Just as they took note of Hugh Latimer and even of you and me as we stand firm.
Favorites
January 24
Do you try to treat others with complete fairness, or do you find yourself treating people according to who they are? From time to time, all of us, as much as we hate to admit it, treat people according to who they are. And we likely feel fully justified in doing so. We prefer some folk to others, and the ones we prefer, we usually favor. If we decide to have guests over for dinner, we certainly favor the ones we like and would likely invite them to come. Perhaps we favor some people in life because they are wealthy, others because they are famous, still others because they are successful, or even because they are super intelligent; maybe they are people who could help us out along the way.
Jesus went to eat one Sabbath at the home of a prominent Pharisee, and as He nearly always did, He drew a number of lessons from the occasion. One lesson had to do with showing favors to important people. Jesus said to his host:
When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous (Luke 14:12–14).
I don’t think that Jesus is using this principle for every occasion, saying that you can’t have your friends, relatives, and neighbors for lunch. He is stressing, I believe, that the poor and the disadvantaged should not be left out of your planning. “God does not show favoritism,” Paul writes in his letter to the Romans. We would be wise to follow the example of our Lord in this area.
Every Christian Has a Cross
January 25
In his book Storm Warning, Billy Graham tells of an incident that occurred while he was traveling in an Eastern European country, then under Communist domination.
Traveling with him was an Orthodox priest. One day while the usual swarm of media representatives surrounded them, the Orthodox priest said to Dr. Graham, “Every believer has a cross. I know what ours is. But I wondered what yours was.” Then looking out over the crowd of reporters standing before Dr. Graham, the priest said simply, “Now I know.”8
“Every believer has a cross.” That seems to fly in the face of the idea that when one becomes a Christian, all difficulties are over. Not so. Jesus Himself said—to his followers—“In this world you will have trouble.”
When Saul of Tarsus, later called Paul, met Jesus face to face on the Damascus road, Ananias of Damascus was directed to be a messenger of healing to the blinded Saul. “The Lord said to Ananias ‘Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles . . . I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’” (Acts 9:15–16).
Yes, as the priest said, “Every believer has a cross.”
Didn’t Jesus say, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). The purpose is found in the second half of the verse in John that I referred to earlier. Jesus did say, “In this world you will have trouble,” but then He added: “But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33b, c).
“Indeed,” writes Paul, “we share in his [Christ’s] sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:17b).
Looking to the Creator
January 26
As I’m sure you can appreciate, walking through a jungle can be a very dangerous activity. I read somewhere of an ingenious way some of the natives have devised to keep tigers from sneaking up from behind them in a jungle environment, which tigers are prone to do. They simply wear a facemask on the back of their heads.
None of us really wants to act two–faced or be seen by others as two–faced, but it would be handy, from time to time, to have a pair of eyes in the back of your head.
This very month of January, of course, suggests it. January was named for the old Roman god of beginnings, Janus, who was represented with two bearded heads set back to back—one looking forward, the other behind. However, a major difficulty we experience in this life when we look back is the realization that although we can look back, we cannot go back, and when we look ahead, we simply cannot see around the corner. May I suggest that there is another place to look that is better by far.
The prophet Isaiah was out looking at a changing sky one darkening night:
Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name . . . Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. [And this] Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint (Isaiah 40:26, 28, 31).
The Wings of a Dove
January 27
No doubt, you have heard of the adage that says, “You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.” This is true, but you can make good out of seeming disaster.
It happened to an unnamed artist. The story goes something like this. The artist, a painter, was just adding the finishing touches to his masterpiece when he inadvertently made some disfiguring blots on the sky. Instead of going into a rage, he calmly added a beak to each blot, then wings, until they became birds—in flight.
David the Psalmist was meditating and in prayer one day. He was in deep trouble . . . he describes himself as distraught.
“My heart is in anguish within me;” he writes in Psalm 55, adding, “Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me.” Then he made this cry: “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly far away and be at rest—I would flee far away and stay in the desert; I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm” (Psalm 55: 4–8).
A little bit later in the chapter, verses 16 and 17, comes this: “But I call to God, and the LORD saves me. Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice.”
This cry from the heart of the Psalmist has an echoing call from your heart and mine when the troubles we face seem to overwhelm us. David’s advice to all who face life’s troubles (and we all have them) is found in the same Psalm. You have likely heard it many times. “Cast your cares on the LORD, and he will sustain you.”
Give your cares the wings of God. They too will fly away.
A Tax on Sunshine
January 28
One of the most ridiculous taxes ever imposed was the window tax that was imposed on people in London, England, from 1695 to 1851. Every house with more than six windows was liable to a tax for the extras. Many people simply boarded up their windows to avoid the tax. In effect, the government had put a tax on sunshine.
Quite a few windows are still being boarded up these days—not by boards or brick or mortar, but by human regulation, often at various levels of government. And they are not set up to keep out the light of the sun, but rather the light of spiritual life. There are repressive governments in the world that prevent people from worshipping God and preaching the gospel of Christ.
Lest we forget,