February 6, 2018

To Read: Deuteronomy 8

To Know: “Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it; from his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead in them, and all were judged by what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire; and if any one’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Rev. 20: 11- 15)

The future unfolding before my eyes was terrifying. The light was about to change when a woman heading north turned into the traffic heading south. She turned toward me but before she could clear the southbound lane a truck hit her car on the rider’s side. In the attempt to miss her, the truck also swerved my way, but it was too late. With her car now impaled on his radiator, the truck was a split second from crashing into me. All this happened in full view, giving me time to shift into neutral and spin my wheels. The truck smashed her car into me and I shot backwards onto a neighbor’s lawn. Miracle of miracles no one was seriously hurt. Had I not seen what was coming, spun my steering wheel and released my brake, I might be dead. The Bible reveals the future. Those whose names are written in the book of life will escape the second death. Jesus Christ writes the names in that book. He or she will live who believes what Jesus says in the book of God and does what he says.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30)

February 5, 2018

To Read: Deuteronomy 7

To Know: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” (Jn. 15:4)

Many ask, “what would Jesus do?” The question is more easily answered than many think. First, Jesus already did what he would have us do. The Bible is action-packed. Mark’s gospel is positively dynamic. Breathlessly, Mark chronicles the public ministry of Christ that ended in his crucifixion. The word immediately hurries us through Mark leaving the impression that hardly an hour passed when the Lord did not do something vital. Two thousand years later, we still know what Jesus did during the days of his flesh. Second, the Jesus of the Bible, having risen from the dead, is presently active. Using only seven words, the apostle Paul sums up the authentic Christian life, “Christ in you the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27)

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the author of Hebrews wrote, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (13:8) The same Jesus, who two millennia ago did the will of God, now abides in those who trust in his name and promises to do now what he did then. Anti-supernatural Christianity treats the Christian life as an exercise in mimicry. This emasculated version of the Christian faith was heralded from many 20th century pulpits. Liberal preachers urged their hearers to copy Christ, without telling them the mystery or secret of godliness. The Christian life is lived by faith. This is the faith that the same Jesus, who did mighty deeds in ancient Israel, does those deeds now by the hands of those who trust in his promises.

To Do: Christ in you might be restated, Christ in connection with you. Being in Christ is spiritual, not mystical. Jesus Christ is as real as we are. When we live in connection with him, he delights in doing what we ask him to

FEBRUARY 4, 1018

To Read:

Isaiah 42 To Know: “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the law of our God you people of Gomorrah.” (Isaiah (1: 9)

Many believe that the Israel of today is the Israel of God. Not so according to Jesus. To the Jewish leaders of his day Christ said, “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.” (Matt. 21:43)

The apostle Paul goes further and reveals that true Israel never equaled the Israelite people as a whole. To explain why so many who left Egypt during the Exodus never made it to the Promised Land, Paul said, “…not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’” (Rm. 9:6,7)

In Isaiah’s time it was no different. As a nation, Israel was like Sodom and Gomorrah. Both the rulers and the people had substituted worship forms for heartfelt faith. Without faith it was as impossible to please God 28 centuries ago as it is today. Isaiah revealed why Israel being like Sodom and Gomorrah had not suffered the same fate. The explanation was, “Unless the Lord Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom.” (Is. 1:9)

The nation had survived because God had decided to save a remnant. This is the reason America survives. A remnant of Americans belong to Jesus Christ. It is the same in churches that have denied the teaching of Scripture regarding the person and work of Christ. God has chosen to save a remnant inside such congregations. My first summer in Byfield, Sandy Quigley knocked at the door. She had vegetables from her garden for my wife and me. After thanking her she asked a question. “Do you really believe what you preach?” “Yes,” I assured her. She was one of a tiny remnant left at Byfield who believed the Bible was God-breathed and that the Christ taught in its pages was able to save to the uttermost those who turned to him in faith. History will only continue to go on until the last person for whom Christ died is given faith to believe in his name and so be saved. Then the end will come and Christ will reappear to judge the living and the dead..In order to know that you are in that remnant you must believe.

