Are you “doing” for Jesus rather than listening to Jesus?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 Corinthians 1:9

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Discipleship is fellowship with Christ, knowing Christ, loving Christ, abiding in Christ.

I’m afraid too many have joined the movement of Christianity rather than having surrendered to the man of Christianity. These people are doing things for Christ, rather than sitting at the feet of Christ.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with service, and we ought to serve God, but we need to learn that we must minister to Jesus Christ as His disciple before we can minister to others. Jesus values the time you spend with Him far more than the things you do for Him. Do you know that?

ACTION POINT:

Before you head out this morning or go to bed tonight, make sure you make a date with Jesus.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Our Good Is His Glory

“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6)

One common objection to Christian Hedonism is that it puts the interests of man above the glory of God — that it puts my happiness above God’s honor. But Christian Hedonism most emphatically does not do this.

To be sure, we Christian Hedonists endeavor to pursue our interest and our happiness with all our might. We endorse the resolution of the young Jonathan Edwards: “Resolved: To endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.”

But we have learned from the Bible (and from Edwards!) that God’s interest is to magnify the fullness of his glory by spilling over in mercy to us — to us sinners, who desperately need him.

Therefore, the pursuit of our interest and our happiness, even if it costs us our lives, is never above God’s interest and God’s happiness and God’s glory, but always in God’s. One of the most precious truths in the Bible is that God’s greatest interest is to glorify the wealth of his grace by making sinners happy in him — in him!

When we humble ourselves like little children and put on no airs of self-sufficiency, but run happily into the joy of our Father’s embrace, the glory of his grace is magnified and the longing of our soul is satisfied. Our interest and his glory become one.

When Jesus promises in Matthew 6:6, “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you,” this is a reward he wants us to seek. He does not lure us with joy we shouldn’t have! But this reward — this joy — is the overflow of turning away from human praise, and going into our closet to seek God.

Therefore, Christian Hedonists do not put their happiness above God’s glory. They put their happiness in God himself and discover the glorious truth that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

John Piper 

Is all truth God’s Truth?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

1 Corinthians 2:14

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

God made the mind of man. All true discoveries and all true knowledge in this world come from God. It is God’s Truth, and we do not have to be afraid of it. But that doesn’t mean we are to casually stroll down the devil’s lane of godless philosophies.

God’s Truth doesn’t change like philosophies. Malachi 3:6a says, “For I am the Lord, I change not.” I don’t know whether that means anything to you, but it means an awful lot to me, dear friend.

ACTION POINT:

The same God who loved us enough to put His Son on the cross 2,000 years ago loves us with that same love today. We don’t have to worry when we come to God in prayer that we might catch Him in a bad mood. Now, if that doesn’t start your motor, you don’t have one.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Power of a Superior Promise

I shall walk in freedom, for I have sought your precepts. (Psalm 119:45, my translation)

An essential element of joy is freedom. None of us would be happy if we were not free from what we hate and free for what we love.

And where do we find true freedom? Psalm 119:45 says, “I shall walk in freedom, for I have sought your precepts.”

The picture is one of open spaces. The word frees us from smallness of mind. “God gave Solomon . . . breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore” (1 Kings 4:29). The word frees us from threatening confinements. “He brought me out into a broad place” (Psalm 18:19).

Jesus says, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). The freedom he has in mind is freedom from the slavery of sin (John 8:34). Or, to put it positively, it is freedom for holiness.

The promises of God’s grace provide the power that makes the demands of God’s holiness an experience of freedom rather than fear and confinement. Peter described the freeing power of God’s promises like this: “Through [his precious and very great promises] you become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire” (2 Peter 1:4).

In other words, when we trust the promises of God, we sever the root of corruption and sinful desire by the power of a superior promise.

How crucial is the word that breaks the power of counterfeit pleasures! And how vigilant we should be to light our paths and load our hearts with the word of God!

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11).

John Piper 

Is God generous or stingy?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

James 1:5

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

James 1:5 tells us that if we lack wisdom, we are to ask God. Let me tell you what that literally means: If you lack wisdom, ask of the “giving” God. Have you thought of God as the “giving” God?

ACTION POINT:

What does it mean to you that God yearns to pour out His blessing upon you? Do you say to yourself, “Oh goodie—let me see what I can get from God”?

Or does it humble you that the Almighty God who created the air you breathe, the ground you walk upon, and the body you are draped in…this God loves you and wants to bless you? I pray it is the latter, for that is the heart of a child of God.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Live Confident in God’s Sovereign Power

The immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe . . . (Ephesians 1:19)

The omnipotence of God means eternal, unshakable refuge in the everlasting glory of God no matter what happens on this earth. And that confidence is the source and power of radical obedience to the call of God.

Is there anything more freeing, more thrilling, or more strengthening than the truth that God Almighty is your refuge — all day, every day, in all the ordinary and extraordinary experiences of life?

If we believed this, if we really let this truth of God’s omnipotence get hold of us, what a difference it would make in our personal lives and in our ministries! How humble and powerful we would become for the saving purposes of God!

The omnipotence of God means refuge for the people of God. And when you really believe that your refuge is the omnipotence of God Almighty, there is a joy and a freedom and a power that spills over in a life of radical obedience to Jesus Christ.

The omnipotence of God means reverence, recompense, and refuge for his covenant people.

I invite you to accept the terms of his covenant of grace: Turn from sin and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ; and the omnipotence of God Almighty will be the reverence of your soul, the recompense of your enemies, and the refuge of your life — forever.

John Piper 

Do you continually complain?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. Philippians 2:14-15

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Do you know the problem with many of us when we obey God? We murmur about it while we are doing it! And God is taking notes, because halfhearted obedience isn’t obedience at all. Remember, God is looking at the heart, not the deed (see 1 Samuel 16:7).

Do you know why we murmur? Because we’ve taken our eyes off Calvary. Jesus didn’t murmur on the way to the cross. Do you thank God for the pains in life? Or only the gains?

ACTION POINT:

Ephesians 5:20 says, “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers