Latest Thoughts of the Day

Revelation 12:1

4/1/2023

A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven:a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.

It seems to be a glorious picture of Israel, God’s people. She has a brightness given her from the outside. She is exalted above the heavens in the purposes of God. Her crown of glory is the twelve tribes she encompasses. Her enemy is Satan himself, and her offspring is soon to experience a deadly attack from him. God will not allow the child to be devoured, and He will remain with His people as they wander in the wilderness, attacked by their enemy the devil. The highest spiritual forces are engaged in the conflict that ensues. Satan is hurled to earth, and he continues his enmity against the people of God. Heaven and earth in conflict over Jesus.

Jude 13

3/31/2023

They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars for whom the blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

Every age has men who exalt themselves as opposed to God and who are articulate and loud in their seeking to tear down the church and what it stands for. Jude is prompted by the Spirit of God to speak out against such in his own day and to warn generations to come to expect these influences within the church. We could name the intelligent and vocal opponents of Christianity who operate in our day. They are like the ones that Jude confronts—empty, unstable, pointless, condemned, choosing darkness rather than light. May the Lord enable us to see them as self-proclaimed lights that will wander forever in darkness! May we not be alarmed at their apparent success! Standing strong against the foe, we have Jesus.

3 John 8

3/30/2023

We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men, so that we may work together for the truth.

People or groups raised up by God to travel from one place to another in order to encourage the believers was a means that God appointed in the beginning, that His church might be strengthened. Churches may not have known them personally, but if they were recommended by a fellow-church, and if they brought the truth as it is in Jesus, believers were to welcome them and help them on their way. Podcasts and radio serve this way in our day. They come into our minds and encourage our hearts with the message that God has given them. It is right and proper that we share in their support. Financial accountability was important even to John, and should be taken into account when we consider them servants of Jesus.

2 John 7

3/29/2023

Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.

Under the pretense of exalting Him, some teachers denigrated the idea that Jesus actually became man. “He was too holy ever to do that!” But they rob Jesus of His glory when they denigrate His grace. They make Him less worthy of our worship than in fact He is. The glory of Jesus lies in His humbling Himself to become man, living humbly for man and dying to pay for man’s sins. He carried the glorified marks of His death to His seat in Heaven. Deniers of this are not for Him, but against Him. We do worship You and exalt You, Lord! Our joy and our encouragement is in praising You as both man and God, Lord Jesus.

1 John 3:1

3/28/2023

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.

Throughout this epistle John maintains an amazement at the love that God has had for us. Actually to have made us His children! Actually to live within us by His Holy Spirit! Actually to be what we have been called—children of God! John recognizes the flaws and shortcomings in the life of every Christian. There are always inconsistencies to point out. Seeing God’s grace in ourselves makes us ready to grant grace in the lives of one another. Bad as you are, I can see you as a Christian because I have seen how bad I am. The living testimony in our lives is Jesus.

2 Peter 2:1

3/27/2023

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves.

In the business of religion there will always be charismatic individuals who gather a following because they teach what people want to hear. They achieve their positions in men’s minds because they declare many things that are true to Scripture. The destructiveness of what they add will be unnoticed or forgiven by their followers, but it will damn the souls of those who believe it. God’s people need to consider the motives of those who present themselves as teachers, be aware of where their teaching departs from the faith once delivered to the saints, and be strong enough to speak out concerning the error and its implications. Help us, Jesus!

I Peter 3:1

3/26/2023

Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without talk by the behavior of their wives.

Peter has been speaking of Jesus’ response when He was reviled and His self-sacrificing spirit as He endured rejection by men and the wrath of God in our place upon the cross. Peter says that “In the same way” a wife is to submit to the demands of married life. Peter envisions self-denial and entrusting her soul to God as a means in God’s hand to humble the husband, even perhaps unto his own salvation. Of course there is here no guarantee. Many factors enter in. But when a woman gets grace from the Lord Himself to bear the suffering she is called to bear, she lends power to her testimony to Jesus.

James 3:1

3/26/2023

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

Ideally, teaching gifts are recognized by the congregation and a person becomes a regular teacher because the congregation desires it. When a person has a personal desire to be recognized and pushes himself into the position when he can, he is on dangerous ground. His personal life will be under greater scrutiny, his words weighed more carefully, his motives evaluated more strictly, what really “makes him tick” more generally evaluated. All this besides the greater scrutiny of God Himself , who will take the secret things of his heart into consideration. Judged more strictly. We who teach need help with our daily lives, our personal activities, our consciences, our inmost thoughts. God examines us more closely; the congregation examines us more closely We need Jesus.

Hebrews 7:1

3/25/2023

This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him,

The author is arguing closely from a mysterious passage. We watch the argument unfold and wait to be shown how it applies to the point that the author is making. Melchizedek was a mysterious person sent by God to in some ways foreshadow what Jesus would be to His people when He came, some two thousand years in the future. The awe we feel is appropriate when we deal with the Son of God. Lord, help us ever to stand in awe as we trace Your dealings with men. Grant us Your Spirit, that we behold every sign that points to Christ. May we recognize both the obvious and the subtle as we see in Your dealings the person of our Savior, Jesus.