Sign Post's Devotional Guide for the Week of November 26

To Read:

Acts 8

To Know:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

Snakes teach us a lesson. During my army time, I learned the lesson over and over again. My M.O.S (military occupational specialty) was Nike Universal Electronic Materiel Maintenance. Simply stated, I trained troops to maintain and repair anti-aircraft guided missiles. Half the training took place in the desert of New Mexico. That was home to rattlesnakes. Because dust storms were frequent, sandbags protected our portable electrical generators. At night, rattlers crawled between the bags, and my job was to scare them away in the morning. Scaring a rattlesnake is scary business. There was an enmity between us that could turn deadly in an instant.

Genesis 3:15 is the first biblical reference to the cross. On the cross the ancient serpent, the Devil, bruised the Savior but the evil one received a deathblow. One author wrote a book that he titled, “The Day Christ Died.” He was only partly right. Jesus’ death was temporary. It was the enemy of the human race who was killed that afternoon outside the walls of Jerusalem. Another author wrote a book almost four hundred years ago with a more appropriate title. That title was, “The Death of Death in the death of Jesus Christ.” Snakes are not evil creatures, but they do symbolize the serpentine heart of the enemy of our soul. Now he is a defeated foe. His eventual doom was prophesied at the beginning of the Bible. To Do: Faith in Christ is trust in his victory over sin and death on the cross. He is the woman’s seed. No man was involved in Jesus’ conception. God was and is his Father and his triumph over evil is God’s victory.

To Read:

Acts 9

To Know:

“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” (Genesis 49:10) Two thousand years before Jesus was born, Jacob fathered twelve sons. Rueben, Jacob’s eldest, betrayed his father’s trust and Judah took his place. It was promised that one of Judah’s offspring would ascend to the throne and rule the world. The line of Judah continued two thousand years later when Jesus was born. Jacob’s prophesy is powerful evidence that world history unfolds according to the will of the eternal God. The first dated event was 4241B.C. That year the Egyptians adopted the solar calendar. 3400 B.C. was the year the Upper and Lower Kingdoms united. The “Old Kingdom” spanned the thousand years from 3400 to 2400 B.C. Egypt’s Feudal Age followed from 2000 to 1500 B.C. Egypt’s was a world power from 1580 and 1150 B.C. Rome, the eternal city, lasted only a thousand years. Hitler’s boasted thousand-year Reich lasted a mere twelve. Compared to the relatively short span of human empires, the great age of God’s people is amazing. The tribe of Judah survived for 2000 years. Twenty centuries after Jacob’s prophecy, Bethlehem was still in existence and there the King of Kings and Lord of Lords was born. Although seen only by the eyes of faith, Jesus Christ rules and overrules in the world today.

To Ask:

Father, it is assuring to know that you can prophesy events that come true two millennia later.

To Read:

Acts 10

To Know:

“I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not nigh: a star shall come forth out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab, and break down all the sons of Sheth.” (Numbers 24:17) Balak, the king of Moab, hired Balaam the prophet to curse the people of God. The Lord prevented the prophet from denouncing the people he was shepherding toward the land of milk and honey. Instead of a curse Balaam pronounced a blessing.. God promised that his people would be blessed and be a blessing for the world. Evil contains the seeds of its own destruction. In the 19th century many American seminaries succumbed to anti-supernaturalism. Pastors were sent forth to instill doubts regarding the trustworthiness of the Bible. Such distrust did not inspire young men to be preachers. The lack of students has now emptied the ranks of the seminaries. Has God chosen to discipline his church by allowing false prophets into pulpits? To protect his ancient church when the people of Israel journeyed toward the promised land, God refused to permit Balaam to utter his curse. It seems as if that protection has been removed from the modern church.

To Do:

It is important for the remnant of those in the churches who believe that the Bible is the unfailing word of God to pray for renewal. The Bible is the source of health and strength in the life of the churches. This unique book played a life-giving role in the history of the United States. We who believe the word of God needs to pray for wisdom as to how to influence the nation with the teaching of the scriptures without threatening our cultural pluralism.

To Ask: Father, may our people rediscover the role of the Bible in the making of this great nation.

To Read:

Acts 11

To Know:

“When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ” (2 Samuel 7:12,13)

What is God’s house? Many treat the church building as God’s house. Does God live in a house made of materials that can be bought at Home Depot? Nathan the prophet told King David that one of his offspring would build God’s house. Jesus of Nazareth was that son. The angel Gabriel told Mary that the boy in her womb would be great “and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David.” (Luke 1:32)

What Jesus built was his church. (Matt. 16:18) The apostle Paul understood that believers are the house of God. Redeemed people are his household. To the Corinthians he wrote, “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.” (1 Cor. 3:9) The Christian Church is the future of the world. On some future day, only believing human beings will populate the earth. The risen Lord Jesus will live in the midst of his people in the way we now live as families. What is the house of God is the wrong question? Who is the house of God is what we ought to ask? God’s house is composed of all the faithful in all the earth. To Do: The house of God is built by preaching Christ. When Jesus was with his generation during the days of his flesh he was building his church. Upon his ascension, Christ commissioned his apostles to carry on the work. There is an authentic apostolic succession. It is a chain of witnesses that comes down to our own day. Someday the last person appointed to believe the gospel will receive faith. On that day history will close and the day of eternity will never end. To Ask: Father, please make yourself at home in me. Friday

To Read:

Acts 12

To Know:

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

To God, the world is much smaller and time is far shorter than it is to those of us whose lives only span four score years and ten. The sign God gave unbelieving King Ahaz came to pass hundreds of years after the king’s death. The sign was a virgin conception. The first to believe in the virgin birth, as Christ’s conception came to be called, was the unmarried mother herself. Her faith was unreserved. Mary said to the angel Gabriel who had made the momentous announcement, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (Lk. 1:38) Why would anyone who discovered the truth about Jesus, that he is the eternal Son of God whose word caused the universe to be and who entered the world to save sinners from eternal destruction, not join Mary in her submission? To Answer: 1. Does the fact that despite the vastness of time God’s word comes true help your faith to grow firm? 2. Do you believe that evil has within it the seeds of its own destruction? 3. Do you remind yourself that Christ is with you as a member of the household (house)?

Sign Posts Devotional for the Week of November 5th

Monday To Read: Proverbs 16

To Know: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Gen. 6:5)

A daughter-in-law said to her mother-in-law, “Whenever I’m around Christians I feel as if I am broken and need to be fixed.” Sometimes feeling the need to be fixed is our salvation. A few years ago I wrote a lengthy article on a broken computer program. All seemed in order until the time came to save my work. When I ordered the article saved it simply vanished. The piece never resurfaced. It was lost. We are born spiritually broken. Every human being enters the world in an already broken relationship with God. This spiritual reality is easily disguised. Good health, material prosperity and a dose of healthy self-esteem easily make us feel that all is well when actually we are broken. Christians revel that their relationship with God is repaired. Sin is forgiven. Guilt is gone. Perhaps the reason that daughter-in-law felt broken in the presence of someone whose life had been repaired was simply that she was, in fact, spiritually ruined. The will of Christ for his own is that we manifest to the world what it means to be mended. Those who are still broken are bound to notice. To Do: The world in which we live urges us to pronounce ourselves whole whether or not we really are. That is born broken is the teaching of the Word of God. When we recognize our need to be received back into God’s favor through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ we are becoming whole. Being whole is not being perfect. We do not magically shed our sin. When God receives us back the God-shaped vacuum in our lives filled. We are whole because our maker is in our lives as he was meant to be. To Ask: Father, I bow to your verdict and ask you to bring me back to yourself in the person of your Son, Jesus Christ. Make me whole by making me his.

Tuesday To Read: Proverbs 17

To Know: “How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! They are like a dream when one awakes, on awakening you despise their phantoms.” (Ps. 73:19,20)

The day John’s father woke up to what he was doing there was hell to play. John had turned his college years into a never-ending party. He skipped his classes, slept all day, and spent his evenings nightclubbing. His father was paying the bills until one day he woke up. That was the day of reckoning. The money stopped and John quickly learned what it meant to be on his own. From time immemorial the human mind has puzzled over the fact that bad men prosper while good men often suffer. I imagine that John’s friends were diligent students, leading disciplined lives who may have secretly wondered how their friend could squander his chance at a college education and seemingly prosper. They did not know that his father was asleep to what his son was doing. The Psalmist likens God to a sleeping father. These are dangerous days for everyone who has traded righteousness for the good life. Life can be bright and beautiful but it is the bright light of day that hides the stars of the heaven. To Do: Let us accept this day and age for what God says that it really is. This is the time in history when life hides more than it reveals. These are the days when our access to the truth of heaven is restricted to the eye of faith. This is the time designed to teach us to trust God. To Ask: Father, let me not forget that you have already appointed the day when you will awake to judge the world.

Wednesday To Read: Proverbs 18

To Know: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities – all things were created through him and for him.” (Colossians 1:15,16)

Is God awed by the fact that he is? Is God dread at the thought of his own self-existence? How can anything or anyone simply be? Our minds cannot grasp such a thought. The idea that someone is and did not come to be is awful. It is an idea full of awe. Moses began Genesis thus, “In the beginning God.” Before things began God already was. When we were given our minds they did not possess the ability to contemplate self-existence. If we are not awed by the fact that God is then probably we have a false concept of God. Jesus claimed to be God. He claimed self-existence. John intentionally opened his gospel with words that mirrored Genesis. “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.” This word, John said, became flesh. The eternally existent word that was God became a man who dwelt on the earth. Is there a worse insult imaginable than to class Christ with other this world religious leaders like Mohammed or Buddha? Unless the Bible cannot be trusted we know that religious leaders are creatures who owe their existence to Jesus Christ. To Do: The time is past for Christians to stand up and be counted. It is past time for us give clear and unambiguous testimony to Jesus Christ. He is the eternal God. When he became flesh it was in order to take humanity into eternity. The gospel is the good news that every one of us who trust ourselves to his name will live eternally in him. To Ask: Father, forgive me for reducing your son to one like us.

Thursday To Read: Proverbs 19

To Know: “Only take heed, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.” (Deut.4:9)

Make no mistake the war on terror is a two-front war. World War II was fought in the both Europe and Asia. We fought two declared enemies and two different armies. The war on terror is not nearly so simple. The enemies in the war on terror are subversives. Those who by stealth steered our own planes into our own towers to kill our own infuriated the American people and our president. The news industry has reported every step we have taken to root out terrorism and destroy the organization. The second front is much harder to fight. The second front in the war on terror aims to subvert the past. We are being sabotaged. America and the European nations resulted from Christian missions. The proclamation that Jesus of Nazareth was the savior of the world conquered Rome, civilized barbarian Europe, and planted American democracy. The attack against Jesus Christ that began at his birth is now aimed at the culture that is the fruit of his cross. The attempt to subvert the past is plain to see. The public presentation of the gospel provokes an angry legal challenge. Many use their college classrooms to reinterpret history. Political correctness censors the right of the past to use its own voice. In these and other ways the American ideal is subverted and will inevitably be destroyed. To Do: Our military might is invincible. If the only front in the war on terror was one that can be fought with smart bombs we will win. If the more dangerous front is the one won by embracing the past then we will lose. We will lose unless we restudy ourselves return to the great principles that gave us the liberties we seek to defend with our arms. To Ask: Father, you created the past and control the future. Help me to appreciate the past and trust your future plans.

Friday To Read: Proverbs 20

To Know: “From thee comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will pay before those who fear him. The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord!” (Ps.22:25,26)

It is possible to starve to death in a banqueting house. All we need to do in order to die is not eat. The Old Testament sacrifices were afterward eaten. The Peace offering became food. Because Jesus was the world’s peace offering he is also its food. This is why Christ taught, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (Jn.6:53,54) Jesus is not referring to the Lord’s supper when he insists that we eat his flesh and drink his blood. The communion table is the symbol of which Jesus words are the saying. They both refer to the same great truth. That truth is the fact that there is little strength and peace to be gained from a Christ who is no a sacrifice. He is our peace because he died for our sins. He is our strength because he imparts himself to those whose faith is in his name. To Do: If we would follow Christ and be a source of strength in this world then we must offer ourselves to God in self-sacrificial sacrificial love. To Read: Saturday: Proverbs21 Sunday: Proverbs -2

Men of Integrity Conference

On June 9th Andrew Boylan, co-host of Sign Posts, will be at Rally Point's Men of Integrity Conference in Rhode Island. Stop by and say hello. Learn more about Sign Posts. Click the link above to learn more.

Sign Posts the Week of December 19, 2016

Monday December 19, 2016

Will the movie Wish for Christmas be under your Christmas tree? If not you may wish it was. “Wish for Christmas,” as distinct from “A Wish for Christmas” is the story of a teen aged girl who wishes that her parents did not believe in God. Her wish comes true. The parents cease doing what is right in the eyes of God. Instead, they do whatever is right in their own eyes. The daughter doesn’t like what she sees. Now she realizes that love for God had made hers a loving home. Bible truth had moved her parents to care about others and not just themselves. If those who wish the God of the Bible would go from the American scene get their wish then Wish for Christmas might provide a needed warning.  I am Pastor William Boylan. This is an American Sign Post.

Tuesday December 20, 2016

The birth of Christ differed from our own. We begin life at conception. Christ never did begin. He is life itself. The Bible explains. “When the time had full come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman ...” Christ was sent forth by God in order to be born. Christ Jesus was born in order to die for sinner doomed to die. Other holy books know nothing of this saving truth. The Bible alone is God’s autobiography. It reveals how God fulfilled his promise to bless people from every, tribe and tongue and nation. When the government orders the Bible out of the sight of the American people it defeats the purpose of separating church and state. The separation exists to keep the government from doing what it is doing – namely, silencing the churches book – the Bible. I am Pastor William Boylan. This is an American Sign Post. 

Wednesday December 21, 2016  

America’s founding fathers gave us a new kind of country. In their own way they placed the nation in the hands of God. When the founding fathers placed the nation in the hands of we the people, they placed it in the hands of the Lord. In seventeen seventy-six, we the Americans were a biblically literate people. We are fast becoming biblically illiterate. Two hundred and forty years ago nearly every American home had a Bible. Steeples lined the skyline in our cities, towns and villages. Would we not be foolish to not connect the kind of people we were then by the kind of book we were then reading. Now some want the Bible put out of public sight. Can this happen and we still be the same kind of people? Let’s think about that.  I am Pastor William Boylan. This is an American Sign Post.   

Thursday Dec. 22, 2016

If you never have heard of Theophilus Parsons you are not alone. Hardly anyone alive today has ever heard of the man. Two hundred and forty years ago, the founding fathers knew him well. Theophilus put into words what Americans in their newly formed nation believed. He said, “We alone among the nations do not look upon the law as our enemy.” Parsons said this because the law of the land was the law of liberty. Biblical truth undergird the framing of that law. Today liberty is treated as a license to do what is right in our own eyes. Does this explain why many want the Bible to disappear? If Theophilus could be with us he would warn us that if the Bible goes it will take our liberties with it.  I am Pastor William Boylan. This is an American Sign Post.

Friday December 23, 2016

When I was born America still considered Jesus Christ to be a friend. Sadly that friendship is disappearing. Only a generation ago, Merry Christmas was as American as apple pie and motherhood – now many are pressured to say happy holiday instead. In Newburyport, nearly two hundred years ago, President John Quincy Adams said that the Declaration of Independence was the first social contract in human history to lay the cornerstone of human government on the first precepts of Christianity? Christ was Adams friend. In the Soviet Union, on the contrary,  the Bible was an enemy of the state. Why do some now want to turn us in the direction of the Soviet’s? Did the Soviet Union not collapse? Do we not want to keep on standing? Do we really want Christ as an enemy and not a friend? I am Pastor William Boylan. This is an American Sign Post.