Friday, January 27, 2017

What Is Your Cross?


BIBLE MEDITATION:
“And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14:27

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
The cross not only saves us, but it continues to sanctify us. Have you read where Jesus said, “Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mark 8:34b)?

Many people think that this means that our “cross” is a sickness, an unsaved spouse, or a cruel boss. However, a cross is not something that is forced upon you, over which you have no choice. A cross is something you willingly take up.
Jesus willingly laid down His life. He calls us to do the same.

ACTION POINT:
Your cross is when you willingly die to yourself. You do this by saying no to sin and self, and yes to Christ.


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Thursday, January 26, 2017

What Satan Needs

He wants your marriage and when he gets that, he'll take your children!!
Why? 
Marriage is the embodiment of the relationship of the coming Christ and His bride!
Christ is planning a feast when He returns to celebrate His bride.
Satan wants there to be no bride!
That means he will have tried to steal what doesn't belong to him!

10 And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.
11 Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, lord, open to us.'
12 But he answered, 'Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.'
13 Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. - Matthew 25:10-13

25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, open to us,' then he will answer you, 'I do not know where you come from.'
26 Then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.'
27 But he will say, 'I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!' - Luke 13:25-27

But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: "The Lord knows those who are his," and, "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity." - 2 Timothy 2:19

6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. 
7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; 
8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure"- for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. 
9 And the angel said to me, "Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb." And he said to me, "These are the true words of God."
10 Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, "You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God." For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. - Revelation 19:6-10

19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.
20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD. - Hosea 2:19-20

2 For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. - 2 Corinthians 11:2-4

13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. - Colossians 1:13-14

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through him and for him.
17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. - Colossians 1:15-23

So, we can conclude, you must fight, you must win and you ask how.
Pray for your family, stay in the word, honor and love your spouse as if your marriage depended on it, it does!!!

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

Marriage helpers!!!
Fights - Be able to admit you are wrong!

Sex - God created it, enjoy it!!
Sex allows physical and mental intimacy!

Addictions - Porn, gambling, drugs, alcohol, whatever separates and isolates you from your spouse!

Pedestals - No such thing! We are all lost equally!! We all have irritating flaws!! Work on being different and let love work!!
It's not that sappy stuff that movies show!
It's taking care of each other, enjoying each other, but having some alone time too!!

All out war - Don't do it!! Words do hurt, they leave scars just like slaps!!
Satan will use them over and over to open up deep wounds!
You will hate each other sometimes but prayer and being in the word will get your mind set back right!!

Fight or flight - Its easier to shut down than face the problem!!!
If you don't talk, Satan wins!! 
He will convince you both that the love is dead!!

Words - Watch what you say in the heat of the moment!!

Other people - Watch the admiration of the opposite sex!
Satan loves this most of all. 
When you really love someone, you can tell them the truth.
You will not stroke their ego.
We all are vulnerable where the opposite sex is involved!

Jobs and friends - Don't love them more than your family!!

Lying - Trust is very very important!! 
Once broken it's hard to rebuild!

How Can We?

I see the political protest!
I hear the political protest!
I thank God we have freedom!
There are places where if you dare protest, you would be shot.
There are those who want their own freedom but would deny you yours.
In America, our freedom is precious.
Many men and women have given their lives to fight the evil that would take away our freedom.
Those who would take our freedom are evil!
They are deep in sinful rebellion and slaves to Satan.
This lost world is blinded by sin.
Shall you and I keep silent?

For those who are perishing!
1 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.
2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.
3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.
4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.
6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. - 2 Corinthians 4:1-6

This lost world touts their sin and wears it like a banner.
If you dare to point out God's holy word, they will viciously attack you.
This world is headed for destruction.
Only God can take away the blindness!!
No man is without sin. 
Those thankful repentant sinners are just covered by the blood of Christ and forgiven.
As a Christ follower, I must tell the truth about sin, no matter the hate that is hurled my way.
Don't love your neighbor right into hell by being quite.
His fall is on your head unless you speak God's forgiveness.
If he refuses to listen and repent then it's on him!!

18 If I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.
19 But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. - Ezekiel 3:18-19

Some will read this and praise God for His great mercy while others will hold onto their rebellion and call me self-righteous.
I'm a sinner who repents from sin.
It's an everyday fight!
As long as I'm in this earthly body I'll be hounded by Satan and his need to entice me to sin.
Praise God who is triumphant !!!
Putting on God's word as my shield, I stand.
I'm forgiven by God's intentional grace through the blood of Christ.
Christs' death and resurrection has met God's requirement for a satisfactory guilt offering against the wrath of God toward sinful man.
Amen and Amen 

The Greater Miracle


BIBLE MEDITATION:
“I, even I, am the Lord; and beside Me there is no Savior.” Isaiah 43:11

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
It takes more of God’s power to save a soul through the cross of Jesus than it does to do any other thing. God had no difficulty creating the universe. The Bible tells us He spoke and it was so. But when God wrote salvation’s story, He went to great difficulty. Let me illustrate.

What if I held a service and had the power to straighten a cripple’s legs or to bring sight to the blind? The next service would be standing room only. Now I certainly want God to heal, but let me suggest a different scene. What if I held a service and a little girl walked down the aisle and gave her heart to Jesus? That is a greater miracle than opening the eyes of the blind, because the Son of God had to hang on a cross in agony and blood to purchase her salvation! Jesus did not come as a great healer or teacher, He came as a Savior.

ACTION POINT::
Ask God today to give you the heavenly view—for the angels in heaven rejoice each time one lost person receives eternal life. This is the greatest miracle.


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Faithfulness, Not Miracles

BIBLE MEDITATION:
 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.” Matthew 24:45-46

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
It is sinful for us to ask God to prove Himself by a miracle or sign, though I guess we have all done it.

When I was at Stetson University as a young boy having my quiet time in the prayer room, I asked God to move a chair from one side of the room to the other. I told him, “I already believe You and I don’t want to insult You, but what a confirmation it would be to my heart and life if You would just do this small miracle.” Isn’t that dumb?

I am so glad that God didn’t let the devil nudge that chair across that room and get me hooked on some kind of hocus-pocus. Jesus said that asking God for a sign, like this, is evidence of an evil, adulterous heart (see Matthew 12:39). Oh, that God would find us not looking for miracles but faithful in all we do in His name.

ACTION POINT:
Singer/songwriter Steve Green has sung, “May all who come behind us find us faithful.” Are those coming behind you looking ahead and finding an example in you? Are you faithful?


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

The Lost World


18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;
27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,
30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. - Romans 1:18-32

If you want to see the state of this world, look no further than your television.
Man is wicked!
When women, who are blessed by God to be able to give birth, stand and demand the right to kill their unborn children, you can be certain that judgement is coming.
This world is on a path to destruction!
Even our entertainment is tainted by filth, showing all manner of depravity.
This world is deep in sin!
We, the people are deep in sexual depravity, and idolatry.
Our spirits are wrecked!
Our moral compass is compromised!
When we expose that sin, we are attacked and called narrow minded.
The great news is, there is forgiveness through repentance.
Be mindful of God's grace through Christ.
Don't be indifferent.
Glorify God for He is holy, just, loving and full of goodness.
He alone is worthy.

4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;
5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;
6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;
7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked
8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard);
9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,
10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 
11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord.
12 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction,
13 suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you.
14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!
15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing,
16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.
18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error.
19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: "The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire." - 2 Peter 2:4-22

It's not too late, repentance is just a bowed knee and a humbled heart away!!

8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
11 For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame."
12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.
13 For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?"
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for "Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world."  - Romans 10:8-18


Great teaching Pastor Rogers!!!

Complete Payment for Your Sin

BIBLE MEDITATION: 
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” Romans 3:25


DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: 
Propitiation is a big word that means satisfaction. Because God is a holy God, His anger and justice burns against sin. And He has sworn that sin will be punished.


There must be a satisfactory payment for sin.  But God said, “If I punish man for his sin, man will die and go to hell. On the other hand, if I don’t punish man for his sin, My justice will never be satisfied.”


The solution? God said that He would become our substitute. He would take the sin of mankind upon Himself in agony and blood – a righteous judgment and substitute for sin.


His wrath burned out on the cross when His only Son died as man’s propitiation for sin. And this is love (see 1 John 4:10).


ACTION POINT: 
Question: What can you bring Jesus today to repay Him for what He has done for you? Answer: Nothing could suffice. But “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my ALL!”


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers