Hold On with Both Hands

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him?” James 2:5

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Are you facing a struggle in your life today? Perhaps there is a decision that you need to make, but don’t know what to do. Friend, let me tell you the way to find what God wants for you.

Take hold of the Lord with both hands and in faith tell Him, “Sink or swim, live or die, once and for all, now and forever, I’m going for You, God.”

John Dryden, the famous English poet, said, “Reason saw not, till faith sprung the light.” Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “Faith goes up the stairs that love has made and looks out the window which hope has opened.”

ACTION POINT:

You don’t know what God can do through you until you step out in faith. Take that step today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

What Separates You from the Love of God?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:39

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A historian tells us that after the Spanish Inquisition, Napoleon’s soldiers uncovered a dungeon. They went down into the dungeon and found a skeleton with chains still on it. To their surprise, they looked on the wall and saw a cross. At the apex of the cross, was the word “height.” At the foot of the cross, was the word “depth.” And on either side of the cross were the words “breadth” and “length.” To this prisoner, the cross was a picture of the dimensions of God’s love. God’s love is expansive and everlasting.

ACTION POINT:

Jesus Christ went to the Cross to demonstrate the depth and height, length and breadth of the love of God. God went to extremes to show His love for you. What are you doing today to lead others to Jesus Christ?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Upheld by HIS Hand

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Thou hast also given me the shield of Thy salvation: and Thy right hand hath holden me up, and Thy gentleness hath made me great.” Psalm 18:35

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

In World War II, General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright led a gallant but vain fight that led him to become a prisoner of war. For months, the Japanese mocked him and beat him. Then one day, the news arrived that the Allied Forces had won. The prison guards thought Wainwright hadn’t heard the news, so they approached him to inflict their daily habit of abuse. Though Wainwright had grown frail and weak, he stood up straight and tall and said, “From now on, I’m giving the orders around here.”

The devil doesn’t want you to know the Good News that Jesus has won the victory, either. But you must resist him and claim the power of God in your life.

ACTION POINT:

Where do you think you’d be if Psalm 18:35 said, “I have saved myself. My hand has held me up. My gentleness has made me great”? Praise God that your salvation is from Him.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Dead and Buried

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15:4

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

One of the grandest blessings in the entire Bible is often missed by believers. It is the burial of Jesus Christ! That’s right! The burial of Jesus is a blessing to you. Because not only have we died with Him, we have been buried with Him.

When Jewish people died in Bible times, they were immediately embalmed with special oils and wrapped in linen. The body was hidden and buried in a tomb. That is what Jesus has done with our old body of sin.

Not only have we been crucified with Christ, we have been buried with Christ. Why the emphasis? So that you will not be haunted by the ghost of guilt. Your old life is not just dead, it’s buried!

ACTION POINT:

The devil will try to remind you what you were. Don’t let him. Don’t go prowling around in the dead bones of your old life. It is gone by the grace of God!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Come To the One Who Eternally Satisfies

21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.

22 The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,

23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. - John 5:21-24

Nothing is more satisfying than Jesus and what He accomplished by His death on the cross.

Because of His death, subsequent resurrection and atonement, by faith, we are assured eternal life.

Definition of atonement 

Reconciliation, our sins are blood covered, we are one with God through Christ atonement.

Through Christ we are forgiven because He alone was worthy before God.

Christ was our substitute, there was no other that would satisfy the wrath of God toward sinful man.

So you see, you will never be good enough. 

You will never do enough good deeds.

Your brownie points will never add up to enough.

The scales will never balance in your favor without Christ!!

You are unworthy in every way but praise God, Christ is worthy!!

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. - 2 Corinthians 5:21

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. - Ephesians 2:8-9 

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. - Romans 3:23-25

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

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

9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. - Romans 5:8-10

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. - John 3:17-18

35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.

36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. - John 3:35-36

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

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. - John 3:16-17

Don't be found without Christ as your Lord and Savior!

Consider the cross and what it means to you!

Be satisfied eternally through His gift.

11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.

12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.

13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.

14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.

15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. - Revelation 20:11-15

Salvation: Not An Attainment, But An Atonement

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; To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Romans 3:25-26

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

When I was a little boy, I thought that God was like Santa Claus with a long beard sitting up in heaven—making a list and checking it twice, trying to find out if I was naughty or nice. Then when my life was over, I would face Him and He would pull out these massive scales and weigh my good works against my bad to see if I made it into heaven.

Do you know what this thinking did? It made me fearful that at the end of my life I would face God and He would say, “Adrian. I’m sorry, but according to My calculations, you didn’t make it.” Then, I would have to turn and ashamedly walk past family and friends.

Friend, maybe you even believe this, but let me set the record straight: Salvation is not an attainment, it is an atonement.

ACTION POINT:

You cannot atone for your sins. Your good works cannot do it. None of us could produce works good-enough and fast enough to atone for sin. Don’t even try. Rest in the finished work of the Cross.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Water From the Wells of Salvation

2 "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation." 

3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

4 And you will say in that day: "Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.  - Isaiah 12:2-4

13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,

14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." - John 4:13-14

37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" - John 7:37-38

Oh how beautiful and precious are these words of life.

Bow before His throne of grace, confess with a humble heart the sin that entraps you and receive hope in Christ through His sacrifice.

Know this and this alone, there is no other way for eternal life except through the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus.

His day of vengeance will come!

He will destroy every sinner who is not covered by His blood.

His mercy is great while it is offered.

Receive this eternal gift of joy from Christ.

6 Wail, for the day of the LORD is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come! 

7 Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt.  - Isaiah 13:6-7

Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.  - Isaiah 13:9

I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.  - Isaiah 13:11

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the LORD of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.  - Isaiah 13:13

29 But I am afflicted and in pain; let your salvation, O God, set me on high! 

30 I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.  - Psalm 69:29-30

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." - Acts 4:12

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