Life "presenced with Divinity"

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Ephesians 2:1-10

TO CHEW ON: “But God who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” Ephesians 2:4,5


Today’s reading in Ephesians reminds me of a book I’m reading. Biblical Ethics / The Moral Foundations of Life / The Philosophy of Sin by Oswald Chambers is a collection of talks, addresses, and lectures Chambers gave at various times and places from 1909 to 1917.

I find his words a wonderful elaboration on the themes touched on by Paul here: the need for us to die to the old self and to live the new Holy Spirit-dependant “alive together with Christ” life God has “prepared beforehand for us” (Ephesians 2:5,10).

• Christians are unhappy if “They are not at one with the principle that unites them”; if they are not “Christians at heart.” Chambers describes halfhearted Christians as carrying their beliefs like a headache and because they can’t chop off their heads they can’t get rid of the headache -  Kindle Location 514.

• When dealing with sinful tendencies, we starve those things in ourselves: “It is absurd to say, pray about them; when once a thing is seen to be wrong, don’t pray about it, it fixes the mind on it; never for a second brood on it; destroy it by neglect” - KL 731 (emphasis added).

• But we’re only human. How can the ideal that Paul describes be true of us?  Chambers takes this realistic approach: “No one is constituted to live a pure, divine life on earth; we are constituted to live human lives on earth, presenced with Divinity” - KL 798 (emphasis added).

• I love that—“presenced with divinity.” Chambers talks more about realizing that state: “Am I willing that the old disposition should be crucified with Christ? If I am, Jesus Christ will take possession of me and will baptize me into His life until I bear a strong family likeness to Him. It is a lonely path, a path of death, but it means ultimately being presenced with Divinity” - KL 1241 (emphasis added).

• We can all probably relate to the tug-of-war between the self-directed and Spirit-directed life implied in how Chambers describes God handling the backtracking we easily revert to: “As soon as you begin to forecast and plan for yourself, God will break up your program—He delights to do it—until we learn to live like children based on the knowledge that God is ruling and reigning …” - KL 1342 (emphasis added).

• Such surrender doesn’t happen without a struggle. “When the Holy Spirit emancipates my personality, no attention is paid to my individuality, to my temperament or to my prejudices; He brings me into oneness with God entirely when I am willing to waive my right to myself and let Him have His way. No individual gets there without a crisis, a crisis of a terrific nature in which he or she goes to the death of something” - KL 1350 (emphasis added).

PRAYER: Dear Father, may these be more than words and ideas on the page. Please help me to realize in practical, everyday experience the “alive together with Christ” life—a life "presenced with Divinity." Amen.



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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

A real vs. religious relationship with God

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Habakkuk 1:1-2:4

TO CHEW ON: "O Lord how long shall I cry,
And you will not hear?
Even cry out to You, 'Violence!'
And You will not save." Habakkuk 1:1

The times felt God-forsaken to Habakkuk. Judah had backslidden from Josiah's reforms. Violence towards citizens and oppression of the poor were rampant. Babylonia was gaining strength and threatened to invade from the north while Egypt and Assyria eyed other borders. It was in this setting that the prophet Habakkuk—a Levite—cried out to God.

His part of the conversation in Habakkuk 1 is refreshingly honest.
- He pours out his frustrations with God who seems deaf and disinterested -  Habakkuk 1:1.

- He confronts God with what appear to be contradictions—if God is holy why doesn't He deal with evil - Habakkuk 1:13?

- He appeals to the order of creation, showing God how man, in his anarchy, is no better than the creatures - Habakkuk 1:14-17.

God's reply (Habakkuk 1:5-11) is delivered with the same feistiness as Habakkuk's questions:

"Look among the nations and watch—
Be utterly astounded!
For I will work a work in your days
Which you would not believe though it were told you" (Habakkuk 1:5).

Habakkuk is a good example of a man who has a genuine relationship with God. In her Truth-In-Action Through Habakkuk commentary, Leslyn Musch says:

"Habakkuk's transparent interchange with God models for us a real relationship rather than a religious one."

Musch makes these points about how to make ours similar:

• Ask God the honest questions of your heart.

• Understand that He can handle them.

• Draw close to Him through prayer.

• Ask to gain God's perspective on injustice.

• Ask the Holy Spirit to show you the deep things of God - 1 Corinthians 2:10-11.

Of God's reply she says:

• Expect the Lord to answer you.

• Approach God with an open heart.

• Lay down any preconceived ideas of how He will respond.

• Be ready to hear anything He desires to tell you.

- Leslyn Musch, Truth-In-Action-Through Habakkuk, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1229.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for being big enough for any question. Help me to trust You when I don't understand and Your silence and inaction look like a contradiction of who You are. I want to be open to Your answers, however You send them. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Speech seasoned with salt

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Colossians 4:2-18

TO CHEW ON: "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one." Colossians 4:6

When Paul told his readers that their speech was to be "seasoned with salt" I don't think he was instructing them to vent rage or sprinkle their conversation with coarse or racy words. So what does it mean to season one's speech with salt (metaphorically, of course)?

We know salt has two main uses:

• Seasoning: As a seasoning agent, just a little is usually enough. Salt enhances other flavours, it doesn't seek to be the star of the food. Too much salt in a dish and we can't eat it.

• Preservative: When we don't have the means to can or freeze, meat or fish is preserved with salt. Apparently salt doesn't burn either.

Salt in the Bible:

• Salt was part of the OT sacrifices and symbolic of Yahweh's covenant with Israel: "And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt."

What did this salt symbolize? Different commenters speak of it in slightly different ways:

• Reformation Study Bible: "Probably because it is indestructible by fire, salt symbolizes the enduring covenant between God and Israel" (accessed through Study Tools on biblegateway.com).

• Asbury Bible Commentary: "Salt of the covenant: emphasizes the binding character of God's covenant with His people" (accessed through Study Tools on biblegateway.com).

• Jesus referred to that salty sacrifice and told the disciples they needed salt in themselves:  “'For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another'” Mark 9:49,50.

• And here Paul tells his readers to season their speech with salt - Colossians 4:6

Matthew Henry's commentary ties these passages together.

"Among the ancients salt was a symbol of friendship. The salt for the sacrifice was not brought by the offerers, but was provided at the public charge, as the wood was, Ezra 7:20-22. And there was a chamber in the court of the temple called the chamber of salt, in which they laid it up. Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? God would hereby intimate to them that their sacrifices in themselves were unsavoury.

"The saints, who are living sacrifices to God, must have salt in themselves, for every sacrifice must be salted with salt (Mark 9:49, 50), and our speech must be always with grace (Col. 4:6), so must all our religious performances be seasoned with that salt. Christianity is the salt of the earth" - Matthew Henry's Commentary (accessed through Study Tools on biblegateway.com).

Applying this salt metaphor to speech, we might say that for the Christ follower, speech seasoned with the salt:

• Reflects the possibility of a relationship with God (covenant).

• Includes the fact that we are His forever (the binding character of that relationship).

• Communicates that this relationship preserves from judgment (preservative).

• Is seasoning—just a bit is enough; it doesn't need to overpower or dominate all we say. But neither should we leave it out.

PRAYER: Dear Father, Help me to learn how to season my speech with the salt of the above, and deliver what I say with grace. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Church report card - 3 (D- to A+)

Image: extrabrandt / pixabay.com

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Revelation 3:1-13

TO CHEW ON: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Revelation 3:6,13.



We are in the middle of reading messages to seven early churches from Jesus via the Apostle John.  If we look at them as if they are report cards, we can gain understanding about what God expects of the church that is still Christ's body on earth.

The church at Sardis had a reputation of being alive, but it was actually dead. (Would we call that a D- in report card lingo?) Jesus only commends the faithful few “who have not defiled their garments.”

The church at Philadelphia has the best report so far. It existed in a place of opportunity—an "open door." It was hard-working, persevering and obedient and was promised a place in God’s presence, destined to live with Him forever.

What can we learn about the church and God’s standards for her from Sardis and Philadelphia?



1. God expects us to be watchful and guard our relationship with Him. When we fall, we need to repent (Revelation 3:2,3).

2. God keeps a Book of Life in which He records our names. How we spend our lives on earth will have repercussions in heaven (Revelation 3:4,5).

3. Christ’s ideal for the church is purity. Again and again this purity is pictured as special clothes. Often these are clothes or robes of white (Revelation 3:5, Isaiah 61:10; Revelation 7:9).

4. Some seasons and places are more spiritually fruitful than others. We need to be alert to doors of opportunity that God opens for us (Revelation 3:8).

5. God values our overcoming. Perseverance has an eternal reward (Revelation 3:10-12).

Applying these things to ourselves, we might ask:

• Are we developing our own relationship with God, or depending on others—our pastor and his Sunday sermon, TV messages, and internet podcasts for spiritual food? Those things are good, but nothing substitutes for getting to know God personally through reading the Bible and prayer.  (I was at the funeral of an old saint yesterday, who was known for his saying: "Get to know God for yourself.")

• Are we sensitive to the Spirit, and quick to repent when He points out where we've sinned? What do we do when He convicts us, in our reading, watching, thinking, that we're getting tolerating impurity?   

• Are we alert to opportunities to share Jesus with those around us—the "open doors"?

• Are we persistent overcomers, or do we find ourselves giving up, giving in, in the face of our society's continued drift from the beliefs and standards we cling to?
  




PRAYER: Dear Jesus, I wonder what a letter from You to my church would contain. Help me, as an individual church member, to warrant praise from You and not a warning. Amen. 


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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Little foxes

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Song of Solomon 2:8-3:5

TO CHEW ON: "Catch us the foxes

The little foxes that spoil the vines

For our vines have tender grapes." Song of Solomon 2:15

Our reading today is a sample of one of the richest love poems in literature, and the only such writing in the Bible. It is first and foremost a celebration of love between a man and a woman. As such it has a happy lighthearted playfulness that is contagious. It is also sensuous with the colour of flowers, the sound of the dove and of singing, and fragrant with new growth on the vines. However, as is often the case with romantic love, there is also trouble. "Little foxes that spoil the vines."

In marital love it's not hard to imagine what some of those little foxes could be: disagreements over money, a critical spirit toward one's mate that comes out in words and actions that undermine, disunity over how to bring up the children, coldness and lack of receptiveness toward each other...

An introductory paragraph about the Song of Solomon in my Bible comments on how to read this book as a sort of marriage manual:

"The Song is a constant goad to drifting marriages with its challenge to seek for openness, growth, and joyous relationship. It also makes an excellent premarital manual. As biblical archetype it can bring healing to the core of our being with its hope of covenant love as it reshapes our marriages..." - Donald Pickerill,  New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 860.

But the Song of Solomon can also be interpreted as an allegory of Christ and the church. Carrying on with the introductory paragraph above.

"Its portrayal of the covenant relationship also has application to the covenant love relationship enjoyed by God's church. In this regard, the Song can be rich in symbolism but should not be read as an arbitrary allegory with mysterious meanings supplied by the whim of the reader; rather any such personal application of one's love relationship with Christ should be interpreted with solid application, using obvious biblical parallels" - Ibid.

Keeping that last warning to not stretch comparisons in mind, I think it's safe to say that little foxes, seemingly small issues, can also attack our relationship with God. A footnote in my Bible names a few of these: unbelief, resistance, hardness of heart. "Hardness of heart is the great enemy of love, since everything depends on receptivity and openness - Read Numbers 13 and 14)" Op. Cit p. 863.

Let's examine our lives for "little foxes." In our marriages what are the little annoyances that threaten our relationships? As believers in the body of Christ, the church (the Bride of Christ) are we guilty of unbelief, resistance, hardness of heart toward Jesus, our spiritual bridegroom?


PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to be aware of the little issues that so sneakily spoil my relationship with my husband, and the tolerated sin that compromises my relationship with You.

MORE: Just a little...

• laziness leads to poverty (Proverbs 6:10-11).

• foolishness leads to a wrecked reputation (Ecclesiastes 10:1).

• tolerated sin leads to its exponential growth in one's life and in the church (1 Corinthians 5:6).

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

What kind of ambassador are you?

TODAY'S SPECIAL: 2 Corinthians 5:1-21

TO CHEW ON: "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God." 2 Corinthians 5:20


A few weeks ago we commemorated Jesus' death. What is its significance to us living in 2015?

I don't know if there is a clearer explanation in the Bible of why Jesus died than what Paul gives us here (2 Corinthians 5:18-21). He uses the words reconciled and reconciliation several times which implies estrangement is involved. So we ask, who is estranged and how are they reconciled? A sidebar article in my Bible explains:

"Reconciliation is the process by which God and man are brought together again. This is made possible through the blood of Jesus .... We were once estranged from Him, but we have been brought to God and restored to relationship through the shed blood of Christ" - Raleigh Washington / Bill McCartney - "Jesus Our Foundation," New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1616.

We take advantage of this act of reconciliation by agreeing with God that we are sinners and accepting Christ's death on our behalf. It's a personal decision each one of us must make for him- or herself.

Our scripture goes on to give us, who have been reconciled, a job. We are to spread this good news that God and people can be friends again. We are ambassadors of that message for Christ, tasked with imploring those around us to take advantage of this offer of reconciliation, which came at a hefty price: sinless Jesus became sin and paid the death penalty for that sin so we sinners can be the righteousness of God in Him.

My confession—I haven't been a very good ambassador. Partly it's because in my society there seems little sense of need or desire to be reconciled to God. With no feeling of alienation from God in people there is little receptivity to hearing that they can be reconciled to Him.

My prayer is that God would put me in touch with those people whose hearts He has and is preparing for this news. Further, I need greater sense of urgency to share this news, a heightened alertness to opportunities, and boldness to "implore" people to be reconciled to God.

What about you?

PRAYER: Dear God, please give me a sense of urgency and boldness to share the news that it's possible to be reconciled to You. At the same time, please prepare people in my neighbourhood, town, province, and country to hear it. Amen. 

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

What will your epitaph be?

Moses on Mount Nebo - Artist unknown

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Deuteronomy 34:1-12

TO CHEW ON: "But since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face." Deuteronomy 34:10

Moses was a unique individual who did a lot of amazing things.

• His upbringing in scribe-enamored Egypt gave him the education to write most of the first five books of the Bible.

• He performed incredible miracles (or, God performed then through him)

• He led without fear, overcoming resistance, criticism, rebellion, revolt, discouragement, and harsh conditions.

But none of these things are mentioned on his 'gravestone'—this passage which sums up his life. Instead, he is memorable because of his friendship with God: "But since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face" (see also Exodus 33:11; Numbers 12:8).

The Bible makes claims of people having such intimacy with God only a few times. Here are some that come to mind:

- Enoch walked with God (Genesis 5:24).

- Abraham was also called God's friend - 2 Chronicles 20:7; James 2:23.

- David was called a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14).

Moses' epitaph as a man with whom God talked face to face brings me to the question, What will be the lasting impression of my life? What about yours?

Oh that it would be something that is more durable than deed or accomplishment—like being known as God's friend!

PRAYER: Dear God, as I go through life, help me to view my relationships, efforts and accomplishments through the lens of what is of lasting importance. Amen.

MORE: Feast of the Transfiguration

Today the church celebrates the Feast of the Transfiguration where Moses and Elijah appear on the mountain with Jesus.

The day's liturgy begins with this collect:

O God, who on the holy mount revealed to chosen witnesses your well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty; who with you, O Father, and you, O Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Who is our real family?

"Mary seeks her son" - Max Furst

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Mark 3:20-35

TO CHEW ON: "And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him and said, 'Here are My Mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.'" Mark 3:34,35

Some of life's deepest hurts can come from people in our family. The people we're closest to genetically and in living arrangement, who we're supposed to love and who are supposed to love, us can really cut our souls with words, actions or non-actions.

Here Jesus is misunderstood by His family: "'His own people.' The Greek expression may well denote Jesus' immediately family (Mark 3:31" - J. Lyle Story in the notes on Mark, New Spirit Filled Life Bible, p. 1354.

One gets the sense that they were embarrassed by His publicity and the controversy He caused. Afraid that He had 'lost it,' they came to take Him in hand to preserve peace with the Jewish leaders and the family's reputation.

Jesus did not let them silence Him. Rather, He repudiated their claim on Him, saying to the disciples who surrounded Him, "For whoever does the will of God is My brother, and My sister and mother" - Mark 3:35.

The reality of spiritual family permeates the Bible.

• Jesus felt a kinship with His heavenly family from his early days. At twelve years of age, He stayed behind in the Jerusalem temple and said, when Mary and Joseph (his earthly dad) finally found Him: "Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" - Luke 2:49.

• Paul, in his letters to the churches uses family terms like "brethren" (1 Corinthians 1:10; Galatians 1:2; Colossians 1:2 etc.), "children of God" (Romans 8:16,21), "sons of God" (Galatians 3:26). So does John (1 John 3:10; 5:2).

• The writer of Hebrews talks of believers, though imperfect ("those who are being sanctified") as Jesus' brothers (Hebrews 2:11) and explains that one reason Jesus came in the flesh was to be like us "His brethren" in order to understand us and aid us in overcoming temptation (Hebrews 2:17,18).

• Perhaps the most comforting Bible promise in this regard is expressed by David:

"When my father and my mother forsake me  / Then the Lord will take care of me." - Psalm 27:10

So let's remember, if our earthly family has shunned us, we are not family-less. Let's acknowledge and nurture our family-of-God relationships, finding in them what we never can in those relatives whose ties lack the spiritual gene.

PRAYER: Dear God, it hurts to be misunderstood by family members—those people from whom I expect to get sympathy, love, and understanding. When barriers come as a result of my allegiance to You, help me to find a family and be a family to other Christian brothers and sisters. Amen.

MORE: Brothers and sisters

"God takes very seriously the truth that all his children are brothers and sisters. They all have one Father, one homeland. And God says, there is a way that my children should feel about each other. Not just act toward each other, but feel about each other. They are to be tenderly affectionate toward each other. Why? Because this testifies to the reality of the family of God. To feel hard toward each other, to feel indifferent or narrow, not to mention bitter and resentful, toward each other, contradicts who God is and who we are. God is our father and we are his children and we are brothers and sisters in one family with the deepest common values in the universe." - By John Piper in ""Love One Another With Tender Affection," ©2012 Desiring God Foundation. Website: desiringGod.org

Eye time, heart time

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Amos 5:1-15

TO CHEW ON: "For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:

'Seek Me and live;

Do not seek Bethel,

Nor enter Gilgal

Nor pass over to Beersheba;

For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity

And Bethel shall come to nothing." Amos 5:4b-5.

If you want to see God's heart laid open, His love exposed and vulnerable, read the prophets. Here he speaks through Amos — who wasn't a professional prophet at all but a shepherd who prophesied to the northern kingdom of Israel between 760 and 750 B.C. during the reigns of Uzziah in Judah and Jeroboam II in Israel.

Amos's invitation — no his plea, to his hearers is from God: "Seek Me and live." Then God, in a sort of imaginary discussion with them and anticipating what they will reply, answers their objection:

"Do not seek Bethel" (about 10 miles north of Jerusalem, the southern boundary of the northern kingdom and where Jeroboam I had set up a golden calf idol); "Nor enter Gilgal" (the ancient shrine connected with Joshua and Saul); "Nor pass over to Beersheba" (a place of pilgrimage where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all worshipped God).

It seems God was saying, I don't want your rote religious forms or rituals based on the encounters that your ancestors had with Me in the past. I want you to seek Me and to have that relationship with Me now.

What's involved in seeking God?

• Moses in Deuteronomy and Jeremiah talk of seeking God whole-heartedly, i.e. making our search for God our heart's focus - Deuteronomy 4:29; Jeremiah 29:13.

• The psalm writers talk of seeking God's face - Psalm 27:8; 105:4. When we seek someone's face, we look into their eyes to establish that one-to-one connection. We study their expression to see whether they are happy or sad, pleased or displeased with us.

• Here Amos connects seeking God with life, bringing to mind the opposite possibility, that not seeking God leads to death.

• Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount gave seeking God priority over even getting our basic needs met - Matthew 6:31-33.

Like the Israelites would answer God's "Seek My face" with "But I go to Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba," we could say, I come from a line of believers. I go to church, give money to charity, help the poor. Those things are good. Part of seeking God is doing the stuff - 2 Chronicles 14:4.

But there is more. There's the relationship. That's what God wants with us. Eye time. Heart time.

PRAYER: Dear God, how blessed am I to worship You, a God who pursues a relationship with me. Please help me to clear up any barriers to our relationship. Amen.


MORE: "How I Long For You" by Hillsong

Separation

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Luke 16:19-31

TO CHEW ON: "'And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.'" Luke 16:26

It is not fashionable, these days, to emphasize or even mention God's judgment. Obviously it's much more comfortable to dwell on His love and the benefits of living life under His direction. However, the Bible includes both.

Today's reading — a story Jesus told about a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus — doesn't tiptoe around the fact that the decisions we make in life will be judged and will impact our eternal destination.

The rich man was in Hades (hell), not because of his wealth, but because of the way he used it. My Bible's footnote to verse 25 says: "Wealth does not automatically condemn one to hell, nor does poverty in this life guarantee eternal joy. One's destiny depends upon one's relationship to God, which is often reflected in the attitude toward material possessions" (New Spirit Filled Life Bible, p. 1422).

One of the aspects of God's judgment that comes across in Jesus' story is separation.

Separation as a consequence of rejecting God is a theme that runs through the Bible:

• Proud sinners are banned from God's sight (Psalm 5:5).

• Ezekiel speaks of "rebels and those who transgress against Me" as being kept out of the land of Israel (Ezekiel 20:38).

• Jesus speaks of the wheat and the tares ("weeds") coexisting until harvest time when the reapers will separate out the tares to be burned (Matthew 13:30, 49).

• Jesus also predicts a time of global judgment: "All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another" (Matthew 25:32,46).

• In our focus verse, the speaker, Abraham, describes a gulf of separation between Hades and heaven.

What is the great separator? Sin. For even Jesus, the sinless son of God was separated from His Father when He took on Himself the sins of the world. Sin not covered by Jesus' blood, separates those who have committed it from God and a future in heaven (Revelation 22:15).

This separation stands in sharp contrast to the relationship that is the essence of eternal life. Mark Buchanan explains it so well in the "More" section of yesterday's devotion.

The dreadful pain we feel at the death of a loved one is only a foretaste of how horrible would be a permanent separation from God and all things good. Let's live wide awake to the reality of God's coming judgment of separation and choose relationship  while we can.

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, thank You for bridging the gap of separation between sinful me and God. Amen.

MORE: Jesus: wall-breaker

"For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation." Ephesians 2:14

Do your 8-12-year-olds have daily devotions? Point them to Bible Drive-Thru.