When you vote today, follow 5 principles….

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Therefore, to Him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. James 4:17

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Today in the US is an important election day. I trust God every one of you will vote. Dr. Francis Schaeffer, a brilliant mind and one of the foremost Christian thinkers of our time, gave us 5 principles to keep in mind when we vote. These principles have nothing to do with personalities or political parties. They are principles. 

1. The dignity of human life. 

2. The importance of the traditional family. 

3. Religious freedom of speech in schools, both public and private.

4. Human rights and the need for justice in our world. 

5. The compassionate use of accumulated wealth.

These five principles ought to be in the heart and mind of every child of God. Pray over these; then based on God’s Word, make your determination. God will give you wisdom in this matter.

ACTION POINT:

Pray it from your heart, “God, bless America, and God, give us space to repent. And may the ones of Your choosing be elected to lead us.” Remember, “to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Do You Neglect Your Salvation?

How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? (Hebrews 2:3)

Is there a sense of greatness in your mind about your salvation? Or do you neglect it?

Do you respond to the greatness of your salvation? Or do you treat it the way you treat your last will and testament, or the title to your car, or the deed on your house? You signed it once and it is in a file drawer somewhere, but it is not a really great thing in your mind. You rarely think about it. It has no daily effect on you. Basically, you neglect it.

But when you neglect your great salvation, what are you really neglecting? Here’s what he is saying when he says, “Don’t neglect your great salvation!”

Don’t neglect being loved by God.

Don’t neglect being forgiven and accepted and protected and strengthened and guided by almighty God.

Don’t neglect the sacrifice of Christ’s life on the cross.

Don’t neglect the free gift of righteousness imputed by faith.

Don’t neglect the removal of God’s wrath and the reconciled smile of God.

Don’t neglect the indwelling Holy Spirit and the fellowship and friendship of the living Christ.

Don’t neglect the radiance of God’s glory in the face of Jesus.

Don’t neglect the free access to the throne of grace.

Don’t neglect the inexhaustible treasure of God’s promises.

This is indeed a great salvation. Neglecting it is very evil. Don’t neglect so great a salvation. Because if you do, will there be an escape from judgment? That’s what the writer asks: “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”

So, being a Christian is a very serious business — not a sour business, but a serious business. We should be blood-earnest about being happy in our great salvation.

We will not be deflected by this world into the fleeting and suicidal pleasures of sin. We will not neglect our eternal joy in God — which is what the goal of this salvation is. We will gouge out our eyes rather than be lured away from such a great salvation.

John Piper

Are You Going to Be A Dropout Citizen?

“Five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight;” Leviticus 26:8

When it comes to the political scene and government, there are some people who have dropped out all together. They have the idea that if you get involved in government, somehow that’s the “social gospel.” They see the political scene as being dirty and worldly. And some have been intimidated by the great debate between church and state. And so people have just hunkered down, trying to “hold on till Jesus comes.” 

We can’t drop out. Edward Everett Hale, author of the story “The Man Without a Country” once wrote:

“I am only one, 

But still I am one.

I cannot do everything, 

But still I can do something.

And because I cannot do everything,

I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”

I am only one in a small voice.  But a lot of small voices together can do something. Believe that and act upon it. Jesus said, “Occupy till I come.”

Is there someone who has wronged you and you seek revenge? Do you have a need to have your rights exalted above others? Read and apply the truth of Philippians 2:3-11.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

True Love

Love is forgiving!

1 Corinthians 13:5 CSB

is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs.

7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

8 And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.

9 Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die."

10 But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips. - Job 2:7-10

Three cause of bitterness!

1. What people say about us!

1 "My spirit is broken; my days are extinct; the graveyard is ready for me. 

2 Surely there are mockers about me, and my eye dwells on their provocation.  - Job 17:1-2

Words can be a tool to administer grace and encouragement or a weapon for destruction.

And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. - James 3:6

7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind,

8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.

10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. - James 3:7-10

Physical wounds heal much quicker than emotional wounds!

2. What people think about us!

If indeed you magnify yourselves against me and make my disgrace an argument against me,  - Job 19:5

Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent.  - Proverbs 11:12

People are cruel.

3. What people do to us!

All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me.  - Job 19:19

Family and friends may abandon you but God will never leave you!

Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you." - Deuteronomy 31:6

Two problems with bitterness

1. It is unreasonable!

Surely vexation kills the fool, and jealousy slays the simple.  - Job 5:2

Don't waste your time on what has been.

2. It's unhealthy 

23 One dies in his full vigor, being wholly at ease and secure, 

24 his pails full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist. 

25 Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of prosperity.  - Job 21:23-25

Three cures for bitterness

1. Reveal your hurt

"Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.  - Job 7:11

Revealing your feelings is the beginning of healing!!

2. Release your offender

And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. - Job 42:10

Only by the grace of God can you give forgiveness

Christ has given you forgiveness!

3. Refocus your life

11 Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.

12 And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.

13 He had also seven sons and three daughters.

14 And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch.

15 And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.

16 And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations.

17 And Job died, an old man, and full of days. - Job 42:11-17

Let that bitterness go!!

10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. 

11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; 

12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.  - Psalm 103:10-12

Receive God's forgiveness 

Extend God's forgiveness 

Thank you Pastor Kevin!

The Real Problem with Anxiety

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:30)

Jesus says that the root of anxiety is inadequate faith — “little faith” — in our Father’s future grace.

One reaction to this might be: “This is not good news! In fact, it is very discouraging to learn that what I thought was a mere struggle with an anxious disposition is rather a far deeper struggle with whether I trust God.”

My response to this discouragement is to agree, but then to disagree.

Suppose you had been having pain in your stomach and had been struggling with medicines and diets of all kinds, to no avail. And then suppose that your doctor tells you, after a routine visit, that you have cancer in your small intestine. Would that be good news? You say, emphatically not! And I agree.

But let me ask the question another way: Are you glad the doctor discovered the cancer while it is still treatable, and that indeed it can be very successfully treated? You say, yes, I am very glad that the doctor found the real problem. Again I agree.

So, the news that you have cancer is not good news. But, in another sense, it is good news, because knowing what is really wrong is good, especially when your problem can be treated successfully.

That’s what it’s like to learn that the real problem behind anxiety is “little faith” (as Jesus says) in the promises of God’s future grace. And he is able to work in wonderfully healing ways when we cry out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).

John Piper 

What are you worth to Jesus?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. 1 Corinthians 6:20

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

It is the evening of the Last Supper. Jesus is with His disciples for the final time before His crucifixion. He raises the cup and says, “For this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28). The word “testament” comes from the Greek word diatheke, which means “covenant.” Our Lord purchased us, but not with silver or gold as a bridegroom would have in that day long ago. He purchased us with the silver of His tears and the gold of His blood. Through His blood we have entered into a covenant with Him. The church is the bride; He is the bridegroom. We are betrothed to Him in a covenant bought with His blood.

ACTION POINT:

Listen to these powerful words from “The Church’s One Foundation,” a great hymn we sing: 

“The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. She is His new creation by Spirit and the Word. From Heaven He came and sought her to be His holy bride. With His own blood He bought her, and for her life He died.”

Let this powerful truth sink deep into your heart today. Meditate on what it means that Jesus came and sought you, then bought you with His blood.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Meaning of Suffering

He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. (Hebrews 11:26)

We do not choose suffering simply because we are told to, but because the One who tells us to describes it as the path to everlasting joy.

He beckons us into the obedience of suffering not to demonstrate the strength of our devotion to duty, or to reveal the vigor of our moral resolve, or to prove the heights of our tolerance for pain, but rather to manifest, in childlike faith, the infinite preciousness of his all-satisfying promises — the all-satisfying greatness and beauty of his own glory as the fulfillment of all of them.

Moses “[chose] to be mistreated with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. . . . For he was looking to the reward” (Hebrews 11:25–26). Therefore, his obedience glorified the reward — all that God is for him in Christ — not the resolve to suffer.

This is the essence of Christian Hedonism. In the pursuit of joy through suffering, we magnify the all-satisfying worth of the Source of our joy. God himself shines as the brightness at the end of our tunnel of pain.

If we do not communicate that he is the goal and the ground of our joy in suffering, then the very meaning of our suffering will be lost.

The meaning is this: God is gain. God is gain. God himself is gain. That’s the meaning of our suffering.

The chief end of man is to glorify God. And it is truer in suffering than anywhere else that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

John Piper