Maundy Thursday Devotion - Be Diligent - Hebrews 6:11

Hebrews 6:11  We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. 

Diligence is a word that I like. I came across it in Elementary school when my teacher pondered whether I or a girl called Sandra should be awarded a special prize for diligence at the end of the school year. Sandra ended up getting the prize because she deserved it more than I did. When I understood what it represented – hard work, discipline, and determination – I knew that she was more worthy of the award.

Christians are called to be diligent faithful people. Holding on to our hopes and maintaining our beliefs involves a lot of hard work, spiritual discipline, and determination, especially in today’s secular society. What was once an easy path to follow has become an arduous uphill climb. Being a Christian is no longer an acceptable way to live for most people. In fact, Christians are now becoming soft targets for ridicule and rejection. We have to fight all over the globe to maintain our rights to worship freely. We have to be more determined and disciplined in our Christian ways if we want to safeguard the faith for the next generation of believers.

An example of this can be seen with what’s happening to Holy Week and Easter. More and more people want to celebrate Easter as a Spring celebration. They want to turn it into another commercially driven holiday with toys for kids and parties for adults. Christ’s sacrifice is set aside and the Cross is diminished. Sadly, some Christians are succumbing to this relentless peer pressure so that Holy Week just becomes another burden of busy-ness, instead of a week long time of sacred reflection, heartfelt contrition, and sincere service to Christ.

As we experience Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Silent Saturday and Easter Sunday, let’s try to keep them diligently, spiritually, and reverently.

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, as we head into the last three days of Holy Week, keep us diligently focused on You. Prevent us from being distracted and allow us the joy of knowing Your glorious Presence in our hearts, our homes, our churches and communities. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is currently the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment or ask questions of today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Today’s image is John’s latest Good Friday drawing called “Celtic Christ.” If you would like to view a larger version, please click on the following link: http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5306/5639780862_23d72e2ce9_b.jpg

Free Daily Devotions: No Man - Psalm 49

Psalm 49:7      No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him.

For most of his life, my father was an agnostic. He wasn’t sure if God existed and part of his stumbling block to faith was in accepting that Jesus was actually the Son of God. He was willing to concede that Christ was a deeply spiritual person and a great moral teacher. He just couldn’t grapple intellectually that Jesus was more than a mere man. In the end, however, when he was dying from cancer, he let go of this struggle and allowed Christ into his heart.

Lots of people wrestle with Christ’s divinity. Like my Dad, they’re willing to picture Christ as a religious and philosophical leader, but they doubt Christian claims that He was, is, and always will be the Holy Son of God. They believe that His crucifixion and death were final, proving that Jesus was only human after all.

But the Cross actualizes Christ’s divinity for me through the prophecy that is proclaimed in today’s verse. Hundreds of years before the Crucifixion, the sons of Korah prophetically sang: “No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him”

No man, no mere human being could redeem the life of another; but Jesus, who is both human and divine, could bring about this redemption and give the ransom for the whole world!

If anybody else had gone to the Cross at Calvary, redemption would never have occurred. Only Christ’s sacrifice could completely save humanity. Anyone else’s death would have been insignificant; any other sacrifice would have been merely superficial.

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, without Your miraculous entrance into the world, we could never have truly known God. Without Your sacrificial exit on the Cross, we could never know the joy of redemption. We praise You for being fully human and fully divine. You are the Holy Son of God, the Lord of all Creation, and Only Savior of the World. Amen!

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.