March 28

And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.  - Isaiah 2:17

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.

4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. - 2 Corinthians 10:3-6

4 And my eye will not spare you, nor will I have pity, but I will punish you for your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

5 "Thus says the Lord GOD: Disaster after disaster! Behold, it comes.

6 An end has come; the end has come; it has awakened against you. Behold, it comes. - Ezekiel 7:4-6

21 My son, fear the LORD and the king, and do not join with those who do otherwise, 

22 for disaster will arise suddenly from them, and who knows the ruin that will come from them both?  - Proverbs 24:21-22

23 For I know that you will bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living. 

24 "Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, and in his disaster cry for help? 

25 Did not I weep for him whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy? 

26 But when I hoped for good, evil came, and when I waited for light, darkness came. 

27 My inward parts are in turmoil and never still; days of affliction come to meet me. 

28 I go about darkened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.  - Job 30:23-28

Weakness Is Your Asset

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me…For when I am weak, then I am strong’”...

(2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The reason many people aren’t overcoming the devil is that they’re using spiritual weapons, but trying to wield those weapons in their own strength.

You say, "I'm just too weak to win the battle." You’re right. But you may not be weak enough yet. God identifies Himself with our obedient weakness. Your problem may be that you're still trying rather than trusting. The battle is not yours; it’s the Lord's!

Your weakness is not a liability; it’s an asset. Your strength is not an asset; it’s a liability. If we could only learn that God does not need our strength! He calls for our obedience! God has the strength! The battle is the Lord's.

God has given us mighty weapons.

The precious blood of Jesus that covers us, for example. "And they overcame him [the devil] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Revelation 12:11).

The Word of God is another. This Bible, “sharper than any two-edged sword” is to be our battle-axe, our sword, our bow, our arrow, as we go against the enemy (Hebrews 4:12).

Prayer is another. “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but through God to the pulling down of strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4).

ACTION POINT:

We have a spiritual enemy. Only spiritual weapons will be successful in defeating him! Therefore, the Bible says, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal [of the flesh] but mighty through God for pulling down strongholds." God is telling us today to take up the weapons He Himself has placed in our hands.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

10 Results of the Resurrection

If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. (1 Corinthians 15:17)

Here are ten amazing things we owe to the resurrection of Jesus:

1) A Savior who can never die again. “We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again” (Romans 6:9).

2) Repentance. “The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel” (Acts 5:30–31).

3) New birth. “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

4) Forgiveness of sin. “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17).

5) The Holy Spirit. “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing” (Acts 2:32–33).

6) No condemnation for the elect. “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” (Romans 8:34).

7) Jesus’s personal fellowship and protection. “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

8) Proof of coming judgment. “[God] 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 17:31).

9) Salvation from the future wrath of God. “[We] wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 5:9).

10) Our own resurrection from the dead. “[We know] that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence” (2 Corinthians 4:14; Romans 6:4; 8:11; 1 Corinthians 6:14; 15:20).

John Piper 

March 27

27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

28 so 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 9:27-28

27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

28 so 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 9:27-28

For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. - Matthew 16:27

and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. - Revelation 2:23

Your Way to Victory

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“’Because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before Me, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you,’ says the Lord”... (2 Chronicles 34:27)

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

How many truly victorious Christians do you know? How many genuinely victorious churches are you aware of? You know the problem with many of us? We are failing, but we don't weep over it. We are not living in victory, but it doesn't seem to bother us. We know very little about victory, and we seem to be quite content to live day after day without it. We seem to think that victory is for others, but not for us.

Today’s verse occurred at a time of utter devastation in Israel. Young Josiah—a mere boy—became king. He wanted to get things right with God. He humbled himself. Our Bible passage today is God’s answer! Read it again.

ACTION POINT:

This is a beautiful chapter—one you should read today. Do you think you were behind the door when victory was passed out, and it's not your fault you live in defeat? Could it be that it is your fault that you’re not victorious? You ought to be weeping over your shame and over your sin. Follow Josiah’s example in this chapter and humble yourself before our great God.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Faith and Fear

Is God able?

Yes!

He alone delivers!

Is His plan sovereign?

Yes!

Jesus power!

By the authority of His Father God, Jesus is able!! 

Trust that God is in control of the creation He spoke into existence! 

From the beginning Satan planned to destroy, but God had a plan!

Satan is already defeated!! 

God has a purpose!

Jesus is His plan!!

Living a sin free life, He became life to the sinner. 

Jesus died to save you!

Are you trusting Him for what God has empowered Him to do?

1 Then Job answered the LORD and said:

2 "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.  - Job 42:1-2

'Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. - Jeremiah 32:17

"Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me? - Jeremiah 32:27

But Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." - Matthew 19:26

For nothing will be impossible with God." - Luke 1:37

Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son." - Genesis 18:14

8 "Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, 

9 remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, 

10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,'  - Isaiah 46:8-10

11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.

12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." - Acts 4:11-12

"Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. - Acts 13:26

Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen." - Acts 28:28

but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." - John 4:14

You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. - John 4:22

how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, - Hebrews 2:3

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, - 1 Timothy 2:5

but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. - John 20:31

25 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages

26 but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith-

27 to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen. - Romans 16:25-27

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,

7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,

12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

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 2:6-14

The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. - Revelation 22:17

How to Delight in God’s Word

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Psalm 119:103)

Never reduce Christianity to a matter of demands and resolutions and willpower. It is a matter of what we love, what we delight in, what tastes good to us.

When Jesus came into the world, humanity was split according to what they loved. “The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light” (John 3:19). The righteous and the wicked are separated by what they delight in — the revelation of God in Jesus, or the way of the world.

So someone may ask: How can I come to delight in the word of God? My answer is twofold:

1) pray for new taste buds on the tongue of your heart;

2) meditate on the staggering promises of God to his people.

The same psalmist who said, “How sweet are your words to my taste” (Psalm 119:103), said earlier, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18). He prayed this, because to have spiritual eyes to see glory, or to have holy taste buds on the tongue of the heart, is a gift of God. No one naturally hungers for, and delights in, God and his wisdom.

But when you have prayed, indeed while you pray, meditate on the benefits God promises to his people and on the joy of having Almighty God as your helper now and forever. Psalm 1:3–4 says that the person who meditates on God’s word “is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.”

Who would not delight to read a book, the reading of which would change one from useless chaff to a mighty cedar of Lebanon, from a Texas dust bowl to a Hawaiian orchard? Nobody deep down wants to be chaff — rootless, weightless, useless. All of us want to draw strength from some deep river of reality and become fruitful, useful people.

That river of reality is the word of God, and all the great saints have been made great by it.

John Piper