DAY 355    Read 1 John through 4.

Today's reading:  It is believed that John wrote his three epistles in his old age, probably about A.D. 90 to 95.  Although no destination is named, the letters may have been sent to Ephesus, where John labored for many years before his arrest and exile.

Memory gem:  "Ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin"  (1 John 3:5).

Thought for today:
Today we hear few sermons about the perfection of Christ.  Christ could not be perfect, holy, and sinless unless He were divine.  All men are by nature imperfect; in fact, the Scripture declares plainly that all men have sinned.

Jesus is a man, but not a mere man.  He is a true man, but not only a man.

Walter B. Knight reports the experience of Lakhan Singh, the street preacher in India.  Before his conversion from Hinduism, he went on innumerable pilgrimages to the so-called holy shrines seeking peace of heart.  He was asked by a missionary, "But how were you first drawn to Christ?"

He replied, "One day I stopped to listen to a street preacher in Shahjahanpur who declared that the Lord Jesus Christ was a sinless incarnation.  There are many incarnations in the Hindu religion.  Some of them are cruel, capricious, and murderous; but none of them are sinless.  I was deeply impressed with this.  I continued to think about it.  But I had no peace of mind until I accepted the sinless Son of God as my Saviour.  For forty years I have been joyously preaching Him!"

So it is indeed true,  Among all the people born on earth, only of Christ can it be said, "In him is no sin."

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Difficult or obscure words:
1 John 3:9.  "His seed"--The antecedent of "his" is obviously "God."  God's "seed," or regenerating power, abides in the born-again Christian so that he no longer goes on sinning.

DAY 354    Read Hebrews 12 and 13.

Today's reading:  The epistle closes with earnest appeals for the believing Christian to live a life that demonstrates true Christianity.

Memory gem:  "Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith"  (Hebrews 12:1, 2).

Thought for today:
We live in an eye-minded age.  The art of reading--at least, of reading anything very instructive or heavy--is unknown to millions and is being lost by other millions.  This is the age of the picture book, the picture magazine, the moving picture, and television.

What are we looking at?  What do we see?  Much that we cannot escape seeing is not good.  But what do we look upon with pleasure?  What do we study?  By beholding, we become changed (see 2 Corinthians 3:18).

Friends traveling through Italy were one day examining Guido's famous fresco, the Aurora, in a great palace of that country.  Many artists were there busily copying the great painting, and the tourists noticed that each artist differed from the others in his portrayal of this immortal work.  After a while the attention of the guide was called to the fact that one artist had painted the horses a different color and that another had differed in some other detail, and so on.  With an expressive gesture, the guide replied, "Don't look at them; look only at the original."

Let us look at Christ for guidance and consecrate our eyes to the holy and the true and the beautiful and the right.

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Difficult or obscure words:
Hebrews 12:2.  "Author"--literally: leader, originator, founder.  The word is translated as "Prince" in Acts 3:15 and 5:31 and as "captain" in Hebrews 2:10.  In classical Greek the word is used for the progenitor of a clan or in speaking of the mythical heroes.  Here the meaning obviously should cast Jesus as the heroic Leader or Prince.

DAY 353    Read Hebrews 10 and 11.

Today's reading:  We conclude the study of the ancient sanctuary service as a type of Christ's ministry.  Then follows the well-known "faith chapter."

Memory gem:  "Having a high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith"  (Hebrews 10:21, 22).

Thought for today:
In the earthly sanctuary the offerings were the bodies and blood of animals.  Our High Priest offers His own life, His own blood, His own body, crucified for us.  The shadows of the earthly sanctuary pointed to the reality of the new, even to Christ, our Lamb as well as our High Priest.  The writer tells us that those sacrifices of lambs and calves could not actually take away sins or make the one who did the service perfect  (see Hebrews 9:9).  But our High Priest offers His own sacrifice for us.  This offering does take away sins.  Our High Priest appears now in heaven for us.

Christ came, we are told, to do the will of God (see Hebrews 10:5-9).  Thus He was not merely to be obedient to God in His life here on earth, though He was obedient; but the will of God which He obeyed was the divine will which declared "the offering of the body of Jesus Christ"  (Hebrews 10:10) as necessary for our salvation.  Christ lived obediently, died obediently, and offered Himself upon the cross.  His act was the perfect sacrifice by the perfect Priest, for Himself both priest and offering.  So, by God's grace and eternal love, He "obtained eternal redemption for us"  (Hebrews 9:12).  That redemption cannot be improved upon; it is the final redemption, because it is "eternal."  It is "one sacrifice for sins for ever"  (Hebrews 10:12).

This wonderful epistle opens with the statement that the Son Jesus Christ, "himself purged our sins"  (Hebrews 1:3).  The last chapter brings in the same tremendous salvation truth (see Hebrews 13:20, 21).  Here we have again the blood of the eternal offering, the blood of Christ, with the result that salvation is offered freely to us all.

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Difficult or obscure words:
Hebrews 11:17.  "Only begotten"--literally, unique.  Isaac was the only son qualified for the birthright blessing.

DAY 352    Read Hebrews 7 through 9.

Today's reading:  The epistle discusses at length the differences between the Aaronic and the Melchizedek priesthoods, showing that Christ surpasses earthly priests in every way.

Memory gem:  "By his own blood he [Christ] entered in once into the holy place, having obtained redemption for us"  (Hebrews 9:12).

Thought for today:
There are many today who feel that by organization, effort, money, plans, councils, they can elevate, refine, and regenerate humanity without blood atonement.  But this is nothing more or less than a modern following of the example of Cain, and the history of Cain shows what must be the result.  Humanity has no power to regenerate itself.

Christ alone is our Sin Bearer, and He died to atone for the sins of the world.  The central theme of the sanctuary service of old, the central doctrine of the Christian faith, is the atoning blood.  There is no other way to be saved than by the blood of Christ.  All need to be saved, all need to be saved from sin, and all may be saved through the blood of the cross.

The French Protestant scholar Muretus was an exile from his own country.  He fell seriously ill while in Lombardy and was taken to a hospital for outcasts.  He overheard the doctors consulting about him in Latin, not thinking that a poor pauper could understand the language of the learned.  They said, "Let us make an experiment upon this worthless body."  And from his sickbed, the scholar startled them by rising on his elbow and replying in Latin, "Yet for this worthless body, Jesus Christ has died."

For our redemption, we look only to the blood of the cross.

Speaking of the Royal Air Force that mounted up with wings as eagles to protect their motherland, Winston Churchill said, "Never in the history of mankind have so many owed so much to so few."  But when we think of the atoning blood of the cross and of Jesus who died on Calvary for us, we say, "Never in the history of the universe has mankind owed so much to One."

DAY 351    Read Hebrews 4 through 6.

Today's reading continues the appeal of chapter 3 for accepting Christ.  Then it gives a short discussion of God's "rest" before launching the detailed study of Christ's priesthood.

Memory gem:  "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his"  (Hebrews 4:9, 10).

Thought for today:
Millions of people are nervous, run-down, dissatisfied, and ill today because they do not follow God's plan of rest.  It is held by many authorities that man himself is built on the principle of the seventh portion of time being dedicated to the enjoyment of repose.  Both body and mind need relaxation from the pressure of worldly pursuits and cares.  Even from a medical point of view, it seems that the Sabbath forms part of the remedial system of nature.  The God who created man knows what is good for him, but so many men do not realize what is good for themselves.

But the Sabbath was not to be a period of physical rest alone.  Notice the command of God:  "Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy"  (Exodus 20:8).  There is the matter of holiness in it, a matter of religious and spiritual worship.  D. L. Moody saw this and said that this Sabbath question is a valid one for the whole country.  If we give up Sabbath, soon the church goes; and if we give up the church, the home goes; and as the home goes, the nation goes.  Sad to say, that is the direction in which millions of people are traveling today.

Let us remember this:  Only those who believe have entered into God's rest.  Hebrews 4:3.  Only those who keep themselves holy can keep the Sabbath holy.  True Sabbath keeping is a spiritual service to be rendered by a Spirit-filled person.  The Sabbath should be a bit of heaven transferred to earth.

NOTE:  The word translated "rest" in Hebrews 4:9 is a totally different word from the noun and verbs for "rest" in other verses of chapter 3 and 4.  The word occurs nowhere else in the Bible or in classical Greek literature.  A careful study of the context makes it clear that this word (sabbatismos) means more than the Sabbath rest; it covers the spiritual rest, and particularly the Christian's rest.  However, from numerous other texts it can be shown that keeping God's Sabbath is a definite part of the spiritual rest God wishes His people to enter.

DAY 350    Read Hebrews 1 through 3.

Today's reading:  We begin a survey of the important Epistle to the Hebrews--full of inspirational value and gems of truth.

Memory gem:  "God...hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds"  (Hebrews 1:1, 2).

Thought for today:
The earth itself, with all its scientific mysteries, is a memorial to the wisdom and power of the Son of God; and the glittering dome of night above us shows the works of His hands.  This mighty Son, whose workmanship we see about us and above us, is none other than Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of our salvation.  He made the worlds.

The hand of Christ, the Master Workman, had been seen in the vast dome of stars long ages before Leeuwenhoek ground his first lenses or Galileo put them in the first telescope.  As men began to peer out into the boundless void with stronger and stronger eyes--the mighty glasses of great astronomical observatories--they were struck with silent wonder at the awesome vastness of the universe.  The human mind can have no conception of the endless and gigantic creation about us.

The creation testifies of its Creator as the eternal infinite God.  "All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord," said David with the tongue of inspiration (Psalm 145:10).  He must have been gazing out into the blue-black sky as there on the verdant meadows of heaven began to blossom, one by one, the lovely stars, "the forget-me-nots of the angels."

We rejoice in the human Christ, a humble Galilean carpenter; but we must know too that He was, and is, the Son of God Most High--that the very heavens are the work of His hands.  His works praise Him when His worshipers are silent.

And the Son, by whose hand the heavens were created, emptied Himself of His infinite glory and veiled His divinity in a human form.  He took our nature; He became a man and died for our sins on the cross that cruel men had made for Him at old Jerusalem.  Christ's love and infinite humiliation in our redemption is as incomprehensible to us as is His work of creation.  We cannot understand it all with our finite minds, but we can thank our heavenly Father for the gift of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

DAY 349    Read 2 Timothy.

Today's reading:  This letter has been called Paul's last will and testament.  It was written by the great apostle during his second imprisonment and shortly before his execution.

Memory gem:  "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith"  (2 Timothy 4:6, 7).

Thought for today:
Your Christian life and mine is not to be a matter of here and there, a little now and then; in the church and out, and back again; up today and down tomorrow.  It must be from henceforth, every day, always, until "the roll is called up yonder."

None of us has had any more tests of perseverance and patience than did the apostle Paul.  For years he went without a home, without regular pay.  He had to make tents to earn his living in some places.  In other places he was supported by some of his friends.  He was shipwrecked.  He was whipped more than once, mobbed, beaten, left for dead, wounded, rejected, imprisoned; and finally received the death sentence as a martyr for Christ  (see 2 Corinthians 11:23-28).

In the old days of trouble, when William, Prince of Orange, received a letter from mighty King Phillip of Spain threatening him with the confiscation of all his goods and the loss of his life, he did not surrender his faith or his country.  The courage which came from his Christian faith inspired Prince William to fling this challenge in the face of the tyrant: "I am in the hands of God.  My worldly goods and my life have long since been dedicated to His service.  He will dispose of them as seems best to His glory and my salvation."

These were the words of a man who knew his Lord and believed that He was able to save to the uttermost.  It was the speech of a man not only self-reliant but God-reliant, who believed and rested on the promises of God.  He could face conflict, he could suffer the wounding of the foe, for his heart was unafraid.  Like the apostle, he could say: "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing"  (2 Timothy 4:8).

DAY 348    Read 1 Timothy.

Today's reading:  It seems quite clear that Paul wrote this letter during a period of travel after his release from prison in Rome and before his second arrest.  Timothy was pastor of the church in Ephesus at the time.

Memory gem:  "Godliness with contentment is great gain"  (1 Timothy 6:6).

Thought for today:
How often I have heard people say that money is the root of all evil.  The Bible does not say that.  Rather, it says, "The love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows"  (1 Timothy 6:10).

Money is to be used in the right way.  It is to bring health and blessing, not only to ourselves but to others.  It gives us the opportunity to be liberal, to be self-sacrificing.

God reserves a part of our money as His own.  In ancient times it was called the tithe--one tenth.  Many Christians today lay aside one tenth of the increase, or profit, for God's work.  Then, in addition to this, from their own nine tenths, they make freewill offerings to the work and cause of God.  Is not this a good way continually to remind ourselves that it is God who gives us the power to get everything that we have in this world, and that we are workers together with Him, sharers with Him in what He is doing for men?

The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  Think of the crimes committed to obtain it--wars innumerable, raids, murders, robbery, thievery.

        At the Devil's booth are all things sold,
          Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold;
            For a cap and bells our lives we pay,
          Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking:
            'Tis heaven alone that is given away,
        'Tis only God may be had for the asking.
                                          ----James Russel Lowell.

Will you not today consecrate not only your heart, but all that you have to God?  If you do this, He will guide you and keep you and all yours, He will be your banker, and you will never have to worry about a bank failure, for your treasure will be in the bank of heaven, which never fails.

DAY 347    Read Philemon and Titus.

Today's reading:  Paul's Epistle to Philemon, written toward the end of the first imprisonment in Rome, is a letter to a friend about a runaway slave, Onesimus.  The letter to Titus was apparently written about the same time as the first one to Timothy.  Paul had left Titus in charge of the work on Crete.

Memory gem:  "I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers, hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints"  (Philemon 4 and 5).

Thought for today:
Philemon's slave, Onesimus, had run away to the city of Rome where the apostle was prisoner.  In some way Paul met Onesimus there, and under his patient and loving ministry Onesimus was converted.

And now the great servant of God is sending Onesimus back to his master, Philemon, who also is a Christian, with this beautiful letter.  The apostle suggests that he really needs the service of Onesimus and that he actually belongs to him because he has brought him to Christ.  Yet he says that Philemon, himself being a convert, should be willing to receive the apostle's word as a command to take his servant back with Christian kindness.

How could Philemon resist such an appeal as this?  "I do not command you," Paul said in effect, "though I might do so; but I beseech you, for love's sake, forgive Onesimus; receive him again, not merely as a servant, but as a beloved brother.

The apostle offers to stand good for any damages or to pay any debt that Philemon may consider Onesimus owes him.

I should like to have been present when Philemon opened this letter and read it, after taking it from the hand of Onesimus.  What mixed feelings must have overwhelmed him!  And then those words, "for love's sake."  A letter from "Paul the aged," aged in the service of God, bearing the marks and scars of his sufferings for Jesus.  Tears must have trickled down Philemon's face.  Yes, I think he embraced Onesimus and received him back as a member of his household, as "a brother beloved," and all "for love's sake."

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Difficult or obscure words:
Titus 1:12.  "Slow bellies"--lazy gluttons.

DAY 346    Read 2 Peter and Jude.

Today's reading:  The second letter by Peter was probably written soon after the first, and shortly before his martyrdom, about A.D. 67 in Rome.  Jude, probably a brother of the James who presided at the Jerusalem Council, seems to have written his letter about the same time as Peter wrote his second.

Memory gem:  "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts"  (2 Peter 1:19).

Thought for today:
The word of prophecy is more sure--stronger evidence--than actually hearing the voice of God.  Think of it.  Why is this?

One reason is that, with every year that goes by, the miracle of a fulfilled prophecy becomes greater.  Here stands the Word of God written down by the prophet.  The years go by, and it may seem that the events predicted by prophecy are the ones most likely to take place.  Then suddenly they happen--perhaps after decades, centuries, or even millenniums.  But the prophecy always comes true.  And the reason is that these prophecies were not made by man, but "holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."  God spoke through them.

How can we neglect such a book as the Bible, sustained by such unimpeachable sources as history and human experience?  Surely, my friend, if we can trust the Bible because of all the great prophecies fulfilled, history proving that God spoke truth, then just as truly we can believe what it says about salvation, and we can have faith in the words of Christ, the very Son of God Himself.

Do you want peace in your heart?  Do you want the burden of condemnation and sin to leave your soul?  Do you want to be free?  Then listen to what the Bible says.  Each word is important.

Are you willing to listen to God's Word and to believe it when you hear it?  Will you trust God?  In other words, will you have faith in Him?  Surely we can depend upon the word of the great Creator, the One who has guided human history to fulfill the prophecies of His servants, the One who loves you so that He was willing to send His own Son to die for you.  Surely you can rest upon His word, believe it, and find eternal life and peace right here in this world.