Grace for the Race

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. (Ephesians 3:20)

Age related memory loss is part of the fall. We get old, we have a tendency to forget some things, and then we die. Yet, “Doxological Dementia” is not an age-related disease confined to the minds of those who are growing older. It affects all of us, both young and old alike, when we forget not only who we are, but even more importantly, Whose we are. Today’s doxology is designed to deliver us from a form of dementia that robs our joy, restricts our freedom, and retards our growth.

The apostle Paul uses a profound term to express God’s superabundant ability to bless us beyond our imagination. Here are a few other translations of what Paul is expressing: “immeasurable more” – “exceedingly abundantly above all” – “infinitely more.”  In other words, there is no limit to God’s ability to bless His people . . .  according to His power that is at work . . .  in every one of His children. The same power that raised Jesus from the grave, is the same power that is at work within us, moment by moment. Because we not only have finite minds, but finite minds that are fallen, broken, and sin-stained, we simply cannot comprehend the Cosmic Care God delivers to us daily, far above anything we can ask, imagine, dream, or desire.

Remember, because God is in Sovereign control of all things, in His infinite wisdom, authority, and power, He is working all things together for our ultimate good, even when it does not look like that on the surface. When you face circumstances that argue against your hope, hope anyway, because you have a God who is ready, willing, and able to bless you beyond what you could ever imagine. Because we are apt to forget and allow a bit of “Doxological Dementia” to seep in, it is critical to come into the presence of Jesus each day through prayer and the study of His Word.   

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

Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright. (Genesis 25:34)

Esau’s hunger pangs got the best of him and he settled for some stew and sold his birthright to his brother Jacob. How often we find ourselves like Esau, settling for some momentary treasure over against our eternal destiny. So, when was the last time you settled for some stew instead of your Savior?

Think about it this way: God has given us many promises in His Word. But often, we are not willing to wait on the Lord to fulfill them in His way and in His timing. Abraham and Sarah had the promise of God that they would be the parents of a son. But from their perspective, it was taking God way too long to fulfill His promise. So, they took matters into their own hands. Sarah gave Abraham her servant and they had a child, that was not according to the promise of God. When we settle for stew over our Savior it blinds our eyes, binds our ears, and blocks our forward progress.

The key to keep from settling for some stew over our Savior is rooted in our focus. If we focus on the here and now, then we will likely settle for stew. But if we keep our focus on the there and then . . . living in the light of eternity . . . then we will rise above the temporal and settle for nothing less than the eternal. Only an eternal perspective will positively affect our earthly priorities. Jesus made it clear that we are all treasure hunters. The question we must ask and answer each day is: What treasure are we hunting for?

We all know by way of personal experience that it is a poor tradeoff indeed to settle for temporary pleasure when already have been given every imaginable eternal treasure in Jesus. But we must remember, we are children of the King and a royal priesthood by way of second birth. We must never sell our birthright to some temporal treasure, some earthly stew, when we have been given the greatest eternal treasure imaginable – Jesus.   

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

When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” (Mark 2:16)

The self-righteous Pharisees and teachers of the law could not comprehend why Jesus would associate with “sinners” and tax collectors for one simple reason, they simply were blind to their own sin. Yet, their statement, which was meant as an insult, is a source of great comfort for those who know their own sinfulness, fallenness, and brokenness.

To know that Jesus is a friend of sinners is to know a profound and promising biblical truth. First, to be a friend of sinners means Jesus had to willingly come into this world subjecting Himself to living in a fallen and broken world. As the second person of the Trinity, Jesus came down off His heavenly throne, took on flesh, to dwell among us. Now that is profound. Second, to be a friend of sinners means Jesus had to intentionally invite us into an intimate and personal relationship with Him, because we were rebels on the run away from Him. Now that is promising.  

These self-righteous religious leaders thought their right standing before God was rooted in their rigorous following of their rituals and rules. To them, it was all about the externals. But Jesus made it clear that our right standing before God was rooted in a right relationship with Him. By the way, let me make one thing perfectly clear. The reason Jesus ate with “sinners” is because that’s all He had to eat with – for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Jesus looked for relationship with the outcasts, socially unacceptable, marginalized, and ostracized.

Regardless of where this finds you today, whether in storms or sunshine, Jesus came for you. He lived for you. He died for you. He rose from the dead for you. And He is coming back for you. Remember, Jesus being a friend of sinners did not mean He condoned sinful behavior. He did not spend time with sinners to join in their sinful ways. Rather, in love, He was calling sinners like me and you to turn from sin and toward their Savior. We are His broken-yet beloved bride. 

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

First, take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:5)

In His great Sermon on the Mount, our Lord Jesus used a holy hyperbole here to make a powerful point. Before you spend time trying to remove a tiny speck of dust from your friend’s eye, take a moment to remove the massive plank from your own. In other words, Jesus is telling all of us that we can become blind to our own faults. Instead of focusing on the faults of others, we ought to examine ourselves and when we do, we will know that we too, fall far short of God’s goal for our lives each and every day.

Jesus made this point in a profound way when the religious leaders brought to Him the woman caught in the act of adultery. First, being caught in the act of adultery presupposes two people. But nowhere do we read about them bringing in the man too. So, how does Jesus respond to their “plank” perspective?

“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7).

Of course, the only person in the group who was without sin was Jesus. Jesus was the only one who had the right to cast judgment upon this woman, and he did. He did not excuse the woman’s sin of adultery, and when He forgave her, He told her “Go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:11).

Now, Jesus was not telling His people to forsake judgment. He did say there was a speck in the eye of others. We are called to speak the truth in love and to offer help, encouragement, and even rebuke to others . . .  in love. But, before we can help anyone, we must first let Jesus help us and come to terms with our own faults, sins, and shortcomings.

Remember, the problem with a plank perspective is we simply cannot see clearly. We must first honestly face up to the true condition of our hearts, which is deceitful, and then we can in love, look to others to help, heal, and provide hope.

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

I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten. (Joel 2:25)

When I look back over the years, there are some seasons in life that, if I could, I would like to do it over again. Yet, I am reminded that God has promised to restore even the years the locust have eaten. And they have eaten more than their fair share. Can I get a witness?

I am sure we all feel like this from time to time. But we need to cry out to Jesus to rescue us from such stinking thinking. We must remember that we see so little of life. We are like the school child peering through the quarter-size hole in the wooden fence. Not only do we see only a tiny portion of what God is doing in our lives, we understand even less. That is why we must always keep in view that Jesus is all about redemption, not do-overs! Jesus is busily engaged in redeeming all the time that we think was wasted, because there is no such thing as wasted time.

Now I know the past is littered with many loses. There are painful seasons. There are fruitless seasons. There are selfish seasons. There are prodigal seasons. But regardless of where this finds you today, forsake regret and look to your Redeemer. Jesus has promised to make all things new, including you. He is at work, sharpening and shaping you into His image. Live in that confidence and that confidence will rise to hope.

Remember, Jesus is Lord and here we have an impossible promise. He will restore the one thing we simply cannot save or store up – TIME. Now, the lost season will not be restored. But the lost Savior will be. Jesus will deepen our dependence upon Him. Jesus will heighten our hope in Him. Jesus will strengthen our surrender to Him. We do not need Jesus to redo anything in our lives. We simply need Him to do what He has promised – to redeem and restore the years the locusts have eaten. Oh, what a Savior we have in Jesus.

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

If we live, we live for the Lord. (Romans 14:8)

Each day, we wake up in the cross hairs of two ways to live – we can live large for the Lord or we can live little for ourselves. The first leads to living a life of meaning, significance, and purpose. The second leads to living a life of meaninglessness, insignificance, and purposelessness. The choice is always ours.

To live large is to live for the expansion of the cause of the Kingdom of Christ. It is the active participation in making all things new, by sharing the good news of the gospel with those we come in contact with. It is declaring the truths of the gospel with both our lips and our lives. It is a life that is marked by loving God and loving our neighbor, regardless of the cost or circumstance. On the other hand, living little is living a life of personal peace and self-fulfillment.

Remember, when you focus on Jesus, your life expands to the boundaries of God’s Kingdom. But when you focus on yourself, you shrink the size of your life down to the size of your life. So, who have you been living for lately? Look to Jesus and let Him enable you, empower you, and equip you to live for nothing smaller than Him. When you are living for Jesus, it may not look like you are living large from the world’s perspective, because they measure large by what you get. But when you are living for Jesus, you are truly living large, because He measures large by what you give.

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

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person. (Revelation 3:20)

As hard as it is to imagine, our Lord Jesus, Creator and Sustainer of the universe, the Alpha and the Omega, desires intimate communion with each one of His children. This desire of Jesus is not just for each day, but moment by moment. Yet, our hearts drift in and out of close communion with Jesus sometimes.

Now we know that we enjoy eternal union with our Lord Jesus. Once Jesus raised us from death to life, we were His and nothing could ever separate us from Him. Not our sin. Not Satan. Nothing can take us from the palm of His hand. But from time to time, and sometimes the interval between time to time is quite short, our hearts drift away from our devotion and dedication to Jesus. And often we do not even recognize the drift until we are far away from the anchor of our soul. From my personal experience, it is usually the people closest to me who recognize my heart drift before I do, and that’s because the way I relate to Jesus impacts and affects the way I relate to others.

The key to keeping the heart beating for Jesus is to draw near to Him each and every day. The more time we spend in His presence, the more fixed will be our focus on Him. When we are spending consistent time alone with Jesus, we will not hear any knock at the door or voice on the other side. Because we will be enveloped completely in the presence of Jesus. At this level of living, we will experience exactly what we were made to experience in this life – the presence and the person of our Lord Jesus.

So, have you been experiencing any heart drift lately? What would those closest to you say? Pause in His presence today and listen closely, Jesus is knocking and calling out to you. Open the door of your heart and receive all the blessings He has in store for you right now.

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

Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! (1 Corinthians 9:16)

At times, we all have a tendency to find shade under the tree of “woe,” which is a poor place to find protection from the Son.

• Woe is me, I got cut from the team
• Woe is me, I did not get accepted into my college of choice
• Woe is me, I did not get the job I was looking for
• Woe is me, I was pass over again for that promotion
• Woe is me, there is too much month left at the end of the money

We learn to “woe” at an early age and it can follow us throughout life if we are not careful. Yet, there is a “woe” that is worthy in our conversation and that “woe” comes from the pen of the apostle Paul. So convicted and captured by the gospel was Paul, he measured his entire existence in terms of the truths of the gospel flowing through his words, his works, and his witness. For Paul, his life was all about Christ and his heart beat for nothing smaller after his Damascus-Road experience, when Jesus changes him from the inside out.

This is to be the condition of every child of God. Not that we are all vocational preachers of the gospel according to our gifts and calling. Yet, for every disciple of Christ, we are to be a channel and conduit of the love of God in Christ Jesus. The truths of the gospel are to flow through our thoughts, words, deeds, and desires. We are to preach the gospel to all those we come in contact with both our lips and our lives. We are to declare the gospel and demonstrate it, regardless of the cost or circumstance. And when we don’t, we find ourselves in the same condition as Paul, conscious of the worthy “woe.”

So, have you been sharing Jesus with others lately? Is your life a confession of the truths of the gospel to all those you come in contact with? Are God’s Kingdom priorities your priorities in both your personal and professional life? Let us never waste another “woe” by keeping our focus on our King and expanding His Kingdom everywhere we go.

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

Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” (Matthew 8:22)

When Jesus was teaching about the cost of following Him, He said some startling statements, and the one before us today is no exception. This was the response Jesus gave to someone who said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father” before I follow you. Now we don’t know if his father had already died, or if he simply wanted to put off following Jesus until he did die. But what we do know is Jesus did not accept any excuse for any delay in following Him.

There is a cost to following Christ and those who are not willing to pay it cannot be His disciple. Now Jesus was not teaching against the biblical mandate of honoring father and mother. What Jesus was teaching was no relationship is to rise above the relationship we have with Him. Loyalty to Jesus is to take priority over loyalty to anyone else. Here is the best way I know how to put what Jesus was teaching – don’t love your family relationship less . . . simply love me more.

Now this person’s request surely seemed reasonable on the surface. But Jesus never lets His disciples engage in “surface” living. Jesus demands His disciples live at the depth of undivided devotion to Him. No earthly care is to become more important than our eternal commitment to Christ. Jesus will tolerate no rival, nor should He. Nothing in this life is to come between our loyalty to our Lord. Our decision to follow Jesus for the first time is not to be delayed. And our decision to continue following Jesus each day after is not to be delayed either.

So, if you have been putting off following Jesus for any reason, remember, temporary gain is a poor exchange for eternal glory. There is only room for one person to sit upon the throne of your life – Jesus or you. Choose this day without delay, whom you will serve and may it always be the One who is worthy of your undivided attention and affection.  

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

Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. (Luke 5:29)

A bit of background for the broken at this banquet will prove profitable. The tax collectors in ancient Israel were hated and despised because they were Jews who hired themselves out to work for the Roman government. It was bad enough for the Israelites to pay taxes to Rome. It was the worst of all conditions to be paying it through their own countrymen.

Now these tax collectors were not paid an actual wage by the Roman government. They were given a contract to pay a certain amount of money to Rome and then they could collect extra money to take care of themselves. The problem was many were totally dishonest and abused this system by gouging their own people to line their pockets. They were both rich and reviled by their Jewish brothers and sisters.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law said to the disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:30-31). You see, Levi was a despised tax collector that Jesus invited into relationship. Levi left a lucrative business to follow Jesus. But that’s not all. He then held a banquet for his fellow tax collectors and ‘sinners’ and Jesus was the honored guest. This is a powerful picture of the good news of the gospel. To eat with someone in the ancient world was an act of friendship, fellowship, and intimate communion.

In this story, there are only two kinds of people – sinners who acknowledge their sin and look to the Savior (tax collectors), and sinners who refuse to acknowledge their sin and look to themselves for salvation (Pharisees and teachers of the law). Only when we acknowledge our own brokenness and look to Jesus to make us whole do we find ourselves with a place at His banquet table. We are broken-yet-beloved as the bride of Christ. And when that truth seized Levi, also named Matthew who authored the Gospel of Matthew, he became an instrument of gospel grace for the glory of Jesus.

Levi was so impacted by the love of Jesus he held a banquet for other broken people to meet with and be mended by his new Master. Levi went from serving riches to serving his Redeemer. May this be the confession of our lives?

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