Sometimes as we go barreling down the highway of life, we fail to notice those by the roadside who are hurting.
Jesus told the parable of four men involved in a similar drama, which we call “The Good Samaritan.” It was not a super highway, but it was a highway. The highway was a lonely road from Jerusalem to Jericho. A traveler was on his way to Jericho when robbers set upon him, beat him terribly, and took everything he had. Three other men, also traveling alone, came upon the scene. Two of the lone travelers, seeing the desperately hurt man at two separate times, didn’t want to be involved and passed by on the other side. They didn’t want to be involved, but they were. They saw him . . . and they left him.
Finally the third man came along—a foreigner, a hated Samaritan. He stopped, bound up the victim’s wounds, put him on his own beast, took him to the nearest inn, cared for him overnight, and left money with the innkeeper to continue the man’s care. He also promised the innkeeper to reimburse him for any further expense when he returned.
That’s brotherhood.
A Sign of Spring
March 10
We all love to see the signs of spring, particularly after a long, cold winter. When the snow melts, trees begin to bud, blossoms start appearing, grass begins to “green up,” and other early signs of spring occur. We eagerly anticipate the coming of spring.
Some of Jesus’ enemies came to Him on one occasion and asked Him to show them a sign from heaven, some indication that He really was who He said He was—the Messiah. Jesus immediately referred to an old weather forecaster’s sign. “When evening comes,” noted Jesus, “you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times” (Matthew 16: 2–3). Then He added that the only sign they would receive would be the sign of Jonah.
At that, of course, they drew a blank. The salvation of Nineveh depended on the prophet Jonah, but a great fish had swallowed him. However, God delivered him, and Nineveh was saved. As Jesus put it on another occasion, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40).
Jonah’s experience was a sign of salvation to Nineveh, so the cross of Jesus and the empty tomb become signs of salvation to a needy world—signs of spring, if you like.
Out of Ashes, a New Life
March 11
The wonders of nature never cease to amaze. God has designed such harmony and balance in the natural world. A prime example of this is the lodgepole pine tree, which is found extensively in British Columbia and the Northwest United States. The lodgepole pine belongs to what is called a “fire origin species.” When the cones of the lodgepole pine fall to the ground, they are sealed shut so that the seeds do not germinate in response to water and sun. The pine cones rest on the forest floor, sometimes for decades, until a forest fire sweeps through and the heat from the fire melts the seal; then the seeds fall out and germinate.
Metaphorically speaking, you’ve likely known people who are “fire origin species.” Perhaps you are one yourself—one who has been badly burned in life and who, out of the ashes, has started out again to build a new life. The fires of life have not destroyed you; they have made you even more experienced to face the battles ahead.
A few verses from the forty–third chapter of Isaiah fit this description: “But now, this is what the LORD says . . . “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze” (Isaiah 43:1a–2).
Isaiah, looking forward to the coming of the Messiah also writes: “The spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted . . . to comfort all who mourn . . . to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning” (Isaiah 61:1–3b).
“A crown of beauty instead of ashes.” Out of the burnt things of life, the ashes, God promises a crown of beauty.
Just like the lodgepole pine reforests the devastated land.
A Woman Called Deborah
March 12
There is a great story in the book of Judges in the Old Testament, a story of a woman named Deborah.
Joshua, who had followed Moses as leader of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt to the border of the land promised by God, brought them into that land, where he died. Having reached their goal, the generation that had made it possible passed away as well. A new generation arose who, as the Bible puts it, “knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.” They began to worship the idols of their pagan neighbors. Troubles began to turn on them and make them a subject people. The people of Israel groaned under the bondage.
The story of the book of Judges is the story of twelve judges or leaders God raised up over many years to deliver His people from that bondage. However, each time after they had been freed, the Israelites would slip back into the same old ways, facing a similar situation time after time. This continued until after the death of Samson, the last of the twelve judges.
Deborah was the fourth of the twelve judges. She burned with anger at the oppression of her people. For twenty years, Jabin, King of Canaan, had oppressed the nation of Israel. Their vineyards had been destroyed, their women shamed, and their children killed. The chief of the Canaanite army, Sisera, had the military might of nine hundred iron chariots, whereas Israel had none.
Deborah had the wisdom—and courage—to summon one of Israel’s most capable military leaders, Barak, asking him to take ten thousand men and attack Sisera. Barak was reluctant to face nine hundred chariots with only foot soldiers. He would go only if Deborah accompanied him. “‘Very well,’ Deborah said, ‘I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman’” (Judges 4:9). God did. Barak’s army, empowered by God, decimated Sisera’s forces.
The fifth chapter of the book of Judges is Deborah’s song following the annihilation of Sisera and the Canaanite army. It is a song of praise to the Lord God. The chapter ends with, “Then the land had peace forty years.”
Relationships
March 13
Each of us has many different relationships in life. For example, there are the relationships of grandparent/grandchild, parent/child, aunt or uncle/nephew or niece, employer/employee, etc. For Christians, in all of our relationships, we should show that Christ is within us—that we are doing our part to ensure that He is always present in our relationships.
Parents of growing children have a double duty of discipline and encouragement in their relationship with their children. Similarly, in our relationship with God as our Heavenly Father, God exercises that dual responsibility of discipline and encouragement. The writer of the book of Hebrews says this: “We have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while, as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness” (Hebrews 12:9–10).
Paul writes of the encouragement side of God’s grace in the second letter to Thessalonians. It is in the form of a prayer: “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in