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Be An Exclamation Point Not A Question Mark
Day 235 Today's Reading: 1 John 5 Next time you are in the airport, I want you to notice something: observe the difference between passengers who hold confirmed tickets and those who are on a standby list. The ones with confirmed tickets read newspapers, chat with their friends, or sleep. The ones on standby hang around the ticket counter, pace, and wait to hear their names called to go to the front desk. Which is the signal they have a seat. The difference in the two types of passengers is caused by the assurance factor. For the standby passengers, their whole day is one big question mark. Will they get on the plane? What time will they get home? How long will they have to wait? There is nothing worse than living a travel day with one big question mark. There is a travel day coming for every human being, and we have two destinations: heaven and hell. Let’s talk about a confirmed ticket for eternal life. Can we really know for sure? Today’s chapter gives us that assurance to eternal life: “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). If you ask someone the question, “Do you know if you are going to heaven?” and their answer is, “I hope so” or “I think I am,” that person seems to have a standby ticket attitude with a confirmed ticket in hand. It’s unbiblical and reveals an unread Bible. There is a whole book of the Bible to give them—and us—assurance. It is 1 John. Verse 13 is so clear: “These things I have written . . . so you can know you have eternal life.” John wants us to know we have a confirmed ticket and we can have a confirmed-ticket attitude. He is saying to every Christian that we should not be a question mark but an exclamation point for God. And he helps us to do it. We are not any more secure in Christ whether we have a big faith or a small faith—as long as we have a true faith. And true faith is this—that we believe in the Son of God. Every Christian should be able to say, “I know I am saved and going to heaven.” Why? Edward Mote’s lyrics from this old hymn tell us: My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. One phrase always sticks out to me with this famous hymn: I dare not trust the sweetest frame. What does “frame” mean? We say things like, “He is not in the right frame of mind.” Webster’s dictionary says that “frame” is a particular mood that influences one’s attitude or behavior. And the songwriter says, “I dare not trust it”—even when it’s sweet. Even the sweetest frame will let us down. We are born again not because of how we feel but because of what Christ has done for you and me, and we believe He died for you and me. A man once came to D. L. Moody and said he was worried because he didn’t feel saved. Moody asked, “Was Noah safe in the ark?” “Certainly he was,” the man replied. “Well, what made him safe, his feeling or the ark?” The inquirer got the point. “How foolish I’ve been!” he said. “It is not my feeling; it is Christ who saves!” If you follow or know anything about golf, you’ve probably heard names such as Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods. But have you ever heard of Doug Ford? He won the 1957 Masters. He never won again and he hasn’t made the cut since 1971 (four years before Tiger Woods was born), but every year he is invited to play in the Masters. Why is Doug Ford invited? Because the Masters’ rules include a lifetime invitation to every champion to play in the event. Although Ford only won the tournament once, hasn’t qualified in nearly three decades, and hasn’t been able to break par since 1958, he still gets to play in the tournament. One single occasion got him the forever invite. Our salvation is similarly linked to a single event. Christ’s work on the cross was a one-shot deal. He died once so that all could live eternally. And when we decide to believe—that He lived the life we could not live, died the death we should have died, and has been given a reward (heaven) we don’t deserve, we can believe it—no more on standby. We have a confirmed ticket. And you can say with confidence, “I know I have eternal life.”
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Fighting Fear!
Day 234 Today's Reading: 1 John 4 For many years when researchers asked Americans about their top fears, here is how Americans responded: Their number 1 fear: public speaking. Their number 2: death. Think of it. People would rather die than speak in front of people. That's especially an issue for Christians because Christianity is very vocal: vocal in praise, vocal in witnessing, vocal in preaching. It's tough to be a silent Christian. Fortunately, 1 John 4 provides an antidote, a simple prescription, to fighting fear: "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love" (verse 18). Perfect love casts out fear. I don't cast out fear "in the name of Jesus." I don't bind it. Fear is removed by displacement. Love removes fear. Love casts it out, not me. Fear is actually a love problem. Two explorers were on a jungle safari when suddenly a ferocious lion jumped in front of them. "Keep calm," the first explorer whispered. "Remember what we read in that book on wild animals? If you stand perfectly still and look the lion in the eye, he will turn and run." "Sure," replied his companion. "You've read the book, and I've read the book. But has the lion read the book?" Reading books and going to counseling does not seem to deal with fear when the lion is looking you right in the eye. But John says love fixes fear. When I am afraid to speak to someone about Jesus, the truth is, I don't love them. In fact, I love me and my security and what that person thinks about me more than I love that person and their future and eternity! What an indictment. The same is true when we have to correct someone. Think of it from a parent standpoint. If I refuse to correct my son or daughter, knowing their attitude or behavior is destructive, I am saying my refusal is because of fear, which is a love issue. I love being their friend more than their parent. I love keeping calm in my house. I love my peace and quiet, so I say nothing. How about worship? When the Bible instructs me to lift holy hands, and I just can't do it because I am self-conscious, isn't that fear? Fear of what others think of me? And fear is a love problem. I don't want to appear like a fanatic in front of people. So how do we face fear? I want you to think of a conversation that Jesus had with a very fearful man after His resurrection. Fear made him deny Jesus three times. His name was Peter, and the conversation was fixing fear with love. The apostle John captured the conversation in John 21:15-17: "So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He said to him, "Tend My lambs." He said to him again a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He said to him, "Shepherd My sheep." He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me?" Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, "Do you love Me?" And he said to Him, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You." Jesus said to him, "Tend My sheep." The man that Jesus was going to use to preach the first message of the church in Acts 2 was Peter. The man who couldn't even speak to a little girl without denying Jesus was now going to have to testify of Jesus in the same place he buckled in fear. What is revelatory about Jesus fighting Peter's fear is that Jesus never asked Peter, "Do you love sheep?" Jesus said, "Do you love me? Because if you love Me, then you will do the right thing for them." So the first thing we have to do to deal with fear is to ask God to help us love Him, and loving others is a byproduct of that perfect love. If you hear something often enough, you start to believe it's true. I heard this a lot growing up in the church: The words "fear not" appear 365 times in the Bible . . . one time for every day of the year. God put it in the Bible that many times so each day we face fear, we take one of the 365 for that day. A cool thought. So I decided to follow through and see if it was true. Well, here's the real story: it's not there 365 times! Not even close. Depending on the translation you are reading, it's there about 100 to 150 times. Is it a letdown? Does it matter? Here's the fact: if it was there once, that's all we need to see it in order not to fear again. Because with God, once is enough! If God, who cannot lie, said it once, that's enough! If God tells me not to fear in just one verse, I can believe it. I don't need it 364 other times. Saying "fear not" 365 times a year does not release me from fear, but perfect love does because love casts out fear. So how can I love Jesus to fight fear? Today, I don't say to myself "fear not" to fight fear, but I pray this, "Jesus, help me to know how much You really love me. Because when I know how much You love me, I respond back in love. Perfect love is knowing You love me, and I in turn love You." That's the following verse: "We love, because He first loved us" (verse 19). Love responds. His love for us makes us respond with love back to Him. There is something really perfect about that.
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Between Now And Know
Day 233 Today's Reading: 1 John 3 One of the greatest thrills for any violinist is to play a Stradivarius. Named for their creator, Antonio Stradivari, who meticulously handcrafted these rare violins, which produce an amazing sound. So you can imagine the excitement of acclaimed British violinist Peter Cropper when, in 1981, London’s Royal Academy of Music offered him a 258-year-old Stradivarius to play during a series of concerts. But then the unimaginable happened. As Cropper walked onto the stage during a concert, he tripped and fell on the violin, breaking off the neck. Forget being embarrassed—he’d just destroyed a priceless masterpiece! Cropper was inconsolable about what he’d done and vowed to do whatever he could to make it right. He took the violin to a master craftsman in the vain hope that he might be able to fix it. A miracle happened, and the craftsman was able to repair it. In fact, he repaired it so perfectly that the break was undetectable—and the sound was exquisite. The Academy was gracious enough to allow him to continue using the rare instrument. And for the remainder of the concert series, as Cropper played, he was reminded of the fact that what he once thought irreparably damaged had been fully restored by the hand of a Master craftsman. Our lives are in continual repair by the Master. That repair work has a name: sanctification. And one day, these broken lives will be a Stradivarius to God. Sanctification is what happens between now and know, between being born again and Jesus’ coming again. Here’s what 1 John 3 says about now and know: “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is”(verse 2). Now is the condition we are in presently. The broken violin. Broken by sin. The Know—that’s the end when all the repairs are done, and we will be like Jesus. In between? That’s the repair process called sanctification. We can compare the process of sanctification to an iceberg, which is almost 90 percent underwater. As the sun shines on the iceberg, the exposed part melts, moving the lower part upward. In the same way, we are usually aware of only a small part of our sinfulness and need, which is all we can deal with at any one time. However, as the light of God’s work in our lives changes us in the areas we know about, we become aware of new areas needing His work. So put simply, sanctification is God’s continual working on me, getting me closer to looking like Jesus. It’s a good work, but it isn’t an easy work. As D. L. Moody once said, “I’ve had more trouble with D. L. Moody than any other man I know.” Devotional writer of the classic My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers, said this about sanctification: “[sanctification] will cause an intense narrowing of all our interests on earth, and an immense broadening of all our interests in God. Sanctification means intense concentration on God’s point of view. It means every power of body, soul, and spirit chained and kept for God’s purpose only.” And F. F. Bruce speaks about the work of sanctification between now and know as imperative: “Those who have been justified are now being sanctified; those who have no experience of present sanctification have no reason to suppose they have been justified.” Nineteenth-century writer J. C. Ryle even takes it to a new level when he says: “The faith which has not a sanctifying influence on the character is no better than the faith of devils. It is a ‘dead faith, because it is alone.’” My favorite book of C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series has always been The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. At one point in the book, the irritating antagonist Eustace Scrubb turns into a dragon because of his greed. But later, we see Aslan, the lion, change him back to a boy. It is one of the most moving pieces of the Lewis stories—it literally made me cry. It is the perfect description of sanctification—the picture of the Lion of Judah scrapping those darn dragon scales off of us, making us like children again. It’s a powerful description between now and know: “One night, Eustace the dragon met a mysterious lion. The lion challenged him to “undress” to try to take off his dragon skin. He managed to peel off a layer but found he was still a dragon underneath. He tried repeatedly but made no further progress. The lion finally said: “You will have to let me undress you.” “I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it. The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he had begun pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. . . . Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off—just as I thought I had done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt—and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been . . . I had turned into a boy again.” Sanctification is more than Christ’s work for us. It is also the Spirit’s work in us right now. And when that work is done, we know . . . we will be His Stradivarius.
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A Lawyer With an Open-And-Shut Case
Day 232 Today's Reading: 1 John 2 Author and pastor Tony Evans once said: I spilled coffee on my suit pants recently. It did not matter whether I spilled it accidentally or intentionally. It stained my pants. There was a stain, and it needed to be cleansed. But I don’t let the fact that we have Tide detergent at home, a detergent that removes stains, allow me to dip my pants in coffee every day. I still try to avoid spilling stuff on my pants. No one says that since they have a washing machine and a dry cleaner, I can get as dirty as I want, do they? God knows every now and then coffee is going to spill, and He wants us to know that when it happens, we have a Cleanser. We have a spiritual washing machine. We have the blood of Jesus. In today’s chapter, the apostle John wants to tell us about that spiritual washing machine and the blood of Jesus: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2). There are two really important words here that every Christian must become familiar with: advocate and propitiation. Let’s start with propitiation. The word is one of the great words of the Bible, even though it appears only four times in the New Testament. The word was used to describe an Old Testament object in the holy of holies called the mercy seat. The mercy seat sat on top of the ark of the covenant with two cherubim. We were all reintroduced to it during Raiders of the Lost Ark, and it’s not in a warehouse in Washington DC nor at Area 51. In the Old Testament times, the priests would put the blood of the animal sacrifice on top of the mercy seat. The blood on the mercy seat would cover the contents of the ark—the Ten Commandments, which the children of Israel were constantly breaking. Every Year when the priest would go in and ask forgiveness for the sins of the nation of Israel, God would look down and not see the disobedience of man but the blood of the sacrifice. Propitiation was made. That is exactly what Jesus did for us. That’s why Advocate is just as important. It was a court word used by the person who spoke up for the accused. The word means to stand side by side, right next to the other person, the accused. When you are in a court of law and being accused of something, you, as the defendant, don’t speak. The lawyer, the advocate, speaks for you. He understands the law and understands the case. What John is trying to tell us is that when we sin, not if we sin, we have an Advocate who has an open-and-shut case on our behalf. It’s not how good we are or how many successful sinless days we have. It’s that our Advocate, Jesus, shows the smoking-gun evidence of why we are innocent: His blood. His shed blood was spilled on our behalf. We don’t say a word because the blood speaks for itself. We are found innocent and Propitiated at that moment. Charles Spurgeon tells us why this is beyond the courts of men and for the court of heaven and why being good or moral isn’t enough: “Morality may keep you out of jail, but it takes the blood of Jesus Christ to keep you out of hell.” Like the old hymn says, “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” As a Christian, I am not sinless, but when I become a Christian, I will sin less and less. But I still sin and need something to fall on and into. We fall into our great Advocate, Jesus. After we get saved, we must not forget our greatest safety device, the blood of Jesus. We have an Advocate, and that Advocate has an open-and-shut case. The best thing we can do is keep our mouth shut and let Him present that case to God on our behalf.
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The Prerequisite To A Great Relationship
Day 231 Today's Reading: 1 John 1 My wife and I have been married for more than two decades, and what she told me at the beginning of our marriage was both genius and biblical. Cindy said to me, “I will never complain or fight you on the amount of time you spend in the Word and in prayer. Because when you pray and read the Bible, you are a better husband, a better father, a better pastor, and a better man.” My wife is a very wise woman. Cindy and the apostle John give us the prerequisite for great relationships. Here’s how John puts it: “If we keep living in the pure light that surrounds him, we share unbroken fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, continually cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7, TPT). Fellowship with one another. The word fellowship is a strong relationship word in the Bible. The word itself means “to share” and “to be in partnership with.” Real fellowship is walking in agreement and in the same direction. In The Living Church, pastor and writer John R. W. Stott provides the three components of true Christian fellowship: our common inheritance, our common service, and our mutual responsibility. Where does this fellowship start? This is important: our fellowship with people is contingent on our walk with God. In order for there to be fellowship, according to 1 John 1:7, there must be light and blood. The light keeps everything open and accountable; the blood keeps everything forgivable if there is a sin encounter. When Cindy was urging me to my knees and the Bible, she was protecting our fellowship as husband and wife. There is no healthy, thriving relationship without light and blood. We need light and blood to deal with sin because sin is the corrupter of all relationships, starting with the most important one, with God. Why is sin damaging to all relationships? Sin alters all relationships. The essence of sin is selfishness. It’s always “me and mine” first, where God, who is without sin, thinks of you and me first. In Why Prayers Are Unanswered, John A. Lavender retells a story about Norman Vincent Peale. When Peale was a boy, he found a cigar, so he slipped into an alley and lit up. It didn’t taste very good, but it made him feel very grown-up—until he spotted his father coming toward him. Knowing he’d get into trouble if his father caught him smoking, he quickly put the cigar behind his back and tried to act casual. Desperate to divert his father’s attention, Norman pointed to a billboard advertising the circus. “Can I go, Dad? Please, let’s go when the circus comes to town.” His father’s reply taught Peale a lesson he never forgot. “Son,” he answered quietly but firmly, “never make a petition while at the same time trying to hide a smoldering disobedience.” Light exposes sin. Blood forgives sin. My walk with Jesus has a direct bearing on my fellowship, not only with my family but with all people. If I am walking in the light, then I have fellowship, John says. What does it mean to walk in the light? It is to live a life that is scrutinized by the Spirit, and that’s open and honest to those around you. When there is no darkness, that means nothing is hidden. When I am giving marital counseling and seeing that there is a great divide in the relationship between husband and wife, my first question to them is, “Tell me about your devotional life.” While the couple is wanting to fix a toilet seat not put down, socks not picked up, and meals not on time, the real issue is light and blood. Inevitably I hear from them both that their time in the Word and prayer is nonexistent—and so is their relationship with each other. Fellowship with one another is contingent on light that exposes our life, and blood forgives whatever is exposed. And when there is neither in our lives, then there is no healthy relationship in our lives. There is no shared life. There is no walking in agreement. If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another. What God does in prayer and through His Word is that He gives us a common inheritance, common service, and mutual responsibility. In The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer brilliantly tells us how and why our relationship with God is imperative to healthy relationships: Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become “unity” conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. When we walk with God, we walk successfully with each other because we are tuning our lives to Him.
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