You're not born that way

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom He called, them He also justified. And whom He justified, them He also glorified. Romans 8:30

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

One time a man came into a village and asked an old man living there, “Were any great men ever born here?” The old man answered, “No. Just babies.”

Great people are not born; great people are made, often born out of a crucible of testing, trials and suffering. Great people are continually investing in the lives of others, sharing God’s love, and showing His mercies.

There is no magic formula that instantly makes us sanctified. Salvation (justification) can take place in an instant when you put your faith in Christ. But sanctification is a process. Our calling is to be poured out into the lives of others for His glory.

ACTION POINT:

How can you be poured out into the lives of others? What does that mean? Well, a good start is to show His mercies to a lost co-worker or neighbor today. Pray for that opportunity, then watch to see how God provides!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Greatest Salvation Imaginable

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah . . . ” (Jeremiah 31:31)

God is just and holy and separated from sinners like us. This is our main problem at Christmas — and every other season. How shall we get right with a just and holy God?

Nevertheless, God is merciful and has promised in Jeremiah 31 (five hundred years before Christ) that someday he would do something new. He would replace shadows with the Reality of the Messiah. And he would powerfully move into our lives and write his will on our hearts so that we are not constrained from outside, but are willing from inside, to love him and trust him and follow him.

That would be the greatest salvation imaginable — if God should offer us the greatest Reality in the universe to enjoy and then move in us to know that Reality in such a way that we could enjoy it with the greatest freedom and the greatest pleasure possible. That would be a Christmas gift worth singing about.

That is, in fact, what he promised in the new covenant. But there was a huge obstacle. Our sin. Our separation from God because of our unrighteousness.

How shall a holy and just God treat us sinners with so much kindness as to give us the greatest Reality in the universe (his Son) to enjoy with the greatest possible joy?

The answer is that God put our sins on his Son, and judged them there, so that he could put them out of his mind, and deal with us mercifully and remain just and holy at the same time. Hebrews 9:28 says Christ was “offered once to bear the sins of many.”

Christ bore our sins in his own body when he died (1 Peter 2:24). He took our judgment (Romans 8:3). He canceled our guilt (Romans 8:1). And that means our sins are gone (Acts 10:43). They do not remain in God’s mind as a basis for condemnation. In that sense, he “forgets” them (Jeremiah 31:34). They are consumed in the death of Christ.

Which means that God is now free, in his justice, to lavish us with all the unspeakably great new covenant promises. He gives us Christ, the greatest Reality in the universe, for our enjoyment. And he writes his own will — his own heart — on our hearts so that we can love Christ and trust Christ and follow Christ from the inside out, with freedom and joy.

John Piper 

Walking with God when you cannot see

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. Psalm 23:4

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

There’s nothing, my friend, that will bring you more face-to-face with God than going through the dark valleys of life. When you are there, you are going to cling to His garments and hold onto His hand. You won’t stray far from the fold in the dark.

Do you believe that He is with you? The ultimate Sovereign is your loving Savior. You will not have to cross Jordan alone. You will not appear before the judgment of the Holy God alone. You are not going to die alone.

ACTION POINT:

What a joyful promise! You are not alone! Write these words on a card and post it in a place where you can see it all the time:

“I am not alone. God is with me.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Running From God

1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me."

3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD. - Jonah 1:1-3

8 Then they said to him, "Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?"

9 And he said to them, "I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land."

10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, "What is this that you have done!" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.

11 Then they said to him, "What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?" For the sea grew more and more tempestuous.

12 He said to them, "Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you."

13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.

14 Therefore they called out to the LORD, "O LORD, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you."

15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.

16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows. - Jonah 1:8-16

And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. - Jonah 1:17

1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish,

2 saying, "I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. 

3 For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. 

4 Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.' 

5 The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head 

6 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God. 

7 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. 

8 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. 

9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!" 

10 And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. - Jonah 2

2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you."

3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth.

4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"

5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. - Jonah 3:2-5

8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish."

10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. - Jonah 3:8-10

1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.

2 And he prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

3 Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live."

4 And the LORD said, "Do you do well to be angry?"

5 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city.

6 Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.

7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered.

8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, "It is better for me to die than to live."

9 But God said to Jonah, "Do you do well to be angry for the plant?" And he said, "Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die."

10 And the LORD said, "You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.

11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?" - Jonah 4

You are precious to God. 

He fights for you.

His people are there to teach you of His glory.

Sin makes us run. 

Turn from sin.

The Lord is waiting!

God’s Most Successful Setback

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9–11)

Christmas marked the beginning of God’s most successful setback. He has always delighted to show his power through apparent defeat. He makes tactical retreats in order to win strategic victories.

In the Old Testament, Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, was promised glory and power in his dream (Genesis 37:5–11). But to achieve that victory he had to become a slave in Egypt. And, as if that were not enough, when his conditions improved because of his integrity, he was made worse than a slave: a prisoner.

But it was all planned. Planned by God for his good and the good of his family, and eventually for the good of the whole world! For there in prison he met Pharaoh’s butler, who eventually brought him to Pharaoh, who put him over Egypt. And finally, his dream came true. His brothers bowed before him, and he saved them from starvation. What an unlikely route to glory!

But that is God’s way — even for his Son. He emptied himself and took the form of a slave. Worse than a slave — a prisoner — and was executed. But like Joseph, he kept his integrity. “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow” (Philippians 2:9–10).

And this is God’s way for us too. We are promised glory — if we will suffer with him as it says in Romans 8:17. The way up is down. The way forward is backward. The way to success is through divinely appointed setbacks. They will always look and feel like failure.

But if Joseph and Jesus teach us anything this Christmas it is this: What Satan and sinful men meant for evil, “God meant it for good!” (Genesis 50:20).

You fearful saints fresh courage take

The clouds you so much dread

Are big with mercy and will break

In blessings on your head.

John Piper 

Are you in a deep valley?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world. 1 John 4:4

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The One who created the valley is there with you! He has prepared the way through the valley. It is not a place of permanence, but a place of passage. He knows every twist and turn, every changing shadow, every den where danger lurks—that One is with you!

Focus on the light and not the darkness. God has made you to walk through shadows. When the shadow approaches, you must walk through. The One greater than death is in you! He is your Jehovah-Shammah—the Lord ever-present. His grace is greater. His peace is purer. His devotion is dearer. Where Satan casts a shadow, our Sovereign Lord reigns supreme.

ACTION POINT:

This is a day of hope. Meditate on 1 John 4:4 throughout the day and ask God to give you a divine appointment to share this beloved truth with someone today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Life and Death at Christmas

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

As I was about to begin this devotional, I received word that Marion Newstrum had just died. Marion and her husband Elmer had been part of our church longer than most of our members had been alive at the time. She was 87. They had been married 64 years.

When I spoke to Elmer and told him I wanted him to be strong in the Lord and not give up on life, he said, “He has been a true friend.” I pray that all Christians will be able to say at the end of life, “Christ has been a true friend.”

Each Advent I mark the anniversary of my mother’s death. She was cut off in her 56th year in a bus accident in Israel. It was December 16, 1974. Those events are incredibly real to me even today. If I allow myself, I can easily come to tears — for example, thinking that my sons never knew her. We buried her the day after Christmas. What a precious Christmas it was!

Many of you will feel your loss this Christmas more pointedly than before. Don’t block it out. Let it come. Feel it. What is love for, if not to intensify our affections — both in life and death? But oh, do not be bitter. It is tragically self-destructive to be bitter.

Jesus came at Christmas that we might have eternal life. “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Elmer and Marion had discussed where they would spend their final years. Elmer said, “Marion and I agreed that our final home would be with the Lord.”

Do you feel restless for home? I have family coming home for the holidays. It feels good. I think the bottom-line reason for why it feels good is that they and I are destined in the depths of our being for an ultimate Homecoming. All other homecomings are foretastes. And foretastes are good.

Unless they become substitutes. Oh, don’t let all the sweet things of this season become substitutes of the final, great, all-satisfying Sweetness. Let every loss and every delight send your hearts a-homing after heaven.

Christmas. What is it but this: I came that they may have life? Marion Newstrum, Ruth Piper, and you and I — that we might have Life, now and forever.

Make your Now the richer and deeper this Christmas by drinking at the fountain of Forever. It is so near.

John Piper