UCB Word For Today

Thomas Aquinas was one of the most prolific writers and thinkers of the Middle Ages. His Summa Theologica is one of history’s most exhausting and enduring theologies. But Aquinas never finished it because of something that happened on 6th December 1273, that caused him to give up writing. ‘All that I have written seems to be like straw,’ Aquinas said, ‘compared to what has now been revealed to me.’ Exactly what was revealed remains a mystery, but that one revelation surpassed all the knowledge he’d acquired. No matter your IQ, that’s what you need. You are not smart enough to reason your way to God. You need ‘the Spirit of wisdom and revelation’ (Ephesians 1:17 NIV). Nothing will change your outlook, or even alter your personality, like a revelation of God’s love. But it’s so diametrically different from the way we give and receive love on a human level. First of all, His love is unconditional. There is nothing you can do to make God love you more or less because He already loves you perfectly, eternally. Even when you don’t reciprocate His love, it doesn’t deter, deflect, or diminish His love. It accentuates it. ‘While we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (Romans 5:8 NIV). It’s easy to love others when they are at their best. But when they are at their worst? Not so much. But that’s the test of true love. Our love tends to be reactive, but God’s love is proactive. He loves us when we least expect it and least deserve it.

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

In the realm of general relativity, an event horizon is the point of no return. It’s the point at which gravitational pull becomes so great that it’s impossible to escape. The most obvious example is the black hole – a celestial object so massive that light can only enter but never exit its gravitational field. The escape velocity of a black hole is greater than the speed of light, which is impossible to exceed. So, once you cross its horizon, there is no turning back. God’s love is like that. The Bible says, ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8 KJV) The implications of that one statement will take all of eternity to unpack. Nothing pulls stronger or longer than God’s love. Love is an event horizon, and once you cross over, you can’t get back. And who would want to? Logic won’t get you to God’s love. His love is beyond logical – it’s theological. The only way to receive the love of God is via revelation. Paul wrote: ‘I pray that you…may…grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.’ The love of God is measureless. It doesn’t fit in a box, not even a box the size of the universe. And if the universe isn’t big enough, God’s love certainly won’t fit within the confines of our human logic. So how do we get it in our hearts and minds? Through a personal revelation! So, the word for today is: pray for a revelation of God’s love.

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

Pride promotes self-reliance. It tells us we can indeed do things on our own. In our attempt to walk in self-confidence, we slam the door in God’s face and shut out the work of the Holy Spirit, our Helper. Paul was educated, sophisticated, and consecrated, yet he humbly declared, ‘I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God’s church. But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favour on me – and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace’ (vv. 9-10 NLT). No matter how much ability you possess, without God, it will only take you so far. Jesus said, ‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing’ (John 15:5 NIV). So the source of our confidence should be God and not ourselves. When the plans of those walking in God-confidence go awry, they are wise enough to subordinate their desires to the sovereign will of God. They quickly remind themselves, ‘Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails’ (Proverbs 19:21 NIV). They are convinced that God has a higher purpose for their lives, and that no man can thwart it. So practise God-confidence rather than self-confidence.

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

In 1993, a group called AD2000 United Prayer Track came up with an innovative idea. To help realise their goal of ‘a church for every people and the gospel for every person by AD2000’, they established a programme called ‘Praying through the Window’. The ‘window’ referred to an area on the globe from ten degrees to forty degrees north of the Equator, from North Africa and southern Spain eastward to Japan and the northern Philippines. Almost three billion people live in this area, where the most prominent religions are Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism. For the entire month of October 1993, and again in 1995, millions of Christians prayed for the people in ‘the 10/40 window’. The goal was that new churches be established, and new missionaries sent to these areas. In 1993 alone, the number of churches in Albania grew from 50 to more than 300, and the number of Christian fellowship groups formed in India rose from an average of three to seventeen each day. If your world consists only of your loved ones, your job, and your church, ask God to open your eyes to the world beyond your world. Begin praying that He will move in those nations. ‘Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession’ (Psalm 2:8 NKJV). You say, ‘Can we realistically believe that the world will turn to Christ?’ Read this: ‘All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before You’ (Psalm 22:27 NKJV).

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

Jesus was called ‘Rabbi’ eleven times in the Gospels. But He wasn’t like any other rabbi. Rabbis quoted others, but Jesus said, ‘Truly, I say to you…’ In the gospel of John, He said it twice: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you…’ The reason Jesus wasn’t like any other rabbi was because He was God manifested in the flesh. And Paul says, ‘Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge’ (Colossians 2:2-3 NKJV). The early church fathers had a favourite saying: ‘The Gospels are a river in which a gnat can swim, and an elephant can drown.’ The Gospels – the record of Christ’s life and teaching – have impacted the world so much that they have been translated into 2,527 languages. The second-most-translated book, Don Quixote, has been translated into about 60 languages. To this day, the Bible remains the bestselling book of all time. In the academic world, scholars keep score of how often any articles they write are cited by other scholars. By this year’s secular score, Jesus’ intellectual impact is unprecedented. Why is this? Because when everything else fails, God’s Word works. Jesus explained it this way: ‘It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.’ If you are a teacher, you know that the number-one question in any class is: ‘Will this be on the final exam?’ If you want to pass your final exams and hear, ‘Well done!’ from the teacher, get into God’s Word each day and get God’s Word into you.

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.