Days of Praise

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April 12, 2025 The Law Fulfilled…in Us? “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Romans 8:4) A miraculous exchange happens when we daily live for our Savior. We give up striving to be good enough in our own power. This is idolatry. We were born with this sinful nature. It compels us to deceive ourselves into thinking that we can be God, knowing enough good and evil to call all the right shots. Nonsense. When we repent, we admit that we cannot be good enough on our own and that we need outside help. And help us He can! “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). Knowing I can never be righteousness for myself, He works righteousness through me. “The righteousness of the law” from today’s verse is nothing less than perfection. People cannot achieve that, but we all need it. Jesus is perfect, however! He applies that perfection to anyone’s account the moment they repent of sin and trust Him. Now what? He does all the work “in us”! Just trust Him and obey. It has always worked that way. Abraham believed that God could raise Isaac from the dead and behaved like that was true (Hebrews 11:19). James said of Abraham, “Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?” (James 2:22). Similarly, as you “reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:11), you can walk “after the Spirit.” We then do what’s right—the “righteousness of the law.” “But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected” (1 John 2:5), and thus the law is “fulfilled in us” by Him. BDT

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April 20, 2025
I Will Ever Be True
“...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 is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)

The concluding verse of our song, “The Old Rugged Cross,” contains a commitment to follow Christ in this life and looks forward to life with Him in eternity.
 

To the old rugged cross I will ever be true,
Its shame and reproach gladly bear;
Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away,
Where His glory forever I’ll share.

When coupled with the preceding scriptural verse, our text mirrors these thoughts: “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (v. 1). In this life, we have both the victorious examples of many that have gone before (Hebrews 11) and Christ Himself. Both He and they have suffered joyfully, and so can we: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you,…but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye” (1 Peter 4:12-14).

Once Christ fully “endured the cross,” He rose from the dead in victory over death to take His rightful place “at the right hand of the throne of God.” He now calls us to be “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), “in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Ephesians 1:7). He’ll call us some day to Himself, where we shall “sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6), “and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross. JDM

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April 23, 2025
Your Personal Eclipse
“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5)

A total solar eclipse is awesome in the true sense of the word. If you are in the path of totality, you can see the moon pass directly between the sun and your location on Earth. A dusky darkness covers everything. After a few minutes, the moon continues on its way, and full sunlight returns.

This experience may trigger a thought, a parallel to the times of “darkness” we experience in each of our lives. We lose a loved one, experience a health or financial setback, or are betrayed by a trusted friend. All these events can bring on a “personal eclipse” of our faith if we focus on the darkness.

In an eclipse, the moon does not affect the sun’s light-generating abilities, but it does affect our reception of the light. So the sun shines just like it does every day, and the darkness we experience is limited in intensity, location, and duration. While our trials may seem like total darkness has settled over us, we must remember that just as the sun continues to shine uninterrupted behind the moon during a total eclipse, God is still there shining His goodness over our lives.

“He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him” (Psalm 91:15). God does not promise believers a trouble-free life on this earth, but His promise to be with us in our troubles is what we need to cling to until our personal eclipse passes. Ultimately, for the believer all darkness will be eliminated. “And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 22:5). DWR

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April 27, 2025
Habitation for God
“...until I find out a place for the LORD, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah: we found it in the fields of the wood. We will go into his tabernacles: we will worship at his footstool.” (Psalm 132:5-7)

These fascinating verses may well have a double meaning: first, a retrospective reference to David’s desire to build a temple for God, and second, a prophecy concerning a still-future habitation for God. Ephratah was the same as Bethlehem, the birthplace of both David and his greater son, Jesus.

The writer of this psalm may have been King Hezekiah, a contemporary of the prophet Micah, who had written: “Thou, Bethlehem Ephratah,…out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2). He was also a contemporary of Isaiah, who had written concerning this same coming Son: “His name shall be called…the mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6).

David had desired to build an earthly habitation for the mighty God of Israel; Isaiah had said this “mighty God” would be “a child born” and “a Son given”; and Micah said He would be born in Bethlehem Ephratah. Our psalmist must have been thinking about these truths when he saw, through the future eyes of those “in the fields of the wood” “at Ephratah,” this “place for the LORD,” who then would go to “worship at His footstool.”

Some 800 years later, “there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the fields” at Bethlehem Ephratah when a great host of angels told them the promised Savior had come, directing them to go to His “habitation” to worship Him. And that was where they did, indeed, find Him, “wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” (Luke 2:8, 12), and they were the very first to “worship at his footstool.” HMM

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May 1, 2025
Joy in Prison
"Yea, and if I offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all." (Philippians 2:17)

The epistles Paul penned while in prison include Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and likely 2 Timothy. One can imagine Satan’s glee when the apostle was first thrown into prison. But cell and chains didn’t silence Paul or thwart his joy.

The book of Philippians, “the epistle of joy,” was likely written from an imprisonment in Rome. Here we see a perfect example of a common biblical theme: something happens that appears evil, but God uses it for good. “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good” (Genesis 50:20).

Think of it this way: God “sentenced” Paul to pray and write for a season. It was a retreat of sorts, a time of great intimacy between Paul and his Redeemer. Far from being despondent about his incarceration, Paul embraced it. He didn’t beg to be free, ask his friends to bribe the guards, or even insist on his innocence. He rather encouraged believers to “stand fast” for the faith (Philippians 1:27, 4:1).

Paul yielded to God’s will, and this was the key to his peace in prison. Only then could he say, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). The Holy Spirit was present in the prison with Paul, and the Spirit inspired every word Paul wrote.

God advances the gospel despite and through apparent obstacles. “The things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel” (Philippians 1:12).

Are you in a place you don’t want to be? Remember that the Holy Spirt is with you in that seemingly dark place. God can and will use you wherever you are. There is purpose in the trial—the furtherance of the gospel and joy. “In thy presence is fulness of joy” (Psalm 16:11). MJS

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May 11, 2025
The Faith of Our Mothers
“...when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.” (2 Timothy 1:5)

The “dearly beloved son” (v. 2) of the apostle Paul was a young disciple whose strong and sincere Christian faith was due, more than anything else, to the lives and teachings of a godly mother and grandmother. As Paul wrote to Timothy in his last letter, “From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15).

Timothy’s mother was a Christian Jew (Acts 16:1), but his father was a Greek who evidently was not a believer. In the ideal Christian home, the father is to assume spiritual leadership (Ephesians 5:22, 25; 6:4), but countless fathers, for some reason, are either unable or unwilling to do this. There have been many homes where a mother or grandmother, usually by default, has had to assume this all-important responsibility, and the Christian world owes these godly women a great debt of gratitude. The writer himself was raised in such a home, and much of his own concern for the Word of God is due to the concerned dedication of a Christian mother and two Christian grandmothers.

It is significant that the fifth of God’s Ten Commandments requires children to honor their parents, and it is the only one of the 10 that carries a special promise: “Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth” (Ephesians 6:2-3). Every godly parent is worthy of real honor every day—not just once each year. And when a Christian mother, like Timothy’s mother, must assume all the responsibility for leading her children in the ways of God, she deserves very special praise. HMM

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May 14, 2025
Invisible Qualities: Faithfulness
“Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” (Acts 14:17)

The apostle Paul said, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). This teaches that anyone can clearly see some of God’s invisible qualities through His handiwork. As this handiwork principle pops up throughout Scripture, it offers at least two benefits.

For one, it encourages those who already know God as Savior. To know Him simply requires repentance from sin and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, who made Himself “to be sin for us, who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). The Lord paid sin’s required death penalty to become “the mediator of the new covenant” (Hebrews 12:24). These true spiritual teachings come from the same Word of God that teaches God created the whole world. Thus, believers find assurance in the congruence between what the Bible says about God’s work in creation and what the creation itself implies about the kind of Person who must have made it.

Today’s verse suggests a second benefit from this handiwork principle. Paul teaches that God has been the one responsible all along for supplying rain to produce the fruit that exactly meets both our need for nourishment and our desire for food’s flavors. What invisible qualities of God does this show? Certainly, one is His faithfulness.

He is faithful to supply even the needs of those who despise Him. In this and many other ways, the handiwork principle supplies us even as it did Paul with ways to introduce God to those who do not yet know Him. BDT

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May 15, 2025
Invisible Qualities: Transcendence
“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” (Psalm 90:2)

Surely God’s transcendence is one of “the invisible things of him from the creation of the world [that are] clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).

In this psalm, Moses offers high praise to the most high God. God transcends “the earth and the world” that He formed. This means that God both began this cosmos and keeps it running. His essence is not tied to the created order. He exists before and beyond it.

The New Testament agrees. As God, Jesus is “upholding all things by the word of his power,” “and he is before all things, and by him all things consist” (Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 1:17). Stars, the earth, and our bodies all had a beginning. And they also decay toward death as “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Romans 8:22). Someone who transcends this Curse must be holding our finite world together. Scripture reveals the Lord Jesus as He who transcends all created things, does not change, and cannot fade away. What might this mean for each of us?

Paul wished that the Ephesian believers would “make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 3:9). How glorious that such a One would actually long for fellowship with cursed creatures like us! His very transcendence is just what we sinners need—someone to transcend our sin and restore our fellowship with Him. BDT

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May 16, 2025 Invisible Qualities: Authority “Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” (Psalm 100:3) As we consider that “the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20), we may notice one of the key motivations for those who deny God’s handiwork in crafting our very bodies. Our psalm says we did not make ourselves. In order to make yourself, you would have to exist before you came into existence. That violates basic logic. Likewise, the assertion that “it is he that hath made us” demands that something outside of us made us. Either nature gets credit or “the LORD,” here translated from Jehovah, which means self-existent or eternal. But nature itself is created. Therefore, God is our Creator, and if God made us, then we are His people, as today’s verse asserts. We should do what He says since He has that kind of authority. His authority over us is one of those invisible attributes that are clearly seen, being understood by noticing how carefully He crafted our bodies, from speaking lips to fingertips. What motivates us to suppress the truth of His rightful authority? Our unrighteousness does, not science or any experiment or observation. Indeed, what experiment has ever shown that nature can craft even the simplest biochemical from scratch, let alone a whole, integrated body? On the other hand, if you “humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord,…he shall lift you up” (James 4:10). When we submit to the authority of our Creator, He “giveth grace unto the humble” (James 4:6-7). BDT

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June 5, 2025 Death Done “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:17) Death means separation. Does any experience hurt worse than losing a loved one? Christians need to know the start and finish of this curse to effectively minister to those who suffer such loss. The Bible has the answer. According to Genesis, doubt of God’s truthful word led the first humans to adopt a lie in its place. The Hebrew verbs translated “shalt surely die” are môt tamût. The verb môt is in the infinitive form, and tamût is imperfect, indicating an act not yet completed. We could thus translate it, “to die, you will be dying.” When mankind in Adam rebelled against God’s loving direction, God’s holy, just, and true-to-His-word nature compelled Him to execute the appropriate consequence: a process of dying that would eventually lead to death. Just as the tragic process of decay unto death is real, so is the spiritual reason behind it: sin. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23). Likewise, just as the miracle of Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead was real, so is the spiritual reason behind that: life. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). Truly, “he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken” (Isaiah 53:8). Disbelief in God’s word brought about death, but “he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life” (John 5:24). “There shall be no more death, neither sorrow” for believers (Revelation 21:4). BDT

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June 6, 2025
Choosing This Day
“Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24:14-15)

At the end of his life, Joshua presented the nation of Israel with a two-step challenge: a putting off and a taking on. Holding to only one part of this commitment would do no good. If they clung to foreign gods, their spiritual state would resemble that of the surrounding nations. Trying to add the great I AM (Exodus 3:14) into their personal pantheon (syncretism) would not work either. The Lord made it clear, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).

For a time, the nation followed the one true God. But as time passed, they began to compromise, and Judges records their cycle of falling away and returning to God. By the end of that book the assessment of their spiritual condition was “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

So what can a believer do to avoid outright rebellion, syncretism, or just simple wandering? Begin each morning with the refreshed decision to “choose you this day whom ye will serve.” The new day will hold temptations, distractions, and general busyness. It is a challenge, but God is pulling for His children (2 Chronicles 16:9)! DWR

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June 18, 2025
Created
“...even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.” (Isaiah 43:7)

There are three main verbs used to describe God’s work of creation in Genesis. These are “create” (Hebrew bara), “make” (asah), and “form” (yatsar). The three words are similar in meaning, but each has a slightly different emphasis. None of them, of course, can mean anything at all like “evolve” or “change” on their own accord.

All three are used in Genesis with reference to humans. “And God said, Let us make man in our image.…So God created man in his own image.…And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground” (Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7).

Although the subject of creation is commonly associated with Genesis, it is mentioned even more frequently by the great prophet Isaiah. The words bara and yatsar are used twice as often in Isaiah as in any other Old Testament book and are applied uniquely to works of God. All three verbs are used together in Isaiah 45:18 to adequately describe God’s purposeful work in preparing Earth for humans: “For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.”

God created, formed, made, and established the earth that it might be the home of men and women. But what was God’s purpose for the people who would inhabit it? Our text answers this most fundamental of questions, and once again all three key verbs are used: “I have created him…I have formed him,…I have made him…for my glory.”

This biblical perspective alone provides the greatest of all possible incentives to live a godly and useful life. The reason we were created is to glorify God! HMM

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June 20, 2025
Defending the Gospel
“...but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel.” (Philippians 1:17)

Many Christians decry the use of apologetics or evidences in Christian witnessing, feeling it somehow dishonors the Lord or the Scriptures to try to defend them. But as our text indicates, Paul did not agree with this. The gospel does need defending, and he was set for its defense against the attacks of its adversaries. He also told his disciples that “in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace” (Philippians 1:7).

The Greek word translated “defense” is apologia, from which we derive our English word “apologetics.” It is a legal term, meaning the case made by a defense attorney on behalf of a defendant under attack by a prosecutor. Thus, Paul is saying, “I am set to give an apologetic for the gospel—a logical, systematic [scientific, if necessary] defense of the gospel against all the attacks of its adversaries.”

Since we are “partakers” with him in this defense, we also need to “be ready always to give an answer [same word, apologia] to every man that asketh [us] a reason of the hope that is in [us]” (1 Peter 3:15). Any Christian who shares his faith with the unsaved has encountered many who cannot believe the simple plan of salvation until his questions are answered. We must be familiar with the “many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3) of the deity of Christ and His power to save, both as omnipotent Creator and sin-bearing Savior. We must “search the scriptures daily” and also study the “witness” He has given in the creation (Acts 17:11; 14:17) if we are to do this effectively, bringing forth fruit that will “remain” (John 15:16) instead of fruit that has withered away “because it had no root” (Mark 4:6). The gospel is under vicious attack today, so may God help us to be among its victorious defenders. HMM