In this week’s sermon, we will be unveiling the wisdom of the Cross.
This episode: We look at fasting—why it will help you battle porn, doing it with a right heart, and how to incorporate it into your life.
In the latest sermon, our speakers unpack several biblical texts to unveil Yahweh as Redeemer.
This episode: In this podcast we'll give a biblical answer to the question: "What role does accountability play in overcoming sexual sin?"
The book of Psalms is a treasure chest of the most profound interactions between pious men and a loving God.
"My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises! Awake, my glory! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn." (Psalm 57:7-8)
In yesterday’s devotional, we took a brief glimpse at the word “steadfast” in Psalm 57:7 (Heb. kun). This Hebraic term is also used in the sense of preparation. For instance, of the Israelites who wandered in the wilderness with Moses for forty years, the psalmist said that they were “A stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not prepare its heart and whose spirit was not faithful to God.” (Psalm 78:8) In contradistinction to this wayward generation, King Hezekiah would later pronounce a special blessing on a certain group of Israelites: “May the good Lord pardon everyone who prepares his heart to seek God…” (2 Chronicles 30:18-19)
Elsewhere I wrote the following:
“The important position the heart occupies within a person can be seen in Scripture… People are told to ‘rend’ their hearts (Joel 2:12), seek God with all their hearts (Psalm 119:2, 10), and pour out their hearts before Him. (Psalm 62:8) We are told of those who deceive their own hearts (James 1:26), backslide in heart (Proverbs 14:14), spurn reproof in their hearts (Proverbs 5:12), and regard wickedness in their hearts. (Psalm 66:18) It’s no wonder then that we are admonished to, ‘Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.’ (Proverbs 4:23 KJV) Surely it is true: ‘the inward thought and the heart of a man are deep.’” (Psalm 64:6)
Preparing one’s heart to meet with the Lord is an important aspect of maintaining a quality devotional life. The truth is that the heart of man has a natural propensity toward sin, selfishness and pride. Spiritual pursuits do not come naturally to us. We must prepare our hearts to seek the Lord.
<pull-quote>The truth is that the heart of man has a natural propensity toward sin, selfishness and pride. Spiritual pursuits do not come naturally to us. We must prepare our hearts to seek the Lord.<pull-quote><tweet-link>TweetThis<tweet-link>
The other interesting word found in today’s passage of Scripture is “glory.” Why would David be speaking of his own glory? The Hebrew word literally means “weighty.” From there it is used to describe someone of substantial character. Of course, this term is rightly used repeatedly of the Lord. I believe Spurgeon captured the right idea when he said the following about this phrase: “Let the noblest powers of my nature bestir themselves: the intellect which conceives thought, the tongue which expresses it, and the inspired imagination which beautifies it - let all be on the alert now that the hour for praise has come.”3
And how about you?
• Do you consider your relationship with God valuable enough to prepare your heart to meet with Him?
• Does He mean enough to you that you will gather together all of your most noble aspirations to praise His name?
A daily habit of ingesting the Word of God is vital for believers to maintain an intimate walk with God, especially in our chaotic culture.
"My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises! Awake, my glory! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn." (Psalm 57:7-8)
David was running for his life when he penned these words. It’s possible he felt that he needed to rouse himself up to maintain his devotional life, but his story clearly shows that for years before this he had already maintained a solid time with God every morning.
Generally speaking, American Christians have been able to get by without much of a connection with God. Life has been good in the United States. But I believe those days are coming to an end. When calamity is striking from every side is not the time to attempt to establish a solid devotional life. When times of distress come, a person who is not accustomed to a solid connection with God is going to come unraveled. It is so much wiser to get one’s devotional life in order during times of peace than to attempt to do it when “all hell is breaking loose” against believers!
<pull-quote>When times of distress come, a person who is not accustomed to a solid connection with God is going to come unraveled. It is so much wiser to get one’s devotional life in order during times of peace than to attempt to do it when “all hell is breaking loose!”<pull-quote><tweet-link>TweetThis<tweet-link>
The word “steadfast” in Psalm 57:7 (Heb. kun) is rendered “fixed” in some translations. This is a man who had determined—above all else—to have a time of worship, praise and prayer with God every morning. This kind of commitment is the key to establishing an important habit like prayer. In a certain sense, it is very comparable to quitting smoking. Making the resolute decision to stop the habit is half the battle. What makes the experience so unnecessarily miserable is when the person constantly waffles back and forth with his commitment.
So it is with establishing a prayer life. Once a person has made a firm consecration to doing this—no matter what distractions the enemy might throw at him—he is halfway there! Notice David’s commitment: “I will sing… I will sing praises!... I will awaken the dawn.” I will! I will! I will! He expressed this same sentiment on another occasion when he said, “In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice; in the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.” (Psalm 5:3)
It will take this kind of resolute determination to get one’s prayer life established. Someone once said, “Satan laughs at our toiling, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.”1 It is for this very reason that he and his minions do their utmost to discourage believers from praying. Watchman Nee wrote: “When we pray with such prayer, our prayer will shake up hell and affect Satan. For this reason, Satan will rise up to hinder such prayer. All prayers which come from God touch the powers of darkness. Here involves spiritual warfare. Perhaps our physical bodies, our families, or whatever pertains to us will be attacked by Satan. For whenever there is such prayer, it calls for Satanic assault. The enemy so attacks in order that our prayer might be discontinued.”2
We must be determined to overcome all the distractions and attacks the enemy will hurl our way. Once they see that you consider your devotional time to be inviolable, they will grow discouraged and give up.
Yes, there is a reason they are called “devotions.” You must be truly devoted to Christ to stay faithful to your daily devotions.
And how about you?
• Have you made this kind of commitment to spending quality time with the Lord? Do you faithfully seek His face every morning?
• Can He count on you to intercede for the lost?
• Does your daily life reveal a true devotion to Christ?
When Kathy Gallagher saw that her husband Steve was in the fight of his life, she determined to fight with him and for him.
Like any wife, Kathy Gallagher felt utterly shattered by her husband's affairs and pornography addiction. But God also helped her to see that her husband Steve was in the fight of his life. He was fighting tooth and nail against his own flesh, the world and the devil. In today’s episode, Kathy Gallagher offers a new perspective about a husband’s struggle with sexual sin.
In this podcast: When Kathy Gallagher saw that her husband Steve was in the fight of his life, she determined to fight with him and for him.
Like any wife, Kathy Gallagher felt utterly shattered by her husband's affairs and pornography addiction. But God also helped her to see that her husband Steve was in the fight of his life. He was fighting tooth and nail against his own flesh, the world and the devil. In today’s episode, Kathy Gallagher offers a new perspective about a husband’s struggle with sexual sin.
Kathy Gallagher exhorts wives to make sure that the pain of their husband's sin is not destroying their faith in God.
When life gets really hard, we often cry out “God, why did you allow this to happen to me?” But the real question we should be asking is, "Am I still trusting that God is good and merciful, despite what I'm going through?" In this interview, Kathy Gallagher exhorts wives to make sure that their trials are not destroying their faith.
In this podcast, Kathy Gallagher exhorts wives to make sure that the pain of their husband's sin is not destroying their faith in God.
When life gets really hard, we often cry out “God, why did you allow this to happen to me?” But the real question we should be asking is, "Am I still trusting that God is good and merciful, despite what I'm going through?" In the fourth episode of our series, Hope for Hurting Wives, Kathy Gallagher exhorts wives to make sure that their trials are not destroying their faith.
In this podcast, Kathy Gallagher talks about God's perspective on what a perfect marriage looks like, and what it requires to have one.
There is nothing wrong with wanting a good marriage, or even a "perfect" one. But what is a perfect marriage from God's perspective, and what does it require to have one? Kathy Gallagher is back for the third episode of our series, Hope for Hurting Wives.
Kathy talks about God's perspective on what a perfect marriage looks like, and what it requires to have one.
There is nothing wrong with wanting a good marriage, or even a "perfect" one. But what is a perfect marriage from God's perspective, and what does it require to have one? Kathy shares about this in episode 3 of our series.
Jesus made the perfect sacrifice for us on the cross and there is a right and a wrong response to that kind of love.
One of the things the Cross is for man is a perfect sacrifice for his sin. We are hopelessly unable to atone for our sin, yet Jesus offered himself as a perfect sacrifice on our behalf. What should our response be when we see the wonder and beauty of such love? Ed Buch uses Colossians 1 to show us in this brief talk given to the men in our Residential Program.
Tonight I’ve been thinking about the Cross and there was a line in one of the songs we were singing during worship earlier that says, “Spotless Lamb of God was He.” That just had me thinking about how the Cross represents different things Scripturally, and one of those things is the perfect sacrifice for sin. When we think about the Cross, it was our sin that required the Cross as a sacrifice. According to Hebrews 9:22 without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness and no remission of sin. We see in the Old Testament that life of an animal was is in the blood. And what is the wages of sin? Death. Sin brought death and the life is in the blood. So in order to bring life, it required the shedding of blood. And if you look at the Old Testament system, God accepted animal sacrifices for a season, but even in that, it tells us over 100 times in Scripture that the sacrifice had to be blameless or perfect or unblemished.
The emphasis was on this perfect sacrifice because we couldn't do it. We had to choose perfect animals. They were closer than anything we could have come up with ourselves as a sacrifice. But then God of course, sent the perfect one, right? The spotless Lamb of God who could become that sacrifice for us. And if we go to Colossians 1, there's a passage there that is just worth spending a moment on. Colossians 1, verse 19:
“For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.” (Colossians 1:19-20, NKJV)
That peace is real. It's deliberate and it's more than just an emotion. It's the peace of God. Like Jesus said, it's a peace that the world can't take away. The passage continues on to say:
“And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.” (Colossians 1:21-22, NKJV)
He was the perfect sacrifice. And what's it saying there? He's saying he’s going to make you perfect. He’s going to make you the blameless one, the perfect one. And that's what we can become in Him. Because of Him and because of His sacrifice. None of us are going to live sinless lives, but we are going to stand before God one day and we’re going to be in a wholly blameless situation if we have really committed our lives to loving and worshiping and surrendering to the Lord. But notice the very next word after all that. A lot of times we want to stop reading at a place like that. But what's the very next word?
"If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.” (Colossians 1:23, NKJV)
So, there is something we must do. We must respond to all of this message, and responding to it is not just the act of mentally accepting it. A true response to the Lord is grounded in being steadfast in the faith and continuing to endure in the faith. That's what's required. Jesus did make the perfect sacrifice in our place because of our inability to do so. But there is a right and a wrong response to the sacrifice He offered up for us. And I hear in some of the worship that is going on in our services here at Pure Life that the right response is in many of you, but I want it to be there in all of you. I want you all to have a true sight of the Cross. I'm may not be able to convey the excitement of it very well, but the Cross should excite you. The Cross should be a symbol of gratitude to us. A symbol of hope to us. A symbol of perfect sacrifice to us. It should also be a symbol of Jesus's perfect obedience.
Philippians 2 says that He obeyed even to the death of the Cross. You and I struggle with rules. I struggle with following rules as simple as driving the speed limit. But Jesus laid down all of His self-will and obeyed perfectly. When we don't have a will of our own, we don't struggle when it comes to obeying. And the less of our will that we have the better. But that's what the Cross is. It is perfect sacrifice and it is perfect obedience, and we need to come into an understanding and a responding to that. Here at Pure Life Ministries, we talk about having encounters with the Cross or getting a sight of the Cross or even a revelation of the Cross. Yes, you should be seeking to have all of that happen for you, but I also want you to embrace the Cross. I want you to make it yours. The Bible tells us that we need to pick up our cross and carry it daily, so that's what I want us to be able to do as well.
{{blog-bwalk="/blog-ads-storage"}}
Let me just mention one other thing. The Cross was an instrument of death. But just contemplate for a moment what Jesus went through for you. He had spikes driven through His hands and His feet. He was nailed to the Cross with His limbs stretched out and He was suspended so that his body weight was pulling on all of His wounds. He had to actually push himself up to be able to take a breath because His insides were being pressed in tight and it's hard to even breathe in that position for very long.
Imagine you're hanging out there in the middle of the day in a place where there's no shade and no rain and no cloud cover to speak of. If you've been to Israel, you know it's hot most of the time. So, you'd be just hanging out there with that sun scorching you as you're trying to push yourself up. But every time you push, you're like pushing against gaping wounds in your flesh where you've been nailed. It was the cruelest form of punishment known to man. And maybe it still is even, but certainly in that day it was the cruelest form of execution known and it was so bad that Roman citizens were automatically exempt from it. It was considered cruel even to them.
They would only put their enemies through that punishment. That should tell us something about how much suffering Jesus went through. It was meant to inflict the most pain possible for the longest period of time possible. That's why they used it as a deterrent against criminal behavior because you were going to hang on a cross in incredible pain for an incredibly long time. And then even as Jesus was hanging there everybody was reviling Him. If you remember from Scripture, it says that even the thieves on either side of Him were reviling Him. The people walking by or standing there at the foot of the Cross were mocking Him.
He didn't get any sympathy or respect even while He was on the Cross and even all of his friends had fled and deserted Him. This was a horrible thing. I don't think you or I could write a script that would be more horrible than that. And what was Jesus’ attitude like? His attitude was, “not my will but yours be done Father. I want to do this. If this is the way it has to be, this is what I want to do. I want to lay down my life. I want to give my life up for the sake of others. I want people to have hope. I want people to have a way out of their sin. I want people to have a cleansing for their sin that they can't have otherwise. I want to give them this.”
So, there should be a lot of gratitude in our hearts as a result of that kind of love. Don't cheapen the Cross.
When everything is crumbling around us, Jesus is solid and the source of real hope.
For over 35 years, we have been ministering to hurting wives. And the essence of our message is that when everything is crumbling all around us, and when everything feels hopeless, Jesus is solid, trustworthy and the source of real hope. This is the second episode in our series, "Hope for Hurting Wives." Thanks for watching!
The core of our message to hurting wives is that when everything is crumbling around us, Jesus is solid and the source of real hope.
For over 35 years, we have been ministering to hurting wives. And the essence of our message is that when everything is crumbling all around us, and when everything feels hopeless, Jesus is solid, trustworthy and the source of real hope. This is the second episode in our new series, Hope for Hurting Wives. Thanks for listening!
Kathy Gallagher joins us to begin a 9-episode series going through her book, "When His Secret Sin Breaks Your Heart."
When a wife finds out that her husband has been unfaithful, her world is shattered by gut-wrenching pain, tormenting fears and haunting questions. But there is HOPE. In our latest series, Kathy Gallagher uses personal testimony and decades of counseling experience to show the hurting wife how to find the God of hope in the midst of the pain.
.jpeg)
