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