Category: Thoughts and Meditations

“The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.” – Revelation 3:5

This sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Spending eternity clothed in white garments symbolizing our purity, seeing our name permanently written into the book of life, and hearing our name proclaimed by Jesus Himself before God and the angels.

So what does it mean to conquer? Probably not what you’re thinking! This conquering isn’t about a muscular and militant Christianity that defeats all opponents. Jesus actually means conquering the everyday challenges and temptations of our lives to truly follow Him every hour of every day.

Conquering is about resisting the temptations of suburban life and pursuing personal holiness and a life of faithful obedience to Jesus. Conquering means resisting the many temptations in our ordinary lives: sexual temptations, financial temptations, ethical temptations. Temptations to indulge our anger, greed, lust, ambition, pride.

Our most fundamental calling as Christians is to actually follow Jesus – doing what He did, caring about what He cares about, and seeking, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to become like Him in personal holiness, righteousness, kindness, wisdom, mercy, and grace. We conquer when we commit and live our lives like that. Of course, we’ll make mistakes along the way, but we conquer those when we confess them to God, ask forgiveness, and pursue increasing holiness and Christlikeness.

Conquering isn’t easy, but there is joy, now and forever, in seeking to conquer – not the world, but the world’s influence on our hearts and minds. Go forth and conquer today. Then do it again tomorrow.

“Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” – Revelation 2:10

We don’t know why Christ decrees for some churches to suffer persecution while others live in peace for long periods of time. What we do know is that when faced with persecution, we are given a wonderful opportunity to glorify God! While we should never seek suffering or try to provoke persecution (that would be ungodly), we should never shy away from it either.

There is enormous persecution of Christians in the world today. We should be praying for persecuted Christians and also preparing ourselves should our own comfortable situation begin to change. If our King decrees that we should suffer for our faith, then may we each be found faithful in that time!

Choose now, while things are pleasant, what’s more important to you: Christ or comfort, life on this earth or the crown of eternal life in heaven. Reflect now on what compromises you will refuse to make to hold on to your popularity, social status, finances, freedom, family, or life.

While persecution isn’t good and we’re called to pray that we would live in peace, greater good for God’s Kingdom can come out of persecution. We should understand that Christ rewards us for faithfulness in the face of whatever persecution we may encounter. He will place the crown of life on the heads of those who are faithful to their death. Commit yourselves now to always choose faithfulness over any personal benefit on earth.

“I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall speak peace to the nations;
his rule shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.”
– Zechariah 9:10

The verse before this one was famously fulfilled when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey on Palm Sunday. This verse is a promise of the comprehensive world peace we will one day enjoy after Christ’s return. One day, Messiah will return and the weapons and equipment of war: chariots, horses, and bows, tanks, fighters, and guns will no longer be needed or wanted.

Nations will be at peace under the world-wide rule of King Jesus. This is a glorious and encouraging reminder that the present world situation and all the darkness, violence, war, terrorism, fear, refugees, and suffering we see around us is temporary. One day, we will see the final and forever fulfillment of the angel’s proclamation of peace on earth on the night Jesus was born.

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace at Christmas, we look ahead to the day He will make peace across the entire earth. We look ahead with eager anticipation to creation as it was meant to be and the enjoyment of eternity in Christ’s peaceful presence and reign.

“How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.”
– Psalm 139:17-18

There is tremendous pleasure and joy to be experienced in thinking about the thoughts of our Creator. Unlike our thoughts which too often rise no higher than our stomach, His thoughts are infinitely rich, wondrous, wise, soaring, brilliant, gracious, merciful, and so much more. We are blessed that God has kindly chosen to reveal a portion of His thoughts to us in the Bible.

The Bible is no mere history book, story book, guidebook to salvation, or rule book for life. The Bible contains the very thoughts of God! We are blessed beyond every generation that came before us to be able to read or listen to the Bible in so many formats, so many styles, and so many languages. Generations before us would have given anything to have the comprehensive, free access to God’s thoughts that we enjoy on a single smart phone, tablet, computer, or book store. Let us rejoice and make good use of this treasure! The more we read, meditate on, and study the Bible, the more our thoughts are expanded, refined, and re-shaped to reflect the thoughts of God.

It’s going to be a long winter. Rather than contemplating the thoughts of your favorite media personalities and social media savants, commit these next months to reading and enjoying the thoughts of God. Use the time you would have spent on your device or in front of your TV to read the Bible instead. Fall more deeply in love with God’s thoughts until you find yourself agreeing fully with the Psalmist, “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!”

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” – 1 John 5:21

John’s final words in this letter that’s primarily focused on love for God, love for brother and sister, obedience to Christ, and right belief in Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God are words of warning to Christians. As followers of Jesus, we must beware of the attraction of idols, because they get in the way of all those things John wrote about.

He isn’t talking about little statues. Hopefully, not too many Christians are going to start worshiping statues. He means idols of our heart – those things that take on such tremendous importance in our lives, minds, and imaginations that they functionally kick God off the throne of our heart.

We can love Jesus, worship every Sunday, and still worship idols in our heart. Probably every Christian has at some point. Idols can be easy to see (in others) – they tend to be anywhere there is unusually strong emotion. When our anger, delight, or anxiety are way out of proportion to something’s actual significance we’ve probably found an idol. When we blow up over something relatively minor, we’ve probably found an idol.

Most of our idols aren’t bad things. They’re good and important things that we’ve raised to be too important in our hearts, minds, and lives. The cure for idolatry isn’t to get rid of most of these, it’s to put them in their proper place beneath our passion for, and obedience to, Jesus Christ.

What are some popular Christian idols today?

– Politics. When our anger, joy, or sense of meaning, well-being, or purpose, are determined by whether our preferred politician or party wins or loses, that’s an idol.

– Health and safety. When our fear outweighs our Christian obedience, that’s an idol.

– Wealth, status, comfort, pleasure, entertainment, and work – when these fill our thoughts and consume our energy at the expense of our family and daily walk with Jesus, they’re an idol.

– Kids. Yes, we’re called to love them, care for them, invest in them, and raise them. But when our dreams for them and their activities suck all the time and energy out of our family life and spiritual life together, they’ve become an idol.

– Pets, weddings, gadgets, entertainment, and the list goes on…

Christian, beware of idols!!!