Saturday, August 12, 2017

An Inheritance That Will Never Fade



BIBLE MEDITATION:
“To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.” 1 Peter 1:4


DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
A man was sitting on a street corner, weeping. A friend saw him and asked, “Why are you crying?”


“Haven’t you read the papers? Rockefeller died.”


The friend responded, “Why are you crying? You were no kin of his!”


“That’s why I’m crying!”


You have an inheritance right now as a child of God. It is incorruptible. The foul breath of decay and gnawing tooth of time cannot take it away. It is undefiled. No high-powered lawyer can find a loophole. It will never fade away.


ACTION POINT:
If you understood what you have in Jesus, you would never be jealous of anybody. Ezekiel 44:28 says that God is your inheritance. You have an inheritance that is faultless, flawless, fadeless, and reserved in heaven for you!


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Friday, August 11, 2017

Just Passing Through—Our Real Home Is Waiting


BIBLE MEDITATION:
“Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” 1 Peter 2:11


DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
God saved you out of this world and sent you back into this world to tell the world that Jesus saves. He is scattering you as precious seed. You are an ambassador upon foreign soil for the King of kings.


You are not only scattered as precious seed, you are also scattered as a persevering saint. You are a foreigner in a land where you march to a different drummer. You don’t settle down in this world. It’s not your home; you’re only passing through.


ACTION POINT:
You ought to pray, “Lord, if I am building a nest, put a thorn in it.” If you dabble and delight in this world, yet your citizenship is in heaven, you’re going to have one foot in the world and one in heaven—just enough religion to make you miserable in the world and just enough of the world to make you miserable in your spiritual life.


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Trade In: Your Weakness for His Strength



BIBLE MEDITATION
“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31


DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
What does it mean to “renew” your strength? It literally means “changed,” as if you changed clothes. You remove your rags of weakness and put on God’s royal robes of strength. God promises to exchange our strength with His strength.


You see, the Christian life is not just simply a changed life, it is an exchanged life.
God doesn’t just change us from what we were to something better. He exchanges His life with us. He takes our sin. We take His holiness. He takes our weakness. We take His strength. He takes our anxiety. We take His peace.
Sounds great. But, what’s the problem? We get tired of waiting for the change.


ACTION POINT
Friend, don’t give up. The wait is never too long when God is in charge.


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Seeking Things or Seeking Him?



BIBLE MEDITATION:
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33


DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Have you ever noticed that along with the command in Matthew 6:34 not to worry, correspondingly there comes a promise from God to take care of us? One of the most frequent promises is that we will be fed—God will take care of our needs.


Then why does God promise that “all these things will be added unto you.”? So we will not starve? No. Friend, a lot of people who don’t trust God have a pantry full of food. The average unsaved person is thinking about money, homes, cars, clothes, jewelry, etc. Jesus knows we have a one-track mind and cannot serve two masters. If these are the things you are seeking, then you are not seeking the Lord. He is telling us, “You trust Me. Bring all of your attention into trusting Me and doing good, and I’ll take care of you.”


ACTION POINT:
Today each time you’re tempted to worry, bring your concerns to your Heavenly Father and ask Him to help you trust Him.


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Learning To Find Real Contentment


BIBLE MEDITATION:
“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” Philippians 4:11


DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Paul came to a place in his life—not a physical place, but a spiritual place—where he felt divine contentment. Most people think they know what this word “contentment” means, but let me tell you what it means in God’s Word – “self contained.”


In the context of this passage, we learn that Paul was thanking people for their love gifts to him, but he wanted them also to know that he was not dependent upon them because God had brought him to a place of sufficiency in Himself alone.


That is, Paul was able to say, “I have learned that I don’t need anything or anybody else, but the Lord. I have Him, and therefore, I am self-contained, not self-sufficient. I can do all things through Christ.”


ACTION POINT:
Do you have contentment today in Christ alone?


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Monday, August 7, 2017

Do You Need Help Finding Your Seat?



BIBLE MEDITATION:
“And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:6


DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Why is the empty tomb so glorious? Because it signifies more than just the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead. He raised you, too, to walk “in newness of life” (see Romans 6:4). I have come out of that grave. I have ascended. You have, too, if you are saved.


Where is Christ today? Seated in the heavenlies. Where are you seated? In the same place. You don’t have to die to go to heaven. In Christ, you are seated in the heavenlies right now.


We encourage our brothers and sisters by telling them to keep looking up when we should be saying, “Keep looking down!” You’re already seated in the heavenlies, so you can look down on your problems. You, dear friend, have a brand new life!


ACTION POINT:
Take a moment and ask God to give you a brand new life or thank Him for the one He has already given you.


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

The Ministry Of Jesus Rejected


16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.
17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 
20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
21 And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
22 And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, "Is not this Joseph's son?"
23 And he said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, '"Physician, heal yourself." What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.'"
24 And he said, "Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.
25 But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land,
26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."
28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.
29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff.
30 But passing through their midst, he went away. - Luke 4:16-30

"Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you." - 1 Kings 17:9

1 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.
2 Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife.
3 She said to her mistress, "Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy."
4 So Naaman went in and told his lord, "Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel."
5 And the king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel." So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. 
6 And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, "When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy."
7 And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me."
8 But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel."
9 So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house.
10 And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean."
11 But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, "Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.
12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage.
13 But his servants came near and said to him, "My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, 'Wash, and be clean'?"
14 So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. - 2 Kings 5:1-14

1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;  - Isaiah 61:1-2

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. - John 14:6

Jesus is Lord!
In the beginning He was praised in the synagogue.
But when He began to point out their sin, they rose up against Him.
He used an illustration in 1 Kings and 2 Kings to point out their worship was the same as those who worship a false god. 
They pushed Jesus away for their religion and religious rules.
They did not have a knowledge that was dependent upon a relationship with Christ as Lord and Savior.

Ways we push away Jesus!
 
Theology!
Religions today love Jesus as a teacher but not as God.
They renounce Him as Lord.
Other false religions claim they worship God but they are based on rules and false gods.
Share God and His word, obey His word, and teach the truth of His word.

Control of things!
Are you a control freak?
It's impossible to control everything.
Be humble, trust the Lord and surrender control.
Miracles come when you trust God.

Selfishness!
Where's my healing?
Where's my miracle?
Instead of these things, we should be a servant of the King.

Familiarity!
We get accustomed to the way things are.
We know the word, we know the songs, we know the sermons and we miss worship because it has become familiar.

Comfort!
Have you given all?
Do you serve?
Do you tithe?
Don't reject Christ!

Embarrassment!
When we see sin we don't speak up!
We accept sinful ways and turn a blind eye.
We don't tell people they need to repent.
We don't tell people that judgement is coming.
We don't share Jesus. 
Tell someone lost that Jesus died for them!!!

4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. - Revelation 2:4-5



Thanks Pastor Mark!!