Meditation: April 9

“He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” Matthew 28:6-7

His promises would have been mere empty words without power if the tomb had contained His Body without interruption. His Words would have faded off the scene as snowflakes in the heat of a warming sun if they were only good for the moment in which they were spoken. He said many things and made so many promises that built the faith of His followers and raised their hopes and dreams. They lived by His Word, but if the most dramatic and complex were false, then the least and the simplest were merely impressive conversation. The test would be the place where He was buried on the day on which He said He would rise from the dead. They arrived there with trepidation. But the tomb was empty validating the promise He made remembered. “He is not here.” If He is absent from this place, then where could He be? “As He said to us with Words to confirm all others spoken; now all that He has said can be trusted.” What else did He say? “Whatever He said I now believe because the empty tomb speaks of promises fulfilled.” Look at the place that now speaks loudly against all skeptics and critics. He is not here. The tomb is empty for all to see!  

Meditation: March 14

“For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Romans 3:3

God is determined to fulfill every one of His promises. Too much is at stake for Him to fail. Yet there are many who doubt Him and question His authority and abandon their post defecting from the faith. Does unbelief negate God’s faithfulness? He allows the rain to fall on the unjust as well as the righteous. He provides for believers as well as unbelievers. Seasons of the year that change for all to receive the benefits of change. Yet God is determined to raise up a remnant among His people who will obey Him and receive the full benefit of His promises. They will hear His voice and heed to His call. If not the parents, He may reach some of their children. What is rejected by one generation may have been embraced by their successors. God will provide future evidence of His truth. When all else is shaken and crumbles to the earth, His Word will remain. And what was once cast down and rejected will be raised by and through what God has already spoken.

Meditation: February 7

“For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.” 2 Corinthians 1:20

God’s promises are fulfilled through Jesus Christ. This is the test as to whether they originated from God or from some other source. We are positioned in Christ in order to go where He is going and to do what He is doing. The divine affirmation of God is the testimony of His Son. His life gave full expression of every one of His intentions. None of His promises will ever fall to the ground. If He said it, He will bring it to pass. If purposed it, He will do it. God is yet speaking today through what He has always said. His will is to accomplish His eternal Word in and through each of us. This is the glory of God, that we carry within us the evidence of His faithfulness in fulfilling His promises. They are Yes, and in Him Amen.

Meditation: December 30

“You shall eat the old harvest, and clear out the old because of the new.” Leviticus 26:10

Eating the old harvest is not a call to gluttony, but rather a challenge to release and dispense all that should be used. It is when we hoard what ought to be distributed that disqualifies one from full participation with God. His intention is to use each of His servants as conduit to reach others with what flows through us. As we enter into this New Year with and open heart and a clear conscience, room is available in us for an abundance of blessings from God to reach us. Yesterdays promises made and commitments are the opportunities to prove ones integrity when we rest at the end of the day with completed tasks. A fresh vision is given to visionaries who provide the impetus to see the old ones come to pass. The Spirit of God will grace the soul who is led to believe His Word and act accordingly. God wills to do a new thing among us. The New is before us, while the old is awaiting our consumption in order to make room.

Meditation: December 1

“….By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” 2 Peter 1:4

The promises become our focus rather than other things previously lusted after. It is when faith in God’s promises is real to us that we can then rely upon and trust in His Word to deliver all He has said. The bondage of misdirected desires goes deeper into the soul than any pain inflicted upon the body. We have now become a settled and undisturbed people because we have received from the Lord the faith to believe His Word. That pain is no longer a thing to suffer because our hopes are on things that are eternal. We have learned that craving for the forbidden or placing our hope on the temporal erodes the soul. But, thanks be given unto God, we have escaped what once held us in bondage. The reprieve from the penalty of former lusts and the deliverance from being sentenced to only seeing and desiring them have been granted to such an undeserving soul.

Meditation: October 27

“Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” Habakkuk 3:18

Circumstances ought not to control our rejoicing. Our faith is often strained by the pressures that are brought to bear against us. When the fig tree is full of figs, our joy is because they are sufficient in quantity even with some to store. When the fruit and olives are plenteous, we have the joy of the harvest. The food is plenteous and the flocks are in their proper place giving us a reason for contentment of heart. But the delicate balance may shift in an instance. If all of life depended upon these things being in place, how fragile our faith would be. Some give up on life itself because things are not as we would have them to be.  Others resort to desperate attempts to regain what appears to be lost. The most important thing remains and gives us a reason to maintain our faith and joy. The Lord is the God of our salvation and our strength. None of these things are capable of robbing us of the greatest gift we could possibly have. Once we are saved and secure in Christ, everything else will become elementary in contrast to what we have received.  It is our salvation that gives us glimpse of the eternal. All is an interval in anticipation of what God has given us now and promises for our future.

Meditation: October 16

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (16) But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness.” 2 Timothy 2:15-16

We must be presented as approved unto God. Our lives are to be on display as showing evidence of God’s character. How else would the world know that Jesus is alive and the same yesterday, today, and forevermore? It is the life that expresses the truest meaning to Scripture that others are able to read even clearer than the text itself. Their interest is prompted to read on until the Word irresistibly becomes life to them. We direct them to Jesus Christ, the source of all that may be seen in us. He is seen through our every effort. He is glorified through our every deed, and He is edified when we participate with Christ and all who have come to know Him. Ours is to establish His kingdom on the earth as it is in heaven. Those who profess to know but do not know Him bring shame and disgrace to His name. And their pride becomes their shame. But those who know Him have contained in His Word the every life that He promises.

Meditation: October 15

“But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” James 1:4

The trials that we face have a far greater purpose than the aggravation and pain that we often suffer. Isolated from God’s intent, some would think that we had been abandoned to face the giants of perplexities alone. It is when nothing is left but God’s promises that faith is called into action. What we received during those moments when could clearly see Him and experience His blessings must keep us when we enter into the fog. Faith to endure is the patience that must further develop us. We learn to wait on the Lord and not attempt to rush the process. God has more to teach is in these dry cold winter seasons than we could ever learn in the springtime of life. This is when our faith is tested as to its authenticity. How would we ever know whether we love God for who He is or merely love Him for what He gives? On the other side of the test is a faith that endures. We can then see Him for who He really is and not just image Him to be who we would wish for Him to be. Faith molds our character that we may become a reflection His own.   

Meditation: October 2

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. (5) And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” John 1:4-5

Our comprehension will become the measure of our apprehension. When there is a willingness to understand that part of Jesus Christ which has been given to the saving of the soul, one then is able to be saved. If there is no interest in eternal life, but merely a desire to catch a few of the trappings from the promises given to the believer, he may prosper to a degree in those things, but be eternally lost. The light that God sent to men was the light of eternal life. This light illumines and guides the person to understand how little he really understands about Christ. Yet it awakens his interest to pursue Him with a passion never realized until the light has come. Those who are hungry for more than worldly pleasures or survival have seen something more of Him. The blinding light of His glory fixes their attention on a different object of affection. They become dead to the world and alive unto Christ. Paul wanted nothing more than to apprehend that for which he was apprehended. He wanted to pursue the purpose for which God arrested him from self destruction. May we walk in the light that shines in the midst of darkness.

Meditation: September 7

“And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees.” Matthew 3:10

Many have sought justification for wrong habits of the heart in which they have grown accustomed. They strain to admit when they hear an unfamiliar voice from an unfamiliar place preaching an unfamiliar message. It is baffling to the mind to accept the fact that all previously known by them was in error. The truth contradicts our folly. We by nature try to fight against what we feel is right. Yet what we may be resisting is our true love calling us to a higher place. The call is away from our pride of knowledge that we may really know truth that beforehand was too elusive. The skillful artisan does not bring a scalpel to remove minor excess but an axe to completely remove the whole thing. It must be completely uprooted if it is ever to be replaced with what contains virtue. There will be something new replacing the old once the old is brought down in defeat and ruin. There is a defeat, a loss that must preceded victory and gain. Then God will plant seed in place of plant. The potential of the godly is far greater than the success of the wicked. As we continue to listen to His voice and wait on His promises, in a little while new growth will sprout up from the ruins of the past.