What counts is what you are

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night. Psalm 1:1-2

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

In the Old Testament, the Ten Commandments teach us the principles of how we are to live. In the New Testament, the Beatitudes teach us the heart of how we’re to live. The key word in all of that is the word “are,” as in who we are. Unfortunately, our world is more interested in the word “have”—what we have.

That’s what the secular world emphasizes: what we have. “Blessed” in the original language means to be “congratulated” or “successful” or “happy.” The world says you're congratulated, successful and happy not because of what you are, but because of what you have. If you have “things,” then the world says you’re “blessed.” The world also thinks happiness comes from your abilities, money, cleverness, possessions, good looks, power, or fame.

But we all know people who have a lot of all of that, yet are perfectly miserable. Happiness, the Bible says, comes not from what you have but from who you are. 

ACTION POINT:

Look inside. What’s the source of your happiness? Does it come from superficial things? Or from knowing your heavenly Father and that He is aware of all your needs, even before you ask Him? (Matthew 6:32)

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Where Our Comfort Comes From

He [Pilate] entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.” (John 19:9–11)

Pilate’s authority to crucify Jesus did not intimidate Jesus. Why not?

Not because Pilate was lying. Not because he didn’t have authority to crucify Jesus. He did.

Rather, this authority did not intimidate Jesus because it was derivative. Jesus said, “It was given to you from above.” Which means it is really authoritative. Not less. But more.

So, how is this not intimidating? Pilate not only has authority to kill Jesus. But he has God-given authority to kill him.

This does not intimidate Jesus because Pilate’s authority over Jesus is subordinate to God’s authority over Pilate. Jesus gets his comfort at this moment not because Pilate’s will is powerless, but because Pilate’s will is guided. Not because Jesus isn’t in the hands of Pilate’s fear, but because Pilate is in the hands of Jesus’s Father.

Which means that our comfort comes not from the powerlessness of our enemies, but from our Father’s sovereign rule over their power.

This is the point of Romans 8:35–37. Tribulation and distress and persecution and famine and nakedness and danger and sword cannot separate us from Christ because “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

Pilate (and all Jesus’s adversaries — and ours) meant it for evil. But God meant it for good (Genesis 50:20). All Jesus’s enemies gathered together with their God-given authority “to do whatever [God’s] hand and [God’s] plan had predestined to take place” (Acts 4:28). They sinned. But through their sinning God saved.

Therefore, do not be intimidated by your adversaries who can only kill the body (Matthew 10:28). Not only because this is all they can do (Luke 12:4), but also because it is done under the watchful hand of your Father.

“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Luke 12:6–7)

Pilate has authority. Herod has authority. Soldiers have authority. Satan has authority. But none is independent. All their authority is derivative. All of it is subordinate to God’s will. Fear not. You are precious to your sovereign Father. Far more precious than the unforgotten birds.

John Piper 

Is God enough?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company. Psalm 55:14

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The church has the sweetest fellowship this side of Heaven. There are brothers and sisters who are loving, encouraging, and exhorting us as we serve alongside each other to the glory of God.

But suppose God took you out of that precious fellowship. What if you became so ill you had to be hospitalized with no visitors for days on end? What if you were transferred to Siberia and there wasn’t a Christian around for 250 miles? Or what if you decide not to smoke pot when all your friends are? Or decide to abstain from premarital sex? Or choose not to go drinking with your college buddies?

Is God enough when your dearest friend on earth forsakes or fails you? Is He enough of a friend that you can stand with Him alone? Corrie Ten Boom said, “You can never learn that Christ is all you need until Christ is all you have.”

ACTION POINT:

God is enough, but you won’t realize it until you have begun to cultivate sweet fellowship with Him. How? Someone once said the best way to spell “relationship” is T-I-M-E. Spend time with your Savior in prayer and meditating on His Word.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Finally and Totally Justified

Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. (Romans 8:33)

Paul could have said here, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” and then answered, “No one! We are justified.” That’s true. But that is not what he said. His answer instead is, “God is the one who justifies.”

The emphasis is not on the act but on the Actor.

Why? Because in the world of courts and laws where this language comes from, the acquittal of a judge might be overturned by a higher one.

So what, if a local judge acquits you, when you are guilty, if a governor has the right to bring a charge against you? So what, if a governor acquits you, when you are guilty, if the emperor can bring a charge against you?

Here’s the point: Above God, there are no higher courts. If God is the one who acquits you — declares you righteous in his sight — no one can appeal; no one can claim a technicality; no one can call for a mistrial; no one can look for other counts against you. God’s sentence is final and total.

Hear this, all you who believe on Jesus, and become united to Christ, and show yourself among the elect: God is the one who justifies you. Not a human judge. Not a great prophet. Not an archangel from heaven. But God, the Creator of the world and Owner of all things and Ruler of the universe and every molecule and person in it, God is the one who justifies you.

The point: unshakable security in the face of tremendous suffering. If God is for us, no one can successfully be against us. If God gave his Son for us, he will give us everything that is good for us. If God is the one who justifies us, no charge against us can stand.

John Piper 

Are you waiting for your sunrise?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

For His anger endureth but a moment; in His favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Psalm 30:5

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

God allows us to have “blue” seasons where there is more weeping than laughing. What we must remember is, it is only for a season. That is crucial. Joy will come in the morning, just as sure as the sunrise.

If you get up tomorrow morning to see the sunrise, let me tell you what not to do. Don’t try to make it hurry up. You can’t. You can get a brass band and some cheerleaders, but that sun is not going to come up one second sooner than God intends.

Waiting on the Lord is like waiting on the sun to come up. You can’t hurry it. You also can’t stop it.

ACTION POINT:

God is going to bring a sunrise to your soul. Just wait for it. And trust Him while you wait.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Radical Effects of the Resurrection

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:19)

Paul concludes from his hourly danger, and his daily dying, and his fighting with wild beasts, that the life he has chosen in following Jesus is foolish and pitiable if he will not be raised from the dead.

If death were the end of the matter, he says, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (1 Corinthians 15:32). This doesn’t mean: Let’s all become gluttons and drunkards if there is no resurrection. Drunkards are pitiable too — with or without the resurrection. He means: If there is no resurrection, what makes sense is middle-class moderation to maximize earthly pleasures.

But that is not what Paul chooses. He chooses suffering, because he chooses obedience. Ananias came to Paul after his encounter with Christ on the Damascus road, with the words from the Lord Jesus, “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9:16). Paul accepted this suffering as part of his calling.

How could Paul do it? What was the source of this radical and painful obedience? The answer is given in 1 Corinthians 15:20: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” In other words, Christ was raised, and I will be raised with him. Therefore, nothing suffered for Jesus is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).

The hope of the resurrection radically changed the way Paul lived. It freed him from materialism and consumerism. It gave him the power to go without comforts and pleasures that many people feel they must have in this life. For example, though he had the right to marry (1 Corinthians 9:5), he renounced that pleasure because he was called to bear so much suffering.

This is the way Jesus said the hope of the resurrection is supposed to change our behavior. For example, he told us to invite to our homes people who cannot pay us back in this life. How are we to be motivated to do this? “You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14).

This is a radical call for us to look hard at our present lives to see if they are shaped by the hope of the resurrection. Do we make decisions on the basis of gain in this world, or gain in the next? Do we take risks for love’s sake that can only be explained as wise if there is a resurrection?

May God help us to rededicate ourselves for a lifetime of letting the resurrection have its radical effects.

John Piper 

Uncovering your doubts and fears…

BIBLE MEDITATION:

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

If you want victory, you must expose the place of your doubts and fears. Many of us are not willing to do that. The devil has intimidated so many of us that we hide our eyes from the sunshine of God’s light. There is really nothing to be afraid of when it comes to the devil. “Greater is He [Jesus Christ] that is in you than he [Satan] that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). “And they overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Revelation 12:11).

Remember, when Satan fell from Heaven, he took one-third of the angels with him. That means two-thirds never fell. They still serve as God’s ministering spirits, and they outnumber the devil’s crowd two-to-one!

Do you know what fear is? False Evidence Appearing Real. You can be fooled by false evidence. Take a bank robber with his hand in his coat pocket pretending it’s a gun. His power comes from the power of deception. His power is the power of fear!

ACTION POINT:

Friend, victory’s arrows cannot be shot through closed windows. Is there any area of your life that you have been unwilling to open the window on? Turn your face to the light and give it to God.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers