Grace And Truth

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. - John 1:14

16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. - John 1:16-18

4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,

5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,

6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing-as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,

7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf

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 1:4-14

1 The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth,

2 because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever:

3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love.

4 I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father.

5 And now I ask you, dear lady-not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning-that we love one another.

6 And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.

8 Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.

9 Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting,

11 for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. - 2 John 1:1-11

God’s Grace in Spiritual Gifts

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace. (1 Peter 4:10)

When we use our spiritual gifts, we are stewarding grace — not yesterday’s grace, but today’s, arriving in every moment of need. And this future grace is “varied grace.” It comes in many colors and shapes and sizes. This is one of the reasons spiritual gifts in the body are so diverse. The prism of God’s gifts in your life will refract shades of divine glory that would never come through my prism.

There are as many future graces as there are needs in the body of Christ — and more. The purpose of spiritual gifts is to receive and dispense the future grace of God to those needs.

But someone may ask, “Why do you take Peter to refer to future grace? Doesn’t a steward manage a household store that is already on hand?”

The main reason I take Peter to refer to future grace is because the next verse illustrates how this works, and the reference there is to ongoing supplies of future grace. He says, “Whoever serves, [let him serve] by the strength that God supplies — in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:11). The word is “supplies,” not “supplied.” As you serve, serve in the power of the ongoing supply of God’s grace to do what you need to do.

When you fulfill your spiritual gift to serve someone tomorrow, you will be serving “by the strength that God supplies” — and the supply will be tomorrow, not today. “As your days, so shall your strength be” (Deuteronomy 33:25).

God goes on, day-by-day, moment-by-moment, supplying the “strength” in which we minister. He does this because the on-going, inexhaustible supplier of power gets the glory. “Whoever serves, [let him serve] by the strength that God supplies — in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”

John Piper 

Why do you go through affliction?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Romans 8:18

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

God wants to build spiritual steel and rock-solid faith into you. And the way He will do this is through the fire of affliction. Why? To test you. The faith that can’t be tested, can’t be trusted.

The times I have grown the most were not when everything was going fine. The times when we go through sorrow, pressure, and trouble are the growing pains of our lives with Christ. Isn’t that true?  Someone wrote these lines,

“I walked a mile with pleasure, she chatted all the way.

But left me none the wiser, for all she had to say. 

I walked a mile with sorrow and not a word said she. 

But oh the things I learned from her, when sorrow walked with me.”

ACTION POINT:

Are you in the fire of affliction? Trust that He will see you through and make you stronger when the test is over.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Power to Profess Christ

With great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. (Acts 4:33)

If our ministry is to witness to Christ tomorrow in some unsympathetic situation, the key will not be our brilliance; the key will be abundant future grace.

Of all people, the apostles seemed to need least help to give a compelling witness to the risen Christ. They had been with him for three years. They had seen him die. They had seen him alive after the crucifixion. In their witnessing arsenal they had “many proofs” (Acts 1:3). You might think that, of all people, their ministry of witnessing, in those early days, would sustain itself on the strength of the past glories that were still so fresh.

But that is not what the book of Acts tells us. The power to witness with faithfulness and effectiveness did not come mainly from memories of grace; it came from the new arrivals of “great grace.” “Great grace was upon them all.” That’s the way it was for the apostles, and that’s the way it will be for us in our ministry of witnessing.

Whatever added signs and wonders God may show to amplify our witness to Christ, they will come the same way they came for Stephen. “And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8). Grace was arriving from God for all that Stephen needed — eventually all that he would need to die.

There is an extraordinary future grace and power that we may bank on in the crisis of special ministry need. It is a fresh act of power by which God “bore witness to the word of his grace” (Acts 14:3; see also Hebrews 2:4). The ever-arriving grace of power bears witness to the ever-given grace of truth.

John Piper 

Collusion or Collision?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” Romans 8:16

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A farmer and his farmhand went duck hunting. The farmer said to his friend, “You’re always talking about fighting with the devil. I’m not a Christian, and I never have to fight with the devil.” 

The farmhand answered, “Boss, if you and I shot two ducks, one was wounded and one was dead, which one would you go after first?” 

The farmer said, “Well, I guess the wounded duck.” 

“That’s right. The devil knows you’re a dead duck.”

If the devil doesn’t bother you, it’s because he doesn’t have to bother you since you and he are traveling in the same direction. If you turned around, you’d have a collision with him. Right now, you are in collusion with him.

ACTION POINT:

Are you a child of God? Then praise Him that He has given you the power over Satan and placed you on the pathway to see Him face to face!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Energy for Today’s To-Dos

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12–13)

God is the decisive worker here. Work out your own salvation . . . for it is God who works in you, the willing and the working. God wills and he works for his good pleasure. But believing this does not make Christians passive. It makes them hopeful and energetic and courageous.

Each day there is a work to be done in our special ministry. Paul commands us to work at doing it. But he tells us how to do it in the power that God supplies: believe him! Believe the promise that in this day God will be at work in you to will and work for his good pleasure.

It is God himself, graciously at work each moment, that brings the promise of future grace into our present experience. It is not the gratitude for past grace that Paul focuses on when explaining how we work out our salvation. I mention this simply because so many Christians, when asked what the motive is for obedience, will say gratitude. But that is not what Paul emphasizes when he talks about motive and power for our working. He focuses on faith in what God is yet to do, not just what he has done. Work out your salvation! Why? How? For there is fresh grace for every moment from God. He is at work in your willing and doing every time you will and do. Believe that for the challenges of the next hour and the next thousand years.

The power of future grace is the power of the living Christ — always there to work for us at every future moment that we enter. So when Paul describes the effect of the grace of God that was with him, he says, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience — by word and deed” (Romans 15:18).

Therefore, since he would not dare to speak of anything but what Christ accomplished through his ministry, and yet he did, in fact, speak of what grace accomplished through his ministry (1 Corinthians 15:10), this must mean that the power of grace is the power of Christ.

Which means that the power we need for the next five minutes and the next five decades of ministry is the future grace of the omnipotent Christ, who will always be there for us — ready to will and ready to work for his good pleasure.

John Piper 

Yes, you CAN do family worship (Dr. Roger's Recipe)

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Deuteronomy 11:18-19

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

When your children are little, it’s always good to have family worship, to start the day with the Word of God. Now, my wife and tried all kinds of things with our kids for family worship. I want to give you one of the simplest, easiest forms of family worship. I don’t know why I didn’t discover it a long time ago. It is such a blessing. We still do it with our grandchildren, and with our grown children at breakfast when they’re there.

We just let one of the little children who are old enough to read take the Bible and choose a proverb. They can choose it at random. Or, since Proverbs has 31 chapters—basically the same as the number of days in the month—choose a proverb from the corresponding day. If it’s the seventh, choose from the seventh chapter of Proverbs, and read a proverb, just one. And let that child explain what he thinks that proverb means.  Then everyone else just talk about it for a few moments.

It is so simple. But when your children are learning those proverbs and having to think about what they mean, you are giving them distilled wisdom, a nugget of truth they can carry with them to school and to work.

ACTION POINT:

Give your children and grandchildren wise instruction, but let that instruction be joined with training. Train up a child.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers