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Gods story

He’s Worthy

Read Revelation 5:1-14

No one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll and read it.

Then I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll and read it. But one of the twenty-four elders said to me, “Stop weeping! Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David’s throne, has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

Then I saw a Lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered, but it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the twenty-four elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the sevenfold Spirit of God that is sent out into every part of the earth.
(Revelation 5:3-6)

Reflect
In John’s day, books were written on scrolls—pieces of papyrus or vellum up to 30 feet long, rolled up and sealed with clay or wax. The scroll that John sees contains the full account of what God has in store for the world. The seven seals indicate the importance of its contents.

Jesus is pictured as a Lion (symbolizing his authority and power) and a Lamb (symbolizing his submission to God’s will). One of the elders calls John to look at the Lion, but when John looks he sees a Lamb. Christ the Lamb was the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. He was worthy to break the seals and open the scroll by living a perfect life of obedience to God, dying on the cross for the sins of the world, and being raised from the dead to show his power and authority over evil and death. He conquered sin, death, hell, and Satan himself. Therefore, he can be trusted with the world’s future. Christ the Lamb won the greatest battle of all. But as the Lion, he’ll return in victory to lead the battle where Satan is finally defeated (Revelation 19:19-21).

Respond
Which of Jesus’ roles—Lion or Lamb—brings you the most comfort? How has Jesus been victorious in your life or especially comforting to you recently?

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johnpiper

What It Means to Pray for Your Enemy
“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44)
Prayer for your enemies is one of the deepest forms of love, because it means that you have to really want that something good happen to them.

You might do nice things for your enemy without any genuine desire that things go well with them. But prayer for them is in the presence of God who knows your heart, and prayer is interceding with God on their behalf.

It may be for their conversion. It may be for their repentance. It may be that they would be awakened to the enmity in their hearts. It may be that they will be stopped in their downward spiral of sin, even if it takes disease or calamity to do it. But the prayer Jesus has in mind here is always for their good.

This is what Jesus did as he hung on the cross:

“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)
And it’s what Stephen did as he was being stoned:

Falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” (Acts 7:60)
Jesus is calling us not just to do good things for our enemy, like greeting them and helping supply their needs; he is also calling us to want their best, and to express those wants in prayers when the enemy is nowhere around.

Our hearts should want their salvation and want their presence in heaven and want their eternal happiness. So we pray like the apostle Paul for the Jewish people, many of whom made life very hard for Paul,

My heart’s desire and prayer to God is for their salvation. (Romans 10:1)
For more about John Piper’s ministry and writing, see DesiringGod.org.

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365 devotional

Meditation (Luke 24:1–8)

All of Christianity is summed up in one verifiable historical event. And this changes everything. Jesus of Nazareth, a maverick Jewish rabbi and prophet, who claimed to be the Messiah about whom Scripture foretold, was arrested, condemned in an illegal trial and crucified. A soldier’s spear to his side and the blood and water that flowed from the wound confirmed that his lungs had collapsed. He was dead. Days after his body had been prepared and placed in a sealed tomb, some women went back to the tomb and found the Roman seal broken, the stone rolled away from the entrance and his body (along with the guards whose lives depended on their keeping watch over it) gone. Soon after that day, more than 500 people claimed to have seen him alive. Others claimed to have seen him ascend into heaven. Most of these witnesses were still alive at the time of the writing of the four Gospels. If the words of this “Good News” were not true, one of those witnesses would have surely refuted them.

Those who committed to follow Jesus early on gained no visible benefit from following him, no wealth or power or possession. Rather, many were themselves beaten, stoned, tortured and crucified. Yet Christianity has persisted on through history to today. And because we know that this account of Jesus’ death and resurrection is factual, we can also know that his promises are sure. The One who died as a criminal to take our sin away from us is alive now, preparing a place for us. And one day, we will be made alive again with him.

Prayer

Loving Lord, you have called us to be born again to a living hope that comes through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You are preparing an inheritance for me that will never be corrupted and never fade away. And yet I confess that I often put my hope in other things. Deliver me from the futility of misplaced hopes. Teach me the wisdom of seeking you and finding security in your unchanging character. Only your promises will stand forever. It is folly to trust in people, possessions or position because all of these ultimately disappoint. Instead, I place my hope in you. I pray that I will grow in knowing, loving and trusting you. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Taken from Once a Day 40 Days of Easter

©2014 HarperCollins Christian Publishing

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johnpiper

Two Ways to Remember Jesus

Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel. (2 Timothy 2:8)

Paul mentions two specific ways to remember Jesus: Remember him as risen from the dead. And remember him as the offspring of David. Why these two things about Jesus?

Because if he is risen from the dead he is alive and triumphant over death. “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).

Which means that no matter how serious the suffering becomes, the worst that it can do on this earth is kill you. And Jesus has taken the sting out of that enemy. He is alive. And you will be alive. “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28).

The resurrection of Jesus was not a random resurrection. It was the resurrection of the son of David. “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David.” Why does Paul say that?

Because every Jewish person knew what that meant. That meant that Jesus is the Messiah (John 7:42). And that meant that this resurrection was not a random resurrection, but the resurrection of an everlasting king. Listen to the words of the angel to Mary, Jesus’s mother:

Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:31–33)

So remember Jesus, the one you serve, and the one for whom you suffer. He is alive and he will reign forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. No matter what they do to you, you do not need to be afraid.

For more about John Piper’s ministry and writing, see DesiringGod.org.

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Gods story

Fan the Flames

Read Revelation 2:1-7

“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Ephesus. This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands:

“I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.

“But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches. But this is in your favor: You hate the evil deeds of the Nicolaitans, just as I do.

“Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God.”
(Revelation 2:1-7)

Reflect

Just as when a man and woman fall in love, so also new believers rejoice at their newfound forgiveness. But the ardor of love later cools. When they lose sight of the seriousness of sin, they begin to lose the thrill of forgiveness (see 2 Peter 1:9). Here, Jesus confronts the believers in Ephesus about their lost love.

Paul had once commended the church at Ephesus for its love for God and others (Ephesians 1:15), but many of the church founders had died, and many of the second-generation believers had lost their zeal for God. They were a busy church—the members did much to benefit themselves and the community—but they were acting out of the wrong motives. They needed to fan the flames of love once more.

Respond

In the first steps of your Christian life, you may have had enthusiasm without knowledge. Do you now have knowledge without enthusiasm? Both are necessary if we are to keep love for God intense and untarnished (see Hebrews 10:32, 35). Are you in need of a “second honeymoon” with God? Ask the Holy Spirit to rekindle your love for God.

https://meetmyfriend.com/1053/

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365 devotional

Meditation (1 Peter 2:22)

The Son of David, who was to come and deliver his people, would be just and righteous and zealous for God. We would say he had integrity. And he did. Jesus’ love, his truth and his goodness were not governed by external circumstances or personal ambitions, but were always steadfastly in accordance with the will of the Father.

Here is our Lord Jesus, standing in stark contrast before a man who is the exact opposite of integrity—a hypocrite. Caiaphas models everything Jesus is not—a manipulator too busy with his own selfish plans to mediate for the sins of the people. He had set this whole scene up, proposing that Jesus be killed so that Rome would not take away his job—and his status. It was Caiaphas who had suggested that one man should be sacrificed for the nation (John 11:45–53).

But we have to stop and think: Here is the high priest of the Jewish nation, essentially making a sacrifice to Rome to keep what he does not want to lose. So when Jesus stands before him and does not deny his own divinity, Caiaphas plays out a response he probably has rehearsed, pretending to be terribly upset. Jesus is silent; a man of integrity knows better than to argue with an actor. Jesus knew that Caiaphas had made up his mind long before this trial ever began. In light of this story, we have a choice: to follow Caiaphas and love what we have so much that we will lie, cheat and kill to keep it, or to lay down our lives and follow the one who modeled integrity and is, himself, our righteousness.

Prayer

God of glory, you want what is best for me. Yet, I attempt to control my own life, and I sabotage the peace and joy that come from submitting to your will. Help me to remember that it is in the small decisions of life that my character is forged. Small acts of hypocrisy always lead to larger acts of infidelity. Give me the wisdom and humility to seek accountability and honesty with a few people, so that they can protect me from myself. Keep me from being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. In your Son’s name I pray. Amen.

Taken from Once a Day 40 Days to Easter

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max lucado

Hiding the Trash

You and I live in a trashy world. Unwanted garbage comes our way on a regular basis… Haven’t you been handed a trash sack of mishaps and heartaches? Sure you have. May I ask, what are you going to do with it?

You have several options. You could hide it. You could take the trash bag and cram it under your coat or stick it under your dress and pretend it isn’t there. But you and I know you won’t fool anyone. Besides, sooner or later it will start to stink. Or you could disguise it. Paint it green, put it on the front lawn, and tell everybody it is a tree. Again, no one will be fooled, and pretty soon it’s going to reek. So what will you do? If you follow the example of Christ, you will learn to see tough times differently. Remember, God loves you just the way you are, but he refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to have a hope-filled heart … just like Jesus …

Wouldn’t you love to have a hope-filled heart? Wouldn’t you love to see the world through the eyes of Jesus? Where we see unanswered prayer, Jesus saw answered prayer. Where we see the absence of God, Jesus saw the plan of God. Note especially Matthew 26:53: “Surely you know I could ask my Father, and he would give me more than twelve armies of angels” (NCV). Of all the treasures Jesus saw in the trash, this is most significant. He saw his Father. He saw his Father’s presence in the problem. Twelve armies of angels were within his sight.

Sure, Max, but Jesus was God. He could see the unseen. He had eyes for heaven and a vision for the supernatural. I can’t see the way he saw.

Not yet maybe, but don’t underestimate God’s power. He can change the way you look at life.

https://meetmyfriend.com/1043/

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DIGGING DEEPER
04/06/2015

Say What God Says,
by Joyce Myer

This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success. —JOSHUA 1:8
God tells us that the more time we spend meditating on and speaking His Word, the more we will see the benefits in our every-day lives and even have a closer relationship with Him. He even promises we’ll be prosperous and successful! (See Joshua 1:8.)

I can testify to this because I have made it through many trials and even devastating times by believing and confessing the Word of God over my life. There’s something powerful that happens when we speak His Word out loud. It’s the way we learn to purposely think right thoughts, especially when we make the scriptures personal confessions of faith.

READ HIS WORD AND SPEAK IT

It’s great to read the Word and receive it in your heart, but when you confess it out loud, you actively interact with what God says and release its power into your life.

I encourage you to spend time reading and meditating on God’s Word, lining your thoughts up with it. But I also urge you to speak the Word. You can make up your mind to work toward changing your life by saying what God says. Read His Word and speak it over your circumstances today.

Prayer Starter: God, I want to release the full power of Your Word into my life. Along with reading and thinking about Your Word, I choose today to speak it over my life.

By
Joyce Myer

https://meetmyfriend.com/1041/

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When You Can’t Feel God
by J.D. Greear, Jesus, Continued…Meet J.D. Greear
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. – Matthew 4:1-2If the LORD is with us… where are all His wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us? – Judges 6:13 

By His Spirit, God is alive and active in His church. Nevertheless, if you think that walking with Jesus means an endless series of miracles, burning bushes, still, small voices, warm fuzzies, and sensations of peace that pass all understanding, then you are going to be disappointed.

Many of the greatest (and most honest) saints have confessed that they had to walk through many valleys with no sense of God’s presence, sometimes nearly going deaf from the heavenly silence.

C. S. Lewis wrote that during one of the most painful times of his life, he cried out to God and got… a door slammed in [my] face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become.

He confessed that this heavenly silence made him doubt whether there was even a God at all:

There are no lights in the windows. It might be an empty house. Was it ever inhabited? It seemed so once… Why is God so present a commander in our time of prosperity and so very absent a help in time of trouble?

Somehow, these honest words seldom make it into anyone’s list of favorite C. S. Lewis quotes.

Have you ever felt this way?

I once told a group of interns at our church that if they ever had days when they couldn’t feel God’s closeness, experiencing regular waves of His pleasure and mercy wash over their souls, that was proof they weren’t really saved. You should have seen the looks on their faces. I realized they hadn’t gotten what I thought to be a rather obvious joke.

If that were true, none of us could be sure of our salvation!

Every believer has times in which they feel as though God is distant. Or absent altogether.

Many Christians assume that silence from Heaven means something has gone wrong, that the inability to “feel” God’s Spirit means God has turned His face away. But this is not what God’s Word tells us. His apparent silence is, in fact, an important part of how He works in our lives and grows us up into the men and women of faith He wants us to be.

Walk by Faith, not by sight

An Ancient, Recurring Story

The greatest saints in the Bible often felt the absence of God. No less than the prophet Isaiah himself cried out in despair, “God where are your dramatic, awe-inspiring works of God in my day?” He had heard of “times past” when God would “rend the heavens and come down,” when people “quaked in God’s presence.” But where was that God now, Isaiah asked? He cries out in dismay,

You have hidden your face from us. – Isaiah 64:1-7

The psalmist Asaph says plainly, “We are given no signs from God; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be” (Psalm 74:9). And Gideon, right before God used him to destroy an entire Midianite army with only three hundred men, said to an angelic messenger, “If the Lord is really with us… where are all His wonderful deeds like the ones our fathers recounted to us?” (Judges 6:13, my paraphrase)

The experience of feeling like God is absent or silent, you see, is anything but new. So why does God leave us feeling that way sometimes? And what are we to do during those times?

White Space

When God calls someone to follow Him, He frequently sends them through times in the “wilderness.” Right after God first put into Moses a vision to see Israel led out of slavery, He exiled him into the wilderness for forty years to herd sheep. Only after a long, silent, four decades, did God finally appear to him in the burning bush with the command to go. Can you imagine what kind of despairing, “God, where are you?” conversations Moses must have had with God during those forty silent years?

Or consider the story of David. After being anointed as future king of Israel by Samuel, what was David’s next move? Did he…

… go straight to the palace to try on robes?

… immediately confront Goliath?

… get billed as one of the “sexiest men alive” in Israelites Today magazine?

None of the above. First Samuel 16 tells us he went straight back to the pasture to tend the sheep. When David encounters Goliath, he’s in between sheep-care and crackers-and-cheese runs for his brothers (1 Samuel 17:15). Samuel had anointed David as king in 1 Samuel 16:13. This means David went from being named “future king” and “man after God’s own heart” by the most famous prophet alive to “field hand shoveling sheep dung” and “Cheeze-It boy” for his big brothers.

Right after the conclusion of the last verse in the story of David’s anointing (1 Samuel 16:13), my Bible has a white space, and the author moves on to something else happening at a different place in Israel. In that white space is where David went back to the pasture. The space between the call of God and the fulfillment of the dream. Nothing is written there, for David or for us, and I’m sure it felt terribly confusing for David.

Are you in a white space right now?

White spaces are typically the hardest parts of life to endure: The white space of silence; the white space of singleness; the white space of sickness; the white space of finishing out a prison sentence; the white space of unfulfilled promises and unmet expectations.

How many times must Joseph — sold by his brothers into slavery, falsely accused of adultery with his master’s wife, overlooked for parole by the magistrates — have called out to God, “Where are you?”

After Jesus called Paul to be his apostle on the Damascus Road, Paul wandered in the desert for three years and suffered obscurity for another fourteen (Galatians 1:17-19; Galatians 2:1). Paul endured seventeen years in the background before he was appointed by the Church as a missionary (Acts 13:2)!

After Mary became pregnant with the Messiah, God waited for several months to tell her fiancé, Joseph, about the miraculous conception. Why did God wait? During that delay, Joseph (naturally) assumed she had cheated on him (I mean, what else could you assume?). This means that for several months, Mary had to go through the humiliation of pregnancy alone with everyone, even her beloved fiancé, assuming she was a cheater. God chose to do it that way. Why? Why did He wait so long to tell Joseph? Why the “white space”?

Why does God sometimes leave us feeling alone, deserted, humiliated, abandoned — like we are in darkness, like He doesn’t care — as though He’s abandoned us altogether? Why is the only sound we hear at those times the echo of a door slammed in our faces?

I don’t know the full answer, but I know that part of it has to do with the fact that He wants us to walk by faith, not by sight; and walking by faith means sometimes pressing on when we can’t feel or see Him.

God sanctifies us by humbling us.

He works His salvation out in us by taking us through the valley of the cross, which often means feeling alone and abandoned. This may be why God didn’t tell Joseph His plans for Mary at first; He wanted Mary to feel the shame of the cross. Moses had to endure the wilderness of isolation. Paul had to learn to suffer (Acts 9:15; 2 Corinthians 11:24-27).

In reality, we most certainly are not alone during these dark times, but walking by faith means believing that we are not alone even when we can’t feel the warmth of God’s presence.

Another reason God often leads us through dark, silent valleys is that He wants to purify our hearts. Why do we want to be close to God? Is it because of what He gives us, or is it simply because we want Him?

What is more valuable to us: God or His blessings?

Sometimes God withholds everything from us except His promises in order to make us ask ourselves, “Is this — His promise — enough for me?”

You can never know that Jesus is all that you need, you see, until He’s all that you have.

So let me ask you a very important question, one that the survival of your faith depends on. Can you walk by faith in God’s promises alone, even when you can’t see or feel anything? Can you delay gratification, even the gratification of “feeling” the Spirit?

Watch the Video for Jesus, Continued…

Watch the Video

Excerpted with permission from Jesus, Continued… by J.D. Greear, copyright Zondervan 2014.

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johnpiper

The Books at the Judgment

All who dwell on earth will worship [the beast], everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. (Revelation 13:8)

Salvation is secured for all who are written in the book of life.

The reason that being written in the book of life secures our salvation is that the book is called “the book of life of the Lamb who was slain” (Revelation 13:8). The names in this book are not saved on the basis of their deeds. They are saved on the basis of Christ’s being slain.

So how then does the record of our lives contained in “the books” have a part in our judgment? The answer is that the books contain enough evidence of our belonging to Christ that they function as a public confirmation of our faith and our union with him.

Consider Revelation 21:27: “Nothing unclean will ever enter [the New Jerusalem], nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Here the result of “being written in the book of life” is not only not perishing, but not practicing detestable, sinful behaviors.

For example, consider the thief on the cross. Jesus said that he would enter paradise (Luke 23:43). But what will judgment be like for him when the books are opened? More than 99.9% of his life will be sin. His salvation will be secured by the blood of Christ.

Then God will open the books and will use the record of sin to glorify his Son’s supreme sacrifice, and he use the last page to show the change that was wrought in the thief’s attitudes and words. That last page — the last hours on the cross — will be the public confirmation of the thief’s faith and union with Christ.

Therefore, when I say that what is written in the books is a public confirmation of our faith and of union with Christ, I do not mean that the record will contain more good works than bad works.

I mean that there will be recorded there the kind of change that shows the reality of faith — the reality of regeneration and union with Christ. That is how I enter the day, confident that my condemnation is past (Romans 8:3), and that my name is in the book of life, and that the one who began a good work in me will bring it to completion at the day of Christ.

For more about John Piper’s ministry and writing, see DesiringGod.org.

https://meetmyfriend.com/1035/