Authentic vs. Phony Faith

Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:28)

The question before us all is: Are we included in the “many” whose sins Christ bore? And will we be saved at his second coming?

The answer of Hebrews 9:28 is, “Yes,” if we are “eagerly waiting for him.” We can know that our sins are taken away and that we will be safe in the judgment, if we trust Christ in such a way that it makes us eager for his coming.

There is a phony faith that claims to believe in Christ, but is only a fire insurance policy. Phony faith “believes” only to escape hell. It has no real desire for Christ. In fact, it would prefer if he did not come, so that we can have as much of this world’s pleasures as possible. This shows that a heart is not with Christ, but with the world.

So, the issue for us is: Do we eagerly long for the coming of Christ? Or do we want him to stay away, while our love affair with the world runs its course? That is the question that tests the authenticity of faith.

Let us be like the Corinthians as we “wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:7), and like the Philippians whose “citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).

That’s the issue for us. Do we love his appearing? Or do we love the world and hope that his appearing will not interrupt our plans? Eternity hangs on this question.

John Piper 

The Day Is at Hand

The night is far gone; the day is at hand. (Romans 13:12)

This is a word of hope to suffering Christians. It’s a word of hope to Christians who hate their own sin and long to be done with sinning. It’s a word of hope to Christians who long for the last enemy Death to be overcome and thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14).

How is it a word of hope for all these?

“The night” stands for this age of darkness and all its sin and misery and death. And what does Paul say about it? “The night is far gone.” The age of sin and misery and death is almost spent. The day of righteousness and peace and total joy is dawning.

You might say, “2,000 years seems like a long dawn.” From one standpoint it is. And we cry, How long, O Lord, how long will you let it go on? But the biblical way to think goes beyond this lament of “How long!” It looks at world history differently.

The key difference is that the “day” — the new age of the Messiah — has really dawned in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the end of this fallen age. That is, the end of this fallen age has, as it were, broken in to this world. Jesus defeated sin and pain and death and Satan when he died and rose again. The decisive battle of the ages is over. The kingdom has come. Eternal life has come.

And when dawn happens — as it did in the coming of Jesus — no one should doubt the coming of day. Not even if the dawn draws out 2,000 years. As Peter says in 2 Peter 3:8, “Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” The dawn has come. The day has arrived. Nothing can stop the rising of the sun to full day.

John Piper 

The Day Is at Hand

The night is far gone; the day is at hand. (Romans 13:12)

This is a word of hope to suffering Christians. It’s a word of hope to Christians who hate their own sin and long to be done with sinning. It’s a word of hope to Christians who long for the last enemy Death to be overcome and thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14).

How is it a word of hope for all these?

“The night” stands for this age of darkness and all its sin and misery and death. And what does Paul say about it? “The night is far gone.” The age of sin and misery and death is almost spent. The day of righteousness and peace and total joy is dawning.

You might say, “2,000 years seems like a long dawn.” From one standpoint it is. And we cry, How long, O Lord, how long will you let it go on? But the biblical way to think goes beyond this lament of “How long!” It looks at world history differently.

The key difference is that the “day” — the new age of the Messiah — has really dawned in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the end of this fallen age. That is, the end of this fallen age has, as it were, broken in to this world. Jesus defeated sin and pain and death and Satan when he died and rose again. The decisive battle of the ages is over. The kingdom has come. Eternal life has come.

And when dawn happens — as it did in the coming of Jesus — no one should doubt the coming of day. Not even if the dawn draws out 2,000 years. As Peter says in 2 Peter 3:8, “Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” The dawn has come. The day has arrived. Nothing can stop the rising of the sun to full day.

John Piper 

God’s Holiness Cannot Overlook Sin

PRAY OVER THIS

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.” 1 Peter 3:18

 

PONDER THIS

God forgives sin, but how? There must be somebody who pays the penalty for sin. God cannot just overlook sin. If God were to overlook sin, God would no longer be holy any more than a judge would be a righteous judge if He were to overlook a crime.

