September 3 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Devotional

The brutality of Pharaoh was extreme, but it is not unmatched. History has shown that people are capable of any inhuman act once the devil gets hold of them.

And it is not so hard for the devil to get hold of us. We are all born as sinners. We do not become sinners because we commit crimes; rather, we commit crimes because we are sinners.

This biblical teaching has received much scorn, even from theologians who should know it's true. Especially in an age in which people wear clean shirts and socks every day, you cannot convince many people that we are less than nice by nature.

When people acquire bathtubs and pleasant manners, they are inclined to think that they have grown out of the barbaric stage. But the forms of good living do not keep the devil away. A visit to the British Museum can show you that the Egyptians had all the cultural niceties at the time they drowned the Hebrew boys.

Humanity as a whole has not learned anything from the revelations of evil. We are unspeakably superficial. One generation experiences the raw power of the devil, and their surviving children aren't even interested in knowing about the events, let alone why these events happened. They just want clean shirts, hot tubs, beer, and baseball.

In our personal lives we find it hard to decide whether the ability to forget is a blessing or a curse. Could it be some of both? In each of our lives there is going to be at least one moment in which we see the stark reality of evil. Let's hope that in that moment we become wise.

The next generation may consider us "stuffy" and "killjoys"—even if we tell them only that life is not a joyride for fun-lovers. In fact, the life-and-death issue for all human beings is the struggle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. Either we live and die in darkness or we move toward the light.

Christ makes the difference.

REFLECTIONS

When have you seen "the stark reality of evil"? What have you learned from that experience?

Andrew Kuyvenhoven's Daylight, a modern devotional classic, was originally published by Paideia Press in 1977. This updated edition is copyright 2009 by Faith Alive Christian Resources. You can order a copy of this revised version of the book directly from the publisher.

A man of many accomplishments, Andrew Kuyvenhoven is probably best known for his contributions to Today (formerly The Family Altar), a widely-used monthly devotional booklet associated with the Back to God Hour. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations for this updated edition of Daylight are from the Holy Bible: Today's New International Version copyright 2001, 2005 by the International Bible Society.