The Seminary of Suffering

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

This is God’s universal purpose for all Christian suffering: more contentment in God and less reliance on self and the world. I have never heard anyone say, “The really deep lessons of life have come through times of ease and comfort.”

But I have heard strong saints say, “Every significant advance I have ever made in grasping the depths of God’s love and growing deep with him has come through suffering.”

The pearl of greatest price is the glory of Christ.

Thus, Paul stresses that in our sufferings the glory of Christ’s all-sufficient grace is magnified. If we rely on him in our calamity, and he sustains our “rejoicing in hope,” then he is shown to be the all-satisfying God of grace and strength that he is.

If we hold fast to him, “when all around our soul gives way,” then we show that he is more to be desired than all we have lost.

Christ said to the suffering apostle, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul responded to this: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9–10).

So suffering clearly is designed by God not only as a way to wean Christians off of self and onto grace, but also as a way to spotlight that grace and make it shine. That is precisely what faith does: it magnifies Christ’s future grace.

The deep things of life in God are discovered and magnified in suffering.

John Piper

Two things are following you

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 23:6

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Goodness and mercy will pursue you all the days of your life. That’s what the word “follow” literally means in Psalm 23:6—to pursue.

Jesus pursued you with His call of salvation, and He will continue to pursue you. His goodness and mercy are like two sheep dogs that follow the flock to assure there is safe journey to the Shepherd’s final destination.

How many times have you questioned God’s provision in your life and wondered if He really cared for you? Well, there's no question here. It says SURELY, not hopefully. Yes, you and I will stumble, but He will pick us up.

ACTION POINT:

How would you live differently today if you knew that grace and mercy were going to follow your every step? How would you treat others?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Which Secular Law Will You Break?

1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.

3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval,

4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. - Romans 13:1-5

Secular definition 

Of or relating to the world, temporal

Temporal definition

Relating to earthly life

Secular law was instituted according to God's plan to keep civil obedience.

God knew the wickedness of man and that he was bent toward rebellion.

Laws are meant to keep peace, protect safety, and keep society from falling into despair.

Fear God, repent, love your neighbor, these are the things we hold dear.

There has been an evil unleashed on society.

This evil stems from the breakdown of the family and the loss of the fear of God's judgment.

It's subtle things like declaring a fetus isn't a real person or to just ignore that you are a trespasser in a country you entered illegally.

It's that adultery is ok, sexual abuse of children is ok, sexual slavery of vulnerable young girls is practiced by all manner of men, not just so called creeps but judges, cops, doctors and a host of many others.

From there Satan has altered your thinking.

He has tricked you into rebellion against God's teaching.

These things are punishable by death.

Praise God that Jesus made a way for us to be forgiven.

You must repent, turn from sin and death to follow Christ!

4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day-

7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.

9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you."

10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.

11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion.

12 These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted;

13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

14 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones,

15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him."

16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage. - Jude 1:4-16

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. - Matthew 24:35

14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,

15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,

16 since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."

17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,

18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,

19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you

21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

24 for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 

25 but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you.  - 1 Peter 1:14-25

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,

18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. - 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

The Danger of Drifting

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. (Hebrews 2:1)

We all know people that this has happened to. There is no urgency. No vigilance. No focused listening or considering or fixing of their eyes on Jesus. And the result has not been a standing still, but a drifting away.

That is the point here: there is no standing still. The life of this world is not a lake. It is a river. And it is flowing downward to destruction. If you do not listen earnestly to Jesus and consider him daily and fix your eyes on him hourly, then you will not stand still; you will go backward. You will float away from Christ.

Drifting is a deadly thing in the Christian life. And the remedy for it, according to Hebrews 2:1, is: Pay close attention to what you have heard. That is, consider what God is saying in his Son Jesus. Fix your eyes on what God is saying and doing in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

This is not a hard swimming stroke to learn. The only thing that keeps us from swimming against sinful culture is not the difficulty of the stroke, but our sinful desire to go with the flow.

Let’s not complain that God has given us a hard job. Listen, consider, fix the eyes — this is not what you would call a hard job description. In fact, it is not a job description. It is a solemn invitation to be satisfied in Jesus so that we do not get lured downstream by deceitful desires.

If you are drifting today, one of the signs of hope that you are born again is that you feel pricked for this, and you feel a rising desire to turn your eyes on Jesus and consider him and listen to him in the days and months and years to come.

John Piper

A time to doubt or a time to trust?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. 2 Timothy 3:14

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

In the last days Satan is going to come, and there are going to be more miracles than you have ever seen. Most of them will not be done by God but will be done by the power of darkness—the power of Satan. The Bible says that you can look for an explosion of the occult.

Thank God we don’t have to face these days without hope. God tells us what we must do in His Word. We are to remember what we’ve learned and to take His promises to heart. This will not be a time to doubt Him but to trust Him with all that we are.

ACTION POINT:

How is your personal study time in God’s Word going? Start this week to incorporate at least one hour of personal time in God’s Word to study its promises, prophecies, and applications.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Sin, Satan, Sickness, or Sabotage

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:8–9)

Is the suffering that comes to the Christian because of persecution the same as the suffering that comes from cancer? Do the promises given to one apply to the other? My answer is yes. All of life, if it is lived earnestly by faith in the pursuit of God’s glory and the salvation of others, will meet with some kind of obstacle and suffering. The suffering that comes to the obedient Christian is part of the price of living where you are in obedience to the call of God.

In choosing to follow Christ in the way he directs, we choose all that this path includes under his sovereign providence. Thus, all suffering that comes in the path of obedience is suffering with Christ and for Christ — whether it is cancer at home or persecution far away.

And it is “chosen” — that is, we willingly take the path of obedience where the suffering befalls us, and we do not murmur against God. We may pray — as Paul did — that the suffering be removed (2 Corinthians 12:8); but if God wills, we embrace it as part of the cost of discipleship in the path of obedience on the way to heaven.

All experiences of suffering in the path of Christian obedience, whether from persecution or sickness or accident, have this in common: They all threaten our faith in the goodness of God, and tempt us to leave the path of obedience.

Therefore, every triumph of faith, and all perseverance in obedience, are testimonies to the goodness of God and the preciousness of Christ — whether the enemy is sickness, Satan, sin, or sabotage. Therefore, all suffering, of every kind, that we endure in the path of our Christian calling is a suffering “with Christ” and “for Christ.”

With him in the sense that the suffering comes to us as we are walking with him by faith, and in the sense that it is endured in the strength he supplies through his sympathizing high-priestly ministry to us (Hebrews 4:15).

And for him in the sense that the suffering tests and proves our allegiance to his goodness and power, and in the sense that it reveals his worth as an all-sufficient compensation and prize.

John Piper 

Where is your focus today?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

When a runner is in a race, he puts his eyes on the goal. He doesn’t look at the grandstand or the other runners. Neither does he examine himself. He has his eyes on the goal. He looks away from everything else. The finish line is all he sees.

That’s exactly what we’re to do. The reason many Christians fail in the race is that they have not learned to look away from other things. They’re trying to look in both directions at the same time, and James 1:8 says, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” And Matthew 6:22 says, “If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”

ACTION POINT:

Where is your focus today? Has the world drawn you back into itself, luring you away from the command of our Lord? Read Matthew 28:19-20. That’s your goal.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

WAGING SPIRITUAL WAR

There is a spiritual world all around us.

2 KING 6:8 – 10

“Once when the king of Syria was warring against Israel, he took counsel with his servants, saying, ‘At such and such a place shall be my camp.’ But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, ‘Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are going down there.’ And the king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God told him. Thus he used to warn him, so that he saved himself there more than once or twice.”

2 KING 6:11 – 12

“And the mind of the king of Syria was greatly troubled because of this thing, and he called his servants and said to them, ‘Will you not show me who of us is for the king of Israel?’ And one of his servants said, ‘None, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.’”

2 KINGS 6:13 – 14

“And he said, ‘Go and see where he is, that I may send and seize him.’ It was told him, ‘Behold, he is in Dothan.’ So he sent there horses and chariots and a great army, and they came by night and surrounded the city.”

2 KINGS 6:15

“When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, ‘Alas, my master! What shall we do?’”

2 KINGS 6:16

“He said, ‘Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’”

2 KINGS 6:17

“Then Elisha prayed and said, ‘O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.’ So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of  fire all around Elisha.”

2 KINGS 6:18 – 19

“And when the Syrians came down against him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Please strike this people with blindness.’ So he struck them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Elisha. And Elisha said to

them, ‘This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.’ And he led them to Samaria.”

We are all involved in a spiritual war all the time.

EPHESIANS 6:12

“For we do not wrestle against fresh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

Our enemy in this spiritual war is strong.

1 JOHN 4:1 – 6

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the fresh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

1 TIMOTHY 4:1

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons . . .”

He is pervasive. He is deceptive.

MATTHEW 7:15

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”

EPHESIANS 4:14

“. . . tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”

EPHESIANS 5:6

“Let no one deceive you with empty words . . .”

GALATIANS 6:7 & JAMES 1:16

“Do not be deceived . . .”

ACTS 20:29 – 30

“. . .  Fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.”

Our weapons in this spiritual war are stronger.

So test...

Everything you hear.

2 TIMOTHY 4:3 – 4

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander out into myths.”

So test...

Everything you think.

2 CORINTHIANS 10:4

“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.”

2 CORINTHIANS 10:5

“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ . . .”

And trust...

In the truth about God’s Son.

1 JOHN 4:2 – 3

“By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the fresh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.”

He is fully human. He is fully God.

He alone is able to save us from our sins.

1 JOHN 2:2

“He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

EPHESIANS 2:8 – 9

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

He alone rules as Lord of our lives. In the power of God’s Spirit.

1 JOHN 4:4

“. . . you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”

1 JOHN 3:24

“Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.”

In the Word God has spoken.

The outcome of this spiritual war is sure. We are not fighting for victory.

We are fighting from victory.

REVELATION 12:9 – 11

“And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world – he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. 

Thank You Pastor David!!!

Radical Recompense

Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.” (Mark 10:29–30)

What Jesus means here is that he himself makes up for every sacrifice.

If you give up a mother’s nearby affection and concern, you get back one hundred times the affection and concern from the ever-present Christ.

If you give up the warm comradeship of a brother, you get back one hundred times the warmth and comradeship of Christ.

If you give up the sense of at-homeness you had in your house, you get back one hundred times the comfort and security of knowing that your Lord owns every house.

To prospective missionaries, Jesus says, “I promise to work for you, and be for you, so much that you will not be able to speak of having sacrificed anything.”

What was Jesus’s attitude to Peter’s “sacrificial” spirit? Peter said, “We have left everything and followed you” (Mark 10:28). Is this the spirit of “self-denial” commended by Jesus? No, it is rebuked.

Jesus said to Peter, “No one ever sacrifices anything for me that I do not pay back a hundredfold — yes, in one sense even in this life, not to mention eternal life in the age to come.”

John Piper 

Like a thief in the night

BIBLE MEDITATION:

For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 1 Thessalonians 5:2

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

There was a man who went shopping and left his car and house keys in the ignition. When he returned, his car was gone. The next morning he discovered his car in the driveway with a note that said, “I was in an emergency. I’m very sorry. I needed your car. Here are two tickets for the Dallas Cowboys game.”

The man went in and told his wife, “You won’t believe this! There’s our car, and look! We’ve got tickets to a Dallas Cowboys game!” They went to the game, and when they came home, their house had been cleaned out!

Friend, they never expected it, and that’s the point. That’s how the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come – as a thief in the night.

ACTION POINT:

How would you live your life differently today if you knew that Jesus was coming back in 24 hours?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Possible with God

“I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” (John 10:16)

God has a people in every people group in the world. He will call them through the gospel with Creator power. And they will believe! What a power is in these words for overcoming discouragement in the hard places of the frontiers!

The story of Peter Cameron Scott is a good illustration. Born in Glasgow in 1867, Scott became the founder of the Africa Inland Mission. But his beginnings in Africa were anything but auspicious.

His first trip to Africa ended in a severe attack of malaria that sent him home. He resolved to return after he recuperated. This return was especially gratifying to him because this time his brother John joined him. But before long, John was struck down by fever.

All alone, Peter buried his brother in African soil, and in the agony of those days recommitted himself to preach the gospel in Africa. Yet his health gave way again, and he had to return to England.

How would he ever pull out of the desolation and depression of those days? He had pledged himself to God. But where could he find the strength to go back to Africa? With man it was impossible!

He found strength in Westminster Abbey. David Livingstone’s tomb is still there. Scott entered quietly, found the tomb, and knelt in front of it to pray. The inscription reads:

OTHER SHEEP I HAVE WHICH ARE NOT OF THIS FOLD; THEM ALSO I MUST BRING.

He rose from his knees with a new hope. He returned to Africa. And today, over a hundred years later, the mission he founded is a vibrant, growing force for the gospel in Africa.

If your greatest joy is to experience the infilling grace of God overflowing from you for the good of others, then the best news in all the world is that God will do the impossible through you for the salvation of the unreached peoples.

John Piper 

One reason Jesus hasn’t returned yet….

BIBLE MEDITATION:

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Have you ever wondered why Jesus has not yet returned? I’ll tell you why. Because our Lord is waiting on people to be saved. He’s waiting on your family member, your neighbor, your co-worker, or maybe you, but one of these days soon, and very soon perhaps, Jesus will come.

You see, it is the mercy of God that holds back the Second Coming of Jesus, but the justice of God and the judgment of God require that one day He will come.

Even now, the raging waters of God’s wrath are furiously pounding against the dam of His mercy. And one of these days, the dam of God’s mercy will give way to God’s judgment, and the day of the Lord will come. Our Lord is coming!

ACTION POINT:

Does the Lord’s return make your heart beat faster because you anticipate His coming or dread His coming?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Medicine for the Missionary

“All things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27)

Sovereign grace is the spring of life for the Christian Hedonist. For what the Christian Hedonist loves best is the experience of the sovereign grace of God filling him, and overflowing for the good of others.

Christian Hedonist missionaries love the experience of “not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). They bask in the truth that the fruit of their missionary labor is entirely of God (1 Corinthians 3:7; Romans 11:36).

They feel only gladness when the Master says, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). They leap like lambs over the truth that God has taken the impossible weight of new creation off their shoulders and put it on his own. Without begrudging, they say, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God” (2 Corinthians 3:5).

When they come home on furlough, nothing gives them more joy than to say to churches, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience” (Romans 15:18).

“All things are possible with God!” — in front the words give hope, and behind they give humility. They are the antidote to despair and the antidote to pride — the perfect missionary medicine.

John Piper 

Not even the 12 disciples knew…

BIBLE MEDITATION:

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only. Matthew 24:36

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Anybody who sets a date for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ may be getting close to the line of blasphemy. The Bible teaches very plainly, and our Lord taught, that no one knows the time—no one.

Just before Jesus was taken up into glory, the disciples asked Him, “Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power” (Acts 1:6-7).

Two things we can be sure of: (1) the certainty of His coming, (2) the uncertainty of the time: “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2). No thief has ever told you “I'm coming to your house on such-and-such a day.”

So why hasn't Jesus Christ come yet? Because “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to us. Not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9).

The Lord is waiting on you to be saved. But one of these days, soon and very soon perhaps, Jesus will come. It is the mercy of God that holds back the second coming of Jesus. But the justice of God and the judgment of God says one day He will come.

No one knows when that day is, but what a glorious day that will be!

ACTION POINT:

Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. What encouragement do you need to share with someone today?

 LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Do You Really Need A Sign

Creation

19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. - Romans 1:19-20

Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness." - Acts 14:17

23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: 'To the unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,

25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,

27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

28 for "'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, "'For we are indeed his offspring.' 

29 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

31 because he 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 17:23-31

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 

2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 

3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 

4 Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, 

5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. 

6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. 

7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; 

8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; 

9 the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.  - Psalm 19:1-9

21 "Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not. 

22 Do you not fear me? declares the LORD. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it. 

23 But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away. 

24 They do not say in their hearts, 'Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.' 

25 Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have kept good from you. 

26 For wicked men are found among my people; they lurk like fowlers lying in wait. They set a trap; they catch men.  - Jeremiah 5:21-26

Conscience 

They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them - Romans 2:15

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. - Jeremiah 31:33

40 I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.

41 I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul. - Jeremiah 32:40-41

"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,"  - Hebrews 10:16

The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip.  - Psalm 37:31

3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.

5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,

6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. - 2 Corinthians 3:3-6