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NO MORE, NO MORE! I’LL SAY IT AGAIN. NO MORE! …Rev. 18: 21-24

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We live in a scary, violent world, which is getting worse and worse all the time.   If we read the Book of Revelation and take it to heart, we wouldn’t be surprised at all.  Forget all the interpretation disputes and hobby-horse theories about this book, it’s going to get worse before it gets worse.  Aren’t you glad you read this devotional today?!

Wait a minute.  I did say to take the Book of Revelation to heart, didn’t I?  There are some really amazing verses that should give us lots of hope and confidence for the days ahead.  Not that the worst won’t get worse (for it will),  but that Satan will be defeated once for all.  Revelation 12: 7-12– you’ll find out that the devil, called a deceiver and destroyer, will be totally conquered by Jesus through His blood on the cross.

There’s more good news: Satan knows that his time is short (v. 12).  Times will deteriorate, but it will be for a short season ending with the forces of evil crushed and defeated.  Without a doubt.   Beyond even its shadow.

God has promised.  He has given His Word.  Revelation says it again in chapter 17:10–talking about coming beasts and wicked kings.  At the end of that verse it says, ‘…and when he does come he must remain only a little while’.  Did you hear that?  Only for a little while.   The forces of evil have but a short time.

Now read Revelation 17:14–‘They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with Him are called, chosen and faithful’.  Jesus reigns triumphant…and we,  His followers,  are right there with Him!  Safe and secure.  They may kill the body but not the soul!   Our souls are with Him.  Safe and secure.

Have you read those verses in Revelation 18 yet?  This whole chapter pictures the fall of evil in all its forms;  political and economic, in particular.  Six times it uses the phrase ‘no more’ to spell the end of this wicked, godless world. Six is a symbolic number for Satan in this last book of the Bible.  You know the infamous 666– a number referring to Satan.  No more…no more…no more evil.    For the enemy of God and his devilish allies, time will be no more.

But for us, who know Jesus, who have received His new life, no matter what,  no matter where, no matter when, our time will be in His hands.  With no looking back over our shoulders ever again!

Prayer:  Thank you Lord, for ultimate victory in Jesus your Son.  Amen.

I MUST ADMIT IT!… Ezra 9: 8-9

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I really don’t want to admit it.  I’m ashamed in some ways.  You’ll forgive me, won’t you?  But I must.  I can’t hammer a straight nail if my life depended on it.  There it is.  I’ve said it.  The cat’s out of the bag!  Anyone who knows me is snickering and sniveling as they could have guessed it all along.  Smarty-pants!

My brother, Robert, can hammer straight on with his eyes closed and one hand tied behind his back.  Mechanically-inclined, to say the least, is that older brother of mine.  And he’s always let me know it, as if I had one iota of doubt.  He’s gifted that way.  The Lord made him with both a steady eye and hand.

But I wonder how his book is coming along?  How his sermons are being received by a congregation week after week for years and years?  Put that shoe on, brother of mine, if it fits?!

God has gifted each of us in different ways.  And I thank the Lord for the gifts given Robert, and the ones given me, different as they could ever be.  That’s fine with me.  Whether you or I can or can’t, I know that God can hammer a straight nail!  Did you read those 2 verses in Ezra 9 yet?  Not sure what your translation says but mine says that ‘(God gives) a secure hold within His holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving…'(ESV).  See where it says ‘secure hold’?  In the original Hebrew that phrase is really one word– nail or tent-peg.  God was promising His remnant people, returning from exile in Babylon, that He would nail them in securely, bind them tightly to Himself.

When in England we were renting a 15th-century manor house.  This house was built in the late 1400’s making it over 600 years old.  And we think our house back home in the States is ‘old’ having been built in 1945!  The Old Manor House has timber framing, post and beam construction with squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers secured by large wooden pegs. It’s lasted century after century.

Like what God has done for us.  Tight and secure, carefully fitted and joined…by the death of His only Son, nailed to the cross.  Nails and pegs.  The nails that have left an eternal mark in Jesus’ hands and feet are the nails that keep us safe in Him not for 600 years but forever.  Nails that secured our forgiveness, salvation and future glory with Him in heaven.   Whether you can hammer a nail straight or not, He can.  He did.  He still does.  I must admit it, God is so good…at whatever He does!  Agreed?

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for your Jesus.  In His name.  Amen.

NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!… Psalm 108: 1-4

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I’ve always wanted to thank Billy Graham in person.  After all, he was the one I heard speaking  on that radio program a Sunday evening many years ago.  For some reason I heard the ‘Hour of Decision’ with Billy Graham. I had gone to Sunday School sporadically, but never really liked it or the church that I attended!

You ask why I didn’t go somewhere else?  I didn’t know that you were supposed to enjoy church. I  had questions about God and Jesus, but no one I knew had any answers.  Anyway, ‘you just don’t talk about those things’, even in church.  You don’t?  Really?  We didn’t.

I had no idea that some people did and that there were answers to my questions.  No idea at all.  Until that night.  I focused on his every word.  He said that Jesus loved me.  Jesus knew who I was.  He cared…about me.  And wanted to be in my life.  Are you kidding?

In a way, I didn’t know what Billy Graham was talking about, but something within said to ‘go for it’.  I  responded to that message.  The next day I got the Bible, never opened, that  I received when I was 8 years old  and started reading the New Testament.  Had Mr. Graham  told me to?  I don’t remember.

Then I discovered a couple of teachers in high school who were Christians.  One was an older woman that we would make fun of.  She was not so weird once I discovered that she also knew the Lord.  In 1964 my father and I loved going to the New York World’s Fair.  We went 12 times!  It was there that I got my very first Bible Study, the Gospel of John, from the Billy Graham Pavilion.  How exciting– and from that same preacher.

I’d like to thank him in person.  I almost have.  Was a counselor at a New York City crusade but he was too far away.  Saw Anne Graham Lotz, his daughter, at the Pike Place Market in Seattle and asked her to thank her Dad.  I’ll bet I’m the only one who ever asked her to do that!

While at the Cove, Billy Graham’s Conference Center in Asheville, North Carolina,  I sat next to his first cousin, Ed Graham, at dinner.  I asked him the same…please tell your cousin what his ministry has meant to me.  I’d still like to thank him… in person.  But it’s not going to happen.

No problem really.  He didn’t save me.  He would tell me that also.  Jesus did.  And I can  thank Him whenever I feel like it.  Direct and personal.   Like it says in Psalm 108:3–‘I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.’  And someday I’ll get to thank Jesus in person for all He’s done for me…and you can join me as well!

Prayer:  Thank you, Jesus, for saving us.  Amen.

ME AND MY SHADOW!…Psalm 23

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You can recite this psalm from memory,  and probably in King James English.  I’m keying in on that phrase:  walking ‘through that Valley of the Shadow of Death’.  Death…lots of it in the news these days.  Disease, terrorism, famous people (who have so much of this world’s goods) choosing to end their own lives.

I have no idea how many times I’ve read the 23rd psalm at hundreds and hundreds of funerals during my 40 plus years of ministry.  No idea.  Somewhere, I remember reading that in the Holy Land there is an actual place called the Valley of the Shadow.  It’s a narrow ravine where sheep have to travel through single-file nudged by the prodding of the shepherd.  One by one, which sheep do not like.  It spooks them.

So, the shepherd, who knows that the good grazing land is on the other side of the ravine, gets them through using his shepherd’s crook and his very familiar voice.  You can see where I’m going with this, can’t you?  Once we were driving through the lovely Cotswolds of rural England when we spotted a Norman church off in the distance, off a narrow road.  We turned onto an even smaller road, certain that no one would be coming the other way.  Out of nowhere comes a large truck unable to push too far over to the side.  So, I did or I hoped I could.  I braced myself, put my head down, prayed for a miracle…and the shadow of that truck totally blocked our vision as it passed over us.  Whew!

We were fine.  Our rental car was fine.  It turned out to be only  a shadow of trouble. Death is the same.  It’s scary,  unknown,  big and dark,  our vision clouded,  we’ve never been down that path before, we travel it alone (or so it feels), we leave loved ones and lots of unfinished dreams and business.  So we imagine.

But death will only be a shadow– for in Jesus Christ  ‘death has been swallowed up in victory…But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Corinthians 15: 54-57).  Death has been defeated.  The shadow will lift and we’ll see our Shepherd holding our hand guiding us to the best pasture land we’ve ever seen with satisfaction like we’ve never known.  I will fear no…well, anything!  And singing will be better than ‘Me and My  Shadow’, and with interesting true stories much better than Lamont Cranston of old-time radio days for ‘The Shadow Knows’!  We know…because the Bible tells us so!

