By the Blood of the Eternal Covenant

20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,

21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. - Hebrews 13:20-21

Christ died for you!

His blood is the eternal covenant!

There is no other way to God's mercy and forgiveness but through the blood of His Son!

His blood washes your sin away and that is the only acceptable way to God!

You can not be good enough!

You can not buy your way to forgiveness!

If you want to be forgiven, fall before Christ, admit your sin, admit you are in need of a Savior, repent, and be thankful that Christ was obedient to His Father's command!

Be obedient to God!

24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

25 For David says concerning him, "'I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; 

26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. 

27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.  - Acts 2:24-27

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. - John 10:11

11 Then he remembered the days of old, of Moses and his people. Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put in the midst of them his Holy Spirit, 

12 who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to make for himself an everlasting name,  - Isaiah 63:11-12

26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?

30 For we know him who said, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people."

31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings,

33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.

34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. - Hebrews 10:26-34

11 As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. 

12 Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.  - Zechariah 9:11-12

For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed," says the LORD, who has compassion on you.  - Isaiah 54:10

Live Confident in God’s Sovereign Power

The immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe . . . (Ephesians 1:19)

The omnipotence of God means eternal, unshakable refuge in the everlasting glory of God no matter what happens on this earth. And that confidence is the source and power of radical obedience to the call of God.

Is there anything more freeing, more thrilling, or more strengthening than the truth that God Almighty is your refuge — all day, every day, in all the ordinary and extraordinary experiences of life?

If we believed this, if we really let this truth of God’s omnipotence get hold of us, what a difference it would make in our personal lives and in our ministries! How humble and powerful we would become for the saving purposes of God!

The omnipotence of God means refuge for the people of God. And when you really believe that your refuge is the omnipotence of God Almighty, there is a joy and a freedom and a power that spills over in a life of radical obedience to Jesus Christ.

The omnipotence of God means reverence, recompense, and refuge for his covenant people.

I invite you to accept the terms of his covenant of grace: Turn from sin and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ; and the omnipotence of God Almighty will be the reverence of your soul, the recompense of your enemies, and the refuge of your life — forever.

John Piper 

Are you needy or greedy?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

After this manner therefore, pray ye: ”Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread…” Matthew 6:9-11

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Do you see the order? First comes God’s name, God's kingdom, God's will, and then our need. If you don't get that priority straight, you'll never have power in prayer.

God is not a bellhop, running around Heaven to meet your needs. Prayer is not a place where man gets his will done in Heaven. Prayer is the way God gets His will done on earth.

“Our daily bread” is important because we must have bread to live. It’s also symbolic of any need you may have. This verse can also be translated, “Give us this day bread sufficient for us.” God will “supply all our need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:19). God will meet our need, not our greed.

ACTION POINT:

These days it seems almost everyone is struggling with financial problems. 

Are you having financial woes? Do you know someone who is? Share with them the Good News of God’s provision and faithfulness. You may be asking, “What good can possibly come from my financial problems?” They are wonderful opportunities to trust your Heavenly Father for your daily bread. Who is more secure? The man who has a warehouse full of stale bread or the man whose father is a rich baker? Which had you rather have? God delights to meet your need.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Life Hangs on the Word of God

He said to them, “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.” (Deuteronomy 32:46–47)

The word of God is not a trifle; it is a matter of life and death. If you treat the Scriptures as a trifle or as empty words, you forfeit life.

Even our physical life depends on God’s word, because by his word we were created (Psalm 33:6; Hebrews 11:3), and “he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3).

And our spiritual life begins by the word of God: “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth” (James 1:18). “You have been born again . . . through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).

Not only do we begin to live by God’s word, but we also go on living by God’s word: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3).

So our physical life is created and upheld by the word of God, and our spiritual life is quickened and sustained by the word of God. How many stories could be gathered to bear witness to the life-giving power of the word of God!

Indeed, the Bible is “no empty word for you” — it is your life! The foundation of all joy is life. Nothing is more fundamental than sheer existence — our creation and our preservation.

All this is owing to the word of God’s power. By that same power, he has spoken in Scripture for the creation and sustenance of our spiritual life. Therefore, the Bible is no empty word, but is your very life — the foundation and kindling of your joy!

John Piper 

Can you fast-track your harvest?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

. . . the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. James 5:7b

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Sometimes the things that count the most seem to take the longest to get here.

Some giant sequoias in California are 300 feet tall. That’s the height of a 30 story building! Yet each one began with the smallest of seeds that grew and matured since before the time of Christ! That’s a long time.

You may say you’re going to serve God, and then you start to do something for Him. But when you don’t reap a harvest immediately, you get discouraged. Don’t try to hurry the harvest. In due season, you will reap.

ACTION POINT:

Have you shared Christ with people and yet they haven’t been saved? Look at Isaiah 55:11—“So shall My Word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” 

And Romans 10:13 says, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Receive His encouragement today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Jesus’s Pursuit of Joy

[Look] to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

Does the example of Jesus contradict the principle of Christian Hedonism? Namely, that love is the way of joy and that one should choose it for that very reason, lest one be found begrudging obedience to the Almighty or chafing under the privilege of being a channel of grace or belittling the promised reward.

Hebrews 12:2 seems to say fairly clearly that Jesus did not contradict this principle.

The greatest labor of love that ever happened was possible because Jesus pursued the greatest imaginable joy, namely, the joy of being exalted to God’s right hand in the assembly of a redeemed people: “For the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross!”

In saying this, the writer means to give Jesus as another example, along with the saints of Hebrews 11, of those who are so eager for and confident in the joy God offers that they reject the “fleeting pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:25) and choose ill-treatment in order to be aligned with God’s will.

It is not unbiblical, therefore, to say that at least part of what sustained Christ in the dark hours of Gethsemane was the hope of joy beyond the cross. This does not diminish the reality and greatness of his love for us, because the joy in which he hoped was the joy of leading many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10).

His joy is in our redemption, which redounds to God’s glory. We share the joy with Jesus and God gets the glory.

John Piper 

Have you thanked God for your problems?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Before I was afflicted, I went astray. Now I have kept Thy word…. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn Thy statutes. Psalm 119:67, 71

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The worst thing that could happen to sinful people would be to live in a perfect environment.

Think about it: If God had left Adam in the perfect environment of the Garden of Eden, Adam wouldn’t have known he had the fatal infection of sin, and he would not have sought the remedy for sin, which he found in the shedding of blood.

If affliction causes me to learn, then I’ve got to thank God for it. You see, what are God’s priorities for me? Health? Wealth? Service? Usefulness? Not necessarily. God’s plan for me is to be like Jesus.

Problems are designed not to crush us, but to crowd us to Christ who provided the remedy for sin by shedding His blood on the cross. The problem of sin is real and terrible, but it brings with it the possibility that we can be forgiven and clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

If affliction causes you to be like Jesus, if you learn through it and are made mature through it, then you can thank God for it. The goal of God for my life is to become like Jesus Christ.

ACTION POINT:

When was the last time you thanked God for the problems in your life? Think of them as vehicles that drive you to the heart of your Lord.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers