One Way

TIME in the Word - Daily Devotional
Together for Inspiration, Motivation, and Encouragement

Verse of the Day - Matthew 7:14
Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Daily Scripture Reading - John 14-15

Puritan Catechism
Question #52 - Which is the fifth commandment?

Answer - The Fifth Commandment is, "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you" (Exodus 20:12).

Devotional Thoughts
Jesus tells us plainly that there are two ways to eternal life! It's true. There are two paths, two roads, two ways to the everlasting. As we studied the week before Easter, there is the Broad Way, and as we see in today's verse for study, there is the Narrow Way. Lest we forget, both ways do end in eternal life. The Broad Way, the wrong way, the easy way, the way centered on self fulfillment - that way leads to eternal life suffering the wrath of God for our sin. In fact, it is eternal death, the second death, always dying but never finally dead. There is no relief, no rest, no respite. Only suffering for our sin. The other way, the Narrow Way, leads as we will see today to life eternal, full of abundant blessing in the presence of God, forgiven of our sins and afforded the great opportunity to praise and worship and serve Him forever.

What is it that makes the narrow way narrow? Why does Jesus refer to it as such?

It is different than the Broad Way. It is not easy. It is not a walk in the park. It is trying, there are tests, suffering, and trials. We will be forsaken and persecuted, abandoned and ridiculed. All because the world hates Jesus Christ, and as we walk with Him and live for Him they will come to hate us too.

It is hard to find! Indeed, unless God through His Spirit draws us we would never find the Way (John 6:44). Left on our own we are dead in sin, blinded to the truth, and incapable on our own to even desire to come to Christ (1 Cor 2:14).

It is difficult to follow! This Narrow Way gives us no room for error. That is correct - for we cannot look to the right or the left (Deut 5:32) and we have nowhere to go other than forward or back. We are either pressing on (Phil 3:12, 14) or we are backsliding (Jer 3:22; 14:7).

It is found by few. You have heard the verse "Many are called but few chosen" (Matt 22:14). What does that mean? It is explained here. There are few who find the Narrow Way. Many are called in that the gospel call goes out to all men everywhere to repent of their sin and turn to Christ in faith. But few are chosen. Few are those who find the Narrow Way.

But wait, we might point out that Jesus says to us, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). Further, we have heard in the verses that follow, "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 11:29-30). See - His yoke is easy. The burden is light.

Let us check our perspective. Left on our own all we have to offer, all our own righteousness is a filthy rag in God's holy sight. So how can this Narrow, Difficult Way be the same as the easy yoke and light burden? Jesus tells us in John 15:4-5, "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." Get that? It is easy and light because we can do all things through Christ (Phil 4:13). Without Him it says we can do nothing. Not some things. Not a few things. No, without Christ we can do nothing! So the yoke is easy and the burden light because the life we now live He lives through us (Gal 2:20).

The call to walk this Narrow Way is a call to self denial (Luke 9:23), self abandonment (Matt 10:39), indeed self sacrifice (Rom 12:1-2)! It is hard. It is impossible without Christ. For He is the Only Way to the Father.

Get that? There are not two ways to God. There are not many ways to God. There is One Way Only and that Way is Jesus Christ. It is not as though God will allow any to enter in who are not coming through His Son.

As Jesus explained to His disciples, a rich man, who has all his needs provided for and sees no lack, finds salvation hard! How hard? It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle! (Matt 19:24). Upon hearing this the disciples immediately asked, "Who then can be saved?"

You see, it was not as if they believed everyone was going to heaven. Nor was it that most people were going to heaven. No. When Jesus explained the difficulty of the Way to salvation their response was one of seeing it as impossible for anyone to be saved! "Who then can be saved?" (Matt 19:25).

And the reply was that "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matt 19:26)

We have an impossible salvation. Not one we can buy, earn, attain, merit, or that we will ever deserve. It is, from a human standpoint an Impossible Way. That is the degree of narrowness to the gospel. Few find it indeed.

Have you found it? Have you found the One and Only Way to salvation? His name is Jesus, and He is the Living Way. “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12). Following Him will cost you your life. But He has given you His life in return!!

Links for Further Study
(links to study each daily topic in more detail if you have the desire and the time)

Christ, the Believer's Life by Archibald Alexander
How Shall I Go to God? by Horatius Bonar

Bible Reading For Further Study

• John 6:44; 1 Cor 2:14; Deut 5:32: Phil 3:12, 14; Jer 3:22; 14:7; Matt; 11:28-30; 22:14
  
• John 15:4-5; Phil 4:13; Gal 2:20; Luke 9:23; Matt 10:39; Rom 12:1-2; Matt 19:24-26; Acts 4:12

Recommended Songs for Worship

• Lord, Thy Children Guide and Keep
  
• Faithful Shepherd, Feed Me

Wrong Way

TIME in the Word - Daily Devotional
Together for Inspiration, Motivation, and Encouragement

Verse of the Day - Matthew 7:13
Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.

Daily Scripture Reading - Isaiah 32

Puritan Catechism
Question #52 - Which is the fifth commandment?

Answer - The Fifth Commandment is, "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you" (Exodus 20:12).

Devotional Thoughts
It seems these days that everyone wants to take the easy way. There are diet programs that claim that you can lose a lot of weight in no time with no effort - just pop a pill. Who needs to exercise when you can pay a plastic surgeon? Who has to watch what they eat when a doctor can simply remove most of your stomach? Why work when you can win the lottery? Why put forth the effort when you can sit back and get what you want through deception and fraud? Who wants to work hard? We all want it easy! The easier the better.

Think about it. We have fast food and get impatient with microwave ovens. Nothing really takes much time or effort any more. We can get the best now for less. We can buy now and pay later. We can have it all right now. Why delay gratification?

No wonder then there are those who want to make going to heaven easy! Of course, that means easy from a fleshly and fallen standpoint. While we may understand that the gospel is truly simple, we tend to make it much more difficult than it has to be and in doing so we find people leaning toward taking the easy way out. Whether it is universalism, or the false notion that we are all basically good, or a myriad of other demonic doctrine, we seem to think that lies are easier to trust than the truth.

We should not be surprised though because Jesus did tell us that the easy road, the broad way, the wide path leads to destruction. And many find it, walk it, and follow it to its end. Taking it easy all the while going the wrong way.

Nothing that is worth anything is ever easy! As Spurgeon stated, "All that befalls us on our road to heaven is meant to fit us for our journey's end. Our way through the wilderness is meant to try us, and to prove us, that our evils may be discovered, repented of, and overcome and that thus we may be without fault before the throne at the last. We are being educated for the skies and for the assembly of the perfect. What we shall be does not yet appear because we are struggling up towards it. The Lord gets His best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction."

But still, we long for peace, for comfort, for ease. We think we deserve heaven. We believe that we are owed a good life. But the easy road is a one way street to destruction.

It is very interesting to think that so many people around us believe that they are going to heaven when they die. Sure there are the diehard (no pun intended) atheists, agnostics, and pagans. But when asked in a poll recently, 89% of people responding stated that they believe in heaven and 75% think they will go to heaven when they die. Heaven after all should be easy, right?

And there is also evidence that suggests to us that we all believe in heaven but surely hell is a myth made up to scare people into submission. After all, other polling data tells us that many more people believe in heaven than in hell. What a tactic! What propaganda! The devil will work overtime to make people believe they are going to heaven no matter what they believe or do and at the same time he will convince them that there is no such place as hell and no punishment for sins. Politicians would sell their souls to have such gifted spinners.

Let us look at these lights along the broad way. What do we see along the sides of the road? Signs that tell us "This Way" for a good time! "Turn Here" for health, wealth, and happiness. Only a few more miles and then we can retire in ease without a care in the world. Sin matters not. God never said anyone would go to hell. There is no hell. Sin is not sin, it does not displease God. No, what many call sin is really just a disease, an addiction, a mistake, a failure, a character flaw, a weakness. It is not your fault. You are good. You are right. You know the truth. You are okay.

But lest we are lulled into a false sense of security this is what we know for a FACT - to take the easy way out is to walk straight into doom. For all the jokes and misconceptions about hell and the devil what we often miss is that it is the easy, flesh pleasing, sin nature pampering life ends in torment, in fire and darkness, in solitude, suffering forever under the wrath of God.

And remember, some would say that hell is being separated from God, but that is not true. Destruction in the lake of fire is suffering from the absence of God's mercy. But He is there, pouring out His wrath on sinners. And all that keeps one from this easy way out is the sinless life and atoning death of Jesus Christ - where it was He who bore the wrath upon Himself for us. Repentance and faith in Him secures the forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life. And to follow Christ is to shun the easy way for a better way.

So remember that the easy way, the "natural" choice often leads quickly to destruction. That which is worth dying for is all that is truly worth living for. And while living a life of obedience may be hard, it is not impossible for we have His grace given freely to us so that we might endure. May we continue to reject the broad way. May we press on through the narrow gate. As we will learn tomorrow, the narrow gate leads to life! But there are few that find it for too many would rather take it easy. In light of eternity, which is actually more easy? Serving self as a slave of sin, or serving God as a slave of Christ? That which is truly easy runs contrary to our fallen nature. Don't allow your flesh and emotions to confuse you - it is by taking the hard way that we grow in grace and grow closer to our Savior. The easy path only serves to take us away from Him and toward our own undoing.

Links for Further Study
(links to study each daily topic in more detail if you have the desire and the time)

Three Important Precepts by Charles Spurgeon
Hell - The Furnace of Fire by John MacArthur

Bible Reading For Further Study

• Psalm 73:12; 123:4; Amos 6:1; Zech 1:15
  
• Psalm 9:17; 55:15; Proverbs 5:5; 7:27; 15:24; 27:20

Recommended Songs for Worship

• Happy the Man, Whose Cautious Feet
  
• Christ is Risen! Hallelujah!

The Golden Suggestion

TIME in the Word - Daily Devotional
Together for Inspiration, Motivation, and Encouragement

Verse of the Day - Matthew 7:12
Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Daily Scripture Reading - 1 John 3

Puritan Catechism
Question #52 - Which is the fifth commandment?

Answer - The Fifth Commandment is, "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you" (Exodus 20:12).

Devotional Thoughts
Jesus has given us instruction about our relationships with others, specifically regarding the command not to judge one another, and He has illustrated His point in verses 3-5 of Matthew 7, addressing the speck and plank and the dangers of hypocrisy. As He teaches about relating to others He also includes verse 7-11 which we have examined the last few days. There we have seen Him tell us how to relate to God in faith, asking, seeking, and knocking - praying without ceasing. Then in verse 12 we begin with the word, "Therefore."

Of course I have said before that when we come to a therefore in the text we need to stop and ask what the therefore is there for. Here it points to what we have just been learning. Because we are to turn away from hypocrisy and because we are not to judge one another, and because we are to live a life of dependence upon God in prayer - because of all these things we are given the Golden Rule.

This command existed before Christ taught it. This was not a new truth. It appears in rabbinical writing and other writings that predate Christ. However, it was usually given as a negative command, that is, as Rabbi Hillel's version read, "What is hateful to yourself do not do to someone else." So it is negative in the aspect that it is not a command to do, but to not do. Jesus here though gives this as a positive command. As it is often restated, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

The actual command, the rule, states, "Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them." And we must take notice, this is a Rule, not a Suggestion. Jesus does not give us the Golden Suggestion here. Today we often hear this as a Suggestion, don't we? It is quoted, misquoted, twisted, and even mocked. Some say that the golden rule is that those who have the gold make the rules. Others present it as a moralism that we should attempt to live out though someone always has exceptions to the rule.

Looking at it though, Jesus presents this Rule, this Law, as a summary of the Law and Prophets. That means that just like the First and Second Great commandments - love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself - this goes beyond a goal for happy living. This is a summary statement of the will of God for us in our daily lives and relationships. This is God's Word to us. We MUST do unto others as we would have them do to us.

This is a radical teaching. There is no exception clause. There is no way out. Treat people like we would want to be treated. This is contrary to human nature. It goes against pride and the feeling that we have rights that are to be defended at all costs. It puts us in a very awkward position - for without the help of the Holy Spirit we cannot obey this Rule.

And lest we think otherwise, this is a Rule that applies to every relationship that we have - no matter how shallow or how deep. No matter how we know or relate to someone else, we are always to treat everyone else as we would want to be treated. This is truly what it means to esteem all others as better than ourselves. It is condescension, but not in a prideful way. It is humility. It is thinking the best of others no matter what they do or say toward us.

In relating this back to prayer Matthew Henry notes, "We cannot expect to receive good things from God, if we do not fair things, and that which is honest, and lovely, and of good report among men. We must not only be devout, but honest, else our devotion is but hypocrisy." How we relate to others tells us a great deal about how we relate to God.

The Apostle John makes this case for us in his first epistle. He writes there:

If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth (1:6).

Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. (2:3-6)

He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. (2:9-11)

By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. (3:16-18)

There are more examples but I think this will suffice. The lesson we are learning is that the way in which we relate to others is a direct evidence of how we relate to God. And if we follow the Golden Rule we most likely are walking with God. Those who see the Rule as only a Suggestion, those who hate others and despise others and judge and condemn - if they claim to be a Christian they are actually a hypocrite. They claim to be something that their life, their fruit, declares that they are not!

For we see that this Rule is not given only to instruct us in how to relate to others. It is given to point us to the need for grace in every relationship. It is given to hold up the standard of holy and righteous living as we express our love to God through obedience.

The final lesson for today then is a reminder - if we are not right with others then we cannot be right with God. No one's relationship with God is good and healthy if they do not get along with other people around them! Those who do not live by the Golden Rule, striving to be at peace with all men, as much as depends upon them, those demonstrate for us the futility of working to live the Christian life by the power of the flesh instead of dependence upon the Spirit.

Today, keep the Rule!

Links for Further Study
(links to study each daily topic in more detail if you have the desire and the time)

Loving Our Neighbor by Richard Baxter
The Content of Kingdom Love by John MacArthur

Bible Reading For Further Study

• Rom 12:18; Col 3:12-14; Eph 4:1-3; Matt 5:23-25
  
• Phil 2:1-30

Recommended Songs for Worship

• O Holy Spirit, Enter In
  
• Upon the Cross Extended

Good Gifts

TIME in the Word - Daily Devotional
Together for Inspiration, Motivation, and Encouragement

Verse of the Day - Matthew 7:9-11
Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

Daily Scripture Reading - James 1

Puritan Catechism
Question #52 - Which is the fifth commandment?

Answer - The Fifth Commandment is, "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you" (Exodus 20:12).

Devotional Thoughts
Jesus, the Master Teacher that He is, takes a hold of our imaginations here in order to instruct us about the very nature of God. This is an important and needed lesson for us today lest we forget Who God is and what He has done. Indeed, most that we can say is wrong with the church and our families today is rooted directly in a wrong view of God. How do we get a wrong view of God? We misread, misunderstand, or misapply the Word of God, for it is the written Word of God that reveals Him to us. That is why it is so crucial in the church that we have teachers who know the Word and even more importantly know the Author of the Word!

False teaching often introduces fleshly doctrines, not that they appear obviously carnal, but they are man-centered. What we see in the Scripture is a God centered world view and lifestyle. If we focus on self, on our needs and wants, then our eyes are fixed on the wrong subject. The hard truth is that this life is not about us! It is about God - about glorifying and worshipping and pleasing and obeying and loving Him.

Part of what is wrong in our view of God is evidenced in how we pray and in what we expect from our prayers. Jesus has been teaching us to ask, seek, and knock. He has shown us the need to persevere and the Scriptures teach us to ask in faith, to expect an answer. But then, when we focus on self, God becomes nothing more than an Almighty ATM, dispensing whatever we need as soon as we need it as long as we know the right PIN number. If not, if our needs seem to go unmet, that usually drives us in search of a new formula, a new phrase, a new method of praying - like all the books in the bookstore that promise us results NOW if we just do it the way they do it. What a scam! Teaching prayer for profit instead of learning from the prophets how to pray (sorry, couldn’t resist that one).

Listen - prayer is not about getting needs met. Prayer is about fellowship. It is about building that relationship of trust and dependence upon God. A benefit of that relationship is then that we are privileged to take our needs before God so that He can meet them and be glorified in doing so. But if the focus is only on the needs then we are missing the purpose behind prayer.

To make the point, Jesus points us to earthly parents. We know that we are fallen and sinful beings. We know that we struggle with sin. It does not take more than a few minutes of watching the evening news to understand depravity. But for the most part even sinners know how to answer a request from their child.

What father is there, everything being "normal", that will respond to a request from a child for food by giving him something that will not feed him but will instead hurt him? What moron would answer a child's request for bread by giving him a rock? "Here, son. I know you wanted some bread, but I have a better idea. Eat this rock! Yum – good with the peanut butter, isn’t it? Or even better, I know you asked for some fish, but I'd rather you eat this SNAKE!" Yikes! Of course that is not what a father does. Not even a dim-wit-poor-excuse-for-a-man father as portrayed on the latest sit-com. We know how to give our kids what they need, for the most part.

So why then do we have such a difficult time trusting God to give us what we need? There it is – Jesus’ point jumps off the page at us. If in our depravity we know how to meet the needs of those dependent upon us then how much more will an Omnipotent, All Holy God be able to give us good gifts? If we who are sinful know how to give good gifts then how much better at gift giving is God? He gives good things to those who ask.

We need not simply presume that God gives good gifts, for if we take the time to look at Scripture we see that the only kinds of gifts that God gives are good gifts! It is not just that He gives good gifts, all His gifts are good by virtue of the fact that it is HE who gives them.

We might need a moment to wrap our heads around this one, because the usual complaint about that which motivates us to become prayerless is often based in the idea that we asked God for what we needed and He did not come through for us. He did not give us that for which we asked, begged, and pleaded. Even when we offered to do whatever He asked if He would just answer this one little request!

But look, James 1:17 tells us, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." Again, this does not only mean that God gives good gifts - it means every gift He gives is good. All that we have from His hand to provide for our needs, protect us, convict us, discipline us, stretch us, and grow us - it is all good.

Some ask why bad things happen to good people. This assumes that there is such a thing as a good person (Rom 3:12; Matt 19:17). It also assumes that trials, tribulations, and other various circumstances sent directly from the hand of God to us are bad! God does not give bad gifts. He alone is good and He knows what is best, and everything that happens to us is working for His glory and our good (Rom 8:28).

It is the selfish, fleshly attitude that cries out when our rights are violated and our needs go unmet. The truth is that we have no rights because we are blood bought slaves of Jesus Christ (1 Cor 6:19-20; 7:23). Further, if our needs are unmet then there are several possibilities. First, they are not needs - because God promises to meet every need (Phil 4:19). Second, perhaps we are asking amiss, asking selfishly (James 4:3). Third, it is not that God will not answer it is only that He has not answered yet (Ps 27:14; 37:7). Fourth, perhaps the answer was "No" and we are just being stubborn! And the list could go on.

Whatever the case may be we must regain a right view of God. He is able to answer, willing to answer, and He answers giving us every good gift. Are we asking correctly? Are we asking in faith, without doubting? Are we asking all the while knowing that the gifts God will give us are always good, even if they do not look so good to us at first?

We must ask, why is it that hindsight is 20/20? If we are asking in faith, truly knowing Who God is and what He can do, then why can't foresight be 20/20?? Look through the eyes of faith - then we will see how gracious, merciful, and giving our God really is. When we see all the answers He has given us, and when we recognize how good His gifts really are, we cannot help but praise and glorify Him. And that is the reason we pray in the first place - we pray so that God might be glorified!

Links for Further Study
(links to study each daily topic in more detail if you have the desire and the time)

How We Ought to Think about God's Providence by Thomas Boston
Delight in Prayer by Stephen Charnock

Bible Reading For Further Study

• James 1:17; Rom 3:12; Matt 19:17; Rom 8:28
  
• 1 Cor 6:19-20; 7:23; James 4:3; Ps 27:14; 37:7

Recommended Songs for Worship

• All My Hope On God is Founded
  
• Almighty Father, Who Dost Give

Knock

TIME in the Word - Daily Devotional
Together for Inspiration, Motivation, and Encouragement

Verse of the Day - Matthew 7:7-8
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

Daily Scripture Reading - Acts 12

Puritan Catechism
Question #51 - How is the Sabbath to be sanctified?

Answer - The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days (Lev. 23:3), and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God's worship (Ps. 92:1-2; Isa. 58:13-14), except so much as is taken up in the works of necessity and mercy (Matt. 12:11-12).

Devotional Thoughts
We have seen that prayer is defined as asking so that we might receive that which we need from God, and it is seeking Him so that we might trust Him to provide those things for which we have asked. In asking and seeking we know that the focus is on God, not on us or our needs. As we depend upon Him and ask Him and seek from Him what we need, we are reminded that He is our Provider and that He is in control of every aspect of our lives.

Today we see that prayer is likened to knocking so that the door might be opened to us. What door? The door to communion. Jesus is telling us here that we are able through prayer to ask of God and seek from God, but it all starts with the knock – opening the time of communion with God.

We must never think of prayer as a chore, and if we view it as a duty it must be a duty of love for God. We must also never take prayer lightly, as if communion with the Almighty is a little thing or an easy thing! Throughout Scripture we see examples of men and women who struggled in prayer. Hannah prayed with such focus and lack of self awareness that Eli thought she was drunk. Daniel prayed for 21 days before he received an answer brought by an angel who had to fight his way there. Jesus agonized in the garden, facing the cross and pleading for the will of the Father to be accomplished, and when the disciples were asked to pray with Him and for Him during this time they grew weary while praying and fell asleep.

Prayer is never easy. It is never cheap. And we should never think that we have the right to burst in on God and make demands. We approach Him with faith and with boldness, but we must do so humbly and reverently. We are after all speaking with God.

As we look at what it means to knock we need to remember that the thing which most often hinders our prayer is sin. Whether it is pride, apathy, greed, or an attitude of legalistic obedience, these things hinder our communion with God. To knock then is to do what is necessary to gain entrance into this time of communion with God. It is to prepare our hearts and minds by confessing sin and meditating on the truth about who God is.

Do we desire to pray? Do we want to spend time with God? Do we long for that “sweet hour of prayer”? Or is it more like a fast food drive through where we place our order and drive around and wait for the answer to be delivered so we can get on with our day?

Interestingly, when we as a church allow sin and impurity to harden our hearts, Jesus comes and does the knocking. In Revelation 3:20 Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” This is not a verse that speaks of Jesus knocking on the door of the heart of a lost man seeking to gain entrance – no, this is Jesus standing outside the door of the lukewarm church! This is the church that has become so dependent upon themselves, their self-righteousness, and their programs that they feel that they have no need of the power of the Holy Spirit. Even when the church is in this hardened state, Jesus desires fellowship with us, though He must deal with our sin. He does so by knocking – by letting us know He needs to be let in – that our sin needs to be confessed and the door opened.

Just as He seeks communion and fellowship, to “dine” with us, so we too must come to God desiring to commune, to be fed by His Word through His Spirit. We must knock. The things of God are not easily opened. We must be diligent to seek after God, to ask, even if the answer takes some time. We must be ready to commune with God, never expecting an automatic hearing from Him. He is holy. And while we are told to approach Him with boldness, we must do so with humility knowing that it is only by the blood of Christ that we have this access.

We cannot rush into prayer. We must remember that we are talking to God. And we must prepare to enter His presence. Jesus taught us about this when He gave us the model prayer and began by saying to our Father, “Hallowed be Your Name.” Above all else in prayer, whether we are asking, seeking, thanking, pleading, interceding, or praising, our focus must be on the holiness of God – we cannot forget that He is holy!

In the Scriptures there are examples of those who forgot that God was holy. In one instance recorded in 2 Samuel 6:6-7, the ark was being carried in a manner contrary to God’s instructions. It was put on a cart instead of being carried by the priests. The priests carried the ark before the people in a way that reminded them all of God’s holiness. But this time, transporting it on the cart, the cart started to tip and Uzzah reached up to steady it – no doubt a good intention, but again, contrary to God’s specific commands. When Uzzah touched the ark, he died. He handled that which was holy in an unholy manner.

Does this mean that God will kill us if we pray without preparation, or if we dare enter His presence without giving thought to His holiness? Well, think about it. To fail to be holy, or prepared, or reverent, or humble when we approach God is to sin, is it not? And what are the wages of sin? Death (Rom 6:23). Our reaction to this proves that we have a low view of God, a high view of self, and a wrong view of sin. We think of God as one of us. We think God owes us. And we think sin is nothing more than a failure or mistake.

We learn then that when we pray we must first knock – we must be prepared to enter the presence of God. We can be humble and bold at the same time when that boldness is founded upon the truth about the atoning death of Christ. He died so that we could come boldly in faith. His life and death and resurrection makes the Way for us to come to God in prayer, knowing that we will be heard and that our prayers will be answered. Not because we have needs, but because God is faithful to provide for us!

The underlying truth in these words shows us that when we ask, seek, and knock we are coming to God on His terms, focused on Him instead of ourselves and our needs, and we are expecting Him to answer because of the work that Christ has done on our behalf. How precious the truth then that we do not pray alone, for Christ Himself makes intercession (Heb 7:25) for us and the Holy Spirit takes the things that we cannot even express with words (Rom 8:26-27) and utters them to the Father!


Links for Further Study
(links to study each daily topic in more detail if you have the desire and the time)

Motives for Prayer by Thomas Boston
True Prayer - True Power! by Charles Spurgeon

Bible Reading For Further Study

• Psalm 4:1; 17:1; 39:12; 55:17; 69:13; 86:1
  
• Psalm 102:17; 119:108; 141:2; 143:1

Recommended Songs for Worship

• Pilgrim, Burdened with Thy Sin
  
• Behold, the Bridegroom Cometh

Seek

TIME in the Word - Daily Devotional
Together for Inspiration, Motivation, and Encouragement

Verse of the Day - Matthew 7:7-8
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

Daily Scripture Reading - Isaiah 51

Puritan Catechism
Question #51 - How is the Sabbath to be sanctified?

Answer - The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days (Lev. 23:3), and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God's worship (Ps. 92:1-2; Isa. 58:13-14), except so much as is taken up in the works of necessity and mercy (Matt. 12:11-12).

Devotional Thoughts
In our text this week we see that Jesus is teaching us how to pray. He uses the terms ask, seek, and knock, but we see that He is using the terminology in order to make a point about how to pray. Matthew Henry says of these terms, "Ask, Seek, Knock (v. 7); that is, in one word, 'Pray; pray often; pray with sincerity and seriousness; pray, and pray again; make conscience of prayer, and be constant in it; make a business of prayer, and be earnest in it.'" Yesterday we saw how it was that we are to pray, asking according to God's will, in Jesus name, led by the Holy Spirit, in faith without doubting or fear. Today we will learn how prayer is typified in seeking.

How are we to seek God? How are we to pray as if we are seeking? We seek with earnestness, with determination, with faith, and with the assurance that we will find that for which we are seeking. And we seek God - not the answers! This is important. We often think that we are to seek the answer to our prayers, but what we learn is that we seek God. We seek to know Him. We seek to please Him. We seek His face, not His hands.

Many seek to get things from God, but that is a wrong view of God and of prayer. Yes, we ask and we seek, but the goal is not ultimately so that we get what we want - the joy of asking and seeking is in taking the time to get to know God better as we talk, listen, discern, wait, expect, and trust Him for the answer. The answer then is not the goal, as the needs we have are simply a means of growing in grace as we walk with God.

Del Fehsenfeld, Jr., used to say that our needs were like a "grace ambulance". We have needs and God by His grace meets those needs. The need is not the focus - God is as He meets the need. Think about how often the Scriptures tell us to seek God. In the dozens of verses that tell us to seek God we are not told to seek the answer - we are told to seek Him, to seek His face, to seek to know Him and see Him in the need!

As we seek God we also see that the term teaches us the nature of prayer - we seek as if we had indeed lost something valuable. We depend upon God to help us when that which is valuable to us has been lost or misplaced. Jesus tells us in several parables that the gospel is something that is valuable, to be sought and sacrificed for so that we might possess it and be possessed by it.

Calvin says of Matt 7:7, “Nothing is better adapted to excite us to prayer than a full conviction that we shall be heard. Those who doubt can only pray in an indifferent manner; and prayer, unaccompanied by faith, is an idle and unmeaning ceremony. Accordingly, Christ, in order to excite us powerfully to this part of our duty, not only enjoins what we ought to do, but promises that our prayers shall not be fruitless.” We seek then because we trust that we will find that for which we seek – we seek with determination, believing that God will provide for us what we need.

So we start by seeking the gospel, the forgiveness of sins. This we will not do on our own, as the Holy Spirit must first convict us and draw us. But then as we are saved we learn to seek God daily. To seek to please Him, to seek to have our sins forgiven as we walk in the grace He has freely supplied.

We seek next God's glory. Everything we do should be done for His glory, not our own. We seek for God to be exalted and magnified. We see then that using the term seek in the place of prayer shows us how our prayer life is to be focused on God, not self. We have needs but we go to God, trusting Him to meet them.

We should also seek to edify and encourage other believers. Our motive then is not selfish, but selfless, so that even in our need others might be blessed. Paul praised the church in Philippi for this very thing - they had great needs and yet in the midst of their lack they supplied gifts for the needs of the church at Jerusalem.

The key today for us to remember is that we seek with our whole heart. God is not impressed with half-hearted prayers, prayers offered for the benefit of those listening instead of prayers of worship as we adore God for all He is and has done. In fact, in Jeremiah 29:13 we read, "And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart."

Where is your heart? Is it divided? Are we seeking to please self and hoping that we can please God at the same time? Or are we loving God with all our heart? This is the first and greatest command - love God with our whole heart. And yet if our hearts are full of doubt and worry then we are missing the great privilege of seeking God. We miss the time that we could be spending in fellowship exercising faith all because we are preoccupied with the need instead of with the One who can meet the need.

What do you seek? What do you spend your time pursuing? Is it God? Do you seek Him? Today, when you see a need, thank God for giving you an opportunity to seek Him!

Links for Further Study
(links to study each daily topic in more detail if you have the desire and the time)

Seeking Richly Rewarded by Charles Spurgeon
Prayer by Leonard Ravenhill

Bible Reading For Further Study

• Psalm 14:2; 27:4, 8; 40:16; 63:1; 105:4; 119:2
  
• Proverbs 8:17; 11:27; 15:14; 17:11; 25:27

Recommended Songs for Worship

• Christian, Rise and Act Thy Creed
  
• God of My Life, To Thee I Call

Ask

TIME in the Word - Daily Devotional
Together for Inspiration, Motivation, and Encouragement

Verse of the Day - Matthew 7:7-8
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

Daily Scripture Reading - Mark 9

Puritan Catechism
Question #51 - How is the Sabbath to be sanctified?

Answer - The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days (Lev. 23:3), and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God's worship (Ps. 92:1-2; Isa. 58:13-14), except so much as is taken up in the works of necessity and mercy (Matt. 12:11-12).

Devotional Thoughts
I am sure that we are all fairly familiar with the verses we will study this week. We have heard them quoted often, and as we get to the end of the paragraph we are looking at we will see that The Golden Rule is quoted over and over again - though rarely actually lived out. Within the context, these verses follow an admonition not to judge one another, though as we have studied, that too is often misquoted and misused. But in that context let us examine what Jesus says and see why He says it.

As a summary, Matthew 7:1-6 tells us not to judge one another in a negative way but instead to measure out goodness to one another. As we do these things we are told how to keep things in perspective - it is the parable of the speck and plank (part 1 and part 2). We have a choice to make, we can remove the plank from our own eye or we can bludgeon our brother with it as it sticks out of our eye during our self righteous attempts to pluck the speck from his eye. So as we learn not to judge and how to deal with sin in our lives and the lives of those around us, we see Jesus conclude these verse by telling us not to cast our pearls before swine. This one is easy to understand - who among us would take the most expensive and precious piece of jewelry they could find and throw it out into the pig pen? At the time Jesus was preaching, the pearl was one of the most rare jewels. And the pig was one of the most "unclean" animals to the Jew. Who would ever think to take their most valued possession and toss it to pigs? And these were wild boars who would just as soon rip a person to pieces with their tusks if they had the chance.

Jesus Himself told the disciples that as they were a witness, some would heed their message, others would not. Not every person we talk to will believe what we tell them about Christ. We will, at times, see our witness rejected. And Jesus said that if the gospel was shared and a person was of such evil character that they refused the gospel and fought against the witness - then we are to "shake the dust off our feet." The kind of judging God expects of us is judging when to witness, when to rebuke, when to comfort, and when to quit.

And now to follow this up in His Sermon in the Mount, Jesus tells us:

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

We need discernment. We need wisdom. In order to do what He has just told us to do in verses 1-6 we must have the right perspective. And yet so often we do not. Our eyes are blinded by the things of this world and our minds are confused by our emotions and our desires. So often we are quick to judge. So what can we do about that? What remedy do we find in the Scriptures?

Jesus says, "Ask."

Is it that simple? Well, yes, it is. He tells us here to start with that if there is something we need then we should ask. This is so simple that I wonder how we mess these verses up so often. But there it is, simple enough. Ask.

Now a test to use when we are studying the Scripture is to seek to keep in mind the whole counsel of the Word of God. The Bible does not contradict itself. If we think we have found a contradiction in reality we have just found a passage we do not understand. So if we are to understand what Jesus means when He tells us to ask, and it will be given to us, then we need to see what else the Bible says about asking.

Can this be the magical formula that the health and wealth prosperity preachers proclaim to us? Is this the spell that opens the windows of heaven? Can we COMMAND God and DEMAND of God and EXPECT God to respond to our every whim, if we only ask with enough faith (and send $1000 to the toothy grin looking at us from inside the TV)? Do we have the authority to go to God and ask for anything we want and do we then have the right to expect that God will do whatever we ask, on the spot? ABRACADABRA. HOCUS POCUS. And all that cloaked in the terms of faith and trust?

The Word of God tells us that if we ask in prayer believing then we will be given that for which we ask. But are there qualifications? John Gill summarized the way in which we should seek to pray by writing that we should ask, "according to the will of God, in the name of Christ, and under the direction, guidance, and influence of the Spirit, in faith, and with submission to the divine will." Let us look at these Scriptural qualifiers.

Ask in According to the Will of God

Gill starts and finishes here, with the will of God. In telling us that we should ask with "submission to the Divine will" we see that he is telling us to pray as Christ did in the Garden the night He was betrayed. Jesus prayed, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."

We see that He prayed for what He wanted, but also prayed that God's will would be done. His flesh, being fully human, was distraught at the thought of the cross. In this regard His flesh was weak, yet His spirit was willing. He prayed specifically that the Father's will be done.

This is asking in submission. It is admitting that God knows best and that we are to desire His will above all else. So even as we take the things we want before Him we do so admitting that we truly want His will to be done.

But how do we know the will of God? How can we ask according to His will? We must be attentive to the Scriptures. We are told that it is God's will for us to be sanctified (1 Thess 4:3), have wisdom (James 1:5), love Him with all we are (Mark 12:30), and love our neighbor as ourselves (Luke 10:27). If we can just strive to do these then we will be walking in His will.

Luke 9:23 sums this up as we are instructed to deny self, take up our cross, and follow Jesus. We do this as we ask according to the will of God.

Ask in the Name of Christ

This attribute of praying is most often applied by closing the prayer by saying, "In Jesus' name." However, that is not what this means, and in fact, to use a catch phrase without knowing what it means actually demeans the name of Christ. This is not praying and adding to the end "Jesus name."

John MacArthur puts it this way, "Jesus’ name signifies all that He is and all that He would want. Praying in His name means praying in accordance with His character and His will." So it is praying not just with the words "in Jesus name", but with the while mindset that we are able to come and pray only through the atoning death and resurrected life of our Lord. It is coming to the Father through Christ, by virtue of His name, of which we are heirs!

Ask under the Direction of the Holy Spirit

Are we influenced and led by the Holy Spirit? We are if He indwells us, that is, if we are saved. The Holy Spirit points us to Christ. He convicts us of sin. He illumines the Word of God to our minds and hearts. He teaches us truth. He seals us for the day of redemption, guaranteeing our salvation.

Too often we pray with a view toward the will of God and according to the nature and attributes of Christ, but we neglect the Holy Spirit. We do not rely on Him as we should. We pray and live under our own power so to speak, all the while He is there and He is able to teach us to pray as we ought.

It is the Holy Spirit who gives us power and even the desire to pray as we should. He leads us as we seek to understand the Word of God and the will of God. Another way to say it is that we should pray as we are instructed in the Scriptures, for the Holy Spirit inspired the written Word of God. So to pray under His guidance is to pray in ways that we are taught to pray in the Bible.

Ask in Faith

Finally, we see that for our prayers to be answered we must pray in faith. We must believe that God hears and is able to answer. We must trust Him for the answer. And we must not doubt.

To doubt really is to have a lack of faith, so doubt is the enemy of prayer. James tells us that when we ask, we should ask without doubting, for "he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."

God expects us to believe Him when we ask. Why would we ask if we did not believe He could and would answer in the first place? Then again, we are rebuked in James 4 for the times that we ask amiss, that is, we ask for things only to "spend" on our own pleasures, with no regard for the will of God.

We see then that we are expected to ask God for the things that we need. By doing so we are able to grow in our relationship with Him through the conversation of prayer. We are also able to see Him provide. Asking shows dependence and humility, as well as faith and hope. And as He hears and answers, giving us that for which we have asked, we learn to trust Him even more.

Jesus begins the lesson on prayer here with this word. Ask. It denotes dependence, expectation, need, and faith. It tells us about ourselves and our God. When we have a need, we need to ask. When we ask, we will receive.

Links for Further Study
(links to study each daily topic in more detail if you have the desire and the time)

How the Spirit enables Us to Pray by Thomas Boston
What Sinners Should Plead with God by Ralph Erskine

Bible Reading For Further Study

• Psalm 2:8; 21:4; 105:4
  
• Luke 11:1-13

Recommended Songs for Worship

• O the Depth of Love Divine
  
• The Lord is My Shepherd

Cross Eyed

TIME in the Word - Daily Devotional
Together for Inspiration, Motivation, and Encouragement

Verse of the Day - Matthew 6:24
No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Daily Scripture Reading - Matthew 25

Puritan Catechism
Question #50 - What is required in the fourth commandment?

Answer - The fourth commandment requires the keeping holy to God such set times as he has appointed in his Word, expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy Sabbath to himself (Lev. 19:30; Deut. 5:12).

Devotional Thoughts
It is often the simplest principles we find in the Scripture that are the most helpful to us in living the Christian life from day to day. These are things that should truly be obvious but we seem to miss them. Whether it is our being busy, our days being so positively full, our being overwhelmed by the stress that surrounds us, or our lack of faith, we seem very prone to miss the simple truths that God has for us.

One of those truths is the principle of stewardship. If we could only learn and if we would only remember that we are nothing more and nothing less than stewards. It is not a matter of stewards over what. We are just stewards. Nothing really belongs to us, but everything we “have” and everything we are is given as a trust - given to us to use as good stewards.

In these verses from Matthew 6 we have seen principles dealing with things from wealth to worry, and in the middle of it all we have seen the importance of having a good eye, an eye that is focused on Christ and on things eternal. As the title of today's devotional notes, we really should be focused upon Christ and His life and work, His sinless life, His substitutionary atoning death on the cross, and His resurrection. Above all of that too there is the matter of His Lordship.

And as we move through these verses we find in the middle that the real lesson here is not about things, it is about us. And it is about Lordship and Mastery. We are stewards of the grace of God. We are stewards of all that He gives us. And we must give an account to Him for the way in which we handle His provisions.

As I mention the term Lordship we need to understand that Jesus is Lord. We do not make Him Lord. Who do we think that we are, as if we could appoint Him to a position of sovereign ownership and control? He IS Lord. The question then is only a matter of stewardship. Are we obedient stewards, or rebellious stewards? He IS Lord. Do we obey Him?

The term Lord means Master. One who is in control. The authority belongs to the Master. The servant, the steward, the slave would never think to dictate to the Master or offer criticism to the Lord. No. Remembering their place they would simply bow to the Master and hope to be able to do His will for His pleasure.

Interestingly then we come to a verse that tells us, "No one can serve two masters." It is another simple principle. We can only serve one master at a time. We will be loyal to that master, and if another master vies for control, for loyalty, or for authority, then we will either love one and hate the other, or we will be loyal to one and forsake the other. There cannot be two masters!

As a side note, it is interesting then that the Church has One Lord, and in modeling His rule He has established that in the home their is one head - the husband. Not two in charge. One. One Lord. One Master. We cannot serve more than one at a time, plainly and simply. And in this context the choices are God or mammon. Mammon is a term for the things of this world, often used to denote money. Did you get that? It is impossible to serve God and anything else, especially the temporary things of this fallen world.

Why is that? Psalm 123:2 tells us:

Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, until He has mercy on us.

We look to our Master. So where are we looking? As we have talked about the eyes, are we looking to others? To self? To sin? Or are we cross eyed? And now we see another simple truth. As we look to see who we serve, we must look at how we think, talk, and live. How do we make decisions? Does the way we live really say that Jesus is our Master and we are His obedient steward? Or are we ruled by the things of this world?

There are those who serve themselves. They think that they are their own lord. As it is put, some believe that they are the master of their own destiny. But then we must look back at previous lessons, where we have learned that we are never in charge. We are never the lord. We are not our own masters. Think about this. Jesus is Lord and so we either serve Him or we rebel against His rule. If we rebel, are we really in charge? Are we? Of course not. We are either slaves of righteousness or we are slaves of sin.

Who or what is in control? Who is the one master we serve? Are we controlled by our lust? By other people? Or by the Holy Spirit? We are learning that either the Spirit is in control, or sin is in control. One truth we must understand is that we are never in control! Self is never in charge, for we are living as a slave of unrighteousness and sin, or we are living as a slave of righteousness and of Christ.

As we live this life of stewardship, are we being good stewards? Are we loyal and loving and faithful to our Master, the Lord Jesus? Are we cross eyed? Because it is only as we fix our eyes firmly upon Him that we can run a good race, finish the course, and find the faith to overcome daily those things that would push us off course.

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. – Heb 12:1-2

We do only have One Master. As faithful stewards then, are we serving Him?

Links for Further Study
(links to study each daily topic in more detail if you have the desire and the time)

The Sunday School Teacher - A Steward by Charles Spurgeon
Seeing the Authority of Jesus by John Stevenson

Bible Reading For Further Study

• Psalm 5:3; 63:2; 119:37; 145:15
  
• Matthew 10:24; Colossians 3:22; 1 Peter 2:18

Recommended Songs for Worship

• We Give Thee but Thine Own
  
• Son of God, Eternal Savior

Just Me and My Shadow

TIME in the Word - Daily Devotional
Together for Inspiration, Motivation, and Encouragement

Verse of the Day - Psalm 39:6
Surely every man walks about like a shadow; surely they busy themselves in vain; he heaps up riches, and does not know who will gather them.

Daily Scripture Reading - Psalm 39

Puritan Catechism
Question #50 - What is required in the fourth commandment?

Answer - The fourth commandment requires the keeping holy to God such set times as he has appointed in his Word, expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy Sabbath to himself (Lev. 19:30; Deut. 5:12).

Devotional Thoughts
Remember that our context this week has been Matthew 6 and the Sermon on the Mount. As we have looked at Matt 6:22-23 we have seen how Jesus in teaching about wealth and worry has introduced the contrast of good eyes and bad eyes, of light and darkness. Our application has been to examine our eyes, to see what we look at both physically and in our "mind's eye" as we imagine and think.

In the teaching we have covered we have seen that the light is always there. The question is whether or not we are seeing it and letting it shine. Good eyes, physically and spiritually, are used to discern, to understand, and to learn. Good eyes let the light in so that our bodies and indeed our lives are full of light. Bad eyes keep the light hidden, obscured, and literally out of sight. The body and our lives then are full of darkness.

In looking back at our immediate context and the discussion about laying up treasures in heaven we are learning that often we are looking at the wrong things because we want the wrong things. Instead of being eternally minded and seeing things from God's perspective we find that we are driven by our own desire, being consumed with lust and never satisfied. How true is this today? How many of us run ourselves ragged just to make another dollar or two? How many sacrifice the things that are truly important for the sake of temporal comfort, luxury, or indulgence?

Jesus asked what profit it was for a man to gain the whole world and yet lose his soul. There is an honest comparison between the light and the darkness. The light, having the right perspective, knowing and loving Jesus, and walking in the light as He is in the light are things that we should desire and by which we should be motivated. The darkness on the other hand is that ever discontented pursuit of self.

Psalm 39 sheds a little more light on the topic. In this chapter we find David confronting the realities of the frailty of life, the cost and consequence of sin, and the truth about forgiveness. He shines light on the hideous nature of sin. He loathes sin. He wants to flee sin and to be delivered from sin. He knows he is a mere man and that one day he will give an account for the things he has looked upon - the things he has desired and pursued to the neglect of the Word and Ways of God.

In the middle of the chapter we find verse 6, "Surely every man walks about like a shadow; surely they busy themselves in vain; he heaps up riches, and does not know who will gather them." He has already declared that all life at its best is a vapor, here one minute and gone the next. And yet in the face of this frailty we see men rushing about to collect and consume, to fill storehouses and hoard riches. As if these earthly treasures could give us eternal life.

They busy themselves in vain. Vanity. It is a useless endeavor. It is a task that will have no good reward. And there will never be fulfillment. For men who are consumed with the desire for more, who love the world and the things in the world, who willingly sell their souls and are possessed by their possessions - these men walk around like a shadow.

In this pursuit, in this rat race, we find men and women who indeed are walking around like shadows. For all they are and all they do and all they have, all that is really there is a shadow where their lives are deflecting the light.

The light shines on them as it does on every man. But they are blind. They cannot see the light. They cannot feel the light. They only manage to block the light out so that all that is left is a shadow. An image that signifies only the absence of the light. They cast great darkness all around them.

Have you ever watched two people talking in the distance and you cannot hear them but you see in the course of the conversation that one says something to anger or hurt the other and the reaction is a shadow that falls over their face? A disappointment. A let down.

If we close our eyes to the light and walk in darkness then not only do we hurt those around us, but we also cast a shadow over everything around us. Who wants to live like that? And yet every time we put the pursuit of self before the praise of God, we walk around like a shadow. Every time we chase desire to the neglect of the church we isolate ourselves and set ourselves up for certain failure.

Are the riches of this world worth our soul? If so, in the end, for all the riches and wealth and fame, all that we will have is our shadow.......a reminder of all the times we obscured the light. Interesting then, is it not, that the place of final torment for the lost is a place full of utter darkness.

Today, have you seen the Light of the World? Do you know Jesus? Is He all that you desire? If so, let your light shine! Stay out of the shadows and walk in the light.

Links for Further Study
(links to study each daily topic in more detail if you have the desire and the time)

An Exhortation to Serve the Lord by Edward Griffin
Faith and Sight by John Owen

Bible Reading For Further Study

• Psalm 17:8; 23:4; 36:7; 57:1; 91:1
  
• Matthew 4:16; Luke 1:79; James 1:17

Recommended Songs for Worship

• The Rock that is Higher than I
  
• Jesus, Lover of My Soul

Who Turned Out the Lights?

TIME in the Word - Daily Devotional
Together for Inspiration, Motivation, and Encouragement

Verse of the Day - Matthew 6:22-23
The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

Daily Scripture Reading - 1 John 1

Puritan Catechism
Question #50 - What is required in the fourth commandment?

Answer - The fourth commandment requires the keeping holy to God such set times as he has appointed in his Word, expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy Sabbath to himself (Lev. 19:30; Deut. 5:12).

Devotional Thoughts
We have all heard the idea that in each person is a divine spark, an internal inherent goodness. I believe that while people know (but fail to understand) that we are made in the image of God, they often want to believe that at heart we are all basically good. You know, those to whom everyone is a "good ol' boy". Beside, we have been taught by movies and books that there is no such thing as a bad boy.

But are we good? Really deep down in our human nature, are we good?

In our text this week we have seen that the eye is the lamp of the body. If the eye is good we are full of light, we see, we perceive correctly and can respond and act accordingly. But if our eye is bad then we cannot get the light in - we are left full of darkness. And now, this last phrase tells us:

If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

In other words, if our eyes are bad and we are only full of darkness, then how bad is the situation, really? Think about it - especially if we look at darkness all the time. If all we fill ourselves with is darkness then how bad a situation is it in our hearts and minds? All the light, all that supposed spark of divine light and human goodness that is there in each of us is really just vast and utter darkness!

In the physical realm it is like saying that if we lose our eyesight through disease or damage, then what light do we have? What can we see? It is only darkness, and a great darkness at that - darkness that cannot be corrected outside of healing. Spiritually speaking, what we put in our minds and hearts will affect our "sight." Those things we dwell on, think about, and look at - the imaginations of our hearts - these things can either enlighten us (Psalm 19:8) or they can lead us further and further into darkness and moral decay.

But, some would still insist that there is a little light in all of us. How delusional! The only spark that all of us have is found in the fires of our tongues! (James 3:5).

This darkness is not a lack of light, mind you. The light is there. In fact, the Bible tells us that the light shines on every man (John 1:9). But if our eyes are bad, if our heart depraved, if our spirits bound in sin, then we will not, we cannot see that light. It is as if someone turned out all the lights.

So who did turn out the lights? Remember, this is a trick question. The light never goes out. God began His creation by saying, "Let there be light." And there has always ever since been light. Further evidence is seen in the truth that Jesus is the light of the world and He never changes. His Word is a lamp and light (Ps 119:105). And even we His people are told that we are the light of the world and should let our light so shine before men. We were darkness but now we are light (Matt 5:16; Eph 5:8). The light is always on.

So no one turned the lights out. But we are all still born in darkness. Our nature depraved (Rom 3:23), our minds darkened (Eph 4:17), our hearts desperately wicked (Jer 17:9). We are from conception sinners (Ps 51:5). Our eyes are bad due to sin and the fall (Rom 5:12). And we are not in the dark, we are darkness (Eph 5:8).

We know then from the testimony of Scripture that men are not basically good, that there is no divine spark, and that instead we are depraved, dead in sin, and full of darkness - until our eyes are opened by the Holy Spirit and we see for the first time the Light of the World (John 8:12).

And there is the message of hope - there is the light! God can and does open our eyes to the light of His Son! By grace, according to His good pleasure, not because of anything He sees in us, He gives us freely of salvation, adopting us as sons and daughters so that we might now walk in the light (Eph 2:8-9).

Since this is true, since we are so dependent upon Him for light and for life, let us spend a moment today meditating on 1 John 1. This our Scripture reading for the day will remind us how great and awesome our God is and how we are in such need of His grace, and His light, day to day.

1 John 1

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— 2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. 5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.


Links for Further Study
(links to study each daily topic in more detail if you have the desire and the time)

Obstacles in Coming to Christ by AW Pink
A True Map of Man's Miserable Estate by Nature by Christopher Love

Bible Reading For Further Study

• Psalm 19:8; James 3:5; John 1:9; Ps 119:105; Matt 5:16; Eph 5:8
  
• Rom 3:23; Eph 4:17; Jer 17:9; Ps 51:5; Rom 5:12; John 8:12

Recommended Songs for Worship

• Lighten the Darkness
  
• The Light of the World is Jesus

Getting An Eye Full

TIME in the Word - Daily Devotional
Together for Inspiration, Motivation, and Encouragement

Verse of the Day - Matthew 6:22-23
The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

Daily Scripture Reading - Ecclesiastes 1

Puritan Catechism
Question #50 - What is required in the fourth commandment?

Answer - The fourth commandment requires the keeping holy to God such set times as he has appointed in his Word, expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy Sabbath to himself (Lev. 19:30; Deut. 5:12).

Devotional Thoughts
Ecclesiastes 1:8 tells us, "The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor the ear filled with hearing." Likewise the Bible tells us that there are just certain things that are never satisfied. Proverbs 30:16 says, "The grave, The barren womb, The earth that is not satisfied with water— And the fire never says, 'Enough!'" This is a natural discontentment.

On the one hand we have the verses in Ecclesiastes and Proverbs that are clear, "So the eyes of man are never satisfied" (Prov. 27:20). But on the other we are told in the Scriptures that godliness with contentment is great gain (1 Tim. 6:6). So what do we do when we just cannot be content? And might we be so bold as to say that not all discontentment is sinful?

We see that these verses that refer to the eyes speak about lust, desire, and a hunger for more. While hungering for righteousness is good, hungering for self fulfillment is not. So the question that helps us see the right from the wrong is a question about what it is that we are discontent about.

If we are discontent about our walk with God and the weakness of our faith, then that is good. It keeps us from being apathetic and lukewarm. But if we are discontent about things, about material provisions, about comfort, or about the things we think we deserve, then our focus is not on developing our relationship with God for His glory and our benefit. The focus has shifted and we are consumed with a desire for more, just to have more. As if having more of whatever it is we desire will satisfy us.

But if we are talking about the temporal, about the things of this world, the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life, then those things will never say "Enough!" They always want more.

So what do we want?

It is much like the question asked yesterday about how we can tell what our true priorities are - where are we spending the most of our time, money, and energy? What do we desire? What drives us? What is it that we want more and more of in our lives?

In our verses from Matthew 6 we are told that if our eyes are good then we will be full of light, but if they are bad then we will be full of darkness. It is true, on one level that if the eye is good then the light is let in, so to speak. And if our eyes are bad, then no light gets in and we are only full of darkness. But in another sense, in a deeper sense, what we learn is that the things we look at and dwell on, those things in our mind's eye that we focus upon, those things reveal the truth about whether we have a good eye or a bad eye.

If our eye is good, if we are thinking on and dwelling on and meditating on good things, of things which are "true, just, noble, praiseworthy" and the like, then we will be full of light. But if our eye is bad, then we will be filling ourselves only with darkness, with an absence of light.

One way to examine our eyes is to see what it is that we look at. What do we focus our attention on? Where are our eyes? Do we think that it is okay to look as long as we do not touch? Or do we think that an intentional glance will not harm us as long as we let the thought pass from our mind after we play with it but for a moment?

You see, this tells us whether or not we are filling ourselves with light or with darkness. Where are our eyes? In a very practical way we must realize that often we let our eyes wander. We look for things to entice and excite! Instead we should be guarding our eyes and our gaze.

How harmful can a glance be?

As harmful as if a man went out and committed adultery, being unfaithful to his wife and to His Lord (Matt 5:8). But wait, you might say, there is nothing wrong with noticing beauty is there? But what are we looking for when we gaze? When we think? When we imagine?

This is practical for men and for women, because while men are visually oriented, it is also true that women can be misled by what they see as well? Was not the quality of the fruit that the serpent pointed out to Eve the fact that it was pleasant to the eyes, it was in every way imaginable desirable? And so as men and women we must do as Job did.

I have made a covenant with my eyes; Why then should I look upon a young woman? - Job 31:1

We must make a covenant with our eyes, lest we fill ourselves up only with darkness. We must look on things that fill us with light, things that edify. In short, we must keep our eyes upon Jesus, watching lest our eyes be turned away and we be distracted by the discontentment that is all around us.

There are movements both secular and within the "church" that appeal to our sense of discontentment. We though must learn to discern, to shun these things that drive us to desire what the world has to offer. Our treasure is to be laid up in heaven. Our eyes are to be on Jesus.

Often when we do something wrong there are those around us who will gladly give us an earful. Today we need to think about getting an eye full. What are the things that we are filling ourselves up with as we cast a glance or halt a gaze? And what do the things we look at tell us about the truth - are we full of light or darkness?

The key today is to look at the Word of God, for it, better than anything on this earth, always enlightens the eyes (Psalm 19:8).

Links for Further Study
(links to study each daily topic in more detail if you have the desire and the time)

Directions Against Sinful Desires and Discontent by Richard Baxter
The Divine Light by Jonathan Edwards

Bible Reading For Further Study

• Psalm 119:37, 148; 123:1-2; 141:8
  
• Proverbs 23:26; 26:12; 27:20; 28:22; 30:17

Recommended Songs for Worship

• Look, Ye Saints! The Sight is Glorious
  
• Am I a Soldier of the Cross?

The Eyes Have It

TIME in the Word - Daily Devotional
Together for Inspiration, Motivation, and Encouragement

Verse of the Day - Matthew 6:22-23
The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

Daily Scripture Reading - Matthew 20

Puritan Catechism
Question #50 - What is required in the fourth commandment?

Answer - The fourth commandment requires the keeping holy to God such set times as he has appointed in his Word, expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy Sabbath to himself (Lev. 19:30; Deut. 5:12).

Devotional Thoughts
In this text from the Sermon on the Mount Jesus has been giving instructions about our attitudes and relationships with wealth. His teaching stands in stark contrast to the so-called health and wealth gospel we have become so familiar with these days. Jesus is clear, the things of this earth do not really matter! Our true treasure, the things we really value should be things that are eternal, things that we have laid up in heaven.

We seem to spend so much time in the pursuit of material things and comfort. Truly what we often live in the midst of all the wealth and luxury around us having so much and yet wanting so much more. It is never enough. The lessons of stewardship are so vital for the church today. Where are our hearts? Where do we spend our time and money? Where are our energies expended? Are we pursuing pleasure? Self fulfillment? Or are we sacrificially serving the church and the world around us?

Interestingly, as Jesus tells us about wealth and treasures and priorities, we see in Matt 6:19-21 that we are indeed to lay up treasures in heaven and we are told how to know where our heart really is. If we move down through the text to Matt 6:24, we find His statement that no man can serve two masters - we cannot serve God and money, or material wealth. I plan to address verse 24 later this week, but before that I want to seek to understand why in the middle of this talk about wealth and stewardship we find verses 22-23. There Jesus tells us:

The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

Why talk about our eyes in the middle of talking about wealth, stewardship, and worry? Let us see what He says and His meaning will become plain in the context.

He says that the eye is the lamp of the body. The way we perceive the world around us through sight depends upon our eyes. If our eyes are good then we will be able to see. If they are bad, damaged, or weak then we will not be able to see.

Often the Bible speaks about our eyes to denote discernment or understanding. In Genesis we find the original temptation to sin offered to Eve included this phrase, "God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Satan tempted her. He appealed to the lust of her eyes in fact, telling her that the fruit was pleasant to look at. He appealed to the lust of the flesh by telling her it was good for food. And he appealed to the pride of life by telling her that if she would only eat the fruit she would be able to see things as God sees them. Her eyes would be open and she would know the difference between good and evil.

The temptation here is not so much seeing the difference between good and evil. Adam and Eve had been instructed in what was right and what was wrong. They had not experienced sin yet, and so experientially speaking they did not know the difference. But they did know right from wrong. No, the temptation here was the temptation that had lead to the very first sin, when Satan decided that he wanted to be just like God (Isaiah 14:14). For this pride he sinned and fell. So too did Adam and Eve, as they fell for the lie and decided that they wanted their eyes to be opened - to be like God in their perspective.

The sad reality is that sin leads to the eye being shut to the truth. Adam and Eve fell into darkness and depravity. Now their eyes were bad. They could not see as God sees. They lost the right perspective. They died spiritually and wrecked all of creation and their descendents with their sin.

So we see that if our eyes are good we can see, we have a right perspective, we can discern the truth and obey the truth. If our eyes are bad though we are in darkness. We cannot find our way around. We are lost. So in the context, our eyes serve to tell us how we have set our priorities and whether or not we are laying up for ourselves treasure in heaven instead of on the earth.

As we move through these verses the next few days we will see what makes the difference between good eyes and bad. And we will see if there is a way to examine our eyes, to know that we have the right perspective and are relating correctly to the Word and to wealth. We will also see what we can do to correct our vision if we find it deficient in matters of truth and right living.

Until then, remember today that Jesus tells us that the way we look at the world around us is important. How do we view wealth? How do we view others? How do we view ourselves? Our priorities tell us much about the way we see things. Where are you spending your time, money, and energy? Do you need an eye exam?

Links for Further Study
(links to study each daily topic in more detail if you have the desire and the time)

Losing the Will to Discern by John MacArthur
Light for Them that Sit in Darkness by John Bunyan

Bible Reading For Further Study

• Psalm 13:3; 19:8; 25:15; 26:3; 101:3; 119:18
  
• Proverbs 3:7, 21; 4:25; 7:2; 22:9; 23:5

Recommended Songs for Worship

• Light of Light, Enlighten Me
  
• Light of the Lonely Pilgrims Heart