Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!

He is risen indeed!

Luke 24 in reading the Bible in 2023

Dawn of Resurrection by Joaquin Vaquero Turcios, 1956

As a staff member with Campus Crusade for Christ I sat under the teaching of Bill Bright, the founder of the organization, many times. One talk still resonates after all these years. In a gathering for young staff men Dr. Bright predicted three great temptations—sex, pride and materialism.

Over the years I’ve grown to appreciate the wisdom of these warnings. As a psalmist, David couched similar sagacity in the words, the sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply.

What gods tempt today? Sex, pride and materialism dance before us. Add to these the incessant drums of narcissism and self-fulfillment. Dr Bright’s talk (he always spoke at length) would need a few more points.

Contrast running after another to sticking close to the God of the Bible. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

Expanding sorrows or a pleasant inheritance? One certainly sounds better than the other, and as Dr. Bright clarified, both are within our grasp.

Psalm 16 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Guido Hofmann

While we make many small choices every day, we pause over only a few major ones in life. Joshua laid such a judgement before the children of Israel:

Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

Of a select group of monumentous life decisions, this one stands as the pinnacle. Everything flows downhill from here. Joshua stood resolute. Despite what anyone else decided, he and his family intended to follow the ways of the Lord.

It’s best to resolve whom we’ll serve before life crashes around us. Because crash it will, and we won’t have time to think. To choose the Lord, and to remain in this position, settles and solidifies ourselves and our families.

It’s one decision you won’t regret.

Joshua 24 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Jason Hogan

At a dinner party hosted by a grateful little revenue agent, Jesus turned to Zacchaeus and voiced one of the reasons he chose to live among us. Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

Jesus gave more than one purpose statement. Consider this one: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.(John 10:10). Here’s another: For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).

Jesus arrived with clarity, knowing he would give his life to liberate the lost. And we’re all lost, in need of a ransom from the consequences of sin and death. But beyond just saved from the fire, Jesus promised life to the full—a life of abundance.

Rescue, call back, pour out abundance. That’s a life on mission. One we embrace when we follow the teacher.

Luke 19 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by David Iskander