Finding Joy in All the Right Places

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.” Psalm 34:8

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A Christian should be filled with joy. But we can’t take any credit for it. It is Jesus who gives us joy and satisfaction. We couldn’t have found it had we been searching for it, but by finding, knowing, and growing in Christ, He has filled us with an overflowing joy.

Do you know what the devil will tell you? That holiness and happiness don’t go together. He will tell you that if you make up your mind to live a holy life, then you won’t have any fun. Friend, the devil is a liar.

ACTION POINT:

You’ll never know satisfaction and joy until you find it in the right place. You’ll never enjoy the good things of life until you know Jesus. Oh, how sweet to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Is the hunger of your heart met in Christ?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

The God Who Can’t Be Figured Out

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“For He looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven; To make the weight for the winds; and He weigheth the waters by measure.” Job 28:24-25

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

There are certain things God is not going to reveal. And that is good news. Who wants to believe in a God that they can put in a box and completely understand? Not me.

You can take a bucket down to the ocean and dip out a bucket full of water. Everything in that bucket is ocean, but not all the ocean is in the bucket. Amen? And with our bucket-size minds, we are never going to know all there is about God. I’m not. You’re not. Nobody is.

ACTION POINT:

Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

What Do You Love More than Jesus?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” 1 John 3:16

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The rich man asked Jesus, “Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17). Then Jesus asked him if he had kept the law. He said yes. In love Jesus responded, “One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow Me” (Mark 10:21b). But the rich man was “sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions” (Mark 10:22).

Jesus let him go. Jesus didn’t run after him. And there’s another thing I want you to notice: Jesus didn’t lower His standards.

ACTION POINT:

Is there anything you love more than Jesus? You must willingly lay it down to be saved.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Not to Decide Is to Decide

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” Deuteronomy 30:19

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Years ago I was witnessing to a young lady in Florida. I asked her if she had received Jesus as her Lord and Savior. She became teary-eyed and said, “I just don’t seem…no…I can’t do it today.” I asked her, “Don’t you realize that if you don’t receive Him, that you’re going to deny Him?” She said, “Oh, I wouldn’t deny Him for anything.” I said, “But there’s no middle ground.” And yet she refused.

I said, “Before you go, would you shake hands with me?” And she said, “Well, certainly.” And so I said, “If you’ll take Christ as your Savior, take my right hand. If you’ll take hell and refuse Christ, take my left hand.” She refused to take either of my hands.

ACTION POINT:

Every person has a choice. There is no neutral ground. You are either crowning Jesus as Lord of your life or you are not. Which is it my friend?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Shaking Hands or Saving Lives?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” John 3:36

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

There was a preacher who kept a painting in his study of a shipwreck. There were sailors in lifeboats reaching out their hands to people floating on debris from the ship. A little boy looked at the painting and asked his daddy, “Are those in the lifeboats trying to save those people or are they just shaking hands?”

I wonder about us. It is all right to have friends; in fact, I encourage you to do that. But are you doing more than just socializing? Wouldn’t it be a shame if all you did was shake the hands of those around you, when you could be serving and showing them the way to God through Jesus Christ?

ACTION POINT:

We don’t pray, live, and witness as if people are dying and going to hell or heaven every day around us. May God have mercy on us. The need of the hour is for men and women to have a servant’s heart.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Hidden from the Wise, Revealed to the Humble

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in His presence.” 1 Corinthians 1:27-29

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

What wisdom is there in dying on a cross? The Greeks couldn’t understand it, and yet that is the wisdom of God.

God is so wise that the person with the highest IQ cannot figure Him out. If you could come to God with your intellect, then God is not fair because all of the smart people would have a head start and the rest of us would be left standing in the shadows. Your spirituality would be based upon your intellect.

I’m so glad that God has “hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes” (Matthew 11:25).

ACTION POINT:

It’s not that God is so high that few can figure Him out; it is that God has placed Himself at such a level that few of us will get down low enough to see God revealing Himself to us.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

The Blessedness Of Secondness

6 Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, "You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me.

7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart.

8 But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the LORD my God.

9 And Moses swore on that day, saying, 'Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.'

10 And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old.

11 I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming.

12 So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said."

13 Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance.

14 Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD, the God of Israel. - Joshua 14:6-14

Those whom God has joined together let not man separate.

Joshua and Caleb were united by God for His purpose.

They grew up together.

They spied together.

They fought together.

But God appointed Joshua as leader.

Caleb had to learn to be second.

To work under Joshua as his helper.

Just as we are under Christ who is the head of  the church.

1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant,

2 "Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel.

3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. - Joshua 1:1-3

I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. - 3 John 1:9

We want to be first.

We must be content to be second, following Christ.

We must serve as Christ served.

We must give Him the glory.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. - Matthew 5:16

So be content to be second obeying Christ in His mission.

Thanks Pastor Smith!