Bible League: Living His Word If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.There is the heart of a person and there is the mouth of a person. When it comes to salvation, the two should be in harmony with one another. If you believe in your heart that Jesus is who the Bible says He is, then your mouth should also confess that Jesus is who the Bible says he is. If you do these two things, then our verse for today says you are saved. The belief that we hold about Jesus is said to be held in the heart, not simply in the mind. The belief that Jesus is who the Bible says He is does not come about simply through rational understanding. It is a belief that rises above mere rational belief to the level of belief born of faith. The heart transformed by the Holy Spirit believes in faith what the Bible reveals about Jesus. But the belief is just the beginning. There is also the confession. A person whose heart has been truly transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit will quite naturally confess out loud what is held in the heart. If not, then something is amiss with the belief. Jesus said, '"Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven.'" (Matthew 10:32). What we say about what we believe, then, is very important. Although Paul doesn't explicitly say it in this context, the Bible teaches that the person whose heart truly believes and whose mouth truly confesses will also start down the road towards a Christ-like life. It was James who explicitly made this point. He said, "What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don't show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?" (James 2:14). Indeed, Jesus himself said, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me'" (Matthew 16:24). The heart full of faith in Jesus will confess that faith and will begin, however imperfectly, to walk in that faith. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingPsalm 99-102 Psalm 99 -- The Lord reigns! Let the peoples tremble. NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Psalm 100 -- Shout for joy to the Lord, all you lands! NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Psalm 101 -- I will sing of loving kindness and justice. NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Psalm 102 -- Hear my prayer, O Lord! Let my cry come to you. NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Romans 13 Romans 13 -- Submit to the Authorities; Love fulfills the Law NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”Insight This is a significant statement about judging others. Because Jesus upheld the legal penalty for adultery, stoning, he could not be accused of being against the law. But by saying that only a sinless person could throw the first stone, he highlighted the importance of compassion and forgiveness. Challenge When others are caught in sin, are you quick to pass judgment? To do so is to act as though you have never sinned. It is God's role to judge, not ours. Our role is to show forgiveness and compassion. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Exodus 3:7 I know their sorrows.The child is cheered as he sings, "This my father knows;" and shall not we be comforted as we discern that our dear Friend and tender soul-husband knows all about us? 1. He is the Physician, and if he knows all, there is no need that the patient should know. Hush, thou silly, fluttering heart, prying, peeping, and suspecting! What thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter, and meanwhile Jesus, the beloved Physician, knows thy soul in adversities. Why need the patient analyze all the medicine, or estimate all the symptoms? This is the Physician's work, not mine; it is my business to trust, and his to prescribe. If he shall write his prescription in uncouth characters which I cannot read, I will not be uneasy on that account, but rely upon his unfailing skill to make all plain in the result, however mysterious in the working. 2. He is the Master, and his knowledge is to serve us instead of our own; we are to obey, not to judge: "The servant knoweth not what his lord doeth." Shall the architect explain his plans to every hodman on the works? If he knows his own intent, is it not enough? The vessel on the wheel cannot guess to what pattern it shall be conformed, but if the potter understands his art, what matters the ignorance of the clay? My Lord must not be cross-questioned any more by one so ignorant as I am. 3. He is the Head. All understanding centres there. What judgment has the arm? What comprehension has the foot? All the power to know lies in the head. Why should the member have a brain of its own when the head fulfils for it every intellectual office? Here, then, must the believer rest his comfort in sickness, not that he himself can see the end, but that Jesus knows all. Sweet Lord, be thou forever eye, and soul, and head for us, and let us be content to know only what thou choosest to reveal. Daily Light on the Daily Path 2 Samuel 23:5 "Truly is not my house so with God? For He has made an everlasting covenant with me, Ordered in all things, and secured; For all my salvation and all my desire, Will He not indeed make it grow?2 Timothy 1:12 For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day. Ephesians 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, • just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love • He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, Romans 8:28-30 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. • For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; • and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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