Grace for the Race

Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out. (Proverbs 10:9)

It is said of the French Bishop of Geneva Francis de Sales, he lived parallel lives in private and public. When another bishop planned to write a biography about Francis, his goal was to find out if his life in private matched up with his life in public. The bishop went to visit Francis and drilled a hole in the wall so he could spy on him to see if he could find the secret of his holy life. What he learned was virtually nothing – yet it was almost everything. He discovered that Francis was the same in private as in public. His talk matched his walk in both spheres of life. He rose from bed early in the morning, careful not to make any disturbance so as not to awaken his servant. He prayed, answered correspondence and took care of his ordinary tasks in the same gracious manner that he followed when he was in public.

Francis is known for his writings on the topics of spiritual direction and spiritual formation, particularly the Introduction to the Devout Life and the Treatise on the Love of God. His walk and his writings witnessed to his sold-out life, whether in private or in public, for the advancement of the Kingdom and the glory of Christ. In order for this to be the confession of our lives, we must be committed to living parallel lives both publicly and privately. The word for this is INTEGRITY!

To understand integrity biblically, we cannot see life like a pie, cut up into different pieces and disconnected from the whole. We have a slice for our professional life and a slice for our personal life and a slice for our church life and a slice for my compulsions. This kind of life lacks integrity. We are one thing in one area of our lives and something different in another area of life. To avoid this pitfall, we must be committed to living a whole life before the face of God and committed to doing it the same whether someone is watching or not. The Bible says, “The Lord detests those whose hearts are perverse, but he delights in those whose ways are blameless” (Proverbs 11:20).

Remember, inasmuch as the goal is perfection, we will not reach that goal until we cross the Jordan and are received into glory. Until then, we do the best we can with all God has given to us to do it with, knowing we have a God who loves us unconditionally and forgives us completely when we mess it up.

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

But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground. (Exodus 14:29)

One of the most spectacular events in the Old Testament history of God’s chosen people is the crossing of the Red Sea. After the deliverer Moses leads the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt, they find themselves standing at the edge of the Red Sea., with the approaching Egyptian army closing in on them. The people of God believed they had been delivered from bondage in Egypt only to be destroyed in the wilderness. But God showed up in a BIG WAY.

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were dived, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. (Exodus 14:21-22)

What God did for His people back then, He is doing for His people now, and that includes you. What Red Sea are you facing today professionally, personally, and relationally? God is calling you out of your past and into your promised future. He is calling you out of the known and comfortable into the unknown and uncomfortable. Answer this question: “What Egypt do you need to be freed from?” Damaging thought patterns. Destructive behaviors. 

There will always be “Red Seas” on the road ahead as you make your way into glory. Greater is the power that is at work within you than any power that comes up against you. Let these words from Moses encourage you to keep on keeping on, knowing that God is working everything together for your good and His glory, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today” (Exodus 14:13)

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

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105)

Most people have a Bible somewhere in their homes. Sadly, for far too many, it is gathering dust on some table top or book shelve. The Bible is the number one, best-selling book in the history of the world and has had a profound impact on Western civilization from its beginning. The question is, has the Word of God had a profound impact on you and the life you are currently living?

God gave us His Word so we would read it. He could have left it up to the Holy Spirit to encourage, motivate, and inspire us to do His will in this world. But He did not. He gave us His Holy Word so that we would read it and respond to it and therefore, be changed by it. When Jesus was being assaulted in the desert by the devil in His wilderness experience, He responded with, “It is written!” Jesus knew the Word of God and was able to use that word to resist and ultimately defeat the attacks of the devil. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

Think about going a day or two without eating. You will not only grow hungry you will grow weaker and weaker. Now multiply that by a week or even a month. Just as our physical bodies need nourishment to sustain life, our souls need nourishment to sustain spiritual life. We need to come into God’s presence each day and marinate in and meditate on His Word. When we do, we will be able, like Jesus, to fight against everything that comes up against us in this life, achieve victory, and give God all the glory.

Remember, God’s Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. We live in a spiritually dark world and need the light of our Lord’s love that is found on the pages of sacred Scripture to guide our steps into God’s will for our lives. Along the way into glory, the Word of God will give us both direction and correction to live a life for the glory of God and the good of others – all others – including ourselves.     

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

“Let my people go, so that they may serve me.” (Exodus 8:1)

These words came from God through Moses to Pharaoh when God was getting ready to free His people from bondage in Egypt. God was setting His people free from slavery in order that they would worship and serve Him. What was true thousands of years ago is still true today – we have been saved to serve.

Now many in the church today have messed up this biblical truth. Instead of understanding we have been saved for service, they believe they are saved by service. This, of course, is a false gospel rooted in our merit, not God’s mercy. Salvation is all of God. There is nothing we do to get saved. But after God saves us, we are not called to serve the One who has set us free from the bondage to sin, Satan, and death. We are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God through service. And in the most practical sense of understanding the truth that we have been saved to serve, we are to live lives of sacrificial service to others – all others – regardless of cost or circumstance.

We have blessed to be a blessing. We have been healed to help. We have been saved to serve. This is the call for every child of God, not just those who are in vocational ministry like pastors and missionaries. Every Christian is in “full-time” Christian service, regardless of what profession they have chosen. The butcher, baker, and candle-stick maker all are called to serve their Savior. A “non-serving” Christian is a contradiction in terms of gargantuan proportions.

Remember, as you continue growing and maturing in your faith, keep in mind that your maturity is always for ministry. As Jesus said, “He came to serve, not be served,” and the same must be said about those who are His disciples. Is your life reflective of the truth that you have been saved to serve?

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

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. (Galatians 2:20)

Inasmuch as we have been crucified with Christ legally, because God looks at us as if we had died with our Lord Jesus Christ, what I want to encourage you with today is to focus on living, not dying. Because we have been crucified with Christ, we have also been raised from the dead with Him too. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that lives in us and is at work in us making us more and more like Christ.

The more we allow our Lord Jesus Christ to live in and through us, the more we become like Him. The more surrender to God’s will and submit to God’s Word, the more we are “being transformed into His image with every increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). This process is known as sanctification, and it takes place throughout the entire life of the Christian. It does not happen in a day, but daily, moment by moment, as we cooperate with the work of the Holy Spirit within us.

When the apostle Paul said, “Christ lives in me,” he was reminding us that we become more like Jesus through inhabitation, not imitation. Through the choices we make in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we begin to do, think, and say, what God wants us to do, think, and say. In the strength of the Almighty, we have the power to say ‘Yes’ to the things we must say ‘Yes’ to and ‘No’ to the things we must say ‘No’ to. Paul gives us another reminder to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose” (Philippians 2:12-13).

Remember, Paul is not warning us we can lose our salvation. Once saved, always saved. We are not to live in nervousness and anxiety. What he is saying is we are to pursue what we are practically through obedience in the power of the Holy Spirit, what we already are positionally, because Christ lives in us.

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

But by means of their suffering, he rescues those who suffer. For he gets their attention through adversity. (Job 36:15 NLT)

I think we would all agree by way of personal experience, adversity gets our undivided attention. To be sure, this was true of the great patriarch Job. Now God already had Job’s attention as we read, “Job was blameless – a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil” (Job 1:1). Job loved the Lord and Job lived for the Lord. Yet, God allowed Satan to afflict Job and through this affliction, Job’s attention deepened on God and so too did His dependence.

Now, on this side of the cross, we are to see just how adversity takes on new meaning. There is purpose in all of our pain. God is using every storm wind that blows our way to accomplish His purposes in our lives. One of the main purposes that God has for His children in adversity is to conform us into the image of Christ that we might reflect His character in all we think, do, say, and desire. Paul makes it clear that all adversity “works together” for our eternal good and God’s glory.

Think about the last storm you were in. Did it not gain your undivided attention and cause you to fix your focus on God? If it did not, that surely is the ultimate goal. You see, God is getting our attention through every adversity. When we are being hammered on the anvil of adversity, we no longer focus on expanding our little kingdom in this world. Rather, we look to Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith. Adversity also exposes our weaknesses, which drive us to the One who has all the strength in the universe. Paul too pleasure in his infirmities, persecutions, and weaknesses, because the power of Christ was at work in his life. (2 Corinthians 12:10). 

Remember, adversity is the classroom where we learn more and more about our Lord Jesus Christ. This is where we learn just how loved we are because God is with us every step of the way and has promised to get us through to the other side, better than we were before adversity came knocking on our door. When we keep our focus on Christ and not our circumstances, every adversity will make us better, not bitter.

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

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1)

Perhaps you are familiar with the letters WWJD, typically seen on bracelets, as well as a variety of other Christian apparel items. They stand for “What Would Jesus Do?” It’s a great concept, and it was rooted in the 1896 book entitled, In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do, by Charles Sheldon. This book has sold more than 50,000,000 copies and ranks as one of the best-selling books of all time. Now, as important as WWJD is, I believe there are four other letters that must come before these – LLJL. Do you know what they stand for? These four letters stand for “Live Like Jesus Lived!” There really is no sense asking “What Would Jesus Do” if we are not willing to “Live Like Jesus Lived.” We must be willing to live out the truth . . .

“Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did” (1 John 2:6).

We all need a pattern to follow if we are going to live a life that is both pleasing and glorifying to God. We have that pattern in our Lord Jesus Christ. We must look to Him alone as we find Him on the pages of the Gospels, in order to understand how we are to live. In looking more closely at Jesus who “is the visible image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), we will see what we lost because of the first sin in the Garden of Eden through Adam and Eve, and what we have been promised in our salvation.

Inasmuch as the Christian life is all of grace, we are responsible to pursue “Living Like Jesus Lived” through diligent effort and dependent discipline upon the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Press into God’s presence each day. Spend time in the Word of God. Pray unceasingly. Look to the One who is the Author and Perfector of your faith. LLJL must come before WWJD. Oh, one final point: when you mess it up and you will on this side of glory, remember, Jesus loves you unconditionally and forgives you completely.

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

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. (2 Corinthians 1:8)

Did you know that believers get down and depressed? I certainly know this by way of personal experience. Yet, some people mistakenly think that after their conversion, depression should be as far as the east is from the west, as if they are now immune to depression, despair, and despondency. In our passage of Scripture, we read that the great apostle Paul despaired even of life. If Paul got down, it should not surprise us that we too get down at times. But like Paul, we have all that we need in Jesus to deal with our down so that we are never out! Here are just three truths to lift you out of the ashes of defeat:

• Jesus Is For You

If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)

• Jesus is With You

I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20)

• Jesus is In You

Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you? (2 Corinthians 13:5)

Like Paul, we are all given to times of depression, despair, and despondency. We are not perfected yet and won’t be until we cross the Jordan. Until that day, there will be circumstances in life that will come up against us in surprising ways. When that happens, we need to remember to keep our focus on Christ, not our circumstances. When we do, we will be reminded that Jesus is for us, with us, and in us.

Remember, regardless of what you are facing today, those three truths will help you rise above the waves of challenge. And when you find yourself in times of depression, despair, and despondency, remember you are only down, but you are never out. As Paul also said, “We are cast down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:9).

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

For they loved human praise more than praise from God. (John 12:43)

We all seek approval, but in the flesh, we seek it in all the wrong places. We crave human praise and to be made much of from family, friends, neighbors, co-workers – the list is endless. What is sad about this truth is we seek the applause of man when we already have the approval of God. We need not seek it. We cannot earn it. We have it simply because we have been saved by the blood of Jesus. Because of what Jesus did on our behalf, we have the Almighty’s Approval and there is nothing we can do to lose it.

Far too many people in the church today connect approval with accomplishment. They believe if they are successful in overcoming trials and tribulations, then God will look favorable upon them and give His approval. Not true. We do not prove to God our worthiness of His approval. We have His approval simply because we are in Christ. Now the implications of this truth seizing you are life-changing. Almighty Approval removes our guilt, our shame, our fear, our doubt, and our humiliation. When we question the Almighty’s Approval, we simply deny what Jesus did for us through His sinless life, sacrificial death, and supernatural resurrection.

God’s approval and acceptance go hand in hand. You are approved of because of Jesus and you are accepted because of Jesus. It’s all because of Him. You are approved and accepted because you are adopted into His family. When God looks at you, He sees you through the eyes of grace, clothed in the robes of Christ’s righteousness, perfect in His sight. Now we need to remember this important truth – inasmuch as we have the Almighty’s Approval, it does not mean God approves of everything we do. God does not approve of our sin, but even in our sin, He still approves and accepts us as His children.

We all seek approval and acceptance, which is why we need to keep our focus on Jesus, who not only approves and accepts us, He delights in us too.

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)

The devil does everything within his power to keep you from living the life God is calling you to live. Now he cannot mess with your promised eternal life, but he can mess with your present everyday life, if you allow him. Now one of the sharpest darts in his arsenal is to weigh you down with the sins of your past. If he can keep you looking over your shoulder at what is behind you, it will keep you from moving in the direction God is calling you to go.

God choosing not to remember is not the same as God forgetting. God is omniscient. He knows everything, all the time, and He simply cannot forget anything. However, in His mercy, He chooses not to remember the sins we have committed in our past. Think about it this way: rather than treating us as our sins deserve, He chooses to forgive us and to remember our sins no more. God refuses to hold our sins over our heads by reminding us of our past mistakes. God has intentionally put “all our sins behind His back” (Isaiah 38:17). Out of sight, out of mind, which is a promise that is simply out of this world.

Remember, we do not serve a forgetful God. We serve a forgiving and faithful God who says He will never bring up our past sins again. Now don’t confuse conviction with condemnation. Conviction is when we know we have rebelled against God, and filled with a godly sorrow, repent of our sins. But condemnation is of the devil who keeps bringing up our sins to shame us and water down our witness for Jesus. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So, the next time the devil whispers in your ear, “Look at what you have done now” respond with “I am forgiven” completely and eternally.    

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