BE TRUE WHEN IT’S HARD
Mark 8:27-38
Jesus was true to us when he was down here. Yet it wasn’t easy. Being true was never harder. It drove him clear to Calvary’s shame. But he went. He never flinched. And he never fails us now. No matter how we have been untrue, or neglectful, or ashamed, or have ignored him, when we come, sorry, for help, he always gives it. Surely we’ll be true to him in speech and life, no matter how hard!
THE ZEST OF BEING FREE
1Thessalonians 5:14-24
When your lungs are full of fresh air, how stale a shut-up room smells! When a man’s free of actual slavery, how irksome its bonds seem to him! The sheer delight of freedom can’t be told. So when once a man is free of other kinds of slavery—bad habits, lack of self-control, worrying, and that whole brood, what a sweet sense of freedom! Do you know about this? You may, today, if Jesus may have his way.
WHAT JESUS DID
Galatians 5:1-13
The commonest belief everywhere, Christendom and heathendom alike, is that we earn salvation by what we do. The fear of not being able to pull through haunts men. Yet we’re saved only by what Jesus has done. He frees us from this haunting fear. We’re free to serve for love’s sake. And he fills our hearts with the love that makes us gentle and patient with all whom we touch, regardless of what they think or say.
JESUS HEALS
Mark 7:31-37
Jesus healed men of their bodily ailments when he was down here. And he still does. He uses and blesses human knowledge and skill, and he heals also, by direct touch. Yet frequently he permits ailments to remain unhealed so that we may be healed of our stubborn ways, and be wrought into sweet, full accord with himself. Satan contests this ground stubbornly. He imitates God’s healing. Jesus gladly heals when he can have full sway in the life.
Isaiah 43:17 Which bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow.
Think about these questions as you meditate on the verse. What does this verse teach me? How does this verse apply to my Life?
TIED UP OR FREE?
Mark 7:24-30
Jesus undoes sin’s work. He unties sin’s knots, tears away the bonds, sets the man free, and flushes in new life. Sin cripples the body with weakness and disease, the mind with stupidity and prejudice, the spirit with selfishness and self-will, and the life with stain and evil habit. When Jesus is allowed free swing he frees body, mind, spirit, and life of all that hurts, and gives new life in flood-tide measure.
