Come to Jesus Today

PRAY OVER THIS

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”

Ephesians 5:25-27

 

PONDER THIS

Who is the bride of Jesus? It is the Church. The Church is not the building, but the people. Don’t abuse the bride of Christ. Jesus loves His bride. He loves us. He’s working on us that He might present us to Himself a spotless bride, without blemish or any such thing.

God wants you saved, He wants you to be a part of the Church, His bride. He wants you to know Jesus. And He’s saying to you, “If you’ve never come, then come now.” It is beautiful to be a part of the Church, the bride of Christ. If you have come, hear Jesus calling, “Go tell the others. Tell them that I’m not dead, but I’m alive. I am now at the right hand of the Majesty on high. I have made provision for you. And I want you to come and live with Me forever.” This is the hope and calling we have. Jesus is the only hope of a dying world!

How have you cared for the bride of Christ, the Church? How can you do so in the future?

Why do we often struggle with loving the bride of Christ?

PRACTICE THIS

Pray for your pastors, ministers, members, and volunteers at your church.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

God Wants You to Talk with Him

PRAY OVER THIS

“Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.” Jeremiah 29:12-14

 

PONDER THIS

Do you know the great privilege of being saved? It is not about merely having our sins forgiven, having provision, having a future, or having a missionary charge: through reconciliation, we can have a relationship with Jesus. Jesus is real to me. I talk to Him often. He is a dear friend. Did you know God wants you to talk with Him? God is a God of love, and what good is love if there’s not someone to love and someone to love back? That’s why God created us. God didn’t make you only to serve Him. If He only wanted servants, He has angels. God made us so that He could love, talk, and share with the creation made in His image.

Joyce and I will call our son David in Spain. International phone calls cost, but it’s worth it. When we speak to him, we like to hear about everything, not just the big things, but also the small, incidental things. Sometimes you might get the idea that God doesn’t want to hear from you about small things, but He does because He loves you. Do you think you’re a bother to Him? Do you think our son is a bother to us when we share little things together? No, that’s the joy, that He loves us enough to share those small things as well as the big things. Can you think of anything that’s really big to God? There’s nothing really big to Him.

How often do you talk to God? What do you talk to Him about?

When is it hardest for you to talk to God?

PRACTICE THIS

Consider when you struggle to speak with God. Ask God to grow your communication with Him in those times.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

How to Repay God

What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows to the Lord. (Psalm 116:12–14)

The very use of the language “rendering to God for all his benefits to me” makes me nervous. Payback can so easily imply that grace is like a mortgage. It’s really generous, but you have to pay it back.

Paul said in Acts 17:25, God is not “served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” In other words, you can’t give anything to God or do anything for God that he hasn’t first given to you and done for you.

You see this again in 1 Corinthians 15:10, “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” So none of our work can ever be a payment to God, because the very work is another gift from God. With every deed we do for God we go deeper into debt to grace.

So in Psalm 116 what keeps the paying of vows free from the dangers of being treated like a debt payment is that the “payment” is, in reality, not an ordinary payment, but another act of receiving which magnifies the ongoing grace of God. It does not magnify our resourcefulness.

The psalmist’s answer to his own question, “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits?” is, “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.” In other words, I call on the Lord to fill the cup. To pay back the Lord means to go on receiving from the Lord so that the Lord’s inexhaustible goodness will be magnified.

Lifting up the cup of salvation signifies taking the Lord’s satisfying salvation in hand and drinking it and expecting more. We know this because of the next phrase: “I will . . . call on the name of the Lord.” I will call for more help. What shall I render to God for graciously answering my call? Answer: I shall call again. I will render to God the praise and the tribute that he is never in need of me, but is always overflowing with benefits when I need him (which I always do).

Then the psalmist says, in the third place, “I will pay my vows to the Lord.” But how will they be paid? They will be paid by holding up the cup of salvation and by calling on the Lord. That is, they will be paid by faith in the promise that more grace — all-sufficient grace — is always on the way.

John Piper 

Are You the Target of “Cash and Cadillacs” Theology?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business on great waters, they see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep. For He commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea…their soul melts because of trouble…Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses. He calms the storm, so that its waves are still…so He guides them to their desired haven”... 

(Psalm 107:23-30)

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

God is the master of the winds and the waves. He is able to cause storms to come or to calm them.

A very shallow theology says if we’re in the will of God, we’ll always sail smoothly on the sea of life. We’ll have no sickness, no sorrow, no disappointment, know no separation. There’ll be no problems in our family. The “joy boys” get on television and say, “You just believe God and send me an offering, and you’ll never be sick, never know loss, everything’ll be fine.” That’s the gospel of cash and Cadillacs. Friend, there’s a Greek word for that—baloney.

No, we’re going to have difficulty. When it comes, you can say, “I’m governed by His providence, but I’m also growing by His plan.” God’s plan is not to indulge you; God’s plan is to enlarge you. “Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress” (Psalm 4:1).

ACTION POINT:

Those of you who’ve been on the trail for awhile, who have walked a long time with the Lord, when did you grow the most? When everything was fine? When there was smooth sailing? Or when the storm came? Did you not grow more in the storm, in distress, when you were crowded to Christ, and when you had to call upon Him? You are growing by His plan.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers