Do you want a clean heart? A renewed mind?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to Thee; but his heart is not with Thee. Proverbs 23:7

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A teacher asked a little boy to finish this proverb: “Cleanliness is next to...” He answered, “Cleanliness is next to impossible.” Well, friend, he wasn’t far wrong, was he?

It’s amazing what people do to try to  purify themselves – fast, pray, kneel, walk, self-flagellate, hibernate, isolate. But sadly, they discover that human efforts aren’t the pathway to purity because they keep doing what Zig Ziglar calls “stinkin‘ thinkin‘.” Before we can hope to have a life of purity, we must have a clean thought life.

God works from the inside out. He knows you can’t purify the water by painting the pump.

When was the last time you memorized a verse of Scripture? It’s easier to stay away from “stinkin’ thinkin’” when your mind is focused on the Word of God.

ACTION POINT:

This is a good time to memorize yesterday’s passage, Psalm 51:10-13:

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation and uphold me with Thy free Spirit. Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.”

Start working on memorizing this passage today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Christ as Means and End

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Why did God create the universe? And why is he governing it the way he is? What is God achieving? Is Jesus Christ a means to this achievement or the end of the achievement?

Jesus Christ is the supreme revelation of God. He is God in human form. As such, he is the end, not a means.

The manifestation of the glory of God is the meaning of the universe. This is what God is achieving. The heavens, and the history of the world, are “telling the glory of God.”

But Jesus Christ was sent to accomplish something that needed doing. He came to remedy the fall. He came to rescue sinners from inevitable destruction because of their sin. These rescued ones will see and savor and display the glory of God with everlasting joy.

Others will continue to heap scorn on the glory of God. So, Jesus Christ is the means to what God meant to achieve in the manifestation of his glory for the enjoyment of his people. No one would see and savor and celebrate the glory of God apart from the saving work of Christ. The aim of the universe would abort. So, Christ is a means.

But in that accomplishment on the cross, as he died for sinners, Christ revealed the love and righteousness of the Father supremely. This was the apex of the revelation of the glory of God — the glory of his grace.

Therefore, in the very moment of his perfect act as the means of God’s purpose, Jesus became the end of that purpose. He became, in his dying in the place of sinners and his resurrection for their life, the central and supreme revelation of the glory of God.

Christ crucified is therefore both the means and the end of God’s purpose in the universe.

Without his work, that end — to reveal the fullness of the glory of God for the enjoyment of God’s people — would not have happened.

And in that very means-work he became the end — the one who forever and ever will be the focus of our worship as we spend eternity seeing and savoring more and more of what he revealed of God when he became a curse for us.

Jesus is the end for which the universe was made, and the means that makes that end possible to enjoy by justified sinners.

John Piper 

What’s your #1 desire?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Psalm 24:4-50

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

James Nicholson wrote a song which expresses the desire of my heart:

“Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole;

I want Thee forever to live in my soul.

Break down every idol, cast out every foe;

Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”

Nothing beats closer to my heart than yearning to be pure before my Lord. I’ve experienced the sweet fellowship with Jesus that comes when my heart is clean. And nothing—no nothing—surpasses that in this world.

Are you failing in your Christian life because you’re not pure? If you are, you’re not alone. It seems as though a sewer pipe of filth and debauchery has broken and poured out into our world. Someone has well said, “Not since Manhattan Island was sold for 24 dollars has so much dirt been sold so cheaply as it is here in America.”

ACTION POINT:

Take the words of that song and make them your prayer to the Lord right now.

Then close with Psalm 51:10-13: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation and uphold me with Thy free Spirit. Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Perfect City

He has prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11:16)

No pollution, no graffiti, no trash, no peeling paint or rotting garages, no dead grass or broken bottles, no harsh street talk, no in-your-face confrontations, no domestic strife or violence, no dangers in the night, no arson or lying or stealing or killing, no vandalism, and no ugliness.

The city of God will be perfect, because God will be in it. He will walk in it and talk in it and manifest himself in every part of it. All that is good and beautiful and holy and peaceful and true and happy will be there, because God will be there.

Perfect justice will be there and recompense a thousandfold for every pain suffered in obedience to Christ in this world. And it will never deteriorate. In fact, it will shine brighter and brighter as eternity stretches out into unending ages of increasing joy.

When you desire this city above everything else on the earth, then you honor God, who, according to Hebrews 11:10, is the designer and builder of the city. And when God is honored, he is pleased and not ashamed to be called your God.

John Piper 

What do you want to be recognized for?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy word. Psalm 119:9

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A child delights in what he has.

A youth delights in what he does.

An adult delights in what he is.

The more mature you are, the more you will desire to be something—not just to have something or do something, but be something.

What do you desire to be today? Someone known for the way they dress? The deals they close? The house they live in? Or do you want others to know you for who you are: one with a pure heart—a heart utterly devoted and surrendered to God.

ACTION POINT:

Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” They will know the unknowable, they will do the impossible, and they will see the invisible. I want to have a heart like that. What about you?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Lincoln’s Providence

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33)

Abraham Lincoln, who was born on this day in 1809, remained skeptical, and at times even cynical, about religion into his forties. So, it is a most striking thing how personal and national suffering drew Lincoln into the reality of God, rather than pushing him away.

In 1862, when Lincoln was 53 years old, his 11-year-old son Willie died. Lincoln’s wife “tried to deal with her grief by searching out New Age mediums.” Lincoln turned to Phineas Gurley, pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington.

Several long talks led to what Gurley described as “a conversion to Christ.” Lincoln confided that he was “driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I have nowhere else to go.”

Similarly, the horrors of the dead and wounded soldiers assaulted him daily. There were fifty hospitals for the wounded in Washington. The rotunda of the Capitol held two thousand cots for wounded soldiers.

Typically, fifty soldiers a day died in these temporary hospitals. All of this drove Lincoln deeper into the providence of God. “We cannot but believe, that He who made the world still governs it.”

His most famous statement about the providence of God in relation to the Civil War was his Second Inaugural Address, given a month before he was assassinated. It is remarkable for not making God a simple supporter for the Union or Confederate cause. God has his own purposes and does not excuse sin on either side.

Fondly do we hope — fervently do we pray — that this mighty scourge of war might speedily pass away. . . .

Yet if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s two hundred years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid with another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago so still it must be said, “the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether.”

I pray for all of you who suffer loss and injury and great sorrow that it will awaken for you, as it did for Lincoln, not an empty fatalism, but a deeper reliance on the infinite wisdom and love of God’s inscrutable providence.

John Piper 

The only answer to the world’s question

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord. Psalm 31:24

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The world wants to know what we should do about the problems of the world. What about overcrowded prisons? Poverty? Rape? Murder? Orphans? The homeless?

Do you know why we never solve the problems? Because we don’t see the real problem.

The sociologist says it is just a cultural lag. The psychologist calls it an emotional disturbance. The philosopher calls it irrational behavior. The communist calls it the human class struggle. The humanist calls it human weakness. The criminologist calls it anti-human conduct. The Bible calls it sin.

And the only answer for sin is Jesus, who executes the will of God, expresses the love of God, and expounds the mind of God.

ACTION POINT:

The problems of our world are beyond solution—apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. God moves in answer to our prayers. Your effectual, fervent prayer “availeth much.” (James 5:16)

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers