You Can't Keep a Good Man Down

Daily Reading: Revelation 20

Scripture Focus: The sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them... (Revelation 20.13)

Devotional Thought: In 1985 the "country rock" band Alabama released a song with these words:

Oh enough is enough I won't take anymore.  I'm picking myself up off the floor,

'Cause you can't keep a good man down... You can't keep a good man down!

(Can't Keep a Good Man Down, Bob Corbin)

The good news for us is that God himself is in the business of picking men and women up from the floor:

·       Moses thought his dreams of helping his people had died.  He was hiding from Pharaoh's court of justice on the "back side of the desert" when God lit a bush on fire and sent him back home to "set my people free."

·       A sinful woman from Samaria had lost all hope of ever being loved.  One day she met Jesus at a well of water, and he brought her up from her deep well of despair.

·       Peter denied his Lord three times.  Jesus knew that Peter's failure was not permanent, however.  Jesus set up a personal conversation with Peter in order to restore him.  Then the Lord used Peter to get the fledgling church off the ground.

·       Jesus himself lay buried in the grave, having suffered a cruel death by crucifixion.  But, "he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.  This Jesus God raised up..." (Acts 2.31-32).  There was no keeping Jesus down!

And, in the end, each of us who name Jesus as Lord will not be kept down either.  Though we are not good on our own, we are made alive by this Jesus whom God raised up.  And he will raise us up, too, for "You can't keep a good man down!"

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that you have conquered sin and death and the grave.  You came forth from the dead, and you will raise us up, too.  Hallelujah!  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 105.7-15

7 He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth.

8 He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,

9 the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac,

10 which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant,

11 saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance. ”

12 When they were few in number, of little account, and sojourners in it,

13 wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people,

14 he allowed no one to oppress them; he rebuked kings on their account,

15 saying, “Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm! ”