Grace for the Race

In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. (Jonah 2:2)

We have a tendency to see the story of Jonah more about a rebellious prophet than a redeeming God – more about a huge fish than a holy and faithful God. God called Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach repentance. Jonah said ‘No’ and headed in the opposite direction. He found a ship and tried to sail away from the Lord. While asleep in the boat, God pursued His rebellious prophet on the run and sent a storm that threatened to sink the vessel.

Now many see the storm as simply a punishment from God to His disobedient prophet. Yet, rather than seeing the storm as punishment, we are to see it as God pursuing His run-away prophet. God is interrupting Jonah’s flight away from Him with the grace of gale-force winds. This is God’s pattern. Throughout Scripture we see God’s people on the run away from Him followed by His hot pursuit of them by any means necessary. God is simply in the business of pursuing rebels on the run and that includes you and me.

When the sailors on the ship woke Jonah and questioned him, Jonah told them he was the reason for the storm. God sent it in response to His rebellion. He instructed them to simply throw him into the sea and the storm would subside. Instead of following his instruction, they decided to row harder back to shore to no avail, “for the sea grew even wilder than before” (Jonah 1:13). As strange as the solution sounded, it was God’s solution to the storm. So, when they finally threw Jonah overboard, the sea instantly grew calm.

Often God’s solution to the storms in our lives seems strange. But when we look back, we can see how often our attempt to row to safety was simply more rebellion. Only when we submit and surrender to the storms God sends, do we find ourselves rising above the winds and the waves as God works His grace in our lives.

So, regardless of the storm you might be facing today, receive it as God’s sent messenger of sanctification in your life. He is conforming you to the image of Jesus. Stop rowing and get going in the direction He is calling so God will not need to send a big fish to strengthen your faith.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

He shows no partiality to princes and does not favor the rich over the poor. (Job 34:19)

If you have ever been picked last to be on a team (and I have), then you know what it is like to be on the short end of the sports stick. My middle school years were difficult for me just trying to fit in and figure out what it meant to be in the middle of elementary and high school. Then add to that, the middle school P.E. experience. The top athletes would be chosen as captains and they would pick their teams for the particular sport we were playing at the time. Oh what an experience it is to see the line dwindle down as each name is called, and you are the last one standing there.

Well, I have good news for you today. God does not play favorites. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. In God’s economy we are all equal. God does not prefer the prince over the pauper. He loves and looks after each and every one of us equally. From the Good Lord’s perspective, there is no such thing as the wrong side of the tracks. Why? Because God is on both sides of them. God loves you so much He sent His Son to die in your place to have a relationship with you. Now, God does not need any of us. But He wants us. How cool is that truth. We are not needed, but we are wanted.

Regardless of where this finds you today, God is quite fond of you. You are the apple of His eye and the object of His Almighty affection. He loves you unconditionally and has loved you from eternity past. There never was a time when God did not love you – AND – there will never be a time when He stops loving you. He will not love you less when you mess things up. And He will not love you more when you get it right. He simply loves you. He wanted me to remind you of that today.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. (Jeremiah 29:12)

Did you know there is a failproof and a foolproof method for curing knocking knees? It’s kneeling on them and lifting your voice up to heaven. Regardless of what is causing your knees to knock, whether it is personal, professional, or relational, getting on them in prayerful communion with God is the way to receive that peace that passes all human understanding.

Jesus opened the way for us to come into God’s presence 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Now, it’s not like we are coming to God with something He does not already know. God knows your name, the number of hairs on your head, and everything about every circumstance in your life. In fact, it is God who has ordained all things in your life for His glory and your ultimate good. He obviously knows the answer to every question and the solution to every problem before we bring any of it to Him. But God delights in us when we come into His presence to share with Him what is going on in our lives.

Now the Bible commands us to pray and prayer is to be the bedrock of the believer’s life. But beyond the command, is God’s cosmic care for us. Like any Father, God loves when we come to Him for any reason at any time. And not just when things are hard. God loves to hear from us when things are going well. God simply wants to be in constant communion with us throughout our day.

So, regardless of what is causing your knees to knock, bring it to God. Come into His presence and sit awhile and tell Him what is on your heart. He not only cares for you, He is working everything in your life for your ultimate good. The more you pray, the more you practice the presence of God and that is the best practice in the world to keep your knees from knocking.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

In the world we live in, it is much easier to live by sight rather than by faith. The sights and sounds of the world we live in capture our attention and control our affections. We end up living for the here and now, rather than the there and then. But God wants us to live according to His promises even though we cannot see them, which empowers us to live in the now with a view to the then.

It was Martin Luther King Jr. who said, “Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” Because God is sovereign and in complete control of everything, we can simply look to Him and trust in where He is leading us. We don’t need to know the twists and turns in the path He has put us on. All we need to know is the One who is leading us every step of the way. When Paul tells us to walk by faith and not by sight, he is telling us to build our lives on the things that have eternal value and to live in light of eternity.

Every child of God can use an occasional faith-lift. We need to be reminded of God’s plan and purpose for our lives and resist our natural inclinations to follow our own plan and purpose. A faith-lift is shifting our trust away from ourselves and putting it on our Savior. A faith-lift is leaning not on our own understanding, but putting all our weight on our Lord and following wherever He is leading.

Remember, a faith-lift is rising above feelings that can be so fickle. We feel one way in this moment, and another way in the next. It is rising above the circumstances of life and fixing our focus squarely on Christ. This requires a recommitment to surrender and a refusal to live in self-reliance. Cling to Christ and allow God’s power to renew your mind, recalibrate your heart, and realign your will. This is the kind of faith-lift we all could use.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. (Hebrews 8:12)

Because we know that God knows everything, everywhere, and at all times, what in the world does it mean He will remember our sins no more? Does God really forget our sins? Not exactly. God does know everything, everywhere, and at all times. But He chooses to leave our sins, all our sins, nailed to the cross. God simply refuses to bring up our past sins no matter what we do.

Listen, the memory of past mistakes, shortcomings, and sins can cause us to live in the past rather than learn from the past. Yet, God wants us to treat the past like a school. We are to learn the lesson, but not live there. It is Satan that whispers in our ears – remember what you did back then – how could you do that again – perhaps you are not even a child of God – all the while trying to shift our focus away from our Savior and put in on ourselves.

As a pastor, I often have people tell me in our coaching sessions, “I just can’t forgive myself.” That is one of Stan’s sharpest darts aimed at the heart of the believer. Do you see just how man-centered that statement is? It’s not about forgiving yourself. It’s about appropriating God’s promised forgiveness that has been secured by Jesus in His crucifixion and resurrection. When we sin and repent of our sin, that is the end of it. When we are in a saving relationship with Jesus, all of our sins are forgiven, past, present, and the ones still to come. What we need to do is have a good forgettery – and not let our past sins keep us in bondage to our sinful past.

So, how well is your forgettery working? Are you letting your past sins and failures drag you down into the mudflats of life? Look to the cross and rise above Satan’s strategy to keep you remembering your sins. Remember, God has chosen to forget them, all of them. This is to be the confession of our lives.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. (1 John 4:13)

Like Adam and Eve who chose fig leaves to hid behind rather than face God for forgiveness, healing, and restoration, we must stop trying to hide behind “fig leave” statements like, “That’s just the way I am” or “I have always been that way.” Statements like these express a refusal to change and a defense of one’s habits. These phrases can often indicate a “take it or leave it” kind of attitude. But know this – what you were yesterday matters not to God because He has given you His Spirit to make you something you have never been as a new creation in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Excuses are like camouflage we try to hide behind when we would rather not do the hard work of getting in step with the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. It is far easier to simply settle into our old self and live in the flesh rather than His Spirit. But this so dishonors our Lord who paid the ultimate price to have us in relationship with Him. He died that we might live, not anyway we like. But to live like Him.

Think about it this way. When we say to someone, “I’m just not a patient, kind, or loving person,” we are denying the work of the Holy Spirit in us. We are that kind of person because we are indwelt by the power of the Holy Spirit. We just need to simply begin acting out practically, what we already are positionally, as a child of the Most-High God.

So, what camouflage have you been hiding behind lately? By God’s grace, let us all get rid of our fig leaves and face the One who has promised to make all things new, including you.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29)

During the time of wilderness wandering, God made His presence known in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. When the cloud moved, the people of God were to move with it. When the cloud stopped, they were to stay put. The problem was the people kept looking away from the cloud and on to the crowd.

The crowd complained about the leadership. The crowd complained about the menu. The crowd even wanted to go back to Egypt where they were slaves for the previous 450 years. They were a people who were rumbling, stumbling, and grumbling all the way into the Promised Land. They sought to satisfy their will rather than the will of God. In losing sight of God’s perfect plan for their imperfect lives, they shifted their focus away from the cloud and where God was leading them, and put it on the crowd.

Today, we face the same challenges God’s people faced back then. There are countless crowd voices and noises, that are calling us to walk in their way. We are constantly being bombarded by social media voices that are enticing us and encouraging us to look away from the cloud and follow the crowd. But this is not for you.

We can be sure many of the Israelites were telling Moses what to do, where to go, and how to get there. But Moses, stayed faithful to God and in his humility and obedience to God’s instructions, followed the cloud no matter where it led. So, how is it with you today? Are you following the cloud or the crowd? The more time you spend each day sitting at the feet of Jesus, the better you will be able to follow wherever He is leading you.  

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Serve the king of Babylon, and you will live. (Jeremiah 27:17)

We must not limit God in His dealings with us. With His ultimate goal of Christ-likeness to be formed within us (Romans 8:29), God will accomplish this His way, in His timing, and by any means necessary.

God used the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar and the pagan people of Babylon as instruments of judgment in the lives of His people, with the ultimate goal of weaning their hearts away from the things of this world. The message is clear for us today. We must accept God’s ways in our lives even when we cannot comprehend them. We must trust God’s heart even when we cannot trace His hand.

Every circumstance in your life is filled with God’s chosen instruments of sanctification, regardless of their relationship to Him. We must not think that God will only use the godly in forming Christ in us. God is the Creator and Sustainer of all things and He will use all things in this world to accomplish His plans for His people, and that includes you and me.

God will use any means necessary to grow and mature you in the faith. Perhaps an unsaved boss; a godless co-worker; a pagan neighbor; an atheistic friend. God will use both the pastor and the pagan, the godly and the ungodly, in accomplishing His purpose in this world, and that includes in each of His children too.

So, what king Nebuchadnezzar has God brought into your life to use to chisel Christ-like character in you today? Remember, the “ungodly” and the “unspiritual” are under God’s complete control at all times. Thank God today and be on the lookout for those unexpected instruments He is using in your life to make you more like Jesus, by any means necessary.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

I am to be the only inheritance the priests have. You are to give them no possession in Israel; I will be their inheritance. (Ezekiel 44:28)

This divine declaration is frequently repeated throughout the law of Moses by God to His priests, the Levites, who were to be totally supported by the tithes given to God, and by their portion of the offerings that were given to him. God had ordained that His priests would not share in the possessions as the rest of the other 11 tribes of Israel had, for He alone would be their prized possession and their incredible inheritance, for He would provide for their every need as they served wholly unto the Lord.

There is great comfort in this word for us today because we, as the people of God, are a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9). The priesthood of all believers is a foundational concept of Christianity, reclaimed for the people of God during the Protestant Reformation of the 16^th Century. Having been chosen and set apart by God, like the Old Testament priest, we offer “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). Our privileged status makes us heirs to the kingdom of God, to wit, God Himself is to be our inheritance. Now take careful note of this truth – unlike an earthly inheritance that is passed down after a person dies – we have access to our incredible inheritance not only daily, but moment by moment.

Regardless of what you have in the here and now, you cannot take any of it with you when you go. But in God’s economy, your true inheritance, your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, is not only available to you, He is with you so we cry as the psalmist, “Lord, you alone are my inheritance, my cup of blessing” (Psalm 16:5). So, let me ask you this question, “Have you been living in the light of this truth?” The answer, of course, can be found in the beating of your heart. What does your heart beat strongest for in your life right now? Is it the stuff of life or is it your Savior who has given you life?

Paul writes to the Ephesians, “In Christ we have obtained an inheritance” (1:11). Some, have a tendency to limit their understanding of this inheritance to eternal life in heaven with Jesus and all the saints of God. But there is more. Your inheritance includes everyday life on earth and every spiritual blessing imaginable – you are forgiven – you are redeemed – you are a new creation – you are adopted into God’s family of faith – you are given a purpose to live for and the power to live it out. In a word, your inheritance is INCONCEIVABLE. Let this truth set you free to live the life God has called you to live today, right now, right where this finds you.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. (John 6:15)

God the Father sent God the Son to be King of His people. So, what was wrong with the people wanting to assist the Almighty in the process by making Jesus king by force, knowing that it was indeed God’s ultimate goal for His Son based on the Old Testament prophecies? What was wrong was in the way the people wanted to do it and for the reasons they wanted to do it. They wanted to do it by force and for their temporal and earthly good, which stood in direct opposition to the plan and purpose of the Father.

Of course, behind the people stood Satan himself. When Satan failed in his wilderness temptations of Jesus, he was not finished in his fight against the Son of God. He continued stirring the hearts and minds of the people to rebel against God’s purpose and plan for Messiah and this was one of his subtle victories. The seduction of the serpent caused the crowd to clamor for the king they wanted, the king that would reestablish the throne of David in Jerusalem and remove the boot of Rome from their necks.

Perhaps, Jesus would be tempted to be crowned king without having to go through the cruel cross. Here was an opportunity for instant gratification AND the accomplishment of God’s ultimate goal, as the mass of Jewish humanity were ready to rise up against their Roman oppressors and hand the King of Israel the throne of David. God’s goal for His beloved Son was within reach but not according to God’s perfect plan to accomplish it. To be sure, as fully man, Jesus had an EGO that could have fell prey to the applause of man and the appeal of popularity, just like any of us. But Jesus could always recognize the “snake” in the grass who would do anything to derail the destiny of the Chosen One. Jesus knew when the accomplishment of God’s goal would NOT be good.

Notice one final thing and let this truth strengthen you to resist the devil whenever he comes calling to entice you to accomplish any good goal God would have for you in a way that is not in line with God’s plan and purpose for accomplishing it.

Jesus withdrew again to a mountain by himself!

It was His continual communion with His Father that kept Him on track. In perpetual prayer, Jesus was strengthened to stay the course and follow the will of His Father, even when that will was leading to the most horrible death known to man at that time – a Roman cross. The prayer life of our Lord was the key that unlocked the door leading to a resolve that refused to ever accomplish any goal God had for Him in anyway apart from the perfect plan of His Father. May this be the confession of our lives.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!