What Is Meekness?

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5)

Meekness begins when we put our trust in God. Then, because we trust him, we commit our way to him. We roll onto him our anxieties, our frustrations, our plans, our relationships, our jobs, our health.

And then we wait patiently for the Lord. We trust his timing and his power and his grace to work things out in the best way for his glory and for our good.

The result of trusting God, and the rolling of our anxieties onto God, and waiting patiently for him is that we don’t give way to quick and fretful anger. But instead, we give place to wrath and hand our cause over to God and let him vindicate us if he chooses.

And then, as James says, in this quiet confidence we are slow to speak and quick to listen (James 1:19). We become reasonable and open to correction (James 3:17). James calls this the “meekness of wisdom” (James 3:13).

Meekness loves to learn. And it counts the corrective blows of a friend as precious (Proverbs 27:6). And when it must say a critical word to a person caught in sin or error, it speaks from the deep conviction of its own fallibility and its own susceptibility to sin and its utter dependence on the grace of God (Galatians 6:1).

The quietness and openness and vulnerability of meekness is very beautiful and very painful. It goes against all that we are by our sinful nature. It requires supernatural help.

If you are a disciple of Jesus Christ — if you trust him and commit your way to him and wait patiently for him — God has already begun to help you and will help you even more.

And the primary way that he will help you is to assure your heart that you are a fellow heir of Jesus Christ and that the world and everything in it is yours (1 Corinthians 3:21–23). The meek inherit the earth.

John Piper

When darkness overshadows you...

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of His servant... let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God. Isaiah 50:10

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

I’ve always been amazed by the advice worldly people give to someone who’s hurting: “When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on!” Can you visualize someone dangling over a cliff, holding onto a rope, and trying to tie a knot? It takes two hands to do that!

The first thing we need to remember is “Don’t demand to understand.” There are some things in life you and I will never understand. When God allows darkness to overshadow your life, don’t set about trying to explain it. That’s a recipe for frustration.

Trust that His light will come. “Stay upon God” in the Amplified reads, “Let him rely on, trust in, and be confident in the name of the Lord, and let him lean upon and be supported by his God.”

Wait for Him. He will come to you. He is walking beside you.

ACTION POINT:

There’s someone out there who is hurting today and needs more than a pat answer of encouragement. Give them the light of Christ.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Ideas Have Consequences

The aim of our charge is love. (1 Timothy 1:5)

Victor Frankl was imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau during the Second World War. As a Jewish professor of neurology and psychiatry he became world renowned for his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, which sold over eight million copies.

In it he unfolds the essence of his philosophy that came to be called Logotherapy — namely, that the most fundamental human motive is to find meaning in life. He observed in the horrors of the concentration camps that man can endure almost any “how” of life, if he has a “why.” But the quote that stirred me recently was this:

I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers. (“Victor Frankl at Ninety: An Interview,” in First Things, April 1995, p. 41.)

In other words, ideas have consequences — consequences that bless or destroy. People’s behavior — good and bad — does not come out of nowhere. It comes from prevailing views of reality that take root in the mind and bring forth good or evil.

One of the ways that the Bible makes plain the truth that ideas have practical consequences is by saying things like, “Whatever was written in former days was written . . . [that] we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). The ideas presented in the Scriptures produce the practical consequence of hope.

Again, Paul says, “The aim of our charge is love” (1 Timothy 1:5). The imparting of ideas through a “charge” or through “instruction” produces love.

Hope and love do not come from nowhere. They grow out of ideas — views of reality — revealed in the Scriptures.

Another way the Scriptures show us that ideas have consequences is by using the word “therefore” (1,039 times in the NASB). “Therefore” means that what follows comes from somewhere. For example, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Or: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Or: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow” (Matthew 6:34).

If we want to live in the power of these great practical “therefores,” we must be gripped by the ideas — the views of reality — that go before them and stand under them. Ideas have consequences. So, let’s bring all our ideas under the authority of God’s word.

John Piper

Two Presidents said this about their mothers:

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Exodus 20:12

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

One time I had the privilege of speaking with the 41st President of the United States, George H. W. Bush, about his salvation and personal relationship with Christ and prayed with him about that. He looked me in the eyes and said, “I want to tell you, my mother was the most godly person I have ever known.”  He then went on to tell me about her influence in his life.

Abraham Lincoln said, “All that I am or ever hope to be I owe to my angel mother.” This time every year we celebrate our mothers. Oh, the power of a mother’s love!

Do you know what children need? A – B – C: 

Acceptance 

Belonging

Confidence

ACTION POINT:

Thank God for magnificent mothers!Thank God for the impact of godly mothers in the lives of children.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

How can I be sure of my faith?

13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.

15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. - 1 John 5:13-15

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-

3 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.

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-

6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. - Ephesians 2:1-10

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. - Romans 10:9-10

13 For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"

16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?"

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. - Romans 10:13-17

20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, "I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me." 

21 But of Israel he says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people." - Romans 10:20-21

8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;

12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. - Colossians 1:8-14

3 test or traits of authentic faith

1. Belief 

20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

21 I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.

22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.

23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

24 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.

25 And this is the promise that he made to us-eternal life.

26 I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.

27 But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie-just as it has taught you, abide in him.

28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. - 1 John 2:20-28

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,

3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.

6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. - 1 John 4:1-6

Sound teaching-doctrine matters and false doctrine kills.

2. Obedience 

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. - 1 John 1:5-7

God is light. 

Walking with Him we become people of light.

3. Love

14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.

15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. - 1 John 3:14-15

The Gospel makes our unity possible.

Our disunity makes the Gospel laughable.

Cultivate a love for the truth.

Ask God to give you fresh assurance of His love.

Take responsibility for fellow member's spiritual health and vice versa.

Keep leaning on God's sufficient grace.

but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him."  - Hebrews 10:38

Thanks Pastor Matt!!

At the Bottom of It All

In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. (Ephesians 1:4–5)

The experience of Charles Spurgeon is not beyond the ability of any ordinary Christian.

Spurgeon, who lived from 1834 to 1892, was a contemporary and friend of George Mueller and Hudson Taylor. He served the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London for over thirty years as the most famous pastor of his day.

His preaching was so powerful that people were converted to Christ every week. His sermons are still in print today and he is held up by many as a model soul winner.

He recalls an experience when he was sixteen that shaped his life and ministry for the rest of his days.

When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this.

I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths [the doctrines of sovereign, overcoming grace] in my own soul — when they were, as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron, and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown, on a sudden, from a babe into a man — that I had made progress in Scriptural knowledge, through having found, once for all, that clue to the truth of God.

One weeknight, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher’s sermon, for I did not believe it.

The thought struck me, How did you come to be a Christian? I sought the Lord. But how did you come to seek the Lord? The truth flashed across my mind in a moment — I should not have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so?

Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, “I ascribe my change wholly to God.”

What about you? Do you ascribe your conversion wholly to God? Is he the bottom of it all? Does this cause you to praise the glory of his sovereign, overcoming grace?

John Piper

I couldn't help it; won't fly...

BIBLE MEDITATION:

For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. Psalm 103:14

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

When a factory mechanic builds a truck, he knows the chassis of that truck and the load it can carry. In the same way, God knows your frame and He knows the load you can carry.

God is faithful; He will not allow you to be tempted above that which you are able. Nothing comes to you but that which comes through God. Even what Satan does, he can only do as God allows it. You can say, “The temptation was so strong I couldn’t overcome it,” but it won’t be true. God will provide a way of escape.

ACTION POINT:

When you are tempted today (notice I didn’t say “if” but “when”), ask God to provide a way of escape. Then trust His way and obey.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers