What’s the hardest miracle?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“I, even I, am the Lord; and beside Me there is no Savior.” Isaiah 43:11

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

It takes more of God’s power to save a soul through the cross of Jesus than it does to do any other thing. God had no difficulty creating the universe. He simply spoke, and it was so, the Bible tells us. But when God wrote salvation’s story, He went to great difficulty. Let me illustrate.

What if I held a service and had the power to straighten the legs of someone who couldn’t walk? Or I could bring sight to the blind? The next service would be standing room only. Now I certainly want God to heal, but let me suggest a different scene.

What if I held a service and a little girl walked down the aisle and gave her heart to Jesus? That is a greater miracle than opening the eyes of the blind, because the Son of God had to hang on a cross in agony and blood to purchase her salvation! He didn’t speak salvation into existence, He died for it! Jesus did not come as a great healer or teacher, He came as a Savior.

ACTION POINT:

Ask God today to give you the heavenly view—the viewpoint of Heaven—for the angels in heaven rejoice each time one lost person receives eternal life. This is the greatest miracle.

 LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Are you faithful—or looking for a “sign”?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over His household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find so doing.” Matthew 24:45-46

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

It is sinful for us to ask God to “prove Himself” to us by some miracle or sign. But I guess we’ve all done it at some point or other.

When I was at Stetson University as a young boy having my quiet time in the prayer room, one time I asked God to move a chair from one side of the room to the other. I told him, “I already believe You, and I don’t want to insult You, but what a confirmation it would be to my heart and life if You would just do this small miracle.”

Isn’t that dumb?

I’m so glad God didn’t let the devil nudge that chair across that room and get me hooked on some kind of hocus-pocus. Jesus said that asking God for a sign, like this, is evidence of an evil, adulterous heart (see Matthew 12:39). Oh, that God would find us not looking for miracles but being faithful in all we do in His name.

ACTION POINT:

Singer/songwriter Steve Green has sung, “May all who come behind us find us faithful.” Are those coming behind you looking ahead and finding an example in you? Are you faithful?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Delayed Deliverances

Immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. (Acts 16:26)

In this age, God rescues his people from some harm. Not all harm. That’s comforting to know, because otherwise we might conclude from our harm that he has forgotten us or rejected us.

So be encouraged by the simple reminder that in Acts 16:19–24, Paul and Silas were not delivered, but in verses 25–26, they were.

First, no deliverance:

“They seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace.” (verse 19)

“The magistrates tore the garments off them.” (verse 22)

They “inflicted many blows upon them.” (verse 23)

The jailer “fastened their feet in the stocks.” (verse 24)

But then, deliverance:

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God . . . and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. (verses 25–26)

God could have stepped in sooner. He didn’t. He has his reasons. He loves Paul and Silas.

Question for you: If you plot your life along this continuum of Paul’s initial suffering and later deliverance, where are you? Are you in the stripped-and-beaten stage, or the unshackled, door-flung-open stage?

Both are God’s stages of care for you. He has not left you or forsaken you (Hebrews 13:5).

If you are in the fettered stage, don’t despair. Sing. Freedom is on the way. It is only a matter of time. Even if it comes through death. “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).

John Piper 

Served in Serving Others

Jesus said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?” (Mark 8:17)

After Jesus had fed both the 5,000 and the 4,000 with only a few loaves and fish, the disciples got in a boat without enough bread for themselves.

When they began to discuss their plight, Jesus said, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand?” (Mark 8:17). What didn’t they understand?

They did not understand the meaning of the leftovers, namely, that Jesus will take care of them when they take care of others. Jesus says,

“When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?” (Mark 8:19–21)

Understand what? The leftovers.

The leftovers were for the servers. In fact, the first time there were twelve servers and twelve basketfuls left over (Mark 6:43) — one whole basket for each server. The second time there were seven basketfuls left over — seven, the number of abundant completeness.

What didn’t they understand? That Jesus would take care of them. You can’t out-give Jesus. When you spend your life for others, your needs will be met. “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

John Piper 

How can you repay Jesus?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” Romans 3:25

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

“Propitiation” is a big word that means “satisfaction,” as in payment for a debt. Because God is holy, His anger and justice burn against sin. He has sworn that sin will be punished. There must be a satisfactory payment for sin.

God said, “If I punish man for his sin, man will die and go to hell. On the other hand, if I don’t punish man for his sin, My justice will never be satisfied.”

The solution? God said that He would become our substitute. He would take the sin of mankind upon Himself in agony and blood – thus He provided both the righteous judgment upon sin as well as the Substitute who would pay the penalty for sin. This is our sin—your sin, my sin. Jesus, the sinless Son of God was your stand-in, your substitute.

God’s wrath burned out on the cross when His only Son died as man’s propitiation for sin. And this is love. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10)

ACTION POINT:

Question: What can you bring Jesus today to repay Him for what He has done for you? Answer: Nothing. Nothing you or I could ever do would suffice. But “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Go Directly to God

In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.” (John 16:26–27)

Don’t make God’s Son more of a Mediator than he is.

Jesus says, “I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf.” In other words, I’m not going to insert myself between you and the Father, as though you can’t go to him directly. Why? “The Father himself loves you.”

This is astonishing. Jesus is warning us not to think of God Almighty as unwilling to receive us directly into his presence. By “directly” I mean what Jesus meant when he said, “I am not going to take your requests to God for you. You may take them directly. He loves you. He wants you to come. He is not angry at you.”

It is absolutely true that no sinful human being has any access to the Father except through Jesus’s blood (Hebrews 10:19–20). He intercedes for us now (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25). He is our advocate with the Father now (1 John 2:1). He is our High Priest before the throne of God now (Hebrews 4:15–16). He said, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

Yes. But Jesus is protecting us from taking his intercession too far. “I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you.” Jesus is there. He is providing an ever-present, ever-living witness to the removal of the Father’s wrath from us.

But he is not there to talk for us, or to keep us at a distance from the Father, or to suggest that the Father’s heart is guarded toward us or disinclined to us — hence the words, “For the Father himself loves you.”

So, come. Come boldly (Hebrews 4:16). Come expectantly. Come expecting a smile. Come trembling with joy, not dread.

Jesus is saying, “I have made a way to God. Now I am not going to get in the way.” Come.

John Piper 

What God sees when He looks at you

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Romans 4:5

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Justification is God’s act whereby He declares those who have trusted in Christ to be as righteous as His Son is righteous. Salvation is not based on our works.

Do you know what God sees when He looks at me today? He sees Jesus Christ. You may be thinking, “That’s arrogant, Adrian.”

No, it’s not. It is the Bible. I am in Christ and therefore God cannot see my sins. “But of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). He only sees the righteousness of His Son   when he looks at me.

Justification is more than just a pardon. It is a promotion. God doesn’t just forgive our sins, He makes us righteous. Only God can take someone who is guilty and give that person righteousness. It is the saving work of God. What is the basis of our justification? His grace.

ACTION POINT:

Do you see yourself today as defeated, wrapped in the guilt of failure and regret? Look through another lens: the Father sees you clothed in white—the righteousness of His Son.

LWF Adrian Rogers