Light for Today (eBook)

January

JANUARY 1

THE DIVINITY OF TIME

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

and Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

PSALM 145:13

The start of a new year is a good opportunity to remember that time is also part of God’s created order. He established time, designed it, keeps it. To say, “Thank you, Lord, for this day,” is to express gratitude not just for the now but also for all the days that have brought us this far, the ups and downs, the hopes, the dreams, both fulfilled and unrequited.

In liturgical time, today is the Eighth Day of Christmas. It’s funny that as a culture, we move on from Christmas quickly to the hoopla surrounding the start of a New Year, when in fact, it’s Christmas that holds the greatest hope we have. When our spiritual calculations are off and focused on the wrong things, we’ll never find the true joy we so desperately need and want. It’s like in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, when the swashbuckling archeologist Indiana Jones and his friend realize their competitor has the wrong map coordinates, and so they both say enthusiastically, “They’re digging in the wrong place!”

And that means they’ll never find what they’re looking for. The joy of this New Year and throughout the year is in Christ. He is the Light shining in the darkness. You’ll always find your heart’s desire when you seek the King first.

To God alone be glory!

JANUARY 2

PERFECT LOVE

There is no fear in love;

but perfect love casts out fear,

because fear involves torment.

But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

1 JOHN 4:18

A married couple thought it would be great if their new little kitten had a companion. As luck would have it, a dear friend who was a vet had a rescue kitten about the same age. At first sight, the two kittens did not get along well. And that’s putting it mildly! There was lots of hissing, growling, and hackle raising. The couple had to keep the kittens separated at all times so they didn’t kill each other. The couple both had battle scars from trying to separate the warring kittens in their campaign.

But a couple of days later something changed as the animals’ hatred for each other turned to curiosity. Fierce fighting turned to wrestling. Then they started eating together. Within a few days, they began grooming each other. Then it was certain: the once mortal enemies were best buds. What happened to change hate to love?

The couple believed it was because the kittens no longer feared each other. With ample comfort and their humans’ love, they no longer feared the other’s presence. It’s the same with us and our heavenly Father. To understand what his presence means in our lives, his love guaranteed by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, is to know a love that not only brings contentment but that also transcends all understanding.

To God alone be glory!

JANUARY 3

CAIN’S SIN

The LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”

He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

GENESIS 4:9

God’s query to Cain was a rhetorical question. God knew where Abel was, but he was giving Cain the opportunity to confess and repent. Cain’s reply was meant to hide an evil deed, the first murder recorded in the Bible. It was also an attempt to convince himself—the evil doer—that he did nothing wrong. But as in all cases of sin, God already knew what Cain had done. Cain had killed his brother.

God was trying to help Cain, whom he loved, to admit what he had done and to ask for forgiveness so that true healing could begin. It was a little like a soul cleanser. Instead of being wrathful and smiting Cain, God wanted Cain to feel remorse about what he had done, wanted him to hurt from the sin he had committed. But Cain only felt pain about what it was going to cost him.

How we are so still like Cain today, even as we understand this amazing concept called grace. We, on this side of the cross, post crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, have far more understanding of grace than Cain ever could. But still, we are so like our ancient ancestor. We see it in the man who stops having affairs only when his wife threatens to leave him or the woman who cries before a judge for shoplifting because she’s being sentenced to jail time. We understand how sin breaks God’s law. But grace can help us understand how it breaks God’s heart.

To God alone be glory!

JANUARY 4

TRAUMA TRANSFORMED TO TREASURE

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless,

Christ died for the ungodly.

ROMANS 5:6 NIV

A woman recalls a childhood injustice when her first-grade teacher made the entire class stay after school because some of the boys were badly misbehaving. At six years of age, she had no concept of time. What was probably all of five minutes seemed an eternity. Her child’s mind imagined it was like a life sentence in prison. She thought she would never see her mother or her home again. She began to cry…a lot! She remembers how a classmate called her a crybaby. She felt weak and helpless, wrongly punished, and wrongly mocked.

That moment had a profound impact on her for several years of her elementary school days. As the end of each school day neared, she felt the trauma again. Her throat tightened. The tears came. For years she worked to bury her feelings, fearing being called “crybaby” yet again. But then as a young adult, she began to realize the great benefit of having been through the heartbreak. It gave her the ability to empathize and comfort others. She knows now that what she had been burying was a treasure trove of God’s gift to her.

Sometimes the worst thing that can happen to us could end up being one of the best. That is what the cross teaches us. How could the tragedy of God in the flesh dying on a cross, unjustly sentenced, cruelly mocked, amount to anything good? And yet we know it is the climax of human history that cosmically changed the world and defeated our ultimate enemy, death itself.

To God alone be glory!

JANUARY 5

TWELFTH NIGHT ALL YEAR

Being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod,

they departed for their own country another way.

MATTHEW 2:12

A glorious Twelfth Night! It seems a long time since Christmas. The tree is down, or it’s looking like it should be. Traditionally, this is the time when the church says the wise men reached the newly born baby Jesus and his parents, Mary and Joseph. They brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. However, some scholars believe the magi arrived even later—by two years.

Regardless, Twelfth Night gives us an opportunity to reflect on how we can keep Christmas in our hearts the rest of the year. After the snows melt and the spring rains come, the image of the tiny babe born in a manger helps us remember Jesus’ humanity and that his birth means he is just like us in so many ways: vulnerable, breakable, loveable. But unlike us, he is God. And because he lives, we can face whatever is ahead this year and beyond.

To God alone be glory!

JANUARY 6

GOD’S WORD, A WEAPON

Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness

to be tempted by the devil.

MATTHEW 4:1

We can learn so much from the account of Jesus in the wilderness. But one of the most striking things is how to resist temptations. They often come when we are weakest. Jesus was hungry and tired. He was tempted first by the very thing his body was craving: food. The devil offered bread to Jesus. When Jesus could easily have questioned God’s love during forty days of utter silence, the devil promised safety and security. Jesus also could have questioned God’s wisdom in letting him suffer. The devil promised wealth and power. But at what cost? Compromising Christ’s relationship with God.

What’s compelling about the exchange is that the devil uses Scripture to tempt Jesus. But Jesus knows that Satan has twisted its meaning. The devil believes in God and even knows God’s Word. And if he’s not afraid to quote Scripture to the Son of God, he’s certainly not afraid to use it on us. If the Bible offered only solace and comfort, then occasionally reading it would be fine. But if the Holy Scriptures are truly the Sword of the Spirit, a spiritual weapon, then they have power to thwart the devil’s schemes.

The Bible is not an occasional talisman against inclement conditions that pop up in our life but the actual life blood of God’s wisdom. God’s Word is “a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).

To God alone be glory!

JANUARY 7

THE POWER OF SIMPLE TRUST

Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,

whose confidence is in him.

JEREMIAH 17:7 NIV

The best resolutions are the simple ones, like, “I will trust in the Lord.” In its simplicity, it is truly powerful. To see our ultimate fulfillment in serving the risen Savior, we must complete all our other pursuits peacefully and joyfully as we must do all things for God’s glory. Disappointment will not crush us but...