A Clean Heart / Adrian Rogers

A Clean Heart

Psalms 119:9-11

Reaching our full potential begins with a clean heart—one that loves the Lord and desires to obey Him. However, each of us was born with a nature bent away from God. Jeremiah 17:9 describes the heart as deceitful and inclined towards wickedness. Pleasing self is man’s normal state.

Salvation changed our hearts and lives. Jesus’ death on the cross paid the penalty for our sin and broke its power over us. By receiving Christ as Savior, we each became a new creation—with a heart sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading and a mind that strongly desires to know the Father better. We also received the Spirit’s power to deny our selfish desires and obey God. With clean hearts, we can begin to realize the capabilities our loving Lord has given us.

The best way to maintain a clean heart is by meditating on Scripture. It acts like a mirror in which we see ourselves as God does. Through it, we discover the areas where we have been faithful and also the places where we’ve veered from His path. Expressing genuine repentance brings God’s forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1:9).

The heart represents the seat of our mind, will, and emotions. When we strive to keep it pure, we will more easily discern the Lord’s plan, submit our will to His, and follow Him obediently.

Becoming the person God planned for each of us to be requires an intimate relationship with Him and a desire to obey His Word. Apart from Jesus, we can’t achieve anything of lasting value (John 15:5). Cooperating with the Holy Spirit’s transforming work will help us keep our hearts clean. 

Truth Holds Everything Together / Adrian Rogers

 Truth Holds Everything Together

Ephesians 6:14

Sermon: 2169 – Christian Warfare

Pray Over This

“Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness.”

Ephesians 6:14

Ponder This

It is integrity that holds everything else together. Truth and integrity are synonymous. You’re to believe the truth, know the truth, love the truth, tell the truth, live the truth, and preach the truth. If you don’t, your life is going to come apart. You cannot get into the battle against Satan unless you have the belt of truth. Satan is a liar, and he will come against you with lies. Jesus is the truth. Satan’s attack is an untruth. His attack on you is to bring a lack of integrity into your life.

Are you wearing at this moment the belt of truth? Or are you living a lie? If you are not wearing truth, if you do not have integrity in your life—in the big things and in the small things—you are going to lose the battle. It is truth that holds everything together; without truth, everything falls apart.

• How have you seen the reality that everything in your life is held together by truth?
• What is the connection between today’s verse and Jesus saying He is the truth in John 14:6?

Practice This

Identify anywhere you may be living falsely and take steps toward the truth today.

Run From Sin / ODB

 

Run From Sin Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:22 READ Genesis 39:11–23 Twice this summer I suffered the scourge of poison ivy. Both times it happened, I was working on clearing away unwanted plant growth from our yard. And both times, I saw the nasty, three-leafed enemy lurking nearby. I figured I could get close to it without it affecting me. Soon enough, I realized I’d been wrong. Instead of getting nearer to my little green nemesis, I should have run the other way! In the Old Testament story of Joseph, we see modeled the principle of running from something worse than poison ivy: sin. When he was living in the home of Egyptian official Potiphar, whose wife tried to seduce him, Joseph didn’t try to get close—he ran. Although she falsely accused him and had him thrown in prison, Joseph remained pure throughout the episode. And as we see in Genesis 39:21, “The Lord was with him.” God can help us flee activities and situations that could lead us away from Him—guiding us to run the other way when sin is nearby. In 2 Timothy 2:22, Paul writes, “Flee the evil desires.” And in 1 Corinthians 6:18, he says to “flee from sexual immorality.” In God’s strength, may we choose to run from those things that could harm us. By Dave Branon What’s your “poison ivy,” something that can infect you if you don’t run from it? What can you do to run from it? God, You know what I’m getting too close to right now. Help me to run from it and not look back. Please give me the courage and wisdom to not let anything get between You and me.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT When Joseph was confronted with sexual temptation (Genesis 39:11–23), he didn’t stay put and try to resist it; rather, “he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house” (v. 12). The New Testament commands us to “flee from sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18). We’re to run away from it—not toward it—as fast as we can, and to keep as far away as possible (Proverbs 5:8). We should beware of overestimating our ability to resist it and underestimating its power. Running from sexual temptation by the enabling of the Spirit isn’t the act of a coward; it’s the strength of a person committed to following Jesus. K. T. Sim

Who Am I? / Billy Graham

 

Who Am I?

Edward Dahlberg, the writer, observed, “At nineteen, I was a stranger to myself. At forty, I asked, ‘Who am I?’ At fifty, I concluded I would never know.” This unexplored personal wilderness is the home of millions of people. Ninety-two percent of all Canadian university students, according to June Callwood, the Toronto sociologist, don’t really know who they are. The Bible says that man is an immortal soul. When God made man in the first place, He created him and “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). One’s soul is the essence, the core, the eternal and real person. And he will be restless until he opens his life to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

Daily Prayer

Almighty God, knowing I am Your child is all the assurance I need.

“Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. Selah”

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭68:19‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Trust in God Alone / Spurgeon

 

Trust in God Alone 

And so in the matter of the envoys 

of the princes of Babylon, 

who had been sent to him to inquire 

about the sign that had been done in the land, 

God left him to himself, in order to test him 

and to know all that was in his heart.

2 Chronicles 32:31

Hezekiah was growing so inwardly great and priding himself so much upon the favor of God that self-righteousness crept in, and because he trusted in himself, the grace of God was for a time, in its more active operations, withdrawn. If the grace of God were to leave the best Christian, there is enough sin in his heart to make him the worst of transgressors. If left to yourselves, you who are warmest for Christ would cool down like Laodicea into sickening lukewarmness: You who are sound in the faith would be white with the leprosy of false doctrine; you who now walk before the Lord in excellency and integrity would reel to and fro and stagger with a drunkenness of evil passion. Like the moon, we borrow our light; bright as we are when grace shines on us, we are darkness itself when the Sun of Righteousness withdraws Himself.

Therefore, let us cry to God to never leave us. “Take not Your Holy Spirit from me! Do not withdraw from us Your indwelling grace! Have You not said, ‘I, the LORD, am its keeper; every moment I water it. Lest anyone punish it, I keep it night and day’?1 Lord, keep us everywhere. Keep us when we’re in the valley so that we do not grumble against Your humbling hand; keep us when we’re on the mountain, so we do not lose our balance by being lifted up; keep us in youth, when our passions are strong; keep us in old age, when becoming conceited in our wisdom, we may therefore prove greater fools than those who are young and silly; keep us when we come to die, in case at the very end we should deny You! Keep us living, keep us dying, keep us working, keep us suffering, keep us fighting, keep us resting, keep us everywhere, for everywhere we need You, O our God!”

1) Isaiah 27:3

June 29 / C.S. Lewis

 The human spirit will not even begin to try and surrender self-will as long as all seem to be well with it. Now error and sin both have this property, that the deeper they are the less their victim suspects their existence; they are masked evil. Pain is unmasked, unmistakable evil; every man knows that something is wrong when he is being hurt…And pain is not only immediately recognizable evil, but evil impossible to ignore. We can rest contentedly in our sins and in our stupidities; and anyone who has watched gluttons shoveling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know what they were eating, will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

From The Problem of Pain
Compiled in The Business of Heaven

Wisdom from the Psalms / June 29

 Psalms 80:13

The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.

Betty loved her flowers and plants. She spent hours pruning, planting, and paring. Her garden was her pride and joy. Betty invested so much of herself into her plants. For that reason, Betty was at war with the woodland animals that made their way into her yard. They would always get through the fences somehow and mutilate her beautiful garden. To Betty, the plants were beauty and joy, but to the animals, they were nothing more than lunch.

 

We have the capacity to truly appreciate the beauty and splendor of God's creation. Why, then, do so many people trash God's gift as blindly as animals destroy a beautiful garden? Why don't we appreciate nature more, and respect it? The Lord gave us His ability to see the beauty in things. Let us use that gift, and protect and defend the wonders of the world in which we live.

 

Prayer: Do not let me stomp through life like some wild an imal. Help me to see all creation as You see it. Fill me with the beauty of this world. Amen.

Beyond the Text / David Jeremiah

 

Beyond the Text That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life. 1 John 1:1   As much as we love reading the Bible for its own value, we must remember our fellowship is not with the Book itself, but with its Author. The purpose of Scripture is to enable us to fellowship with Him who is the Word of Life. The Bible is more than a textbook, more than a storybook, more than a guidebook, and more than a songbook. It’s a living Book that brings us into the presence of a living Savior.

Recommended Reading: 1 John 1: 1 – 4

A. W. Tozer wrote, “As we come to the Word of God, we do not come just for information; we come for an encounter with the living Word of God…. I will not settle for just the text. I want to see beyond that text and encounter the Christ—the Word of Life.”[1] Our study of the written Word reveals the living Word. The next time you open your Bible, think of it as a conversation in which the Author is speaking through His Book personally to you.   There have been times when I have lost myself in the manifest presence of the Lord as I meditated on His Word; He has come mysteriously close, defying explanation. A. W. Tozer

What does it mean to be free in Christ? / Senior Living

What does it mean to be free in Christ?

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. - Galatians 5:1

A little boy had fallen ill and stayed home from school one afternoon. His mother was concerned he’d get behind, so she taught him the lesson for the day at home. The subject was prepositions, and the mother told the boy that it’s never okay to end a sentence with a preposition.

After the lesson was over, the boy thought he’d have some fun with his mom. So he came up with a sentence that ended with not one, but five prepositions. He yelled downstairs to his mom, “Mom, what did you bring that book I didn't want to be read to out of up for?!”

Many people think of rules like grammar as hard and fast – things that can never and should never be broken. But the truth is that we break them all the time when we talk to one another. We just have subconsciously agreed with others that some grammar rules can be broken every now and then.

But when it comes to God’s laws, we’re bound. In fact, if we fail to keep them at just one point, the Bible says we’re guilty of breaking all of them (James 2:10)!

Then what is our hope? Christ. He took our sins upon Himself and gave us His righteousness. So when God looks at you, He doesn’t see where you’ve fallen short. He sees the goodness of Jesus through your faith in Him. Praise God that you can live in freedom, not under Law, because of Christ’s death for you!

Ask God to reaffirm in your heart the truth that you can live in freedom in Jesus Christ!

Questions for Thought:

Why do you think many people constantly slip back into the idea that they earn their salvation through their works?

How might your attitude change if you truly understood that God loves you not based on what you do, but who you are in Christ? 

Hubris and Humility By Rev. Kyle Norman

 Hubris and Humility

By Rev. Kyle Norman

“Go and tell my servant David, “This is what the Lord says, Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in?” (2 Samuel 7:5)

We know David to be a hero of the Old Testament. He is the man noted to be “after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14); he slew Goliath when everyone else was too scared to enter the battlefield (1 Samuel 17); he grew to be a mighty warrior, a successful king, a consummate leader. To top it all off, it is out of David’s own line through which the Messiah was to come. You can’t get much more of a compliment than that!

David, however, is also a man with flaws. His self-confidence turns easily to pride. David often lives from a sense of entitlement, believing he can have, and achieve, whatever he desires. One of the most intriguing examples of this is his desire to build the Lord’s Temple. We read about this in 2nd Samuel 7.  Having been named King, David now resides in the palace. As David reflects on the lack of a “house” for God, he resolves to rectify the situation.  In a matter-of-fact manner, which only a king can muster, he declares to the prophet Nathan that he will build the Lord’s house.

To be fair to David, I am sure this desire was born initially out of faith. Yet part of me wonders if something more is going on. Is David’s desire to build the temple entirely altruistic? I wonder if this is an instance of David being too big for his britches. Did David believe that the Lord needed him to manage the Lord’s affairs?  After all, he was the one who slew Goliath; he was the one who brought the ark back to Jerusalem; he was the one who continually saved the nation, he was the glorious king of Israel. Building the temple would establish David as the head of the political and religious life of the nation. The action would strengthen David’s authority and garner allegiance from all of Israel. As smart and savvy as he was, I can’t believe that this escaped his notice. The point is, instead of humility and humbleness, David acted out of a misplaced attempt to manage God. David wanted to have a say over where God was found, and how God was interacted with.

Do I ever fall into a mistaken belief that Jesus needs me to micromanage his affairs in this world?  Instead of humility and acceptance, do I ever believe that I am the one who gets to call the shots, with the Lord dutifully falling in line behind me? Honestly, there are probably times when I do this. I do this whenever I believe I have earned God’s love or grace. I act like David whenever I assume that Jesus thinks about everything, and everyone, exactly as I do; whenever I assume that the Head of the Church needs me to save His Church, am I not getting a little too big for my own britches?

David does not build the Temple; he is told to cease and desist. Nathan comes to him with this divine word. Yet, God’s response to David in this is beautifully instructive. David isn’t just told “no;” he is reminded of the LORD’s power and guidance over the nation, and his own family. David is reminded that God has moved with the Israelites each day and that no ruler was ever tasked to build a house for the Lord. In effect, God reprimands David (gently), saying “Who do you think you are to assume that you are the one to do this?” With all the hubris flowing through him, David is called to humility. He is reminded of his rightful place before the true and rightful King.

Intersecting Faith and Life:
It can be hard to be taken down a peg, to have God address our prideful hubris. But this is necessary if we want to live our lives faithfully before God. In love, God reminds us of our place as part of His creation. We are people formed of the earth, crafted in God’s image, and redeemed by His love. As such, God calls us to the place of submission. We are called to receive, not create, the will of the Lord. Furthermore, in those times where we may not know what the next phase of our journey is, we are called to wait for the Lord. God does not need our management strategies or our directions. God does not need us to create a path, construct a legacy, or build a future. Instead of attempting to manage divine things, therefore, we should use our energy to be diligent in prayer and humble in spirit. As David’s future son once put it, “Unless the Lord builds the house, we but labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1). Our future is in God’s hands, and despite our knowledge, management, or insight, God’s plan will prevail.  

Further reading:

• Proverbs 11:2
• Luke 14: 1-11
• 1 Peter 5:5

Love in Action / Alistair Begg

 

Love in Action

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, 

but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 

‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

’ To the contrary, ‘if your enemy is hungry, 

feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; 

for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.’

Romans 12:19-20

The “burning coals” in this passage are not a metaphor for revenge or pain. Rather, they signify the shame and remorse that individuals feel when, instead of giving them the retribution we think they deserve, we show them kindness and generosity. It is the effect caused when Christians treat those who have wronged them in a way that is entirely without malice or vengefulness, and is therefore foundationally supernatural. When that happens, John Calvin observes, the mind of the enemy may well be “torn in one of two ways. Either our enemy will be softened by kindness, or … he will be stung and tormented by the testimony of his conscience.”[1]

These coals, therefore, are not to ultimately bring hurt but healing. Our generous actions are to encourage reconciliation, drawing the individual to us, not pushing them from us. It’s just like the mercy we received from God when we were still His enemies (Romans 2:4; 5:8). 

If we are honest, though, those are not really the kind of coals we are looking for when we are wronged and hurt. Many of us would be quite happy to find out that coals actually would land on our enemies’ heads, burning and scarring them. After all, it’s nothing less than they deserve! But this reflects our fallenness and not our faith. This doesn’t look or sound like Jesus. That is what makes these verses so incredibly challenging. 

Notice that God’s word calls us not merely not to react in vengefulness but to be proactive in blessing. When we manage not to retaliate, we have not yet fully obeyed. As disciples of Jesus, we’re not only to refrain from doing our enemies evil; we’re actually to do them good. It is easy to convince ourselves that ignoring our foes will take care of the problem or is the most we can realistically be expected to do; but here we discover that we’re actually supposed to show them hospitality! Our role is to respond to wrongdoing with a spirit of generosity, trusting that God will always judge justly and therefore we do not need to judge, and indeed must not do so (1 Peter 2:23).

Even as members of Christ’s body, many of us still seek to justify our disobedient, retributive actions or thoughts. Yet while our enemies’ minds may be able to cope with our arguments and their spirits will be strong enough to stand against our threats, love in action might bring them to repentance.

How does your heart need to be transformed or your actions affected by these verses? Do not duck the challenge of them. Part of growing in Christlikeness is to look for ways to do good to your enemies, acting out of the overflow of God’s radical kindness and generosity.

Luke 22:47-53

Part of a Bigger Plan / Greg Laurie

 Part of a Bigger Plan

“He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world” (1 John 2:2 NLT).

The worst travesty of justice in human history was the trial, execution, and murder of Jesus Christ. The very Son of God had come to this planet to walk among us, heal us, and deliver the greatest teachings ever given to humanity.

And what do they do? They beat Him, nailed Him to a cross, and left Him to die. But this was all part of a bigger plan. Jesus did not have His life taken from Him; He came to lay down His life for our sins.

Jesus said, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16NLT). From the greatest tragedy came the greatest good: salvation for everyone and the forgiveness of sin.

You see, Jesus didn’t stay on that cross. He rose again from the dead three days later, and He is alive. Is Jesus Christ living inside of you?

He is standing at the door of your life and knocking. He is saying that if you will hear His voice and open the door, He will come in. You can pray and ask God to forgive you of your sins, and Christ will hear your prayer.

Are you down and depressed and hurting? Jesus is saying, “Let me come in. Let me refresh you and give you rest. Let me give you the meaning and purpose of life that you been searching for.”

Jesus gives us the hope that when our lives on this Earth come to an end, we will go to Heaven. Not everyone has that hope. Heaven is not the default destination of every human being. It is only the future destination of those who will put their faithin Jesus Christ.

Is Trauma Terminal? / Chuck Swindoll

 Is Trauma Terminal?

by Pastor Chuck SwindollScriptures: Matthew 11:28–30

The definition reflects devastation:

Trauma: An injury (as a wound) to living tissue caused by an extrinsic agent . . . a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from mental or emotional stress.

Like potatoes in a pressure cooker, we twenty-first century creatures understand the meaning of stress. A week doesn't pass without a few skirmishes with those "extrinsic agents" that beat upon our fragile frames. They may be as mild as making lunches for our kids before 7:30 in the morning (mild?) or as severe as a collision with another car . . . or another person. Makes no difference. The result is "trauma"—a two-bit word for nervous. You know, the bottom-line reason Valium remains a top seller. Our emotional wounds are often deep. They don't hemorrhage like a stabbing victim's, but they are just as real and just as painful . . . sometimes more.

Years ago, a stress test carried on by Dr. Thomas Holmes and his colleagues concluded that an accumulation of two hundred or more "life change units" in any year may mean more disruption—more trauma—than an individual can stand. On their scale, death of a spouse equals one hundred units, divorce represents seventy-three units . . . and Christmas equals twelve units! That helps explain the idea behind "something snapping" inside certain people when the final straw falls on them. Our capacity for trauma has its limits.

Joseph Bayly could certainly understand. He and his wife lost three of their children—one at eighteen days (after surgery); another at five years (leukemia); a third at eighteen years (sledding accident plus hemophilia). In my wildest imagination, I cannot fathom the depth of their loss. In the backwash of such deep trauma, the Bayly couple stood sometimes strong, sometimes weak, as they watched God place a period before the end of the sentence on three of their children's lives. And their anguish was not relieved when well-meaning people offered shallow, simple answers amidst their grief.

Eyes that read these words might very well be near tears. You are trying to cope without hope. You are stretched dangerously close to the "200-unit" limit . . . and there's no relief on the horizon. You're bleeding and you've run out of bandages. You have moved from mild tension to advanced trauma.

Be careful! You are in the danger zone, emotionally. You're a sitting duck, and the adversary is taking aim with both barrels loaded, hoping to open fire while you are vulnerable. Bam! "Run!" Boom! "Think suicide."

Listen carefully! Jesus Christ opens the gate, gently looks at you and says:

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." (Matthew 11:28–30 MSG)

Nothing complicated. No big fanfare, no trip to Mecca, no hypnotic trance, no fee, no special password. Just come. Meaning? Unload. Unhook the pack and drop it in His lap . . . now. Allow Him to take your stress as you take His rest. Does He know what trauma is all about? Remember, He's the One whose sweat became like drops of blood in the agony of Gethsemane. If anybody understands trauma, He does. Completely.

His provision is profound, attainable, and right. He's a master at turning devastation into restoration.

Look again at His invitation in Matthew 11:28–30, and accept it with all your heart.

Daily Blessings / June 29

 Daily Blessings

“Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.” - Eph 2:20

The meaning of this expression, which frequently occurs in the New Testament, is, we think, often misunderstood. It is taken in the first instance from the declaration concerning our Lord in the Psalms, which he in the gospels (Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17) specially claimed and appropriated to himself—“The stone which the builders refused has become the head-stone of the corner” (Psalm 118:22). “The head of the corner,” or “the chief corner stone,” the meaning of both expressions being one and the same, signifies not the stone which stands at the top of the building, uniting the corners of the two walls just under the roof, but the broad foundation stone, which is firmly fixed at the very bottom; and it is called the “corner stone” or the “head” or “chief of the corner,” because being laid as a huge and broad stone for a foundation of the whole building, each wall meets upon it at the corners, it equally supporting and upholding them all.

The two walls which thus meet together represent Jew and Gentile; but each of these walls equally rests upon the broad foundation stone which is common to both, and not only supports them separately, but unites them together at the corner, where each meets and rests upon it. It is the expression “head” which has caused the misapprehension of the word “corner stone” to which we have alluded; but the word “head” in Hebrew properly signifies the first or chief; and thus as the foundation is not only the chief stone as supporting the whole, but the first which is laid, so our gracious Lord is not only chief in dignity, but was laid first in place, for the Church was chosen in him. In all things he must have the pre-eminence. Thus he is first in dignity, as the Son of the Father in truth and love; first in choice, God choosing the elect in him; first in suffering, for what sorrows were like his sorrows? first in resurrection, for he is “the first-fruits of those who slept;” first in power, for “all power is given unto him in heaven and in earth;” first in glory, for he is gone before to prepare a place for his people; and we may well add, he is first in their hearts and affections, for he that loves father or mother, son or daughter, more than him is not worthy of him.