Possible with God

“I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” (John 10:16)

God has a people in every people group in the world. He will call them through the gospel with Creator power. And they will believe! What a power is in these words for overcoming discouragement in the hard places of the frontiers!

The story of Peter Cameron Scott is a good illustration. Born in Glasgow in 1867, Scott became the founder of the Africa Inland Mission. But his beginnings in Africa were anything but auspicious.

His first trip to Africa ended in a severe attack of malaria that sent him home. He resolved to return after he recuperated. This return was especially gratifying to him because this time his brother John joined him. But before long, John was struck down by fever.

All alone, Peter buried his brother in African soil, and in the agony of those days recommitted himself to preach the gospel in Africa. Yet his health gave way again, and he had to return to England.

How would he ever pull out of the desolation and depression of those days? He had pledged himself to God. But where could he find the strength to go back to Africa? With man it was impossible!

He found strength in Westminster Abbey. David Livingstone’s tomb is still there. Scott entered quietly, found the tomb, and knelt in front of it to pray. The inscription reads:

OTHER SHEEP I HAVE WHICH ARE NOT OF THIS FOLD; THEM ALSO I MUST BRING.

He rose from his knees with a new hope. He returned to Africa. And today, over a hundred years later, the mission he founded is a vibrant, growing force for the gospel in Africa.

If your greatest joy is to experience the infilling grace of God overflowing from you for the good of others, then the best news in all the world is that God will do the impossible through you for the salvation of the unreached peoples.

John Piper 

One reason Jesus hasn’t returned yet….

BIBLE MEDITATION:

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Have you ever wondered why Jesus has not yet returned? I’ll tell you why. Because our Lord is waiting on people to be saved. He’s waiting on your family member, your neighbor, your co-worker, or maybe you, but one of these days soon, and very soon perhaps, Jesus will come.

You see, it is the mercy of God that holds back the Second Coming of Jesus, but the justice of God and the judgment of God require that one day He will come.

Even now, the raging waters of God’s wrath are furiously pounding against the dam of His mercy. And one of these days, the dam of God’s mercy will give way to God’s judgment, and the day of the Lord will come. Our Lord is coming!

ACTION POINT:

Does the Lord’s return make your heart beat faster because you anticipate His coming or dread His coming?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Medicine for the Missionary

“All things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27)

Sovereign grace is the spring of life for the Christian Hedonist. For what the Christian Hedonist loves best is the experience of the sovereign grace of God filling him, and overflowing for the good of others.

Christian Hedonist missionaries love the experience of “not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). They bask in the truth that the fruit of their missionary labor is entirely of God (1 Corinthians 3:7; Romans 11:36).

They feel only gladness when the Master says, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). They leap like lambs over the truth that God has taken the impossible weight of new creation off their shoulders and put it on his own. Without begrudging, they say, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God” (2 Corinthians 3:5).

When they come home on furlough, nothing gives them more joy than to say to churches, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience” (Romans 15:18).

“All things are possible with God!” — in front the words give hope, and behind they give humility. They are the antidote to despair and the antidote to pride — the perfect missionary medicine.

John Piper 

Not even the 12 disciples knew…

BIBLE MEDITATION:

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only. Matthew 24:36

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Anybody who sets a date for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ may be getting close to the line of blasphemy. The Bible teaches very plainly, and our Lord taught, that no one knows the time—no one.

Just before Jesus was taken up into glory, the disciples asked Him, “Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power” (Acts 1:6-7).

Two things we can be sure of: (1) the certainty of His coming, (2) the uncertainty of the time: “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2). No thief has ever told you “I'm coming to your house on such-and-such a day.”

So why hasn't Jesus Christ come yet? Because “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to us. Not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9).

The Lord is waiting on you to be saved. But one of these days, soon and very soon perhaps, Jesus will come. It is the mercy of God that holds back the second coming of Jesus. But the justice of God and the judgment of God says one day He will come.

No one knows when that day is, but what a glorious day that will be!

ACTION POINT:

Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. What encouragement do you need to share with someone today?

 LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Do You Really Need A Sign

Creation

19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. - Romans 1:19-20

Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness." - Acts 14:17

23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: 'To the unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,

25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,

27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

28 for "'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, "'For we are indeed his offspring.' 

29 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead." - Acts 17:23-31

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 

2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 

3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 

4 Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, 

5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. 

6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. 

7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; 

8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; 

9 the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.  - Psalm 19:1-9

21 "Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not. 

22 Do you not fear me? declares the LORD. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it. 

23 But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away. 

24 They do not say in their hearts, 'Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.' 

25 Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have kept good from you. 

26 For wicked men are found among my people; they lurk like fowlers lying in wait. They set a trap; they catch men.  - Jeremiah 5:21-26

Conscience 

They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them - Romans 2:15

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: 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 31:33

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.

41 I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul. - Jeremiah 32:40-41

"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,"  - Hebrews 10:16

The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip.  - Psalm 37:31

3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.

5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,

6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. - 2 Corinthians 3:3-6

The Great Missionary Hope

Even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:5)

The great missionary hope is that when the gospel is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, God himself does what man cannot do: he creates the faith that saves. The call of God does what the call of man can’t. It raises the dead. It creates spiritual life. It is like the call of Jesus to Lazarus in the tomb, “Come out!” And the dead man obeyed and came out. The call created the obedience by creating life (John 11:43). That is how anyone is saved.

We can waken someone from sleep with our call, but God’s call can summon into being things that are not (Romans 4:17). God’s call is irresistible in the sense that it can overcome all resistance. It is infallibly effective according to God’s purpose — so much so that Paul can say, “Those whom [God] called he also justified” (Romans 8:30), even though we are only justified by our faith.

In other words, God’s call is so effectual that it infallibly creates the faith through which a person is justified. All the called are justified according to Romans 8:30. But none is justified without faith (Romans 5:1). So the call of God cannot fail in its intended effect. It irresistibly brings into being the faith that justifies.

This is what man cannot do. It is impossible. Only God can take out the heart of stone (Ezekiel 36:26). Only God can draw people to the Son (John 6:44, 65). Only God can open the spiritually dead heart so that it gives heed to the gospel (Acts 16:14). Only the Good Shepherd knows his sheep, and calls them by name with such compelling power that they all follow — and never perish (John 10:3–4, 14).

The sovereign grace of God, doing the humanly impossible, through the gospel of Jesus Christ, is the great missionary hope.

John Piper 

What about those who’ve never heard the Gospel?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up. Matthew 4:16

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

There are two witnesses for the existence of God to all people: 

1.One is the objective witness of creation. 

2.The other is the subjective witness of conscience.

God speaks to a man and the man responds, “God, I want to know You and I need to know You. I do believe that You exist.”

That’s faith. And he goes from faith to faith as he steps in the light until he comes to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I believe with all my heart there’s never been a man or woman who ever lived on the face of this earth who died without some opportunity to have received Christ, had they lived up to the light God gave them.

ACTION POINT:

Is there someone in your life who claims to be an agnostic or an atheist? Consistently show them the love of Jesus. Continually pray that God will reveal Himself to them. Pray for willingness to hear His voice.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers