The conspiracy that wars against your soul

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. Having your conversation [behavior] honest among the Gentiles [unsaved]: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. 1 Peter 2:11-12

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The unsaved love to bad-mouth the church, and if you're a Bible believer, they especially love to lampoon and ridicule you. You must live a clean life—a righteous, godly life. Root out what 1st Peter 2:11 calls “fleshly lust.” Renounce and abstain from what is wrong. Embrace all that’s right.

Certain things war against the soul. The word “war” here is not the idea of hand-to-hand combat, but of a strategy, a conspiracy. There is a conspiracy born in hell, my dear friend, that wars against your soul, the soul of your family, the soul of your church, the soul of this nation. We are at war with unseen forces from the very pit of hell. To be prepared for the battle, first you must be absolutely and totally clean. A child of God ought to be pure and clean as the driven snow.

ACTION POINT:

Be mindful every day to live such a pure, godly, clean, righteous, honest, forthright life, that even those who hate you will grudgingly have to admit there is a difference.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Triumphant Shame of the Cross

[Christ did not] offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9:25–26)

It is not to be taken for granted that there should be a welcome for sinners in heaven.

God is holy and pure and perfectly just and righteous. Yet the whole story of the Bible is how such a great and holy God can and does welcome dirty, unholy people like you and me into his favor. How can this be?

Hebrews 9:25 says that Christ’s sacrifice for sin was not like the sacrifices of the Jewish high priests. They came into the holy place yearly with animal sacrifices to atone for the sins of the people. But these verses say Christ did not enter heaven to “offer himself repeatedly . . . for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world” (Hebrews 9:26).

If Christ followed the pattern of the priests, then he would have to die yearly. And since the sins to be covered include the sins of Adam and Eve, he would have had to begin his yearly dying at the foundation of the world. But the writer treats this as unthinkable.

Why is this unthinkable? Because it would make the death of the Son of God look weak and ineffective. If it has to be repeated year after year for centuries, where would be the triumph? Where would we see the infinite value of the sacrifice of the Son of God? It would vanish in the shamefulness of a yearly suffering and death.

There was shame in the cross, but it was triumphant shame. “[Jesus despised] the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

This is the gospel of the glory of Christ, the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4). I pray that no matter how dirty or unholy with sin you are, you will see the light of this glory and believe.

John Piper

What makes the world take notice?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Did you know that the best argument for Christianity and the best argument against Christianity is…your life? That’s right. Not only are you a witness for Jesus, you’re part of the evidence of His reality. Your life needs to be Exhibit A. What will turn your city, your community—any place—to God is the evidence of a life transformed by the power of Jesus Christ.

When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the religious leaders had a problem on their hands. Lazarus was living proof of Jesus’ power. He was who He said He was! Many  believed in Him because of what they witnessed in Lazarus. His new life was a testimony they couldn’t refute!

What would happen if every Christian began to walk as Jesus walked, talk as Jesus talked, and love as Jesus loved? The world would take notice. When God’s people begin to live out what they say they believe, it will change lives. 

ACTION POINT:

Sermons are one thing.  Go out tomorrow morning and live for Jesus. Show it! Show the faith! Let your light shine before men. The best argument for Christianity and the best argument against Christianity is the life of a Christian. 

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Only Conscience-Cleanser

How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:14)

Here we are in the modern age — the age of the Internet, smartphones, space travel, and heart transplants — and our problem is fundamentally the same as always: Our consciences condemn us and make us feel unacceptable to God. We are alienated from God. And our consciences bear witness.

We can cut ourselves, or throw our children in the sacred river, or give a million dollars to charity, or serve in a soup kitchen, or a hundred forms of penance or self-injury, and the result will be the same: The stain remains and death terrifies.

We know that our conscience is defiled — not with external things like touching a corpse, a dirty diaper, or a piece of pork. Jesus said it is what comes out of a man that defiles, not what goes in (Mark 7:15–23). We are defiled by attitudes like pride and self-pity and bitterness and lust and envy and jealousy and covetousness and apathy and fear.

The only answer in this modern age, as in every other age, is the blood of Christ. When your conscience rises up and condemns you, where will you turn? Hebrews 9:14 gives you the answer: “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

The answer is: Turn to the blood of Christ. Turn to the only cleansing agent in the universe that can give you relief in life, and peace in death.

John Piper

What’s the secret of a happy, productive life?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Ephesians 5:20,   “Giving thanks always for all things” is perhaps the best Thanksgiving text in the Bible. Yet there’s no harder command to practice or obey.

When it comes to gratitude, I’ve seen four types of people:

• Folks who constantly grumble and complain. Have you met any of these? They can brighten up a room just by leaving it. That’s the lowest level.

• Folks who live lives of ingratitude. They don’t complain, but they never thank God for His obvious blessings. That’s only a little better.

• Those who thank God for obvious blessings. When something good happens, they’re grateful. That’s better.

• At the highest level are those who are grateful for all things at all times. That is the secret of a happy and productive life.

No matter what is happening, God is like a mighty ocean. He has eternal purposes we cannot see. A wave may break here and subside there, but God is moving history toward His purpose. Therefore, one of the greatest acts of faith you can ever perform is simply to say, “O God, no matter what, I will praise you.”  When you get to that place where you're grateful for all things at all times, then you have learned the secret of joy.

ACTION POINT:

Go before the Lord and think about the circumstances you’re facing. On the basis of our scripture today, thank Him for each one, knowing He is at work to weave all things—even the hardest things—together for your good.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Root of Ingratitude

Although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:21)

When gratitude springs up in the human heart toward God, he is magnified as the wealthy source of our blessing. He is acknowledged as giver and benefactor and therefore as glorious.

But when gratitude does not spring up in our hearts at God’s great goodness to us, it probably means that we don’t want to pay him a compliment; we don’t want to magnify him as our benefactor.

And there is a very good reason that human beings by nature do not want to magnify God with thanksgiving or glorify him as their benefactor. The reason is that it detracts from our own glory, and all people by nature love their own glory more than the glory of God.

At the root of all ingratitude is the love of one’s own greatness. For genuine gratitude admits that we are beneficiaries of an unearned bequest. We are cripples leaning on the cross-shaped crutch of Jesus Christ. We are paralytics living minute by minute in the iron lung of God’s mercy. We are children asleep in heaven’s stroller.

The natural person, apart from saving grace, hates to think of himself in these images: unworthy beneficiary, cripple, paralytic, child. They rob him of his glory by giving it all to God.

Therefore, while a man loves his own glory, and prizes his self-sufficiency, and hates to think of himself as sin-sick and helpless, he will never feel genuine gratitude to the true God and so will never magnify God as he ought, but only himself.

Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17).

Jesus did not come to minister to those who insist they are well. He demands something great: that we admit we are not great. This is bad news to the arrogant, but words of honey to those who have given up their charade of self-sufficiency and are seeking God.

John Piper 

Did you know you have authority over Satan?

Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Luke 10:19

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A police officer weighing 160 pounds may effectively stand in front of a tanker truck with an uplifted hand say, “Stop, in the name of the law.” Now what does he stop that truck with – his own power?  No.  Authority. The police officer certainly couldn’t stop any vehicle with his physical force. He is appealing to an authority greater than himself — the law — to back him up.

Your authority over Satan is the same way. Jesus said, “I give you authority over all the power of the enemy.”

Who is stronger, you or Satan?  Satan. You cannot overcome him with your strength. But your authority does not rest in your strength. Who has more authority, you or Satan?  You.  Jesus said, “I give you authority over all the power of the enemy.”  That’s the reason the Bible says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”  Not because you’re stronger, but because Jesus is stronger.

You can overcome Satan Kingdom Authority from God. And you have His authority as a child of the King to overcome every attack of Satan. 

ACTION POINT:

Today and every day, make this declaration. Say to the devil, “Satan in the name of Jesus, through His shed blood, by the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. I come against you. I resist you and every demonic spirit.  I command you get away from me and my family. I command you to leave.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers