Ideas Have Consequences

The aim of our charge is love. (1 Timothy 1:5)

Victor Frankl was imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau during the Second World War. As a Jewish professor of neurology and psychiatry he became world renowned for his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, which sold over eight million copies.

In it he unfolds the essence of his philosophy that came to be called Logotherapy — namely, that the most fundamental human motive is to find meaning in life. He observed in the horrors of the concentration camps that man can endure almost any “how” of life, if he has a “why.” But the quote that stirred me recently was this:

I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers. (“Victor Frankl at Ninety: An Interview,” in First Things, April 1995, p. 41.)

In other words, ideas have consequences — consequences that bless or destroy. People’s behavior — good and bad — does not come out of nowhere. It comes from prevailing views of reality that take root in the mind and bring forth good or evil.

One of the ways that the Bible makes plain the truth that ideas have practical consequences is by saying things like, “Whatever was written in former days was written . . . [that] we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). The ideas presented in the Scriptures produce the practical consequence of hope.

Again, Paul says, “The aim of our charge is love” (1 Timothy 1:5). The imparting of ideas through a “charge” or through “instruction” produces love.

Hope and love do not come from nowhere. They grow out of ideas — views of reality — revealed in the Scriptures.

Another way the Scriptures show us that ideas have consequences is by using the word “therefore” (1,039 times in the NASB). “Therefore” means that what follows comes from somewhere. For example, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Or: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Or: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow” (Matthew 6:34).

If we want to live in the power of these great practical “therefores,” we must be gripped by the ideas — the views of reality — that go before them and stand under them. Ideas have consequences. So, let’s bring all our ideas under the authority of God’s word.

John Piper 

Stop before it’s “Lights Out”

BIBLE MEDITATION:

The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Luke 11:34

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The Amplified Bible helps us understand this verse better. Jesus is saying,

“34 The eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is clear [spiritually perceptive, focused on God], your whole body also is full of light[benefiting from God’s precepts]. But when it is bad [spiritually blind], your body also is full of darkness [devoid of God’s word].” 

He continues,

“35 Be careful, therefore, that the light that is in you is not darkness. 36 So if your whole body is illuminated, with no dark part, it will be entirely bright [with light], as when the lamp gives you light with its bright rays.”

Are there times in your life when you’ve felt yourself growing cold spiritually? Felt the power seeping out of your life? That Jesus Christ wasn’t as real as He used to be? In times like this, get alone in a quiet place and begin to give things back to God that you’ve subtly taken off the altar.

When you have honestly, earnestly, and sincerely given all to Him, the joy will return to your heart and you will sense your relationship with God restored.

ACTION POINT:

Give Him your physical body and your right to life. Give Him your health, your strength, and your abilities to work and make a living. Give Him your reputation and your children. Give Him your cars, your clothes, your house. Surrender to Him. He already owns it all, anyway.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

At the Bottom of It All

In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. (Ephesians 1:4–5)

The experience of Charles Spurgeon is not beyond the ability of any ordinary Christian.

Spurgeon, who lived from 1834 to 1892, was a contemporary and friend of George Mueller and Hudson Taylor. He served the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London for over thirty years as the most famous pastor of his day.

His preaching was so powerful that people were converted to Christ every week. His sermons are still in print today and he is held up by many as a model soul winner.

He recalls an experience when he was sixteen that shaped his life and ministry for the rest of his days.

When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this.

I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths [the doctrines of sovereign, overcoming grace] in my own soul — when they were, as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron, and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown, on a sudden, from a babe into a man — that I had made progress in Scriptural knowledge, through having found, once for all, that clue to the truth of God.

One weeknight, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher’s sermon, for I did not believe it.

The thought struck me, How did you come to be a Christian? I sought the Lord. But how did you come to seek the Lord? The truth flashed across my mind in a moment — I should not have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so?

Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, “I ascribe my change wholly to God.”

What about you? Do you ascribe your conversion wholly to God? Is he the bottom of it all? Does this cause you to praise the glory of his sovereign, overcoming grace?

John Piper 

Children need a warrior mother

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of Him.” 1 Samuel 1:27 

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

There is a war against motherhood today. We’re in trouble—like a ship lost at sea on a dark night. We’ve lost our compass.  The anchor is gone. The anchor of every society is the family and home. What anchors the home? Mothers.

The head of the home is the father, but the heart of the home is the mother. A father has influence on a child, but the deepest impression is made by a mother. Mothers are perhaps the most powerful and influential force on the face of the earth. Hannah prayed and was so persuasive she changed the course of history.

Begin to pray for your children before they’re born. There is nothing greater than to raise a baby for Jesus Christ. The great theologian Augustine was a renegade boy, but he could not escape the prayers of his mother, Monica. Oh, the power of persuasion.

ACTION POINT:

It’s an incredible thing to pray right out of the Bible, because you know your prayer lines up with the will of God if it comes out of the Word of God. Let me give you a prayer Joyce and I have prayed for our children right from the Word of God, Ephesians 3:14 -21.

“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in Heaven and earth is named, that He would grant _________ [insert your child/children’s name] according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in _________’s hearts by faith; that _______, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ________ might be filled with all the fullness of God.”

 LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Why We Should Love Our Enemies

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” (Luke 6:27)

There are two main reasons why Christians should love their enemies and do good to them.

One is that it reveals something of the way God is. God is merciful.

He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:45)

He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. (Psalm 103:10)

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32)

So, when Christians live this way, by God’s power, we show something of what God is like.

The second reason is that the hearts of Christians are satisfied with God and are not driven by the craving for revenge or self-exaltation or money or earthly security.

God has become our all-satisfying treasure and so we don’t treat our adversaries out of our own sense of need and insecurity, but out of our own fullness with the satisfying glory of God.

Hebrews 10:34, “You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property [that is, you didn’t retaliate against your adversaries], since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.” What takes away the compulsion of revenge is our deep confidence that this world is not our home, and that God is our utterly sure and all-satisfying reward. We know that we have “a better possession and an abiding one.”

So, in both these reasons for loving our enemy we see the main thing: God is shown to be who he really is as a merciful God and as gloriously all-satisfying.

The power to be merciful is that we have been satisfied with God’s mercy toward us. And the ultimate reason for being merciful is to glorify God, that is, to help others magnify him for his mercy. We want to show that God is magnificent. We want our love, by God’s mercy, to make God look great in the eyes of man.

John Piper 

The gift your mom really wants

BIBLE MEDITATION:

The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice and he that begets a wise child shall have joy of him.  Thy father and thy mother shall be glad that she bear thee and she that bear thee shall rejoice. Proverbs 23:24-25.  

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Children are an extension of their parents.  When children do something good and godly and worthy, that gives a parent such great joy. Third John 1:4 says, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” 

Before my parents went to heaven, one of the greatest joys of my life was to do something that would cause them to rejoice and say, “Adrian, we're proud of you.”  I’m so grateful for that. 

ACTION POINT:

Reflect upon how you are living today.  Does your life honor God and give your parents joy? Does it gladden the heart of God? Live in such a way as to cause your parents to stick out their chest a little bit—not in a prideful way, but in saying, “Thank God for my children.”  Your mother will have no greater joy than to know that you are walking in the truth.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Go on to the Meal

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! (Psalm 34:8)

To you who say you have never tasted the glory of God, I say, you have tasted many of its appetizers.

Have you ever looked up at the sky? Have you ever been hugged? Have you ever sat in front of a warm fire? Have you ever walked in the woods, sat by a lake, lain in a summer hammock? Have you ever drunk your favorite drink on a hot day or eaten anything good?

Every desire is either a devout or a distorted enticement to the glory of heaven.

You say you haven’t tasted God’s glory. I say, you have tasted the appetizers. Go on to the meal. Go on to God himself.

You have seen the shadows; look at the substance. You have walked in the warm rays of the day; turn and look at the sun itself — yes, through the protective and sharpening lens of the gospel. You have heard echoes of God’s glory everywhere; tune your heart to the original music.

The best place to get your heart tuned is at the cross of Jesus Christ. “We have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

If you want the most concentrated display of the glory of God, look at Jesus in the Gospels, and look especially at the cross. This will focus your eyes and tune your heart and waken your taste buds so that you will see and hear and taste the glory of the true God everywhere.

That is what you were made for. I plead with you: don’t throw your life away on shadows. God made you to see and savor his glory. Pursue that with all your heart and above all else. You have tasted the appetizers. Now go on to the full banquet.

John Piper