John 21:20--22

"Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; the one who also had leaned back on His bosom at the supper and said, 'Lord, who is the one who betrays You?' So Peter seeing him said to Jesus, 'Lord, and what about this man?' Jesus said to him, 'If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!' "

Peter was indulging in many Christians' favorite indoor sport: comparison. Having been given a hard word from the Lord concerning the kind of death he would face, Peter immediately wanted to know about John's future. "After all", many would say, "it's only natural that he would want to know that while he had the Lord there to ask."

Our Lord, however, knows far better than we the dangerous distraction that fleshly comparison causes, the subtle pride that motivates it, and the havoc it can wreak among His children. Self-pity, envy, bitterness, and arrogance are but a few of the fruit the seed of comparison produces.

Like Peter, we must be sternly reminded that our Lord's plan for others is not for our eyes to see nor evaluate, but hidden within His sovereignty. There will come a time when there will be no one around with whom to compare (Romans 14:12), so we need now to fix our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2), eagerly seeking His will and way!

Luke 16:24--26

"And he cried out and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.' But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.' "

As flippantly as the world tries to trivialize the biblical portrayal of hell, its reality resonates deeply, still. The horrific images refuse dismissal, and mankind knows instinctively the words don't begin to fully describe the unceasing, unspeakable torture there.

In the present story, the Lord Jesus recounts three miseries of hell: (a) an unstoppable flame which produces unquenchable thirst [v. 24]; (b) everlasting memories of lost opportunities feed a guilty conscience [v. 25]; and (c) a fixed, unchangeable chasm separates the soul from God and everything good [v. 26].

The first, the physical agony, elicits a cry for mercy from the rich man's lips. Even but a drop of water would be infinitely better than the choking thirst the flame continuously causes. Surely father Abraham would heed his plea, and provide a moment's respite. But no. For, as a man on the rack will confess to anything, so in such terrible pain the rich man could seem piteous, when actually he is unrepentant still. Hell is totally punitive, never remedial. No one improves there.

There is mental anguish as well, with memories and conscience accusing the hell-enslaved one, reminding him of all the days filled with lost moments, lost to eternity, never to be given again for repentance and salvation. This indeed is a worm that never dies, a guilt that never relents, a yearning for the escape of sleep or unconsciousness, but there is none.... ever.

Finally there is emotional angst, unutterable despair, as the great chasm is revealed. The lost one sees and senses the separation from God, and feels it intensely. Impassable, irreversible, the great gulf is an unending reminder of the lost soul's confinement for eternity. Though within earshot and eyesight, the rich man could not move one inch toward heaven, to somehow improve his situation. The chasm removed any hope of help he might have had.

May the Lord burn this passage into the hearts of believers, adding urgency for seeing opportunities to share the gospel with lost folk; and should one who reads here be unsaved, may you look to Jesus, and live!

John 21:15

"So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, 'Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?'..."

What a moment. The Master Teacher asking a seemingly-simple question, in order to gently but convictingly reveal Peter's heart to himself.

[The world urges that each one of us should 'know thyself.' However, the Scriptures are clear that the heart is more deceitful than all else, and is desperately sick (Jeremiah 17:9). Taking God seriously, then, involves distrusting our heart's inclinations in living by feelings, and instead acting on His Word by faith.]

The Lord was testing Peter's commitment, his depth of love for fishing compared to the love he professed to have for his Master. Repeating the probing grieved Peter, for it seemed to reflect dissatisfaction with his response. Memories of his recent denials of the Lord were still fresh, adding to his insecurity. Nervous or not, Peter's faith once declared so boldly (Mt. 16:16) needed to be regained, motivated at its core by the self-denying love the Lord Jesus gives and requires.

Judges 16:20

"She said, 'The Philistines are upon you, Samson!' And he awoke from his sleep and said, 'I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.' But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him."

Over time and through many opportunities to repent, Samson had slowly but surely slipped into a spiritual stupor. With each link in this chain of sin welded by his sensuality, he had gradually become so unusable that he forfeited the Lord's blessing and empowering. Long before he would lose his eyes physically, he had lost his spiritual sight, his sensitivity to the Lord's activity, his usability in His kingdom work.

There is great warning here. Let him who thinks he stands, take heed that he does not fall (I Cor. 10:12). No one, however spiritually mature, is incapable of falling as did Samson. To think otherwise is to act the fool.

Prayerful Contemplations

"Blessed Father,
Grant grace that I may muse upon You as You are worthy, for a few choice moments here in the cool of the day. I plea Your Spirit's filling work, softening this heart so easily hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Too, may the blood of Your sinless Son do a cleansing work, restoring our broken fellowship and healing my defiled conscience, I pray.
Enormous is the need I sense for repentance, that faithful confrontation Your blessed Spirit initiates just when needed the most...forcing the wayward believer to face the fact that drifting has occurred.
Such discipline is sorrowful, even as Heb. 12:11 declares, yet well worth the peaceful fruit of righteousness after Your chastening is done.
Praise to Your Name, Father, for Your faithful love and holy dealings with Your children!
In the Lord Jesus' Name,
Amen."

II Chronicles 20:12

"O our God, will You not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You."

In the face of a massed enemy army and its imminent attack, Jehoshaphat was afraid (v. 3). Yet he refused to give in to it, turning his attention to seek the LORD and proclaiming a fast throughout the land. Principle: When things are dire, reduce distractions & focus on Him.

By his own admission, neither Jehoshaphat nor his people knew what to do... but as spiritual leader he knew Who did! With a rare humility for one in kingly robes, he acknowledged publicly in prayer their utter dependence upon the LORD. And God glorified His Name by granting Judah a victory accomplished solely by His doing. The result? Surrounding nations heard of it, and feared the God of Israel (v.29).

I John 2:15--17

"Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; But the one who does the will of God abides forever."

Satan, the one empowering the world system, the hater of God & deceiver of men, has a two-fold purpose: to steal God's worship, and to hinder our knowledge of Him. The three tools he has at his disposal (by the Father's sovereign permission) are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

John the apostle here exposes one of the enemy's strongest strategies to keep blinded men from understanding the truth: make the world system seem permanent.

Through the continual shouting at his senses, the relentless fear of death and the unknown, as well as the prideful rationalization of his supposed basic goodness, the devil lulls the lost one into believing that what he sees is all there is, and will last forever. Ironically, although there is physical sight, he is actually spiritually blind (II Corinthians 4:3,4).

Yet it is not to the blinded unbeliever that John is writing (!). No, his words of warning are to those who are "not to be ignorant of his (the devil's) schemes" (II Cor. 2:11). That the Holy Spirit of God should even compel the apostle to pen these lines implies that the power the world system wields is formidable. As Peter also warns, we must be continually vigilant, soberly alert, lest we be devoured by this lion-like foe (I Peter 5:8,9).

O Father,
Greater are You in me than he who is in the world! Praise to Your Name he is a defeated foe, crushed at the cross, and I rejoice in the victory the Lord Jesus won there as He took my place on the tree. Teach me afresh, Father, to walk in this truth, stand in it, immovable, refusing to impugn the character of my blessed Savior by yielding to Satan's intimidation. By Your blessed Holy Spirit, Father, teach me the wearing of the armor, that I may be usable for Your glory in the spiritual warfare that never ceases.
I ask in the Lord Jesus' Name,
Amen.