The Kind of Cold That Kills

He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. (Psalm 147:15)

Tonight it will be forty degrees warmer in our kitchen freezer than it is outside here in Minneapolis. The high temperature tomorrow will be five degrees below zero (Fahrenheit). We receive this from the Lord’s hand.

He sends out his command to the earth;

his word runs swiftly.

He gives snow like wool;

he scatters frost like ashes.

He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;

who can stand before his cold?

He sends out his word, and melts them;

he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.

(Psalm 147:15–18)

This is the kind of cold you do not play with. It kills.

When I came to Minnesota from South Carolina, I dressed for it. But I did not prepare life-saving support in my car in case of a breakdown.

One Sunday night on the way home from church, in this kind of cold, my car died. This was before cell phones. I had a wife and two small children in the car.

There was no one on this road. I suddenly realized, this is dangerous.

Soon it was very dangerous. No one came.

I saw in the distance through a fence a house. I am the father. This is my job. I climbed the fence and ran to the house and knocked on the door. They were home. I explained that I had a wife and two small children in the car, and asked if they would let us in. They did.

This is a kind of cold you do not play with.

It is one more way God says, “Whether hot or cold, high or deep, sharp or blunt, loud or quiet, bright or dark . . . don’t toy with me. I am God. I made all these things. They speak of me, just like the warm summer breezes do, and the gentle rains, and the soft moonlit nights, and the lapping of the lakeside, and lilies of the field and the birds of the air.”

There is a word for us in this cold. May the Lord give us skin to feel and ears to hear.

John Piper 

The Value Of A Soul

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold...but with the precious blood of Christ.” 1 Peter 1:18-19

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: 

I was talking to a man who sold real estate and asked him, “What determines the worth of a piece of property?”

He said, “What a person is willing to pay for it.”

In other words, it doesn’t matter how much you paid for it yourself. It’s what another person is willing to pay to have it for himself or herself.

That makes me want to shout! You and I must be worth something if Jesus would pay His life to have us for His own. Jesus is the proof of how much we’re worth.

ACTION POINT:

Do you know how much you weigh? Call a jeweler or a bank today and ask how much your weight is worth in gold. Then realize there’s no comparison to your worth in blood…the blood of Jesus Christ.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

When You Are Immortal

When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. (Acts 23:12)

What about those hungry fellows who promised not to eat till they had ambushed Paul?

We read about them in Acts 23:12, “When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.” It didn’t work. Why? Because a string of unlikely events happened.

A boy overheard the plot.

The boy was the son of Paul’s sister.

The boy had the courage to go to the Roman centurion guarding Paul.

The centurion took him seriously and brought him to the tribune.

The tribune believed him and prepared “two hundred soldiers, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spear men” to take Paul to safety.

Every one of those events was highly unlikely. Strange. But that’s what happened.

What had those hungry men lying in ambush overlooked? They failed to reckon with what happened to Paul just before they made their plot. The Lord appeared to Paul in prison and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome” (Acts 23:11).

Christ said Paul was going to Rome. And that was that. No ambush can stand against the promise of Christ. Until he got to Rome, Paul was immortal. There was a final testimony to be given. And Christ would see to it that Paul would give it.

You too have final testimony to give. And you are immortal until you give it.

John Piper

When In Doubt, Let Jesus Be Your Peace

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.” Matthew 14:31-32

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: 

A man was in the back bedroom of his home getting dressed while his wife was in the living room talking to a friend. He called out to his wife, “Darling, is this shirt clean enough for me to wear?”

Without hesitation she said, “No.”

He said, “How did you know it wasn’t clean enough to wear? You didn’t even come back to look at it.”

She answered, “If you had to ask, it wasn’t clean enough!”

When it comes to the question of whether you should do something or not, if it’s doubtful, it’s dirty. Don’t. Unfortunately, most of us don’t give God the benefit of the doubt. We just go ahead and do it.

ACTION POINT:

Are you in doubt about something today? If you have even the smallest doubt in your heart that it might be sin or lead to sin, be strong and choose to say “No.” He will be your peace.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

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