DAY 357    Read Revelation 1 through 3.

Today's reading:  The generally accepted view dates the Revelation at about A.D. 96.  John, exiled to Patmos by the persecution of Emperor Domitian, received a vision of glorious assurance that his Lord was far greater than any earthly ruler.

Memory gem:  "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand"  (Revelation 1:3).

Thought for today:
The book of Revelation, the last book of the Holy Bible, is especially important to the people living in the last age of the world.  But many Christians have neglected this wonderful book of prophecy, and some even have the idea that it was sealed; but its very name, Revelation, means just the opposite.  And in its first chapter we find a blessing for those who read and hear the words of this book--our memory gem for today.

Notice, this book of New Testament prophecy is not the revelation of John.  Rather, it is "the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angels unto his servant John"  (Revelation 1:1).

Everything in this great book of prophetic symbols has been revealed by Christ, and because of that it ought to be of the deepest interest to all Christians.  Not only so, but it reveals Christ's plans for His people and for the world.

The apostle John was an old man, exiled from other Christians on the lonely island of Patmos, when the vision of Revelation came to him.  His enemies could shut him away from friends and fellow believers, but they could not keep the gates of heaven closed or hide him from the face of his Saviour.

In the midst of his exile the apostle John was permitted to see a vision of tomorrow.  On the Lord's day, when the Lord's people were meeting for divine worship and Christian fellowship, which John on his lonely island prison could not share, suddenly the heavens were opened, and he saw visions of God.

NOTE:  "Revelation"  (Greek apokalupsis) means "an unveiling."  "Asia" was the Roman name for a province in the western part of Asia Minor, now part of modern Turkey.

DAY 356     Read 1 John 5 and 2 and 3 John.

Today's reading:  The aged apostle said a great deal about love and about sinless living.  He expressed a concern about physical wellbeing also.

Memory gem:  "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth"  (3 John 2).

Thought for today:
Dr. Adam Clarke, the great Methodist commentator, reminds us that three things are pointed out in this inspired passage--three things of great importance: (1) health of body; (2) health of soul; (3) prosperity in secular affairs.

If you want these three things, seek for them in prayer and sensible living.  Health is an extremely important asset; next to our soul's salvation, the most important thing in life is health.  No one can enjoy life without a certain amount of health.

Millions of people who are not in the so-called poverty class are not properly nourished and as a result do not have good health.  One reason for this is plain ignorance.  They do not know what the body needs, they do not know the first principles of nutrition, they do not eat and drink properly.

Anyone who continually breaks the laws of physical living will suffer the penalty.  Millions do not drink enough good, pure water.  They forget that the body is largely made of water.  A human body is something like an electrolytic battery.  Another neglect is exercise.  People ride where they ought to walk.  If they need to get a spool of thread or a quart of milk at the corner store, they'll drive two or three blocks to get it instead of walking.

Another significant lack in the lives of millions is trust in God.  As a result they do not have peace of mind and are under continual tension and worry.  Minds are seething with dissatisfaction and fear of tomorrow.  No wonder we see so much ill health.

It is well for us to remember that God loves mankind.  He desires the optimum well-being of the human race.  God is the Creator of the world and of all things.  He is the Creator and Redeemer of mankind.  He loved the world so much that He gave His own Son to redeem sinful men.  This proves His concern for us.  His concern includes physical things too.

DAY 355    Read 1 John through 4.

Today's reading:  It is believed that John wrote his three epistles in his old age, probably about A.D. 90 to 95.  Although no destination is named, the letters may have been sent to Ephesus, where John labored for many years before his arrest and exile.

Memory gem:  "Ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin"  (1 John 3:5).

Thought for today:
Today we hear few sermons about the perfection of Christ.  Christ could not be perfect, holy, and sinless unless He were divine.  All men are by nature imperfect; in fact, the Scripture declares plainly that all men have sinned.

Jesus is a man, but not a mere man.  He is a true man, but not only a man.

Walter B. Knight reports the experience of Lakhan Singh, the street preacher in India.  Before his conversion from Hinduism, he went on innumerable pilgrimages to the so-called holy shrines seeking peace of heart.  He was asked by a missionary, "But how were you first drawn to Christ?"

He replied, "One day I stopped to listen to a street preacher in Shahjahanpur who declared that the Lord Jesus Christ was a sinless incarnation.  There are many incarnations in the Hindu religion.  Some of them are cruel, capricious, and murderous; but none of them are sinless.  I was deeply impressed with this.  I continued to think about it.  But I had no peace of mind until I accepted the sinless Son of God as my Saviour.  For forty years I have been joyously preaching Him!"

So it is indeed true,  Among all the people born on earth, only of Christ can it be said, "In him is no sin."

----------------
Difficult or obscure words:
1 John 3:9.  "His seed"--The antecedent of "his" is obviously "God."  God's "seed," or regenerating power, abides in the born-again Christian so that he no longer goes on sinning.

DAY 354    Read Hebrews 12 and 13.

Today's reading:  The epistle closes with earnest appeals for the believing Christian to live a life that demonstrates true Christianity.

Memory gem:  "Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith"  (Hebrews 12:1, 2).

Thought for today:
We live in an eye-minded age.  The art of reading--at least, of reading anything very instructive or heavy--is unknown to millions and is being lost by other millions.  This is the age of the picture book, the picture magazine, the moving picture, and television.

What are we looking at?  What do we see?  Much that we cannot escape seeing is not good.  But what do we look upon with pleasure?  What do we study?  By beholding, we become changed (see 2 Corinthians 3:18).

Friends traveling through Italy were one day examining Guido's famous fresco, the Aurora, in a great palace of that country.  Many artists were there busily copying the great painting, and the tourists noticed that each artist differed from the others in his portrayal of this immortal work.  After a while the attention of the guide was called to the fact that one artist had painted the horses a different color and that another had differed in some other detail, and so on.  With an expressive gesture, the guide replied, "Don't look at them; look only at the original."

Let us look at Christ for guidance and consecrate our eyes to the holy and the true and the beautiful and the right.

----------------
Difficult or obscure words:
Hebrews 12:2.  "Author"--literally: leader, originator, founder.  The word is translated as "Prince" in Acts 3:15 and 5:31 and as "captain" in Hebrews 2:10.  In classical Greek the word is used for the progenitor of a clan or in speaking of the mythical heroes.  Here the meaning obviously should cast Jesus as the heroic Leader or Prince.

DAY 353    Read Hebrews 10 and 11.

Today's reading:  We conclude the study of the ancient sanctuary service as a type of Christ's ministry.  Then follows the well-known "faith chapter."

Memory gem:  "Having a high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith"  (Hebrews 10:21, 22).

Thought for today:
In the earthly sanctuary the offerings were the bodies and blood of animals.  Our High Priest offers His own life, His own blood, His own body, crucified for us.  The shadows of the earthly sanctuary pointed to the reality of the new, even to Christ, our Lamb as well as our High Priest.  The writer tells us that those sacrifices of lambs and calves could not actually take away sins or make the one who did the service perfect  (see Hebrews 9:9).  But our High Priest offers His own sacrifice for us.  This offering does take away sins.  Our High Priest appears now in heaven for us.

Christ came, we are told, to do the will of God (see Hebrews 10:5-9).  Thus He was not merely to be obedient to God in His life here on earth, though He was obedient; but the will of God which He obeyed was the divine will which declared "the offering of the body of Jesus Christ"  (Hebrews 10:10) as necessary for our salvation.  Christ lived obediently, died obediently, and offered Himself upon the cross.  His act was the perfect sacrifice by the perfect Priest, for Himself both priest and offering.  So, by God's grace and eternal love, He "obtained eternal redemption for us"  (Hebrews 9:12).  That redemption cannot be improved upon; it is the final redemption, because it is "eternal."  It is "one sacrifice for sins for ever"  (Hebrews 10:12).

This wonderful epistle opens with the statement that the Son Jesus Christ, "himself purged our sins"  (Hebrews 1:3).  The last chapter brings in the same tremendous salvation truth (see Hebrews 13:20, 21).  Here we have again the blood of the eternal offering, the blood of Christ, with the result that salvation is offered freely to us all.

----------------
Difficult or obscure words:
Hebrews 11:17.  "Only begotten"--literally, unique.  Isaac was the only son qualified for the birthright blessing.

DAY 352    Read Hebrews 7 through 9.

Today's reading:  The epistle discusses at length the differences between the Aaronic and the Melchizedek priesthoods, showing that Christ surpasses earthly priests in every way.

Memory gem:  "By his own blood he [Christ] entered in once into the holy place, having obtained redemption for us"  (Hebrews 9:12).

Thought for today:
There are many today who feel that by organization, effort, money, plans, councils, they can elevate, refine, and regenerate humanity without blood atonement.  But this is nothing more or less than a modern following of the example of Cain, and the history of Cain shows what must be the result.  Humanity has no power to regenerate itself.

Christ alone is our Sin Bearer, and He died to atone for the sins of the world.  The central theme of the sanctuary service of old, the central doctrine of the Christian faith, is the atoning blood.  There is no other way to be saved than by the blood of Christ.  All need to be saved, all need to be saved from sin, and all may be saved through the blood of the cross.

The French Protestant scholar Muretus was an exile from his own country.  He fell seriously ill while in Lombardy and was taken to a hospital for outcasts.  He overheard the doctors consulting about him in Latin, not thinking that a poor pauper could understand the language of the learned.  They said, "Let us make an experiment upon this worthless body."  And from his sickbed, the scholar startled them by rising on his elbow and replying in Latin, "Yet for this worthless body, Jesus Christ has died."

For our redemption, we look only to the blood of the cross.

Speaking of the Royal Air Force that mounted up with wings as eagles to protect their motherland, Winston Churchill said, "Never in the history of mankind have so many owed so much to so few."  But when we think of the atoning blood of the cross and of Jesus who died on Calvary for us, we say, "Never in the history of the universe has mankind owed so much to One."

DAY 351    Read Hebrews 4 through 6.

Today's reading continues the appeal of chapter 3 for accepting Christ.  Then it gives a short discussion of God's "rest" before launching the detailed study of Christ's priesthood.

Memory gem:  "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his"  (Hebrews 4:9, 10).

Thought for today:
Millions of people are nervous, run-down, dissatisfied, and ill today because they do not follow God's plan of rest.  It is held by many authorities that man himself is built on the principle of the seventh portion of time being dedicated to the enjoyment of repose.  Both body and mind need relaxation from the pressure of worldly pursuits and cares.  Even from a medical point of view, it seems that the Sabbath forms part of the remedial system of nature.  The God who created man knows what is good for him, but so many men do not realize what is good for themselves.

But the Sabbath was not to be a period of physical rest alone.  Notice the command of God:  "Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy"  (Exodus 20:8).  There is the matter of holiness in it, a matter of religious and spiritual worship.  D. L. Moody saw this and said that this Sabbath question is a valid one for the whole country.  If we give up Sabbath, soon the church goes; and if we give up the church, the home goes; and as the home goes, the nation goes.  Sad to say, that is the direction in which millions of people are traveling today.

Let us remember this:  Only those who believe have entered into God's rest.  Hebrews 4:3.  Only those who keep themselves holy can keep the Sabbath holy.  True Sabbath keeping is a spiritual service to be rendered by a Spirit-filled person.  The Sabbath should be a bit of heaven transferred to earth.

NOTE:  The word translated "rest" in Hebrews 4:9 is a totally different word from the noun and verbs for "rest" in other verses of chapter 3 and 4.  The word occurs nowhere else in the Bible or in classical Greek literature.  A careful study of the context makes it clear that this word (sabbatismos) means more than the Sabbath rest; it covers the spiritual rest, and particularly the Christian's rest.  However, from numerous other texts it can be shown that keeping God's Sabbath is a definite part of the spiritual rest God wishes His people to enter.

DAY 350    Read Hebrews 1 through 3.

Today's reading:  We begin a survey of the important Epistle to the Hebrews--full of inspirational value and gems of truth.

Memory gem:  "God...hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds"  (Hebrews 1:1, 2).

Thought for today:
The earth itself, with all its scientific mysteries, is a memorial to the wisdom and power of the Son of God; and the glittering dome of night above us shows the works of His hands.  This mighty Son, whose workmanship we see about us and above us, is none other than Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of our salvation.  He made the worlds.

The hand of Christ, the Master Workman, had been seen in the vast dome of stars long ages before Leeuwenhoek ground his first lenses or Galileo put them in the first telescope.  As men began to peer out into the boundless void with stronger and stronger eyes--the mighty glasses of great astronomical observatories--they were struck with silent wonder at the awesome vastness of the universe.  The human mind can have no conception of the endless and gigantic creation about us.

The creation testifies of its Creator as the eternal infinite God.  "All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord," said David with the tongue of inspiration (Psalm 145:10).  He must have been gazing out into the blue-black sky as there on the verdant meadows of heaven began to blossom, one by one, the lovely stars, "the forget-me-nots of the angels."

We rejoice in the human Christ, a humble Galilean carpenter; but we must know too that He was, and is, the Son of God Most High--that the very heavens are the work of His hands.  His works praise Him when His worshipers are silent.

And the Son, by whose hand the heavens were created, emptied Himself of His infinite glory and veiled His divinity in a human form.  He took our nature; He became a man and died for our sins on the cross that cruel men had made for Him at old Jerusalem.  Christ's love and infinite humiliation in our redemption is as incomprehensible to us as is His work of creation.  We cannot understand it all with our finite minds, but we can thank our heavenly Father for the gift of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

DAY 349    Read 2 Timothy.

Today's reading:  This letter has been called Paul's last will and testament.  It was written by the great apostle during his second imprisonment and shortly before his execution.

Memory gem:  "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith"  (2 Timothy 4:6, 7).

Thought for today:
Your Christian life and mine is not to be a matter of here and there, a little now and then; in the church and out, and back again; up today and down tomorrow.  It must be from henceforth, every day, always, until "the roll is called up yonder."

None of us has had any more tests of perseverance and patience than did the apostle Paul.  For years he went without a home, without regular pay.  He had to make tents to earn his living in some places.  In other places he was supported by some of his friends.  He was shipwrecked.  He was whipped more than once, mobbed, beaten, left for dead, wounded, rejected, imprisoned; and finally received the death sentence as a martyr for Christ  (see 2 Corinthians 11:23-28).

In the old days of trouble, when William, Prince of Orange, received a letter from mighty King Phillip of Spain threatening him with the confiscation of all his goods and the loss of his life, he did not surrender his faith or his country.  The courage which came from his Christian faith inspired Prince William to fling this challenge in the face of the tyrant: "I am in the hands of God.  My worldly goods and my life have long since been dedicated to His service.  He will dispose of them as seems best to His glory and my salvation."

These were the words of a man who knew his Lord and believed that He was able to save to the uttermost.  It was the speech of a man not only self-reliant but God-reliant, who believed and rested on the promises of God.  He could face conflict, he could suffer the wounding of the foe, for his heart was unafraid.  Like the apostle, he could say: "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing"  (2 Timothy 4:8).

DAY 348    Read 1 Timothy.

Today's reading:  It seems quite clear that Paul wrote this letter during a period of travel after his release from prison in Rome and before his second arrest.  Timothy was pastor of the church in Ephesus at the time.

Memory gem:  "Godliness with contentment is great gain"  (1 Timothy 6:6).

Thought for today:
How often I have heard people say that money is the root of all evil.  The Bible does not say that.  Rather, it says, "The love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows"  (1 Timothy 6:10).

Money is to be used in the right way.  It is to bring health and blessing, not only to ourselves but to others.  It gives us the opportunity to be liberal, to be self-sacrificing.

God reserves a part of our money as His own.  In ancient times it was called the tithe--one tenth.  Many Christians today lay aside one tenth of the increase, or profit, for God's work.  Then, in addition to this, from their own nine tenths, they make freewill offerings to the work and cause of God.  Is not this a good way continually to remind ourselves that it is God who gives us the power to get everything that we have in this world, and that we are workers together with Him, sharers with Him in what He is doing for men?

The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  Think of the crimes committed to obtain it--wars innumerable, raids, murders, robbery, thievery.

        At the Devil's booth are all things sold,
          Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold;
            For a cap and bells our lives we pay,
          Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking:
            'Tis heaven alone that is given away,
        'Tis only God may be had for the asking.
                                          ----James Russel Lowell.

Will you not today consecrate not only your heart, but all that you have to God?  If you do this, He will guide you and keep you and all yours, He will be your banker, and you will never have to worry about a bank failure, for your treasure will be in the bank of heaven, which never fails.