Thursday, March 27, 2014

Jesus Saves the Best for Last

BIBLE MEDITATION:
But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet I show unto you a more excellent way.” 1 Corinthians 12:31

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Satan always gives the best first and the worst last. For example, Proverbs 20:17 says, “The bread of deceit is sweet, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.”  With Satan, it always starts sweet, but it does not end that way. 

Satan is a counterfeiter and a deceiver, and he is guilty of false advertising. He doesn’t show the drunkard in the gutter covered with flies. He doesn’t show the addict shaking uncontrollably from another night of detox. He doesn’t show the ruined lives from sexually transmitted diseases. He always gives the best first and the worst last. Jesus gives the best last.

ACTION POINT:
Lord. Then ask God to teach you from what happened.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Easter Card


Today, in the mail, I received an Easter card. It was from my oldest brother's wife. My brother died a year ago from cancer. The card was a sweet reminder of " My grace is sufficient". She has been through a lot but still praises God in the loudest voice and with her whole heart! Her joy has not been stolen by that thing we call death or by watching her husband die a little each day. Just a few years ago their son was killed, by accident or murder, we know not, but God knows! She is grounded in the knowledge that through all things we glorify God! I have seen many miracles, ones we think we understand but probably don't and others we just simply accept as such and stand in awe at the power of all mighty God! We are truly weak and feeble as we face the cares of this world! Only through knowing the power of God and by His grace do we stand! 
It is so true, "But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
2 Corinthians 12:9
Are you resting in Christ today?
Turn from sin, be obedient to Christ! 
This is for me as well as you!
God forgive me a sinner!
Lord, help us see the opportunities You give everyday. Let us count Your blessings everyday! Amen



Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Free from Your Critics!

BIBLE MEDITATION:
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
God loves you so much that Jesus Christ hung in agony and blood for you. 

You are precious to God. You are the object of God’s love. The blood of Jesus Christ was poured out on Calvary for you. Friend, if you know all that, then you can stand up against any criticism. It won’t bother you what others say about you. The cross sets you free. He who died for you now lives in you. He gave Himself for you that He might give Himself to you. When Jesus Christ died for you, He didn’t just take away your sins, He took away your self. You are crucified. So who can harm a dead man?

ACTION POINT:
Have you felt the sting of criticism this week? Remove the stinger and bathe the wound with the balm of Jesus’ love. Give your critic to the Lord. Then ask God to teach you from what happened.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Love, Not Nails, Held Him to the Cross

BIBLE MEDITATION:
I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.” John 10:11

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Did you know that there has only been one person who ever chose to die? Only one. 

Oh, you say, suicide pilots choose to die. Other people choose to die. People who die by their own hand choose to die. People who give themselves for others choose to die. 

No one has ever chosen to die but Jesus, because He was the only one who didn’t have to die. Some people may just choose to die a little sooner, but nobody has chosen to die except One. 

It wasn’t nails that held Him to the tree. It was the silver cords of love and the golden bonds of redemption that held Jesus Christ to that cross.

ACTION POINT:
The fact that no one has ever chosen to die but Jesus may be a new concept to you. If so, it is probably new as well to someone else. Share it with someone today!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Monday, March 24, 2014

The Incomparable Word of God

BIBLE MEDITATION:
“For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:  But the Word of the Lord endureth for ever.” 1 Peter 1:24-25

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
The Bible is the incontestable, incorruptible, indestructible, and indispensable Word of God. No one can argue with it. Nothing can corrupt it. Nothing can destroy it. Nothing can replace it as the source and wellspring of life. 

The late Dr. Robert G. Lee, a great preacher of the last generation, said this about the Bible:

“All of its enemies have not torn one hole in its holy vesture, or stolen one flower from its wonderful garden, nor diluted one drop of honey from its abundant hive, nor broken one string of its thousand-stringed harp, nor drowned one sweet word in infidel ink.”

ACTION POINT:
Tell God how much your life has changed because of His Word. Meet together with a group of friends or your family and discuss the ways God has ministered to you through His Word.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Sunday, March 23, 2014

What The Blood Of Christ Will Do

Convict You!
Teach You!
Transform You!
Deliver You!
Cause You To Repent!
Save You!
Restore You!
Forgive You!
Redeem You!
Judge You!


I am sure others will be able to add their own praise to this sentence! 
I would have it no other way, for the death and resurrection of Christ holds everything to him who will believe, confess their sin, repent and obey God's will!
I did not say you would be in a state of perfection, rather you will begin a journey of being molded to the likeness of Christ!
You will have failures as you struggle between the spiritual and the pull of the wicked world.
Upon the death of Christ, he began to draw all people!

John 12:32
And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."

Romans 6:1-4, 23
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.

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

Romans 7:
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Romans 8:
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.
8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"
16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, then heirs-heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?
25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.
34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died-more than that, who was raised-who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
36 As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." 
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What a gift we have in Christ!
Don't ignore this great salvation!
Ask for forgiveness!
Repent!
For as sure as we live and breathe, death will come!
You and I will be judged!
Our eternity depends on our response to Christ!
There is no other way to peace except through Christ!


Hebrews 9:27-28
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
28 so 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.

1 Timothy 2:5-7
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
7 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

1 John 1:
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Hebrews 9:11-20
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation)
12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh,
14 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.
15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
16 For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.
17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.
18 Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.
19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
20 saying, "This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you."

Lord, You alone will melt a hard heart! So many lost searching for something! Lord, open hearts to Your word! Amen

Playing on the Offense


BIBLE MEDITATION:
“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Do you know what’s wrong with many of us? We’re trying to get out of trouble rather than get into righteousness. 

We’re so focused on the defensive side of Christianity that we forget about the offensive, positive approach. 

Wouldn’t you like to get up and stay up? Wouldn’t you like to experience the abundant life our Lord talks about? Jesus came to give us the eternal life. He came to give us the abundant life. We need to do like the old song says, “Accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative.”

ACTION POINT:
Why don’t you determine today that you are going to get right with God and stay right with God? That you’re going to take steps to lead a life of obedience.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers