Grief Is Not A Moment

We mistakenly think of grief as being a momentary thing, but it's not. It will extend over your whole lifetime. When you grieve the loss of a loved one, it comes in waves. Some moments feel unbearable. You question God, wondering if you did something to have caused this. You did not, it's the fallen sin-filled world we live in. Sin began in the garden where the first man and woman were disobedient to God. Just as you and I fall into rebellion. Sin brought death! Sin brought pain! So therefore, we suffer through grief, death, illness, depression, anxiety and a host of other uncomfortable things. But in the midst of suffering we have hope through Christ. We can still have joy because we know what is promised! Christ has conquered death! Hallelujah and Amen!! So we can be confident that God will be there in the midst of our suffering. We know that God lost a Son to death. And through that death came everlasting life to all who will believe on Christ for salvation. Christ willingly laid down His life. In victory Christ arose from death. This was according to the Fathers will.

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. - 1 Thessalonians 4:13

16 Rejoice always,

17 pray without ceasing,

18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, - Ephesians 5:20

17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father." - John 10:17-18

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? - Romans 8:31-32

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person-though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-

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 5:6-10

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. - Galatians 1:3-5

 Thanks Pastor John!!

Because He Said So

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” Leviticus 11:45

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Are you a parent? Then, you’ve probably told your children to do something and they asked why. And what did you say? “Because I told you. Period.”

I believe there are times when parents want their children to do things and they need to explain their rationale. It’s important to teach principles for living instead of mere commands and rules. But sometimes children are not able to understand, so the answer I just mentioned is one that simply communicates parental authority to a child.

ACTION POINT:

Leviticus is a book full of laws that no one understood logically. And yet did God stop to explain the law? No. He simply said, “I am the Lord your God.” He is above our need for explanations and deserving of our full obedience.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

El Shaddai

El means mighty and powerful 

Shaddai means nourished and satisfied

God is all sufficient, truly satisfying and our only means of truly being spiritually nourished.

1 Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.

2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." 

4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. - Genesis 12:1-4

1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless,

2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly."

3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him,

4 "Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.

5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.

7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. - Genesis 17:1-7

God does things in His own timing.

God is faithful, so you be humble and wait.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. [The LORD is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.]  - Psalm 145:13

For 24 years Abraham waited.

God knows your every need.

What does El Shaddai mean to me?

God is caretaker... we can trust Him.

As children of God, He will take care of you.

The LORD said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son." And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. - Genesis 18:10

God is Omnipotent!

Omni means all, ever, the whole

Potent means powerful, strong, mighty

He spoke the world into existence!

'Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. - Jeremiah 32:17

Rely on God alone for He is sufficient!

God is comforter. We should worship Him.

God answers!

13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself,

14 saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you."

15 And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. - Hebrews 6:13-15

1 The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised.

2 And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. - Genesis 21:1-2

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.  - Psalm 91:1

You can't do it!

God alone is all-sufficient!

You must be close to God, be in the word, be obedient, and be sharing the gospel.

Come to God!

On the Proving Ground

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart. For Thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in Thy truth.” Psalm 26:2-3

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

How do automobile manufacturers make sure their vehicles are safe for people to drive? They put their vehicles onto a proving ground. They’re driven hundreds of miles over rough roads and through water and heat—screeching, turning, twisting, hitting the brakes, accelerating to top speeds. They want to see if that automobile will stand the test.

It is the same with our spiritual lives. God gives the test first and the lesson afterwards. Read throughout Scripture and you will find this to be true. Joseph was tested. David was tested. Moses was tested. Peter was tested.

When God gets ready to prove you, He is not going to test you in the good times because that is not a test. Anybody can serve God in the sunshine.

ACTION POINT:

The test is not how you behave when there is victory all around; the test is how you behave when God brings you to the wilderness. He wants to know what is in your heart. Are you fully devoted to God?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Learning to Love, Learning to Hate

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: He preserveth the souls of His saints; He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.” Psalm 97:10

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

This may come as a surprise to you, but just because you’re a Christian doesn’t mean you’re supposed to love everything.

Now, we hear that Christians are to be a people of love, and that is true. But did you know that if you’re a Christian, not only must you learn to love, but you also must learn to hate?

If you love God, then you are to hate what God hates. It is true in every realm. If you love flowers, you hate weeds. If you love health, you hate germs. If you love God, you hate evil. It is just that plain.

Romans 12:9b tells us in even stronger terms to “abhor that which is evil.” A hypocrite, something none of us want to be, is someone who says he loves God, but then he doesn’t hate sin.

ACTION POINT:

Don’t tell others you love God if you don’t hate that which nailed His Son to the cross.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

What Are You Afraid Of?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

In Matthew 25, we read the parable of the talents. When the master who had distributed the talents came to see the stewardship of those talents, one man had taken his talent and hidden it in the ground.

You may have a buried talent, but you’ve been covered up by the sinister minister of fear, who keeps you from achieving your dreams. You say, “But what if I fail?” You can be so afraid of making a mistake that your entire life will be a mistake. The fear of failure keeps so many from competing that they never even get in the race. They just lose by default!

ACTION POINT:

Sir Walter Scott was called a “dunce” by his teachers. Napoleon Bonaparte was next to last in his military class. Walt Disney was fired as a cartoonist because the newspaper said he couldn’t draw! It’s not bad to fail. We all will fail. But may God deliver you from the spirit of failure, which is a spirit of fear.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Unashamed

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

Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the LORD are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.  - Hosea 14:9

Do you ever think about the shame Christ endured on the cross?

Christ, an innocent, enduring the shame that was yours and mine.

We most assuredly deserve God's wrath but Christ didn't.

He was an obedient servant, who was stabbed, mocked and crucified with criminals.

We must share this wonderful gospel that cost Christ everything.

6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,

7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,

10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. - Philippians 2:6-11

3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. - Romans 8:3-4

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.  - 1 Timothy 3:16

I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.  - Isaiah 43:11

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, - 1 Peter 3:18

Who will you choose?

Satan and evil or Christ and righteousness?

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."  - 1 Peter 3:12