Prayer:  Thank you, Lord, for being our good Shepherd.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

FOREVER IS A VERY LONG TIME… Psalm 107

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That first verse of Psalm 107 ends with the word ‘forever’.  That’s a very long time.  Forever and ever and ever… ad infinitum.  And what is it that lasts forever?  God’s steady love for us.  A love central to Old Testament covenant teaching.

Some keep saying that the Old Testament God is a God of vengeance while the New Testament One is of love.  We don’t worship two Gods.  The word ‘love’ appears many more times in the Old Testament than the New.   The exact content of Psalm 107:1 is found in the Torah of Moses, the writings of the Psalms and other wisdom books, also in the Prophets as well.  Throughout the entire Old Testament.

His love endures…forever.  That’s a very long time.  I retired from the United Christian Church on Grays Harbor, Washington State, having served 14 years.  Almost twice as long as the next longest serving pastor in the church’s 110 year history.  Yet at the bottom left-hand corner of every weekly pay check was written ‘Guest Speaker’!  For 14 years!  That’s a long time to be a guest speaker!  Maybe they just wished I’d take the hint and go away!

I never minded in the least.  After all, in this world, as finite human beings, we are all guests for a brief period of time in whatever we’re doing, even work for the Lord.  I loved being a guest speaker!  But my 14 years were nothing compared to our church secretary, Ruth Wayman, and our church organist, Roberta Cleland, who combined serve the Lord for over 100 years!  But even their long service is dwarfed by the longevity of God’s love for His children and His church.  The warranty on His love has no end date at all.

Yet, I still have a hard time believing that I don’t have to perform for Him to receive His love.  That I must tow the mark,  making His love conditional.  Sure there are consequences for when we veer off course in sin.  But as His child, if I have received Jesus into my life,  His love will mold me in discipline.  He allows me to trudge down that wrong path only to find out that I need His help big-time bringing me back to where I ought to be.  Then He blesses us with His mercy and grace that knows no end.   Forever is a very long time.  Aren’t you glad?

Prayer:  We look forward to being with you, our God, forever.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

SOMETHING WORTH REPEATING… Psalm 106

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I love reading mystery novels.  Agatha Christie, P. D. James, Anne Cleeves to name but a few.  I was reading a new author the other day.  The book’s setting was the Shetland Islands, off the coast of northern Scotland.  We were there a number of years ago.  We especially enjoyed the town of Lerwick.  We were greeted by a warm and friendly man who welcomed us to his town, giving us a local map.    On the back of this helpful map was the Gospel message of Jesus Christ!  Never had that happen before.

Back to this recent mystery book that I read,  the author made reference to church singing in the isles of Scotland.  It’s called Gaelic Psalm-singing.  I had never heard of it before.  Have you?  So, I searched the internet, and low-and-behold  there were lots of references to this regional form of congregational singing by the Presbyterian Scots.  Another name for this form of corporate singing  is precentering, where either a cantor or the pastor reads a phrase from the Psalm of the day and then the congregation responds to it with a very different melody or sound. Some think Psalm-singing began in response to a largely illiterate people who couldn’t read but could repeat what they heard, singing from their hearts in worship to the Lord.   It is quite remarkable and beautiful.

Psalm 106 has a verse that is well worth repeating.  Verse 1 says ‘Praise the Lord!  Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!’  Does that verse sound  familiar to you?  It did to me, so I looked it up in my concordance– and it is sung throughout the Old Testament.  And I mean throughout!  Check it out for yourself.

When the Ark of the Covenant is brought into the Tabernacle in 1 Chronicles 16:34,  there it is–God is good and His love is steadfast, sure and stable, sincere and secure.

Then 2 Chronicles 5:13, the same is sung by all at the dedication of Solomon’s Temple.  When the Temple is rebuilt following return from exile in Babylon, as the foundation is being laid, the people sing again about God’s goodness and His love which knows no bounds.

When the prophet Jeremiah writes about the coming redemption of the Lord in chapter 33: 10-11, there is that same call to thank the Lord who is so good and loving.  There are more, but the ultimate  is Psalm 136, where that phrase ‘for His steadfast love endures forever’ is the 2nd part of each and every verse. All 26 verses have the congregation repeating that same thought… each and every time.   Why not make today a day of praise and thanksgiving to our God, who is good as good can ever be, and more loving than we can ever imagine.  That’s something worth repeating!  Psalm-singing by all God’s children!

Prayer:  Lord, you are so loving and good.  Thank you.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

THOSE PRECIOUS PRAYERS…Revelation 5:8 & 8: 3-5

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It’s such a joy to hear our grandsons pray before a meal.  So sweet.  So simple. So believing and trusting.  Means so much to us.  Our treasuring of our little one’s prayers is but an inkling of how precious our prayers are to our Heavenly Father.  If we knew how much our sharing with the Lord means to Him,  I guess we’d never stop praying at all.  That’s an idea worth pondering.

Have you read those verses in the Book of Revelation yet?    They speak of our prayers to the Lord.  Our prayers.  Yours and mine.  God’s children calling out to Him, crying to Him, and praising Him.  Prayers of all kinds, using a myriad of languages, by all kinds of different people, all over the world.  Doesn’t matter how you pray or what exactly you say–what matters is our desire to be with and share our hearts with our God as His chosen children.

In Revelation 5:8 the Apostle John, in exile on the Island of Patmos, is having a heavenly vision and sees a large scroll, four living creatures and twenty four elders falling down in worship of Jesus Christ, each with a harp, holding bowls made of pure gold full of incense, burning with a sweet, pleasing aroma.

Wafting in the air, more than a scent,  these are the actual prayers of the saints.  Ours are there as well.    Your prayers and mine– so precious to the Lord that they are held in large golden bowls, held only by God’s most trusted worshippers… with all placed at the feet of Jesus.  Only the very best can contain and handle our prayers.  Only the best.  Did you hear that?  How precious our utterances are to Him.

Then in Revelation 8 we see angels standing before God, and one of them has a censer made of pure gold,  which burns incense where its smoke gets mingled with our prayers, all rising to the very presence of God.  Then something totally unexpected happens.  The angel takes the censer,  fills it with fire and throws it to the earth, resulting in tremendous cosmic thunder, lightning and earthquakes.

Not only are our prayers precious, but they are very powerful.  Like it says in James 5: 16–‘the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working’.  I think I’ll pray a lot more.  Our prayers do a tremendous work for God for others. Imagine all that can come by praying.  Precious…and powerful.  Our prayers to God–that’s something worth doing more and more.  Do I hear an ‘amen’?

Prayer:  We love to pray to you, our God.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

WHERE’S THAT HAPPY ENDING?…Psalm 88

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This is a shocking psalm–the only one that ends with not even a glimmer of hope.  As a matter of fact, Psalm 88 ends with the psalmist shunned by his friends and loved ones, leaving him with darkness as his only companion.  What happened?  Where’s that happy ending?  You’ll find it elsewhere in the psalms, but not here.  Why  not?

This psalm is really important.  The Lord  is telling us what we already know–that life, even as believers, doesn’t always feel neat and tidy, joyous all the time. We know that– at least in our heads but our hearts yearn for something better.  Things don’t always turn out  as we may hope and pray.  We feel hemmed in– in a fix that seems to never get fixed, a fog that refuses to lift, through an exit that leads to nowhere.

I remember crying out to God in a church where it was no longer all heaven that was breaking out.  Quite the contrary.  Friends became few and far between.  Tongues were wagging in an inflamed way.  My only defense was in telling what I knew.   But I wouldn’t.  A pastor must never break confidences.  I was hemmed in.  No fix could be fixed without compromising what I refused to compromise, telling what I said I would never tell.  A spiritual and pastoral ‘Catch-22’.

For better or for worse, I decided to move along.  I was now living what Psalm 88 was all about.  God’s hand felt like He had let go of mine and given me the back of His.  Crying out to Him seemed hollow and futile.  I was in bad shape.  Felt like I had nowhere to hide and I wanted out of the limelight.

What can you say?  Don’t throw pious, well-intentioned platitudes at them.  It will only hurt and alienate.  Stand alongside them.  Listen.  Shut up for once.  Pray for them when they can’t.   Wait to see what the Lord will make of all this mess and confusion.  For ‘all things work together’…in His time.

He did that for me.  It took a long time and some things got worse while others got much better.  I discovered something about Psalm 88– it’s good to look at the beginning verse for that glimmer of hope.  Where the psalmist affirms his faith in ‘O Lord, God of my salvation; I cry out day and night before you(Psalm 88:1).  He hasn’t lost his faith in the Lord.  He’s hanging on to Him for dear life…as best he can under the circumstances.  You can too.  I did and I’m still  holding onto the One who is my salvation…no matter what, no matter if the happy ending will only be in Heaven.  And that will be real happy ending indeed!

Prayer:  Dear God, thank you for standing with us in tough times.  Jesus’ knew the same.  Amen.

FELLOW WORKERS FOR THE TRUTH…..Read 3 John

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That wasn’t a very long letter, was it?  3 John is one of the shortest books and letters of the Bible.  Scholars think that the Apostle John’s 3 letters were carried by a courier to be read in various churches probably in Asia Minor.  1st John being a sermon on the larger theme of love.  2nd John  seemed addressed to a specific church family, that of Gaius; and talked of walking in love and truth and obedience.  3rd John is a personal letter to the church leader Gaius commending the courier, named Demetrius.  All 3 letters may have been carried in a packet by this courier.  3 John verses 5- 8 have captured my attention today.  Take a moment to read them again.  John is encouraging Gaius and his church family to support those who are journeying on a mission to tell others  the truth of Jesus Christ.   Our support…as fellow workers for the truth.  Not just money, but prayers and encouragement and love and whatever they (and we)  can do to further the work and word of the Lord.  I must admit that I get very sceptical of TV ministries that seem to exist just to ask for more money, and that God will super bless you if you give to them.  When I was doing my weekly TV show on our local-access television station, I made it a point of never, ever to ask  anyone to give anything to support the ministry of ‘Person-to-Person’.  And no one ever did!  Not even one thin dime!  And on top of that I paid to be on the air!  Almost $2000 a year for 5 years.  Some TV evangelist I was!  Ah, but I was.  And I needed to do the supporting.  I needed to do the work of arranging guests and singers for the weekly shows.  I needed to give and not just of myself either but of my prayers and gratitude for all the guests and singers, and  for what God was preparing me to do next for Him.  As John writes, ‘For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from…'(3 John: 7-8).  It was good to give.  It is good to give.  Who said it’s better than receiving?  We know… and He was right, of course!  Anything you can do to be a ‘fellow worker for the truth’ today?  Think about it. And then, don’t just think about it…do it!

THE OLDER I GET…….Read Psalm 92

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My wife and I just got back from 4 days in Cornwall, England.  What a lovely part of this amazing country.  Farmland everywhere, sheep and cattle grazing away, little fishing villages surrounded by slate hillsides, and some of the best fish and chips we’ve had so far!  In one of the villages called Tintagal I noticed a shop selling one of those proverbial tourist t-shirts that said, ‘The Older I Get, the Better I Was!’.  If it wasn’t so true, I’d almost laugh!  Well, I did anyway.  Of course, as we get older, we notice changes in our bodies, our families, our country and the world we live in.  It’s always that way.  It’s always been that way.  As Solomon said thousands of years ago now–there’s  nothing new under the sun.  But I’ve got good news, real good news!  Did you read Psalm 92 yet?  Notice, in particular, those last 2 verses.  Still bearing fruit in old age…full of sap and green.  Our spiritual life can and should be fresh and young and vibrant and growing–no matter what our age or condition.  In the church where I now honorably serve as pastor emeritus we have had so many young older people who love the Lord and love to tell others just that.  I think in particular of Cathy Brown.  Cathy died 2 years ago now in her mid-90’s, but her mind and body had started to leave us and  this world a number of years before.  Even still, Cathy prayed to her Lord like a child to a loving parent or, in her case, her loving Auntie and Uncle.  I loved to hear Cathy pray.  You would have also.  It was so tender, so affectionate, so trusting and loving.  I could picture Jesus holding her hands as she opened her heart to Him.  Life may have been getting more difficult and remote for Cathy, but not her times of prayer and worship of her Lord Jesus Christ.  That was a fruitful relationship even in old age…full of sap and green, declaring that He is her rock and salvation.  There are so many others just like Cathy who stay close to Him, and never really grow old and never  really die at all.  That is my prayer and I am sure yours as well…to stay close to Him, to value our relationship with Jesus above all else, to linger longer in His Word, to cherish and look forward to the future God has in store for all His children, all who have been born again in Jesus Christ.  The Older I Get…in Jesus…the Better I’ll Become!  Amen?