God Runs Faster

“For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.” ROMANS 11:36

 

PONDER THIS

The only reason we know God is because He sought us. We love Him because He first loved us. By nature, we are all running from God. If God couldn’t run faster than us, none of us would be saved.

This is salvation: He first loves us. He takes the initiative. He brings us to Himself. We have nothing to boast. We live the Christian life through the power He gives, and one day we are going back to Him. For of Him, by Him, through Him, and to Him are all things.

It is the same thing in sanctification. It all begins with Him. I used to think as a young Christian that if I could just be good enough, clean enough, and pure enough, then maybe God would fill me with the Holy Spirit. That was foolish. There is no way to live the Christian life apart from the fullness of the Holy Spirit. That doesn’t mean I can cling to sin and have God fill me. But it does mean holiness is not the way to God; God is the way to holiness.

When we need to borrow a loan, we go to the bank to show we can cover our debt. That’s not how God works. We come to Him empty-handed and say, “Lord, I am in a mess.” And God says, “I am the One who put that desire in your heart, and I am going to fill you with the Holy Spirit.”

What are some ways you have tried to grow in your faith in your own strength? What happened?

What are some ways you can remind yourself to depend on God daily?

PRACTICE THIS

Set up practical reminders around your home to help you depend on God daily.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Heaven’s Relief in the Coming Wrath

God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted . . . when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. (2 Thessalonians 1:6–8)

There will come a time when the patience of God is over. When God has seen his people suffer for the allotted time, and the appointed number of martyrs is complete (Revelation 6:11), then a just and holy vengeance will come from heaven.

Notice that God’s vengeance on those who have afflicted his people is experienced by us as “relief.” “God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted.” In other words, the judgment on “those who afflict” us is a form of grace toward us.

Perhaps the most remarkable picture of judgment as grace is the picture of Babylon’s destruction in Revelation 18. At her destruction, a great voice from heaven cries, “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her!” (Revelation 18:20). Then a great multitude is heard saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants” (Revelation 19:1–2).

When God’s patience has run its long-suffering course, and this age is over, and judgment comes on the enemies of God’s people, the saints will not disapprove of God’s justice.

This means that the final destruction of the unrepentant will not be experienced as a misery for God’s people.

The unwillingness of others to repent will not hold the affections of the saints hostage. Hell will not be able to blackmail heaven into misery. God’s judgment will be approved, and the saints will experience the vindication of truth as a great grace.

John Piper 

Bible Study

1 Corinthians 8:6

[6] yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

Revelation 5:13

[13] And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, 

    “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb

    be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

Jude 1:25

[25] to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Colossians 1:16

[16] For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

The Morning Star of Hope

“And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” 2 PETER 1:19

 

PONDER THIS

Remember the resource of revelation. If we’re to know God, God is going to have to reveal Himself to us. The finite can never understand the infinite unless the infinite explains and reveals Himself to the finite. Even if the Scriptures are perfect—and they are—we must be able to understand them.

And God knows that. This Scripture that is inspired also illuminates. It shines into our hearts and gives light. The word dark in this verse doesn’t mean dark like you turn out the lights; it means being squalid, murky, dirty, or filthy. When Peter says, “until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart,” he’s not talking about the Second Coming of Jesus; he’s talking about the sunrise of the soul.

You have that dark, squalid, murky, filthy place in your heart, but the inspired Word of God shines into your heart, into that dark place, and reveals the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit takes the curtain of your skepticism, pulls it aside, pins it with a star of hope, and floods your heart with Gospel light. He did that for me and for you. You have the inspiration of the Word of God and the illumination of the Word of God.

What are some ways God has shined His light on the dark places in your heart?

Who around you is struggling with doubts and problems? What can you do to point them to God’s illuminating Word?

PRACTICE THIS

Encourage someone else with God’s Word today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Powerful Root of Practical Love

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. (1 John 3:14)

So, love is the evidence that we are born again — that we are Christians, that we are saved.

Sometimes the Bible makes our holiness and our love for people the condition of our final salvation. In other words, if we are not holy and not loving, we will not be saved at the judgment day (e.g., Hebrews 12:14; Galatians 5:21; 1 Corinthians 6:10). This doesn’t mean that acts of love are how we get right with God. No, the Bible is clear again and again as Ephesians 2:8–9 says, “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast.” No, when the Bible says that we are saved by faith but that we must love people in order to finally be saved, it means that faith in God’s promises must be so real that the love it produces proves the reality of the faith.

So, love for others is a condition of future grace in the sense that it confirms that the primary condition, faith, is genuine. We could call love for others a secondary condition, which confirms the authenticity of the primary and essential condition of faith which alone unites us to Christ, and receives his power.

Faith perceives the glory of God in the promises of future grace and embraces all that the promises reveal of what God is for us in Jesus. That spiritual sight of God’s glory, and our delight in it, is the self-authenticating evidence that God has called us to be a beneficiary of his grace. This evidence frees us to bank on God’s promise as our own. And this banking on the promise empowers us to love. Which in turn confirms that our faith is real.

The world is desperate for a faith that combines two things: awestruck sight of unshakable divine Truth, and utterly practical, round-the-clock power to make a liberating difference in life. That’s what I want too. Which is why I am a Christian.

There is a great God of grace who magnifies his own infinite beauty and self-sufficiency by fulfilling promises to helpless people who trust him. And there is a power that comes from prizing this God that leaves no nook or cranny of life untouched. It empowers us to love in the most practical ways.

John Piper 

Bible Study

Deuteronomy 15:7

[7] “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother,

1 John 4:20

[20] If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

James 2:15-16

[15] If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, [16] and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

1 John 3:17

[17] But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?

Chicken Coops and God’s Creation

“For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them.”

ROMANS 2:14-15

 

PONDER THIS

Suppose my father is a master builder. He can build the most beautiful houses, buildings, and skyscrapers you’ve ever seen. Suppose I study his work, and I watch very carefully to observe everything he does. I see his methods and his techniques. Then I take my father’s materials, tools, and plan, but rather than building a magnificent skyscraper, I build a chicken coop. When I’m finished building with my father’s plans, materials, and tools, I step back and say, “You see that chicken coop? That proves my father doesn’t exist.”

That’s often what we do with the things we make. We take God’s tools, God’s materials, and God’s plans and make—compared to God’s creation—a chicken coop, then say, “Look what we have done!” All we have is from Him. What we make pales in comparison to His creation.

When you present the case of your faith, whether in a college philosophy class or talking to your neighbor, you don’t have to be intimidated. You don’t have to be nervous and hesitant about sharing the hope that is in you. Be bold! Creation says there is a God; design says there is a God; the moral law of the Universe says there is a God; and even the very things we make each day say there is a God!

What are some things you see every day that point to God?

What are the ways you can acknowledge God in daily conversation?

PRACTICE THIS

Seek to point to God and acknowledge who He is with someone who does not yet know Him.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers