I am a scribbler. I tend to be the type of person that makes notes whenever I hear something that may be handy in an article, devotional, or sermon. These notes can be found on a post-it, scrap paper, or even on my “note” app on my phone. Recently as I was looking through my “note app” and discovered at one time I had noted the following: “I am thankful there is a God to love me, a Savior who died for me, and a Bible to guide me”. Amen! I don’t know where I heard or read that statement, but it is indeed true. I am, as we all should be, thankful…

There Is A God To Love Me.

1 John 4:8, “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” God is love, but not just love. Love is one of the primary features of God’s being. Just as God is infinite in all His other attributes, God is also infinite in love. This is the love that seeks the highest good of another. Were it not for the love of God mankind would be without any hope. However Ephesians 2:4 states, “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us…” God’s love is great because it extends to all including the individual.

A Savior Who Died For Me.

Galatians 1:4 speaks of Jesus “Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father”. Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” J. W. Shepherd in the Gospel Advocate Commentary on Galatians says the following regarding this verse “In his love for the church (Ephesians 5:25) Christ does not lose sight of the individual believer. Each member of his body is the direct object of his love, and it is as true that he died for each as it is that he died for all. Hence, the individual believer appropriates to himself that which is the possession of all.”

And A Bible To Guide Me.

Psalm 119:105, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” The Word Of God is a light to show me the way, to keep me from stumbling, to keep me from falling, to keep me on the right path. Psalm 19:8, “The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.” The world we live in thinks that happiness comes from many various sources (money, position, power, etc.). The psalmist points out the only way that man can be truly be happy is to study and submit to the Word of God. God’s statutes and commands are right because they descend from right personified, Deity. They are pure because it contains no falsehood or error. The commands of Jehovah enlighten man’s eyes in that they instruct him in the proper way, both for the here and now as well as preparation for eternity.

Yes, indeed dear friend, I Am Thankful. “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name” Psalm 100:4

-Jerry D. Sturgill

Our Heavenly Father is light (1 Jn. 1:5); the Father of lights (James 1:17).  As Christians, we are His children, children of light (Lk. 16:8; 1 Thess. 5:5).  Paul encouraged Christians to behave as children of light (Eph. 5:8), living in such a way that we recognize our deeds are manifest before an all-knowing God, instead of trying to hide our sins under the cover of darkness (Jn. 3:19-21).  We are surrounded by people of the world who love darkness (Eph. 6:12; 1 Jn. 5:19).  They do not see the light of the glorious gospel, because they have allowed the devil, the father of lies, to blind them (Jn. 8:44; 2 Cor. 4:4).  We, however, know better, and ought to behave accordingly.  When light enters a room, darkness flees.  The two are incompatible.  Christians are to behave as light, being separate from the world (Eph. 5:11; 2 Cor. 6:14-17; 1 Jn. 2:7-11).  How you behave ought to make you stand out from the world (Phil. 2:14-15).

Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:5-8, “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.  For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.  But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.” Some people live their lives seemingly in a dream, not awake to the spiritual dangers that are around them, but mindlessly floating down the river of life going wherever outside influences take them.  Christians are not to live in such spiritual stupor, but should be awake and alert to the spiritual realities that are around them, proactively following Christ.

The normal time to sleep is at night, and being drunk during the day has often been considered scandalous by the public (Isa. 5:11; Ecc. 10:16-17; Acts 2:15; 2 Pet. 2:13).  As Christians, children of the light and of the day, we are to be the opposite: awake and sober.  Night is sometimes used in scripture to underscore moral darkness rather than prosaically marking the time (Mt. 26:34; Jn. 13:30).  Nighttime is when evil people do their deeds.  We are surprised today when people commit crimes in broad daylight.  These evil deeds of the darkness are on their way out, because an eternal day is coming (Rom. 13:12; cf. Rev. 21:23; 22:5).  The gospel age has let some of this light in, but the final coming of Christ is when it will fully break forth (1 Jn. 2:8).

Paul’s description of light and darkness in 1 Thessalonians 5 is really part of a larger context concerning the unexpectedness of Lord’s final coming and need to be prepared for it (1 Thess. 5:1-11).  God has chosen to not disclose when the return of His Son will be, and Jesus warned His disciples to watch so they are ready for His coming at any time (Mk. 13:32-37).  Jesus told His disciples that such vigilance is necessary to resist temptation of the flesh (Mt. 26:40-41; Mk. 14:37-38; Lk. 22:45-46).  God knows that if He did reveal when the final day would be that people would be tempted to live evil lives, indulging the flesh, and try to repent near the end before that day comes.  This would run contrary to His purposes; our Heavenly Father wants to foster in us a love for Him and patient desire for heaven. No man will see the light of heaven who has not already had it in his heart while he is living in this world of darkness.

-Mark Day