When 1+1=1 in God’s math

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Matthew 19:6

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Do you know what’s wrong with many marriages? Husbands treat their wives like a new car. When it’s new, he shows it off; and then when it gets old and the paint fades a little bit, he trades her in for a new model.

The Bible compares a husband’s position in a home to the role of Christ in His Church. Jesus served the church and gave His life for her. When you come to the marriage altar, that’s what you do. You die! (You didn’t realize that, did you?) A marriage is death to the old life. You’re no longer single. There’s a new person, for the two are now one. A husband is to take upon himself the form of a servant. He is to lead by loving. He does not consider his welfare primarily; he considers her welfare in all of his decisions.

Are you the strong, independent type? Then you’re not like Jesus, who shared unconditionally and sacrificially with you.

If you are a married man, you are to satisfy the needs of your wife and share your life with her. That means all you are and all you have is for her! God’s math for marriage is: One plus one equals one. There’s no part of our lives that we do not share.

ACTION POINT:

This week, make it a priority to do or give something sacrificially to your wife. It may be your time. It may be a possession. It may be a word of encouragement that she needs.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Beware of Serving God

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” (Acts 17:24–25)

We do not glorify God by providing his needs, but by praying that he would provide ours — and trusting him to answer, and living in the joy of that all-providing care as we lay down our lives in love for other people.

Here we are at the heart of the good news of Christian Hedonism. God’s insistence that we ask him to give us help so that he gets glory. “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Psalm 50:15). This forces on us the startling fact that we must beware of thinking he needs us. We must beware of serving God, and we must take special care to let him serve us, lest we rob him of his glory. “God is not served by human hands, as though he needed anything” (Acts 17:25).

This sounds very strange. Most of us think serving God is a totally positive thing. We have not considered that serving God may be an insult to him. But meditation on the very meaning of prayer makes this plain.

In the novel, Robinson Crusoe, the hero, took Psalm 50:12–15 as his favorite text to hope in as he’s stranded on the island: God says, “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. . . . Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

Which means: there is a way to serve God that would belittle him as needy of our service. Oh, how careful we must be not to preempt the mighty grace of God in Christ. Jesus said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). He aims to be the servant. He aims to get the glory as the Giver.

John Piper 

Do you stop to thank God for these?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the people. 1 Chronicles 16:8

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

If you are a child of God, you ought to be able to thank God every moment of every day, no matter what happens to you.

Have you ever stopped to thank God for the water you drink? Did you know that in some countries the majority of the population doesn’t have reasonably pure drinking water? Millions of people die annually just from water-related diseases.

If you wear a hearing aid, do you ever thank God for that? Some people wish they had a hearing aid.

If you are a student in the midst of final exams, do you thank God that you have an exam to take? There are many who wish they could afford an education.

Do you thank God for your next breath?

ACTION POINT:

Whatever it is in your life today that looks like a trial, take it and thank God for it! Thank Him every time the thought enters your mind to grumble or complain.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

We Can Do Nothing

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

Suppose you are totally paralyzed and can do nothing for yourself but talk. And suppose a strong and reliable friend promised to live with you and do whatever you needed done. How could you glorify this friend if a stranger came to see you?

Would you glorify his generosity and strength by trying to get out of bed and carry him? No! You would say, “Friend, please come lift me up, and would you put a pillow behind me so I can look at my guest? And would you please put my glasses on for me?”

And so your visitor would learn from your requests that you are helpless and that your friend is strong and kind. You glorify your friend by needing him, and by asking him for help, and counting on him.

In John 15:5, Jesus says, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” So we really are paralyzed. Without Christ, we are capable of no Christ-exalting good. As Paul says in Romans 7:18, “Nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.”

But John 15:5 also says that God does intend for us to do much Christ-exalting good, namely bear fruit: “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.” So as our strong and reliable friend — “I have called you friends” (John 15:15) — he promises to do for us, and through us, what we can’t do for ourselves.

How then do we glorify him? Jesus gives the answer in John 15:7: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” We pray! We ask God to do for us through Christ what we can’t do for ourselves — bear fruit.

John 15:8 gives the result: “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit.”

So how is God glorified by prayer? Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing. And prayer is the turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that he will provide the help we need.

John Piper 

Do you have only a “hope-so” salvation?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; Not of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

If you think you’re going to get to Heaven by your good works, I guarantee you’ll always wonder if you’ve done enough. You won’t have a “know-so” salvation. You’ll have a “hope-so” salvation. Rather than standing up straight in confidence like an exclamation point, you’ll be bent over and wondering like a question mark. That is, until you understand that it’s all by grace.

Suppose everybody who wanted to be saved had to run around the block. Some can’t run. What if you had to read a chapter in the Bible to be saved? Some can’t read. But there is one thing that can make the promise sure, and that is grace.

ACTION POINT:

Who can you share this Good News with today? Think of at least one person, and ask God to give you a bold love and a divine opportunity to do just that. We also invite you to read “You Can Be Sure” for more insight on your eternal security as a believer.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Way of Life and the Way of Death

"And to this people you shall say: 'Thus says the LORD: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. - Jeremiah 21:8

14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.

15 "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.

16 If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them,

18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess.

19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,

20 loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." - Deuteronomy 30:14-20

19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,

20 loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." - Deuteronomy 30:19-20

Choose Life!

5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.

6 But the righteousness based on faith says, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down)

7 "or 'Who will descend into the abyss?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);

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.

11 For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame."

12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.

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.

18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for "Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world." 

19 But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, "I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry." 

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 10:5-21

Searching the Deceitful Heart

7 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. 

8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit." 

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? 

10 "I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds."  - Jeremiah 17:7-10

And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. - Romans 8:27

But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." - 1 Samuel 16:7

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!  - Psalm 139:23

But, O LORD of hosts, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause.  - Jeremiah 11:20

great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. - Jeremiah 32:19

For according to the work of a man he will repay him, and according to his ways he will make it befall him.  - Job 34:11

and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For you will render to a man according to his work.  - Psalm 62:12