You Have A Priestly Role

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.” Hebrews 10:19

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Someone asked me, “Dr. Rogers, the Roman Catholics and Episcopalians have priests. Why don’t the Baptists?” I responded, “We do! You’re looking at one! Every believer is a priest.”

R. G. Lee, a precious mentor and godly preacher, once said, “I don’t walk into my collar, I back into my collar.” You see, it is a great truth that we have direct access to the Father. We don’t have to talk to someone else to confess our sins. We can confess directly to God.

ACTION POINT:

Do you know what you and I are to be doing as priests? We are to be making God known to others so that they will learn, repent, and believe.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

We Draw Strength When We Are Unified

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 2:5

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Jesus is not only the Cornerstone of the church; He is also the individual building blocks through every believer. Have you ever heard of someone being a “chip off the old block”? That means he shares the nature of his father. In a sense, every child of God is a chip off that Block.

By ourselves we are not all that much. How many one-brick buildings have you seen? One stone can be easily tossed around, but if you take a lot of them and put them together, there is strength.

ACTION POINT:

Our Lord is building us together to gain strength from one another. It is amazing what can happen when the body of Christ is unified.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Success In The Kingdom

Success is faithfulness.

Faithfulness to God and Jesus.

But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. - Acts 20:24

18 And when they came to him, he said to them: "You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, 

19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews;

20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house,

21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

22 And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there,

23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. - Acts 20:18-23

34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.

36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

37 For what can a man give in return for his soul? - Mark 8:34-37

1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. - Colossians 3:1-3

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. - 2 Timothy 4:7

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. - Hebrews 12:1-2

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. - 1 Corinthians 15:58

15 But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.

16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name." - Acts 9:15-16

30 He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him,

31 proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. - Acts 28:30-31

60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?"

61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this?

62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

64 But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)

65 And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father."

66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. - John 6:60-66

8 "And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: 'The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life.

9 "'I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.' - Revelation 2:8-11

Faithfulness 

1. Selflessness 

Christ gave His life on the cross so that you may receive forgiveness. 

2. Steadfastness 

So that you may finish your race with joy

Yearn for knowing the Lord.

Yearn for obedience.

3.  Service

The ministry I received from the Lord.

Carry the gospel to the world.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Make disciples.

Men love your wives and children by loving Jesus and being faithful to both.

Wives love your husband by loving Jesus and being faithful to both.

Thank you Pastor Madison!!!

A Challenge For Fathers

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Her husband is known in the gates, when he sits among the elders.” Proverbs 31:23

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Once a year, we celebrate fathers. Maybe you are one. Let me give you a challenge. One father said, “If I had it to do all over again. I’d love my wife more in front of my children. I’d laugh with my children more. I’d listen more, even to the youngest child. I’d be more honest about my own weaknesses and stop pretending perfection. I would pray differently for my children. I would be more encouraging and bestow more praise. And finally, if I had it to do all over again, I would use every ordinary thing that happened in every ordinary day to point them to God.”

ACTION POINT:

Praise God for the impact of godly fathers in our lives!

Celebrate the dad in your life today!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Three Things You Must Have

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.” Psalm 97:12

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Years ago the Reader’s Digest published an article which said that in order for a person to be happy and have fulfillment, three things were necessary:

First, they needed something to believe.

Second, they needed someone to love.

Third, they needed something worthwhile to do.

That’s true, not because Reader’s Digest said it, but because God’s Word affirms it. There must be more to life than your next breath or your next step. And His name is Jesus Christ. He is indeed the fulfillment of all three of those needs.

ACTION POINT:

Jesus is the One to believe in, He is the Someone to love, and His cause is the something worthwhile for you to do. Do you yearn for happiness? Every need can be met in your life through Jesus Christ.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

It’s Essential For Your Growth

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”

1 Corinthians 1:21

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The Word of God is indispensable for salvation. We are conceived by it. 1 Peter 1:23 says that we are “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”

The Word of God is indispensable for sanctification. We are cleansed by it. 1 Peter 1:22 says, “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren.”

The Word of God is indispensable for sustenance. We are completed by it. “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).

ACTION POINT:

Do you want to grow? Then you’d better get into the Word of God.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

He Has Called You By Name And You Are His

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.”

1 Corinthians 2:11

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

J. Sidlow Baxter once said, “Your emotions are the shallowest part of your nature. Salvation is the deepest work of God. He is not going to do His deepest work in the shallowest part.”

Someone may think he knows me because he hears my voice or read my words, but he cannot look deep down into my spirit. From the time I gave my heart to Jesus Christ, there has been a stamp of authenticity upon my heart saying, “Adrian, you belong to Me.”

It is not an emotional feeling, because emotions have nothing to do with salvation. It is also not an intellectual thing, because salvation is not an act that a man can rationalize. Salvation is a God thing.

ACTION POINT: 

You need not look for a sign or a feeling. Your trust is not in your emotions but in the Savior who has called you by name, and you are His.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers