Wha's in the eye of your storm?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Colossians 3:15

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

In Florida where I was raised, we had a lot of hurricanes. Even as a child I learned that in the center of the worst hurricane, there’s a calm called the “eye” of the storm. When the storm passes over, there is a calm like a mill pond on a summer evening.

Friend, in your storm today there is a center that is calm. It’s the heart of God. He is there. He is the “I AM” in the midst of your storm.

As someone has well said, “God gives peace that the world can’t take away.” It is supernatural peace.

ACTION POINT:

Do you have the peace of God in your heart? Claim the promise of Psalm 29:11, Isaiah 26:3, and Romans 5:1 today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Doubt - The Enemy of Faith

Doubt - a feeling of uncertainty, lack of conviction 

Doubt is the struggle all people face.

Do you find yourself making faces when people tell you things they will do?

Have you ever used these phrases?

I'll believe it when I see it!

If I was a betting man!

That dude ain't worth water!

When pigs fly!

When h freezes over!

Have you ever been made promises that weren't kept?

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!" - Mark 9:24

God is faithful even though we have our doubts and fears!

You must have a relationship with God.

What can we learn from Abraham about doubt and faith that would help us remain faithful to God?

Doubt causes us to focus on our present situation.

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." - Genesis 15:1

Fear not He is your shield.

Every child of God has this as their hope 

Doubt enters!

He is focusing on the present.

2 But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"

3 And Abram said, "Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir." - Genesis 15:2-3

Faith causes us to focus on God!

4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: "This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir."

5 And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." - Genesis 15:4-5

Look to God!

Look forward not backwards!

You have a choice to make...doubt or faith.

And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. - Genesis 15:6

God is sovereign.

He is not to be approached with a mind of maybe, He will do what He says!

With God, you are either all in or all out.

Holy God is worthy of your all!!

Even though we doubt, God is faithful.

7 And he said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess."

8 But he said, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" - Genesis 15:7-8

God made a covenant with Abraham!

This shows His faithfulness.

Just as God has made a covenant with me and you through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Through faith alone, in Christ alone!

9 He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."

10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half.

11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.

13 Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.

14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.

16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."

17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.

18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,

19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,

20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,

21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites." - Genesis 15:9-21

Thank you Pastor Draper!!!

10 Things “Yahweh” Means

God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.” (Exodus 3:15)

God’s name is almost always translated LORD (all caps) in the English Bible. But the Hebrew would be pronounced something like “Yahweh,” and is built on the word for “I am.”

So every time we hear the word Yahweh, or every time you see LORD in the English Bible, you should think: this is a proper name (like Peter or John) built out of the word for “I am” and reminding us each time that God absolutely is.

There are at least 10 things the name Yahweh, “I AM,” says about God:

1. He never had a beginning. Every child asks, “Who made God?” And every wise parent says, “Nobody made God. God simply is. And always was. No beginning.”

2. God will never end. If he did not come into being he cannot go out of being, because he is being.

3. God is absolute reality. There is no reality before him. There is no reality outside of him unless he wills it and makes it. He is all that was eternally. No space, no universe, no emptiness. Only God.

4. God is utterly independent. He depends on nothing to bring him into being or support him or counsel him or make him what he is.

5. Everything that is not God depends totally on God. The entire universe is utterly secondary. It came into being by God and stays in being moment by moment on God’s decision to keep it in being.

6. All the universe is by comparison to God as nothing. Contingent, dependent reality is to absolute, independent reality as a shadow to substance. As an echo to a thunderclap. All that we are amazed by in the world and in the galaxies is, compared to God, as nothing.

7. God is constant. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He cannot be improved. He is not becoming anything. He is who he is.

8. God is the absolute standard of truth and goodness and beauty. There is no law-book to which he looks to know what is right. No almanac to establish facts. No guild to determine what is excellent or beautiful. He himself is the standard of what is right, what is true, what is beautiful.

9. God does whatever he pleases and it is always right and always beautiful and always in accord with truth. All reality that is outside of him he created and designed and governs as the absolute reality. So he is utterly free from any constraints that don’t originate from the counsel of his own will.

10. God is the most important and most valuable reality and person in the universe. He is more worthy of interest and attention and admiration and enjoyment than all other realities, including the entire universe.

John Piper 

Can you prove what you have is real?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

“Don't worry, be happy.” Everyone thinks that's good advice because we live in a generation seeking happiness. That's terrible advice. You can’t be happy all the time because happiness depends upon what “happens”—that’s why it’s called “happiness.” If your “hap” is good, you're happy. If your “hap” is bad, you're unhappy. But if you put your trust in happiness, you'll be a victim of circumstances, because your happenstance will change.

The Bible doesn't tell us to rejoice in circumstances but “Rejoice in the Lord.” Circumstances change; God never changes. Since He never changes, we can “Rejoice evermore” (1Thess. 5:16).

What's the difference between happiness and joy? Happiness is like a cosmetic whereas joy is like character. Happiness comes from outside circumstances. Joy comes from within. Happiness meets surface needs. Joy meets your deepest needs. Happiness is a thermometer—it registers conditions. Joy is a thermostat—it regulates conditions. Happiness evaporates in times of suffering. Joy frequently intensifies in times of suffering. In fact, it’s often intertwined with suffering.

It’s cruel to tell sorrowing people, “Smile and be happy.” We’re not expected to paste a smile on our face and be happy all the time. Jesus was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3). Yet the Bible spoke of the joy of the Lord, and that He was “anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows” (Heb. 1:9).

Dear friend, this is a life of tragedy, sorrow, heartache and pain. Yet in that sorrow, you can have joy when you base it upon who God is in your life. Happiness is an outside job. Joy is an inside job.

ACTION POINT:

Joy is the proof that what we have is real and that it satisfies. Joy is necessary in bringing unsaved people to Jesus Christ. We have nothing more winsome and attractive than the joy of the Lord. We’re told to serve the Lord with gladness (Psalm 100:2), for “The joy of the Lord is our strength” (Neh. 8:1). It is joy that lubricates life.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Can Loved Ones in Heaven Look Down on Me?

Here’s a question that is not rare, although because it’s a little bizarre, it may strike us as a weird question at first. But it’s sincere and important and not infrequent to our inbox. This time it comes from a listener named Leslie. “Pastor John, I am not trying to derive personal comfort from this question, I just honestly want to know: Can people who are in heaven look down and see us (their loved ones) on earth?”

Who of us would not like to know? Who has not asked this good question and wanted to know, especially those of us who have lost loved ones and think about it personally that way, as well as those who wonder whether Jonathan Edwards is looking down or the apostle Paul? So, let me say five things in response to this question.

1. We don’t know for sure.

“If dead saints see you at all, they are cheering you on to look to Jesus.

Ultimately, I think the answer is we don’t know for sure. At least, we don’t know to what extent they might be allowed to see and know all that goes on on earth. There is at least one passage of Scripture that some writers would interpret in a way that makes it quite clear that they do know what is going on. And I will get to that in just a moment, but I think that I would not stake my life on a position on this, because I don’t know for sure. But I will tell you what I think in just a minute.

2. If the saints see, they see with new eyes.

I would say that if God grants saints in heaven to see the suffering and misery, as well as the good on the earth, we may be sure that they see it not with their old, imperfect eyes and that they understand it not with their old imperfect minds and that they assess it not with their old imperfect hearts. Rather, we may be sure because the Bible says that they have been perfected in heaven (Hebrews 12:23).

They will see and understand and assess all things in a perfectly spiritual way that takes into account everything they need to know in order to make sense of it and to keep from making any mistakes. And so, they will not in the least doubt the goodness of God in what they see or the wisdom of God in what they see. That may be as important as any surety of whether they can come and see.

3. We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses.

There is one text that may well, I think, probably does — probably does — suggest it. God grants the saints in heaven to witness the race that we are running on earth. Hebrews 12:1 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

“Beware of spending too much time thinking about the saints above. You should never pray to or worship them.” Tweet Share on Facebook

Now, the reason that doesn’t settle things for me completely like it does for Henry Alford — he thinks that just closes the deal; he thinks they definitely see us, watch us, cheer for us — but the reason that doesn’t settle things completely for me is that the Greek word “witness” here, just a couple of verses earlier and three times at least in chapter 11, is a word used to refer to the testimony that the saints of old gave in their willingness to die for the truth of God. So, it is possible that Hebrews 12:1 — “surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” — simply means that all the saints in the past, when they died, successfully witnessed to their faith on earth and made it to heaven through their suffering. So, you can make it, too — not that they are watching you.

But I am inclined to think that it does mean that they are watching, partly because of the picture of the race. It is as though the saints finish their marathon at their death. Then they come around and stand on the side of the racetrack and watch us. And we are supposed to take heart from that because, in essence, they would be saying: Hang in there. Trust God. You can do this. We made it. You can make it, too. And I find that very, very encouraging.

4. Christ is the only mediator we need.

We should be cautioned to beware of spending too much time thinking about the saints above so that we are tempted to interact with them in the way that the Roman Catholics do when they pray to the saints and pray to Mary. I think this is very dangerous for the health of our faith. It has led many people, millions I fear, to look to the saints and to Mary in their longing for help, rather than focusing on Christ and the throne of grace that he has opened to us.

This very book of Hebrews that we just quoted also says, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence” — because of Christ — “draw near to the throne of grace” — not to Mary, not to the saints — “that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15–16) Christ is the one mediator between God and man. And the New Testament does not encourage us to make the saints or Mary into mediators as we seek God’s help.

5. Beware of sentimentalism.

The last thing I would say is a caution against sentimentalism. You know if you watch movies or television, sooner or later, it seems, every show that has somebody die is going to have some sentimental, sappy statement like, “Well, they are with the angels” or, “They are in heaven” or, “They are looking down on us” without any reference to God or Christ. And we are all tempted to hope that those who had no faith as far as we could see — or little faith — we hope they might be saved. Of course, Jesus is merciful and the thief on the cross was saved in his eleventh hour. And we are not the last judge. Maybe God turned somebody’s heart just before they died. We don’t make those judgments.

“Focus on the Bible’s central realities, which are absolutely certain and full of hope for all who trust in Christ.” Tweet Share on Facebook

But Jesus warns us, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:22–23). And that is a warning not just for ourselves, lest we deceive ourselves into thinking we are following Christ when we are not. It is also a warning that we not be sentimental as though everybody who is a good person who died is going to be in heaven.

Bottom Line

So, the bottom line is that we should focus on the great, central realities of the New Testament, which are rock solid, absolutely certain, and full of hope for all who trust in Christ. And if you think about the great saints in heaven, take heart. If they see you at all, they are cheering you on to endure every hardship by encouraging you to focus on Christ.

John Piper

As Secure as God Is Faithful

Those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:30)

Between eternity past in God’s predestination, and eternity future in God’s glorification, none is lost.

No one who is predestined for sonship fails to be called. And no one who is called fails to be justified. And no one who is justified fails to be glorified. This is an unbreakable steel chain of divine covenant faithfulness.

And so Paul says,

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6)

[He] will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:8–9)

These are the promises of our God who cannot lie. Those who are born again are as secure as God is faithful.

John Piper

Is a lion prowling around your life?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

People make two mistakes about the devil. One, they get into demonology—always studying, wondering, and talking about demons. Their focus rests on Satan rather than on the Lord Jesus. The Bible says we’re to resist the devil; it doesn’t say we’re to chase him.

On the other hand, some are flippant about the devil. They give him nicknames like “Ol’ Scratch” and see him as a cartoon or a fantasy.

The truth is, we have a powerful adversary, the devil. Peter likens him to a roaring lion! He is the enemy of our soul. He is the tempter, the lawless one, a destroyer, a deceiver, a serpent, a dragon, the evil one. Jesus called him a “murderer,” “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

A mature Christian recognizes that he has an enemy. He respects the power of the enemy. Then he resists him. “Whom resist steadfast in the faith…” (1 Peter 5:9). Not in your own power and not in your own strength. Cling to the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to overcome this great adversary.

ACTION POINT:

Is the lion prowling around your life? If you are saved, walking in the Spirit, “Greater is he that is in you,” that is, the Holy Spirit, “than he (the Devil) that is in the world.” Take up the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Put on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:11-16), that you may be able to stand and break free from his jaws of destruction.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers