Who Are You Burning Your Candle For?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Romans 8:13

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

We preachers are fond of saying, “Get right with God. You may die!” It is far better to say, “Get right with God. You may live!” The greatest joy in life is living for Jesus. Why waste more time? There is a life to live.

Friend, the best thing that you can say about a life lived without Christ is that it is a wasted life. Billy Sunday, a revival preacher from the 1920s, said that the deathbed repentance is “burning the candle of life for the devil, and then blowing the smoke in God’s face.”

ACTION POINT:

If you are not saved, it’s not too late for you to be saved. If you want to be saved – wherever you are, whoever you are, whatever you’ve done, Jesus wants to save you. Repent and believe and you will be saved.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

His Peace and Joy in Suffering

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps.” 1 Peter 2:21

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Christ suffered for you.

“But I don’t want to suffer for Him.”

You’re going to suffer anyway—whether you are saved or lost. That is life in a fallen world.

When you submit to Jesus Christ and obey the Word of God, He is going to arch a rainbow of hope over your suffering. He is going to write Romans 8:28 over what you are going through. You will know that your current trial is for your good.

ACTION POINT:

Surrender and submission to God is the only way to get His grace and power over your life. Joy, peace, and worry-free days are ahead for the one who lays his life down for the glory of God. Suffering will come, but joy will follow.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

An Offering of Continual Praise

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Romans 12:1

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

In the Old Testament, the priests would offer an animal sacrifice to God. What do believers offer today? Romans 12:1 tells us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices.

And just as the altars of old had two flesh hooks to keep the sacrifice from slipping off, we have two hooks that hold our bodies there—discipline and devotion. Are you disciplining yourself and devoting yourself as a living sacrifice to the glory of God?

In the Old Testament, the priests would burn incense as a fragrant offering to the Lord. What do we do today? Hebrews 13:15 says we continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise.

ACTION POINT:

Our incense of praise should be going up out of our body, as we are the temple of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 3:16). Are you giving God a continual offering of praise every moment of every day?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Sin Rooted In Unbelief

Who is the greatest threat?

Modern Pharisee or local atheist?

What always stands in opposition to the gospel is sin and its root in unbelief.

It's not a people but their unrighteousness and that they dwell in darkness.

When Jesus walked this earth, He was faced with the Jewish religious establishment.

God's mission for Jesus was to go first to the house of the lost sheep of Israel.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. - Romans 1:16

God's revelation is meant to shake the church which is full of worldliness, sparse spiritually and at best it is nominal in its pursuit to take the gospel to the world. Are we broken over our sin? Do we spend time in the gospel with the hope of it changing us to be more like Christ? Are we wholeheartedly seeking God's wisdom from the pulpit? 

Let's be clear, there is plenty of opposition in some churches to the truth of God's word.

We expect opposition from the world, in settings such as classrooms, business meetings or any other non-Christian gatherings. Sin and unbelief abound. We must be faithful to the whole counsel of God that is found in the scriptures!

Examine every group of people, in church or out, have in your mind that they all need the gospel irregardless of who they might be. Darkness invades everywhere. 

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation in the church and in the world.

Thanks Pastor John!!!

God is Beautifully Arranging You!

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:16

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

I’ve had the privilege of pastoring churches in the midst of building campaigns, and it’s been a faith-growing experience to watch God work. In fact, I will never forget the first church where that happened: in Fort Pierce, Florida.

There was an elderly architect who was over the job, and he said something I will never forget. As we were looking over the plans I said, “It can’t be expensive because we don’t have much money.” And he replied, “Oh, my boy. Good architecture is not an arrangement of beautiful materials. It is a beautiful arrangement of materials.”

You see, the Lord can take people like you and me from the quarry of sin. And with His grace and His Word, He can fit us together into a majestic temple of God.

ACTION POINT:

You are an irreplaceable part of His beautiful workmanship.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Is Jesus Your Stumbling Block or Your Stepping Stone?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 1:23-24

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Jesus Christ will be either a stepping stone into heaven or a stumbling stone into hell. No one can be neutral about Jesus Christ. Either you rise on Him, or you fall on Him. You cannot walk around Him. Either you’re saved by Him or you’re judged by Him.

ACTION POINT:

You will encounter Jesus Christ. He is inevitable. He is unavoidable. He is inescapable. What you do with Jesus Christ determines what Jesus Christ will do with you.  What are you doing with Jesus Christ today?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Saved, Sealed and Secure!

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “In Whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the Word of Truth, the gospel of your salvation: in Whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.” Ephesians 1:13

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

What does it mean that you are sealed with the Holy Spirit?

First, it is a mark of authenticity. If the Holy Spirit is not in you, then you are a fake. First John 3:24 says, “And he that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us.”

Second, the seal is a mark of ownership, like the branding of a cow. You are His. Romans 8:9 says, “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.”

Third, the seal is a mark of security. Esther 8:8 tells about this type of seal, which “no man can reverse.”

ACTION POINT:

The way I am kept saved is because God sealed me. The way you are kept saved, is because God has sealed you.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers