We’re only on the threshold of knowing Jesus

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. Psalm 102:25

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

I’ve been preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ for more than fifty years, but I feel I’m just on the threshold of discovering Him. I want to move closer and closer to Him and learn more and more about Him.

Do you know what Paul said at the end of his ministry? That he “may know God” (see Philippians 3:10). Did he know God? Yes, but even after years of ministry, he knew so little about Him—there was so much more to know.

Let me ask you a question. Did Christopher Columbus discover America? Well, he touched on the shores of America. But even today there are thousands of unnamed lakes, forests, and more where no one has yet completely explored.

In a similar way, there is so much for us yet to discover in Christ.

ACTION POINT:

You may have “touched on” Christ, but God’s plan is that you know Him more and more each day.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

You Can't Earn Grace

What a sweet gift, the grace given by Christ to all who trust Him for salvation.

It's not something we earn!

Our works can never be worthy!

Grace comes from Jesus, the shedding of His precious blood is the only thing that covers our sin!

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. - 1 Corinthians 1:17

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-

6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. - Ephesians 2:4-10

3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. - Romans 8:3-4

But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. - Romans 11:6

Never Give Up-Fight Hard

Fight hard for faith and family.

Never give up!

2 "'I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.

3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. - Revelation 2:2-3

Stand steady!

Point out false teaching!

Endure!

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. - Revelation 2:4

Keep God first!

Don't just love Him for His gifts.

Love Him just because!

Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. - Revelation 2:5

Go back to the moment when you first loved Him!

Repent!

Pray!

Fast!

Ask for forgiveness!

Sin separates!

Walk with Him!

Talk with Him!

Don't get far away from God!

Search for truth!

Jesus died for you!!!

Thank you Pastor Waid!

My Soul Thirsts for God

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? (Psalm 42:1–2)

What makes this so beautiful and so crucial for us is that he is not thirsting mainly for relief from his threatening circumstances. He is not thirsting mainly for escape from his enemies or for their destruction.

It’s not wrong to want relief, and to pray for it. It is sometimes right to pray for the defeat of enemies. But more important than any of that is God himself.

When we think and feel with God in the Psalms, this is the main result: We come to love God, and we want to see God and be with God and be satisfied in admiring and exulting in God.

A likely translation of the end of verse 2 is, “When will I come and see the face of God?” The final answer to that question was given in John 14:9 and 2 Corinthians 4:4. Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” And Paul said that when we are converted to Christ we see “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

When we see the face of Christ, we see the face of God. And we see the glory of the face of Christ, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:4 and 6, when we hear the story of the gospel of his death and resurrection. He calls it “the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Or (verse 6): “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

May the Lord increase your hunger and your thirst to see the face of God. And may he grant your desire, even today, through the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

John Piper 

Which grace do you need most today?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 1 Peter 4:10

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The Bible speaks of the “manifold” grace of God. What does that mean? It means we can experience God’s grace in many ways. For instance, there is singing grace. When Paul and Silas were in prison, God gave them grace to sing (see Acts 16:25).

There is speaking grace. Colossians 4:6 says, “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” God will give you the ability to speak, even about your troubles, with His grace.

God also gives us strengthening grace. Timothy was often sick with many infirmities. Paul told him to “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1).

ACTION POINT:

Which do you need today? Singing grace? Speaking grace? Strengthening grace? All three? Spend time in the Word of God today and draw from the manifold grace of God.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Different Tenses of Grace

We always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12)

Grace is not only God’s disposition to do good for us when we don’t deserve it — we call this “undeserved favor”; God’s grace is also a power from God that acts in our lives and makes good things happen in us and for us — which we also don’t deserve.

Paul said that we fulfill our resolves for good “by his power” (verse 11). And then he adds at the end of verse 12, “according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” The power that actually works in our lives to make Christ-exalting obedience possible is an exertion of the grace of God.

You can see this also in 1 Corinthians 15:10:

By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

So, grace is an active, present, transformative, obedience-enabling power.

Therefore, this grace, which moves in power from God to you at a point in time, is both past and future. It has already done something for you or in you and therefore is past. And it is about to do something in you and for you, and so it is future — both five seconds from now and five million years from now.

God’s grace is ever cascading over the waterfall of the present from the inexhaustible river of grace coming to us from the future into the ever-increasing reservoir of grace in the past. In the next five minutes, you will receive sustaining grace flowing to you from the future — in this you trust; and you will accumulate another five minutes worth of grace in the reservoir of the past — for this you give thanks.

John Piper 

You’ve got an inheritance that will never lose value

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for you. 1 Peter 1:3-4

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A man was sitting on a street corner, weeping. A friend saw him and asked, “Why are you crying?”

“Haven’t you read the papers? Rockefeller died.”

The friend responded, “Why are you crying? You were no kin of his!”

“That’s why I’m crying!”

You have an inheritance right now as a child of God. It is incorruptible. The foul breath of decay and gnawing tooth of time cannot take it away. It is undefiled. No high-powered lawyer can find a loophole. It will never fade away. 

ACTION POINT:

If you understood what you have in Jesus, you would never be jealous of anybody. Ezekiel 44:28 says that God is your inheritance. You have an inheritance that is faultless, flawless, fade-less, and reserved in heaven for you!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers