December 11 Daily Devotional

Bible Readings:

Luke 24:25-27, King James Version:
²⁵Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
²⁶Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
²⁷And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

Luke 24:44-48, KJV:
⁴⁴And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
⁴⁵Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
⁴⁶And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
⁴⁷And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
⁴⁸And ye are witnesses of these things.

Acts 5:24-32
²⁴Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these things, they doubted of them whereunto this would grow.
²⁵Then came one and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple, and teaching the people.
²⁶Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned.
²⁷And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them,
²⁸Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.
²⁹Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
³⁰The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.
³¹Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
³²And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.

Acts 17:1-6, KJV:
¹Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews:
²And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
³Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.
⁴And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.
⁵But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
⁶And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also....

Devotional:

It is characteristic of most of us to love the status quo. Nothing bothers us so much as to have someone come along and blast to bits a cherished notion. Particularly is this true of the ungodly person who thinks himself independent of God. When the Christian faith is presented to him clearly, he revolts against it, calls it sectarian, and accuses the minister of the gospel of being a disturber of the peace. Thus in Thessalonica Paul and Silas are charged with turning the world upside down and with acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar. They are accused of giving allegiance to another king, Jesus of Nazareth. Their particular action which provoked a mob of hoodlums to bring these charges was the simple exposition of the Scriptures in which they reasoned that the Old Testament pictured a suffering Messiah and that Jesus was that Messiah. Their interpretation was true albeit contrary to the accepted one of the Jewish leaders of that day. Quite exaggerated and slanderous were these charges but not without an element of truth in them. They did believe that Jesus was King—not an earthly king—but the ruler of a spiritual realm. They were seeking to set the world right side up. For they believed that the world needed to be straightened out. Paul and his companion were revolutionaries. Sin had created an intolerable situation; men had false ideas about God and His requirements for righteousness. His servants set out to bring the truth to the world, and in doing that they brought forth the enemies of God into open battle. If there was a furor raised over their teaching, it was inevitable, for here was truth dispelling error and the kingdom of Christ coming to grips with Satan, the father of lies.

How often the Christian witness is accused of being a disturber of the peace or a radical! But let not that accusation bother him, for he is in very good company. Among his fellows are Elijah and Jesus, our Saviour. They, too, were said to be guilty of stirring up the people, of upsetting the accepted order of things. But the observation has been made that in the course of human history those who have made the greatest contributions to thought and life have been considered by their contemporaries to be radical. And surely, if anyone has a task of upsetting the accepted ways of thinking and acting in this present age, it is the Christian. He must suiter the reproach heaped upon "extremists." For it is his work to witness to the truth in the midst of error. And when he skilfully probes into the wounds of this world with all of the deadly infection of sin and error, he is bound to bring pain and cries of discomfort. As the physician must cause pain when he puts a dislocated arm back into its socket, so the disciple of Christ must call forth objection from the world when he seeks to dispel unbelief.

Nor may the Christian.ever be anything else but a disturber of the peace, for he must follow His Lord who said, "I came not to bring peace, but a sword." Once a child of God ceases to combat error in all its forms he has surrendered to the enemy. He will find that without assuming the form of a crusader parading before the world with trumpets and banners but in calm devotion to duty he will irritate those who do not hold the truth in sincerity. It will be a temptation to withdraw from the field of conflict when the overwhelming majority condemns the position of the humble believer as being out of harmony with the practice or belief of most people. But let us not lose our perspective. Let God's Word stand and let every man be a liar. At the root of the difficulties caused in the proclamation of the gospel is not that preaching but the sin which the gospel seeks to remove.

"Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone,
 Dare to have a purpose firm, dare to make it known."

We are very happy to make available to you this month these devotionals by the late Rev. LeRoy B. Oliver. They originally appeared in The Presbyerian Guardian during the late 1940's.

The description of his "Your Family Altar" page in The Presbyterian Guardian also fits this Web page: "The page is designed for both private and family use, whichever is most convenient in your case. If you do not have family worship in your home, we hope you will begin, and suggest using these readings. They should not, however, take the place of reading books of the Bible, or the Bible itself, through in regular course." It is those who abide (continue) in the Word who are truly Christ's disciples, who know the truth, and who experience freedom in Him (John 8:31-32). May these devotionals be used for the building up of God's people and to the glory of God.