Fear and Hope in God’s Jealousy

The Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” (Exodus 34:14)

God is infinitely jealous for the honor of his name, and responds with terrible wrath against those whose hearts should belong to him but go after other things, like a spouse running after another lover.

For example, in Ezekiel 16:38–40 he says to faithless Israel,

“I will judge you as women who commit adultery and shed blood are judged, and bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy. And I will give you into their hands, and they shall throw down your vaulted chamber. . . . They shall strip you of your clothes and take your beautiful jewels and leave you naked and bare. They shall bring up a crowd against you, and they shall stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords.”

I urge you to listen to this warning. The jealousy of God for your undivided love and devotion will always have the last say. Whatever lures your affections away from God with deceptive attraction will come back to strip you bare and cut you in pieces.

It is a horrifying thing to use your God-given life to commit adultery against the Almighty.

But for those of you who have been truly united to Christ and who keep your vows to forsake all others and cleave only to him and live for his honor — for you the jealousy of God is a great comfort and a great hope.

Since God is infinitely jealous for the honor of his name, anything and anybody who threatens the good of his faithful wife will be opposed with divine omnipotence. That’s good news for the faithful wife — the faithful people of God.

God’s jealousy is a great threat to those who play the harlot and sell their heart to the world and make a cuckold out of God (James 4:3–4). But his jealousy is a great comfort to those who keep their covenant vows and become strangers and exiles in the world.

John Piper 

Something you can’t hurry or stop

BIBLE MEDITATION:

But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings. . . Malachi 4:2a

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Since Jesus is the S-O-N of God, He is also the S-U-N of righteousness. Let me tell you something about the sunrise. Sunrise never comes ahead of time, and it is never late. Isn’t that right? The sunrise operates according to the power of God and the authority of God. You can’t hurry it up, and you can’t stop it!

It is the same with the Second Coming of Jesus. He is coming at a time known only to God. You can’t hurry it up and you can’t stop it.

One day the Lord Jesus Christ shall come with trumpet sound. He will pull back the shade of night and pin it with a star. Then He’ll open the door of the glorious morning of His millennial reign and flood the world with light.

ACTION POINT:

Tomorrow morning, get up with the sunrise and praise God that His timing is perfect—and that He is coming again!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Plan for Prayer

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. . . . These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:7–8, 11)

Prayer pursues joy in fruitful fellowship with Jesus, knowing that God is glorified when we bear fruit in answer to prayer. Why do God’s children so often fail to have consistent habits of happy, fruitful prayer?

Unless I’m badly mistaken, one of the reasons is not so much that we don’t want to, but that we don’t plan to.

If you want to take a four-week vacation, you don’t just get up one summer morning and say, “Hey, let’s go today!” You won’t have anything ready. You won’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned.

But that is how many of us treat prayer. We get up day after day and realize that significant times of prayer should be a part of our life, but nothing is ready.

We don’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned. No time. No place. No procedure. And we all know that the opposite of planning is not a wonderful flow of deep, spontaneous experiences in prayer. The opposite of planning is the same old rut.

If you don’t plan a vacation, you will probably stay home and watch TV. The natural, unplanned flow of spiritual life sinks to the lowest ebb of vitality. There is a race to be run and a fight to be fought. If you want renewal in your life of prayer, you must plan to see it.

Therefore, my simple exhortation is this: Let us take time this very day to rethink our priorities and how prayer fits in. Make some new resolve. Try some new venture with God. Set a time. Set a place. Choose a portion of Scripture to guide you.

Don’t be tyrannized by the press of busy days. We all need mid course corrections. Make this a day of turning to prayer — for the glory of God and for the fullness of your joy.

John Piper 

What if my parents aren’t worthy of respect?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Exodus 20:12

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Whether you are young or old, you can honor your parents. How? By showing respect. Leviticus 19:3 says, “Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my Sabbaths: I am the LORD your God.” The word “fear” doesn’t mean to quake in the presence of your parents, but to have a holy respect for your father and mother.

“Honor” literally means to add weight to. To take our parents seriously; to reverence and respect them.

You may say, “But my parents aren’t worthy of respect.” With all due respect, you aren’t either. None of us are worthy. Only perfect children can demand perfect parents. They are imperfect; we are imperfect. But God is holy, and He says we are to respect our parents.

Their life blood flows in us. Their very life is in us. They would give their life for us. I believe the closest, greatest illustration on earth to the love of God is the love of parents for their children.

ACTION POINT:

What’s your relationship like with your parents? If you’ve been showing less than the biblical respect God requires, then begin today to turn that around for His glory. If your parents are still alive, show that love, show that honor, and do it now. Dead noses smell no roses. I urge you: write that letter now, pay that visit now, send that gift now, do that chore now, give that kiss of affection now. Whatever you’re going to do, do it, and do it now.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

God Of All Flesh

"Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me? - Jeremiah 32:27

And they fell on their faces and said, "O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation?" - Numbers 16:22

Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son." - Genesis 18:14

In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.  - Job 12:10

and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. - Ecclesiastes 12:7

But Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." - Matthew 19:26

"I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.  - Job 42:2

38 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

39 I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them.

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. - Jeremiah 32:38-40

2 "Thus says the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it to establish it-the LORD is his name:

3 Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. - Jeremiah 33:2-3

God Heals by Humbling

“I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners, creating the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the Lord, “and I will heal him.” (Isaiah 57:18–19)

In spite of the severity of man’s disease of rebellion and willfulness, God will heal. How will he heal? Isaiah 57:15 says that God dwells with the crushed and humble. Yet the people of Isaiah 57:17 are not humble. They are brazenly pursuing their own proud way. So, what will a healing be?

It can only be one thing. God will heal them by humbling them. He will cure the patient by crushing his pride. If only the crushed and humble enjoy God’s fellowship (Isaiah 57:15), and if Israel’s sickness is a proud and willful rebellion (Isaiah 57:17), and if God promises to heal them (Isaiah 57:18), then his healing must be humbling and his cure must be a crushed spirit.

Isn’t this Isaiah’s way of prophesying what Jeremiah called the new covenant and the gift of a new heart? He said, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel. . . . I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:31, 33).

Isaiah and Jeremiah both see a time coming when a sick, disobedient, hard-hearted people will be supernaturally changed. Isaiah speaks of healing. Jeremiah speaks of writing the law on their hearts. And Ezekiel puts it like this: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26)

So the healing of Isaiah 57:18 is a major heart transplant — the old hardened, proud, willful heart of stone is taken out, and a new soft, tender heart is put in, which is easily humbled and crushed by the memory of sin and the sin that remains.

This is a heart that the lofty One whose name is Holy will dwell with forever.

John Piper 

Do you really mean business with God?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

I’m amazed at how little it takes to stop some Christians from accomplishing the tasks the Father has given them to do. This thing of being a Christian is not a Sunday afternoon stroll. Shining God’s light in a dark world is a full time job. The Christian life, being saved, leading others to Jesus Christ, is a full time occupation. We must pray over it, weep over it, and study over it to show ourselves approved.

If we possess life in Christ, it first must possess us. Every great athlete is possessed with a desire to win. When I watch the Olympics and see these young people who’ve trained, sometimes tears come to my eyes. I pray, "Oh, God, I want to be that kind of a Christian! I want to live in the spiritual realm as these people are willing to live in the physical realm!"

Most of us in America get up on Sunday mornings and sit in an air-conditioned church with beautiful stained glass windows in streamlined comfort. The truth is…we’re flabby, undisciplined, and exhibit no determination.

Friend, God does business with those who mean business.

ACTION POINT:

Do you mean business? “…seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1). Does your life indicate that you’re in serious pursuit of running the race set before you?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers