The Triumphant Shame of the Cross

[Christ did not] offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9:25–26)

It is not to be taken for granted that there should be a welcome for sinners in heaven.

God is holy and pure and perfectly just and righteous. Yet the whole story of the Bible is how such a great and holy God can and does welcome dirty, unholy people like you and me into his favor. How can this be?

Hebrews 9:25 says that Christ’s sacrifice for sin was not like the sacrifices of the Jewish high priests. They came into the holy place yearly with animal sacrifices to atone for the sins of the people. But these verses say Christ did not enter heaven to “offer himself repeatedly . . . for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world” (Hebrews 9:26).

If Christ followed the pattern of the priests, then he would have to die yearly. And since the sins to be covered include the sins of Adam and Eve, he would have had to begin his yearly dying at the foundation of the world. But the writer treats this as unthinkable.

Why is this unthinkable? Because it would make the death of the Son of God look weak and ineffective. If it has to be repeated year after year for centuries, where would be the triumph? Where would we see the infinite value of the sacrifice of the Son of God? It would vanish in the shamefulness of a yearly suffering and death.

There was shame in the cross, but it was triumphant shame. “[Jesus despised] the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

This is the gospel of the glory of Christ, the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4). I pray that no matter how dirty or unholy with sin you are, you will see the light of this glory and believe.

John Piper

What makes the world take notice?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Did you know that the best argument for Christianity and the best argument against Christianity is…your life? That’s right. Not only are you a witness for Jesus, you’re part of the evidence of His reality. Your life needs to be Exhibit A. What will turn your city, your community—any place—to God is the evidence of a life transformed by the power of Jesus Christ.

When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the religious leaders had a problem on their hands. Lazarus was living proof of Jesus’ power. He was who He said He was! Many  believed in Him because of what they witnessed in Lazarus. His new life was a testimony they couldn’t refute!

What would happen if every Christian began to walk as Jesus walked, talk as Jesus talked, and love as Jesus loved? The world would take notice. When God’s people begin to live out what they say they believe, it will change lives. 

ACTION POINT:

Sermons are one thing.  Go out tomorrow morning and live for Jesus. Show it! Show the faith! Let your light shine before men. The best argument for Christianity and the best argument against Christianity is the life of a Christian. 

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Only Conscience-Cleanser

How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:14)

Here we are in the modern age — the age of the Internet, smartphones, space travel, and heart transplants — and our problem is fundamentally the same as always: Our consciences condemn us and make us feel unacceptable to God. We are alienated from God. And our consciences bear witness.

We can cut ourselves, or throw our children in the sacred river, or give a million dollars to charity, or serve in a soup kitchen, or a hundred forms of penance or self-injury, and the result will be the same: The stain remains and death terrifies.

We know that our conscience is defiled — not with external things like touching a corpse, a dirty diaper, or a piece of pork. Jesus said it is what comes out of a man that defiles, not what goes in (Mark 7:15–23). We are defiled by attitudes like pride and self-pity and bitterness and lust and envy and jealousy and covetousness and apathy and fear.

The only answer in this modern age, as in every other age, is the blood of Christ. When your conscience rises up and condemns you, where will you turn? Hebrews 9:14 gives you the answer: “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

The answer is: Turn to the blood of Christ. Turn to the only cleansing agent in the universe that can give you relief in life, and peace in death.

John Piper

What’s the secret of a happy, productive life?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Ephesians 5:20,   “Giving thanks always for all things” is perhaps the best Thanksgiving text in the Bible. Yet there’s no harder command to practice or obey.

When it comes to gratitude, I’ve seen four types of people:

• Folks who constantly grumble and complain. Have you met any of these? They can brighten up a room just by leaving it. That’s the lowest level.

• Folks who live lives of ingratitude. They don’t complain, but they never thank God for His obvious blessings. That’s only a little better.

• Those who thank God for obvious blessings. When something good happens, they’re grateful. That’s better.

• At the highest level are those who are grateful for all things at all times. That is the secret of a happy and productive life.

No matter what is happening, God is like a mighty ocean. He has eternal purposes we cannot see. A wave may break here and subside there, but God is moving history toward His purpose. Therefore, one of the greatest acts of faith you can ever perform is simply to say, “O God, no matter what, I will praise you.”  When you get to that place where you're grateful for all things at all times, then you have learned the secret of joy.

ACTION POINT:

Go before the Lord and think about the circumstances you’re facing. On the basis of our scripture today, thank Him for each one, knowing He is at work to weave all things—even the hardest things—together for your good.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Root of Ingratitude

Although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:21)

When gratitude springs up in the human heart toward God, he is magnified as the wealthy source of our blessing. He is acknowledged as giver and benefactor and therefore as glorious.

But when gratitude does not spring up in our hearts at God’s great goodness to us, it probably means that we don’t want to pay him a compliment; we don’t want to magnify him as our benefactor.

And there is a very good reason that human beings by nature do not want to magnify God with thanksgiving or glorify him as their benefactor. The reason is that it detracts from our own glory, and all people by nature love their own glory more than the glory of God.

At the root of all ingratitude is the love of one’s own greatness. For genuine gratitude admits that we are beneficiaries of an unearned bequest. We are cripples leaning on the cross-shaped crutch of Jesus Christ. We are paralytics living minute by minute in the iron lung of God’s mercy. We are children asleep in heaven’s stroller.

The natural person, apart from saving grace, hates to think of himself in these images: unworthy beneficiary, cripple, paralytic, child. They rob him of his glory by giving it all to God.

Therefore, while a man loves his own glory, and prizes his self-sufficiency, and hates to think of himself as sin-sick and helpless, he will never feel genuine gratitude to the true God and so will never magnify God as he ought, but only himself.

Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17).

Jesus did not come to minister to those who insist they are well. He demands something great: that we admit we are not great. This is bad news to the arrogant, but words of honey to those who have given up their charade of self-sufficiency and are seeking God.

John Piper 

Did you know you have authority over Satan?

Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Luke 10:19

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A police officer weighing 160 pounds may effectively stand in front of a tanker truck with an uplifted hand say, “Stop, in the name of the law.” Now what does he stop that truck with – his own power?  No.  Authority. The police officer certainly couldn’t stop any vehicle with his physical force. He is appealing to an authority greater than himself — the law — to back him up.

Your authority over Satan is the same way. Jesus said, “I give you authority over all the power of the enemy.”

Who is stronger, you or Satan?  Satan. You cannot overcome him with your strength. But your authority does not rest in your strength. Who has more authority, you or Satan?  You.  Jesus said, “I give you authority over all the power of the enemy.”  That’s the reason the Bible says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”  Not because you’re stronger, but because Jesus is stronger.

You can overcome Satan Kingdom Authority from God. And you have His authority as a child of the King to overcome every attack of Satan. 

ACTION POINT:

Today and every day, make this declaration. Say to the devil, “Satan in the name of Jesus, through His shed blood, by the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. I come against you. I resist you and every demonic spirit.  I command you get away from me and my family. I command you to leave.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

How to Magnify God

I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving. (Psalm 69:30)

There are two kinds of magnifying: microscope magnifying and telescope magnifying. The one makes a small thing look bigger than it is. The other makes a big thing begin to look as big as it really is.

When David says, “I will magnify God with thanksgiving,” he does not mean, “I will make a small God look bigger than he is.” He means, “I will make a big God begin to look as big as he really is.”

We are not called to be microscopes. We are called to be telescopes. Christians are not called to be con-men who magnify their product out of all proportion to reality, when they know the competitor’s product is far superior. There is nothing and nobody superior to God. And so the calling of those who love God is to make his greatness begin to look as great as it really is.

That’s why we exist, why we were saved, as Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

The whole duty of the Christian can be summed up in this: feel, think, and act in a way that will make God look as great as he really is. Be a telescope for the world of the infinite starry wealth of the glory of God.

This is what it means for a Christian to magnify God. But you can’t magnify what you haven’t seen or what you quickly forget.

Therefore, our first task is to see and to remember the greatness and goodness of God. So we pray to God, “Open the eyes of my heart!” (Ephesians 1:18), and we preach to our souls, “Soul, forget not all his benefits!” (Psalm 103:2).

John Piper 

Are you wounded by sorrow? Or is it guilt?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for Thou art my praise. Jeremiah 17:14

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

There are two kinds of wounds to the human psyche. One is sorrow; the other is guilt. Sorrow is a clean wound. Somehow your heart will heal as the Holy Spirit applies His healing balm. He will pour in “the oil of gladness.” Time and the grace of God will heal.

But guilt is dirty and will never heal until confessed and cleansed by the antiseptic of Calvary. Sin will destroy your testimony. King David learned that after he sinned by taking Uriah’s wife. He had sinned against Uriah, against Bathsheba, against his own family, against the kingdom of Israel—but primarily against God. When he realized the depth of what he had done, it broke David’s heart.

David wasn’t as concerned about what God might do to him as he was concerned that He had hurt his heavenly father. He cried out in Psalm 51,  “Oh God, I sinned against You and did this evil in Your sight.”

A true Christian realizes not only has he broken God’s law, he's broken God's heart. One way you can know you're truly saved is this: Does it break your heart that you've broken God's heart? A slave only fears his master’s whip, but a son fears his father’s displeasure. David said, “Oh my Redeemer, my Savior, my Lord, how could I do such a thing?"

When you cover up sin, it steals your joy. It takes your song. Praise withers and dies because sin destroys your testimony.

ACTION POINT:

What do you do? Like David, come to God. Are you suffering under a load of guilt? Allow the Holy Spirit to expose your sin. Without excuses, openly confess it and experience the joy of forgiveness in Christ.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Jesus Prays for Us

He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)

It says that Christ is able to save to the uttermost — forever — since he always lives to make intercession for us. In other words, he would not be able to save us forever if he did not go on interceding for us forever.

This means our salvation is as secure as Christ’s priesthood is indestructible. This is why we needed a priest so much greater than any human priest. Christ’s deity and his resurrection from the dead secure his indestructible priesthood for us.

This means we should not talk about our salvation in static terms the way we often do — as if I did something once in an act of decision, and Christ did something once when he died and rose again, and that’s all there is to it. That’s not all there is to it.

This very day I am being saved by the eternal intercession of Jesus in heaven. Jesus is praying for us and that is essential to our salvation.

We are saved eternally by the eternal prayers (Romans 8:34) and advocacy (1 John 2:1) of Jesus in heaven as our High Priest. He prays for us and his prayers are answered because he prays perfectly on the basis of his perfect sacrifice.

John Piper 

So you don’t feel like praying….

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Romans 8:26

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

There’s an old song with the refrain “Just keep on praying ‘til light breaks through.” When you don’t feel like praying, that’s when you need to. You need to pray until you do feel like praying. You see, you’re not praying by yourself. The Spirit is praying through you and for you, helping to present your petitions to the Father — petitions that perhaps you yourself are not even capable of expressing. Do not approach God with your hands full of the brass of your emotions. Rather, approach Him with hands and heart full of the sweet incense of His worth. Just keep praying.

ACTION POINT:

How is your prayer life? Do you say grace before meals and squeeze in a quick prayer before you drop off to sleep each night? Then you wonder why your prayers aren’t being answered and your walk with God is so anemic. Take some time today to talk to the Lord. Someone has wisely said, “The word ‘love’ is spelled t-i-m-e.” God does business with those who mean business.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Unashamed

Power of Baptism

What is baptism?

An act of obedience and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in You.

1. Baptism pictures salvation and transformation.

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. - Romans 6:1-4

Death 

Burial 

Resurrection 

Dead to sin

Washing sin in blood of Christ

Regeneration 

2. Baptism reminds me I'm free of sin

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. - Romans 6:5-7

We should not sin because we have been delivered and set free.

3. Baptism empowers me to live for Jesus.

8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.

10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. - Romans 6:8-11

16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;

17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." - Matthew 3:16-17

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." - Acts 1:8

You are identified with Christ.

4. Baptism celebrates my victory over death.

From death to eternal life

Celebrate victory 

The war is won

13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. - Romans 6:13-14

Insure your place in Heaven

A. Admit sin and turn from it

10 as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; 

11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 

12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one."  - Romans 3:10-12

B. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 6:23

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5:8

C. Commit your life to Jesus

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. - Romans 10:9-10

Thanks Pastor Kevin!

Glorify God by Giving Thanks

It is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. (2 Corinthians 4:15)

Gratitude to God is a joyful emotion. We have a sense of joyful indebtedness for his grace. So in a sense in the very emotion of gratitude, we are still the beneficiaries. But by its very nature, gratitude glorifies the giver. When we feel thankful, we acknowledge our need and God’s beneficence, God’s fullness, the riches of his glory.

Just like I humble myself and exalt the server in the restaurant when I say, “Thank you,” so I humble myself and exalt God when I feel gratitude to him. The difference, of course, is that I really am infinitely in debt to God for his grace, and everything he does for me is free and undeserved.

But the point is that gratitude glorifies the giver. It glorifies God. And this is Paul’s final goal in all his labors. Yes, his labors are for the sake of the church — the good of the church. But the church is not the highest goal. Listen again: “It is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.” All for your sake — for the glory of God!

The wonderful thing about the gospel is that the response it requires from us for God’s glory is also the response that is most natural and joyful; namely, thankfulness for grace. God’s all-supplying glory in giving and our humble gladness in receiving are not in competition. Joyful thankfulness glorifies God.

A life that gives glory to God for his grace and a life of deepest gladness are the same life. And what makes them one is thankfulness.

John Piper 

Have you found that God is enough?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee. Isaiah 26:3

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

You may admit that God is necessary, but do you honestly know that God is enough and that He is, in fact, more than enough? Friend, it may be that you’ll never know  He is enough until He is all you have.

This is what God allowed to happen to Job. Everything was taken away: his health, his wealth, his family—all of it. Yet, Job still had the Lord, saying, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust him.” He saw the Lord Jesus by the eye of faith.

God sometimes brings us to the place where he brought Job to show us not only is God necessary, but God is enough.

The answer is not in reason but relationship.  Not in explanation but in His promises. We come to the place where we’re like Jacob, who said, “I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me” (Genesis 32:26b)

Many a believer has lost his health, his business, his family, his reputation, but has still maintained his joy because the source of genuine contentment and peace is in God. Indeed, one may not know that God is enough until God is all one has.

ACTION POINT:

In the darkness, Jesus is there. Standing somewhere in the shadows, you’ll find Him. Come to know Him, understand Him and trust Him. Look to the Lord; trust in Him. Lean on the Lord. Leave it with the Lord.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Hold Fast to Your Hope

So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. (Hebrews 6:17–18)

Why does the writer of Hebrews encourage us to hold fast to our hope? If the final enjoyment of our hope was obtained and irrevocably secured by the blood of Jesus, then why does God tell us to hold fast?

The answer is this:

What Christ bought for us when he died was not the freedom from having to hold fast, but the enabling power to hold fast.

What he bought was not the nullification of our wills as though we didn’t have to hold fast, but the empowering transformation of our wills so that we want to hold fast.

What he bought was not the canceling of the commandment to hold fast, but the fulfillment of the commandment to hold fast.

What he bought was not the end of exhortation, but the triumph of exhortation.

He died so that you would do exactly what Paul did in Philippians 3:12, “I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” It is not foolishness, it is the gospel, to tell a sinner to do what Christ alone can enable him to do; namely, hope in God.

So, I exhort you with all my heart: Reach out and take hold of that for which you have been taken hold of by Christ. Hold it fast with all your might — which is his might. His blood-bought gift of your obedience.

John Piper 

Where does your joy come from?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk 3:17-18

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

In Habakkuk’s day, there was an economic recession. There were no cows in the barn, no harvest in the fields. “Yet…” he writes. Oh, how I love that “yet” in verse 18. “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation.”

Where was his joy? In the Lord, not circumstances.

If circumstances are what give you your joy, you can’t say “rejoice always,” because circumstances change. You might lose your job, your health, your friends, or your prestige. But Habakkuk said, “Yet will I joy in the God of my salvation.”

There’s one way to find out where you’re getting your joy. If it’s from your job, we can take your job and see if you still have joy. If it’s from your health, if your health fails, see if you still have joy.

ACTION POINT:

It’s not wrong to joy in your health, your job, your friends. But that kind of joy can be threatened. The only eternal joy anyone can have is in the Lord, because He never changes. If you get it anywhere else, it could be lost.. You need a joy which supersedes that. “Thou will show me the path of life; in Thy presence is fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11).

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

When God Swears by God

Since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” (Hebrews 6:13–14)

There is one Person whose worth and honor and dignity and preciousness and greatness and beauty and reputation is more than all other values combined — ten thousand times more — namely, God himself. So, when God takes an oath, he swears by himself.

If he could have gone higher, he would have gone higher. Why? To give you strong encouragement in your hope. What God is saying in swearing by himself is that it is as impossible that he will break his word of promise to bless us as it is that he will ever despise himself.

God is the greatest value in the universe. There is nothing more valuable or wonderful than God. So, God swears by God. And in doing that he says, “I mean for you to have as much confidence in me as it is possible to have.” For if more were possible, Hebrews 6:13 says, he would have given us that. “Since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself.”

Now this is our God, the God who is reaching as high as he can reach to inspire your unshakable hope in him. So, flee to God for refuge. Turn from all the superficial, self-defeating hopes of the world, and put your hope in God. There is nothing and no one like God as a refuge and a rock of hope.

John Piper 

What thanksgiving reveals about you

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. Psalm 100:4. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Colossians 3:15

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

If worry is the opposite of faith, then thanksgiving is the expression of faith—in fact, the highest expression. God has blessed you, but you may not think so if you’re measuring blessings by the barometer of health, wealth, and happiness.

You say, “I don’t think I have as much to thank God for as some other people.” Well, the apostle Paul was in a filthy Philippian jail awaiting a possible death sentence  when he wrote, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”

Unthankful people are never happy people. They’re filled with bitterness, fear, negativism, selfishness and self-pity.

