November 20 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Devotional

This is a remarkable description of the life and work of Jesus: He was born, and he was caught up to God and to his throne. He was born to serve, and he arose to reign. Here is our confession in one sentence.

The reason it can be stated so tersely is that the issue between this Son and the dragon is the throne. The Son's life was spared from the dragon's attack, and it was he, the Son of the woman, who went to the throne of God. The dragon was defeated. That's the short and glorious message.

We divide history into two parts. We indicate the years "before Christ" by writing B.C. behind the number. And we write A.D. in front of the number of the year in which we are now living.

If you ask a class of school kids what the letters "B.C." stand for, they are usually quick to answer correctly. But if you follow by asking what "A.D." stands for, they hesitate. They may guess that the "A" stands for "After," and then they think that the "D" should be a "C." They want to divide history into a time "Before Christ" and a time "After Christ."

But "A.D." actually stands for Anno Domini, which means "in the year of the Lord."

We have the sinful tendency to think that we are living "after Christ" instead of "under Christ." Countless people think of Jesus Christ as a past figure of history. But Jesus is not past; he is present. We are not living after he lived but during the reign of the Lord.

Since we are by nature shortsighted and unbelieving, we can go through our days without realizing that Jesus lives and that he is ruling over the world. Therefore we need to be reminded: "She gave birth to a son.... And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne."

The dragon's chances are past; his days are numbered. But we may forever number the days of the reign of our Lord.

REFLECTIONS

If you believe that "Jesus lives and he is ruling over the world," what impact does that have on your daily life?

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.