‘Darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over all the peoples’ (Isa 60:2).  Man’s sin is universal.  None can escape its clutches.  It covers the earth like a blanket of darkness.  Bringing along with it the gloom and depression that accompanies such darkness.

Where is the hope for mankind?  Is it in the programs of governments and kingdoms?  Is it to be found in the power and might of economies or armies?  No, all of these can fall, as we have seen so many examples in the last century and even very recently.  The landscape of the world’s kingdoms change.  Borders are realigned and economies fail.  None of these can stand against the darkness and provide the hope for deliverance that is needed.

‘But the Lord rises upon you and His glory appears over you’.  ‘Who is this Lord?  Who is this King of Glory’  It is and always has been Christ, the Messiah who was Jesus in the flesh.  Our deliverance is found in Him and only in Him.

‘Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.’  The darkness is dispersed by the brilliant light of the glory of God.  It cannot comprehend such light and must fail and give way to this glory.  This is not only so for the world in total, but for you as an individual.  Our deliverance, your deliverance from darkness like a shroud, is found in the Light, the Lord of Glory, God himself, Jesus the Christ.

In the church we often hear the message that God answers prayer.  Sometimes it seems like this doesn’t line up with our life experiences.  We have all struggled with this seeming conflict.  Often we respond to one another with things like, “He answers but He doesn’t always answer yes” or “God is teaching you patience.”  While there is truth in those statements they can leave us feeling empty.  

A clearer understanding of what the real focus and goal of prayer is can help.  Ravi Zacharias was asked about this in an interview regarding his booktitled “Has Christianity Failed You?”.  I find his answer very helpful.  Here is an excerpt from that interview talking about the real focus and goal of prayer (you can find the entire interview here

DD: Given the amazing promises of Scripture and the way the church often proclaims the message that God answers prayer and the desires of our heart if we just have enough faith, it’s difficult to not feel disappointed when our prayers aren’t answered as we had hoped or in our expected time frame. What advice would you give to the person who once held firm, perhaps even rigid, expectations of God, and now struggles with halfhearted prayers and even resignation?

RZ: If we were to draw out the really hard questions of this book, this area would be where probably more people have faltered or have found what they feel is a legitimate gripe against God. It would be easy to dismiss this in the simplistic answers— you know, “God wants you to be patient,” and “Between the promise and the performance is the parenthesis.” The thing is, the parenthesis sometimes seems terribly protracted, so much so that you never see the performance of the promise. I find it amazing how Jesus dealt with prayer and how in the critical moments of his own calling, he stepped aside to pray. I find it absolutely fascinating that the biblical writers tell us how he prayed and what he prayed. If they had been manufacturing a persona of Jesus, they would never have told us the things he prayed for because clearly his prayers were often unanswered. His high priestly prayer, if anything, is one of the huge gaps between prayer and performance. The parenthesis seems to be very long. Nearly two thousand years have gone by since he prayed that we would be one, and you can’t even find us being one in one church, let alone in all of Christendom. So it says to me, as Jesus reminded us in the Lord’s Prayer, that I need to pray much more about my relationship with God and my understanding of his kingdom than with a wish list in front of me. The thing we may be missing most in our approach to prayer is a clear understanding of what communion with God really means. Such an understanding is able to cover a multitude of unanswered prayers and will give us the confidence of knowing that God is with us and that we can depend on him to sustain us with peace and fulfillment and meaning, even at the end of a dark day or in the midst of a dark night of the soul. Through prayer, God is preparing the wineskin to receive the new wine of grace. This is the work of God. If we think his desire is only to give us what we ask for, we misunderstand the process of preparing the wineskin.

As Christians we put our confidence and faith in what God says. Yet we grossly neglect the primary source of that very information.

The two primary means of revelation from God are Jesus Christ and the Bible. They both work hand in hand with each other to form God’s message to us, His saving message. So many of us in the church know so little of what the Bible says.

In the book of Acts the Bereans were considered noble because they examined the scriptures everyday. We struggle through life, experiencing difficulties with decisions and challenges that greet us almost everyday, all the while ignoring the treasure of help that is available to us in the Bible. We talk about wanting to be closer to God, yet we do not take the time or effort to listen to what He says to us. What kind of relationship can be had when one party does not listen to what the other says? Married couples, would you like to take a shot at answering that one.

Here are some interesting facts about the Bible.  

– The first translation of the English Bible was initiated by John Wycliffe and completed by John Purvey in 1388.

– The first American edition of the Bible was published some time before 1752.

– The Bible has been translated in part or in whole in over 1,200 different languages or dialects.

– The Bible was divided into chapters by Stephen Langton about 1228.

– The Old Testament was divided into verses by R. Nathan in 1448 and the New Testament by Robert Stephanus in 1551.

– There are 66 books in the Bible, 39 in the OT and 27 in the New.

– The OT has 929 chapters and 23,214 verses. The NT has 260 chapters and 7,959 verses.

– In the OT, the longest book is Psalms.  The shortest book is Obadiah.

– In the NT, the longest book is Acts. The shortest is 3 John.

– The word “God” occurs 4,379 times. The word “Lord” occurs 7,738 times.

– Isaiah is referenced 419 times in 23 NT books; Psalms 414 times in 23 books; Genesis 260 times in 21 books

By This All Will Know
L.T. Jeyachandran, Executive Director of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Singapore
www.RZIM.com

Jesus said in John 13:34, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” The only way people will know that you are my disciples, declared Jesus, is to demonstrate it by your relationships….
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“It is hardly complimentary to God that we should choose Him as an alternative to Hell: yet even this He accepts.”

C.S. Lewis

There’s an old story that talks about a Preacher’s visit to a man’s home.  The man was once an active member of the church where the Preacher served.  He participated in worship, he attended, listened and contributed in Bible studies.  His life revolved around Christ – not just as seen by his involvement in his church but in all ways.  He enjoyed reading the Bible and praying.  Talking about Christ was a joy.

Something happened; no one knows what for sure.  These days he seldom talked about about Christ anymore.  Prayer was more of a task and a burden than a joy.  His participation in things at the church were less and less frequent. 

As the preacher was visiting with the man, a fire was crackling in the fireplace.  Its warm glow illuminating and comforting to both.   While they were sitting next to the fire the preacher took one of the fireplace tools and plucked out an ember from the fire.  He laid it on the hearth.

When he first placed it on the hearth it was red hot, glowing brightly.  The preacher just sat there and intently watched the ember as it slowly cooled.  Eventually the ember became nothing more than a charred piece of burnt wood sitting on the hearth; reduced to ash.  There was no heat for comfort, no glow for light.

The preacher asked the man why the ember had gone out.  The man replied that it was because it had been removed from the fire.  The preacher responded, “you are correct.  Once the ember is removed from the fire it cannot sustain its heat or light.  It must remain a part of the fire.  It must stay close to the fire.”  The man was beginning to get a knowing look on his face.  The preacher continued by saying, “so it is with each one of us when we are removed from the fire, that is, the communion with the Holy Spirit.” 

The man had a somber look on his face.  He knew what had happened with his life.  The good news is that with the fire of God, it merely takes placing ourselves back into the fire to become glowing and burning again.

The ironic vanity of it all is that we think man can fix the world, when indeed man is what is broken.