My friend, let me tell you what blessings we have. “Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with benefits…” (Psalm 68:19). God has loaded your wagon. How often? Every day! “It is of the LORD’S mercies we’re not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning…” (Lamentations 3:22-23). Every day you wake up to blessings.

ACTION POINT:

Thank Him for spiritual blessings. Thank Him for the simple blessings of simple things like clean water, food, and shelter. We are so blessed. Refuse to worry. Instead, carry everything to God in prayer. Rejoice in the presence of the Lord. Rely upon the power of the Lord. Reflect on the provision of the Lord. Rest in the peace of the Lord. Do everything with thanksgiving.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

When trials storm the beaches of your life

BIBLE MEDITATION:

As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried: He is a buckler to all them that trust in Him. 2 Samuel 22:31

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

When bewilderment enshrouds you and despair looms at your door, when trials storm the beaches of your life, you may want to ask God, “Why? Why? Why?”

As a pastor, I've gone to so many funerals, so many hospitals, so many children's wards. I've had strong dads come up to me, their eyes brimming with tears, chin quivering. They take me by the lapel and say, “Pastor, why is this happening to my child? Why? Why?”

Friend, you may never understand why things are happening the way they are in your life, but that’s not your job. You see, it is not necessary for you to know why. That is God’s question. Your response is all that matters. When we can’t feel His hand, we must trust His heart. Our job is to simply trust and obey.

We want to know why? Where is God? Learn this about life. Life is not a problem to be solved, it is a mystery to be lived. That is what the book of Job is telling us. We do not live by explanations, we live by promises. And God never did explain anything to Job. Sometimes it is God's plan that we don't understand. Because when we don't understand and trust Him, that my friend is a greater, greater faith than understanding and trusting him.

ACTION POINT:

Is something happening for which you have no explanation? Yet you long for answers. Ask God to give you peace and grace to trust Him.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Key to Spiritual Maturity

Solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:14)

Now, this is amazing. Don’t miss it. It could save you years of wasted living.

What this verse is saying is that if you want to become mature and understand and appreciate the more solid teachings of the word, then the rich, nutritional, precious milk of God’s gospel promises must transform your moral senses — your spiritual mind — so that you can discern between good and evil.

Or, let me put it another way. Getting ready to feast on all God’s word is not first an intellectual challenge; it is first a moral challenge. If you want to eat the solid food of the word, you must exercise your spiritual senses so as to develop a mind that discerns between good and evil. This is a moral challenge, not just intellectual.

The startling truth is that, if you stumble over understanding Melchizedek in Genesis and Hebrews, it may be because you watch questionable TV programs. If you stumble over the doctrine of election, it may be because you still use some shady business practices. If you stumble over the God-centered work of Christ on the cross, it may be because you love money and spend too much and give too little.

The pathway to maturity and to solid biblical food is not first becoming an intelligent person, but becoming an obedient person. What you do with alcohol and sex and money and leisure and food and computers, and the way you treat other people, has more to do with your capacity for solid food than where you go to school or what books you read.

This is so important because in our highly technological society we are prone to think that education — especially intellectual education — is the key to maturity. There are many Ph.D.’s who choke in their spiritual immaturity on the things of God. And there are many less-educated saints who are deeply mature and can feed with pleasure and profit on the deepest things of God’s word.

John Piper

The Gravity of Gratitude

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful . . . (2 Timothy 3:1–2)

Notice how ingratitude goes with pride, abuse, and insubordination.

In another place Paul says, “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking . . . but instead let there be thanksgiving” (Ephesians 5:4). So, it seems that gratitude, thankfulness, is the opposite of ugliness and violence.

The reason this is so is that the feeling of gratitude is a humble feeling, not a proud one. It is other-exalting, not self-exalting. And it is glad-hearted, not angry or bitter. Bitter thankfulness is a contradiction in terms.

The key to unlocking a heart of thankfulness and overcoming bitterness and ugliness and disrespect and violence is a strong belief in God, the Creator and Sustainer and Provider and Hope-giver. If we do not believe we are deeply indebted to God for all we have and hope to have, then the very spring of gratitude has gone dry.

So, I conclude that the rise of violence and sacrilege and ugliness and insubordination in the last times is a God-issue. The basic issue is a failure to feel gratitude at the upper levels of our dependence.

When the high spring of gratitude to God fails at the top of the mountain, soon all the pools of thankfulness begin to dry up further down the mountain. And when gratitude goes, the sovereignty of the self condones more and more corruption for its pleasure.

Pray for a great awakening of humble gratitude.

John Piper