Do you need a recipe for a miracle?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live.

Psalm 116:1-2

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Here’s the recipe for a miracle:

Take a problem

Transfer it to Christ

It will be transformed by Christ.

The ingredient most of us keep missing is transferring the problem to Christ.

ACTION POINT:

Have you given your all to Jesus Christ? This is not just rhetoric. Trying to get as serious and honest as we can within the confines of your daily calendar, the question is: Have you literally given everything to Jesus Christ? If not, do so today and you will begin to see God’s miracle-moving power transform your life.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Divine Blueprint: God's Design For You

The Bible is God's holy word of instruction for you.

1. God builds the home.

His creation.

By His power.

By His instruction.

God is the head, the center of all things.

Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. - Psalm 127:1a

10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.

11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. - 1 Corinthians 3:10-11

2. God maintains the home.

Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.  - Psalm 127:1b

He watches over all.

He protects.

He guards all.

The enemy causes chaos.

He thrives during conflict.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. - John 10:10

3. God supplies the home.

It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.  - Psalm 127:2

We are striving, constant in toil.

Tired, irritated not peaceful.

Only the Lord gives peace.

Be kind not grouchy.

There is peace and contentment that comes from God through a true relationship with Him.

You need rest for your soul.

Not one thing satisfies like Almighty God!

1 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.

2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow."

3 Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

4 But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, "It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers."

5 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, "Arise and eat."

6 And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again.

7 And the angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, "Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you."

8 And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God. - 1 Kings 19:1-8

4. God blesses the home.

Children are a blessing, a reward from God.

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.  - Psalm 127:3

Children are an arrow.

They are our responsibility to teach, to nurture.

We polish, we carve, we sharpen them with God's guidance to make them worthy warriors in the battle against Satan.

God shoots them at the enemy.

4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. 

5 Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.  - Psalm 127:4-5

Thank you Pastor Kevin!

The Master Servant

. . . so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:7)

To me, the Bible’s most astonishing image of Christ’s second coming is in Luke 12:35–37, which pictures the return of a master from a marriage feast like this:

“Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.”

To be sure, we are called servants — and that no doubt means we are to do exactly as we are told. But the wonder of this picture is that the “master” insists on serving. We may have expected this during Jesus’s ministry on earth, since he said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). But Luke 12:35–37 is a picture of the second coming, when the Son of Man comes in the blinding glory of his Father “with his mighty angels in flaming fire” as 2 Thessalonians 1:7–8 says. Why would Jesus be portrayed as a table waiter at the second coming?

Because the very heart of his glory is the fullness of grace that overflows in kindness to needy people. This is why Ephesians 2:7 says he aims “in the coming ages [to] show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

What is the greatness of our God? What is his uniqueness in the world? Isaiah answers: “From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides thee, who works for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4 RSV). There is no other god like this. He never relinquishes the role of inexhaustible benefactor of his ever-dependent, happy people.

John Piper 

Problems are opportunities for God’s power

BIBLE MEDITATION:

I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

Psalm 34:4

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The times that will most strengthen and enrich your life are those when you go barehanded, armed with only the Spirit of God, against the red lion of hell—and prevail. Remember Samson, who killed a lion with his bare hands, then ate honey out of its carcass (see Judges 14:6-9).

Whatever is hounding and threatening your life right now, you must hold fast to the Word of God that promises deliverance and hope, power and strength, wisdom and guidance.

ACTION POINT:

Look beyond the physical evidence to the spiritual promise of God. Problems are opportunities for God’s power to be manifested in your life.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Settling of You Sin Account

Hell is waiting for the un-redeemed sinner.

Heaven is waiting for grace redeemed sinners.

Which are you?

Is Your church teaching salvation is from Christ alone?

Going to church, being a member, being sprinkled as a baby, baptism, these things profit and teach but will not save you from eternal punishment!

Your good deeds, being a decent person will not save you from hell!

If this was so, the cross would be emptied of the power of Christ!

How are you redeemed (delivered from sin)?

Deliverance comes by Christ alone! 

He paid the price it takes, commanded by God the Father, to redeem souls from hell.

There is no other way!

Do you believe and know that Christ died for you? 

He alone is able to satisfy the wrath of God! 

Wrath that was yours until the resurrection of Christ.

His blood cleansed your sin.

He defeated Satan's hold on your soul, and brought you to everlasting life with Him!

13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,

14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. - Colossians 2:13-14

Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, - Acts 3:19

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. - 1 Corinthians 1:18

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. - 1 Corinthians 2:2

22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,

23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,

24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. - 1 Corinthians 1:22-24

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

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. - Romans 7:4

33 Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.

34 For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.

35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.

36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. - John 3:33-36

24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,

25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,

27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

28 for "'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, "'For we are indeed his offspring.' 

29 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead." - Acts 17:24-31

Beware of Serving God

“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” (Acts 17:24–25)

We do not glorify God by providing his needs, but by praying that he would provide ours — and trusting him to answer, and living in the joy of that all-providing care as we lay down our lives in love for other people.

Here we are at the heart of the good news of Christian Hedonism. God’s insistence that we ask him to give us help so that he gets glory. “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Psalm 50:15). This forces on us the startling fact that we must beware of thinking he needs us. We must beware of serving God, and we must take special care to let him serve us, lest we rob him of his glory. “God is not served by human hands, as though he needed anything” (Acts 17:25).

This sounds very strange. Most of us think serving God is a totally positive thing. We have not considered that serving God may be an insult to him. But meditation on the very meaning of prayer makes this plain.

In the novel, Robinson Crusoe, the hero, took Psalm 50:12–15 as his favorite text to hope in as he’s stranded on the island: God says, “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. . . . Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

Which means: there is a way to serve God that would belittle him as needy of our service. Oh, how careful we must be not to preempt the mighty grace of God in Christ. Jesus said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). He aims to be the servant. He aims to get the glory as the Giver.

John Piper 

Are you a part of the “Second Creation”?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence.

Colossians 1:18

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

There are two beginnings in creation.

The first occurred when God created the heavens and the earth. He spoke and—just like that—from His fingertips flew this vast, measureless universe. How simple it was for God to create this universe.

The second is when His creature, man, becomes a new creation in Christ (see 2 Corinthians 5:17). When God reconciled us through His Son, it took every drop of Jesus’ blood. There was no other way to be saved apart from the death of Jesus—the perfect sacrifice. There still isn’t another way.

ACTION POINT:

None of us were here for the first Creation. But we can all be a part of the Second Creation! If you have received the salvation Jesus bought with His blood—thank Him that He’s made you a new creature…a second creation!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers