Every Day Light

[Judy Harder]

March 2
Restoring the image
For reading & meditation: 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28
"May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (v.23)

We continue meditating on the importance of looking at life "steadily and whole". I venture to suggest that people who are not Christians are unable to see life as a whole. How can they, when their thinking takes place only on the level of the natural? Natural thinking is notoriously partial and incomplete. Take, for example, the field of medicine. A generation ago doctors treated the symptoms that people presented to them, but now, with a clearer understanding of how the mind affects physical health, they have come to see that this approach was partial. One doctor said: "At long last the medical profession has discovered that the patient himself is important." Medicine is fast moving towards what is described as a "holistic" approach as more and more doctors begin to realise that it is not enough to treat the problem, we must also treat the person. They are still far from seeing that there is also a spiritual element in the person that has to be considered, but perhaps in time that will come. Christian counselling suffers from the same problem - it does not see the whole picture. I am tired of reading books on Christian counselling that give just one side of the issue and suggest that problems can be resolved by applying one special technique. Man was created as a whole person and he will never be helped back to wholeness unless every part of his being is treated - spirit, soul and body. God wants to restore His image in us: not in part of us but in the whole.

Prayer:
O Father, forgive us that so often we settle for the half view of things rather than the whole. Quicken my spiritual understanding so that I have Your view on all things - the "whole" view. In Jesus' Name I ask it. Amen.

For further study:
2 Corinthians 4:1-16; Proverbs 20:27; Ecclesiastes 12:7
1. What is man primarily?
2. What was Paul's testimony?

[Judy Harder]

No need for dead reckoning
For reading & meditation: Acts 26:1-18
"I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth." (v.9)

The place where we can see life as a whole is in the sanctuary of God, or, if you prefer, in the presence of God. There we are reminded of things we have forgotten or ignored. See how the Good News Bible translates Acts 26:9: "I myself thought that I should do everything I could against the cause of Jesus of Nazareth." Here you see the root of Paul's problem: "I myself thought". And is not that the underlying cause of many of our problems too? We say, "I myself thought '" instead of asking: "What does God think?" Sometimes sailors will attempt to establish the position of their ships by estimating the distance and direction they have travelled, rather than by astronomical observation. This is called "dead reckoning". It is sometimes necessary in foul weather but it is fraught with peril. One mariner has said: "Undue trust in the dead reckoning has produced more disastrous shipwrecks of seaworthy ships than all other causes put together." There are people who attempt the voyage of life by dead reckoning, but there is no need. God has charted the map for us with loving care in the Scriptures, and our plain duty is to study the chart so that we might become better acquainted with His purposes and His ways. For the better we know the Scriptures, the better we will know God. We cannot ignore the facts of history or science - they help - but if our perspective is not drawn from the Scriptures it will lead us astray. We must not rely on dead reckoning but on divine reckoning.

Prayer:
O Father, just as the art of navigation requires definite and fixed points from which to take a bearing, so does my voyage through life. I am grateful, dear Father, that in You I have all the fixed points I need. Amen.

For further study:
Judges 17:1-6
1. What was said of the children of Israel?
2. Can the same be said of us?

[Judy Harder]

What says the Scripture?
For reading & meditation: Matthew 22:23-33
"Jesus replied, You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God." (v.29)

We spend one more day considering the proposition that apart from a relationship with God and an understanding of the Scriptures, we are unable to see life as a whole. The man or woman who knows and understands the Bible will be acquainted with the facts he or she needs to have in order to come to right and sound conclusions. So immerse yourself in the Scriptures. Understand that human nature is corrupt and that apart from the grace and power of God men and women are unable to live up to their ideals. Realise that the spiritual is more powerful than the material, and unless the spirit is in control we will be driven by carnal desires. When people say humanity is getting better and that sin and evil are just the "growing pains" of the human race - what are the facts? You get them from the Scriptures and only from the Scriptures. What does the Bible tell us about evil? It says it is part of the human condition and can never be rooted out except through the power and the grace of God. So study the facts of Scripture. Read them, memorise them, and meditate upon them. When next you feel dispirited because you cannot make sense of something, ask yourself: What are the facts? Dig into the Scriptures and draw your perspective from what the Bible says. The root of many of our emotional problems lies in a lack of clear thinking - clear thinking based on Scripture. Think as God thinks about issues and you will feel as God feels about them. For you are not what you think you are, but what you think you are.

Prayer:
Father, I see now why so often my thinking about life is confused - my thinking is not based on the facts. Help me draw my deductions not from what I see in the world but from what I see in the Word. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

For further study:
2 Timothy 2:1-15
1. What was Paul's exhortation to Timothy?
2. What is Scripture profitable for?

[Judy Harder]

Where does it all end?
For reading & meditation: Matthew 7:13-20
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction '" (v.13)

Today we look at the special understanding the psalmist received when he came into the sanctuary of God: "Then I understood their final destiny" (Psa. 73:17). As soon as he considered the final destiny of the ungodly, everything dropped into focus for him. He had looked at the prosperity of the ungodly but he had not looked at their end - he had not taken in all the facts. What are the facts concerning the end of the ungodly? The passage we read today tells us: the broad road which the ungodly travel leads to destruction; the narrow road which the godly travel leads to life. It is as simple as that. Though this passage was not available to the psalmist, the truth underlying it was most certainly known to him. Listen to this from Psalm 37: "The transgressors shall be destroyed together; the future of the wicked shall be cut off" (v.38, NKJ). The writer of that psalm, King David, described the wicked spreading themselves like a green tree, but when the end came they vanished off the face of the earth and no one could find them. The trouble with us is that so often we dwell too much on the present and fail to consider the future. Do you look at the ungodly, many of whom seem to be having a marvellous time ignoring moral restrictions, and feel envious of them? Well consider their end. Give some thought to the ultimate outcome. The Bible describes it as "destruction". We ought never to forget that it is not how things are at present that is important; it's how they end that matters.

Prayer:
Father, whenever I am next tempted to compare my life and its circumstances with that of others who do not know You, help me to remind myself of the fact that it is the end that matters, not the beginning. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

For further study:
Luke 12:15-21; Proverbs 12:15-16
1. What did Jesus call the man in his parable?
2. What word keeps occurring in the parable?

[Judy Harder]

March 6
I'm afraid of the dark
For reading & meditation: Proverbs 12:1-8
"Wicked men are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous stands firm." (v.7)

We continue thinking about the fact that as soon as the psalmist considered the end of the ungodly, everything dropped into focus. Their true position became so clear to him that his language in the rest of the psalm indicates that he not only ceased to be envious of the ungodly but began to be sorry for them. Indeed, the same thing will happen to us too - the more we focus on the ultimate end of the unconverted, the more compassion we will feel for them. How grim and cheerless is the non-Christian view of life, especially as it relates to the end. Dr Marrett, a rationalist and head of one of the colleges in Oxford, wrote, as he neared the end of his life: "I have nothing to look forward to but chill autumn and still chillier winter and yet I must somehow try not to lose heart." H.G. Wells, who ridiculed and scoffed at Christianity with its doctrine of sin and salvation, said at the end of his life that he was utterly baffled and bewildered. The title of his last book summed up his view of things: A Mind at the End of its Tether. When he was dying, a noted atheist asked one of his relatives for a lighted candle to be placed in his hand. "Why a lighted candle?" asked the concerned relative. "Because I am afraid to go out into the dark," was the reply. How foolish to look enviously at the lifestyle of the ungodly, focusing only on their present successes and the marvellous time they seem to be having, without considering their end. We should never forget that no matter how glittering their lifestyle, the death of the ungodly is a terrible thing.

Prayer:
O Father, let this sobering thought not only free me from envy but stimulate within me a deep concern for those who do not know You. May I be used in some way to halt the progress of someone on the road to a lost eternity. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

For further study:
1 Timothy 6:1-10; Psalms 49:10; Proverbs 23:5
1. What truth did Paul reflect to Timothy?
2. How does the same truth affect the way we live our lives?

[Judy Harder]

March 7
It's a dead certainty!
For reading & meditation: 2 Timothy 4:1-8
"Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day '" (v.

There can be no doubt that the Bible presents the death of the ungodly as being terrible. How differently, however, does it portray the death of the righteous. Even a hireling prophet like Balaam, bad as he was, recognised that there was something different about the death of the godly. Listen to his words in Numbers 23:10: "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my end be like his" (NKJ). The book of Proverbs puts the same thought in this way: "The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day" (4:18). I heard one preacher say that the happiest woman he had ever seen was a dying woman. She lay on her bed and clapped her hands at the approach of death. Very many people came to look at her bright countenance. "They tell me this is death," she said. "It's not death at all - it's life." People were converted by her bedside, including her son. A theologian by the name of W. Cosley Bell, when he sensed that he was about to leave this world, sent these words to the staff of the college where he was employed: "Tell the young men that I've grown surer of God every year of my life, and I've never been so sure as I am right now. Why it's all so! It's a fact - a dead certainty. Im so glad I haven't the least shadow of shrinking or uncertainty. I've been preaching and teaching these things all my life and Im so interested to find that all we've been believing and hoping is so." That is the way to die. One of John Wesley's proudest claims for the early Methodists was this: "Our people die well.".

Prayer:
Father, the empty tomb of Jesus makes all our fears lies, and all our hopes truths. That empty tomb is the birthplace of eternal certainty. Because He lives I shall live also. I am eternally grateful. Amen.

For further study:
1.What was Paul's testimony?
2. Why is there no fear in death for the believer?

[Judy Harder]

March 8
Rougher - but more secure
For reading & meditation: Deuteronomy 32:28-38
"If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be!" (v.29)

We have been seeing that in the sanctuary the psalmist was reminded of the things he had forgotten, and thus his thinking was straightened out. There can be no real change in our personalities until there is a change in our thinking. Counselling that focuses only on changing behaviour and fails to emphasise the importance of changed thinking is partial and incomplete. We may experience some change when we change our behaviour, but we experience the greatest change, as our text for today suggests, when we change our thinking. In the sanctuary the psalmist's thinking was put right about the ungodly: "Then I understood their end" (Psa. 73:17, NKJ). The next verses indicate how his thinking was also put right about God Himself: "Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors" (Psa. 73:18-19). The psalmist's problem, you remember, was not so much that the ungodly prospered, as that God had arranged it that way. Had it happened by mere chance, he might not have had any difficulties, but the fact that the great Designer had planned it like this filled him with perplexity. Now, however, he sees that the divine hand had purposely placed these men in prosperous and eminent circumstances so that they could fulfil the Creator's purposes: "You" - note the You - "You place them on slippery ground." Note, too, the phrase "slippery ground": their position was dangerous. Therefore God did not set His loved ones in that place, but chose instead a rougher but more secure standing for their feet.

Prayer:
O God, I am grateful that You have set my feet in a secure place and not on slippery ground. Why I have been chosen to be a recipient of such grace and favour I do not know. Yet it is so. I am deeply, deeply thankful. Amen.

For further study:
Psalms 16:1-11; 1 Samuel 2:9; Psalms 18:36; Ephesians 6:13-14
1. Why are we able to stand firm?
2. What did Paul admonish the Ephesians?

[Judy Harder]

March 9
He never leaves the helm
For reading & meditation: Psalms 76:1-12
"Surely your wrath against men brings you praise '" (v.10)

We touched yesterday on the truth that the reason why the ungodly are set in eminent places is because God arranges it. The psalmist goes on to say that not only does God raise up the ungodly, but He also brings them down: "You cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed '" (Psa. 73:18-19). The hand that led them up to the top of the slope is the hand that also casts them down. Why does God act in this strange and mysterious manner? One reason is that God is able to demonstrate how unreliable and insecure are the ways of those who choose not to walk with Him. This explains why we so frequently read of some prominent godless person, such as a film star whom everyone is acclaiming, being suddenly removed from the face of the earth. The feet of such people were set in slippery places. Some reading these lines will remember how everyone stood in dread of Adolph Hitler. He had the whole world frightened, but now he is gone and almost forgotten. The psalmist's words "You cast them down ' how suddenly are they destroyed" are really an exclamation of godly wonder at the suddenness and completeness of the sinner's overthrow. God makes a spectacle of those who persist in rejecting His love and grace. They make a splash for the moment of their lives, but after that they are gone and soon forgotten. Keep that fact before you as you look out upon the world. It may sometimes seem as if God is not in control, but in actual fact His hand is ever upon the helm of human affairs.

Prayer: Gracious and loving Father, my heart bows in silent wonder as I contemplate the awesomeness of Your ways. Open my eyes that I might see that You are at work all around me and that Your face is constantly set against evil. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
For further study:

Romans 1:18; Romans 3:19-20; 2 Timothy 2:1-19; 1 Peter 4:18
1. What does the law expose?
2. How is God's wrath averted?

[Judy Harder]

March 10
Hang him on it!
For reading & meditation: Proverbs 24:15-22
"' for the evil man has no future hope, and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out." (v.20)

Today we look at another reason why God allows the ungodly to flourish - to illustrate by contrast the horror of an eternity without God. Spurgeon commented: "Eternal punishment will be all the more terrible in contrast with the former prosperity of those who are ripening for it." The seeming joy and splendour of the prosperous ungodly actually renders the effect of being cast aside by God more awful, just as vivid lightning does not brighten but intensifies the thick darkness around. You will no doubt remember the story of Haman, who prepared a gallows for Mordecai but finished up by being hanged upon it himself. The ascent to the gallows was an essential ingredient in the terror of the sentence: "Hang him on it!" (Esth. 7:9). The wicked are raised high so that all might see how great is their fall. A preacher tells how he read the story of the rich man and Lazarus, in Luke 16, to a group of young people who were hearing it for the first time. He stopped at the part where Lazarus lay at the gate, the dogs licking his sores, while the rich man ate in splendour in his house, and said: "Which would you rather be, the rich man or Lazarus?" With one voice the young people shouted: "The rich man." He then read on, and after telling the story of how both died and the rich man was in torment while Lazarus was carried to Abraham's side, he asked: "Now which would you rather be?" This time they responded more quietly and soberly "Lazarus." That is the truth the psalmist saw as he sat quietly in the sanctuary of God.

Prayer:
Father, the more I see the whole picture and realise what I have been saved from, the more I feel like flinging myself at Your feet in adoring worship and praise. Thank You for saving me, dear Lord. Words cannot fully express my gratitude. Amen.

For further study:
Luke 16:19-31; Matthew 13:24-30
1. What is Jesus' teaching in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus?
2. What is the message of the parable of the weeds?

[Judy Harder]

March 11
Alexander the Great
For reading & meditation: Isaiah 40:12-17
"Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket '" (v.15)

Now we come to look at a section of the psalm which suggests that the reason why the ungodly continue to prosper as they do is because God is asleep. Listen to the psalmist's exact words: "As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies" (Psa. 73:20). The truth is, of course, that God does not sleep, but the psalmist has used a figure of speech which pictures our limited human perception of God's actions. God does not sleep, but at times He appears to do so. But what happens when God stirs from His apparent sleep? The ungodly man, who has seemed so eminent and prosperous, vanishes as a dream. It is as if he had been a phantom or an illusion. The passage before us today puts this whole matter in context when it tells us that the nations are but "a drop in a bucket" to the Creator. Now they may look powerful and mighty, with their stockpiles of nuclear weapons, but when God arises they are as "grasshoppers". Do you remember being told in your history class at school about Alexander the Great? He was one of the greatest generals of all time and conquered almost the entire known world. Did you know that he is referred to in the Bible? You will not see his name written in the Scriptures, but reference to him can be found in Daniel. Look at what the Bible calls him - a "goat" (Dan. 8:5-8). Walter Luthi puts it like this: "He who to the world is Alexander the Great, is to God nothing more than a he-goat." When God arises, the great become nothing.

Prayer: Father, thank You for reminding me over these past few days of Your greatness and eternal power. I so easily forget that I am linked to a God who is not just powerful but all-powerful. Let the wonder of that fact sink deep into my soul today. Amen.

For further study:
Psalms 121:1-8; 2 Chronicles 6:20
1. What does the psalmist assure us?
2. How does God show Himself strong?