Our Amen To God For His Glory

20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.

21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us,

22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. - 2 Corinthians 1:20-22

8 For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs,

9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, "Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name." 

10 And again it is said, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people." 

11 And again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him." 

12 And again Isaiah says, "The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope." 

13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. - Romans 15:8-13

"And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: 'The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. - Revelation 3:14

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through him and for him.

17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. - Colossians 1:15-20

14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful.

15 What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.

16 Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say "Amen" to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying?

17 For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. - 1 Corinthians 14:14-17

22 "The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. 

23 Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. 

24 When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.  - Proverbs 8:22-24

1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,

2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. - John 17:1-5

Christ is a servant and a King.

God establishes you when you become Christ's. 

We give God the glory for Christ. 

Christ is the firstborn of creation, given a purpose by God before time began.

By Christ alone we can be reconciled to God.

There is a judgment coming.

There will be an eternal resting place for you.

There are two places, heaven or hell. 

They are a real places. 

Hell, a place of torment and separation or heaven, a place of worship, hope and joy.

You must be obedient and turn from your sin recognizing that Christ death and resurrection hold the power for your salvation.

There is salvation in no one else!

God Demonstrates His Love

God shows [demonstrates] his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Notice that “demonstrates” is present tense and “died” is past tense. “God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The present tense implies that this demonstrating is an ongoing act that keeps happening today. And will keep happening tomorrow.

The past tense “died” implies that the death of Christ happened once for all and will not be repeated. “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

Why did Paul use the present tense (“God demonstrates”)? I would have expected Paul to say, “God demonstrated (past tense) his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Was not the death of Christ, when it happened, the demonstration of God’s love? And did not that demonstration happen in the past?

I think the clue is given a few verses earlier. Paul has just said that “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame” (Romans 5:3–5).

In other words, the goal of everything God takes us through is hope. He wants us to feel unwaveringly hopeful through all tribulations.

But how can we?

Paul answers in the next line: “Because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5). God’s love has been poured into our hearts. The tense of this verb means that God’s love was poured out in our hearts in the past (at our conversion) and is still present and active.

God did demonstrate his love for us in giving his own Son to die once for all in the past for our sins (Romans 5:8). But he also knows that this past love must be experienced as a present reality (today and tomorrow) if we are to have patience and character and hope.

Therefore, he not only demonstrated it on Calvary; he goes on demonstrating it now by the Spirit in our hearts. He does this by opening the eyes of our hearts to taste and see the glory of the cross and the guarantee it gives that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38–39).

John Piper 

Look who's cheering for you!

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Hebrews 12:1

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A soft-spoken woman went to a high school football game. She’d been quiet the entire game until there was a fumble on the field. The substitute quarterback, a little scrawny kid, picked up the ball and started running past the other players toward the goal.

This little lady exploded! Jumping up she said, “Run, baby, run! Run, baby, run!” The substitute quarterback was her son.

That’s what the saints are saying, as they watch us on the playing field of life. They are cheering us on from the heavenly grandstand to “run with patience, the race that is set before us.”

ACTION POINT:

Do you need a lift today? Imagine a grandstand the size of heaven cheering you on to victory!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Wisdom Verses Knowledge

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. - James 1:5

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.  - Proverbs 1:7

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, - 1 Corinthians 1:30

3 yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, 

4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, 

5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. 

6 For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; 

7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,  - Proverbs 2:3-7

8 But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand. 

9 It is not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right.  - Job 32:8-9

Wisdom definition 

Good sense or judgment, determining what is right 

Knowledge definition 

Info gained experience

We can be knowledgeable without having wisdom.

Knowledge comes from studying.

Knowledge takes time, savoring each bit of information.

Wisdom comes from God and His gift of how we apply knowledge!

Lord, let us have knowledge of Your word. 

We ask for wisdom in teaching and sharing. 

Amen

Dirty Rags No More

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. (Isaiah 64:6)

It is true that any shortcoming of God’s law offends his perfect holiness and makes us liable to judgment, since God cannot look with favor on any sin (Habakkuk 1:13; James 2:10–11).

But what brought a person to ruin in the Old Testament (and it is the same for us today) was not the failure to have the righteousness of sinless perfection. What brought them to ruin was the failure to trust in the merciful promises of God, especially the hope that he would one day provide a Redeemer who would be a perfect righteousness for his people (“The Lord is our righteousness,” Jeremiah 23:6; 33:16). The Old Testament saints knew that this is how they were saved, and that this faith was the key to obedience, and that obedience was the evidence of this faith.

It is terribly confusing when people say that the only righteousness that has any value is the imputed righteousness of Christ. To be sure, justification is not grounded on any of our righteousness — even Spirit-given righteousness by faith — but only on the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. But sometimes people are careless and speak disparagingly of all human righteousness, as if there were no such righteousness worked in us that pleased God. This is not helpful.

They often cite Isaiah 64:6, which says our righteousness is as filthy rags, or “a polluted garment.”

But in the context, Isaiah 64:6 does not mean that all righteousness performed by God’s people is unacceptable to God. Isaiah is referring to people whose righteousness is in fact hypocritical. It is no longer righteousness. But in the verse just before this, Isaiah says that God approvingly meets “him who joyfully works righteousness” (Isaiah 64:5).

It’s true — gloriously true — that none of God’s people, before or after the cross, would be accepted by an immaculately holy God if the perfect righteousness of Christ were not imputed to us (Romans 5:19; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21). That is true! But that does not mean God does not produce in those very “justified” people an experiential righteousness that is not a “polluted garment” — even though it is not yet perfected.

In fact, he does produce such a righteousness, and this righteousness is precious to God and is, in fact, required — not as the ground of our justification (which is the righteousness of Christ only), but as an evidence of our being truly justified children of God. This is what Paul prays for, and we should pray for. He prays in Philippians 1:10–11 “that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

John Piper 

What if a prince was praying for you...?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Hebrews 7:25

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Do you ever feel you are all alone when a struggle hits your life? 

Tell yourself, “I am graced by His prayers.”

Jesus is watching over you, and He is praying for you. The Savior. The Shepherd. The King. The Prince. He is praying for you! Do you feel encouraged? I do!

Just to know that the One who died for me “ever liveth to make intercession” for me is enough. He lives to stand in the gap for you and for me. What a mighty God we serve! What mercy we don’t deserve! You are on Jesus’ prayer list! 

You. 

He knows you. And He is praying you through the eye of the storm.

ACTION POINT:

Do you have a prayer list? Go through that list today and pray for someone you haven’t prayed for in awhile and trust God to answer, even today!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Fifteen Tactics for Joy

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11)

In this life of sin and pain, joy is embattled. Just like faith. And Paul says to Timothy, “Fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Timothy 6:12). So it is with joy. We must work for it and fight for it. Paul said to the Corinthians, “We work with you for your joy” (2 Corinthians 1:24).

How then shall we fight for joy? Here are 15 pointers.

Realize that authentic joy in God is a gift.

Realize that joy must be fought for relentlessly. And don’t be put off by the paradox of these first two pointers!

Resolve to attack all known sin in your life, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Learn the secret of gutsy guilt — how to fight like a justified sinner.

Realize that the battle is primarily a fight to see — to see God for who he is.

Meditate on the word of God day and night.

Pray earnestly and continually for open heart-eyes and an inclination for God.

Learn to preach to yourself rather than listen to yourself.

Spend time with God-saturated people who help you see God and fight the fight.

Be patient in the night of God’s seeming absence.

Get the rest, exercise, and proper diet that your body was designed by God to have.

Make a proper use of God’s revelation in nature — take a walk in the woods.

Read great books about God and biographies of great saints.

Do the hard and loving thing for the sake of others (your verbal witness and deeds of mercy).

Get a global vision for the cause of Christ, and pour yourself out for the unreached.

John Piper