Like Father, Like Son?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.” Isaiah 6:3

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Of all the reasons I can think of for living a holy life, one of the most important is for us to identify with God. He is the thrice-holy God of Israel. Holy is the Father, holy is the Son, and holy is the Spirit.

What does it mean to be identified with God’s character of holiness? Have you ever heard the expression “like father, like son”? That’s what it means to be identified with God.

I am a Rogers. My father’s name is Arden Duncan Rogers. I have become a partaker of his nature, and you would expect to find his characteristics in me because in the physical realm, he has fathered me.

Because we are God’s children, there ought to be His likeness in our lives and His likeness is holiness.

ACTION POINT:

In prayer today, ask the Lord to point out to you any area in your life that violates His holiness or is holding you back from reflecting His likeness.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

THE GOSPEL: OUR MESSAGE FOR THE WORLD

1 Corinthians 9:24-27
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.
25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.
27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Understanding the illustration...
• The competition is our global mission.
• The prize is the soul of the unreached.
• The effort is the sacrifice of our rights.

Applying the illustration...
• We give up our rights because this prize is exclusive. (1 Corinthians 9:24)
• We give up our rights because this prize is eternal. (1 Corinthians 9:25)
• We give up our rights because this prize is essential. (1 Corinthians 9:26-27) 
Thanks Pastor Jim!!!

THE GOSPEL: OUR NEW IDENTITY IN A FALLEN WORLD

1 Peter 2:9-12 
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

God changes people from the inside out, and then He turns us around and shows the world that Christian faith isn’t just talk. 

Gospel-Identity: You belong to God. (1 Peter 2:9-10)
• A major part of God’s program for shaping His
people is that He reminds us of who we are by His grace.
• The first thing our text says about every follower of Jesus is a thing of wonder: you’ve been chosen by God.
• In a sense, according to Peter, it’s not that all the priests are fired so much as it is that the rest of
us have been hired.
Gospel-Purpose: Let the world see it. (1 Peter 2:11-12)
• Gospel-identity informs gospel-purpose: - Chosen so you can proclaim
- Made holy so you can make known - Different to make a difference
• God uses the holy and honorable conduct of His people to silence the world’s skepticism and turn critics
into worshipers.
• Having been given new life/identity, this world immediately, for the Christian, starts to feel less and less
like home.
• My changed life is not itself the gospel. But
if the gospel doesn’t appear to change anything, who cares to listen? 

Thanks Matt!!

THE GOSPEL: OUR COMFORT IN A PAIN-FILLED WORLD

2 Corinthians 1:3-7 
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
5 For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.
7 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

Paul’s afflictions, his experience of God’s nearness in seasons of hardship, generated a ministry of comfort to suffering people. 

The Spring of Comfort: “God comforts us in all our affliction.” (1:3-4a)
• If you have experienced any degree of comfort in the face of trial or pain, you have experienced a direct encounter with God Himself.
• The relationship between God the Father and each of His children remains personal at His insistence.

The Streams of Comfort: “So that we may be able to comfort others.” (1:4-7)
• God apparently doesn’t want to reconcile the world while we sit idly by. He appeals through us!
• For all the things that have changed over the years, God has been faithful to keep this grace alive.
How do we lean into this as a church?
1. Cultivate a spirit of humility and of grace.
2. Steward the particular variety of pain you’ve
experienced.
3. Don’t assume that comfort can only come through
commonly held experiences.
4. Look for pain and be proactive.
5. [To the sufferer] We’re learning, so forgive us in advance for
being all thumbs.
• Every act of compassion, done in Christ’s name, is pointing to a deeper mercy that God offers to the world.
• The ultimate mercy from God is that, through faith
in Christ, we are no longer enemies of God, but His children, whom He will never leave or forsake. 

Thanks Matt!!!

Is Trusting God a Challenge for You?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.” Psalm 37:3

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

This word “trust” is an interesting word. Its root is from the word that means “to lie face down on the ground.” 

The idea is that a person is totally helpless. He has been cast down and has nothing to stand upon. Some would say his pins have gone out from underneath him. He has no visible means of support. 

That is the place where God wants to bring us—where we have no physical means of support and all we have is God.

As a matter of fact, did you know that God will sometimes knock your feet out from beneath you so that you might learn to trust Him? At that point, faith is no longer an option or a luxury; it is a necessity. To the world your situation looks hopeless, but that is right where God wants to show Himself powerful in your life.

ACTION POINT:

Is there an area in your life today for which you must trust God completely? Perhaps you need some “face time”. . .face down on the ground before the Lord. Bring that issue before Him in total surrender.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Single-mindedness

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance.” 1 Peter 1:13-14

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

“Gird up your loins” is a figure of speech mentioned a few times in God’s Word. Here’s a phrase we use today to say the same thing: roll up your sleeves. It means to get serious about what you’re doing. 

We need to get serious about being Christians and living for God. One aspect of that is to have “a single mind.”

Have you ever heard the expression “Don't put all your eggs in one basket”? I believe Peter would tell us to do just that, then label that basket, “Jesus is coming back!” 

We need to be single-minded, living with a passionate, burning focus upon His return.

ACTION POINT:

What are you doing today in anticipation of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ? Are you living with the understanding that Christ could return at any moment?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

What Will Remain?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” 1 Corinthians 3:15

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A thousand years from now, some of the things that you think are so important are not going to be so important—your meticulously groomed lawn, who won the Super Bowl, your date for the Senior Prom, the make and model of your car.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with these things, but I want to ask you: What is there about your life that is going to remain when the mountains have crumbled? When the stars have fallen from their sockets?

Wood, hay, and stubble are going up in flames! But “if any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward” (1 Corinthians 3:14). Things are going to look much different in the light of eternity.

ACTION POINT:

In your day today, ask yourself what are you doing, what are you building upon, that will remain? 

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers