Take This Challenge

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee.” Psalm 119:11

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The home is a nice place for the Bible. The hand is a good place, as well. But I tell you, the heart and the head are the best places to store the Bible.

Do you ever ask yourself, “Why do I always cave in when temptation comes? Why can’t I be an overcomer? Where is my breakthrough?”

Well, let me ask you this question: How much time are you spending reading, meditating, and studying the Word of God?

ACTION POINT:

Take this challenge this week. For each hour you spend watching television, spend that time in the Bible. For every hour you work out at the gym, spend that time in the Bible. Then write me and tell me what a difference this has made in your life.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Doing Life With God

God is with you.

God knows you.

Find a body of believers to share life with.

How is God involved with you.

God created you.

It is deep within your soul that you belong to God.

26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  - Genesis 1:26-27

Male or female, He created you.

You may struggle with your identity but your Creator made you as He wanted you to be.

Yielding to temptation leads to sin.

The battle is real.

The struggle is hard.

Be who God created you to be.

Find your true identity in Christ.

Surround yourself with a body of believers who will love and pray for you.

He has a plan for you.

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. - 1 Corinthians 10:13

For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! - Ecclesiastes 4:10

God redeems you.

But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.  - Isaiah 43:1

21 Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you; you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. 

22 I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.  - Isaiah 44:21-22

Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble  - Psalm 107:2

God satisfies you.

It seems we are never satisfied.

Our lives are full of "if only I had".

Only Christ will satisfy the longing of your soul.

3 I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine-my heart still guiding me with wisdom-and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

4 I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself.

5 I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees.

6 I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees.

7 I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem.

8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.

9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me.

10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.

11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. - Ecclesiastes 2:3-11

Community life provides ownership.

4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function,

5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. - Romans 12:4-5

Community life provides encouragement.

Be a part of a small group.

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. - 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Community provides fellowship.

Get to know those people in your small group.

Community provides accountability.

24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,

25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. - Hebrews 10:24-25

God restores you.

When you fail He will help you.

He alone takes away your guilt and shame.

Let Christ take away your remorse, don't listen to Satan, you are worth it!!!

Thank you Pastor Kevin!!

Here’s My Heart—O Take and Seal It

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“With my whole heart have I sought Thee: O let me not wander from Thy commandments.” Psalm 119:10

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

In 1758 Robert Robinson wrote a hymn that echoes in my heart from time to time:

“Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.”

Do you ever wander from God? Then you know how it feels and how hard it is to return. If you feel far from God today, I implore you with all that I am to return to Him with all your heart.

ACTION POINT:

Make Psalm 86:11-13 your prayer today, “Teach me Thy way, O Lord; I will walk in Thy truth: unite my heart to fear Thy name. I will praise Thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify Thy name for evermore. For great is Thy mercy toward me: and Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

You Can Have A Clean Heart and Renewed Mind

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to Thee; but his heart is not with Thee.” Proverbs 23:7

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A teacher asked a little boy to finish this proverb: “Cleanliness is next to...” And he said, “Cleanliness is next to impossible.” Well, friend that little boy wasn’t that far wrong, was he?

It’s amazing what people do to try and purify themselves – fast, pray, kneel, walk, self-flagellate, hibernate, isolate. But sadly, they discover that human efforts aren’t the pathway to purity because they keep doing what Zig Ziglar calls “stinkin‘ thinkin‘.” Before we can hope to have a life of purity, we must have a clean thought life.

God works from the inside out. He knows that you cannot purify the water by painting the pump.

ACTION POINT:

When was the last time you memorized a verse of Scripture? It’s easier to stay away from “stinkin’ thinkin’” when your mind is focused on the Word of God.

This is a good time to memorize yesterday’s passage, Psalm 51:10-13: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation and uphold me with Thy free Spirit. Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.”

Start working on memorizing this passage today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Fellowship with Jesus When Our Heart Is Clean

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” Psalm 24:4-50

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

James Nicholson wrote a song which expresses the desire of my heart:

“Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole;

I want Thee forever to live in my soul.

Break down every idol, cast out every foe;

Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”

Nothing beats closer to my heart than the yearning to be pure before my Lord. I know that sweet fellowship with Jesus that comes when my heart is clean. And nothing, no nothing, surpasses that in this world.

Are you failing in your Christian life because you are not pure? If you are, you’re not alone. It seems as though a sewer pipe of filth and debauchery has broken and poured out into our world. Someone has well said, “Not since Manhattan Island was sold for 24 dollars has so much dirt been sold so cheaply as it is here in America.”

ACTION POINT:

Take the words of that song and make them your prayer to the Lord right now.

Then close with Psalm 51:10-13: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation and uphold me with Thy free Spirit. Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

God's Love Changes Everything

He loves you and always has!

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. - 1 John 4:8

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. - 1 John 4:16

Love is Who He is!!

Description of God's love:

It's unwarranted and unmerited.

Love flows from God to you.

God's love is spontaneous. 

God's love is unending.

God's love is unlimited.

God's love is unchanging.

God's love is uncomplicated.

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person-though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5:6-8

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." - Revelation 1:8

"But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built! - 2 Chronicles 6:18

27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

28 for "'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, "'For we are indeed his offspring.'  - Acts 17:27-28

"For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. - Malachi 3:6

The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.  - Psalm 33:11

25 Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. 

26 They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, 

27 but you are the same, and your years have no end.  - Psalm 102:25-27

God loves His Son.

and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." - Matthew 3:17

He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him." - Matthew 17:5

God loves Israel.

May they fear you while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations!  - Psalm 72:5

May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun! May people be blessed in him, all nations call him blessed!  - Psalm 72:17

God loves those who believe in Christ.

I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. - John 17:23

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, - Colossians 3:12

God loves the world.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5:8

God loves you!

Thanks Pastor David!!!

The Pure Heart

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy word.” Psalm 119:9

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A child delights in what he has.

A youth delights in what he does.

An adult delights in what he is.

The more mature you are, the more you will desire to be something—not just to have something or to do something, but to be something.

What do you desire to be today? Someone who is known for the way they dress? The deals they close? The house they live in? Or do you want others to know that you have a pure heart—a heart that is utterly devoted and surrendered to God.

ACTION POINT:

Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” They will know the unknowable, they will do the impossible, and they will see the invisible. I want to have a heart like that. What about you?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers