Does Your Life Help Or Hurt The Cause Of Christ?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” Romans 10:14

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

You are either a helper or a hurter when it comes to reaching the world for Christ. Why? Because, like “Big Brother,” the world is watching your “Sunday-go-to-church” behavior and wondering how it compares to your behavior the rest of the week.

Do they see you giving your time and resources to help them when they’re hurting? Do they witness how you treat your family? Or how you entertain your friends? Or do you even know their names?

ACTION POINT:

The greatest argument for Christ and the greatest argument against Christ is the life of a Christian. “Let the lower lights be burning! Send a gleam across the wave! Some poor fainting struggling seaman You may rescue, you may save” (Philip P. Bliss).

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Every Failure - Is A Prayer Failure!

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him.” Ephesians 3:12

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

One of the grandest privileges you and I have is the privilege of prayer. I believe when we get to heaven, one of the things that will amaze us is that we prayed so poorly, and we prayed so little, while we were here on earth.

I want to tell you: you do not have a failure in your life but what it is a prayer failure. You do not have a need in your life but what prayer could supply that need. There’s not a sin in your life that a proper prayer life couldn’t overcome.

Hymn writer Joseph M. Scriven penned these words, “O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.”

ACTION POINT:

Friend, rather than wringing our hands, we ought to be bending our knees

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Do You Feel “Fogged In”?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.” Psalm 116:5

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Imagine you are in a plane, ready for take-off on the runway. The pilot has come on the intercom and announced there’s a delay because of fog. You glance out your window. It looks so gloomy and dark. You wonder if the sun is shining.

The fog lifts enough for the control tower to give the pilot the green light, and the plane takes off. It’s still cloudy, but the plane starts climbing, climbing, climbing. Suddenly, the plane bursts through the clouds, and it is so gloriously bright that you have to blink your eyes. Now, you realize the sun has been there all the time.

That’s the way it is with Jehovah God, the Son of righteousness with healing in His wings (see Malachi 4:2-3). He is always loving, always giving. He is waiting for you to see Him now.

ACTION POINT:

Ask the Holy Spirit to show you today the true condition of the sky—above the clouds. Let Him speak to you about what is really there beyond the fog. Things are not always what they seem. And God has His hand upon you.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Finding Your Way When Human Reasoning Won't Do

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and ye shall serve Him, and cleave unto Him.” Deuteronomy 13:4

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

When we read a command in the Bible, whether we understand it or not, we ought to obey it. The Bible is not first and foremost a book to be explained, it is a book to be believed and obeyed.

So many times we want to tell God how He ought to do things. I can imagine those early apostles when they first met Paul persecuting believers. Those well-meaning Christians could have been praying for God to strike Paul dead, but what did God do? He struck him alive! And aren’t you glad He did?

ACTION POINT:

Don’t substitute human reasoning for obedience. God says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Blinded By The Lie

Lust definition 

Very strong sexual desire for another

Satan

You deserve this pleasure.

3 but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'"

4 But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die.

5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." - Genesis 3:3-5

God 

He is warning you and me!

The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the treacherous are taken captive by their lust.  - Proverbs 11:6

Desire is made by God.

Satan has perverted it just as he has many things.

God made male and female.

He wanted their union to be pure.

Their desire for one another, given to each in the context of a life long covenant marriage.

He wanted man to be a one woman man and woman to be a one man women. 

Lust is sin.

It destroys.

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,

23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;

27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,

30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. - Romans 1:18-32

Bind Or Loose

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." - Matthew 16:19

Bind-not allow-forbidden

Loose-allow-permitted 

Jesus has kingdom authority.

We can't bind or loose anything.

The Rabbi's were always changing what was kosher.

They strictly adhered to their thinking of what was forbidden or allowed.

This is legalism.

Christ brought grace, salvation not dependent upon law but upon Christ alone.

The law convicts of sin but can't redeem. 

Only Christ can redeem.

This power came from the authority of God who is our all in all. 

We are in a battle between good and evil.

Christ is King.

The victory is already won, by the power of His blood, we stand redeemed.

21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you."

22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.

23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld." - John 20:21-23

And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. - Isaiah 22:22

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last,

18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. - Revelation 1:17-18

The Valley, The Shadow, And A Promise

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth.” Psalm 145:18

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Psalm 23 speaks of the “valley of the shadow of death.” For every shadow, there must be light. Jesus Christ said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). A shadow may frighten you, but a shadow cannot really hurt you.

I dare say that a shadow at one time or another has spooked many of us. But thank God, death is but a shadow if you know the Lord Jesus Christ. If you keep your face toward the light, the shadow will fall behind you. You won’t even see the shadow. God doesn’t bring us to a valley to leave us there. He always

brings us through.

ACTION POINT:

God is never closer than when you are in a dark valley. That’s when He is especially near. In the original language, we’re told Hebrews 13:5 actually has five negatives! The Amplified Bible translates it this way: “I will never, no, not ever, never leave you nor forsake you.” Memorize this verse today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers