Grace for the Race

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!

The Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of Justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! (Isaiah 30:19)

The Bible is full of stories of those who wished they had waited on the Lord. Abraham and Sarah got impatient and tried to fulfill God’s promise for a son according to their own time table. Moses got impatient and tried to fulfill God’s promise to deliver His people from bondage in Egypt in his way and in his timing. The entire Israelite nation grew increasingly impatient regarding God’s promise of inheriting the Promised Land, and rumbled, stumbled, and grumbled for 40 years wandering in the wilderness. Saul, the first king of Israel, suffered dearly for his impatience and hastiness time and time again, refusing to wait on the Lord’s timing. And, like the apostle Peter, who was impetuously impatient by nature, the same is true for all of us, from time to time. 

Each day, we are always faced with two choices in life – one it to wait on the Lord in our assigned place . . .  or to forge ahead at our own pace. The first is an example of faithfulness to follow wherever and whenever God leads. The second is an example of unbelief. Now, when the plans we have made for the day are disrupted, the unbelief of impatience will cause us to respond in one of two ways: either we will give up and abandon the path God has set before us; or we will make impulsive counter moves against the obstacles standing in our way.

Now the key that unlocks the door leading to waiting on the Lord is to keep our focus on Jesus, walking by faith and not by sight. To be sure, this is an ongoing battle deep within the heart. But it is a battle that can be won if we will fight it in the strength of the Almighty. God’s plans are better than our plans. God’s timing is better than our timing. That is why we must stay anchored in the Word of God. In the Word we will find the weapon of wisdom we need to live a life according to God’s will rather than our own will.

So, regardless of where this finds you today, keep in view that there is indeed something worse than the challenge and difficulty of waiting on the Lord, as painful as that can be at times, and that is . . . wishing you had! Remember, as the prophet Isaiah said, “Blessed are all who wait for him.”

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

For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:36)

Everyone wants to live a life of success. No one gets out of bed in the morning with the goal of being a failure. So, how do we live a successful life? We live for what we were made to live for and His name is Jesus Christ.

When Adam and Eve rebelled against God and chose to live for their own glory rather than the glory of God, they denied their own humanity. You see, they were made to live for the glory of God. Only by living for God’s glory would they be fully human. God created us for the purpose of the glory of His beloved Son Jesus. Only when we are living for the expansion of the Kingdom of God are we living lives of meaning, purpose, significance, and success. Only when we are doing all things for the glory of God are we doing what we were designed by God to do with every breath we take and every beat of our heart.

Another word for this is ‘transcendence.’ Transcendent living is living for the One who created you. Each day we find ourselves in the middle of the battle between two kingdoms – the kingdom of the self and the Kingdom of the Savior. Only when we are living our lives and investing our time, our talent, and our treasure for the Kingdom of Christ are we living successful lives.

So, for what have you been living for lately? Is Jesus sitting on the throne of your life or are you sitting on it? We are never more fully alive then when we are living for the glory of God in all we think, do, say, and desire. Now we will never do this perfectly on this side of the grave. But when this is the deepest desire of our heart even when we mess things up, we can be assured we have found the secret to successful living – living for the Savior rather than the self. To be sure, this is a constant battle deep within the human heart. But it’s worth the fight.

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

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

When I was growing up, there was a cartoon entitled, Dennis the Menace. It was one of my favorites because I always thought I was a lot like Dennis. So did my mom and my neighbors. Dennis was always getting into mischief. He was a constant thorn in the side of his neighbor Mr. Wilson with both his questions and his antics. In one episode Dennis was holding up a handful of flowers and asked Mr. Wilson, “How can anything so pretty and clean come out of dirt?” As you might be thinking, this question Dennis asked could be asked by all of us about mankind.

If we are being honest with ourselves, we must admit we have all felt like the man with leprosy who came and knelt before Jesus saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean” (Matthew 8:2). We, by sinful nature, are all lepers. And yet, our Lord Jesus is ready, willing, and able to make us clean. It starts when we trust in Jesus as our Savior and Lord. But that is only the beginning. For the rest of our lives, God is at work cleaning us up from the inside out and one day, when we breathe our last, we will be made perfect.

Unlike the religious leaders in Israel, Jesus did not withdraw from the leper. He did not withdraw from the dirty, downcast, and defiled sinners. He did not withdraw from the marginalized and the vilified. He loved them and He ministered to them. Now in this story, Jesus could have simply healed this man without saying a word or doing anything. But notice what happens after this man asked Jesus to clean him. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man, “I am willing, be clean” (Matthew 8:3). The religious leaders could not get far enough away from this unclean man. But Jesus meets him in his place of deep need with the touch of love.

Remember, like the flowers Dennis held up wondering how such beauty could come from dirt, we can at times, wonder how we will ever be conformed into the beautiful image of Christ, as we stir up the dirt in our lives through what we think do, say, and desire. Fear not! Jesus is at work in you removing the dirt in your life. Now this does not happen in a day, but rather, daily. And Jesus will not stop short of removing every speck of dirt from your life, making you whiter than snow one day soon and taking you from dust to glory.

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

Do not despise these small beginnings. (Zechariah 4:10)

We live in a world that firmly believes “Bigger is Better!” A bigger house. A bigger car. A bigger boat. A bigger bank account. A bigger bank account. The bigger the better. Supersize it all! Yet, our God is in the business of using small things. God used a small lunch from a small boy on a hillside and Jesus multiplies it to feed thousands of people that day. God used five small smooth stones in the hands of a small shepherd boy to defeat the giant Goliath. 

Did you ever wonder why God uses small things? It is so “no flesh should glory in His presence.” When God uses small things, there can only be one reason for victory – it was God who did it. Do you remember what God did to Gideon’s army before he went off to fight the Philistines? Facing 135,000 Philistine warriors, God reduced Gideon’s army from 32,000 all the way down to the small size of 300. And when Gideon led his 300 into battle against the Philistine army and won the day, there was no doubt as to who was the One responsible for the victory – God!

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-and the things that are not-to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. (1 Corinthians 1:27-29)

With just a small group of twelve disciples, Jesus trained them and sent them out and they turned the world upside down. So, wherever this finds you today, regardless of what you have, bring it to Jesus and offer it up in faithful service to Him. Whatever looks small to you – your knowledge, your possessions, your status, your influence, your finances, your place of service – whatever you have that seems small to you can be used by God in a very BIG way for His glory and the good of others.

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