How to Understand the Bible

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Thy precepts.” Psalm 119:100

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

People sometimes can’t understand why they don’t understand the Bible. Well, the way to understand the Bible is to obey the Bible. And the way to understand the verses you don't understand is to obey the verses you do understand. 

“More than the ancients” is a way of saying the accumulative wisdom of the ages. David is saying, “ I haven't been off to the university perhaps, or I haven't studied abroad, but I keep God's Word and therefore God reveals to me His truth.”

The only way you can really understand the Bible is for God to reveal it to you, and God doesn't reveal it to rebels. 

ACTION POINT:

Keep God's Word, and through it God will reveal His truth. Some of you know what God wants you to do, but you're not doing it. And you wonder why you've come up against a roadblock when you try to read the Bible. 

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

A Gentle Spirit

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in that which is much.” Luke 16:10

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

In order to be a missionary, a man had to appear before the superintendent of missions. His appointment was set for five in the morning. It was a snowy morning, but he was there. He waited until eight o'clock. Finally the superintendent came and asked him two simple questions. Then he said, “Thank you. You're dismissed.” The aspiring missionary said, “Thank you for your time.” In his report, the superintendent wrote, “This man will make an excellent missionary. He came at an early hour without a murmur; that shows self-sacrifice. He was there on time; that shows character. He waited without grumbling; that shows patience. He answered very simple questions in a straightforward manner; that shows humility.” 

ACTION POINT:

When God asks you to do something, it may not make sense or seem important, but let God determine what's important. 

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

I Don’t Understand, But I’ll Obey

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” 1 Samuel 15:22

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

I read an interesting story about Stephen Grellet, a pioneer evangelist to the lumbermen in the Rocky Mountains. He felt the Spirit of God leading him to a particular lumber camp to preach. When he got there, the place was absolutely deserted. He said, “Lord, I don’t understand, but I'm going to be obedient.” So he opened his Bible without a soul in sight and preached a full-length message. Then he pled for people to come to Christ. He said, “Lord, I don’t know what that was all about but Lord, I was obedient.” Years later, a man walked up to him in England and said, “I was the foreman at a lumber camp. I had come back to the camp to get an ax, and I heard you preaching. I stood behind a pile of lumber and listened. As you preached, my heart was strangely warmed, and I repented of my sin and gave my heart to Jesus Christ. I later witnessed to four other men. Now, all five of us are missionaries preaching around the world.” 

How important it is that we obey completely in small things! Naaman was asked to dip seven times in the river Jordan. At first, he angrily refused. But in 2 Kings 5:13 his servants asked him, “… if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?” 

ACTION POINT:

Do you know why many of us are not obeying God more than we are? Because we're not hearing what God is saying. We're not spending time listening to God. That's the importance of a quiet time, that's the importance of getting somewhere alone with God in a nook with this book and reading and listening.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Real Faith: What It Is—What It’s Not

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” - Romans 5:1

It’s faith that enables us to live the Christian life. In order to know what faith is, let me tell you what faith is not.

Faith is not a hunch.

Faith is not positive thinking.

Faith is not responding to emotions, feelings, or icicles up and down your spine or miracles, signs and wonders.

Faith is not believing that God can do something.

Faith is knowing that God will. Faith is taking God at His word. Real faith dies to doubt. It is deaf to discouragement. It is blind to impossibilities. Now this is the kind of faith we need.

What kind of faith do you have? Do you have the faith that is small as a mustard seed, but can move a mountain? Ask God for it today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Are You Weeds or Wheat?

Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'" - Matthew 13:30

37 He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.

38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,

39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.

41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers,

42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. - Matthew 13:37-43

47 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.

48 When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad.

49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous

50 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. - Matthew 13:47-50

Friends, I must point out the truth of God's word to you. 

I am responsible before God to speak the truth of the gospel. 

I will face persecution as warned in the bible. 

It was written long ago to forewarn all who follow Christ. 

There are many worthy and unworthy human attributes such as right and wrong, good and bad, holy and unholy, wicked and obedient.

These attitudes of the heart are present now and were here in the beginning. 

Each has a consequence of eternal importance. 

Repent and trust Christ. 

We are commanded to love all people but we do not excuse their sin, whether politically correct or not. 

Sin is a part of our human make-up. 

It is manifested in many ways, but it has the same basic flaw, rebellion against God and His Holy Law!! 

The Law was instituted as a means of convicting us of our rebellion against The Sovereign God of all. 

God did not institute marriage to be defiled. 

He created male and female, in His image, for His purpose. 

That purpose being to pro-create and fill the earth. 

He meant for these creations, male and female, to be mates until death. 

Sin entered in and perverted what was meant for the good of mankind and the joy of the Creator. 

Hence, we have adultery and a perverted view of marriage. 

All sin must be atoned for by a worthy means, meaning Christ alone was deemed by God as the only acceptable substitute. 

By His death on the cross and the shedding of His blood for the cleansing of the sin of all mankind, we have been redeemed before Holy God.

What a marvelous gift to sinners. 

If you repent, there is forgiveness! 

God knows your heart and He is bigger than any sin, that means He will supply your every need to beat that sin and stay in a state of repentance. 

Flee sin!!

We may choose to be obedient or we may choose rebellion. 

I pray you will weigh your choice very carefully.

The real meaning of marriage:

4 He answered, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,

5 and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?

6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." - Matthew 19:4-6

The real reasons for divorce:

8 He said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery." - Matthew 19:8-9

14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

15 But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.

16 For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? - 1 Corinthians 7:14-16

A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. - 1 Corinthians 7:39

Salvation:

6 It has been testified somewhere, "What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? 

7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, 

8 putting everything in subjection under his feet." Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 

9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. - Hebrews 2:6-10

For His Glory

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of Thy servant, and his supplications, and cause Thy face to shine upon Thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. O my God, incline Thine ear, and hear; open Thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by Thy name: for we do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousnesses, but for Thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for Thine own sake, O my God: for Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name.” Daniel 9:17-19

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Daniel is saying, “O God, please forgive us. Remove the guilt.” He’s also praying for the restoration of glory. Notice “for the Lord’s sake.” 

Do you know what so many of us are praying for? For America’s sake. That won’t get it done. Or for our denomination’s sake, our church’s sake, or even our family’s sake. But Daniel is praying for not only the removal of guilt but the restoration of glory (v. 18). When we get concerned for the glory of God, then we’re going to see our prayers answered. So many times we’re just simply trying to get out of difficulty. Do you pray for the glory of God? 

Do you know what most of us want? We want revival so we can return to our own ways, once God gets us out of the difficulty we’re in. Do you have a burning, yearning in your heart for the glory of God? Do you want to see God’s glory spread over this land? I want to see God do something again that cannot be explained by the pundits on television and the news anchors.

ACTION POINT:

When we get concerned for the glory of God, then we’re going to see our prayers answered.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

What God Would Rather Do

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.” Jeremiah 18:7-8

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

In this passage, God is not just talking about the nation Israel. He’s talking about nations in general. God says, “When I get ready to judge a nation, if that nation will repent, then I will turn from the judgment that I had determined to send upon that nation.” 

Let me tell you something about the great heart of our God: God is a God of righteousness, judgment, and justice, but God had rather show mercy than send judgment. 

America is ripe for judgment. God says, “When I get ready to judge a nation, if that nation will repent, then I will turn from the judgment that I had determined to send upon that nation.” We are in the eleventh hour, the clock is about to strike midnight, and we need to pray, “Oh God, hold back Your hand of judgment upon America.”

“If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

ACTION POINT:

A church steeple is something that is supposed to point us to God. Have you ever noticed that the closer the steeple gets to the top, the smaller it gets? The closer we get to God, the more we realize how insignificant and sinful we are. This is not a time for finger-pointing in America. This is a time for repentance of personal sin. I’m talking about the people in the pew. The Bible says the time has come that judgment begin at the house of God.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers