DAILY, WEEKEND, AND HOLIDAY INTERNET EVANGELIZE TO THE WORLD MINISTRY

  January 22: Be Vigilant Genesis 35:16–36:43; Matthew 26:14–56 ; Ecclesiastes 8:10–17 Faith doesn’t always bear fruit until we are faced with our own fallibility. When we “enter into temptation,” it often means we haven’t been vigilant—that we’ve stopped pursuing the God who has pursued us. In the aftermath of temptation, we recognize our spiritual laziness. We become wise—but remorsefully. Vigilance and complacency are illustrated in the garden of Gethsemane. In His last moments, Jesus asks His closest disciples to stay awake with Him (Matt 26:38), but while He repeatedly prays, they fall asleep. What seems like a request for moral support gets defined a few verses later: “Stay awake and pray that you will not enter into temptation” (Matt 26:41). Staying awake is associated with spiritual awareness. And their sleep is costly. Because of their spiritual sleepiness, they’re not prepared for His end, even though He had repeatedly prepared them for His death. They abandon Him, an...

  January 21: Power, Authority, and Its Result Genesis 34:1–35:15; Matthew 25:14–26:13; Ecclesiastes 8:1–9 “For there is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble lies heavy on him. For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be?” (Eccl 8:6). We all struggle with the future and the vast uncertainty it creates in our minds. It’s rarely the present that keeps us awake at night; it’s our concerns about what will happen if the present changes for better or worse. But unlike other places in the Bible when we’re told not to worry, the words of Ecclesiastes 8:6 are set in the context of a request to obey the king of the land. This is not because the king is offered as a solution to the problems, though he could help; rather, it is because, like many other things, there is nothing that can be done about him. Why worry about that which you cannot change? This situation is equated to life and death itself: “No man has power to retain the spirit, o...

  January 20 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct My prayer unto thee, and will look up. Ps. 5:3 The morning is the gate of the day, and should be well guarded with prayer. It is one end of the thread on which the day’s actions are strung, and should be well knotted with devotion. If we felt more of life's majesty, we should be more careful of its mornings. He who rushes from his bed to his business and waiteth not to worship is as foolish as though he had not put on his clothes, or cleansed his face, and as unwise as though he dashed into battle without arms or armor. Be it ours to bathe in the softly flowing river of communion with God, before the heat of the wilderness and the burden of the way begin to oppress us. Spurgeon  Samuel G. Hardman and Dwight Lyman Moody, Thoughts for the Quiet Hour (Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1997). Morning, January 20 : Go To Evening Reading “Abel was a keeper of sheep.”...

  January 19: The Million Dollar Question Genesis 31, Matthew 23:37–24:28, Ecclesiastes 7:13–21 “Why do bad things happen to good people?” This is an ancient question, though often asked as if it’s new. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes says, “There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing” (Eccl 7:15). Answers to this age-old question do exist; the simplest is that, since people gave in to temptation early on, havoc—caused by humans and by evil spirits—has taken hold. The time between now and when God retakes complete control of the world is just grace; the moment He does is the end for all evil, including those who have not chosen Christ as their Savior. The only way to fix the world is to rid it of all evil, but the Preacher doesn’t offer this deductive explanation. Instead, he notes that life is a series of balancing acts, and he uses hyperbole to make his point (Eccl 7:16–17). The Preacher goes on t...