The Enduring Word of the Lord

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“The grass withers, and the flower thereof falls away: But the word of the Lord endures forever.” 1 Peter 1:24-25

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Many centuries ago there was a Roman emperor named Diocletian who was known for his hatred of Christianity. He hated the Bible so much that he took a Bible and burned it. Then on top of that burned Bible he erected a monument.

Chiseled on that monument were these words:

“Extincto nomini christianorum” — “The name of Christian is extinct.”

Over the years many like Diocletian have sought to eradicate the Bible and Christianity, but for naught. The Bible is the incorruptible Word of God, and the foul breath of time and the gnawing tooth of decay cannot destroy the Word of God!

ACTION POINT:

Purchase a Bible this week for the sole purpose of giving it away. Then ask God to find that special someone for you to give it to.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Jesus Paid It All

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“But God, Who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved). Ephesians 2:5

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Suppose your best friend offered to buy you a new car. You tell him that you can’t accept it outright and offer to help pay for the car. Then you say, “Here’s a quarter. Thank you!”

Now you’re driving around, and somebody compliments you on your new car. You say, “Thanks! My friend and I bought this car.”

Wouldn’t that be ridiculous? Well, that’s what we’re doing with God when we add our two bits-worth of self-effort to His grace. If you do that, you take the glory from Almighty God. When you get to heaven, all you’re going to be able to say is, “Jesus paid it all.”

ACTION POINT:

Spend some time reading Ephesians 2 today and praise God for His divine plan of salvation.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Bringing Up Godly Children in an Ungodly World

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“O God, Thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared Thy wondrous works.” Psalm 71:17

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Satan is on a killing spree—he wants to kill our memory and set us awash in the sea of forgetfulness without any recollection of our Christian heritage as a nation.

Tragically, he’s aiming his artillery at our children, and particularly in the place where they used to grow in the knowledge of good things—the public school. Prayer is out. Police are in. Bibles are out. Values clarification is in. The Ten Commandments are out. Social engineering is in. Creation is out. Evolution is in. History is out. Revisionism is in. God says we need to remember the generation to come.

ACTION POINT:

You have an important job—to influence the lives of those who will come after you. Teach them to walk in the ways of the Lord and against the tide of the world.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Strong Faith Glorifies God

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust.” Psalm 18:2

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Do you know the greatest thing you could do to give God glory? It’s not to give a million dollars. It’s not to give your body to be burned. It’s not to go overseas as a missionary.

The greatest thing you could do to glorify God is to believe God. Faith says, “God, You are trustworthy.” Don’t just sing about your belief in a great God or pray about your belief in a great God or even read about your belief in a great God. You must believe Him. A strong faith glorifies God!

ACTION POINT:

Meditate on the names of God today: Prince of Peace, Lamb of God, Bright and Morning Star, Dayspring, The Good Shepherd, Messiah, Alpha and Omega.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

From Your Heart

So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." - Matthew 18:35

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,

15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. - Matthew 6:14-15

Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.  - Proverbs 21:13

22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

24 for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 

25 but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you.  - 1 Peter 1:22-25

15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,

18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 6:15-23

Fear the Lord!!

Your evil will chastise you, and your apostasy will reprove you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God; the fear of me is not in you, declares the Lord GOD of hosts.  - Jeremiah 2:19

Forgotten and Forgiven

The world will not let your sin go!

They will try to bury you deeper.

There is not much grace and mercy offered to sinners with people.

But praise God alone for He is rich in mercy and forgiveness!

But brother and sister, through Christ, God does forgive you, and you can believe it, it is forgotten.

I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah  - Psalm 32:5

23 If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him, 

24 and he is merciful to him, and says, 'Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom; 

25 let his flesh become fresh with youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor'; 

26 then man prays to God, and he accepts him; he sees his face with a shout of joy, and he restores to man his righteousness. 

27 He sings before men and says: 'I sinned and perverted what was right, and it was not repaid to me. 

28 He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit, and my life shall look upon the light.'  - Job 33:23-28

21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it-

22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:

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. - Romans 3:21-26

A Chain of Ten Links

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” James 2:10

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

So many people have the idea that God is going to grade on the curve. We say to ourselves, “We’re bad, but we’re not as bad as so-and-so.”

But God doesn’t grade on a curve. He grades on an absolute standard of holiness. Can anybody say that they’ve kept all of God’s Ten Commandments? Of course not. But let’s suppose you had only broken one. What would happen? Well, let me illustrate. If a man was dangling over a fire by a chain of ten links and nine of those links were made of forged steel and one was made of crepe paper, what would happen?

ACTION POINT:

Use this illustration with someone today as a testimony of God’s mercy in sending His Son for the salvation of all mankind.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers