On your own, you’re only a brick

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:5

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Jesus is not only the Cornerstone of the church; He is also present in every one of the building blocks, because the Holy Spirit indwells every believer.

You’ve heard of someone being called a “chip off the old block.” That means he shares the traits and nature of his father. In a sense, every child of God is a chip off that Block. We are a chip off the chief Cornerstone. Listen to this:

Now therefore, you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief Cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.

We are “fitly framed together,” and we’re growing into “a holy temple” in the Lord, a temple God Himself inhabits.

By ourselves we are not all that much. How many one-brick buildings have you seen? One stone can be easily tossed around, but if you take a lot of them and put them together, there is strength.

ACTION POINT:

Our Lord is building us together to gain strength from one another. It is amazing what can happen when the body of Christ is unified.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

How to Plead for Unbelievers

Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. (Romans 10:1)

Paul prays that God would convert Israel. He prays for her salvation! He does not pray for ineffectual influences, but for effectual influences. And that is how we should pray too.

We should take the new covenant promises of God and plead with God to bring them to pass in our children and our neighbors and on all the mission fields of the world.

God, take out of their flesh the heart of stone and give them a new heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 11:19)

Circumcise their heart so that they love you! (Deuteronomy 30:6)

Father, put your Spirit within them and cause them to walk in your statutes. (Ezekiel 36:27)

Grant them repentance and a knowledge of the truth that they may escape from the snare of the devil. (2 Timothy 2:25–26)

Open their hearts so that they believe the gospel! (Acts 16:14)

When we believe in the sovereignty of God — in the right and power of God to elect and then bring hardened sinners to faith and salvation — then we will be able to pray with no inconsistency, and with the confidence of great biblical promises for the conversion of the lost.

Thus, God has pleasure in this kind of praying because it ascribes to him the right and honor to be the free and sovereign God that he is in election and salvation.

John Piper 

When you’re gone, what do you want your children to say?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and His testimonies, and His statutes, which He hath commanded thee. And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the Lord swore unto thy fathers. Deuteronomy 6:17-18

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

I used to run track. In a relay race, you must skillfully hand a baton off to the next runner on your team. For a moment you’re running by yourself, then someone comes up behind you, tries to match your speed, you’re running together, then you place that baton in his hand, and you trail off and watch him run. 

Fathers, our journey with our kids is much like that. We need to run alongside. We need to safely hand off the baton.

One day, my kids are going to be standing at my casket. I don’t think they care about how many people heard me preach or how large the church’s budget was. I don’t think they even care about how many books I’ve written. When that time comes, I want them to say, “Daddy loved God and he loved us.” Dads, we are leaving a legacy.

ACTION POINT:

If you are a father, don’t lose those few precious years when you’re running side by side with your child.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

You Are In A State of Decay

The minute you are born, you begin to die.

To die is to decay!

You are going to rot!

Your temporary body is really temporary.

Your soul or spirit is eternal.

God, your Creator, designed this reality. 

So as our body is dying, our spirit is being renewed, by God, for His divine purpose.

It is a mystery from the beginning of ages that man dies and his soul lives on.

The body is seen.

It's tangible, you can touch it.

We are recognized by our face.

The soul is unseen.

The soul exist as a vapor, not being seen by the eye.

It contains the essence of who you are.

As Creator, God knows the mystery.

How can the two be separated and one die and the other live?

By His divine plan, the mystery of life and death are carried out in perfect harmony.  

By His divine plan, death did not hold His Son! 

Praise be to God for His Son Jesus!

In His resurrection we have eternal life through obedience to our Lord and Savior. 

We are forgiven, sanctified, justified and redeemed as worthy before Holy God!

God is not far off, He is with you!

He will never leave or desert you.

Fall before Him for forgiveness, knowing that Christ alone is able to save.

He alone brings salvation to the lost!

Be saved and share the gospel of Christ.

It is your calling to make disciples!

You are accountable!

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,

18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. - 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died-more than that, who was raised-who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

36 As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." 

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,

39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:31-39

The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.  - Zephaniah 3:17

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. - 1 John 4:4

4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

6 So we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?" 

7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. - Hebrews 13:4-8

And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" - Isaiah 6:5

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." - Luke 5:8

5 But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.

6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. - Matthew 28:5-6

18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." - Matthew 28:18-20

Are You In? or Out?

Does it really matter?

Spiritual laziness

Not caring if you grow spiritually 

You really should care!

Don't you want to be disciplined about God's plan for you?

To reach your full potential, you must strive to grow to find meaning in what God's plan is for you.

Be determined!

Be your best!

Apply yourself!

Work hard!

6 If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed.

7 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness;

8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

9 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.

10 For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

11 Command and teach these things.

12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.

15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.

16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. - 1 Timothy 4:6-16

The Christ follower has to be intensely focused on their walk with Christ.

Don't forget what the word teaches!

Study the word!

Share the word!

Teach the word!

Christ alone!

Set your sight on Christ and strive toward holiness!

Train and develop your God given talent for holiness!

Practice! 

Be devoted!

Immerse yourself in the word and it's teachings!

Just do it!

Someone is waiting to learn from you!

Be all in!

It does matter!

Let your fire for the Lord shine!

Thanks Pastor Draper Rogers! 

What Kind of Prayer Pleases God?

“This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” (Isaiah 66:2)

The first mark of the upright heart is that it trembles at the word of the Lord.

Isaiah 66 deals with the problem of some who worship in a way that pleases God and some who worship in a way that doesn’t. Verse 3 describes the wicked who bring their sacrifices, “He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man.” Their sacrifices are an abomination to God — on a par with murder. Why?

In verse 4 God explains, “When I called, no one answered, when I spoke, they did not listen.” Their sacrifices were abominations to God because the people were deaf to his voice. But what about those whose prayers God heard? God says in verse 2, “This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

I conclude from this that the first mark of the upright, whose prayers are a delight to God, is that they tremble at God’s word. These are the people to whom the Lord will look.

So, the prayer of the upright that delights God comes from a heart that at first feels precarious in the presence of God. It trembles at the hearing of God’s word, because it feels so far from God’s ideal and so vulnerable to his judgment and so helpless and so sorry for its failings.

This is just what David said in Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” The first thing that makes a prayer acceptable to God is the brokenness and humility of the one who prays. They tremble at his word.

John Piper 

Three things you must have to be happy

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness. Psalm 97:12

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Years ago, Reader’s Digest published an article which said that for a person to be happy and fulfilled, three things are necessary:

   First, something to believe.

   Second, someone to love.

   Third, something worthwhile to do.

That’s true—not because Reader’s Digest said it, but because God’s Word affirms it. There must be more to life than your next breath or your next step. And His name is Jesus Christ. He is indeed the fulfillment of all three of those needs:

   Jesus is the One to believe in.

   He is the Someone to love.

   His cause is the something worthwhile for you to do.

ACTION POINT:

Do you yearn for happiness? Every need can be met in your life through Jesus Christ.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers