of one’s faith and making sure that one’s Christian faith shows itself in goodness, knowledge, self–control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love—qualities of life that indicate true Christian character.
Then Peter adds: “For if you do those things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:10b–11). And as a kind of footnote in verses12 and 15, he writes: “So I will always remind you of these things
. . . and I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.”
David, in the one hundred third Psalm, writes, “Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” And he goes on to list just a few of God’s benefits to us.
It is good, I think, to be reminded of the many benefits we receive every day at the hand of our Heavenly Father.
A Singing Light
January 18
A life dedicated to God and changed through the power of the Savior may, and every so often does, make an impact upon the secular world. Such was the case with Mahalia Jackson, famed operatic singer.
Her voice was first recognized nationally in her American homeland in the 1930s when she sang “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” during a cross–country gospel tour. She resisted offers for fame and fortune singing secular music, instead concentrating on gospel music. Her records sold in the millions. She became a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States in singing the theme song, “We Shall Overcome.” Before she passed away, Mahalia Jackson had sung almost prophetically in the movie “Imitation of Life:” “Soon I will be done with the troubles of this world.” She now is, and this is also true of the millions upon millions who have found their rest in Jesus.
Jesus expressed in the following way the opportunity we all have to demonstrate His light: “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
In the New Testament, one of the fine descriptions of Christians is children of light, suggesting that followers of Jesus, the Light of the World, are also lights—lights to penetrate the darkness of our world. Speaking of Himself, just before He went to the cross, Jesus put the Christian’s responsibility plainly before them: “You are going to have the light just a little while longer,” [that is Jesus was soon going to go to the cross]. Then He added, “Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going.” (John 12:35). Paul picks up this theme in Ephesians 5:8: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.”
Found on a baby’s monument in an old cemetery was this epitaph: “There is not darkness enough in all the world to put out the light of one little candle.”
That’s so vitally true, as Mahalia Jackson proved, and we can too . . . by living as children of light.
Misunderstood
January 19
Charlie Harvey, whom I know personally, was a missionary to Africa for many years. Among his many talents, he’s a good writer. In one of his books, he tells of entering a contest that required him, as a robust boy, to have a bath every day for a month. Back in the 1930s and 40s, such a ritual was almost unheard of, particularly on a New Brunswick farm.
Fittingly, the contest was sponsored by the Lifebuoy Soap Company, and contestants in that health and hygiene campaign were required to keep careful record of the hours they slept, the food they ate, and whether or not they brushed their teeth. “Then,” as he writes, “there was the one great obstacle.” With a free cake of Lifebuoy soap, they were supposed to take a bath every evening of the week. There was only one bathroom and one bath with running water in the entire village of Maugerville, New Brunswick, and unfortunately, not in their house. “It already,” he said, “took a lot of planning to accommodate the Saturday night baths for a family of six.” Since it was Charlie’s task to pump and carry in the water, his mother agreed to the contest, and the big red cake of soap was pressed into hygienic action every night. Charlie writes: “It was crazy and unheard of, but I did it.”
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
