Saturday, March 31, 2018

What Binds the Hands of Love?

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. (Colossians 1:3–5)

The problem with the church today is not that there are too many people who are passionately in love with heaven. The problem is not that professing Christians are retreating from the world, spending half their days reading Scripture and the other half singing about their pleasures in God all the while indifferent to the needs of the world. That’s not happening! The people of God are not so full of love to God that they spend half their days in his word.

The problem is that professing Christians are spending ten minutes reading Scripture and then half their day making money and the other half loving and repairing what they spend it on.

It’s not heavenly-mindedness that hinders love for the lost and hurting of this world. It is worldly-mindedness that hinders love, even when it is disguised by a religious routine on the weekend.

Where is the person whose heart is so passionately in love with the promised glory of heaven that he feels like an exile and a sojourner on the earth? Where is the person who has so tasted the beauty of the age to come that the diamonds of the world look like marbles from the dollar store, and the entertainment of the world feels empty, and the moral causes of the world are too small because they have no view to eternity? Where is this person?

To be sure, he is not in bondage to the Internet or eating or sleeping or drinking or partying or fishing or sailing or putzing around. He is a free man in a foreign land. And his one question is this: How can I maximize my enjoyment of God for all eternity while I am an exile on this earth? And his answer is always the same: by doing the labors of love. By expanding my joy in God, no matter the cost, if by any means possible I might include others in it.

Only one thing satisfies the heart whose treasure is in heaven: doing the works of heaven. And heaven is a world of love!

It is not the cords of heaven that bind the hands of love and make them ineffective. It is the love of money and leisure and comfort and praise — these are the cords of selfishness that bind the hands of love. And the power to sever these cords is Christian hope. “We heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven” (Colossians 1:4–5).

I say it again with all the conviction that lies within me: it is not heavenly-mindedness that hinders love on this earth. It is worldly-mindedness. And therefore the great fountain of love is the powerful, freeing confidence of Christian hope.


John Piper

Is this how you start your mornings?



BIBLE MEDITATION:
“My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up.” Psalm 5:3


DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Christianity is a love relationship. You cannot love someone that you do not know. And you cannot know someone that you don’t spend quality time with. 
To know Jesus is to love Him. 
To love Him is to trust Him. 
To trust Him is to obey Him. 
To obey Him is to be blessed.


It begins with a quality, daily communication with the Lord. Why is it best to spend time with the Lord in the morning? Because you are getting ready to go on a road trip through life. You don’t take the trip and then read the map, do you?


ACTION POINT:
How are you starting your mornings? With a cup of coffee and the paper? Or with the pure milk of the Word and the light of His presence?


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Friday, March 30, 2018

If He Calls, He Keeps



The Lord] will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:8–9)

What are you depending on to ensure that your faith will last until Jesus comes?

The question is not, Do you believe in eternal security? The question is, How are we kept secure?

Does the perseverance of our faith rest decisively on the reliability of our own resolve? Or does it rest decisively on the work of God to “keep us trusting”?

It is a great and wonderful truth of Scripture that God is faithful and will keep forever those whom he has called. Our confidence that we are eternally secure is a confidence that God will do whatever is necessary to “keep us trusting!”

The certainty of eternity is no greater than the certainty God will keep us trusting now. But that certainty is very great for all whom God has called.

At least three passages put the call of God and the keeping of God together in this way.

“The Lord will sustain you (keep you) to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:8–9).

“May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24).

“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you” (Jude 1–2). (See the same reality in Romans 8:30, Philippians 1:6, 1 Peter 1:5, and Jude 24.)

The “faithfulness” of God guarantees that he will keep safe forever all whom he has called.


John Piper

Are you hoping your good deeds will outweigh your bad ones? Considerthis:



BIBLE MEDITATION:
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23


DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Suppose you’re driving down the road and a police officer stops you for running a red light. And you say to the officer, “I ran a red light, but you have no right to give me a ticket because I stopped at all the other streets and I have obeyed the speed limit.”
He responds, “Don’t tell me about all the things that you’ve done good. You’ve broken the law.”


If you think you’re going to be saved by keeping the law, then you must keep all of it, because God demands perfection. No amount of obedience can make up for one act of disobedience. If you keep the whole law and yet offend in one point you are guilty of it all.


ACTION POINT:
Read Romans 7:1 to 8:4. Can you relate to Paul’s quandary about keeping the law and the war within his members concerning its requirement of absolute obedience?


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Thursday, March 29, 2018

As Sure as God’s Love for His Son

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

God strips every pain of destructive power. You must believe this or you will not thrive, or perhaps even survive, as a Christian, in the pressures and temptations of modern life.

There is so much pain, so many setbacks and discouragements, so many controversies and pressures. I do not know where I would turn, if I did not believe that almighty God is taking every setback and every discouragement and every controversy and every pressure and every pain, and stripping it of its destructive power, and making it work for the enlargement of my joy in God.

Listen to Paul’s astonishing words in 1 Corinthians 3:21–23, “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” The world is ours. Life is ours. Death is ours. Which I take to mean: God reigns so supremely on behalf of his elect that everything which faces us in a lifetime of obedience and ministry will be subdued by the mighty hand of God and made the servant of our holiness and our everlasting joy in God.

If God is for us, and if God is God, then it is true that nothing can succeed against us. He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all will infallibly and freely with him give us all things — all things — the world, life, death, and God himself.

Romans 8:32 is a precious friend. The promise of God’s future grace is simply overwhelming. But all-important is the foundation: I have called it the logic of heaven. Here is a place to stand against all obstacles. God did not spare his own Son! Therefore! Therefore! The logic of heaven! Therefore, how much more will he not spare any effort to give us all that Christ died to purchase — all things, all good, and all bad working for our good!

It is as sure as the certainty that he loved his Son!


John Piper 

Have you thought about what would be your "dream home"?



BIBLE MEDITATION:
“I go to prepare a place for you.” John 14:2


DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Do you believe that there is a home in heaven waiting for you? There is! Because Jesus cannot lie. He is Truth incarnate. He always told the truth. He said, “If it were not so, I would have told you.”


Jesus would not let the hope of heaven go on beating in your heart if it were simply a lie, a superstition, or a fond delusion. Heaven is not merely a state of mind. It is not a condition. It is a place so real that Jesus is there in a literal, resurrected body. There is a body in this place called heaven—His resurrected body. And if you’re trusting Jesus, one day yours will be too. Heaven is a place on God’s map, not an altered state of consciousness.


ACTION POINT:
Do you have a dream home? If you’ve never thought about what would be your perfect home, think about your heavenly home. Nothing could be more perfect!


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

When Everyone Deserts You


At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (2 Timothy 4:16–18)

This morning I was lingering over these magnificent and heartbreaking words. Paul is in custody in Rome. So far as we know, he was never released. His last letter comes to an end like this.

Consider and be astounded!

He is deserted: “no one came to stand by me.” He is an old man. A loyal servant. In a foreign city, far from home. Surrounded by enemies. In danger of death. Why? Answer: So he could write this precious sentence for our discouraged, or fearful, or lonely souls: “But the Lord stood by me!”

Oh, how I love those words! When you are deserted by close friends, do you cry out against God? Are the people in your life, then, really your god? Or do you take courage in this magnificent truth: “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20) — no matter who deserts you? Do you strengthen your heart with this inexorable oath: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5)?

Then let us say, “The Lord stood by me!”

Question: What was threatened in 2 Timothy 4:18? Answer: that Paul might not attain the Lord’s heavenly kingdom! But over against the threat Paul cries, “The Lord will . . . bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.”

Question: How was Paul’s attaining the heavenly kingdom threatened? Answer: “Evil deeds.” “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.”

Question: How could an evil deed threaten Paul’s attaining the heavenly kingdom? Answer: by tempting him to forsake his allegiance to Christ through disobedience.

Question: Was this temptation the “lion’s mouth” from which he was rescued? Answer: Yes. “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Peter 5:8–9).

Question: So who gets the glory that Paul did not yield to this satanic temptation, but endured to the end in faith and obedience? Answer: “To him [the Lord] belong glory and dominion forever and ever” (1 Peter 5:10). “To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen” (2 Timothy 4:18)

Question: Why? Wasn’t it Paul who stood firm? Answer: “The Lord stood by me and strengthened me!”


John Piper 

Warning: It's a game of smoke and mirrors...



BIBLE MEDITATION:
“But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet I show unto you a more excellent way.” 1 Corinthians 12:31


DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Satan always gives the best first and the worst last. For example, Proverbs 20:17 says, “The bread of deceit is sweet, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.”  With Satan, it always starts sweet, but it does not end that way.


Satan is a counterfeiter and a deceiver. He’s guilty of false advertising. He always pulls a “bait and switch.” He doesn’t show the drunkard in the gutter covered with flies. He doesn’t show the addict shaking uncontrollably from another night of detox. He doesn’t show the ruined lives from sexually transmitted diseases. He always gives the best first and the worst last. It’s the opposite with Jesus: He gives the best last.


ACTION POINT:
Do you have a teenager in your home? Then call a homeless shelter or prison to see if you can bring your teen for a tour.


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

10 Results of the Resurrection



If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. (1 Corinthians 15:17)

Here are ten amazing things we owe to the resurrection of Jesus:

1) A Savior who can never die again. “We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again” (Romans 6:9).

2) Repentance. “The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel” (Acts 5:30–31).

3) New birth. “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

4) Forgiveness of sin. “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17).

