Tuesday, June 3, 2014

“Why Doesn't God Obliterate Evil?


BIBLE MEDITATION:
“Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine.” 1 Chronicles 29:11

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Have you ever wondered why God doesn’t obliterate the devil and eradicate all sin? If God destroyed evil, God would destroy every opportunity for choice. And if God were to destroy every opportunity for choice, then God would destroy every opportunity for love. Therefore, God would destroy the highest good. For God to destroy evil would be evil.

God doesn’t destroy evil, instead God defeats evil. How? Calvary and the resurrection! God turns every hurt into a hallelujah. Every defeat into victory!

ACTION POINT:
Spend some time today thinking about heaven and the glorious reunion you’re going to have with Him one day.


 LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Monday, June 2, 2014

Blessed before God


Psalm 84
1 How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts! 
2 My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. 
3 Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God. 
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! Selah 
5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. 
6 As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. 
7 They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion. 
8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah 
9 Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed! 
10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. 
11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. 
12 O LORD of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you! 

for the Psalmist Then...
It was a blessing to work in the temple. 
He longed to be in God’s presence.
Where the humble find a home.
Where the restless find a refuge. 
He loved to sing God’s praise.
God is the covenant keeping Lord.
God is the commander of heavenly hosts.
God is the living God.
God is my King.
God is my God.
God is the only God.
God is the faithful God.
God is a source of life and light to His people.
God is a shield of protection and provision for His people. 
God showers His grace upon His people.
God shares His glory with His people.
God shows His goodness to His people.
It was a blessing to journey to the temple.
Hope in God brought strength amidst weakness. 
Hope in God brought joy amidst weeping.
It was a blessing to trust in God.
for The Christian Now...
It is a blessing to be the temple.
It is a blessing to journey to heaven. 
It is a blessing to trust in Christ.
Then, the psalmist prayed for God’s favor on an earthly king.
Now, the Christian enjoys God’s favor through our eternal King.

Thanks Pastor David!

The Longing For The New Normal

Psalm 85
1 LORD, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob. 
2 You forgave the iniquity of your people; you covered all their sin. Selah 
3 You withdrew all your wrath; you turned from your hot anger. 
4 Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us! 
5 Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? 
6 Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? 
7 Show us your steadfast love, O LORD, and grant us your salvation. 
8 Let me hear what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly. 
9 Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. 
10 Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other. 
11 Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky. 
12 Yes, the LORD will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase. 
13 Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps a way. 

There are places in Scripture that give us a sense of comfort and contentment with normality.
But then there are also places in Scripture (Psalm 85) that exhort us to a kind of holy discontent with the way things are, with the normal rhythms of life in a fallen world.
Wouldn’t it be nice if it was just one or the other? Wouldn’t that simplify our expectations?
This Psalm is meant to cultivate in us a longing for a new normal—a longing for the inbreaking of God’s mercy and power
in our lives, in the church, and in the world.
Recall (1-3)
When Israel falls into unbelief and idolatry, often that is linked with forgetting the displays of the saving power of God in
their midst.
We often pray like Deists, as though God had a policy of non-interference with the world as it is.
The Old Testament is theology in action. God works, speaks, feeds, subdues, lifts up, brings down, leads, loves, saves!
Pray (4-7)
In one sense the ultimate judgment is for a sovereign God to refuse
to overcome that which is most normal about life here – namely global idolatry and personal idolatry.
The Psalmist doesn’t merely say, “Help us to turn.” It pleads with
God to do something more: “Turn us, bring us back, restore us!”
God revives his Church by revealing himself afresh. He “shows us”
his steadfast love.
This passage and its faith-filled prayer for a new normal, is a kind
of rebuke: If you don’t believe personal, societal, national, even global revival is possible, you have forgotten the power of God.
Trust and Obey (8-13)
Whatever this reviving work of God is – it’s not something that
renders the believer passive.
If we don’t pray for things that might set us up for disappointment
we’re not doing it right.
We are not called to merely pray safe, self-protecting, face-saving
(“realistic”) prayers.
We are to pray and hope as though God has options!

Thanks Matt!

A Plea For Justice

Psalm 82
1 God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: 
2 "How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah 
3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. 
4 Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." 
5 They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. 
6 I said, "You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; 
7 nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince." 
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations! 

Who God is...
He is the sovereign King over all. 
He is the good Judge of all.
He is the merciful Savior for all.
What We Do...
We plead for God’s justice to reign.
We anticipate God’s kingdom to come. 
We spread God’s salvation to the needy.
How We pray...
for the poor...
Pray for provision of food for the hungry and clean, safe drinking water for the thirsty. 
Pray for medical provision for children and adults suffering and dying of
preventable diseases.
Pray for refugees who have been separated from their homes due to natural
and moral disasters.
Pray for the church to give generously, sacrificially, and cheerfully to the poor.
for the orphan...
Pray for children and their parents in the foster care system.
Pray for children and their caregivers in orphanages.
Pray for foster care and adoptive families.
Pray for the church to show the love of the Father in heaven to the fatherless on earth.
for the enslaved...
Pray for victims...
For their strength and salvation
For their protection, freedom, and justice 
For their hope and healing
Pray for traffickers and customers...
For conviction, repentance, and salvation 
For criminal networks to be dismantled
For oppressors to be arrested and punished
l Pray for governments...
For corruption to cease
For implementation of just legislation 
For discernment in forming alliances
Pray for the church...
To awaken to this issue and to unite against injustice 
For advocates and laborers to emerge
To flee sexual immorality
for the persecuted...
Pray for persecuted believers...
That they would hold fast to the hope God gives
That they would know the depth of God’s love for them
That the Holy Spirit will strengthen them and their families 
For their boldness in sharing the gospel amidst persecution
Pray for persecutors...
That they would see Christ in the saints they are persecuting and be saved 
That they would be brought to justice
for the unreached...
For more laborers to go to them.
For open doors to share with them. 
For receptive hearts among them. 
For eternal salvation to come to them.

Thanks Pastor David!

The Choice

Did God the Father commanded Christ to the cross or did He go of His own free will? Well let's look at what the bible says!

Matt.26:
38 Then he said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me."
39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will."

Matt.26:
53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?
54 But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?"

John 12:
27 "Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.
28 Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven: "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again."
29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him."
30 Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not mine.
31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.
32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."


Heb.5:
7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.
8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.
9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,
10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

John 5:
30 "I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.
32 There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true.
33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.
34 Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.
35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.
37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen,
38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.
39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
41 I do not receive glory from people.
42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.
43 I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.
47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"

Phil.2:
8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
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.

Just as Christ had a choice and chose obedience to the Father, so do you! You can bow to your Lord God or you can live in rebellion and receive the eternal consequence! 

Heb.9:
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.

Romans 3:
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.




Praying from the Heart—Not on Auto-Pilot


BIBLE MEDITATION:
“But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.” Matthew 6:7

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
It was a very long, tiring day. I had preached three sermons and dictated a stack of letters. And at the close of each letter I ended it, “In Jesus’ name, Adrian Rogers.” 

A man came to me at the end of a service and said, “I must see you. I have a severe problem.” I was bone weary but I said, “Very well, come on back and let’s talk.” 

We talked and I listened. My heart was moved with compassion. I said, “Let me pray for you.” And when I finished I said, “In Jesus’ name, Adrian Rogers.” And then I thought, “Oh my! Did I say that? Did he hear me say that?” How easy we slip and rattle off our prayers.

ACTION POINT:
Do you find yourself using repetitive phrases in your prayer life? Today, just talk with God. Don’t think too much about your words. Follow your heart.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Character—It’s An Inside Job


BIBLE MEDITATION:
“The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.” Proverbs 20:7

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
This world says if we could just arrange conditions where we never have any sorrow, pain, or hurts, then we could change men. If we can change conditions we can change character. But the Bible teaches just the opposite. 

The world puts the emphasis on condition—God puts the emphasis on character. Someone has well said you can’t purify the water by painting the pump. And yet that’s what we try to do. We think that if we can change the exterior or make conditions such that we never have any hurts, then we’re going to be okay. But, Jesus put the emphasis upon character. Upon what you are, not what you have.

ACTION POINT:
Is there someone in your life you admire? Someone who is a person of integrity? Praise God for His work in that person’s life and give him or her a word of encouragement.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers