Dealing with Stress, by Adrian Rogers

There are three things that will cause you stress, according to Adrian Rogers.  The demands of service, the dissipation of sin, and the devices of Satan will all weaken you and cause the level of stress to rise.  DR Rogers leans on Isaiah 40:28-31 to guide us to help by way of the Lord.  These precious verses are real stress busters!  I recommend you listen to this wonderful devotional today; the sooner we begin busting stress, the better!  Following, are a few statements from Adrian Roger's lesson, paraphrased:  

"This is the day of the quick cash, the mad dash, a lot of stress...  "About what we have added to civilization is speed and noise...  "This generation can be described in 3 words:  hurry, worry, bury...  "We're all stressed up and nowhere to go...  "Take a deep, deep drink of the soul's fountain of youth, for though our outward man perish, our inward man may be renewed day by day..."

Listen to Dealing with Stress, by Adrian Rogers, at One Place

1 "Comfort, O comfort My people," says your God.  
2 "Speak kindly to Jerusalem; And call out to her, that her warfare has ended, That her iniquity has been removed, That she has received of the LORD'S hand Double for all her sins."  
3 A voice is calling, "Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.  
4 "Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley;  
5 Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."  
6 A voice says, "Call out." Then he answered, "What shall I call out?" All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.  
7 The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass.  
8 The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.  
9 Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news, Lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news; Lift it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, "Here is your God !"  
10 Behold, the Lord GOD will come with might, With His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him And His recompense before Him.  
11 Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.  
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, And marked off the heavens by the span, And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, And weighed the mountains in a balance And the hills in a pair of scales ?  
13 Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, Or as His counselor  has informed Him?  
14 With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding? And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge And informed Him of the way of understanding?  
15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales; Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust.  
16 Even Lebanon is not enough to burn, Nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering.  
17 All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.  
18 To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?  
19 As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, A goldsmith plates it with gold, And a silversmith fashions chains of silver.  
20 He who is too impoverished for such an offering Selects a tree that does not rot; He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman To prepare an idol that will not totter.  
21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?  
22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.  
23 He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.  
24 Scarcely  have they been planted, Scarcely  have they been sown, Scarcely  has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble.  
25 "To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?" says the Holy One.  
26 Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.  
27Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God"?
28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable .  
29 He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power.  
30 Though youths grow weary and tired And vigorous young men stumble badly,  
31 Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

Isaiah 40

"Therefore Jesus Christ was both the treasure he cherished and the one who provided the right to have the treasure. In Christ alone Paul had a right to know and gain Christ. And that is all he wanted. That is the gospel. This is what we mean by treasuring Christ together. Christ alone is the ground of our acceptance with God and the goal of our heart's desire. He is our righteousness and our reward. Compared to him (knowing him, gaining him, being found in him) all else is garbage.

"Then come three of the best verses in all the Bible. In essence: the victory I just won in the contest of the flesh is a pile of garbage (the Greek is sku,bala, v. 8). And the reason he uses such a strong word (refuse!) is that the alternative is Christ. Compared to Christ being the greatest Pharisee of his time was foul garbage.
 
"But that is too vague. He is not vague. He does not say simply that compared to Christ legal achievements are garbage; he is more specific. He says that what is superior to moral and religious achievements is 1) knowing Christ, 2) gaining Christ, and 3) being found in Christ."

7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  
8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,  
9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 
10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 
11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.  
12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.  
13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,  
14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Phillipians 3:7-14

Read The Treasure that Turns Other Treasure to Garbage, by John Piper

We know that evil has invaded our government, our institutions, our schools, and even our beloved church.  If we are well versed, we know that the evil one is capable of doing extraordinary things.  He can steer the weather, poison our food in ways we are unable to detect, infect our bodies with miniscule agents of illness, ruin our ecology, railroad our thoughts, contaminate our money, destroy our earning power, and capture our very souls.  He is even able to mimic the signs of His coming.  It is a difficult time to be alive.  We must work very hard to discern, to cultivate quiet in order to listen to what our God is telling us. 

It is also a time of promise and of hope, though we wait for Babylon to rise again, for the Temple to be rebuilt, yes we wait for the abomination of desolation, for the tribulation.  We wait for God's Plan to come together by His own supernatural hand.  There are those who would try to quicken the date of His coming, but there is nothing we can do to hurry it.  It will come when He commands the time for it to come.  How do we keep our heads above water in such trying times?  We lean on His promise.  We love God with all our hearts and all our souls and all our minds.  We love our neighbors even more than we love ourselves.  His promise concludes our bible and these are the most powerful words in all the breath and life of the Lord, Jesus Christ, Our Savior:

7 "And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book."
8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things.  
9 But he said to me, "Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God."   
10 And he said to me, "Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.  
11 "Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy."  
12 "Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.
13 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."
14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.  
15 Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.  
16 "I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star."
17 The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.  
18 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book;  
19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.  
20 He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming quickly." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.  
21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.  

Revelation 22:7-21 

You can download this ebook, 
The Dead Sea Scrolls - Discovery and Meaning,
by Hershel Shanks,
for free at biblicalarchaeology.org.

It is an excellent little read with insight into early Christianity, early Judaism, the Hebrew Bible, and more. 

19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
20 "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;
21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 "The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.
23 "But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

Matthew 6:19-24

"When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner,

Matthew 6:11

'Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?'

Matthew 20:15

What is the meaning of this peculiar verse?  John Piper has the answer, and he sees with clarity! 

"What does the bad eye refer to in Matthew 20:15? It refers to an eye that cannot see the beauty of grace. It cannot see the brightness of generosity. It cannot see unexpected blessing to others as a precious treasure. It is an eye that is blind to what is truly beautiful and bright and precious and God-like. It is a worldly eye. It sees money and material reward as more to be desired than a beautiful display of free, gracious, God-like generosity."

You can read What is the 'Bad Eye' in Matthew 6:23?, by John Piper, Desiring God at One Place.

Wisdom from the Psalms:  Daily Thoughts and Meditations, by Dan R Dick, is such a sweet little devitional.  I receive an email each day, from which excerpts are taken.  You can order your copy here.

"This day, we need to stop for a moment to open new eyes to the wonder of God's world. If we will only try to see it through His eyes rather than our own, we will find new beauty that we never noticed before. His is a world of wonder and miracle. See it.

"Prayer: Lord, open my eyes, that I might see all that this world is meant to be. Do not let the pressures of the day create a cloud that prevents me from seeing Your beauty. Amen."

Today's Wisdom from the Psalms

Sometimes it just takes a little elbow grease to get through the day's work, an attitude that one must stick to it and never give up.  It takes a little persistence to bring in the harvest.  A little sweat and fortitude helps.  Are these the predominant qualities of an evangelist?  Yes, they are God given gifts from above.  Through difficult times, or even through the course of an average day, perseverance is a valuable gift.  Have you received it?  If you feel you have not, you can pray for perseverance.  Our prayers never go unanswered.  You can practice it also, practice until it becomes as much a part of you as your very backbone.  In this way perhaps you will also illustrate the earnestness of your prayer for it.


"Soon after making a decision to follow Christ, a young Nigerian named Daniel returned to his Muslim village. He was excited about his new faith. . .  the people of his village were not. Furious at him, the women of the village beat him and left him for dead..."

"...The women beat him and left him for dead again. This time he remained unconscious for two days."

"...This time the village women broke into tears at his perseverance, and eventually the good news of Christ gained a foothold in that place."

Read Perseverance, by Stephen Arterburn of Daily New Life at One Place


Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

James 1:12

1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 
3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: 
for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: 
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: 
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Psalm 23 (KJV)


"It is a blessed thing that when we are most downcast, then we are most lifted up by the consolations of the Spirit. One reason is, trials make more room for consolation. Great hearts can only be made by great troubles. The spade of trouble digs the reservoir of comfort deeper and makes more room for consolation. God comes into our heart--He finds it full--He begins to break our comforts and to make it empty; then there is more room for grace. The humbler a man is, the more comfort he will always have, because he will be more fitted to receive it."

Read Alistair Begg's Comfort in Trial at One Place.


For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.

2 Corinthians 1:5