Is the Choice You’re Making Questionable?

“… for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” - Romans 14:23

A man was in the back bedroom getting dressed. His wife was out in the living room talking with a friend. He yelled out, “Is this shirt clean enough for me to wear?” Without hesitation, she said “no” and went on talking.

After a while, he came out, buttoning up another shirt. He asked, “How did you know that shirt wasn’t clean without looking at it?” She said, “If you had to ask, it wasn't.”

So many times we wonder whether a course of action is right or wrong. We're not quite sure, so since we don't know absolutely that it’s wrong, we do it anyway. But if we think it may be wrong, we should leave it alone until we're sure that it's right.

The old adage “When in doubt, don’t” is often a good course to follow. When faced with a choice, ask: “Will this gladden the heart of God or grieve Him? Pray today: “Lord, I want my heart to be grieved by those things that grieve Your heart and be gladdened with the things that give You joy.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Train Up A Child

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A little boy was riding around and around the block. A man asked him, “What are you doing?”

“I’m running away from home,” he said.

“But you’re just going around and around the block,” said the man.

The little boy responded, “That’s because my mom won’t let me cross the street!”

Even in the earliest ages, there can be restraint in the heart of a child because of godly training by his or her parents. The only way I ever learned to play football was on the training field. The classroom wasn’t enough. Parents must provide training and education for the lessons of life to be ingrained in their children.

ACTION POINT:

Has God given you the divine responsibility of parenthood? Then spend some time this week training your child in one area of godly living.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Discovering His Will for Your Life

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.” Philippians 3:13

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Nehemiah was a man who knew how to get alone with God. He fasted, prayed, and wept; then God told him what to do.

Have you done that? Have you sacrificed and surrendered to the Lord to discover His will for your life? Or are you just putting yourself into neutral and letting life happen to you? Do you have a focus?

God has something that He wants you to do. You are special to God. Nehemiah said, “God had laid something on my heart.” If you’ll listen, God will lay something on your heart.

ACTION POINT:

Get alone with God. Discover what He wants from your life to do His will.

 LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Believing In the Living God

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which He hath testified of His Son.” 1 John 5:9

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

I’ve been asked, “Pastor Rogers, do you expect me to believe in Jesus Christ just because your book says that He lived? That’s not enough for me.”

I agree. You need something else. If you want to know who Jesus Christ is, ask the Holy Spirit.

God says, “If you want to believe, I will help you to understand and to know that these things are true.”

Don’t tell me that you cannot believe. You may refuse to believe, but I will tell you this. If you want to believe in Jesus Christ and if you seek Truth, God the Holy Spirit will speak to you and confirm to you that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Read Deuteronomy 4:29 — “But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find Him, if thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.”

ACTION POINT:

Do you want to know the living God? He is there if you seek Him with all your heart.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Rest of God's Story

Psalm 95

1 Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 

2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 

3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 

4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 

5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 

6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! 

7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, 

8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 

9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 

10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, "They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways." 

11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, "They shall not enter my rest." 

The Invitation — Give God Glory (Psalm 95:1-7a)

The object of worship

The expressions of worship 

The reasons for worship

The Exhortation — Reach God’s Rest (Psalm 95:7b-11)

The context

The commission 

The connection

The Application — Complete God’s Commission (Hebrews 3-4)

Receive God’s call to live out his mission. (Heb. 3:7-11) 

Exhort one another to participate in it. (Heb. 3:12-19) 

Seize your opportunity for rest right now. (Heb. 4:1-10) 

Trust God both to enable and to discipline. (Heb. 4:11-13)

Thanks Jim!

The Reign of God and The Hope of The Believer

Psalm 93

1 The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt. Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. 

2 Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting. 

3 The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring. 

4 Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the LORD on high is mighty! 

5 Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits your house, O LORD, forevermore. 

The Lord Reigns (v1-2)

The Bible’s message might be summarized like this: The God who is, reigns. 

The one who has ultimate sovereignty gets to be called God.

The floods Roar (v3)

The sovereignty of God is not a challenge for Christians to affirm when all is well. 

One of the primary reasons we sing the sovereignty of God and preach the sovereignty of God is because the truth that settles a heart in turmoil is the truth that our God reigns.

The Lord is Mightier (v4-5)

God is unfolding a story for His people – a story that moves from the wreckage of the Fall to the restoration of creation.

But how will He deliver us?

The answer has everything to do w/these “trustworthy decrees/testimonies” (V5) In the resurrection of Jesus, God vindicates the truthfulness of his promise (Ps. 89:19-37; 93:5) about a forever King!

So why the effusive outpouring of praise at the end? Psalms 146-150, it seems to me, are psalms that look to the end of history. The final cluster of psalms opens out onto a promise that transcends the boundaries of Israel’s history. Israel’s journey was a pilgrimage that awaited another chapter: the day when God would, as Psalm 2 promised, raise up Messiah. God’s people drafted the Psalter to sustain themselves in that hope. They knew that one day God and they would have the last laugh. Centuries later, the early believers of Acts 4 recognized that when God raised his Son from the dead, the time for laughter had come.

-Reggie Kidd, With One Voice, 44

Jesus Christ, the Son of David, has come and has mounted his throne!

All authority in heaven and on earth belongs to him! The Lord Jesus reigns!

The sovereignty of God is good news. Believe it. Take hope and encouragement from it.

Thanks Matt! 

The God Who Delivers From Fear

The Strength of the Deliverer

Psalm 91

1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 

2 I will say to the LORD, "My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." 

3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. 

4 He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. 

5 You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, 

6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. 

7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 

8 You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. 

9 Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place- the Most High, who is my refuge- 

10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. 

11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. 

12 On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. 

13 You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. 

14 "Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. 

15 When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. 

16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation." 

God confronts our greatest fears by letting us see how big He is.

This passage envisions comprehensive protection in a world full of fears, full of danger.

The People he delivers

The blessings of God’s covenant—including the protection promised in Psalm 91—come only to those who trust in God.

God has provided a Shelter for sinners: Jesus Christ. 

Sinners hide in Christ and are shielded from our greatest

fear—namely the just wrath of God.

Descriptions of God’s People in Verses 14-16 

They hold fast to God in love. (V14)

They know God’s name. (V14)

They call to God. (V15)

God is with them in trouble. (V15) 

They are rescued by God. (V15)

They are honored by God. (V15)

They are satisfied by God. (V16)

They are shown God’s salvation. (V16)

The Nature of deliverance

This protection doesn’t mean a trouble-free life.

“Abraham ... was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God... These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” (Hebrews 11:10, 13-16)

Your best life comes later, but it lasts forever.

This is your security amid the perils of this world. You are loved by God!

“You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.” (Luke 21:16-19)

Sometimes, in his mercy, God rescues us from suffering. l Sometimes, in his mercy, God rescues us in suffering.

In a little while, God will rescue us from all suffering.

[here are] two ways of saying, “Don’t be afraid.” One is as an edict to be obeyed, in which case it is a peculiar edict. It sounds like the king actually cares about us. He isn’t ordering us to make bricks without straw. Instead, it sound as if he wants his people to know peace. So, even when seen as an authoritative command, this reveals something lovely about God.... This is the most severe way to understand ‘Do not be afraid.’ Here is the other way: ‘[Jesus said], ]Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.’ (Luke 12:32).... No one inserts “little flock” into an inviolable command. No king talks about being “pleased” to give anything, let alone the kingdom itself, to his subjects. Jesus is invoking kingly imagery, indeed. But the One who sits on the throne is a Father, and that changes everything.” Ed Welch, Running Scared, 65

Jesus is the Shelter of the Most High, Jesus has conquered death, and Jesus will never leave us.

Thanks Matt!