Living By The Word

  “Do you know how the clouds are balanced, those wonderful works of Him who is perfect in knowledge.” (Job 37:16) In their divinely-crafted beauty, clouds are beheld in many stunning sizes, shapes, and colors. They are all magnificent displays of the matchless artistry of the Almighty God of the universe who made all that exists with mankind as His crowning creation. Our certain hope as followers of Jesus Christ is that one day soon we will meet our Creator in the clouds and will joyfully spend eternity in His presence. Thank You, LORD, for your grace, your love, and your priceless gift of abundant and everlasting life! “For the LORD Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the LORD in the air. And there we shall always be with the LORD.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

  Spiritual Nearsightedness ( March 30, 2023) “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.    Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4) Growing up and for much of my adult life, my eyesight has been impaired by a condition called myopia, or nearsightedness, in which a person has difficulty seeing objects clearly at a distance. Although I still wear corrective lenses to remedy the condition, thankfully, my visual nearsightedness has improved over the years according to my optometrist. Just as 30-40% of Americans must deal with this physical condition of myopia, many of us, including Christians, suffer from spiritual nearsightedness. From time to time, especially when confronted with hardships and trials, we tend to shift our focu

  Not My Will… ( March 29, 2023) “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” Before His unjustified arrest and brutal crucifixion, Jesus—knowing the extreme suffering that He was about to endure for mankind’s salvation—retreated to the Mount of Olives to take His anguish to His Father in heaven through prayer. While His disciples slumbered nearby in the Garden of Gethsemane, our L ORD, showing His humanity, sweat great drops of blood as He pleaded with the Father to make another way if possible. In absolute obedience, however, Christ surrendered His will to that of the heavenly Father and willingly completed the mission for which the Son of God had been sent to earth—to enter humanity as the sinless suffering servant required for the redemption of our sins.  “But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.” (1 Peter 4:13) Ma

Be a Worldly Non-conformist ( March 28, 2023) “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.  And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:15-17) We live in a world that increasingly demands conformity and compliance to ungodly standards. Remember those school days when seeking popularity among our peers, we sought to fit in, to be cool, and to be a part of the student groups and cliques that are so common. Today, there is mounting pressure on each of us to be politically correct, to conform to the expectations of the world, and to adopt the prevailing attitudes, practices, and behaviors of a society that is rapidly moving away from Christian morals and values that used to flourish in the United States and upon

Why? ( March 27, 2023) “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” (Psalm 42:11) (NIV) Sooner or later, we are all confronted with circumstances that we do not understand, and, as we scratch our heads in confusion, the first question that generally comes to mind is “Why?” This is especially true when seasons of hardship and trial come into our lives, leaving us distraught, even devastated, and prompting us to search desperately for answers. Often, we cry out to God, begging to know why He permitted unwelcome trouble or tragedy to disrupt the serenity that we feel when things are going well. Reality teaches that we must go through deep, dark valleys that we may bitterly detest in order to get to the lofty mountain peaks that we certainly desire. Throughout God’s Word, the three-letter question “Why?” is asked by many prominent biblical figures who were puzzled by the plight in which they foun

  Purpose to Please God ( March 23, 2023) “And  whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” (1 John 3:22) It boggles the mind, but the Almighty God of the universe knows and cares about every detail of our lives as insignificant as they may seem to us in the grand scheme. The L ORD has uniquely created each of us with a purpose to serve and He gives believers the divinely-supplied resources to fulfill His perfect plan for our lives. To discover and fulfill this unique purpose of our creation is life’s greatest pursuit. As we seek to serve our individual calling, remember that God made us to serve a higher purpose -- to honor and glory Him by the way we live our lives every day. “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31) The Apostle Paul’s directive to the church at Corinth is the so-called “acid test” of living as children of God and members of the body of Christ. The ul

  Finding Peace in a Restless World ( March 22, 2023)  “ Now may  the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way.” (2 Thessalonians 3:16)    To live a genuine Christian lifestyle is to seek continually to abide in peace and harmony with Almighty God and each other. However, peace is foreign to what’s happening in much of the world today. We live on a war-torn planet that abounds in conflict, unrest, and strife. Wars and military conflicts are raging in many parts of today’s volatile world, most notably in Ukraine where the shameful Russian assault has generated outrage for more than a year. Jesus said that, among the signs of the approach of the end of the age, we “will hear of wars and rumors of wars…for nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” (Matthew 24:6-7) Living in a world where we hear daily, if not experience directly, news of death, destruction, and despair, how can we find peace? True peace is not of earthly origin; it is otherworldl

  Growing in Christlikeness ( March 21, 2023) “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen. ” (2 Peter 3:18) As new creations who have been redeemed by grace through faith in Christ, we should be seeking daily to nourish ourselves spiritually and be intentional in our efforts to nurture a deeper, more intimate personal relationship with our risen L ORD . This process requires that we humble ourselves before our heavenly Father’s throne of grace and yield our hearts to the power of God’s indwelling Holy Spirit as we are progressively transformed from inside out into the character and likeness of His Son Jesus Christ over the course of the rest of our earthly lives. As challenging as it is in an ungodly world, we must strive to develop certain habits that Scripture assures will facilitate our maturity as Christians. In the busyness of daily life, believers must seek to center their lives on Christ, not the w

  The Messengers of Reconciliation (March 20, 2023) “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-20) As rebellious humans, we were once estranged or separated from a righteous God because of our inherited sinful nature. God is gracious and longsuffering toward us, but He is just and ultimately must punish our sins. The highest expression of His divine love, God gave His Son Jesus Christ to bear the burden of our transgressions and die in agony on the cross to redeem and

  Nature Speaks (March 19, 2023) “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, who have set Your glory above the heavens!” (Psalm 8:1) Nature speaks of God’s certain existence, His boundless love, and His matchless glory! Magnificent sunrises and sunsets, picturesque landscapes, fascinating wildlife, arching rainbows, soaring mountains, and restless seas are all among the stunning creations of the masterful Artist of the universe, God Almighty! This spring take time to enjoy nature and praise God that the natural wonders that we behold are the handiwork of a gracious, loving God who created us and wants a personal relationship with you and me. “But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; and the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea will explain to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this, in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath

God Is My Strength and Sufficiency ( March 16, 2023) “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10) Sometimes when I wake up in the morning facing a full schedule of commitments, obligations, and responsibilities during the day ahead, my mind is overwhelmed with worry, fear, and doubt. If we are not careful, the busyness of our lives can rob us of our joy as Christians and shift our focus from God to ourselves and our circumstances. As prideful humans, we tend to be independent-minded and under the delusion of our own self-sufficiency. In our fallen sinful state, however, we are all fraught with weakness, infirmities, and shortcomings that many of us are not willing to admit. “ I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. ” (Philippians 4:13) When my heart is filled with anxiety and my mind races to figure out how I could possibly accomplis

  Beacons of Hope ( March 15, 2023) “J esus answered them… These things I have spoken to you, that   in Me you may have peace.   In the world you w ill have tribulation; but be of good cheer,   I have overcome the world.” (John 16, 31, 33) One of my favorite lines in classic literature opens Charles Dickens’ famous novel A Tale of Two Cities with a striking contrast . This literary masterpiece begins with the catchy phrase, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ...” That profound statement seems to me to be especially applicable to these tumultuous and freighting times in which we live, especially from the perspective of Christians who seek to spread the good news of the gospel of salvation in a dark, sinister world that is rapidly rejecting God and the truth and wisdom of His Word. The magnitude of the moral decay, death, disease, and destruction that define modern culture is appalling to many of us. Despite facing perhaps “the worst of times” that my generati

                                                    What a Friend Is Jesus! ( March 14, 2023) “ A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. ” (Proverbs 17:17) Judas Iscariot certainly deserves ominous recognition as one of the evilest villains in the Bible. One of the Twelve Apostles, Judas, of course, became notorious for his betrayal of Jesus leading to the arrest and crucifixion of our L ORD. Having been possessed by Satan, he infamously disclosed the whereabouts of the Jewish Messiah to the chief priests and elders and was paid 30 pieces of silver for his dastardly deed. Judas then led an armed multitude into the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus went to pray following the Last Supper. There Judas -- whose surname may be derived from a Latin word meaning “murderer” or “assassin” -- identified Jesus with a sinister kiss, calling him “Rabbi.” Amazingly, before the mob laid hands on the incarnate Son of God and took Him as a prisoner, Jesus graciously said to

Put Jesus in the Place of Preeminence ( March 13, 2023) “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20) We all want to be loved, appreciated, and esteemed by our families, friends, associates, and neighbors. After all, we’re social creatures who need the acceptance of fellow human beings. While the people with whom we interact socially, even our dearest loved ones, sometimes let us down and our feelings toward one another are subject to change, we can be absolutely sure that God places such great value on us as individuals that he created no two of us alike. Uniquely crafted in His own image, the L ORD loves each of us more than the finite human mind can grasp. He is a faithful, trustworthy God whom we can depend upon. That fact of human history was never more evident than when Jesus went to the cross to free

  “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” (Psalm 8:3-4) The unseasonably mild, spring-like weather we’ve enjoyed for much of this week (while other parts of our nation have been under severe winter alerts) has drawn many of us into the great out-of-doors and allowed us again to behold God’s wondrous works. In awe of the beauty of His marvelous creations, my heart is flooded with praise and gratitude that God is not only mindful of His human handiworks but He loves each of us and died so that we could have the opportunity to spend eternity with Him in a heavenly paradise the beauty and magnificence of which we cannot even begin to comprehend! Nature not only irrefutably confirms that God exists but points to His abounding grace which is sufficient for all of our needs, the greatest of which is our need as sinners for a Savior. Jesus Christ is

Putting Our Passion for Christ into Practice ( March 9, 2023) “Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men…” (Colossians 3:23). With the ACC basketball tournament underway and “March Madness” breaking out all over the nation, collegiate hoops fans are putting their passion for the sport on display. As Christians who sometimes become complacent in our faith, we can learn a valuable lesson from these basketball enthusiasts! We need to channel this same sort of unbridled intensity and enthusiasm into our efforts to share the truth of God’s Word and the unconditional love of Jesus Christ with others.   Being earthly servants, witnesses, and ambassadors for our L ORD can be a daunting task, but Christian discipleship is a privilege and a responsibility that should be approached with both seriousness and excitement. Shunning our fleshly tendency to become lukewarm in our faith and to stay put in our comfort zones, we should pursue our mission to lead lost souls t