Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

Vision—the one essential ingredient for being an original in a day of copies—gets lost, overwhelmed by the odds. Too bad! We start focusing on the trouble. Then we start comparing the odds. The result is predictable: We become intimidated and wind up defeated.

Are you open to change? People who make a difference can be stretched, pulled, pushed, and changed. You heard it from me: traditionalism is an old dragon, bad about squeezing the very life out of its victims.

If some corporate position is the god of your life, then something terrible occurs within when it is no longer a future possibility.

We need heroes. I mean genuine heroes, authentic men and women who are admired for their achievements, noble qualities, and courage. Such people aren't afraid to be different. They risk.

Life is a lot like a coin; you can spend it any way you wish, but you can spend it only once. Choosing one thing over all the rest throughout life is a difficult thing to do.

Hope is our lifeline, keeping us engaged in the struggle. Marathoners press on to the finish line as long as they have hope. Nothing—virtually nothing—is able to defeat us if our hope stays alive.

Let’s assume for a minute that there is no resurrection. The apostle Paul follows that thought in his first letter to the Corinthians and comes up with at least six results.

Too often Christians try to take the hideousness out of death. In doing so, however, we cut short the grieving process. We’re so eager to rush to the end and show the hope beyond the grave that we don’t deal adequately with the pain that accompanies death.

The theme threaded from Genesis to Revelation is the plague of death, and all humanity has the disease. Being fallen creatures, we don’t want to face it. We try to anesthetize ourselves against it with denial and isolation.

Imagine what it must have been like for Jesus’ disciples and followers, who had just seen His bruised and broken dead body taken from the cross and buried.

Resurrection comes from resurge or resurgence, in the sense of “coming back” or “renewing” or “rising up.” In other words, Jesus Christ, who was once down, dead, laid aside, crucified, later stood up miraculously and bodily. He “resurged.” He came back to life, never to die again.

Imagine yourself a member of the jury in a courtroom, preparing to decide one of the oldest cases in history: The People vs. Jesus of Nazareth.

Do you know how Jesus learned obedience? Through lessons taught severely. Critics’ words, people’s actions, six illegal trials, unfair treatment, mocking, scourging, and, ultimately, torturous death—all reveal the Son’s obedience.

Our Lord has modeled the art of dying. Though mercilessly tortured, He refused to retaliate. Though seared by pain from thorns thrust on His head and iron spikes nailed through His hands and feet, He remained emotionally under control.

Since the earliest days, faithful Jewish parents have taught their children prayers to repeat at certain times of the day. Often, these prayers come directly from the book of Psalms. One such prayer is an evening prayer, from Psalm 31:5: “Into Thy hand I commit my spirit.”

How do we know that Christ’s atonement satisfied God the Father and fully covered humankind’s sin? First, the veil of the temple which separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, where the presence of God resided was torn in two.

Jesus’ sixth statement on the cross was not a cry of anguish; it was a declaration of victory. He had reached the goal and was able to say, “It is finished. Mission accomplished. It’s over.”

Though Jesus became a man, He never was anything less than God. Yet He voluntarily gave up His own rights as God the Son. He submitted Himself to God the Father, so that every word He spoke was as God had Him speak it, and every act was done precisely as God would have Him do it.

Jesus barely clung to life. He was still pushing Himself up against the raw wooden beam to breathe, and then he would slump back down, hanging from the iron nails in His hands. Up and down . . . up and down. The pain must have been maddening by now.

What a contrast we have at the cross! God’s perfect sacrifice—His Lamb—hung there in agony, giving His life, shedding His blood for the sins of the world.