There’s a saying that goes, “When a guilty man is acquitted, the judge is condemned.” If a judge were to just say, “I’m a loving judge. I will overlook rape, murder, arson, robbery, whatever it is. That’s all right. I’m a loving judge.” At that moment the judge becomes a criminal.

If God were to simply overlook sin without punishing it, God would topple from His throne of holiness. If there’d been some other way for you to have been saved, God would have taken it. That’s the reason the Apostle Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation…” (Romans 1:16). Jesus died for you, and He wants you to live a life that glorifies Him and shares that hope with others.

How necessary is the cross?

What level of urgency do you feel to share the message of the cross with others?

PRACTICE THIS

Think of someone you know who needs the hope of Jesus and find a way to serve that person.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Life and Death at Christmas

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

As I was about to begin this devotional, I received word that Marion Newstrum had just died. Marion and her husband Elmer had been part of our church longer than most of our members had been alive at the time. She was 87. They had been married 64 years.

When I spoke to Elmer and told him I wanted him to be strong in the Lord and not give up on life, he said, “He has been a true friend.” I pray that all Christians will be able to say at the end of life, “Christ has been a true friend.”

Each Advent I mark the anniversary of my mother’s death. She was cut off in her 56th year in a bus accident in Israel. It was December 16, 1974. Those events are incredibly real to me even today. If I allow myself, I can easily come to tears — for example, thinking that my sons never knew her. We buried her the day after Christmas. What a precious Christmas it was!

Many of you will feel your loss this Christmas more pointedly than before. Don’t block it out. Let it come. Feel it. What is love for, if not to intensify our affections — both in life and death? But oh, do not be bitter. It is tragically self-destructive to be bitter.

Jesus came at Christmas that we might have eternal life. “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Elmer and Marion had discussed where they would spend their final years. Elmer said, “Marion and I agreed that our final home would be with the Lord.”

Do you feel restless for home? I have family coming home for the holidays. It feels good. I think the bottom-line reason for why it feels good is that they and I are destined in the depths of our being for an ultimate Homecoming. All other homecomings are foretastes. And foretastes are good.

Unless they become substitutes. Oh, don’t let all the sweet things of this season become substitutes of the final, great, all-satisfying Sweetness. Let every loss and every delight send your hearts a-homing after heaven.

Christmas. What is it but this: I came that they may have life? Marion Newstrum, Ruth Piper, and you and I — that we might have Life, now and forever.

Make your Now the richer and deeper this Christmas by drinking at the fountain of Forever. It is so near.

John Piper 

Is Your Reward Eternal or Temporary?

PRAY OVER THIS

“By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command. By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.”

Hebrews 11:23-26

 

PONDER THIS

Moses was faced with position, possessions, pleasures, and all these things. Every sensual desire would be satisfied if he went the devil’s way.

Every person has to come to the place where he or she makes a clear decision. The Bible speaks of the pleasures of sin. Don’t be so foolish as to say to young people, “There’s no pleasure in sin. You’re going against the Bible.” There are pleasures of sin. The devil is too smart to go fishing without any bait on his hook. There are pleasures and there are treasures, and you are going to have to choose between the two.

It was not easy for Moses, and it will not be easy for you. That’s the reason you have to make a radical, dramatic, clear choice. If you don’t choose, you’re going down. The Bible says Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures in Egypt.

Why is temporary pleasure so appealing to us?

Do you treasure the things of Christ? What are some ways your life displays valuing His treasure over the pleasures of the world?

PRACTICE THIS

Share with someone the treasure Christ is to you.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

You Can Be Sure

PRAY OVER THIS

“If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” 1 John 5:9-11

 

PONDER THIS

When you get on an airplane to fly, you’ve likely never seen that pilot and you’ve never examined that airplane, but you’ll trust them to fly across oceans and land. That’s faith. You live by faith every day of your life, and you put your faith in normal people. “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater.” Men can lie. The Holy Spirit is truth. The Holy Spirit witnesses to us. That’s the reason I’m never moved when a man says, “Well, I can’t believe.” He’s a liar. If you want to believe, the Holy Spirit will enable you to believe.

Suppose, Brother Bob and Brother Jim are arguing with me about apple pie. I have an apple pie, and I’ve just eaten a big slice of it. And Jim says, “I don’t believe there is any apple pie. It doesn’t even exist.” And Bob says, “Well, I believe it exists, but it’s no good.” Do you think those two guys are going to disturb me? See, I have the witness in myself. The Bible says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8a). One way to find out whether apple pie is good or not is to taste and see. That’s our job; invite people to taste and see.

Why do we often find it easier to put faith in people instead of God?

Where in your life do you want to grow deeper in your faith in God?

PRACTICE THIS

Share with a confidant the area in which you want to grow deeper in your faith.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

How to Hate Your Life

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (John 12:24–25)

“Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” What does that mean?

It means, at least, that you don’t take much thought for your life in this world. In other words, it just doesn’t matter much what happens to your life in this world.

If men speak well of you, it doesn’t matter much.

If they hate you, it doesn’t matter much.

If you have a lot of things, it doesn’t matter much.

If you have little, it doesn’t matter much.

If you are persecuted or lied about, it doesn’t matter much.

If you are famous or unheard of, it doesn’t matter much.

If you have died with Christ, these things just don’t matter much.

But Jesus’s words are even more radical. Jesus is calling us not just to endure experiences we don’t choose, but to make a choice to follow him. “If anyone serves me, he must follow me” (John 12:26). Where to? He is moving into Gethsemane and toward the cross.

Jesus is not just saying: If things go bad, don’t fret, since you have died with me anyway. He is saying: Choose to die with me. Choose to hate your life in this world the way I have chosen the cross.

This is what Jesus meant when he said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). He calls us to choose the cross. People only did one thing on a cross. They died on it. “Take up your cross,” means, “Like a grain of wheat, fall into the ground and die.” Choose it.

But why? For the sake of radical commitment to ministry: “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). I think I hear Paul saying, “It doesn’t matter what happens to me — if I can just live to the glory of God’s grace.”

John Piper 

You are Safe in Christ

PRAY OVER THIS

“And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.”

John 10:28

 

PONDER THIS

In 1937, the Golden Gate bridge was built. I can remember very vividly the first time I saw that monumental structure as they began to build. At that time, it was the world’s longest suspension bridge. But as they worked, they built it high above those swirling, perilous waters. Many of the workers were afraid that they might fall—and it seemed like the very fear of falling caused them to fall. At first, they failed to build a safety net when they were building the bridge and 23 fell from the first section of the bridge.

On the next section of the bridge, they spent $100,000 to build a safety net. Back in that time, that was a monumental sum, but they felt it was worth it. After they built the safety net, only 10 fell. But all 10 that fell were caught and were safe; lives were not lost. With the safety net there, the work went 25 percent faster. The people could concentrate on their work because they knew that beneath them was a safety net. So it is with the child of God! When we know our future is secure, we can concentrate on God’s work in the present.

How does it change your perspective to be reminded that nothing can take you from God’s hand?

How would you live differently today if you really believed you were totally secure in Christ?

PRACTICE THIS

Take one action today based on your security in Christ. This doesn’t mean living recklessly, it means living with bold faith.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Eternal Word of God

PRAY OVER THIS

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.”

Matthew 24:35

 

PONDER THIS

The Bible is not the book of the month. It is the book of the ages. No book has ever faced as much opposition as the Bible. Men have laughed at it, scorned it, ridiculed it, made laws against it, and burned it. There was a time in Scottish history when it was a crime punishable by death to own a Bible. Many a time a man has preached a funeral for the Bible, declaring it dead. Ironically, the corpse has outlived the pallbearers. People die, but the Bible has survived, and it is applicable. It is always up to date. A man of God, a woman of God, a child of God can open this book and know more today of what’s going on in the world than everyone in the Pentagon and the White House put together. The Word of God is timeless, and it is true.

How have you seen the wisdom of the Bible surpass that of man?

What are some examples of ancient accounts in the Bible that apply to our lives today?

PRACTICE THIS

Journal today about the ways the Bible applies to your life specifically in timeless ways.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Every Star Has Been Named

PRAY OVER THIS

“Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; not one is missing.” Isaiah 40:26

 

PONDER THIS

Take time on a dark night to go out and look up. Isaiah said, “Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things.” Do you think everything came out of nothing? You may say, “I can’t believe in an eternal God.” Do you believe in eternal, inanimate matter? Too often we let the creation in front of us block our view of the Creator who made it.

I was listening to the radio the other day and someone said, “You want to give a Christmas present? We’ll name a star after you. You choose somebody, and we will name a star for that person, and we’ll put it in a book.” Friend, it’s too late. Jesus has already named every one of the billions and billions of stars. He is the preserver of creation. He guides it all.

When was the last time you were in awe of creation, such as the stars in the night sky?

How does it comfort you to be reminded that Jesus even knows and names every star in the sky? What does that tell you about His concern for you?

PRACTICE THIS

Plan a time soon to go out at night and look at the stars. Spend time reflecting on the fact that God knows each of them by name and His care for you is even greater than the stars.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Do We Deserve Eternal Life?

PRAY OVER THIS

Now David said, “Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” 2 Samuel 9:1

 

PONDER THIS

Mephibosheth was an enemy by birth; so are we. He was born into the wrong family—the household of Saul. Not only was Mephibosheth an enemy by birth, but Mephibosheth was also crippled by a fall, just as we have been. In the Garden of Eden, we were all spiritually and morally crippled. Mephibosheth could not arrive by himself. He had to be sought, and he had to brought. So do we. Not only that, but Mephibosheth was living in exile. He was meant to be a king. He was meant to reign, but he’d lost his inheritance. So were we meant to be kings or queens; we were meant to reign. God made man to have dominion, but we’ve been living in exile. We’ve been living in a place of no pasture. We’ve been living in the backside of nowhere. Mephibosheth was under the sentence of death. He deserved death—so do I. So do you.

Mephibosheth said, “Who am I, that you should look upon such a dead dog as I am?” He didn’t have a chance, according to the rules of this world. But there was one place he was wrong. He thought David was his enemy when David was his friend. And there you have a picture of every man, every woman, every boy, and every girl outside of Christ—deformed, dethroned, doomed, and deceived.

How can you see your own spiritual state in the life of Mephibosheth?

How does the account of David and Mephibosheth give us a picture of God’s loving-kindness toward us?

PRACTICE THIS

Write out the ways you have been like Mephibosheth spiritually. Write out specifics from your own life. Consider the ways God has met you in your brokenness when you had no chance on your own.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Have You Learned to Die?

PRAY OVER THIS

“Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.”

Romans 7:4

 

PONDER THIS

Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die, isn’t that right? But you have to go through something to get to something. You have to go through death to get to Heaven, and you have to go through death to yourself to get to the victorious life. The reason so many of us are not filled with the Spirit is, very frankly, we’re so stuffed full of ourselves that there’s not room for the Spirit. We have to come to the end of ourselves and learn to die so we can start living. To think this way is not being morbid, it is being joyful, because Jesus didn’t say, “I have come that you might have death,” but, "I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly.” (See John 10:10.) But we won’t receive this life until we’re sick and tired of our old life. Not until we say, “Yes, Jesus, because you died, I died with you. And thank God, when you rose, I rose with you.”

What does it mean to die to yourself?

What does this look like in your life? What are some specific things God is calling you to die to today?

PRACTICE THIS

Make a list of ways you sense God calling you to die to yourself. Ask Him for the ability to put those things off to live more fully for Him.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Soul Path

Ecclesiastes 12:7

[7] and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Your earthly body will die!

It will rot and go back to dust.

But the essence of you is your eternal spirit or soul.

It's not your brain, it's something far more complex.

The rules of space, time, gravity etc will not apply. 

God created your soul to be eternal.

Will you bow before the throne of Jesus for mercy?

Luke 23:46

[46] Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

Acts 7:59

[59] And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

Genesis 3:19

    [19] By the sweat of your face

        you shall eat bread,

    till you return to the ground,

        for out of it you were taken;

    for you are dust,

        and to dust you shall return.”

Job 34:14-15

    [14] If he should set his heart to it

        and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, 

    [15] all flesh would perish together,

        and man would return to dust.

Genesis 2:7

[7] then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Numbers 27:16

[16] “Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation

Numbers 16:22

[22] And they fell on their faces and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation?”

Jesus Knows His Sheep

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them.” (John 10:27)

Jesus knows those who are his. What is this knowledge?

John 10:3 is a close parallel to John 10:27. It says, “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”

So, when Jesus says, “I know them,” this means at least that he knows them by name; that is, he knows them individually and intimately. They are not anonymous, lost in the flock.

John 10:14–15 provides another insight: “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.”

There is a real similarity between the way Jesus knows his Father in heaven and the way he knows his sheep. Jesus sees himself in the Father, and he sees himself in his disciples.

To some degree Jesus recognizes his own character in his disciples. He sees his own brand mark on the sheep. This endears them to him.

He is like a husband waiting for his wife at the airport, watching as each person disembarks from the plane. When she appears, he knows her, he recognizes her features, he sees in her eyes a happy reflection of his own love. He delights in her. She is the only one he embraces.

The apostle Paul puts it like this: “God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are his’” (2 Timothy 2:19).

It is hard to overemphasize what a tremendous privilege it is to be known personally, intimately, lovingly by the Son of God. It is a precious gift to all his sheep, and it contains within it profound, personal fellowship and affection and the promise of eternal life.

John Piper 

How to Hate Your Life

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (John 12:24–25)

“Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” What does that mean?

It means, at least, that you don’t take much thought for your life in this world. In other words, it just doesn’t matter much what happens to your life in this world.

If men speak well of you, it doesn’t matter much.

If they hate you, it doesn’t matter much.

If you have a lot of things, it doesn’t matter much.

If you have little, it doesn’t matter much.

If you are persecuted or lied about, it doesn’t matter much.

If you are famous or unheard of, it doesn’t matter much.

If you have died with Christ, these things just don’t matter much.

But Jesus’s words are even more radical. Jesus is calling us not just to endure experiences we don’t choose, but to make a choice to follow him. “If anyone serves me, he must follow me” (John 12:26). Where to? He is moving into Gethsemane and toward the cross.

Jesus is not just saying: If things go bad, don’t fret, since you have died with me anyway. He is saying: Choose to die with me. Choose to hate your life in this world the way I have chosen the cross.

This is what Jesus meant when he said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). He calls us to choose the cross. People only did one thing on a cross. They died on it. “Take up your cross,” means, “Like a grain of wheat, fall into the ground and die.” Choose it.

But why? For the sake of radical commitment to ministry: “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). I think I hear Paul saying, “It doesn’t matter what happens to me — if I can just live to the glory of God’s grace.”

John Piper 

The Day Is at Hand

The night is far gone; the day is at hand. (Romans 13:12)

This is a word of hope to suffering Christians. It’s a word of hope to Christians who hate their own sin and long to be done with sinning. It’s a word of hope to Christians who long for the last enemy Death to be overcome and thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14).

How is it a word of hope for all these?

“The night” stands for this age of darkness and all its sin and misery and death. And what does Paul say about it? “The night is far gone.” The age of sin and misery and death is almost spent. The day of righteousness and peace and total joy is dawning.

You might say, “2,000 years seems like a long dawn.” From one standpoint it is. And we cry, How long, O Lord, how long will you let it go on? But the biblical way to think goes beyond this lament of “How long!” It looks at world history differently.

The key difference is that the “day” — the new age of the Messiah — has really dawned in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the end of this fallen age. That is, the end of this fallen age has, as it were, broken in to this world. Jesus defeated sin and pain and death and Satan when he died and rose again. The decisive battle of the ages is over. The kingdom has come. Eternal life has come.

And when dawn happens — as it did in the coming of Jesus — no one should doubt the coming of day. Not even if the dawn draws out 2,000 years. As Peter says in 2 Peter 3:8, “Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” The dawn has come. The day has arrived. Nothing can stop the rising of the sun to full day.

John Piper 

What Moves You to Minister?

For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:8)

Faith has an insatiable appetite for experiencing as much of God’s grace as possible. Therefore, faith presses toward the river where God’s grace flows most freely, namely, the river of love.

What other force will move us out of our contented living rooms to take upon ourselves the inconveniences and suffering that love requires?

What will propel us . . .

to greet strangers when we feel shy?

to go to an enemy and plead for reconciliation when we feel indignant?

to tithe when we’ve never tried it?

to speak to our colleagues about Christ when we are timid?

to invite new neighbors to a Bible study?

to cross cultures with the gospel?

to create a new ministry for alcoholics?

to spend an evening driving a van?

to invest a morning praying for renewal?

None of these costly acts of love just happens. They are impelled by a new appetite — the appetite of faith for the fullest experience of God’s grace. We want more of God. And we want this more than we want our private, disturbance-free security and comfort.

Faith loves to rely on God and see him work miracles in us. Therefore, faith pushes us into the current where the power of God’s future grace flows most freely — the current of love.

I think this is what Paul meant when he said that we should sow to the Spirit (Galatians 6:8). By faith, we should put the seeds of our energy in the furrows where we know the Spirit is at work to bear fruit — the furrows of love.

John Piper 

Are You Spiritually Dead?

BIBLE MEDITATION

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord” Romans 6:23

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

When the Bible says “the wages of sin is death,” it’s not talking primarily about physical death but spiritual death. You see, death means separation. Sin separated us from God. Remember, God told Adam in the Garden of Eden that if he were to disobey, “you will surely die.” Well, Adam disobeyed God, but did he die that day? Not physically. He and Eve went on to live for hundreds of years.

Adam and Eve died that day spiritually. Spiritual death is the separation of the soul from God. To cover Adam and Eve, God had to kill and animal and provide it skin for a covering for them—a foreshadowing of the atoning death of Jesus on the cross.

If you are a child of God and this moment were to have a stroke or heart attack, and a doctor were to say, “I’m sorry, he/she is dead,” the doctor would be “dead” wrong! You'd never be more alive!

Physical death is the separation of the soul from the body; spiritual death is the separation of the spirit from God. I can never die in that sense, because I can never be separated from God. Neither can you. Paul said there is nothing that can “separate us [the child of God, the Christian] from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38).

ACTION POINT

A lot of “dead” people will go to work tomorrow. They have existence, but they don't have life. But if you know Christ, you have life and will never die. “He who has the Son has life; and he who has not the Son of God has not life” (1 John 5:12). Accept His offer of eternal life today. Salvation is a gift, but you must accept it.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

With Jesus, You Too Will Live!

BIBLE MEDITATION

“And whosoever lives and believes in Me will never die…” John 11:26

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

I heard a story about a boy who was dying on a battlefield. The chaplain was there, cradling this boy's head tenderly in his hands. The boy looked up and said, “Chaplain, am I going to live?” The chaplain looked down at his grievous wound and saw his life’s blood ebbing out. He knew that in just a matter of minutes the boy would be dead. He said to him, “Son, are you a Christian?” The boy gave a weak smile and said, “Sir, the happiest day in my life was when I gave my heart to Jesus Christ. Yes, I'm a Christian.” The chaplain said, “Then, son, you'll live!” And indeed, he will!

ACTION POINT

“And this is life eternal, that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent” (John 17:3). Life is short, death is sure, sin is the cause, and Christ is the cure. Do you know Jesus, whom God has sent? Believe in Him. Trust in Him for your salvation. Then you too will live!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers