This week I am sharing a daily devotional each morning that I originally wrote for Lifeway’s “Open Windows” devotional guide. I hope you are encouraged in your faith by these short meditations!
1 John 4:9, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.”
Do you ever struggle to feel that God’s love is for you? Do you ever wonder if God is paying attention when bad things happen? Then you are human. Fighting to believe God’s love for us is part of the walk of faith that will continue until our pilgrimage to heaven is complete. It is in those moments and seasons of difficulty or doubt that the best thing for us is to look to Jesus and what He did on the cross.
“Magic Eye” pictures were all the rage in the ’90s. If you looked at a colorful design with the right squint of eye, a picture would practically pop out at you. A bunch of random geometric patterns would suddenly look like a 3D completed image. Looking at Jesus as we go through life is a little bit like that. We may not understand everything about life and God’s purpose for us now, but we will see a fuller, richer picture of life when Jesus is in view.
How was the love of God manifested to us? “God sent His only begotten Son into the world.” The greatest demonstration of God’s love is that He sent Jesus into a world that would neither recognize Him nor accept Him as the Redeemer. Still, God sent Jesus–for you.
Father, when I question Your love, point my eyes to Your only begotten Son.
This week I am sharing a daily devotional each morning that I originally wrote for Lifeway’s “Open Windows” devotional guide. I hope you are encouraged in your faith by these short meditations!
1 John 3:2, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.”
A missionary tells the story of working with an indigenous language partner in a local tribe. They were translating 1 John. When the native understood what 1 John 3:2 was teaching, he threw down his pen and exclaimed to the missionary, “It is too much! Instead let us write, ‘We will fall down and worship at His feet!'”
That is the reaction of someone who first understands the grace of the gospel. Yes, John wants us to know we are sons and daughters of God. But there’s more. God doesn’t only want us to be in a family relationship with Him, He also wants us to be close.
God wants us so close that He sent Jesus as a man. God became human and gave Himself so we could be rescued from sin and live with Him forever.
To fit us for heaven so we can be in His very presence for eternity, He will make us like Jesus, and then we can see God as He is–His unwavering love for us, His yearning for relationship with us, and His grace-filled invitation to us to experience His presence both now and forever.
Father, thank You for the hope of my resurrection body and my eternal future in Your presence.
Over the next week, I will be sharing a daily devotional that I originally wrote for Lifeway’s “Open Windows” devotional guide. I hope you are encouraged in your faith by these short meditations!
Acts 2:32, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.”
For some, the Monday morning after Easter can bring mixed emotions. Some may wake up with resurrection songs in their hearts. But others wake up with a bit of a low after the high of Easter morning. Back to work. Back to the doctor. Back to the same relationship problems.
However, Jesus is not only risen on Easter. He is still risen today. And that makes all of the difference in the world.
In Peter’s Pentecost sermon in Acts 2, he pointed to the confirming miracles and signs his hearers knew about. He also quoted King David’s prophecies about the Christ in Psalm 16 that Jesus fulfilled.
But the greatest proof of Jesus as Savior was that those Peter preached to had either seen Jesus raised to life or knew people who had seen Jesus alive after the resurrection. Peter didn’t hesitate to proclaim to thousands, “we all are witnesses” of Jesus’ resurrection.
The grave could not hold the Savior. Jesus had died, but as the prophecies and many eyes confirmed, He was alive again. Keep that in mind on this Monday morning.
Christ is still risen. He is still risen indeed!
Father, help me to rejoice in and believe in the resurrection of Your Son, today and every day.
I am a pastor. And I do not have the gift of evangelism.
However, I do want to be obedient to Jesus. I believe that all need to hear the Gospel. Because of this, I evangelize and continually want to grow in leading my church in corporate and personal evangelism.
I have embraced the idea that not all are “naturally gifted evangelists.” Not all pastors have the gifting of Billy Graham, Ray Comfort, or Greg Laurie. The gifts God seems to have given me are encouragement, preaching, and teaching. But embracing how God has “wired me” for the places He has called me to serve does not mean I forget about other clear commands.
I may not have the “gift” of giving (Romans 12:6-8), but it would be sinful not to give to my local church. I would also miss out on being a part of how God provides for our ministries, the joy of sacrificing for the Kingdom, and the wonder of seeing God supply every need.
Similarly, I may not have a natural bent toward evangelism, but as I have leaned into God’s heart for those who don’t know him, I have grown in my passion and practice of evangelism. I have a burning desire to “compel people to come in” (Luke 14:23), even if I sometimes need to rekindle that desire. No blazing biblical truth has compelled my evangelism more than the resurrection of Jesus. Here are five reasons the resurrection compels me to evangelize.
1. The resurrection means that I am a co-worker with Jesus in evangelism
In the first verse of the book of Acts, Luke the Physician says that in his Gospel, he wrote about “all that Jesus began to do and teach…” The implication at the start of the Bible book that details the spread of the Gospel around the world after the resurrection is that Jesus was starting to build his church (Matthew 16:18). He is continuing to save today.
When we share the Gospel, we are co-workers with the living and reigning Christ. What a privilege!
2. The resurrection means every person in our community needs to hear the Gospel
Jesus said that one day, every person you drive past in your community, every person you see in the grocery store, every person who walks into your church, and every person who never steps foot in a church—will one day hear his voice. “…an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:28-29)
C.S. Lewis famously explained this in The Weight of Glory: “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”
There are no ordinary people. Every person you meet in your community will one day be eternally in heaven or hell. When I read the Bible, I am amazed at how straightforward it presents this reality, when even in the church, sometimes we are more reserved about this truth than we should be. The facts of judgment and salvation, the facts of resurrection to life or resurrection to judgment, bring a weight to our task and a purpose to our church and ministry. Until we are in heaven and can no longer evangelize, the resurrection means we must.
3. The resurrection means there is a never-empty well of passion for evangelism
Sometimes, I get tired of resistance to the Gospel and give up for a while. Sometimes, I don’t feel the weight of eternity. Sometimes, I am scared of what others will think of me. But believing in the resurrection means I can always find the passion for evangelism again.
We see Peter go from being the timid man cowering at a servant girl’s accusation on the night of Jesus’ arrest to the bold apostle preaching to thousands after Jesus rose from the dead. I have seen fear turn into love and boldness in my heart when given an opportunity to share the Gospel if I remember that Jesus is alive.
4. The resurrection means I want to do outreach and evangelism privately and with my church family
I labor to explain at least the basics of the Gospel at some point in each sermon. I do this to train my congregation week after week in the different ways they can explain the Gospel. But I also do it because I never know who will be there on a Sunday or where they are with the Lord. Even if no visitors attend on a given Sunday, there may be unbelieving church regulars, teens, or children who will be saved that morning. The fact that the church service is primarily for building up the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:12) does not mean evangelism is not also a primary purpose.
But the resurrection also means we don’t just wait for people to come to us. I love reaching out to anyone in our community we can touch base with through sports camp outreaches, kids’ Christmas parties, block parties, or by hosting a tent in our community StreetFest. While there is a distinction between outreach (letting people know you are there and that you care) and evangelism (sharing the Gospel through a verbal or written presentation), outreach often opens doors to evangelism in our culture today.
The fact that your church exists in your community expresses the love of Christ for your community. They have the Gospel available because God has seen fit to have your church’s gospel presence embedded in the community. Sometimes, the Gospel will advance through shared ministry; other times, church members go out to their spheres of influence with the good news.
5. The resurrection means that our work of evangelism is never in vain
The longest chapter in the Bible on the resurrection ends with an astounding promise. 1 Corinthians 15:58 comes after proving, defending, and applying the truth of the resurrection. In light of this, the Apostle Paul encourages us, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” So, we continue to plant seeds.
Years ago, our church hired a contractor who was not attending church. Several people in our church knew him, and they encouraged us to pray for him at our Prayer Meeting. I, and others, invited him to church, but he never came. Until last month. At the end of our worship services, I always invite people to talk with us after the service if they want to know more about the Gospel or set up a time with us if they are not ready that morning. Last Sunday, he approached me to set up a time to talk more about Jesus.
These amazing opportunities used to intimidate me. I was eager but scared. As my convictions about the resurrection of Christ have deepened, so has my love for evangelism. I can’t wait to see what Jesus will do in our community member’s life.
Keep sharing the Gospel. Because of the resurrection, “your labor is not in vain.”
To my friends who are no longer friends with Jesus: I want you to know that if I am aware of you walking away from Jesus, I have prayed for you and even cried for you. A couple of years ago I was reading The Last Battle from C.S. Lewis’s “The Chronicles of Narnia” to our kids. I came across a passage that took my breath away and filled my eyes with tears. Tirian, the last king of Narnia, is meeting the former kings and queens of Narnia:
‘Sir,’ said Tirian, when he had greeted all these. ‘If I have read the chronicle aright, there should be another. Has not your Majesty two sisters? Where is Queen Susan?’
‘My sister Susan,’ answered Peter shortly and gravely, ‘is no longer a friend of Narnia.’
‘Yes,’ said Eustace, ‘and whenever you’ve tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says, ‘What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.’
The reason I got a lump in my throat and then looked at my wife Melanie and saw that wewere both tearing up is because we were thinking of you, friends. Walking away from Jesus is not child’s play. At the end of The Last Battle, it is revealed that there has been a crash and the kings and queens are in heaven. They are safe, eternally. Susan is not. But there is still time.
It seemed that you used to be friends with Jesus. You sang to him, you read his Word, you prayed to him, you talked about him with me.
Only God, and maybe you, know if that faith was genuine. But I do know this: the Jesus you used to confess with your lips is the same Jesus who can save you today. It doesn’t matter if it has been years or months of walking away from him, Jesus died and rose again not to make it possible for us to earn our way back to God, but to bring us to God. He will still do that for you if you will come to him.
You are not the first disciples of Jesus to deny Jesus. Do you remember Peter, one of Jesus’s closest disciples and friends? He denied Jesus three times, when Jesus most needed someone to come alongside of him and stand up for him.
Decades later Peter wrote in 1 Peter 5:8-9, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.” It has never been easy to be a Christian. What stood true two thousand years ago stands true today: there is a great enemy of your soul.
Peter knew that Satan is active in the world today, and he didn’t just think of the devil like a roaring lion. It’s like Peter was remembering how he had felt that enemy breathing down his neck on the night that he denied Jesus.
But there is someone else described like a lion in the Bible, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Jesus is the One who was promised to come and save us. He came and represented God to us as holy and righteous and yet as willing and ready and able to forgive for when we have failed him.
Precious Words of Promise
Some of the most precious words in the Bible are at the end of the Gospel of Mark. After Jesus has risen from the dead, the angel tells the women at the tomb, “…go, tell his disciples and Peter…” (Mark 16:7)
The other disciples had failed too. They had also said they would follow Jesus all of the way. But only one of them, John, stood at the cross at the end. God made sure they all received the message of Jesus’s resurrection— “Go tell the disciples…” But he also put this nugget of grace on the angel’s lips: “…AND Peter.” Peter was a disciple. But God was already moving towards Peter specifically in his specific sin, preparing his heart for restoration.
I don’t know what God has been doing in your lives recently. But reading this article is a start. There is some reason you clicked on it.
When Peter denied Jesus, Jesus looked at him. If you sense the Lord looking at you right now, you have two choices.
You can try to run from the gaze of Jesus just like Adam and Eve tried to run from the eyes of God. Or you can run to the gaze of Jesus and see that there is forgiveness and acceptance and restoration in his eyes.
This is what Peter experienced when the resurrected Jesus came to them later, when Peter had gone back to fishing. When Jesus appeared on the shore, Peter didn’t hold back. Peter couldn’t wait to be near Jesus again. He couldn’t wait for the boat to get to the shore. Peter jumped into the water to go towards Jesus.
He didn’t walk on the water this time; he simply threw himself into the water to get to Jesus. That may be what repentance looks like for you, what coming back to God looks like for you. Just throwing yourself towards Jesus.
If you do that, I know that Jesus will be waiting for you. Jesus himself promised it and sealed it with his redeeming blood: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” (John 6:37)
Friends, if you come back to Jesus, he will welcome you home as his friends, now and for eternity. I hope to see you there.
On Saturday, December 18th, as my wife and I tidied up a few things for the next day’s worship, my kids came running into the church sanctuary: “Baby Jesus was stolen!”
“Really? One week before Christmas?” Sure enough, it was even worse than we thought. We know it was not bad wind or a curious dog because not only is the baby Jesus missing out of the large Nativity scene on our church’s front lawn, but also the manger, a lamb, and one of the two signs advertising our Christmas Eve Service.
“We believe that the Bible’s message about Jesus is true, so he is alive in heaven today and will return again. He is our king and we bow our hearts before the real Jesus just as the wise men and shepherds bowed down to him when he first came. So you can steal a figure, but you can’t steal the real Jesus.“
As we shared about the loss on our church’s Facebook page, hoping somebody might find the figures thrown somewhere in town, it became obvious that this was a discouragement to more than our church family. The Nativity scene was a labor of love from a team of people from our church, attempting to share with our community the humble story of God coming down to live with us and redeem us.
So I want to say a few things to the person who tried to steal Jesus from us:
You can’t steal Jesus. We know that the figure was only a representation of what happened that first Christmas night. The Bible tells us that the real Jesus was not only born, God become flesh, but that he grew up and became a man who lived a perfect life, then died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins and later rose from the dead. We believe that the Bible’s message about Jesus is true, so he is alive in heaven today and will return again. He is our king and we bow our hearts before the real Jesus just as the wise men and shepherds bowed down to him when he first came. So you can steal a figure, but you can’t steal the real Jesus.
You can’t steal our joy. It made my children and others sad to think of the figure of Jesus being the one stolen. But sadness can mingle with true joy, and this doesn’t take away our joy. Our joy is not dependent on traditions or circumstances. The manger scene can sit empty or we can look around at the difficulty in our country right now or even grieve losses like death or divorce and still have joy because our joy is dependent on knowing God through his son, Jesus Christ. The night before Jesus went to the cross he taught his scared disciples a truth we continue to hold onto: “You have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” (John 16:22) The sorrow of the crucifixion was eclipsed by the joy of the resurrection. The sorrow of disease and sin in our world will one day be eclipsed by the joy of heaven. Giving invincible joy is one reason Jesus came.
You can’t take away the meaning of the Christmas story. The sign taken had the word “HOPE” in large letters above a representation of a nativity scene. The reason we believe that the coming of Christ brings us hope today is because of what the angel told Joseph, the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us).” (Matthew 1:23) Many today wonder where God is as they look at the sin in the world around them and the effects of sin on a world God had originally made perfect. But God isn’t aloof. He actually entered our world and wasn’t born in a palace, but found his first cradle in a feeding trough, a manger. This brings us hope today–that God cares, that God has come, that he is active today, that he loves us today, and that his promises in the Bible are true. The meaning of the original Christmas story is that God came to earth as a human. He didn’t come as we would have expected. His first worshipers were a poor young couple, foreign kings, and stinky shepherds. But he came in a way that shows his care for those who are discouraged and marginalized and down-and-out. This gives us a hope that can’t be stolen.
You are loved. Whether or not you return the figures or even can at this point, I want to tell you that you are loved. We have been praying for you, and not with hatred. We have been praying that a heart that would hate Jesus this much or not be aware of what the Christmas story represents would be a heart that would be broken in order to be healed with the unconditional love of the Jesus you tried to steal. Jesus interacted with thieves. There was one on either side of him on the cross. One mocked him, but the other believed in him. And Jesus told him, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43) He has that kind of power, to forgive sins and give eternal life. Jesus didn’t come for people who had it all put together, but for people who realize they are sinners and need God himself to enter our world to rescue us. That is how deep his love is, a love we can receive if we will come to him.
You can’t steal the real Jesus. But through this, we are praying that he might steal your heart.
This article will be featured in the December 25, 2020 edition of The Manchester Journal, our local paper.
You don’t need me to tell you that 2020 has been a year that has made us weary. Whether your weariness is social, economic, physical, relational, job-related, screen-related, or a combination of all of these and other reasons, “wearisome” is probably an apt description of your 2020. Experts talk about “pandemic fatigue,” but we might not even read their articles because we are fatigued of thinking about fatigue. While I was writing this article, a news notification popped up, “Can you get coronavirus from Christmas cards?” Mercifully, the basic answer is no, but one year ago who would have ever thought we would have this kind of low-grade stress constantly in the back of our minds? However you are celebrating Christmas this year, you and I are bringing all of that into this holiday season. In the midst of this weariness, however, there is one Christmas carol line that keeps coming back to my mind: “A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices!”
This line from O Holy Night is talking about a hope that is just as true and vibrant today as it was the night that Christ was born. The Bible tells us that two of the reasons that Christ came were to bring hope through personal peace today, and forever peace in heaven. We get wearied by our lack of personal peace. We wonder if there is a God who cares. We wonder if anything that happened in Bible times has anything to do with us today. Christmas reminds us that God cares, and God acts for us—today. The Gospel of Matthew explains the relevance of an ancient prophecy, written 700 years before Jesus in the book of Isaiah: “‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).”
The reason that Christians celebrate Christ’s birth is because we believe what the Bible teaches, that it marks the entrance of God into the world in human flesh. Jesus entered into our suffering world, and after living a perfect life of love, died on the cross at the time the Passover lambs were being sacrificed, as “The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) The Bible explains in Romans 5:1 why this matters today, after talking about Jesus’s death and resurrection: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is the gift of God to all who will receive it: our sins are paid for and we are accepted by God as our father. Because of Jesus we can live life knowing that God is for us and with us no matter what kind of suffering or what kind of year we are walking through.
But the message of Christmas doesn’t end with an earth that is so susceptible to viruses and suffering and sin. The thrill of hope isn’t just for now. The weary world rejoices because one day it will be made new. We celebrate Jesus’s first advent, his first coming, now, but the Bible promises that one day, he will come to earth again—his second advent. He will make all things new and create a new heaven and new earth where we will be safe from sin, and suffering, and death. This is God’s Christmas gift to us, encapsulated in the memorable words of John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
On Christmas Eve in 1871, during the Franco-Prussian War, an unarmed French soldier jumped out of the trenches, walked onto the battlefield, and sang the first line from O Holy Night in French. After he sang all three verses, a German soldier emerged and sang a popular German carol, “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come.” The story says that both sides then joined together in singing an Austrian carol. The battle stopped for the next 24 hours in honor of Christmas Day. Temporary peace was initiated by O Holy Night.
Wouldn’t it seem too good to be true if peace were initiated not just for 24 hours but for today and for eternity? The gospel always sounds like the best news you’ve ever heard once you understand it. That is the truth Christians celebrate at Christmas, that Jesus came to bring personal peace today, and forever peace in heaven. That is the best reason for a thrill of hope, and for a weary world to rejoice. In the weariness of 2020, may you find peace in Christ this Christmas.
“I do.” With those two words, my life was forever changed. It was a cold but sunny December afternoon. About 200 family members and friends smiled as the pastor who’d mentored me asked me if I would take Melanie as my lawfully wedded wife.
I still remember standing there in my suit, more excited than I’d ever been in my life, and experiencing something rare: a calm nervousness. I was calm because I was looking into my bride’s radiant eyes. But I was nervous because I knew I was stepping into something bigger than me. I knew my life would never be the same. My calm nervousness welled up into thrilled joy when she looked at me with a huge grin and exclaimed those two words as well.
We were married.
What I couldn’t articulate at the time, but what I’ve experienced day by day since, is that I needed the gospel to be a picture for my marriage but also the reality that supports my marriage. I wanted our marriage to point others to the gospel, but I also knew we’d need a power outside ourselves to sustain us over the long haul of covenant love.
What I needed, what I continue to need, what you need, is the gospel as a picture for marriage, resulting in marriage as a picture of the gospel, all sustained by God’s omnipotent strength.
Gospel Contemplation
God has created an incredible dynamic between the gospel and marriage. The gospel is for us to look at and emulate, but as we look at this incredible painting, an amazing thing happens. Our marriages begin to become a picture themselves that point others to the gospel.
This back and forth between the gospel and marriage is one reason that, in Ephesians 5:22–33, the apostle Paul seems to go back and forth between talking about marriage and the gospel. The two are intertwined by design.
You have to begin by looking to Jesus—to how God loves you in covenant relationship—before you can share this kind of love with your spouse. Because one aspect of the gospel is this incredible picture of the marriage relationship, we can grow in our marriages when we look to the love of Jesus for his bride.
I like to call this gospel contemplation, since basking in the rays of what Jesus has done for you and beholding the gospel in all its intricacies is helping you to better understand true covenant love. Every married person should think about questions like: How—specifically—does Jesus love the church? What is unique about the way he loves her?
Gospel Reflection
But you also need to see how your marriage is a picture of the gospel. I call this gospel reflection. A reflection in a mirror isn’t the reality, but it’s a good likeness of it. The mirror might be bright and clear, or smudged and dirty. But the reflection points to the reality just as our marriages point to the covenant relationship of God with his people. So we need to evaluate periodically what kind of picture of Jesus we are portraying in our marriages.
There is a problem I have every autumn. We live in Vermont, and I will see a mountain bursting with gold and orange and red, and try to get a photo with my iPhone 7. Invariably, it doesn’t even come close to capturing the jaw-dropping display of colored foliage. I need an upgrade to a real camera. I can see the beauty, but my equipment doesn’t have the power to reflect it.
You may feel the way I do about my smartphone camera when you think about trying to reflect the gospel in your marriage. You see its beauty, but you lack the equipment to accurately reflect it. So the problem, and the solution, is plain: you need Jesus in order to point to Jesus.
Trying to reflect God’s design for marriage without leaning into Christ is like trying to drive 75 miles an hour with your radio blaring and wipers going, but not stopping to put gas into your tank. Try loving your spouse like Jesus loves the church without returning to the source of gospel power, and your marriage will soon run out of gas. In fact, it’s like trying to drive your car without an engine at all.
I’ve noticed almost a direct parallel between my walk with Jesus and how I treat my wife. When I’m in the Word daily and talking to Christ in prayer, I tend to reflect more clearly his love for my wife. But when I’m surviving on spiritual fumes, it’s so easy for me to grow impatient, selfish, and rude.
The gospel is the engine for your marriage. So look to Jesus, and as much as possible, look to him together.
To be a Christian in today’s cultural context takes courage and commitment. When we are talking with friends, relatives, and neighbors about something as personal as what will happen to them after they die, it can sound strange and offensive to them that Jesus is the only way to Heaven.
But it will help us hold firm to our convictions if we remember that they and us trust that other people in our lives have absolute certainty about life or death situations all of the time.
A pharmacist better have absolute certainty about the pills that he or she is dispensing. I have a severe penicillin allergy, and a pharmacist giving me the wrong medicine could not only hospitalize me, it could cost me my life.
An engineer must have absolute certainty about every centimeter of a bridge that he or she is planning. A bridge on an interstate over a large river near where we used to live collapsed due to an engineering error. Two cars plunged into the river, cars piled up as they slammed on their brakes to avoid going in the water, and several people almost died.
A surgeon must have absolute certainty of what they are doing, especially before he or she operates on a vital organ like your heart! Can you imagine going ahead with surgery if your doctor explained, “I think that I know how to do this heart surgery. It just feels right–to me, anyway.”
An explosives expert in the army who is deployed in the Middle East must have absolute certainty about which wires to cut!
Given that we have no problem understanding that people need to have certainty in these life or death situations, we should not be surprised that Jesus says that He is THE way, THE truth, and THE life, and no one comes to the Father but through him (John 14:6). Since Jesus claims to be the God-man come from Heaven to bring us eternal life, it makes sense that he is certain about who he is and clear that he is the only way to Heaven.
If you can trust your heart surgeon, you can have absolute certainty in the Son of God.
As Christians, we need to be clear that we have absolute certainty about who Jesus is and what he claims to have done for us if we will trust him. Of course we still love our friends and family if they reject Jesus for themselves, but may they at least always be able to say that they know we have absolute certainty about Jesus being the only Savior. It’s the very least we can do for them.
The examples I gave that everybody in our society accepts as people who need to be certain about their jobs are not even as clear of a parallel as our certainty about Jesus because we know that pharmacists, engineers, surgeons, and explosive experts do sometimes make mistakes. They are only human. But Jesus is not only human.
We can have absolute confidence in him both for our eternal salvation and as the only hope for our yet unbelieving family and friends. As John the Apostle explained, “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” (1 John 5:20)
Have you ever looked at a blanket of freshly fallen snow and thought, “That looks good enough to eat?” Ask any kid, and they will tell you that it is. Ask any Vermonter, and they will give you a recipe. The ingredients are simple: freshly fallen snow, and pure Vermont maple syrup. It even has a name: “Sugar on snow.” As a Vermont pastor, I can tell you that we don’t scoop up snow like Ben and Jerry’s with every snowfall. Sugar on snow is especially popular during sugaring, when there is fresh maple syrup from the trees and snow still on the ground. This unique treat proves that snow can not only look good enough to eat, it can also be clean enough to eat!
Vermont is famous for its snowscapes, but when most people think of the land of Israel, snow does not come to mind. While not an every year occurrence in Jerusalem, snow is common enough in Israel that it is mentioned 24 times by the biblical writers. But there is one breath-taking word picture involving snow that comes from the lips of Yahweh himself. Continue reading “White As Snow, Though My Sins Were as Scarlet!”
He Must Become Greater 