Bible Study

Matthew 5:12

[12] Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

1 Peter 1:6-9

[6] In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, [7] so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. [8] Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, [9] obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Isaiah 48:10-11

    [10] Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;

        I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. 

    [11] For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,

        for how should my name be profaned?

        My glory I will not give to another.

    Psalm 66:10

    [10] For you, O God, have tested us;

        you have tried us as silver is tried.

Do You See Marriage as God Intended?

PRAY OVER THIS

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” 

Genesis 2:24

 

PONDER THIS

There are three verbs here that I want to underscore—leave, cleave (or be joined), and become one flesh. There you have an outline for preparing any child for marriage. This is the marriage relationship summed up in a verse and one of the key verses in all the Bible. I’ve been a pastor for many years, and I’ve done a lot of marriage counseling. But I have not done any marriage counseling, nor shall I ever do any, in which the problem was not caused by people not understanding the meaning of this one verse. Not understanding what it means to leave. Not understanding what it means to cleave. Not understanding what it means to be one flesh. In those three verbs, you have the priority of marriage, the permanence of marriage, and the purpose of marriage.

How is your understanding of marriage tied to the three verbs in today’s verse?

How does this understanding of marriage lead us to the deep commitment God intends?

PRACTICE THIS

Take some time to study this verse today. If you don’t know much about the meaning of these words, look at some commentaries to learn more about the intention of these words.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

God’s Plan for Martyrs

They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. (Revelation 6:11)

For almost three hundred years, Christianity grew in soil that was wet with the blood of the martyrs.

Until the Emperor Trajan (about AD 98), persecution was permitted but not legal. From Trajan to Decius (about AD 250), persecution was legal. From Decius, who hated the Christians and feared their impact on his reforms, until the first edict of toleration in 311, the persecution was not only legal but widespread and general.

One writer described the situation in this third period:

Horror spread everywhere through the congregations; and the number of lapsi [the ones who renounced their faith when threatened] . . . was enormous. There was no lack, however, of such as remained firm, and suffered martyrdom rather than yielding; and, as the persecution grew wider and more intense, the enthusiasm of the Christians and their power of resistance grew stronger and stronger.

So, for three hundred years, to be a Christian was an act of immense risk to your life and possessions and family. It was a test of what you loved more. And at the extremity of that test was martyrdom.

And above that martyrdom was a sovereign God who said there is an appointed number of martyrs. They have a special role to play in planting and empowering the church. They have a special role to play in shutting the mouth of Satan, who constantly says that the people of God serve him only because life goes better. That’s the point of Job 1:9–11.

Martyrdom is not something accidental. It is not taking God off guard. It is not unexpected. And it is emphatically not a strategic defeat for the cause of Christ.

It may look like defeat. But it is part of a plan in heaven that no human strategist would ever conceive or could ever design. And this plan will triumph for all those who endure to the end by faith in God’s all-sufficient grace.

John Piper 

Bible Study

John 8:12

I Am the Light of the World

[12] Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Psalm 36:9

    [9] For with you is the fountain of life;

        in your light do we see light.

Isaiah 42:6-7

    [6] “I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness;

        I will take you by the hand and keep you;

    I will give you as a covenant for the people,

        a light for the nations, 

    [7]     to open the eyes that are blind,

    to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,

        from the prison those who sit in darkness.

Matthew 5:13-20

Salt and Light

[13] “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

[14] “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. [15] Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. [16] In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Christ Came to Fulfill the Law

[17] “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. [18] For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. [19] Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. [20] For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Submission Does Not Mean Inferiority

PRAY OVER THIS

“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” Ephesians 5:22

 

PONDER THIS

Submission to authority does not mean inferiority. Think of some different examples. Is a church member inferior to me because I’m the pastor? Of course not. Do you think I’m inferior to a policeman because I stop when he says stop and go when he says go? Of course not. Do you think a child is inferior to his parents because that child obeys his parents? Of course not. Here’s the capstone. Do you think God the Son is inferior to God the Father? No, of course not. If you know anything about Christian theology you know the basic prime tenant of our faith is the full deity of Jesus Christ, co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father. And yet the Bible says the head of Christ is God the Father. Jesus was submissive. He “humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). Submission does not mean inferiority.

How does today’s devotion challenge your thinking about submission?

Who has God put in authority over you? How are you called to submit to them?

PRACTICE THIS

Make a list of ways you might honor God by submitting to those He has put in authority in your life.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Why We Don’t Lose Heart

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 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)

Paul can’t see the way he used to (and there were no glasses). He can’t hear the way he used to (and there were no hearing aids). He doesn’t recover from beatings the way he used to (and there were no antibiotics). His strength, walking from town to town, doesn’t hold up the way it used to. He sees the wrinkles in his face and neck. His memory is not as good. And he admits that this is a threat to his faith and joy and courage.

But he does not lose heart. Why?

He doesn’t lose heart because his inner man is being renewed. How?

The renewing of his heart comes from something very strange: it comes from looking at what he can’t see.

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 4:18)

This is Paul’s way of not losing heart: looking at what he cannot see. What, then, did he see when he looked?

A few verses later in 2 Corinthians 5:7, he says, “We walk by faith, not by sight.” This doesn’t mean that he leaps into the dark without evidence of what’s there. It means that for now the most precious and important realities in the world are beyond our physical senses.

We “look” at these unseen things through the gospel. We strengthen our hearts — we renew our courage — by fixing our gaze on the invisible, objective truth that we see in the testimony of those who saw Christ face to face.

“God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). “The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” We see this as it shines in our heart through the gospel.

We became Christians when this happened — whether we understood this or not. And with Paul we need to go on seeing with the eyes of the heart, so that we not lose heart.

John Piper 

Bible Study

Acts 20:24

[24] But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Romans 7:22-25

[22] For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, [23] but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. [24] Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? [25] Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Isaiah 40:30-31

    [30] Even youths shall faint and be weary,

        and young men shall fall exhausted; 

    [31] but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;

        they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

    they shall run and not be weary;

        they shall walk and not faint.

Romans 12:2-5

[2] Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Gifts of Grace

[3] For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. [4] For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, [5] so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.