The Sweet Designs of God

He set me apart before I was born, and called me by his grace. (Galatians 1:15)

Ponder the conversion of Paul, the sovereignty of Christ, and what Paul’s sins have to do with your salvation.

Paul said that God “set me apart before I was born,” and then, years later, on the Damascus road, “called me by his grace” (Galatians 1:15). This means that between Paul’s birth and his call on the Damascus road he was an already-chosen, but not-yet-called, instrument of God (Acts 9:15; 22:14).

This means that Paul was beating and imprisoning and murdering Christians as a God-chosen, soon-to-be-made-Christian missionary.

“As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’” (Acts 22:6–7)

There was no denying or escaping it. God had chosen him for this before he was born. And now he would take him. The word of Christ was sovereign. There was no negotiating.

“Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.” (Acts 22:10)

Damascus was not Paul’s final, free will yielding to Christ after decades of futile divine effort to save him. No. God had a time for choosing him (before he was born) and a time for calling him (on the Damascus road). God called, and the call produced the yielding.

Therefore, the sins that God permitted between Paul’s birth and his calling were part of the plan, since God could have called him sooner.

Do we have any idea what the plan for those sins might have been? Yes, we do. They were permitted for you and me — for all who fear that they might have sinned themselves out of grace. Here’s the way Paul relates his sins to your hope:

Formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. . . . But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. (1 Timothy 1:13, 16)

Oh, how sweet are the designs of God in the sovereign salvation of hardened, hopeless sinners!

John Piper

Saints In God's Sight Through Christ

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” Galatians 4:7

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: 

Are you saved? If you are, then you are a saint.

Now you’re probably saying, “But I can’t say that. Christ wants me to be humble.”

But let me tell you what real humility is. It is accepting what God says about you, and God says you’re a saint. Now, that doesn’t make you sinless; it makes you blameless. In God’s sight (and that’s the only sight that counts) you are a saint. God sees you as perfect because He sees you draped in the righteousness of His Son. Glory to God for His indescribable love to us!

ACTION POINT:

Stand in front of the mirror and say out loud, “I am a saint.” Spread the Good News to your family and friends who are saved—that they are saints, too!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

When Obedience Feels Impossible

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. (Hebrews 11:17)

For many of you right now — and for others of you the time is coming — obedience feels like the end of a dream. You feel that if you do what the word of God or the Spirit of God is calling you to do, it will make you miserable and that there is no way that God could turn it all for good.

Perhaps the command or call of God you hear just now is to stay married or stay single, to stay in that job or leave that job, to get baptized, to speak up at work about Christ, to refuse to compromise your standards of honesty, to confront a person in sin, to venture a new vocation, to be a missionary. And as you see it in your limited mind, the prospect of doing this is terrible — it’s like the loss of Isaac, the only son who can be an heir.

You have considered every human angle, and it is impossible that it could turn out well.

Now you know what it was like for Abraham. This story is in the Bible for you.

Do you desire God and his way and his promises more than anything, and do you believe that he can and will honor your faith and obedience by being unashamed to call himself your God, and to use all his wisdom and power and love to turn the path of obedience into the path of life and joy?

That is the crisis you face now: Do you desire him? Will you trust him? The word of God to you is: God is worthy and God is able.

John Piper

The Truth Shall Make You Free

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: 

Have you ever been to a circus and seen an elephant chained to a stake in the ground? Why doesn’t he break free? Because as a young elephant he was tied to a tree. And try as he might, he couldn’t break free. Now the thought that he cannot break free is ingrained.

How true that is of you and me who have ingrained thought patterns in our lives. We say, “I am chained to this habit and I can’t break free.” Or we say, “I’m not good enough.” All kinds of lies keep us in bondage, but real truth is what God says, not what we think.

ACTION POINT:

Are there any strongholds in your life that keep you chained to the past? Write down these verses and memorize them.

2 Corinthians 10:4 

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;”

Galatians 5:1

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

Now break free from the lies of the past as you tell yourself the truth!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Every Calvary Step Was Love

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us. (1 John 3:16)

The love of Christ for us in his dying was as conscious as his suffering was intentional. If he was intentional in laying down his life, it was for us. It was love.

“When Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1).

Every step on the Calvary road meant, “I love you.”

Therefore, to feel the love of Christ in the laying down of his life, it helps to see how utterly intentional it was.

Look at what Jesus said just after that violent moment when Peter tried to cleave the skull of the servant, but only cut off his ear.

Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” (Matthew 26:52–54)

It is one thing to say that the details of Jesus’s death were predicted in the Old Testament. But it is much more to say that Jesus himself was making his choices precisely to see to it that the Scriptures would be fulfilled.

That is what Jesus said he was doing in Matthew 26:54. “I could escape this misery, but how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”

In other words, I am not choosing to take the way out that I could take because I know the Scriptures. I know what must take place for my people to be saved. It is my choice to fulfill all that is predicted of me in the word of God. It is my choice — every step of the way — to love my people to the uttermost. And I want them to feel this. And be utterly secure and free and radically different from the world.

John Piper

You Are Loved!

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” Jeremiah 31:3

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: 

Valentine’s Day is a day for lovers. Did you know that Jesus is the lover of your soul? He is. You, as part of the church, are His bride…His chosen one.

Our Lord loves us with an infinite love, an everlasting love, and an indescribable love.

Are you without a valentine today? Take heart…His heart. He has set His affection on you. Jesus has purchased you, not with silver or gold as a bridegroom would have in Jesus’ day, but our Lord has purchased you with the silver of His tears and with the gold of His blood.

You are loved!

ACTION POINT: 

Every time you get a Valentine or see an advertisement for Valentine’s Day or hear someone say, “Happy Valentine’s Day,” remember that Jesus is the Lover of your Soul.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

To Testify

Discipleship, are you able? 

But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. - Acts 20:24

Then Paul answered, "What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." - Acts 21:13

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. - 2 Timothy 4:7

For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry." - Acts 1:17

I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, - 1 Timothy 1:12

Paul, an apostle-not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead- - Galatians 1:1

but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. - 1 Thessalonians 2:4

But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, - Acts 26:16

and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior; - Titus 1:3

testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. - Acts 20:21

And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. - Acts 15:7

And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. - Acts 20:32

and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. - 1 Timothy 1:14

When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, - Acts 11:23