The Point of Creation

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)

God made humans in his image so that the world would be filled with reflectors of God. Images of God. Seven billion statues of God. So that nobody would miss the point of creation.

Nobody (unless they are stone blind) could miss the point of humanity, namely, God — knowing, loving, showing God. The angels cry in Isaiah 6:3, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” It is full of billions of human image-bearers. Glorious ruins.

But not only humans. Also nature! Why such a breathtaking world for us to live in? Why such a vast universe?

I once read that there are more stars in the universe than there are words and sounds that all humans of all time have ever spoken. Why are there so many? So large? So bright? At such unimaginable distances? The Bible is crystal clear about this: “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1).

If someone asks, “If earth is the only inhabited planet and man the only rational inhabitant among the stars, why such a large and empty universe?” The answer is: It’s not about us. It’s about God. And it’s an understatement. He is more glorious. Greater in power. Greater in scope. Greater brightness. Than all the galaxies combined. One wise man said, the universe is like a peanut that God carries around in his pocket.

God created us to know him and love him and show him. And then he gave us a hint of what he is like: the universe.

John Piper 

What does God want most for you?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James 1:2-4

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

What does God want most for you? To experience the fullness of Christ. So what does He want from you? The only way to experience the fullness of Christ is through trials and tribulations. But can you be patient during this process? That’s the key. If you’re like most people, probably not. We become like children who don’t know the difference between “No” and “Not yet.” If you say, “Wait a while,” to them that is, “No.” They want it now. But God is interested in maturing you.

A Danish proverb says, “Give to a pig when it grunts and give to a child when it cries, and you will have a fine pig and a bad child.” Tribulation brings patience, and patience makes us mature.

ACTION POINT:

What are you waiting for? What are you struggling with? Give it to Jesus. Trust in His timing and His provision.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Jesus Bought Your Endurance

This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:20)

What that means is that the new covenant, promised most explicitly in Jeremiah 31 and 32, was secured and sealed by the blood of Jesus. The new covenant comes true for God’s people who trust the Messiah, Jesus, because Jesus died to establish it.

And what does the new covenant secure for all who belong to Christ? Perseverance in faith to the end.

Listen to Jeremiah 32:40,

“I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.”

The everlasting covenant — the new covenant — includes the unbreakable promise, “I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.” They may not. They will not. Christ sealed this covenant with his blood. He purchased your perseverance if you are in Jesus Christ through faith.

If you are persevering in faith today, you owe it to the blood of Jesus. The Holy Spirit, who is working in you to preserve your faith, is honoring the purchase of Jesus. God the Spirit works in us what God the Son obtained for us. The Father planned it. Jesus bought it. The Spirit applies it — all of them infallibly.

God is totally committed to the perseverance and eternal security of his blood-bought children.

John Piper

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