Authentic vs. Phony Faith

Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:28)

The question before us all is: Are we included in the “many” whose sins Christ bore? And will we be saved at his second coming?

The answer of Hebrews 9:28 is, “Yes,” if we are “eagerly waiting for him.” We can know that our sins are taken away and that we will be safe in the judgment, if we trust Christ in such a way that it makes us eager for his coming.

There is a phony faith that claims to believe in Christ, but is only a fire insurance policy. Phony faith “believes” only to escape hell. It has no real desire for Christ. In fact, it would prefer if he did not come, so that we can have as much of this world’s pleasures as possible. This shows that a heart is not with Christ, but with the world.

So, the issue for us is: Do we eagerly long for the coming of Christ? Or do we want him to stay away, while our love affair with the world runs its course? That is the question that tests the authenticity of faith.

Let us be like the Corinthians as we “wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:7), and like the Philippians whose “citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).

That’s the issue for us. Do we love his appearing? Or do we love the world and hope that his appearing will not interrupt our plans? Eternity hangs on this question.

John Piper 

The only way you’ll know God

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Thy way is in the sea, and Thy path in the great waters, and Thy footsteps are not known. Psalm 77:19

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Visiting the Sea of Galilee is an unforgettable experience. The Lord Jesus walked on the water there, but you cannot see His footsteps. When a wagon goes across land, it leaves a trail, but when a boat goes through the ocean, it leaves no trail.

In this passage in Psalms, what is God saying? He’s saying we will never know Him  only by studying the history of what He has done. His ways are mysterious. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

But we can know His ways, for He says in Psalm 103:7, “He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel.” And in Micah 4:2 we find, “And many nations shall come, and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths.’”

ACTION POINT:

You can try to make sense of God with all your ingenuity, creativity, and intelligence, but God says we will never know Him that way. We have to lay our intellect in the dust and say to God, “Show me Your ways.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Strength to Wait with Patience

May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy. (Colossians 1:11)

“Strengthened” is the right word. The apostle Paul prayed for the church at Colossae, that they would be “strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience” (Colossians 1:11). Patience is the evidence of an inner strength.

Impatient people are weak, and therefore dependent on external supports — like schedules that go just right and circumstances that support their fragile hearts. Their outbursts of oaths and threats and harsh criticisms of the culprits who crossed their plans do not sound weak. But that noise is all a camouflage of weakness. Patience demands tremendous inner strength.

For the Christian, this strength comes from God. That is why Paul is praying for the Colossians. He is asking God to empower them for the patient endurance that the Christian life requires. But when he says that the strength of patience is “according to [God’s] glorious might” he doesn’t just mean that it takes divine power to make a person patient. He means that faith in this “glorious might” is the channel through which the power for patience comes.

Patience is indeed a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22), but the Holy Spirit empowers (with all his fruit) through “hearing with faith” (Galatians 3:5). Therefore Paul is praying that God would connect us with the “glorious might” that empowers patience. And that connection is faith.

John Piper 

Thirsty? Here’s the real thing

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Jesus answered and said unto her, “Whosoever drinks of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:13-14

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Have you ever been outside working in your garden or bicycling or playing football and become very thirsty? You go inside and perhaps grab a soda. It tastes great and seems to hit the spot.

You return to your activity; you get thirsty again and go for another soda. It’s satisfying at first, but just doesn’t seem to keep you quenched. Finally you fill a tall glass with water and you’re satisfied.

Why? If you look at the ingredients on the soda container, it says it’s artificially colored and/or flavored and/or sweetened. It doesn’t have that touch of authenticity.

ACTION POINT:

Many are trying to satisfy their thirst with things that are artificial when what we all need is the water of life! When was the last time you quenched your spiritual thirst with the sparkling refreshment of time spent with God?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Jesus I Believe

Standing on Your promises

20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.

21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us,

22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

23 But I call God to witness against me-it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth.

24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith. - 2 Corinthians 1:20-24

Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass. - Joshua 21:45

8 For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs,

9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, "Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name."  - Romans 15:8-9

16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, "And to offsprings," referring to many, but referring to one, "And to your offspring," who is Christ.

17 This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.

18 For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.

20 Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.

21 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.

22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.

24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,

26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. - Galatians 3:16-26

1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,

2 a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.

3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.

4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law.

5 They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, "See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain."

6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. - Hebrews 8:1-6

3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,

4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. - 2 Peter 1:3-4

God’s Design in Detours

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17)

Have you ever wondered what God is doing while you are looking in the wrong place for something you lost and needed very badly? He knows exactly where it is, and yet he is letting you look in the wrong place.

I once needed a quote for a new edition of my book Desiring God. I knew I had read it in Richard Wurmbrand. I thought it was in his devotional book, Reaching Toward the Heights. I could almost see it on the right hand side of the facing pages. But I couldn’t find it.

But while I was looking, I was riveted on his devotional for November 30. As I read it, I said, “This is why the Lord let me keep looking for my quote in the ‘wrong’ place.” Here was a story that illustrated perfectly that nothing is wasted that we do in the name of Jesus — nothing, not even looking for a quote in the wrong place. Here’s what I read:

In a home for retarded children, Catherine was nurtured twenty years. The child had been [mentally handicapped] from the beginning, and had never spoken a word, but only vegetated. She either gazed quietly at the walls or made distorted movements. To eat, to drink, to sleep, were her whole life. She seemed not to participate at all in what happened around her. A leg had to be amputated. The staff wished Cathy well and hoped that the Lord would soon take her to Himself.

One day the doctor called the director to come quickly. Catherine was dying. When both entered the room, they could not believe their senses. Catherine was singing Christian hymns she had heard and had picked up, just those suitable for death beds. She repeated over and over again the German song, “Where does the soul find its fatherland, its rest?” She sang for half an hour with transfigured face, then she passed away quietly. (Taken from The Best Is Still to Come, Wuppertal: Sonne und Shild)

Is anything that is done in the name of Christ really wasted?

My frustrated, futile search for what I thought I needed was not wasted. Singing to this disabled child was not wasted. And your agonizing, unplanned detour is not a waste — not if you look to the Lord for his unexpected work, and do everything in his name (Colossians 3:17).

John Piper 

Freedom and Liberty in Worship

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 2 Corinthians 3:17

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Formalism and worship are two separate things. Worship is not really quiet music and everyone sitting still and not smiling. That, in and of itself, is not worship. Some people say, “Well that was a dignified service.” Perhaps they don’t know the difference between reverence and rigor mortis.

When you are worshiping the Lord, there should be both freedom and order.

If you study worship in the Bible, you’ll find worship was marked with brightness, spontaneity, and joy. Read the Psalms. Read the accounts of the early Christians who were “continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house; [they] did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart” (Acts 2:46).

Paul encouraged the early church in Ephesians 5 to “be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.”

They had something that fire couldn’t burn, swords couldn’t kill, water couldn’t drown, and jails couldn’t hold. They knew the holiness, the loveliness, and the glory of God in a life-changing way.

ACTION POINT:

Read Psalm 5:7 and 29:2 and take some time today to worship God in joy, in spirit and in truth.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers