The Perfect City

He has prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11:16)

No pollution, no graffiti, no trash, no peeling paint or rotting garages, no dead grass or broken bottles, no harsh street talk, no in-your-face confrontations, no domestic strife or violence, no dangers in the night, no arson or lying or stealing or killing, no vandalism, and no ugliness.

The city of God will be perfect because God will be in it. He will walk in it and talk in it and manifest himself in every part of it. All that is good and beautiful and holy and peaceful and true and happy will be there, because God will be there.

Perfect justice will be there and recompense a thousandfold for every pain suffered in obedience to Christ in this world. And it will never deteriorate. In fact, it will shine brighter and brighter as eternity stretches out into unending ages of increasing joy.

When you desire this city above everything else on the earth, then you honor God, who, according to Hebrews 11:10, is the designer and builder of the city. And when God is honored, he is pleased and not ashamed to be called your God.

John Piper 

To Tell The Truth

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.” Ephesians 4:25

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: 

When I was in college, I pastored a little church 130 miles away. One night as I was driving back home, I realized one of my headlights was out. I was hoping I wouldn’t get stopped when a highway patrolman pulled me over.

He said, “Son, did you know one of your headlights is out?” I replied, “One of my headlights is out?” He said, “Son, you’d better get that fixed.” I said, “Yes, sir.”

When I got back in the car, the Holy Spirit said, “Adrian, you lied.” I said, “No, I didn’t lie. I told the truth.” He said, “You lied.”

If there is any area in your heart that is not based on truth, you’ve made the devil a home.

ACTION POINT:

I want you to play a game of catch today, but this will only involve one person – you! When temptation urges you to lie, catch yourself and tell the truth.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Lincoln’s Providence

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33)

Abraham Lincoln, who was born on this day in 1809, remained skeptical, and at times even cynical, about religion into his forties. So, it is a most striking thing how personal and national suffering drew Lincoln into the reality of God, rather than pushing him away.

In 1862, when Lincoln was 53 years old, his 11-year-old son Willie died. Lincoln’s wife “tried to deal with her grief by searching out New Age mediums.” Lincoln turned to Phineas Gurley, pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington.

Several long talks led to what Gurley described as “a conversion to Christ.” Lincoln confided that he was “driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I have nowhere else to go.”

Similarly, the horrors of the dead and wounded soldiers assaulted him daily. There were fifty hospitals for the wounded in Washington. The rotunda of the Capitol held two thousand cots for wounded soldiers.

Typically, fifty soldiers a day died in these temporary hospitals. All of this drove Lincoln deeper into the providence of God. “We cannot but believe, that He who made the world still governs it.”

His most famous statement about the providence of God in relation to the Civil War was his Second Inaugural Address, given a month before he was assassinated. It is remarkable for not making God a simple supporter for the Union or Confederate cause. God has his own purposes and does not excuse sin on either side.

Fondly do we hope — fervently do we pray — that this mighty scourge of war might speedily pass away. . . .

Yet if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s two hundred years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid with another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago so still it must be said, “the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether.”

I pray for all of you who suffer loss and injury and great sorrow that it will awaken for you, as it did for Lincoln, not an empty fatalism, but a deeper reliance on the infinite wisdom and love of God’s inscrutable providence.

John Piper 

What Is Your Top Priority?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord; it shall rejoice in His salvation.” Psalm 35:9

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: 

Do your children believe that the most important thing to you is God? We must celebrate God in front of our children.

Let me tell you what my children think and what they know.

They know that their Daddy’s imperfect. They know that I love God. I wouldn’t be ashamed for you to ask them that. You can ask any one of them, “What’s the most important thing to your Dad and Mom?” They would say, “The most important thing to our parents is their relationship with God.”

ACTION POINT:

Are you a parent? Then ask your children what they think the most important thing is to you. If they say anything other than your relationship with the Lord, make some changes in your life to reflect your top priority.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Best Form of Slavery

He who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ. (1 Corinthians 7:22, my translation)

I would have expected Paul to switch the places of “Lord,” which means Master, and “Christ,” which means Messiah.

He correlates our liberation with Jesus being our Master (“a freedman of the Lord”). And he correlates our new slavery with Jesus being our Messiah (“a slave of Christ”). It seems strange because the Messiah came to liberate his people from their captors; and masters take control of their slaves’ lives.

Why does he say it this way? Why correlate slavery (rather than liberation) with Messiah, and liberation (rather than slavery) with Master?

Suggestion: The switch has two effects on our new liberty and two effects on our new slavery.

On the one hand, in calling us “the liberated of the Lord,” he secures and limits our new liberty:

His lordship is over all other lords; so our liberation is uncontested — absolutely secure.

But, free from all other lords, we are not free from him. Our freedom is mercifully limited. Jesus is our Master.

On the other hand, in calling us the “slaves of Christ,” he loosens and sweetens our slavery:

The Messiah lays claim on his own in order to bring them from the confines of captivity into the open spaces of peace. “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end” (Isaiah 9:7).

And he makes them his own to give them the sweetest joy. “With honey from the rock I would satisfy you” (Psalm 81:16). And that Rock is Christ, the Messiah.

So, Christian, be glad in this: “He who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord” — the Master. “Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ” — the loosening, sweetening Messiah.”

John Piper 

A Legacy Of Love

BIBLE MEDITATION:

 “His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed.” Psalm 112:2

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: 

A woman came to her pastor and said, “When should I start the religious training of my child? When will he be old enough? Is it too early to start at six years of age?” The pastor said, “No, that’s too late.” She said, “Well how about six months?” He said, “That’s too late.” She said, “Then when should I start?” He said, “With his grandparents.”

We can live for our grandchildren; we can live for our great-grandchildren. The greatest gift you can give your children is to teach them to worship the Lord, to love the Lord, and to serve the Lord at any age.

ACTION POINT:

If you are a grandparent, share what God has taught you about His grace and faithfulness in your life. And share what God has taught you about worshiping Him and serving others.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Saving Faith Isn’t Easily Satisfied

If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. (Hebrews 11:15–16)

Faith sees the promised future that God offers and “desires” it. “As it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.” Dwell on this for a moment.

There are many people who water down what saving faith is by making it a mere decision with no change of what one desires and seeks. But the point of this text in the great faith chapter in the Bible — Hebrews 11 — is that living and dying by faith means having new desires and seeking new satisfactions.

Verse 14 says that the saints of old (who are being commended for their faith here in Hebrews 11) were seeking a different kind of country than this world offered. And verse 16 says they were desiring something better than what a present earthly existence could offer. “They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.”

They had been so gripped by God that nothing short of being with God would satisfy.

So, this is true saving faith: seeing the promises of God from afar, and experiencing a change of values so that you desire and seek after and trust in the promises of God above what the world has to offer.

John Piper