Your Salvation Began with God

“Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ.” JUDE 1:1

 

PONDER THIS

What reason do we have for security? We have been called according to God’s sovereign purpose. The word sovereign means “the decree of a king, a ruler against whom there is no rising up.” God has a purpose that is seen in that God called you. The word called here does not mean call like, I call Paul, and I say, “Hi Paul, come over here.” No, the word called means “an official summons.” You see, your salvation did not begin with you. It began with God. If it began with you, you might lose it, but since it began with God, you can never lose it. The Bible says God is able to finish what He began, and He called you. Had he not called us, none of us would have been here. We must remember that we love him because He first loved us.

How does it encourage you to remember that God has called you?

How does that give you the confidence to pursue the will of God each day?

PRACTICE THIS

Make a list of things you know God has called you to do. Pick one of these to do right now.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

God Wants Your Heart

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” MATTHEW 6:21

 

PONDER THIS

If you want financial freedom and the windows of Heaven to open, you must return to God. It is not your money that God wants. It is you that God wants. God needs nothing. In Psalm 50:12, God says, “If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is Mine, and all its fullness.” God loves you. It is not what you have that God wants. God wants you. God says, “Return to Me…and I will return to you” (Zechariah 1:3). If you give your money without giving yourself, remember the adage, “The gift without the giver is bare.” If you think God is trying to somehow get more money out of you, you are so wrong. In today’s verse, Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” God calls you to give your money because it reveals the truth about your heart.

What connection have you noticed between your own heart and how you spend your money?

Is there anything God is calling you to change regarding how you spend and/or give your money?

PRACTICE THIS

Make steps today toward any financial changes God is calling you to make.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

At the Bottom of It All

In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. (Ephesians 1:4–5)

The experience of Charles Spurgeon is not beyond the ability of any ordinary Christian.

Spurgeon, who lived from 1834 to 1892, was a contemporary and friend of George Mueller and Hudson Taylor. He served the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London for over thirty years as the most famous pastor of his day.

His preaching was so powerful that people were converted to Christ every week. His sermons are still in print today and he is held up by many as a model soul winner.

He recalls an experience when he was sixteen that shaped his life and ministry for the rest of his days.

When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this.

I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths [the doctrines of sovereign, overcoming grace] in my own soul — when they were, as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron, and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown, on a sudden, from a babe into a man — that I had made progress in Scriptural knowledge, through having found, once for all, that clue to the truth of God.

One weeknight, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher’s sermon, for I did not believe it.

The thought struck me, How did you come to be a Christian? I sought the Lord. But how did you come to seek the Lord? The truth flashed across my mind in a moment — I should not have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so?

Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, “I ascribe my change wholly to God.”

What about you? Do you ascribe your conversion wholly to God? Is he the bottom of it all? Does this cause you to praise the glory of his sovereign, overcoming grace?

John Piper 

 

Jesus Comes Looking for You

“So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.” LUKE 24:15

 

PONDER THIS

Jesus met the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, and He challenged them with the Word of God. It’s important to note that Jesus sought them. “So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near.” And He’s done that so many times for you and me. Jesus did not seek them to condemn them or even to condone them, but to claim them and to comfort them. And just as the Lord Jesus sought us when we were lost—we didn’t seek Him; He sought us, and we love Him because He first loved us—so He sought these men. Now these men, evidently, were already believers, although they were backslidden and discouraged. If Jesus would seek us when we were outright sinners, surely, He will seek us when we’re saved and away from Him. At some point, every backslidden and confused Christian is met by Jesus in this way—not to be condemned or condoned, but to be comforted and claimed.

How has Jesus sought after you before you knew Him and after you came to know Him?

How has He called us to likewise seek after others who are far from Him?

PRACTICE THIS

Intentionally seek after someone who doesn’t know Jesus this week for the sake of having a Gospel conversation.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Ultimate Love Note

“There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.” ROMANS 3:11-12

 

PONDER THIS

Your salvation did not start with you; it started with God. This passage says clearly there's no one who seeks after God—not one person. You may object that you know plenty of people seeking after God. But the only reason they seek after God is because He first sought them.

When I was in the sixth grade, I looked over at a girl sitting about four desks and two rows over from me. Her name was Joyce Louise Gentry. Shelo's now Joyce Louise Rogers, but I saw her there in the sixth grade. I wrote a love note, and I walked by and dropped it by her desk. She first looked at me and wondered, “Who is this fellow?” But do you know why she loves me? Because I first loved her. The Bible is God's love note. It is God saying, “I love you, I desire to be your Lord, I desire to be your Savior.” You may thirst for God, but He made you thirsty for Him. God put that thirst in you, and the reason we thirst after God is because He is seeking us.

What was the first way you learned about the hope of Jesus? How have you grown since that time?

How have you recognized God’s pursuit of you over your life?

PRACTICE THIS

Extend love to those who are far from God; remind them of God’s love for them.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Clarity for the Road Ahead

“And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, ‘The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!’ Gideon said to Him, ‘O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, “Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?” But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.’ Then the Lord turned to him and said, ‘Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?’” JUDGES 6:12-14

 

PONDER THIS

Gideon was threshing wheat, hunkered down hiding away in a winepress, afraid of the Midianites, and God appeared to him. He had a vision of the Almighty. Gideon was living in defeat and fear until he took his eyes from the enemy and put his eyes on God.

You may say, “I wish God would speak to me as he spoke to Gideon through the angel of the Lord.” But you have something better than Gideon ever had. You have the Word of God, and you have the Holy Spirit of God living in you. It is a lie from the enemy that God is not speaking. God is speaking. Do you want to hear? Are you ready to listen to what God is saying? You will never have victory in your life, at home, in school, in business, in your neighborhood, in the Church, or in society until you get a vision of Almighty God. When we walk with Him and hear from Him, we see everything else more clearly.

When have you struggled with a path forward through a difficult time? Where did you turn for help?

What is your relationship with God like right now? Are you close enough to Him to hear Him speak?

PRACTICE THIS

Spend time with God in silence, listening for His voice and direction for your life.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

God Is Seeking You

PRAY OVER THIS

“But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.” Galatians 1:15-17

 

PONDER THIS

When Paul got saved, he wasn’t seeking Jesus, but Jesus was seeking him. You say, “I’m just seeking the Lord.” The only reason you are seeking the Lord is because He’s first sought you. Don’t get any idea that you just thought it up all by yourself.

Romans 3:11 says, “There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.” So then, why do we have this hunger? Why do we have this thirst for God? Because He gave it to us.

Let’s think about a natural thirst. We all get thirsty for liquid. Why do we get thirsty? Because God created us where we would have a thirst. Had God not created us to have thirst, we would never get thirsty. We wouldn’t just be walking down the street and say, “You know, I’d better get some liquid. I’m going to dehydrate.” No. God made us that way. That thirst in us is a gift of God, and the thirst for God that is in you is a gift of God. It pleased God to do this. The grace that saved you is also from the God who loves you and is seeking after you. When God came into the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve sinned, He asked, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9). That wasn’t the voice of a detective; that was the voice of a loving God. He is seeking you today.

When have you felt God seeking you?

How have you experienced a thirst for God in your life?

PRACTICE THIS

Take a walk and recall the times when God worked in your life and sought you. Praise Him for those moments and for His pursuit of you!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers