Unfortunately, when the ten–year–old boy took his completed chart to school, absolutely no one believed that he had done it—not even the teacher who was overseeing the contest, and the prize was given to someone else.
Charlie Harvey must have had very even–tempered parents, for some I know would have raised quite a ruckus at the teacher’s failure to treat their son fairly. However, Charlie says that although many years have gone by, he remembers that he had a bath every day and that he told the truth.5
Each one of us suffers the same difficulty from time to time: a truth we say is not believed, or we are misunderstood or even misinterpreted. Jesus Himself was not believed, but was misunderstood and misinterpreted. And for that, He died on the cross. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that His followers would suffer similarly. “Blessed are you,” He said to His disciples, “when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven” (Matthew 5:11–12a).
That’s the only struggle that really counts.
Can We Change?
January 20
Many of you, I know, have read about—or at least heard about—one of the most controversial figures of the United States during the Nixon years—Charles W. Colson. “Chuck” Colson, as he was popularly known, was one of the most powerful members of President Nixon’s staff and played a part in the Watergate Scandal. Colson, as well as others, spent time in prison for their involvement in the scandal that caused Mr. Nixon’s resignation.
In the early 1970s, when the Watergate revelations mushroomed across the media, Colson was undergoing a spiritual crisis. He wrote that he experienced a terrible deadness inside, not only because of involvement in “Watergate’s dirty tricks, but the deep sin within me, the hidden evil that lies in every human heart.”
One day a visit to a friend changed his life. The friend was Tom Philips, a prominent businessman who had become a Christian. Colson writes: “But while Tom’s explanation that he had ‘accepted Jesus Christ’ shocked and baffled me, it also made me curious. He was at peace with himself, something I surely wasn’t.”6 That night Charles Colson, too, became a Christian, began a new life, and went on to become a powerful witness for his Lord and Savior.
“Therefore,” writes the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Christians at Corinth: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). To a seeking and puzzled member of the Jewish high council, the Sanhedrin, who had timidly come to Jesus under cover of darkness, the Master Himself put it to him straight from the shoulder: “I tell you the truth,” Jesus declared, “no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3). Then Jesus soon added the words that have become the Bible’s “golden text”: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Any one of us can change or, rather, be changed.
The Fruit of My Labor
January 21
The Roman Emperor, Hadrian, who reigned soon after the New Testament era, saw in his travels one day an old man planting olive trees. Knowing that olives are one of the slowest growing trees, the Emperor said to the bent and frail man, “Those trees you plant will not bear olives for years to come. Do you expect to live long enough to enjoy the rewards of your labor?”
The toiling man looked up and replied, “If deity will, I shall, and if not, my sons will eat of the fruit of my labor. My father and his father before him planted olive trees that I might have their fruit. It is now my duty to help provide for those who will come after I have gone.”7
God’s Word points on a number of occasions to the very special status we can secure as Christians. Jesus Himself said: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man [or woman] remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.” (John 15:5a). The Apostle Paul in Romans 8:17a writes: “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co–heirs with Christ.” Indeed, as the Apostle Peter points out in 1 Peter 3:7b, we are “. . . heirs . . . of the gracious gift of life.” Not only the gift of life, but also the gift of new life.
Should we not then plant some olive trees with olive branches so that those who follow may know the same peace . . . the peace that passes all understanding?
What About Tomorrow?
January 22
In an interview broadcast on the CBC national news soon after the devastating earthquake that rocked southern California in January of 1994, a CBC reporter was vividly describing some of the damage around the Los Angeles area. She mentioned the loss of life and said that residents were very uneasy in their homes, some of them arranging to sleep outside for fear of aftershocks.
Then the host newscaster asked her reporter, “What about tomorrow?” The response was, “That’s the question on everyone’s lips.”
To be truthful, that’s a question on the lips of more than a few people. And usually it is asked against a background of fear or uncertainty . . . for various kinds of earth–shattering events are happening as well as “natural” earthquakes.
“What about tomorrow?” is a very natural question to ask at this juncture in history.
Jesus had something to say about it in the solid pages of teaching in Matthew 5, 6, and 7—part of what is called the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus had just made reference to very simple things like food and clothing and the fact that God cares for the plants and the animals.
“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).
Then He made this incisive statement:
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34).
It is our privilege to trust God for tomorrow.
An Honest Servant
January 23
Many years before his martyrdom, Hugh Latimer had preached rather forthrightly before Henry VIII. The king was offended, ordered Latimer to preach the next Sunday and to make an apology for the offence he had given. Latimer searched his soul but truly believed he needed to remain faithful to his message. Then he repeated the sermon he had preached to the king the Sunday before. The king asked him how he could be so bold as to preach to the king in that way. Latimer replied that he merely discharged his duty and followed his conscience. The king embraced him and reportedly said, “Blessed be God, I have so honest a servant.”
Not many preachers, nor any other Christians, find themselves in such a situation of personal danger in this day and age—at least not in the Western world. It certainly happened in the former Soviet Union, in China, and in other repressive areas of our world . . . and is still happening.
Ask the question: “What is the cost of being a real Christian?” The answer is simple—
“Everything.” Didn’t Jesus Himself open the possibility? He said to His followers: “Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way