5) The Holy Spirit. “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing” (Acts 2:32–33).

6) No condemnation for the elect. “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised — who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Romans 8:34).

7) Jesus’s personal fellowship and protection. “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

8) Proof of coming judgment. “[God] has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).

9) Salvation from the future wrath of God. “[We] wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 5:9).

10) Our own resurrection from the dead. “[We know] that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence” (2 Corinthians 4:14; Romans 6:4; 8:11; 1 Corinthians 6:14; 15:20).


John Piper

The next time someone criticizes you...here's how to handle it



BIBLE MEDITATION:
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20


DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
God loves you so much that Jesus Christ hung in agony and blood for you.


You are precious to God. You are the object of God’s love. The blood of Jesus Christ was poured out on Calvary for you. Friend, if you know all that, then you can stand up against any criticism. It won’t bother you what others say about you because the cross sets you free. He who died for you now lives in you. He gave Himself for you that He might give Himself to you. When Jesus Christ died for you, He didn’t just take away your sins, He took away your self. You—the old self, the old sin nature—are crucified. So who can harm a dead man?


ACTION POINT:
Have you felt the sting of criticism this week? Remove the stinger and bathe the wound with the balm of Jesus’ love. Give your critic to the Lord. Then ask God to teach you from what happened.


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Monday, March 26, 2018

How to Delight in God’s Word

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Psalm 119:103)

Never reduce Christianity to a matter of demands and resolutions and willpower. It is a matter of what we love, what we delight in, what tastes good to us.

When Jesus came into the world, humanity was split according to what they loved. “The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light” (John 3:19). The righteous and the wicked are separated by what they delight in — the revelation of God in Jesus, or the way of the world.

So someone may ask: How can I come to delight in the word of God? My answer is twofold:

1) pray for new taste buds on the tongue of your heart;
2) meditate on the staggering promises of God to his people.

The same psalmist who said, “How sweet are your words to my taste” (Psalm 119:103), said earlier, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18). He prayed this, because to have spiritual eyes to see glory, or to have holy tastebuds on the tongue of the heart, is a gift of God. No one naturally hungers for, and delights in, God and his wisdom.

But when you have prayed, indeed while you pray, meditate on the benefits God promises to his people and on the joy of having Almighty God as your helper now and forever. Psalm 1:3–4 says that the person who meditates on God’s word “is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.”

Who would not delight to read a book, the reading of which would change one from useless chaff to a mighty cedar of Lebanon, from a Texas dust bowl to a Hawaiian orchard? Nobody deep down wants to be chaff — rootless, weightless, useless. All of us want to draw strength from some deep river of reality and become fruitful, useful people.

That river of reality is the word of God and all the great saints have been made great by it.


John Piper 

Is there only one person who CHOSE to die?


BIBLE MEDITATION:
“I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.” John 10:11


DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Did you know that there has only been one person who ever chose to die? Only one.


Oh, you say, suicide pilots choose to die. Other people choose to die. People who die by their own hand choose to die. People who give themselves for others choose to die.


No one has ever chosen to die but Jesus, because He was the only one who didn’t have to die. Some people may just choose to die a little sooner, but nobody has chosen to die except One.


It wasn’t nails that held Him to the tree. It was the silver cords of love and the golden bonds of redemption that held Jesus Christ to that cross.


ACTION POINT:
The fact that no one has ever chosen to die but Jesus may be a new concept to you. If so, it is probably new as well to someone else. Share it today!


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

There Is An Empty Tomb


Risen definition
Move from lower position to a higher position 
as in from death to life.

Why do so called gods have tombs with bodies?
There is no rising for them!
There is no power of an empty tomb and what that entails. 
The exception being the empty tomb of Christ?
There is no tomb with a body!
He conquered death!
He is risen!!
He is eternally alive!
If you die in Christ, you will rise from death to eternal life.
He is going to return to claim His people!


He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. - Matthew 28:6

63 and said, "Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, 'After three days I will rise.'
64 Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, 'He has risen from the dead,' and the last fraud will be worse than the first." - Matthew 27:63-64

19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
20 The Jews then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?"
21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. - John 2:19-22

22 As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men,
23 and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day." And they were greatly distressed. - Matthew 17:22-23

17 And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them,
18 "See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death
19 and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day." - Matthew 20:17-19

And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. - Mark 8:31

33 saying, "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles.
34 And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise." - Mark 10:33-34

saying, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised." - Luke 9:22

6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,
7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise."
8 And they remembered his words,
9 and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. - Luke 24:6-9

and said, "This man said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days.'" - Matthew 26:61

24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came.
25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe."
26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."
27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe."
28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"
29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;
31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. - John 20:24-31

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.
8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'")
16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. - John 1:1-18



Sunday, March 25, 2018

What is your picture of God?

Culture inspires that picture.
In America, we picture Him as Caucasian.
In Africa, He is thought of as black.
In Israel, He has a middle eastern look.
According to archeology finds of the people from the area where Jesus lived, He was most likely small in stature, had a short beard and had short curly hair.
We draw from our backgrounds, the people who surround us and so forth.
Some feel He is near, others that He is far off and still others believe He's unapproachable.
Why do we have such marred views of Christ?
Are you just playing religion or are you trusting Christ by an intimate loving relationship?
Sinner, God will meet your needs!


Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. - John 14:6

10 as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; 
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.  - Romans 3:10-11

1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.
3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst
4 they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.
5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?"
6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her."
8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.
9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
10 Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
11 She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."]] - John 8:1-11

O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water.  - Jeremiah 17:13

Jesus is our Savior!
There is no other!
Will your name be blotted out?
Or will your name be found written in the blood of Jesus, covered, forgiven, justified, and sanctified?
You are helpless!
You are a slave to sin!
Receive the mercy that Christ is offering!
Christ is holding His arms open!
He will adopt you!
He is risen!!!
Jesus is our Savior!

15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.
16 Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. - John 8:15-16

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. - John 3:17

Thanks Pastor Matt!!













Forever Satisfied



I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)

This text points to the fact that believing in Jesus is a feeding and drinking from all that Jesus is. It goes so far as to say that our soul-thirst is satisfied with Jesus, so that we don’t thirst anymore.

He is the end of our quest for satisfaction. There is nothing beyond, and nothing better.

When we trust Jesus the way John intends for us to, the presence and promise of Jesus is so satisfying that we are not dominated by the alluring pleasures of sin (see Romans 6:14). This accounts for why such faith in Jesus nullifies the power of sin and enables obedience.

John 4:14 points in the same direction: “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” In accord with John 6:35, saving faith is spoken of here as a drinking of water that satisfies the deepest longings of the soul. And the satisfaction becomes productive, like a well overflowing.

It’s the same in John 7:37–38: “Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”’”

Through faith, Christ becomes in us an inexhaustible fountain of satisfying life that lasts forever and leads us to heaven, and on the way sets us free from the sinful illusions of other satisfactions. This he does by sending us his Spirit (John 7:38–39).


John Piper 

What's incontestable, incorruptible and indispensable?



BIBLE MEDITATION:
“For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:  But the Word of the Lord endureth for ever.” 1 Peter 1:24-25


DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
The Bible is the incontestable, incorruptible, indestructible, and indispensable Word of God. No one can argue with it. Nothing can corrupt it. Nothing can destroy it. Nothing can replace it as the source and wellspring of life.


The late Dr. Robert G. Lee, a great preacher of the last generation, said this about the Bible:
“All of its enemies have not torn one hole in its holy vesture, or stolen one flower from its wonderful garden, nor diluted one drop of honey from its abundant hive, nor broken one string of its thousand-stringed harp, nor drowned one sweet word in infidel ink.”


ACTION POINT:
Tell God how much your life has changed because of His Word. Next time you’re together with friends or your family, share the ways God has ministered to you through His Word.


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Ministry and the Fear of Man

Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 1:8)

A great obstacle to serving the Lord, especially among the young, is the fear of rejection and opposition.

All kinds of thoughts enter the mind about how some people might not like the way act or speak. People might disagree or be offended. I might make a mistake and get criticized.

The fear of man is a great hindrance to ministry.

So God says, Don’t fear, because I will be with you and I will deliver you. God’s presence and approval is more valuable than all the accolades of men. And God says that, in and through all your troubles, I will deliver you. You will triumph in the end. You will be more than a conqueror.

And the same thing is promised to all of us in Christ Jesus today:

“[God] has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5–6)
“If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)
So God said to young Jeremiah, and God says to young people today whom he is calling to serve him — and to the rest of us — “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’” — or I’m too old, or I’m too anything (Jeremiah 1:7). Why?

Because your life is rooted in the unshakable, sovereign purposes of God. You have been chosen and consecrated and formed and appointed for a great purpose.
Because God’s authority, not your own, is behind your serving and your speaking.
And because God himself will be with you to deliver you in all your trials.


John Piper

Which team are you on - offense or defense?



BIBLE MEDITATION:
“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10


DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Do you know what’s wrong with many of us? We’re trying to get out of trouble rather than get into righteousness.


We’re so focused on the defensive side of Christianity that we forget about the offensive, positive approach.


Wouldn’t you like to rise up and experience the abundant life our Lord talks about? Jesus came to give us eternal life—the abundant life. We need to do like the old song says, “Accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative.”


ACTION POINT:
Why don’t you determine today that you are going to get right with God and stay right with God? The abundant life comes as a matter of course once you determine you’re going to take steps to lead a life of obedience.


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers