THE CONFESSION OF MAN AND THE COMPASSION OF GOD

 Psalm 51

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 

2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 

3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 

4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. 

5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 

6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. 

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 

8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 

9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 

11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. 

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. 

14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. 

15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 

16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 

18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; 

19 then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar. 

• Sin is serious.

It is offensive.

Sin defies God.

Sin destroys man.

It is comprehensive.

It is pervasive.

Sin appears so subtly.

Sin harms so deeply.

Sin controls so quickly.

Sin devastates so painfully.

• God is gracious.

His cleansing is costly.

His forgiveness is free.

• Confession is the connection.

Confession involves honesty. m Confession involves humility.

• Restoration is the result.

God re-creates our heart.

God re-establishes our joy. m We walk with Him.

We witness to Him.

We worship Him

Thanks Pastor David!

Tempted, But Not Beyond What We Can Bear

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.” Psalm 103:14

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A factory mechanic builds a truck. He knows the chassis of that truck and knows the load it can carry. In the same way, God knows your frame and He knows the load you can carry. 

God is faithful; He will not allow you to be tempted above that which you are able. Nothing comes to you but that which comes through God. Even what Satan does, he can only do as God allows it. You can say, “The temptation was so strong I couldn’t overcome it,” but it won’t be true. God will provide a way of escape.

ACTION POINT:

When you are tempted today (notice I didn’t say “if” but “when”), ask God to provide a way of escape. Then trust His way and obey.

 LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Dealing With Doubt in the Midst of Trials

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

When something bad happens to us, we may respond with, “What did I do? I must have done something terrible.” Then we proceed down the trail of morbid introspection or what I call “navel gazing.” We look down and into ourselves. We take ourselves apart piece by piece, examining and re-examining ourselves. Then we put ourselves back together trying to figure out what we did wrong. 

It may be that you have done absolutely nothing wrong, but God is simply testing your faith. If we don’t understand this, you see, we may get discouraged. 

The seeds of doubt and discouragement sprout in the soil of ignorance.

ACTION POINT:

Claim the promises of 1 Peter 1:3-9 for strength in the midst of your trial.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Are We Taking His Name in Vain?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy.” Isaiah 57:15

“Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain.” Exodus 20:7 

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

We all know that profanity is one way that you can take God’s name in vain, but I’ll tell you another way, and that’s in frivolous talk. That is, just taking the name of God carelessly or lightly.

Ephesians 5:4 mentions “foolish jesting.” What does that mean? God’s name is holy. We are never, ever to use His name unless we are serious. Now if you use humor to illustrate something, that’s fine, but it’s repugnant to use the Holy name of God frivolously.

ACTION POINT:

Begin the day by meditating on the holiness of God.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Forever Worship You

Ps.145:
1 I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. 
2 Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. 
3 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. 

Rev.4:
10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
11 "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." 

Lord, most holy, You have been, You are and You will be!
You sent Your precious Son to atone for the sinfulness of all mankind, whether they acknowledge You or ignore You has eternal consequence!

Romans 1:
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;
27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,
30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Romans 2:
6 He will render to each one according to his works:
7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life;
8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.
9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek,
10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.
11 For God shows no partiality.

Romans 3:
10 as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; 
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." 
20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Deut. 8:
19 And if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.
20 Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.

Ps.22:
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. 
28 For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations. 

John 4:
23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

Heb.7:

22 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.
23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office,
24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever.
25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.
28 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.

Rev.15:
Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed." 

Phil.2:
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.” Mark 11:22

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

I ask some Christians, “How are you doing?” They say, “Okay—under the circumstances.” How did you ever get there? 

Circumstances are like a mattress. You’re supposed to be on it, not under it. Under the circumstances, you suffocate; on them you rest pretty well. 

The only way you can run the race is to take your eyes off things or people around you and look to Jesus. He’s the author of the race. He’s the goal to which you run. If you look to Jesus to supply your every need for the race, you’ll find faith growing in your heart and in your life. You see, it’s not great faith in God; it is faith in a great God.

ACTION POINT:

Do you have a hymnal in your home? Find the hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” by Helen Lemmel and make it your anthem today!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Strengthening Your Wings

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“How that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.”  2 Corinthians 8:2

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A man watched a butterfly trying to emerge from a cocoon. Thinking that he would help, the man took his penknife and slit the side of the cocoon, and the butterfly flopped out. It lay there for a while, feebly beating its wings, then collapsed and died. 

“How tragic,” you say, and you are right, because God had a plan for that butterfly. The struggle to break free built the strength he would need to fly. God doesn’t want you to live weakly and die feebly. He wants you to grow and mature.

ACTION POINT:

Find the wings in your trial today. Strengthen them by the promises in God’s Word. Venture on new heights of freedom in Christ today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers