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 

Everything Will Be Set Right

“Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.” REVELATION 21:1

 

PONDER THIS

Take your Bible and read the first two chapters. You won’t find any devil there. Read the last two chapters of the Bible and you won’t find any devil there. Habakkuk 2:14 gives this promise, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” The reason that everything’s such a mess today is things are out of place. Think about it. The Church is the bride, but the bride belongs with the groom. We’re not yet with Him. Jesus is the King, and the King belongs on the throne. He’s not yet ruling. The devil is a criminal; he belongs in prison. He’s not yet there. But one day soon, the bride’s going to be with the Groom. One of these days the King’s going to be on the throne, and one of these days the devil’s going to be in prison. What a day that will be. That is the day we are to watch and hope for.

How does it shape your daily perspective to remember that Jesus has promised to return and rule forever?

What would you do differently today if you truly believed that?

PRACTICE THIS

Make a list of ways you might live differently if you truly believed Jesus could return soon. Take action to make changes to align with this list today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

From Glory to the Cross

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.” PHILIPPIANS 2:5-7

 

PONDER THIS

Jesus stepped out of Heaven and went from sovereignty to slavery. He humbled Himself. He became obedient. Satan, in contrast, in his pride said, “I will ascend. I will be like the Most High.” He thought, “I’m going up, up, up, up.” But God said, “No, you’re going down, down, down, down, down.” Jesus stepped out of glory and humbled Himself. It is for this reason the Bible says, “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow” (Philippians 2:9-10).

Many of us fight for reputation. Jesus laid aside His reputation. We like to talk about how we came from nothing to something. Every now and then, you’ll have an evangelist who will travel from place to place. Maybe God saved him in prison, and his message is, “From the Prison to the Pulpit.” I’m glad for that, but Jesus came from something and made Himself of no reputation for our sake.

How does it affect you to remember that Jesus made Himself nothing out of something for your sake?

How does this compare to the way you live daily and the goals you pursue for yourself?

PRACTICE THIS

Consider how you might practice humility this week and prayerfully take action in that regard.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Glory Is the Goal

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:2)

Seeing the glory of God is our ultimate hope. “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2). God will “present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” (Jude 24).

He will “make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory” (Romans 9:23). He “calls you into his own kingdom and glory” (1 Thessalonians 2:12). “Our blessed hope [is] the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

Jesus, in all his person and work, is the incarnation and ultimate revelation of the glory of God. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3). “Father, I desire that they . . . may be with me where I am, to see my glory” Jesus prays in John 17:24.

“So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed” (1 Peter 5:1). “The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).

“We impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory” (1 Corinthians 2:7). “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). “Those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:30).

Seeing and sharing in God’s glory is our ultimate hope through the gospel of Christ.

Such a hope, that is really known and treasured, has a huge and decisive effect on our present values and choices and actions.

Get to know the glory of God. Study the glory of God and the glory of Christ. Study the glory of the world that reveals the glory of God, and the glory of the gospel that reveals the glory of Christ.

Treasure the glory of God in all things and above all things.

Study your soul. Know the glory you are seduced by, and know why you treasure glories that are not God’s glory.

Study your own soul to know how to make the glories of the world collapse like the pagan idol Dagon in 1 Samuel 5:4. Let all glories that distract you from the glory of God shatter in pitiful pieces on the floor of the world’s temples. Treasure the glory of God above all this world.

John Piper

God’s Design in Detours

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17)

Have you ever wondered what God is doing while you are looking in the wrong place for something you lost and needed very badly? He knows exactly where it is, and yet he is letting you look in the wrong place.

I once needed a quote for a new edition of my book Desiring God. I knew I had read it in Richard Wurmbrand. I thought it was in his devotional book, Reaching Toward the Heights. I could almost see it on the right hand side of the facing pages. But I couldn’t find it.

But while I was looking, I was riveted on his devotional for November 30. As I read it, I said, “This is why the Lord let me keep looking for my quote in the ‘wrong’ place.” Here was a story that illustrated perfectly that nothing is wasted that we do in the name of Jesus — nothing, not even looking for a quote in the wrong place. Here’s what I read:

In a home for retarded children, Catherine was nurtured twenty years. The child had been [mentally handicapped] from the beginning, and had never spoken a word, but only vegetated. She either gazed quietly at the walls or made distorted movements. To eat, to drink, to sleep, were her whole life. She seemed not to participate at all in what happened around her. A leg had to be amputated. The staff wished Cathy well and hoped that the Lord would soon take her to Himself.

One day the doctor called the director to come quickly. Catherine was dying. When both entered the room, they could not believe their senses. Catherine was singing Christian hymns she had heard and had picked up, just those suitable for death beds. She repeated over and over again the German song, “Where does the soul find its fatherland, its rest?” She sang for half an hour with transfigured face, then she passed away quietly. (Taken from The Best Is Still to Come, Wuppertal: Sonne und Shild)

Is anything that is done in the name of Christ really wasted?

My frustrated, futile search for what I thought I needed was not wasted. Singing to this disabled child was not wasted. And your agonizing, unplanned detour is not a waste — not if you look to the Lord for his unexpected work, and do everything in his name (Colossians 3:17).

John Piper 

We Will Rule All Things

“The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.” (Revelation 3:21)

What does Jesus mean when he says this to the church in Laodicea?

Sit with Jesus on his throne? Really?

This is a promise to everyone who conquers, that is, who presses on in faith to the end (1 John 5:4), in spite of every threatening pain and luring, sinful pleasure. So if you are a true believer in Jesus, you will sit on the throne of the Son of God who sits on the throne of God the Father.

I take “throne of God” to signify the right and authority to rule the universe. That’s where Jesus sits. “He must reign,” Paul said, “until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25). So when Jesus says, “I will grant him to sit with me on my throne,” he promises us a share in the rule of all things.

Is this what Paul has in mind in Ephesians 1:22–23? “He put all things under [Christ’s] feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”

We, the church, are “the fullness of him who fills all.” What does that mean? I take it to mean that the universe will be filled with the glory of the Lord (Numbers 14:21). And one dimension of that glory will be the complete and unopposed extension of his rule everywhere.

Therefore, Ephesians 1:23 would mean: Jesus fills the universe with his own glorious rule through us. Sharing in his rule, we are the fullness of his rule. We rule on his behalf, by his power, under his authority. In that sense, we sit with him on his throne.

None of us feels this as we should. It is too much — too good, too amazing. That’s why Paul prays for God’s help that “the eyes of your hearts [would be] enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you” (Ephesians 1:18).

Without omnipotent help now, we cannot feel the wonder of what we are destined to become. But if we are granted to feel it, as it really is, all our emotional reactions to this world will change. The strange and radical commands of the New Testament will not be as strange as they once seemed.

John Piper 

Christ Is Like Sunlight

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. (Hebrews 1:3)

Jesus relates to God the way radiance relates to glory, or the way the rays of sunlight relate to the sun.

Keep in mind that every analogy between God and natural things is imperfect and will distort if you press it. Nevertheless, consider for example,

There is no time that the sun exists without the beams of radiance. They cannot be separated. The radiance is co-eternal with the glory. Christ is co-eternal with God the Father.

The radiance is the glory radiating out. It is not essentially different from the glory. Christ is God standing forth as separate but not essentially different from the Father.

Thus the radiance is eternally begotten, as it were, by the glory — not created or made. If you put a solar-activated calculator in the sunlight, numbers appear on the face of the calculator. These, you could say, are created or made by the sun, but they are not what the sun is. But the rays of the sun are an extension of the sun. So Christ is eternally begotten of the Father, but not made or created.

We see the sun by means of seeing the rays of the sun. So we see God the Father by seeing Jesus. The rays of the sun arrive here about eight minutes after they leave the sun, and the round ball of fire that we see in the sky is the image — the exact representation — of the sun; not because it is a painting of the sun, but because it is the sun streaming forth in its radiance.

So I commend this great Person to you that you might trust in him and love him and worship him. He is alive and sitting at the right hand of God with all power and authority and will one day come in great glory. He has that exalted place because he is himself God the Son, “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.”

John Piper 

Reflect the Glory of God Through Your Family

PRAY OVER THIS

“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.’” Deuteronomy 6:5-7

 

PONDER THIS

Marriage was made for communication. Adam said this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. If you take that passage and go all the way to Ephesians 5, you’ll find out that the Bible also uses that as an analogy for Christ and the church. A husband and his wife are to communicate a principle. They are to be a picture of the Church and the Lord Jesus Christ. Did you know the greatest sermons preached on Earth are not necessarily preached from pulpits, but from homes like yours? The greatest testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ is a Christian home. Christianity in the Early Church went from house to house. That does not mean somebody went down a street knocking on every door. What that means is our homes are to give praise to Him. You see, it’s not your marriage; it’s His marriage. It’s not your home, it’s His home. They’re not your children; they belong to Him. Marriage is to communicate praise to our great God. Your home is to be the center of God’s glory.

How do you treat the people in your household? Does it reflect the heart of Jesus?

How can you grow in loving the people of your household and showing them who Jesus is?

PRACTICE THIS

Write out the hopes you have for your family and loved ones, then pray and surrender your desires for them, asking God to show them who He is.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Responding to the Glory of God

PRAY OVER THIS

“And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.’” Revelation 1:17

 

PONDER THIS

Sometimes we come into church and pray nonchalantly saying, “Lord, show up here today. Reveal to us Your glory and Your majesty.” Imagine if one day God answered that prayer and boom, the back door opened, and He came down that aisle in the same way John saw Him in Revelation. Imagine, His hair glistening, whiter than snow. His face with a Shekinah glory, brighter than the sun. His feet glowing as if in a furnace. He comes, and His voice is deafening. He’s wearing regal robes, and He begins to walk down the aisle. What would you do? Would you ask Him your biggest question or give Him a hug? You’d fall on your face before Him, would you not? That’s what John did.

When you truly see the Lord Jesus as He is, it will bring your full submission. The Apostle John fell before Him prostrate as an acknowledgment of His lordship. Have you surrendered everything to Jesus? When we truly see the glory of God, it will bring us to full submission, giving us reverence for Him and great assurance.

What are some things you struggle with putting under the full submission of God?

How does knowing who God is change the way we respond to Him?

PRACTICE THIS

Take some time to silently reflect and focus on the glory of God.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Failing to Give God Glory

PRAY OVER THIS

“Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31

 

PONDER THIS

Why did God make you? To know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him. If you’ve not known Him, loved Him, and served Him, you’ve been walking on God’s Earth, eating God’s food, using God’s sunshine, breathing God’s air, and not returning to God that which is His—glory.

Man’s basic problem is not that he’s a sinner because of what he has done. Man’s basic problem is what he has not done by failing to give God glory. Now, this may not seem as bad as other sins like murder or stealing, but sin isn’t always as it appears on the surface. Consider if you had to choose between a mountain of garbage and a teaspoonful of tasteless but deadly poison. One of those looks worse than the other, but the lesser of the two is more dangerous. The great sin is the sin of unbelief. It is the crowning sin, and it is proof of man’s wickedness.

How have you been guilty of taking credit for yourself instead of giving glory to God?

How does unbelief keep us from giving God glory?

PRACTICE THIS

Praise God today for all that He is doing in your life. Share your testimony of God’s faithfulness with someone you know struggles with unbelief.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Glory Is the Goal

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:2)

Seeing the glory of God is our ultimate hope. “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2). God will “present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” (Jude 24).

He will “make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory” (Romans 9:23). He “calls you into his own kingdom and glory” (1 Thessalonians 2:12). “Our blessed hope [is] the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

Jesus, in all his person and work, is the incarnation and ultimate revelation of the glory of God. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3). “Father, I desire that they . . . may be with me where I am, to see my glory” Jesus prays in John 17:24.

“So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed” (1 Peter 5:1). “The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).

“We impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory” (1 Corinthians 2:7). “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). “Those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:30).

Seeing and sharing in God’s glory is our ultimate hope through the gospel of Christ.

Such a hope, that is really known and treasured, has a huge and decisive effect on our present values and choices and actions.

Get to know the glory of God. Study the glory of God and the glory of Christ. Study the glory of the world that reveals the glory of God, and the glory of the gospel that reveals the glory of Christ.

Treasure the glory of God in all things and above all things.

Study your soul. Know the glory you are seduced by, and know why you treasure glories that are not God’s glory.

Study your own soul to know how to make the glories of the world collapse like the pagan idol Dagon in 1 Samuel 5:4. Let all glories that distract you from the glory of God shatter in pitiful pieces on the floor of the world’s temples. Treasure the glory of God above all this world.

John Piper 

The Day Jesus’ Inner Glory was Revealed

PRAY OVER THIS

“…and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.”

Matthew 17:2

 

PONDER THIS

What is a transfiguration? Well, the word transfigured is where we get our word metamorphosis. Do you know what a metamorphosis is? That’s what happens when an ugly caterpillar goes into the cocoon and then comes out a glorious butterfly. It goes through a metamorphosis or a change of form. Metamorphosis is a change that begins on the inside. That is, the butterfly is already in that caterpillar and it just comes to the surface.

The Bible says that Jesus’ face was like the sun and His clothes were shining white. There was a glorious Shekinah glory about the Lord Jesus. That glory had been in the Lord Jesus all the time. That wasn’t glory that shone upon Him. It was glory that shone out from Him. A metamorphosis is simply when the inner nature comes to the surface. The inner nature of Jesus was glory and is glory. Up until this moment, Jesus’ inner nature had been veiled by His flesh. But in this transfiguration, that inner glory came to the surface and was displayed on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Read 2 Corinthians 3:18. What does this verse tell you about the way you are being changed by Christ?

How difficult do you find it to believe you have the same Spirit that was in Jesus? What makes this hard to believe?

PRACTICE THIS

Look up a video of the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly. Reflect on how Christ is transforming you into His image each day.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers