Category: Devotion of the Day

ANATHEMA OR MARANATHA?

If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.
I Corinthians 16:22

The great apostle in a day when unbelieving Jews were calling Jesus accursed throws back the anathema with power. Then he takes an Aramaic term, which the scholars have argued over as to whether it means the Lord has come or “May he come!”

These two words, spelled with almost the same letters, set forth two viewpoints poles apart. There are millions today whose mark might well be anathema. They blaspheme the Lord and they are accursed. False preachers of “another Gospel” are anathema. The bitter hostility of long ago boiled over in that word.

Over against that is the love that said instead, “Jesus is Lord,” and, looking for His return, cried, “Maranatha.” Looking for the Lord was a distinguishing mark of first-century Christianity. Strange and sad it is that so many who claim to love Him today do not thrill to “The Lord cometh.”

Are you Anathema or Maranatha? Which is the cry of your soul?

TODAY

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Psalm 90:12

Today is not a day to be endured just in order to get over yonder to something better. The grass looks greener in the next pasture, but it is hard to tell which is our most important day. One day has one kind of opportunity, another has another. Let us buy up all the opportunities, for the days are evil.

We are apt to put a red circle around the wrong day. God’s calendar does not look like ours. The big day on ours may be without special significance on His. And the ordinary day, when “nothing much happened,” may, if redeemed to His glory, be a great day in His sight.

Do not try to evaluate any day, just make the most of it. What seems a dry and tedious interval, a desert stretch between here and yonder, while you burn with a fever to be into the middle of next week, may afford greater opportunity to know God and glorify Him than the glamorous day you are burning to reach.

Besides, this is the only day you can be sure of. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow.” And today is the only day of its kind. God never makes two alike. There will never be another day like it. You may call it “just another day,” but it isn’t. Make it count for God!