Monday, June 30, 2014

One Way to Salvation


BIBLE MEDITATION:
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” John 14:6

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Materialism says, “Buy your way out.” The politician says, “Legislate.” The army says, “Fight.” Industry says, “Work.” The philosopher says, “Think.” But Jesus says, “There’s no way out but through Me.”

Jesus will save you by His grace, and He’ll save you all by Himself or you won’t be saved at all.

When you are saved by the grace of God, you are saved instantly, and you are saved eternally. Your goodness is not enough to save you, and your badness is not enough to keep you away. Jesus loves you so much that He died to save you.

ACTION POINT:
Have you taken Jesus at His Word and followed His way of salvation? Maybe you have a friend who needs this truth today. Share it; don’t suppress it.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Meditating on God's Presence

Joshua 1:1-9
1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant,
2 "Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel.
3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses.
4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.
5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.
6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.
7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.
8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

Meditate on the word, murmur the word.
Meditate on the word, repeat the word.
Meditate on the word, absorb the word.

Read the word.
Apply the word.
Pray!

Goal, rightly apply the word in our lives and share it!

The spiritual impact: experience God!

When God is With You...

You have confidence amidst uncertainty. 
God is the leader.
You are the servant.

You have strength amidst weakness.
God's strength.

You have courage in the face of fear.
God guarantees your victory.

You have success according to Scripture. 
When we walk in obedience.
When we know God is in charge.

You have hope in the face of despair.
When you were saved, The Spirit of Christ began to live in you.
Christ is in God.
Our hope is Christ.
His grace is sufficient!


Thanks Pastor David!

Authority in a Generation Gone Astray

BIBLE MEDITATION:
“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” Romans 13:1

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Our generation doesn’t like the word authority. We don’t like to be under anybody. We stick out our chests and talk about being free-born Americans.

If you’re a baby boomer, you’re of a generation of anti-authority figures. In your lifetime you’ve gone through the hula hoop, the Barbie doll, pop psychology, Dr. Spock, Donahue, and the Beatles. It was all anti-authority! Fathers were Archie Bunker. Preachers were Flip Wilson. The anthem was, “Do your thing. If it feels good, do it.” Many of us dare not realize the vestiges of rebellion that still lurk down in our hearts.

ACTION POINT:
Give some serious thought to the question: Who is on the throne of my life today?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Being Spirit-Filled

BIBLE MEDITATION:
“...Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” Acts 9:6

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
So many Christians want to be Spirit-filled, but have they ever asked why God should fill them with His Spirit?

I want you to imagine a man pushing a car into a service station. It has no battery in it. The car has four flat tires, a hole in the gas tank, and half the wires are disconnected. The attendant comes out, looks at this rattle trap, and says, “May I help you?”

The man says, “Yeah, fill ‘er up.”

What do you think that attendant would say? “What for?” would be appropriate.

I think God sometimes says, “What for?” to us. Instead, we need to just sign the contract at the bottom and say, “Lord, You fill it in.”

ACTION POINT:
Bow before the Lord, open your hands, and say, “Lord, It’s all You. I am nothing but a vessel for You to use. Use me as You will.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Thursday, June 26, 2014

God’s Provision in the Midst of Suffering

BIBLE MEDITATION:
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3:20

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Over and over again, people will ask me this question, “If there is a God, why is there so much suffering?” There’s never an easy answer to that question when someone is grieving or suffering, but God has taught me that the universe has a disease. And God cannot remove the pain until the last vestige of sin is gone. The worst thing that could happen to human beings would be if we were to live in a world cursed by sin, and yet the world seem to be a paradise. We would never come to God.

ACTION POINT:
God has showered this world with immeasurable mercies. Focus today, not on the suffering, but on the provision of God’s grace.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

The Ultimate Act of Forgiveness


BIBLE MEDITATION:
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” 1 Peter 3:18

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Suppose someone were to punch you in the nose? And suppose in an act of compassion you were to say to that person who punched you, “I forgive you.” And suppose they responded, “There’s no need for you to forgive me. I’ve already forgiven myself.” You’d feel a little cheated. Only the one who was punched can forgive the hitter.

Sin is a clenched fist in the face of God, and only God can forgive sin. There’s enough Gospel dynamite in 1 Peter 3:18 to blow the sin, the hatred, the sorrow, and the sickness out of anybody’s life, but that dynamite must be ignited by the spark of faith.

ACTION POINT:
Is there someone in your life you need to forgive? Maybe someone from whom you need to ask forgiveness? Go do it now. Tomorrow may never come.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

I Just Died! Am I Going To Heaven?


Ps.91:
14 "Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. 
15 When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. 
16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation." 


I just died, now what? 
Am I going to heaven? 
I had a physical body but now I have a spirit body. 
Who made my spirit body? 

2 Cor.5:
6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.

1 Thess.4:
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Ecc.12:
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Every person born has a physical body and spirit body. 
God the Creator made both.
The physical body dies but the spirit body, by God's design, lives on.
Heaven and Hell are the eternal homes of spirit bodies.
Heaven is where God and Christ are and it is the place reserved for Christ followers. 
Hell is reserved for Satan and his followers, the sons of rebellion.

Ps.104.
29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. 
30 When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.

Job 33:4
The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. 

Christ died so you can live!
Christ is the only acceptable payment to God for sin.
Christ blood washes your sin away!
There are many false religions teaching false doctrines!
You may choose but do so with care!
God, in His mercy seeks you!
If you seek God, He will be found!

John 17:
2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

1John 2:
1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Romans 3:
22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Hebrews 10:
1 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.
2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?
3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.
4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 
6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. 
7 Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.'" 
8 When he said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the law),
9 then he added, "Behold, I have come to do your will." He does away with the first in order to establish the second.
10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.
14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds," 
17 then he adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." 
18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

You must repent, turn from sin!

Hebrews 10:
26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

Lord, how we long for the lost to know You. Open their hearts to Your saving grace. Amen