Longing For His Return

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“...we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” 1 Thessalonians 4:17

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: 

Is your heart longing for Jesus to return? Are you looking for Him? I am. The coming of Jesus is really the only hope for this world.

And when will that be? I don’t know. It may be at morning when the clouds break open with sunlight and shadows of night recede from the sky. It may be at noon when the world is hustling and bustling. It may be at dusk when the birds are singing their evening song. Or at midnight, when the stars will dim by the blaze of glory when He descends from the heavenlies.

What joy fills my heart! Does it fill yours as well to think of that moment? Are you ready?

ACTION POINT:

Look up into the skies today and think about His return. Can you imagine the sound of the trumpets and the voice of the angels announcing His return?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Radical Effects of the Resurrection

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:19)

Paul concludes from his hourly danger, and his daily dying, and his fighting with wild beasts, that the life he has chosen in following Jesus is foolish and pitiable if he will not be raised from the dead.

If death were the end of the matter, he says, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (1 Corinthians 15:32). This doesn’t mean: Let’s all become gluttons and drunkards if there is no resurrection. Drunkards are pitiable too — with or without the resurrection. He means: If there is no resurrection, what makes sense is middle-class moderation to maximize earthly pleasures.

But that is not what Paul chooses. He chooses suffering, because he chooses obedience. Ananias came to Paul after his encounter with Christ on the Damascus road, with the words from the Lord Jesus, “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9:16). Paul accepted this suffering as part of his calling.

How could Paul do it? What was the source of this radical and painful obedience? The answer is given in 1 Corinthians 15:20: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” In other words, Christ was raised, and I will be raised with him. Therefore, nothing suffered for Jesus is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).

The hope of the resurrection radically changed the way Paul lived. It freed him from materialism and consumerism. It gave him the power to go without comforts and pleasures that many people feel they must have in this life. For example, though he had the right to marry (1 Corinthians 9:5), he renounced that pleasure because he was called to bear so much suffering.

This is the way Jesus said the hope of the resurrection is supposed to change our behavior. For example, he told us to invite to our homes people who cannot pay us back in this life. How are we to be motivated to do this? “You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14).

This is a radical call for us to look hard at our present lives to see if they are shaped by the hope of the resurrection. Do we make decisions on the basis of gain in this world, or gain in the next? Do we take risks for love’s sake that can only be explained as wise if there is a resurrection?

May God help us to rededicate ourselves for a lifetime of letting the resurrection have its radical effects.

John Piper 

What Is Success?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: 

You’ve heard it said, “The one who dies with the most toys wins.” Is that success? Having your dreams come true? Getting all you want? Earning enough money so that you never have to work again?

May I tell you what success is? And I say this without equivocation. Success is the progressive realization of the will of God for your life. That’s what it is.

It’s not how much money you have. It’s not how famous you are. It’s not how healthy you are. It’s not how many friends you have or how many toys you have acquired. Success is nothing more, nothing less, than the progressive realization of the will of God for your life.

ACTION POINT:

Do you want to know God’s will? Do you want your heart’s desire to come true?

Read Micah 6:8. What does God require of you? 

Read Psalm 37:4. What is God calling you to do?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Living A Life In Christ In A Cynical Society

13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

14 Let all that you do be done in love.

15 Now I urge you, brothers-you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints-

16 be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer.

17 I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence,

18 for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people. - 1 Corinthians 16:13-18

1 Corinthians 

Living a selfish life

Chapter 1&2

Living a worldly life

Chapter 3&4

Believers who are hurting

Chapter 5 

Sexual immorality 

Chapter 6 

Suing

Chapter 7

Divorcing

Chapter 8&9

They have become desensitized 

Chapter 10

Worshiping false gods

Chapter 11

Take Lord's supper in vain

Chapters 12-14

Paganism of spiritual gifts

Chapter 15

Resurrection brings not only new life but forgiveness.

God should have given up on believers.

Live a life victorious to Christ.

We have refreshment or rest in Christ.

We are sanctified in Christ.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.- Matthew 11:28

Vigilance 

Never give up.

Watch.

Stand fast.

Stand firm.

Guard the doctrine of God.

Never compromise the word of God.

Pray to God.

Relationships must have passion.

Your heart has to be changed.

Christ will change your heart.

Unconditional love through Christ.

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5:8

We need the body of Christ.

We need revival.

We stand together.

Refresh us again, Lord.

Thanks Dr. Caner!

When God Becomes 100% for Us

. . . among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Ephesians 2:3)

All of God’s wrath, all of the condemnation we deserve, was poured out on Jesus. All of God’s demands for perfect righteousness were fulfilled by Christ. The moment we see (by grace!) this Treasure, and receive him in this way, his death counts as our death and his condemnation as our condemnation and his righteousness as our righteousness, and God becomes 100% irrevocably for us forever in that instant.

The question this leaves unanswered is, “Doesn’t the Bible teach that in eternity God set his favor on us in election?”

In other words, thoughtful people ask, “Did God only become 100% for us in the moment of faith and union with Christ and justification? Did he not become 100% for us in the act of election before the foundation of the world?” Paul says in Ephesians 1:4–5, “[God] chose us in [Jesus] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.”

Is God then not 100% for the elect from eternity? The answer hangs on the meaning of “100%.”

With the term “100%” I am trying to preserve a biblical truth found in several passages of Scripture. For example, in Ephesians 2:3, Paul says that Christians were “children of wrath” before they were made alive in Christ Jesus: “We all once lived [among the sons of disobedience] in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

Paul is saying that, before our new birth — before we were made alive together with Christ — God’s wrath was on us. The elect were under wrath. This changed when God made us alive in Christ Jesus and awakened us to see the truth and beauty of Christ so that we received him as the one who died for us and as the one whose righteousness is counted as ours because of our union with Jesus. Before this happened to us, we were under God’s wrath. Then, because of faith in Christ and union with him, all God’s wrath was removed and he then became, in that sense, 100% for us.

Therefore, exult in the truth that God will keep you. He will get you to the end because in Christ he is 100% for you. And therefore, getting to the end does not make God to be 100% for you. It is the effect of the fact that he is already 100% for you.

John Piper

Living By Promises Not Explanations

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him.” Matthew 6:8

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: 

According to an article, Henry Ford asked some engineers to box the transmissions for his Model-T Fords in certain sized boxes. He gave meticulous dimensions and material instructions for these boxes. The builders were confused, but they did as they were told.

When the transmissions were delivered, the factory workers took apart the boxes and used them for the floorboards! Mr. Ford was thinking ahead!

That’s what God does. He knows what we need even before we ask Him. We may not understand all of His ways, just like those workers who were boxing up the transmissions did not understand.

We do not live by our understanding; we live by His promises.

ACTION POINT:

Is there something happening in your life right now that you don’t understand? Read Proverbs 3:5-6 and trust in the promise that He will direct your path.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

You Are Greatly Loved

We all once lived among [the sons of disobedience] in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:3–5)

Would you not love to hear the angel Gabriel say to you, “You are greatly loved”?

Three times this happened to Daniel.

“At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved.” (Daniel 9:23)

“O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you.” (Daniel 10:11)

And he said, “O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.” (Daniel 10:19)

I admit that each year when I read through the Bible and come to these verses, I want to take them and apply them to myself. I want to hear God saying to me, “You are greatly loved.”

In fact, I do hear this. And you can hear it too. If you have faith in Jesus, God himself says to you in his word — which is more sure than an angel of God speaking — “You are greatly loved.”

There it stands in Ephesians 2:3–5, 8: We “were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. . . . For by grace you have been saved through faith.”

This is the only place where Paul uses this wonderful phrase “great love.” And it is better than an angel’s voice. If you have seen Jesus as true and received him as your supreme treasure, that is, if you are “alive,” you are greatly loved. Greatly loved by the Creator of the universe. Just think of it! Greatly loved!

John Piper