of the beverages to drink that is available to us. We might have a taste for a certain type of soda pop. We might want tea or milk or energy drinks. And, we are not usually quenching our thirst. We drink because we have it. Thirst is not a problem. There is an abundance of food and vast choices. When the Bible talks of eating the fatted calf, we do not realize what is involved. It is more than just throwing steaks on the grill. They would take a prized animal, kill it, butcher it and then make the meals. To have that, they had given up an animal that was hard to replace and they had spent the whole day at it. I can walk into Subway and get the same type of food and walk out in ten minutes. We never think of eating as a sacrifice of resources. We eat because it is time. How many times have we said “When is supper? I am starving!”  And then there is clothing. We want something new, we either get it off the rack or we order it and get it in five to seven business days. In the Bible times, making thread was the job for old women who had trouble walking and could only use their hands. The fleece from a shorn sheep would be placed in front of the woman. She would take one strand of wool between the thumb and forefinger of one hand and then do the same with the other. Then she would bring the ends of the two strands together and would begin to spin those two strands between the finger and thumb of one hand. Once those two had joined, she would pick up another strand and add that to the thread. We never think of that, but that is how the thread was made and is still how it is made by the Bedouin tribesmen today. You could go to the bazaar and by cloth, but it was made in the same manner and was terribly expensive. Most people had only one or two cloaks in their lifetime because creating that was so hard.

         They were so very different! And so, when Jesus says in verse thirty one; Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ He was talking about their very lives. They were not to fret over those things, for He would handle it. We fret about what land to buy or what vehicle to purchase. We fret about what restaurant to go to or what program to watch. If Jesus is telling those people not to fret over the things needed to simply live, then He is telling us not to fret over luxuries.  

               The key verse is verse thirty three; But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. The thing of real importance is seeking God. If we do that, our needs will be met. “Wait! I can’t have that new boat or truck or luxury item I want!!!?” If we are truly seeking the Lord, He will reorder our wants and He will take care of it.

         The way to pray today is to begin really seeking His righteousness. He is a great God and He has so much for us, but righteousness must come first. 

Day Thirty One

James 3:13-18

¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.

¹⁴ But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.

¹⁵ This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

¹⁶ For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.

¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

¹⁸ And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

         This James was the half-brother of Jesus. Sometime after the Resurrection, James became the leader of the Jerusalem church. James was very much one who would speak clearly and say exactly what he meant, whether you liked it or not. Martin Luther, the reformer, wrote that The Book of James did not belong in the Scripture, saying it was a book of straw. However, some of his contemporaries and companions wrote later that Luther was convicted by James’ writing. The above passage is pointed out. Luther was competitive and ambitious. He had a low opinion of other reformers. Yet, where would we be without Luther? It proves that God can use us while He is working on us.

         The above passage points out some of the ills of our society. The book itself is written to Christians, but it also speaks to the leaders in the world. James says at the beginning of this chapter that not all should want to be teachers. Teachers are held to a higher standard and when we fail the fall is greater. Again, he is talking to Christians. But we see the results in the world, too. Those who allowed and even supported the rash of riots and violence that erupted a couple of years ago are now facing trouble in the elections. One big city mayor who pulled the police back and let the rioters run amok, later had her own home vandalized. When we willfully teach the lie, it tends to turn around and bite us.

         Anyway, let’s take a look at this passage and what it means for today.

         Verse thirteen; Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. Now here is an interesting question; can you name a single politician who is wise and understanding? If you are wise and understanding you are seen as being meek. We don’t like meek in our politicians. We vote for emotion and flash and charisma. Unless things have gotten really bad, we don’t look for wisdom. And if a wise person gets in, they get a single term.

         The same is true in church life, to a lesser extent. A church wants a pastor, but they call the man based on his preaching. Then they get upset if he isn’t a good pastor. We vote someone into office because of a lot of reasons, wisdom not being one of them. But then we want them to be wise.

         Verses fourteen and fifteen; But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. James told it like it was. Again, how many politicians have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in their hearts? I don’t know. Maybe 99.7%? James says that this is earthly and unspiritual and even demonic. So, why do we vote these people in? Because they lie convincingly enough that we believe. Another question; who was the last President whose Spirituality was a guiding force in his life? You saw it everywhere in his life. Jimmy Carter. Reagan was a good man who professed Christ, but he was first and foremost a politician. The second George Bush was also a good man who also professed Christ, but he was a politician. Jimmy Carter was a Christian first. His politics were more than skewed, they were all over the place, but he was a believer who taught Sunday School even as President. He ran for president just after the greatest political scandal in American history to that time, and people were longing for decency. But he only lasted for one term.

         Verse sixteen; For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. Wow! This is our government and our nation. Disorder and vileness. We want them out! And then we vote their clones in. Our country is stumbling and failing because we, the people, are not looking for Godly men and women. We are looking for those who want what we want. And then we say they are Godly, which is the lie.

         Verses seventeen and eighteen; But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

         Now wouldn’t that be wonderful? It probably will not be like that until Jesus returns, but we can seek to make it happen. We can be true to our Lord. We need to employ wisdom from above and it probably won’t go very far in this world, but we are responsible for ourselves and how we act before God.

         The small city I pastored in before here was run by the City Council. It was the goofiest group of oddballs you ever saw. Our area was known for our covered bridges. A neighboring town had a long bridge that spanned a pretty serious valley. The bridge was old and was dropping concrete slabs into the valley below. It was decided that it needed replaced. Somebody put forth the idea of making it a covered bridge. It would be the longest covered bridge in the world. If you are ever in Ashtabula Township in Northeast Ohio, look it up. It is pretty impressive. Anyway, our little town was jealous of the Ashtabula bridge. The Council decided that they would show them up by making the world’s shortest covered bridge. There was a storm sewer culvert that needed replacing, so they replaced it with an eighteen foot covered bridge. Only about six feet actually covered the water. When they opened it they had the high school marching band march over it and speeches made by city leaders and hardly anyone showed up. Someone complained to me one day about the city spending $250,000 on the bridge. “Why would they do that, Pastor?” I shrugged my shoulders and told them that the people voted the goofballs in.

         Our prayer today is that we Christians will be strong enough to act with wisdom and that the government will begin to respond to that, as well.

         And, if you are ever in Geneva, Ohio and find yourself headed north on Broadway, as soon as you cross the tracks you will see a road to the left called Liberty Street. Turn there and almost immediately you will see an odd wooden bridge. That is the smallest covered bridge in the world. You will be awed.